WSOP Circuit Event No 2 Other noteable hands

I didn't want to make the other post to long so I decided to break it up in two for those that care to read more about my hand history, tells I saw, etc

JJ on the Buton: I was on the button in seat #4. The Small Blind was in seat 5. I had JJ and normally I'll do a standard 3xbb from here. As I reached for some chips I noticed out of the corner of my eye the Small Blind look at his cards. He was a heavy set man... yes more then me. I decided to take an extra longer pause to see his reaction to me stacking chips to bet. It didn't take long when the man began to breath very heavy. Almost looked like his chest was going to blow up. I knew then he had a monster. At that time I felt I didn't need to make it 3xbb so I min bet that. I really dislike doing this in position. As I dropped the chips in front of me he moves all in.  He didn't hesitate to do so, but no sooner then he said all in the Big Blind in Seat 6 which I could not see insta-calls the all in. Now my JJ is looking really weak so I open folded them. I got the "Oh how could you fold" and "You folded Jacks!!!" by some weak players, and "good fold" by the solid players. SB flips over KK, and the BB turns over AK. KK holds and I would have bricked. For the first time in a live game I laid down a big hand pre-flop by going with my read.

Laying down this hand has given me great deal of confidence for last night in the Mini Ftops #24 I ran into similar situation holding QQ. The players had not played a pot in over 30 hands. Player 1 raises 3xbb, player 2 moves all in, I fold, player 1 calls all in. AA vs KK and AA wins. Easy fold but don't think I would have made that fold had I not experience the above hand in a live game.

AdKc vs my AcKd: I was in the big blind when the button raised 3xbb. Something about the player told me to look out. He was sitting in seat 1 directly in front of me. Before he looked at his cards he was bobbing his head up and down to the sound of his music. This player had those noise reducing head phones and was enjoying them a great deal. This all changed the second he looked at his cards. He stopped the player, stopped bobbing his head and took a big look at his chips. Thats a warning sign. So I decided I was going to play this with caution and keep the pot small. I just smooth called his bet. Flop AsXdXd. I check/call his bet. Turn brings another diamond. and we Check Check. River another Diamond. Now I really don't like my hand. He throws out a 2xbb bet and is staring at my chips. I know he wants me to raise so I just smooth call to confirm my tells. All though I have the Kd I am to to happy about my hand. He's either got pocket AA, AdQd and for sure the Ad and is trying to trap me.

Grinding Live Poker Post Black Friday

I knew in advance I was going to loose my job on March 31st, 2011. At the time I was grinding a lot online on Pokerstars and Fulltilt Poker. I did very well in 2010 on both sites but didn't have much success in big Live MTT's. Well I still haven't but I made some goals and the main one was to play live poker more. I was lacking the table skill needed to take on players in a live setting. After I got laid off I continued to play online and rarely made the trip to casino to do so. Only live games I played were the WSOPC in mid March. I was able to make a deep run, was solid at reading the hands as they played out, but lacked the live table skills.

Two weeks passed and my goal went out the window. I continued to play online like a maniac with little to moderate success. Then one day some one up there must have heard my whimpering cries, because on April 15,2011 the all mighty DOJ stepped in and shut down online poker as we know it.

At first I was bummed and disappointed about it. I tried looking at all the positives. Maybe this would be the kick in the booty that I needed to get out there and grind the live games? I been told by a lot of poker friends and pro's that cash is where the money is at. All the pro's make their money there and MTT's are just for show, a chance to hit it huge, a shot in the dark, and a way to accomplish your dreams in one tournament. Yes, MTT's are fun, but cash is where the real money is they said.

Post Black Friday my new goals were to:

1. Play a lot of Live tournaments
2. Play a lot of Live Cash games. Learn it, live it, DO IT!!!

I wasn't a cash player. I actually hated sitting at the casino's where all the drunk's were. For one there is that long drive you have to do and not to mention you actually have to get out of bed...geeez how annoying live poker could be I thought. So all my emphasis was on tournaments and I stayed away from the cash games.

So I began to do my casino trips and play live cash and mtt's. I played MTT's at Pachanga and Morongo and chopped them both. Nice. As for the cash game I needed to start of slow and played the 100 max $1/$2 HENL at the Morongo. After a couple hours I had more then tripped my buy in. I got lucky I said so went home about my business. This was a great boost to my confidence and allowed me to trust myself and my "skill".

I slowly played more and more cash games. I took a trip to The Bike with my TPT/OPT Poker buddies Paul and Tracey. I did ok in the MTT and didn't cash, but afterwards I crushed the 40max $1/$2 HENL. I made my buy in for the MTT and a lot more. That day I staked Paul in the MTT and he busted out as well with out cashing. I stacked him in the 40max cash game and in 1hr came back with the cash and mtt stake. Made it look easy. I after experiencing my "short" success I knew if I could do it, then most definitely would. Paul is a much better player then I am. So he proved me right and won.

Scott Diamond

I continued to grind it and took a trip to San Manuel with Scott. They only had a 300max $2/$5 HENL game and played for a couple of hours loosing about $100 there, but got to watch and learn from Scott a great deal(pictured right). While I took a loss, it was a big learning experience and more table time. Besides I made all back and then some playing black jack. :)

I been playing about 4 times a week now. I now play the $1/$3 and $2/$5 HENL with a lot of confidence. My biggest win was a 14hr marathon cash session good for $3k and that was in the $1/$3 200max. That day I was going to play a MTT, but the cash game was going so good that I never left the table. My tournament which up to this point my favorite poker game, so I thought. I wasn't upset or regretful that I had missed it. The cash table is where the money was and me being unemployed....

Street3

I have a very good feel for the tables. I don't come in raising or trying to make any moves. I study those cash games, get to know who my opponents are, and what style they are playing. I get a feel most importantly of who the Reloaders are. The guy that is going to bust and yell CHIPS PLEASE!!! Cha-ching!!! Thats my best friend at the table and the one that gets my full support. ;)

At first I was disappointed and upset the DOJ stepped in and shut down the Online sites, but now that I am having such good success I thank them. I support their choice 100% I have no intentions of playing in any site. I don't care if it gets approved, or some how FTP and PS come back for any reason. I might even send them some flowers and a thank you card.

Thanks to Scott aka @DeputySD and Steven aka @Street3(pictured left) for their continued support. Its always good to have friends to talk poker and get advice from.



I am finally improving at the game I like to play with out all the online unnormal continuous bad beats. Hope to continue to do well.

Thanks all,

-Angel 'gijoe' Valdez

WSOP Circuit at Harrahs Rincon in San Diego. Event No 2 Aftermath

Off I went to Harrahs Rincon to play WSOP Circuit Event #2 armed with a great deal of confidence and knowledge. I wanted to play some satellites the day before the event. Instead of driving back and forth I decided to stay there, so I could wake up nice and rested.

I went to the ball room where their WSOPC tournaments are held and saw they only had 1/2 the tables they did the previous year. They moved the bulk of the tournament across their new poker room on the 2nd floor and thats where my table was... So with 10 min to go I had to go across the casino through hundreds of slot machines and players. I got lucky and was able to squeeze into an elevator and make it to 2nd floor. When I saw the room I was in complete shock. Not only was it small it was cramped with poor ventilation. Harrahs really dropped the ball on this. Their tournament in this casino went from an A+ to a C- for sure. All the restaurants are located near the old ball room. I could already tell that breaks were going to be a problem. They were and thats a whole different story.

With their local boys players of the year announcement the call of shuffle up and deal was heard, and play began.  The structure in these tournaments is outstanding. Gives you a lot of room to sit back and learn. I could already tell I was in an aggressive table. Everyone wanted to get in all the pots as cheaply as possible in order to flop the nuts. Well you don't always flop the nuts so a lot of players were spewing chips at a nice pace. After about 10 minutes I had enough of sitting back. I had all the info at the time I needed so I began to 3bet and lead out more. I began to chip up nicely and got myself up to about 14k or so.

I was in level 2 with about 15k when a player had enough of my re raising I guess and decided to play at/with me. The action started with blinds 25/50 UTG+2 player raised to 300. I looked down on the button and saw AA. Mid position player smooth calls it, and so does the High Jack. AWESOME! I got action. So I needed to weed out the weak and made it 2000. Well they were in a chip giving mood so why not over bet it a little. Sure enough the original raiser calls. Others folded right away. The flop AcXTc and while I'm very happy that I hit my set the flush draw had me a little uneasy.

The player then leads 4000 into a 4675 pot leaving himself with 5k.  He was a tight player that wasn't playing many hands so I put him on AK and is trying to protect his hand. I reraise him and put him all in. He SNAP CALLS and turns over AdJc!!! The turn brings another club and so does the river. He jumps up as happy as he can be as if he made a good play. I'm ussed to getting sucked out online and say nice hand, keep my cool, and am ready for next hand. Loosing a 22k pot this early in an MTT is not a big deal. Its a deep structure tourney that gives you chances to recover. All though I am left with 4k and the short stack at my table. I just have to tighten up a little at this point. Can't be aggressive like I was and off we go.

As play continues I wait for a while until getting TT on the button. It is checked to me and I raise, and both blinds come a long. The flop Txx rainbow. Nice! I bet again and this time the BB 3bets me and I call. Turn x. BB and I check. Another small blank on river and bb checks again, I value bet and he calls. He shows AKs and missed. He only called cause he thought I had same hand...

I continue to chip up by 3betting from late position with SQUADOOSH. This works great in live MTT's. You can get a lot of reads on players not like online. So by this point I am almost at starting stack when the following happens.

We are in level 7 blinds 50/100 25a. I had just 3bet a player pre from the Small Blind and stole the pot. In the Big Blind I look down and see KK. UTG raises to 800, UTG+1 smooth calls it. I re-raise to 3475 and only UTG calls. The flop KT9 and I kind of like it. If player was crazy like me he could have QJ and i would be in trouble. So I have 2 options here I can lead out, or check raise him.I need chips so I don't want him to fold by leading. I go with option number two and decide to check it. Sure enough he bets out 2k into a 7700 pot. I have 6k behind so I move all in. He snap calls me, we flip our cards, he see's my set, he shows AJo and he says "I thought you were bluffing and I have outs".  Thats ok with me. I want players to gamble because they won't hit their hands every time. Well the turn brought a Q and he's jumping up and down as if he had already won. A solid player to my right says "He has outs. He pairs the board and he wins". Well the river was a blank and i was out.

I was upset for about 1/2 a second but though of Matt Affleck and realized bad beats happen. I was more disappointed then anything. I had high hopes that I would do well this time around and I didn't. It was my 3rd year playing this tourney and expected bigger things from me. I am still disappointed but there is nothing you can do in those situations. I played it well and like Paul aka Coolwhipflea said to me "You made the mistake of getting it in good".

There is another MTT coming up this Friday. I might take another shot at it, at worst I am getting better and better every time I play this MTT. Its just bad timing right now as I am getting ready to be out of work. I don't know if I should be using up 10% of my bankroll for 1 tournament. I had a nice deep run last night in the MiniFtops #24 but a 2500/33k player finish didn't pay out as much as I wanted(1st). Will continue to grind it this week in hopes of getting that buy in.

Good luck me and thanks to all my friends for their great support.

Angel 'gijoe' Valdez

WSOP Circuit at Harrahs Rincon in San Diego, Ca is BAAACK 2011 Part 1

Its that time of the year when the WSOP comes around to my back yard a long with my hopes, illusions, and delusions. This will be my 3rd year playing this event and my 4th series that I've played at. I know I have improved a great deal each time I have played. I can even say I made very good improvements from my last event I played at the WSOPC in Chicago till today.

This past year I didn't play as many live tournaments as did the previous years. I know I needed to learn more about poker its self. What good is it to be able to get reads on players if my Poker Hand reading skills needed a lot of work. So I played thousands of hands online like Super Turbos, Rush MTT's, SnG's, Double Stack and Deepstacks MTT's, and different buy ins. I got a chance to work with Tristan Wade,  The Grinder, and Alex Outhred. Can't even begin to thank The OPT for all the help, support and great advice.  I wanted to get good at reading flops and more important playing them correctly.

The results have exceeded my own expectations. It's been a work in progress and I've put a LOT of work to get there. All I need now is to put it into effect. I tell myself "I'M THE BEST" all the time to pump myself up and get motivated, but this year its different. I'm digging deep and going way back...I mean waaay back to my Drill Sergeant who used to say to me when I was in the Army "You know what to do. Now its time to MAKE IT HAPPEN".




So MAKE IT HAPPEN and SHIP IT!

-Angel 'gijoe' Valdez

Final Table of the WPT(LAPC ME) at Commerce Casino

Final Table of the LAPC ME

While I didn't goto any of the previous days of play(shame on me) I decided I wanted to watch the big boys play the WPT(LAPC ME) Final Table at Commerce yesterday. See if I can pick up any points on table manner, style of play etc.

The televised WPT Final Tables are 6 handed. I believe this holds a greater edge over any other televised final tables. 6 handed games are much more aggressive because players can open up their hand ranges and take advantage of the short stacks.

That turned out to be true to form as we were in our 3rd hand when the Raise, Re-Raise, Re-Re-Raise and ALL IN and a Call sounded between Gregory Brooks and Vivek Rajkumar. We waited on what Steve Gross would do since he was the Re-re-reraising player... He went into the tank for a couple of minutes. It was a tough choice for him. When the hand started he was at 1.3m and his re-raise was for 650k and half his stack. As the time ran out in my opinion I kept saying no way he folds. He will be crippled in a 6 handed table. But I was wrong and he folded, and thats why he's the pro. Vivek turned up QQ while Gregory showed Big Pocket Rockets. Aces held up but on the turn I believe a J hit and Steve had a look of disgust as if he laid down JJ that would have given him a set. We'll have to wait for the show for us to see what he had. Crazy hand. Great start to the night. I was hooked after that :)

Gregory went on to take that pot he won convert it into a win. His play through out the night was that of a man that would not give up any pot easily or would make it easy on any opponent. He put the pressure on every single street but always in position. I don't recall him playing aggressive out of position at all. If a player bet he would re-raise. If he was check raised he would call and on the next street he would wait for other player to act first. If that player checked to him he would fire off a monster bet of close to 3/4 of the pot. It was unbelievable the amount of dead money that he won with out a show down. He took advantage of the bottom 3 players that wanted to move up to the good pay outs. His 2 all ins that I saw him play he had Straight and flush draws.  Great game by a very young player that we will be hearing more of for sure.

Other cool things that happened while there was met Matt Affleck, The Royal Flush Girls, Derryl Fish, Amir "Homer Simpson" Lehavot, and many other pro's. But I have to say the biggest treat I got when I arrived there was being able to throw "Paul Elis" name to the door person and be walked to the media row with out a question. 

door person: Hi sir, can I help you? Who are you with?

Me: ahhh Paul Elis

door person: Yes sir, right this way, I hope you enjoy your time....

Easy as 1-2-3!

Got the best view of the house and even got our own big screen TV to watch the flop. Of course I paid Paul with beers as the night went on... =) Had to keep the man happy ya kno.

Great moment were when Vivek decided to pump up the crowd by buying his entire section a round of drinks! I will have to remember that when I make my first WSOP, WSOPC or WPT Final table. Thats a great way to get every one to cheer for you lol It gave a new vibe to the entire place and I will have to say I was swayed very promptly to the Vivek side and chanted along with every one else INDIA INDIA INDIA lolol

Wish I had taken any pictures but thats me. I'll wait for Paul to post them and then steal them :D

Check out the Commerce Blog on the WPT for more pics and great info 

I recommend for all who wish to improve their game to go watch the pro's live at any chance you get. They are good for a reason and there are a ton of little tips you can can pick up from them.

-Angel 'gijoe' Valdez

Poker Update Stardate -311856.6862633181 aka February 22, 2011

This past week was memorable. While I won a nice 500+ MTT and finished very high in just about any other tourney I played online. getting knocked out of the 40k Guarantee last night that I learned the biggest lesson so far in my poker career. Listen to ME, stick to the plan, and do what I know I am suppose to do.

Before I can tell you how my Sunday lesson came about let me tell you about my Saturday. I had spent the entire day grinding out 3 mtt's like no body's business. I had some solid finishes in them and if not for some bad luck or no luck I would most likely have shipped them. Was a fun ride and my strategy and game play works. I take advantage of weak play, play back from the blinds, 3bet for power, 3bet to get info, 3bet for control of the pot, and don't risk my tourney life with a weak hand.... DON'T RISK MY TOURNEY LIFE WITH A WEAK HAND!!

I mean this strategy works. I have proven to grind it deep in an MTT as of late with very good success. Saturday I made it deep in all 3 while only getting a pair of Aces and one pair of Kings. Obviously, the opponents folded to my raises and I just got the blinds. It can be done. You can win a tournament with out getting the big pairs. Play the player and do what they aren't willing to do.

 So move to Sunday and it started out just like any other poker day and was feeling the emotional high about Saturday. I can't be out played, I didn't get any luck on Saturday and ran deep. The only way I can get knocked out is by getting UL and rivered by some bs hands.... see whats coming next?

Played about 10 mtt's yesterday and yeah, you guessed it I got beat every which way by runner runner Turn-River cards. I mean, my sets got blown up by over sets, my trips by bigger trips, my straights by boats, my flushes by bigger flushes, and the sweetest one my Flopped Aces full of Tens by runner runner Ten's for QUADS!! So it was bad but on the bright side I hit my monthly allocations of bad beats in 1 day. So its down hill from here on right? lets hope so.

So I decided that my bad luck was due to the fact I was playing weak fields and they got lucky. There fore I wanted to test my skill with the big boys. I tend to do this from time to time to kind of guage where I am at, especially after a good week. I have never done this while on tilt or in the midst of a bad day. I tell my self I am way bigger then a bad beat. It won't bring me down even after a horrendous day where the Bad Beat monster dominated me.

I set of to play in the 40K Guarantee. Its a $75 buy in MTT where all the online grinders play. Its their Bank roll builder that allows them to give it back on the Sunday's to the rake gods. Even at this level of buy in poker is poker. Yeah they don't call on a whim but instead they will re-raise you a bit more. In either case I shot to the top of the leader board with in the first couple of levels. Yes! I was sitting at number 1 with a 2-1 chip lead over 2nd place. I was 3betting and outplaying them and there was no difference then any other game. I loosened up at times and made what seemed to be a bad call on a short stack. I had about 32k and  raised from the button to 2k, Big blind moved all in for 6k, so it was 4k more for me to call so I insta-called with K4o! BB shows Ad9d... Flop 4h4dTd! whooot but oh oh... Turn another diamond and my "I'm a bad ass" feeling was short lived lol But it put everyone on notice that I was crazy & would snap call their short stacks.

Now to the good part... I was able to grind away and regain those chips that I lost and then some. It was about 20 players away from the money. I was top 10 in the standings, I had great control of my table, used wise judgment and never... NEVER risked my tourney life with a bad hand till.... yeah...

I'm sitting in the Small blind with about 35k and the Button raises to 4k. He has about 14k and I know he's just trying to steal so I figured I move all in on him with my AdJdsoooooted. So I move that lever over to the all in and click it as fast as I could. No sooner then I do that it hit me... 1. The big blind has 300 more chips then I do, and 2. I don't know a single thing about him. He just moved to my table. Fuck, I say to my self, and sure enough he calls my raise. The Button insta-folds, and the BB shows a HUGE pair of 8's!!! WOW! Risks most of his chips with that hand. What a dumb... Flop KsXX... that has to be the worst... Turn 9s... COME ON AJAJAJAJAJ River 3! I am out! That was the most AWESOME CALL I have ever seen. Well to me it was since I normally don't play at those levels. Hell I've seen it in a $5 game and even done so myself, but to do it in a $75 game with 20 players or so from the money is that much better. Yes, I messed up. I broke my own rule DON'T RISK MY TOURNEY LIFE WITH A WEAK HAND!! and I paid for it. But I have to give "IAMADONKASSMOTHA" for making the right call. ;)

I had played a very good game up until that point. It has been weeks since I've done a bone head play like that. Had the Big blind been short stacked as well then yes its a good play, but not if they can bust you out of tourney.  I normally take my time when making a decision. I let that timer go whether I am going to fold, call, or raise. I didn't do that this time. I played it like a nub is way worse then a noob!

So if I can do what I know I have to do I can see myself shipping this MTT or the next soon.

Angel 'gijoe' Valdez

Its been a while since I posted a blog

Its been a while since I posted on this blog. I've had lots of good things to talk about and some blah as well. Went to Chicago for a training session with Alex Outhred, and played an wsop event while I was there. While the result of the tourney wasn't what I wanted(sucked). I did get a chance to meet a great deal of some cool people.

Had an awesome poker instruction with Deepstacks crew consisting of Mike Matusow, Michael 'TheGrinder44' Mizrachi, and Tristan 'cre8ive' Wade. Actually got taken to school and put in my place big time. I found out that day that I had a LOT to learn about poker.


Soon after towards the end of 2010 I took a complete break from poker. Not because I was tired of it, didn't like my results or the above spanking, but because I got some crazy news that my safety net(JOB) was shutting down our plant. That was a hard thing to take. Here I was a super agro player who's bank roll varied up and down because of my style. Well the thought of loosing my job sent me into a cave. I began to worry about my play and strategy. If I were to go broke with my style I would have no way of reloading if needed. So that stopped me from me being me. In poker being timid, not yourself, focused, etc is a bad recipe for disaster. Therefor I took a hiatus to get my thoughts in order.

While I was in my cave I thought of strategies, watched a lot of Deepstacks Live videos, and thought about what I was going to do. I really had two options, either go pro and dig in 110%, or just do nothing and get another job. But going pro requires a big bank roll which I don't have at this time and some mad proven skill. Which I am very unproven especially in a live game.

In the mean time while I "think" I been grinding out a new style. You ready for this? Its super agro with no distractions!!! Turning the TV off...DONE, Multi-tabling 4 poker games at a time..DONE, web browsing while playing errr almost DONE(DAMM TWITTER), and Turning off Poker Tracker...DONE.

So I have the TV off, am playing 2 tables max, just about stopped tweeting any poker stats(like it to much), and haven't used poker tracker all year. These changes while insignificant have improved my game 5 fold and more. I end up 2010 with a +12% ROI for the year which was my best ever. This year, my ROI for January is +60%, and so far in February its in the +100% . If I continue to follow my own advice and STICK WITH IT *augh* thats all our problems I guess. I know I will be more successful at this crazy game. Its bad enough having to try to defeat lady luck, but to throw in distractions while at it is just plain stupid.

I have a new found focus and my motivation to succeed had never been higher. I am going into the 2011 WSOPC in San Diego with such a mind set and will succeed. You can bank on because I will :)

-Angel 'gijoe' Valdez