Trip report: Niagara Falls

This was a pretty spur of the moment thing. BW got a hold of me at the beginning of the month saying he and Zach were going to take a trip to Niagara Falls for some poker before doing their whole San Diego thing on the 17th, and that I should come down with them. The greyhound bus was only like $20 each way and the hotels/motels we found online were pretty cheap too, so I decided why the fuck not?

I got in around like 2:30pm Thursday and got a taxi to Fallsview Casino. BW booked the room so I couldn't get in until they did. I checked out the Fallsview poker room but soon found out they only spread 2-5 (100-300 buyin), 5-5 (300-500) and bigger - above what I planned on playing. They mentioned the 'old' casino spread 1-2 but I had no idea where the fuck that was, so I wandered around looking for it for a good hour or two before getting a call from bw saying he was in the hotel.

(Fallsview hotel: sick looking room, nice TV, but the internet connection sucked, and they didn't even have wireless. At like $150/night it was too pricey imo, thankfully we split it 3-ways though.)

It was cool meeting bw, he's a super nice guy and we had a lot of fun. So in about 5 minutes we get the itch, and we're off to find the old casino for some 1-2. We pretty much play poker all day, grab some food, then play some more poker until 2-3am.

I ran pretty good - should have noted some hands in my ipod but I was just too lazy. I remember playing pretty snug for a while, but loosened up once I got reads and found some spots to value bet thinner and bluff. Some hands, from memory:

I come back from lunch break to a big pot, one guy playing AJ on Jxx super fast, the other guy felting kings and taking it down. AJ guy (who will now be known as 'Huge fish') rebuys with a $500 chip which the dealer almost doesn't accept because noone uses them for poker. Later, huge fish limps in EP, I iso to like 15-20 or so with KK, folds back to him and he calls. Flop comes J8x with two clubs, he check-calls ~pot. Turn is a Tc and he donks something like 1/2 pot, I call without the Kc. River is a jack, he checks to me and I check back, he shows 97d for the gutter turned straight. This guy's sitting on like $500 and is only a couple seats to my right, but unfortunately he tightens up enough that don't get any of that stack back by the time he leaves.

Later, I raise 9T on the button after a bunch of limpers, get one caller directly to my right: nitty old vet. type of guy. He like 1/4 pots an AK2r board, I raise smallish, he gives a hilarious hollywood, sip-his-drink, stares me down for like 3 mins, then pitches probably like QJ or some garbage.

Soon after, I get AQ, bump it up with several callers and flop AQQ. I decide people might chase gutshots and never fold Ax, so I cbet. Caller behind, folds to another guy who calls to my right. Turn and river are bricks and I get the rest in against one of the two guys who slowplayed Q4o. Yay monies.

Another hand I open deuces big w/limpers in the pot, get like 3 callers and flop T23r. I had some aggro guys behind me who just fold their air should I cbet, so I go for a c/r or a c/c, c/r turn. Flop checks through, turn's a K, checked to me and I bet big. I think I got like one shorstacked caller then got the rest of his money on a Qr river and he mucked.

I remember at this time there was some bulgarian dude sitting to my left who was pretty aggro and was fucking up my game by repopping my isolation raises and stuff like that. I would have switched tables/left because of him, but it was already late so I just headed back to the hotel with bw. Zach had by this time lost a couple buyins at 1-2 and then headed over to Fallsview to play 5-5 I think. I think I ended up like a buyin on day 1.

Back to the hotel, and we remember we only have 2 beds so we call for a roll-out thing and flip coins for it. I lose, fuckedy fuck fuck.

Day 2, we get some breakfast and immediately hit the tables. We get put on a new table, and I'm lucky enough to have Zach directly to my left and bw a few seats behind him. Yay. We have some predicted fun with limping, iso'ing, 3betting and 4bet jamming each other, mostly between Zach and bw. One notable hand saw bw open 24o utg, get 3bet by Zach from the blinds, and call. Zach cbets an 865dd flop, bw jams thinking he has a gutter and not the double gutter(!), and Zach calls. Yes, you read all that right. bw hits a 3 and takes it down. Table thinks they're insane. They are. I can't stop laughing.

I get JdJx in EP and open, bw calls IP on me (asshole). Flop is Q9x, two diamonds. I cbet, he calls. Kinda sloppy already. Turn is a wonderful Kd, I c/f and he shows K7s, hahah.

Later I raise 24h utg cause I get bored and the table's playing weak, and bw flats IP on me again. I cbet something like K62ccc, he calls. I decide to barrel a Qr turn in a low-level-thought 'I REMEMBER U FLOAT ME' play, and he jams. I fold, he shows KQ.

Another hand I open A8c and get like 3 callers, flop comes ATx with one club. First player donks like 1/4 pot, next guy calls, I make a kind of sloppy call. Turn's like a Qc, donk bettor puts out like 1/3 pot, I call after middle guy folds. I river a nice 6c for the nuts, he bets another ridiculously small fraction of the pot again and I jam for the rest of his stack. He calls and I rake his stack with an invisible fistpump.

Another big-ish pot: one guy who folds pf accidentally flips up a Q. I pick up AQo and see the action go limp, limp, raise to ~$15 from a pretty tight player and I flat. Probably a bad idea given my read and the fact that one of my queens is in the muck. Folds around to the two limpers including one bluffy guy, and only he calls. Flop comes Qd9d4x, and bluffy guy donks smallish. PFR folds, and I flat. Turn is the 4d, donk bettor leads again, this time pretty big. He's definitely still donking Qx, JT and sometimes something random like 9x with a diamond. River bricks off another 4 and he bets like 1/2 pot, I don't see any merit to raising so I flat. He shows KdJx and I take it down.

Last hand I remember is a while after this dudebro sits to my right. He was actually kind of funny, definitely one of those portuguese construction workers my hood in toronto is home to so many of. He's limping a ton, and literally minbetting every street which even he is making fun of. I iso him for the millionth time with 67d in EP/MP, he calls. He donks a 589ss flop for like minimum, I pot raise, he calls. Turn is a Js, he c/c my ~2/3 pot bet. River is a random spade, putting four on board, and I decide to look up his weird river ~1/2 pot donk. He shows 85o. Why the fuck he's not reraising flop both confuses and frustrates me since I only got like 1/2 of his stack instead of everything, but whatever, I can't complain too much I guess.

That's that and I make my way back to our shitty motel through the misty rain that engulfed the whole city all of Friday. Next morning I wake up bw and zach for a quick goodbye and take off at like 9:30 to catch my bus back to Toronto.

The trip was awesome, it was nice seeing Zach again and great to meet bw. I'll definitely be considering visiting you guys in San Diego in the coming months.

The great depression begins

Toronto winters suck. I mean the only thing I look forward to in the winter is watching and playing hockey - aside from that, Toronto's nothing but a big depressing pool of dirty, salty slush for like half the year.

It's only 8C and I'm already busting out the box heater and blasting it on full. (That's right, I don't even have proper heating in my house).

So like I've mentioned a million times before, I'm going traveling this winter. I still have responsibilities here at home, but they'll just have to wait for a few weeks while I go on a nice trip to South America with Deb.

Speaking of Deb, it was both our birthdays (12th and 16th) in August, and for presents we decided on Leafs tickets for myself and a Cirque du Soleil show for her.


OVO is a bug-themed one, the only one currently showing in Toronto, and the show's this Saturday! So excited, this has to be one of the best shows on earth. I cheated and watched some youtube footage of the ovo show and it looks fucking awesome. Tickets were like 250 for two great seats, about half the price I expected. I'll let you guys know how it was after the show.

Leafs are looking pretty solid this year. News articles say good and bad, and basically the gist is that we've improved but still aren't top contenders. Brian Burke, our new GM with a very solid track record moved quite a few people around, including bringing Phil Kessel in which is awesome, but he definitely can't carry a whole team. I'm just excited to watch some more games and potentially see an awesome game live down at the ACC :)

Oh, this is a poker blog, isn't it? Looking at it now, I actually played 20k hands in September...considering my ipoker account has been locked for about a week now I'm not so disappointed. My site's been undergoing a merger for a while now and they really fucked some stuff up, so a bunch of players like myself are left hanging with no info (only info I have is through my affiliate who knows the site manager).

Anyway I ran kinda bad, a little spew in there...ran good at 50nl and 100nl, ran like poop at 200nl. Still a positive month with lots of studying and thinking about the game which I'm happy about. My first stox video came out, and despite it being pretty slow and tbh a little boring, it got good reviews. I now have two videos scheduled for October, the 17th and the 31st I believe, and am working on coming out with something a little more exciting for them.

As I'm writing this my affiliate's actually giving me the OK that my dafa account is now good to go. Now I have the fun of choosing a new nickname :)

Off to grind after that's done, happy October everyone!

LOL HEY GUYS!

Long time no...write!

Been pretty busy with poker things and real life things lately, so I haven't been around forums at all really.

My days now are mostly spent grinding/studying, having fun with my very special lady, seeing friends, and just enjoying my summer. I've been trying to stay off my PC as much as possible, but that's been hard with the grinding, the seinfeld watching (seinfeldx.net is the shit), and blowing off steam playing call of duty or whatever. I actually just bought Mass Effect. Stupid fucking idea iyam, especially for someone that's a 'completionist' (gotta find all the stupid little secrets and stuff, and that game's full of them). Still a geek at heart, I can't help that.

Anyways I figured I'd just give you guys a little update on what's up in my life.

I'm still playing at ipoker which is going pretty well. I was running like god for a while until a few bad days brought me back down to earth, but I'm still very happy with my ~3ptbb/100 and ~%50 rakeback (tangent: get at me if you want a rb deal there. I can't give direct quotes of acutal rb %s, but the guy's super reliable, pays out daily, and I don't care about taking referrals, so you get a solid payout. Just PM me or whatever, I can't gives stuff out publicly. End tangent). Overall I've crushed this year's downswing in BBs, but I've been playing smaller stakes so I don't think it quite adds up. Not that it matters - I feel good, I'm cutting down the dollar variance a ton with the higher rb and smaller stakes, and am making pretty good strides in my game.

I mentioned in the forums that I was on trial as a stoxpoker coach. Although my first video (released Sept. 5th if you want to watch it) was a little slow and really not that great imo, it was well-received and they seemed happy to keep me on the team. The pay is good enough for me to really try to punch out a solid video or two per month, and to really keep me on my toes. I think it's a great thing to have happened to me, and really see it as a potential catalyst to my improvement. I think I'm on deck for another video next month, so watch out for that if you liked my first one.

Winter is somewhere down the road and my girlfriend and I have decided that we'll have to kill ourselves out of depression if we stay here for the whole season. We thought about a cheap all-inclusive type of thing, but to be honest that just sounds so boring and touristy. Lots of my friends have gone traveling and several of them have some cool tips on really cheap <$10/day shacks on the beach which would be awesome. Wake up, take a half our run up and down the beach, wash off in the ocean, then explore the jungles, or rent a motorbike and double-ride through the countryside or go check out nearby cities. All the while grind here and there on my laptop to fund the trip a little bit. Should be a lot of fun. We're thinking about South America, but there are some other places on the wish list too.

That's about it. I will be posting more in the future, looking to do more pokerazor stuff, equity breakdowns and other stuff I'm not as keen on as I'd like to be.