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WPT Foxwoods TV Final Table!

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:46:33 +0100

Well it's been a long time coming in my poker career, but I've finally made my first televised final table!

I'm really excited but am trying to stay focused on the goal. No matter how much money is on the line this is just like any tournament I play: I came to win.

It's a huge deal to make it this far but there's still a big difference between the $166k I'm currently guaranteed and the $910k first place prize.

Here is the table by seating assignments:

1. Lee Markholt - 264,000
2. Curt Kohlberg - 1,086,000
3. Eric "Efro" Froehlich - 1,014,000
4. Cornel Andrew Cimpan - 3,691,000
5. Soheil Shamseddin - 2,954,000
6. Matt "Allinat420" Stout - 1,579,000

I'm going to avoid recapping a lot of hands right now until the tournament is over, especially ones that never went to showdown, for obvious reasons.

I will say that I played the biggest pot of the entire tournament all in preflop with A A against Tommy Dobrilovic's K K and Soheil Shamseddin's 9 9. I will also say that had I won that ~2.7 million chip pot, I'd have had nearly 4 million of the ~10.6 million in play.

But I took that hand in stride, and was glad to still be alive since I was the chip leader when that hand occured. I was left with ~1.1 million and made a comeback from there. I've worked really hard and played some of the best poker I've played in my life for five straight days.

No matter what happens I'll be happy with my effort in this tournament, but of course there's a certain ring to the term "WPT Champion"...

-- Matt Stout

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Matt Stout's November Nine Predictions

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:08:40 +0100

Anyway, onto some predictions and opinions about the November Nine ... bear in mind that I haven't watched all of the available ESPN footage, so I may be missing some info about players' tendencies and capabilities.

First, I don't think Phil Ivey has nearly as good of a shot as most people seem to think (since 90% of people seem to be sure he'll win it seems).

Yes, Ivey is at least one of the best, and probably the best player in the entire world. He's clearly the best player at the final table. But with blinds soon going to 150/300k (40k) and the average stack at nearly 22 million, Phil only has 9.8 million.

He's not in panic mode or desperately shortstacked, but he doesn't have as much room to maneuver as he'd like to.

But I have to imagine that most players won't want to tangle with Phil until play gets shorthanded and they need to, so he may have an opportunity to pick up a lot of pots based on his image especially in the early stages.

I actually had the opportunity to chat with Phil (sick brag, I know) about the November 9 while we were at the same table deep in Festa al Lago last week. Phil said that he puts his odds to win at 9:1.

That's basically like saying that his chances are as good as if he had a slightly below average stack and all players had an equal skill level.

In a way, it's like saying he's automatically doubled up because he's that much better than the table. I'm not big on betting, but this or 8:1 sounds about right. If he manages to chip up a good amount his chances will definitely be great, but he's going to need to get some chips early if he's going to run the table.

The only player at the table who I think has a better shot at winning than Phil at this point is Eric Buchman.

He's a fellow AC player and Borgata regular, but the reason I give him a better chance is that he has ~35 million, putting him in 2nd overall and over 100 big blinds.

He's also a regular in the big mixed cash games at Borgata, which means that he'll probably be slightly more comfortable than the rest with the high pressure, big money situation.

Although he doesn't play many tournaments, he already had nearly $1 million in lifetime earnings before making the final table. While many of his cashes are in Stud and Omaha games, he has a 2nd place finish in the 2007 WSOP Circuit event at Harrah's in Atlantic City and won the $2,500 New England Poker Classic for $275k in 2004.

He's a well rounded player with a lot of experience and a lot of chips.

The person whose chances of winning I think are underrated the most is Joe Cada. He's the second best NL tournament player at the table after Ivey in my opinion.

He's on the shorter side with ~13 million chips right now but has probably played more NL tournaments than anyone else at the table because of his online volume. I'll definitely take him as my sleeper pick to take it down.

I'm sure a lot of people are wondering why I haven't mentioned Darvin Moon. Although he has a boatload of chips at a whopping ~59 million, he seems to play pretty tight and is clearly the most inexperienced player at the table.

Yang won because he ran the table over and ran well while doing so. Unless Darvin is getting some good training for shorthanded final table play, it's going to take a serious rush of cards for him to finish first instead of just the top four.

I'd also mention that I think James Akenhead is an exceptional player, but is even more shortstacked than Ivey at less than 7 million. If he had over 20 million he'd probably be my pick to take it down.

Obviously this is a NL tournament and anything can happen, so everyone at that final table has a chance to take it down. I don't mean to take anything away from the other players at the table by not mentioning them, because they all deserve praise just for making it to the final table of one of the biggest tournaments of all time.

I wish them all luck and will be sweating the action from my phone while I play day three of the Foxwoods WPT event!

Matt Stout

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WPT Foxwoods Main Event Day 1 and 2

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:57:20 +0100

Despite the fact that I've played played 4,327,981 tournaments at Foxwoods and cashed in exactly one, I decided to make the trek across country to grind out one more stupid donkament.

After my run in such a tough field at Bellagio and being so close to my first WPT main event final table that I could taste it, I just couldn't talk myself out of playing one of the softest WPT events of the season.

The structure of the event is pretty good when it matters, even though it's a bit fast early on. We start with 30k chips at 50/100 and it's 200/400 (50) by level four, but they don't skip the 2400, 5k, or 10k big blind levels.

My table draw for day one wasn't exactly what I was hoping for in a Foxwoods tournament. It would be a great draw at Bellagio, don't get me wrong, but the field is a LOT different here.

Here's the lineup...

Seat 1 "Miami John" Cernuto/random

Seat 2 Curt Kohlberg

Seat 3 random satelliter/random young kid w lots of chips

Seat 4 Festively Plump Stoner

Seat 5 Adam "Roothlus" Levy

Seat 6 random satelliter/Chad "lilholdem954" Batista

Seat 7 Gordon Eng

Seat 8 "DontBluffMePLZZZ"

Seat 9 Scott "dorinvandy" Dorin (WCOOP $10k winner)

I got up to 35k early when I flopped an ace holding A K against Seat 3's K K, but spent a while slipping afterwards while I couldn't get much going. I slipped down to 20k through a series of second-best hands, which is what I started the last level of the day with (300/600).

During that level I finally started to get it going and picking up a bunch of pots.

Then Seat 3 minraised UTG and flatted my 3.6k three-bet from UTG+1. He overbet jammed nearly 30k on a Q 8 3 flop holding A Q, and I happily accommodated his desire to play a huge pot with my A A.

My chanting for a Queen failed, and I doubled up to ~65k to end day one headed to the 400/800 level.

I was pretty happy when I saw my day two table draw, except for Poorya "isuckoutonyou" Nazari (2009 PCA winner) being directly on my left. He's a really nice guy who I've become buddies with, but is also a sicko LAG player who I really didn't want to have position on me.

Little did I know, it wouldn't be him that would be screwing with me at the table. A kid named Matthew Milliken was two seats to my left and wanted to play every pot I entered ... even though I was opening fairly infrequently.

After watching him try to run people over for hours, it made it pretty easy to four-bet jam A Q on him about 50 big blinds deep. A tougher spot came up when I had the exact same hand about 80 big blinds deep against him a level later, and I ended up flatting the three-bet and check-shoving on a A 9 3 flop.

Milliken: I only bet because I thought I had the K with it.

Me: So you're trying to pretend you had a big hand? What...K T?

::he continues to pretend he's not completely full of it::

Eventually they made the table a bit worse by adding Chris Moore three seats to my left and Kathy Liebert to my right. Kathy didn't give me much trouble...except for the part of me that loves occasional silence!

We ended up making a fun prop bet though...Foxwoods puts out miniature (key word!) sandwiches in the afternoon for the players since there's no dinner break. I grabbed one of each; tuna, turkey, and ham.

Upon arriving back at the table, Kathy did her normal job of breaking my balls, and bet me that I couldn't finish all three sandwiches before she busted (she had ~25 big blinds). She started the bidding at $1 but I talked her up to $20, which was obviously mine.

Bet a fat man he can't eat three miniature sandwiches? What a fish!!!

It did lead to some interesting situations though...like when someone put her all in and I had to start hounding down that ham and cheese! She folded though, giving me more time to eat and take her money.

Chris played pretty well, but I run too good. He raise-folded on the flop when I had a set of sixes on a A 6 3 in a multi-way raised pot, even though he had almost half of his stack in the pot.

I ended up busting him when my A Q made a full house against his 7 7 after we got it in pre-flop for his last 40k.

I finished the day with 174k going to 1200/2400 (300). The average stack is 156k, 36 places pay, and first place is $910k. It looks like I have a pretty good table draw for tomorrow as well, with Lee Markholt somehow being the only player at the table whose name I recognize.

Hopefully I can find my big jar of rungoodsauce for tomorrow...

Matt Stout

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The World Series of Not Poker

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:52:01 +0100

Well first of all, I'd like to thank my New York Yankees for taking a little bit of the sweat out of the equation for me. I have $4,500 riding on the Yankees to win the World Series, and here's why:

1) The Yankees were nearly a 2:1 favorite to win the Series according to Vegas bookies (who seem to know how things will play out with scary/suspicious accuracy)

2) I have a ton of friends from South NJ and PA area who, for whatever reason, have decided to put themselves through the torture of being Phillies fans

3) I <3 $$$

The combination of these facts led to me doing the first significant sports betting of my life. Normally I bet sports very rarely, and when I do it's $20-$100 between friends just for shits and giggles.

I've committed to never playing table games, slot machines, the lottery, and anything else that's senselessly -EV and high variance since I started playing poker for a living.

However, I simply couldn't resist the temptation to let all of these poor, pathetic Phillie supporters let their sense of loyalty to their team mislead them into placing even money bets with me that team with two championships in its existence could beat the 26-time champion dynasty that is the New York Yankees.

While I was donating stack after stack in Sunday donkaments earlier, I took a lot of consolation in the fact that the Yankees managed to take a 3-1 lead in the Series.

And it was a good thing, too, since I mincashed two tournaments out of the thirty I played and was only able to squeeze ~$500 out of the Lock cash games.

But in all seriousness, it has been a hard fought Series. I honestly didn't expect to see the Phillies put up such a fight in defense of the title. And although the Yankees need to win just one more game out of 3, it's not over yet.

But with that being said, my offer still stands to those who have bets against me that you can buy out for 99% by calling me at 1-800-GOT-OWND.

I'd also like to disappoint all of the Vegas bookies reading this (do any Vegas bookies read my blog? if they do, I wonder why...but then again I wonder why anyone reads it!) by saying that I won't be trying to parlay these winnings with more sports betting if the Yankees do win.

I'll just blow it on travel expenses, taxes, and my girlfriend like I do with the rest of my money!

Also, after a random last minute decision partially fueled by the fact that my 13th place finish at Bellagio last week left me hungry, I'll be heading to the largest and most depressing damn casino in the country: Foxwoods.

Booked a one way flight on Wednesday for the $10k WPT main event on Thursday and will be catching the next flight back out of that miserable POS as soon as I'm done there. Wish me luck!

Matt Stout

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How I Just Missed the Final Table at Festa al Lago

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:26:59 +0100

We began day four of the $15k WPT Festa al Lago main event at Bellagio with 37 players remaining and 27 spots to be paid. I had ~500k going to 5/10k, which put me 14th in chips and slightly above average.

My table for the money bubble of the tournament included Chau Giang, Prahlad Friedman, Brandon Cantu, Mark Seif, Matt Glantz, and Tommy Vedes.

Another table with several million in combined winnings, and definitely a table that wasn't going to nit it up and be scared bubbling the tournament.

That is, except for our buddy Matt Glantz. Despite millions in earnings and the fact that he'd be playing cash in Bobby's Room if he weren't in the tournament, Matt looked like he was trying to get out of the "bottom 10" on Daniel Negreanu's "list."

For those of you who missed it: Daniel, for some reason, decided he was going to compile a list of the players who'd played in the most WPT events and what their earnings per tournament were.

It was also somewhat vague and misleading in that it only told you how many WPT events the player has entered, but not the buy in amounts because they're not detailed on the WPT website. Therefore you can't tell if they were $3.5k, $5k, $10k, $15k, $25k, or even freeroll invitational events!

Now I really like Daniel and I enjoy some of his blogs, but I just don't think it's necessary to draw attention to the "big losers" in any game.

There are lots of reasons not to tap the glass on the people who really are fish, and they're pretty obvious. But it also makes great players like Glantz, who has incredible WSOP/EPT results, look bad as well.

The information is all available online to anyone who wanted to look anyway. It's just not necessary to draw attention to the bottom part of that list. But I digress ...

I spent most of the first level slipping to 300k, but got back to ~500k on the last hand of the level when I made kings full against Prahlad with K J after he flatted me preflop with what he claimed later was J-J after making a hero call on the river.

Glantz and Prahlad had a conversation about how well I had played the hand afterward, and Prahlad ended the conversation with "yep, kid's definitely a player."

It felt good hearing that from two players I have so much respect for. I already talked about Matt Glantz in my last blog, but I've been watching Prahlad crush online cash games since I was in my proverbial poker diapers.

I'd be grinding my $5 SNGs while I watched him stack fools for five-figure pots in the biggest online cash games that were running circa 2003.

It was quite an honor, but I didn't really know what to say so I just pretended I wasn't listening to their conversation and kept my eye on the prize. =)

I ended up making a big laydown on the exact money bubble when I had raised with 10 10 in early position to 32k with about ~500k total. Chau moved in for 199k and I was planning to insta-call until Prahlad moved in over the top for 259k total.

I eventually folded and was relieved to see Prahlad show J J against Chau's A K, and Prahlad's hand held to eliminate Chau and bring us down to 27 players and in the money.

We redrew again, since it's Bellagio's policy to redraw after every 9 eliminations from 45 players down. My new table included Matt Glantz, Steve Brecher, Lee Markholt, Chris Bjorin, Kido Pham, Jason Burt, and Chris Ferguson.

I only played one big pot at this table, and it came when I'd raised with K J and Kido Pham flatted me with Q Q.

The flop came jack-high, and if he'd raised me on the flop I'd have been broke right there. But he was trying to give me rope to hang myself, and I managed not to bite. I checked behind the turn and river after betting the flop, and was pretty happy with the way I'd played it when he showed his hand.

We redrew again, and I was at a new table with Tommy Vedes, Kido Pham, Chris Bjorin, Shawn Cunix, and Freddy Deeb. I wasn't getting any hands or finding any good spots, and slipped to ~400k as the blinds rose to 10/20k and players were getting eliminated at a pretty quick pace.

Then I busted in a pretty awkward spot with 13 players left where I had raised under the gun with a 395k stack at 10/20k holding 10 10. Craig Crivello ended up flopping a set of threes, and with less than two times a pot bet left I wasn't able to get away from my hand.

But I played my A game or damn near it for four straight days, and I although it's disappointing to get so close to the end zone yet again and come up short I'm happy with my run in the tournament. I cashed for 40k and have been playing really well lately, live and online, and this heater is just warming up.

I took down the Lock Poker $33+rebuys tournament on Sunday night, which makes four wins and a 2nd place finish on the site in my last six or seven online sessions.

I also finished 2nd in the Stars $109+rebuys tournament on Monday night to my good friend Anthony "Beldar C" DeVita. I'd like to congratulate him on the win, and on recently getting married.

Fortunately he doesn't get much bragging rights out of this, since he was on such a heater at the final table that he began the heads up match with ~1,400,000 to my ~400,000. He played very well down the stretch and deserved the victory, despite being a true monkey at heart. =)

I fell a bit short this time with Festa, but I'm going to keep playing my best and plugging away. Today I'll be playing the $5k main event of the "some dinky little Caesars Palace tournament series" that I hope will have 100 players in it.

Caesars runs a lot of satellites and I've heard they even comp tournament seats to some of their biggest pit degens who don't even play poker, so it should still be worth showing up. Wish me luck!

Matt Stout

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WPT Festa al Lago $15k Day 3

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:42:56 +0100

I began the third day of the $15k WPT Festa al Lago main event at Bellagio with 205k at 1500/3k. I started the day at a table with Barry Greenstein, Corwin Cole, Justin Bonomo, and Bob Safai.

I was picking up a ton of big hands but was taking most down with raises and re-raises before the flop.

But just when I was getting comfortable (and it's hard not to when you have a big pair every fourth hand or so), they came to break the table.

Here was the lineup at the new table, who I believe have about $974,206,239,234 in combined earnings.

Seat 1 - Chino Rheem/Dutch Boyd

Seat 2 - unknown/Chad "lilholdem954" Batista

Seat 3 - Mark Seif

Seat 4 - Me

Seat 5 - Scott Clements

Seat 6 - unknown

Seat 7 - Jason Lester/Freddy Deeb

Seat 8 - Prahlad Friedman

Seat 9 - Kido Pham

Even friends still left in the tournament were breaking my balls about how bad the table draw was! Reporters said it was the toughest table left in the tournament. Fortunately I managed to play my best poker for almost the entire day, aside from one little spew so that I had that out of my system before tomorrow. =)

When you're seated at a table like this, it's also a great idea to stack the two guys who are inexplicably named "unknown."

I played pretty tight for the first couple of levels at the table while I got a feel for it, and because I guess I'm a nit at heart.

Then a really friendly Middle Eastern guy who played pretty tight all through day two decided to limp-reraise all in from early position with 4 4 for ~100k @ 2/4k after I raised his limp with 10 10.

I was pretty surprised, and of course rooted for a four for him ... just because a good anti-sweat is always fun. But a ten on the turn sealed his fate and brought me up to about 340k @ 2/4k.

Then during 3/6k I got most of my chips in against the other unknown play with A K against 10 10. With ~700k in the middle it was pretty gross to see a Q 9#X flop fall. The K on the turn was GLORIOUS, but left me with twelve outs to fade. I managed to brick it and took down one of the biggest pots of the tournament.

After that I doubled up a shortstacked Prahlad Friedman for a ~300k pot @ 4/8k with A K against his K K. Then I (hopefully) got the spew out of my system by losing a few more pots before we wrapped up play for the day.

With 37 players remaining and the average stack at ~445k, I have ~500k going to 5/10k to start day four. 27 players pay, and first prize is $1,218,225. Tomorrow might not be a bad day to run even better than I did today!

Matt Stout

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WPT Festa al Lago $15k Day 2

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:36:06 +0100

I began the second day of Festa al Lago's $15k WPT event with 58k @ 600/1200, and arrived to find about as soft of a table draw as I could ask for on day two of this particular tournament.

In fact, the pittsy calling station that Paul Wasicka had been telling me about hands with the night before was conveniently located on my left!

I was able to chip up a bit when the station, who was a really nice older businessman, chased the nut flush draw against my top pair/top kicker and bricked. But, sadly, they broke my table about a level into play.

Even more sadly, I arrived at my new table to find some VERY familiar faces: Marco "CrazyMarco/NoraFlum" Johnson, Steven "MrTimCaum" O'Dwyer, Barry Greenstein, and Phil Ivey. I was definitely not happy with my new table, even with a few soft spots to my left.

However, I managed to respond to the challenge by really striving to play my A game all day. I would really only give myself a B+ yesterday, but can honestly say that I'm really happy with the way I played almost every had today ... even the ones I lost.

I managed to avoid playing big pots for most of the day, and was not all in once. I won a race to eliminate O'Dwyer with 9 9 against his A Q for his last 16k after what seemed to be a pretty brutal day for him ... seated directly to Ivey's right.

The only other time I had a player all in was when I coolered the crap out of one of the older gentlemen seated on my left. I flopped the nut flush with A 5 on a 4 6 8 flop, and it obviously didn't take long to build a pot of 140k with him holding the Q T!!!

I spent the rest of the day chipping away slowly, mostly at the other players at the table. I had to play back at Barry and Phil a bit as well since they were opening so many pots in front of me, but getting way out of line and trying to run them over was not going to be part of my game plan. Just had to make sure we all got to share the wealth! =)

With 98 players remaining and an average stack of ~165k, I have 204,500 going to 1,200/2,400 (300). If I can keep playing at the level I played today and I don't get unlucky I really like my chances at the $1.2 million first prize ...

Matt Stout

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Day 1 WPT Festa al Lago $15k

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:28:41 +0100

Just finished up play for day one of this year's Bellagio Festa al Lago main event. Despite the comically pathetic turnouts for the preliminary events, there were about 260 entrants today.

Strangely enough, Bellagio has also decided to allow players to buy in during day two of the tournament. This is the first time I've ever seen this in any live tournament.

Players will start with a full starting stack of 60k, and may register up to the end of level 8 (600/1200), which will be the third level of play tomorrow.

I've also begun updating from the table on breaks on Twitter ... which I finally caved and decided to join. You can follow me at @MattStoutPoker since @MattStout is taken by some guy who apparently regrets not acting on his dream to be an astronaut ...

Anyway, I had a mediocre table draw in the beginning, but it was probably pretty average considering the field ... not enough soft spots turn out for $15k main events at Bellagio anymore. The players I knew at the table were Hafiz "hafizzle" Khan, Kathy Liebert, Hunter "HemiPokerSWT" Frey, and Matt Glantz.

Matt Glantz is someone who I go way back with and have a lot of respect for. He's from PA and has been a Borgata regular forever.

He plays the highest mixed games and biggest tournaments, and is a total sicko on top of being a true class act. He doesn't tilt and is always polite and friendly while he takes your money ... or even if you somehow manage to get some from him.

Recently Matt took down the EPT London High Roller tournament for close to a million. There are few players more deserving and I'd like to congratulate him on not just this victory but being one of the nicest yet toughest players in the game.

Anyway, I got off to a slow start in the tournament. We start with 60k at 50/100, so there's obviously no need to be impatient and gamble too much early.

The only big pot I played in the first level came up on the last hand before break. I had Q Q against Matt's J J on a jack-high, three club board. I ended up folding the river after missing, but Matt showed me his hand as a friendly jesture ... especially since the rest of the table had already left for break.

So I had about 12.2 seconds to get baked on that break thanks to that hand spilling over into the break. BAD BEAT!!!

Then Hafiz Khan and I butted heads a bit, but nothing too big. Our table got so tight and boring at one point that Matt Glantz was actually sweating the sit and go satellite that was going on next to us. How sad is that?

Fortunately they broke that table shortly after, and moved me to a much better one. The players I knew there were Hunter Frey, Jason "JCarver" Somerville, Jimmy Tran, and high stakes cash player "aejones."

I managed to chip up pretty nicely at this table, including one huge pot against Jason that I can't talk too much about because it didn't go to showdown and he's already one of my toughest opponents to play against!

I peaked at just under 80k, but ended the day just under starting stack after losing AK v 36 with top two against aejones' backdoor flush. With almost 60k going to 400/800 I'm still in great shape and have plenty of ammo to work with, though.

Matt Stout

Editor's Note: Follow Matt Stout and everything else that's happening at Festa al Lago in the PokerListings Live Coverage section.

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No More Bubbles! Heater Time! Ship the $1K!

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:37:24 +0100

"Pokah's nice. I loves play pokah." --Chau Giang

OK, well, sometimes I do! I won't get into detail because I have yet to tell the stories from London, but I've been doing a lot of bubbling lately ...money bubbles in big events, final table bubbles in online donkaments, etc.

Well I finally managed to come through in the clutch (and be a huge lucksack) this week!

First I took down the $10k guaranteed $55 tournament on Lock. While it was on the smaller side, it had been a while since I'd had an outright win in any MTT. Sometimes a little push like that is all you need to get the ball rolling again.

And roll it did. On Monday night I did something that I've been trying to do for a lonnnnnnnnnnnng time: ship Tilt's Monday night $1k buy-in.

It's one of the toughest tournaments online, and the top spot has eluded me for my entire career. My best finishes came in back-to-back weeks about two years ago when they first started running the tournament, finishing 4th and 3rd.

I had a decent stack for the majority of the tournament, but was never one of the chip leaders. I was somewhat short as we approached the money, but I doubled up just before we hit the bubble and never looked back.

Looking back, this may have been the win that I'm proudest of despite the fact that it's not my biggest score (this was ~$86k, while the Sunday 500 win netted me ~$105k).

There were a few key hands that I was especially happy with how I played. I went with my reads on a lot of hands when I had nothing, and fortunately I was correct almost every time...it doesn't usually work that way for EVERY hand deep in a tournament.

I picked up another win the following evening in the new Lock Poker $20k guaranteed $162. The tournament has a great structure, terrible players, and pretty good payouts. They've revamped their entire nightly schedule and it's becoming more and more juicy by the day.

Anyway, it feels really good to be "in the zone" again and playing some of the best poker of my life. I was on the worst downswing of my life, totaling about $220k. Now nearly $100k of that has melted away and I'm back on track and feeling great!!!

Matt Stout

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Home Sweet Home

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 22:02:06 +0100

Finally got home from my Jersey and London adventure the day before last. I'll get to telling all the tales from the road eventually, but for now I just wanted to post a quick blog before I fire up another lonnnnnng Sunday session.

In my last blog I mentioned the guy who absolutely lost it and berated me when I bubbled him during the Borgata $400NL preliminary event. It was truly entertaining to me in a way...

While we were getting close to the bubble there were several players who were playing ridiculously tight to try to squeeze into the money. One of whom, a short stocky white guy from New York, was down to about ten big blinds and seated on my left.

After it folded around to me in the small blind, I looked down at A 5 and obviously put him all in.

He tanked forever, and at first I still thought I had the best hand and was going to show him if he folded something like K J. Eventually he turned the A 9 over and mucked it face-up!!!

Naturally I couldn't show now, and quietly slid my cards towards the dealer. He proceeded to rant about how he didn't sit there all day so that he could bubble, how he wasn't going to be that guy, etc.

Needless to say, I did exactly what this guy was essentially asking me to do when he told me this...raise more pots!

An orbit later he was down to about seven big blinds, and moved in after I had opened with the J 5 in late position. I told him that I had to call, and he showed me the hand I wanted to see, A K.

Well wouldn't you know it, this guy was doomed from the start. Perhaps it was the poker gods there to punish him for being a bubble wuss.

Flop: 10 9 8

In my head: "HAHAHA good game, buddy."

Turn: 5

Aloud: "SPADEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!! GIVE HIM A SPADE!!!" (I <3 anti-sweats)

River: brick. =(

Me: "That's sick man, unlucky..."

Now normally the player who busts will walk away from the table and vent his frustrations elsewhere. Our buddy here declined.

Tool: "I play for twelve hours to get SCUMBAGGED on the bubble like that..."

Me (half-pretending I hadn't heard that): "Good game man, better luck to ya..."

Tool: "And he says he can't fold for 27k more...that's funny."

Me (finally giving in a little): "Well, I could teach you how to play the game, but then you might get better and I don't want that. So now you could just walk away and try to lose with a little class, maybe?"

He declined that offer. Instead he decided to threaten me and ask if I'd like to come out to the parking lot with him.

"Nah, that's okay buddy. You see all these chips I just took from you? I'm a little busy with them, because I'm going to try to turn them into more money while you drive home."

Apparently this angered him even more, because at this point he had to be escorted out of the Borgata by security.

The Borgata bloggers who were there for the whole fiasco looked like they were about to piss their pants laughing. They even came to me after it was over and asked what took me so long to rip into the guy. I told them that I was trying to be nice, but there's only so much I'm going to take.

It's easy to win with class, but it's much tougher to bite your tongue and walk away without being a sore loser. Fortunately I've been busting out of tournaments for years now, so I've become pretty good at it. =)

Hopefully it's a lesson that some of the New Yorkers who frequent Borgata will learn, so that they'll stop making our beautiful casino look bad to the rest of the world.

Matt Stout

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Borgata Blow-Ups!

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 23:38:56 +0100

OK, so they weren't complete blowups ... but I'm definitely not happy with myself in the wake of the Borgata Poker Open.

When I left off in my last blog I had a big stack in the $400 NL opening event of the series. Although my 240k stack had me near the chip lead to start day two, it was only thirty big blinds in a somewhat quick structure.

Even though Borgata has some of the best structures in the country for big events, they really should include all of the blind levels that they include in their main event structure for the preliminary events.

I eventually lost two huge races in pretty standard spots for >350k each, one with A K against 10 10, and another with 7 7 against A Q. I finished in 19th out of about 850 entrants.

I came back strong in the $1k NL, which was the very next event I played. Coincidentally I managed to amass 240k once again by the end of day one, except that this was from a 12k starting stack instead of 10k.

However, longer levels meant that we were only halfway through the 1500/3000 level to end the day, which left a lot more play. We also hadn't yet made the money, unlike the $400 NL which saw the bubble burst on day one.

I had an interesting battle with another one of the big stacks at my table during the bubble named Alex Santiago, during which I four-bet bluffed K 9 into his A A. Slight misread. Oops.

After doubling him up there, it didn't take long to get almost all of the chips back when I doubled A A through his 7 7 an orbit later.

Unfortunately, it didn't end there. After the money bubble burst I managed to blow a couple hundred thousand chips with my least favorite hand of all, A-Q.

After a fairly tight player known as "Coldstone" raised under the gun, the same guy called from middle position. I picked up A Q in the small blind, and we all about 27 big blinds deep effective, with me having both players well covered.

After some deliberation with my first instinct just being to fold, I eventually went against my better judgment and decided to squeeze. I didn't want to flat out of position, and I thought I'd be able to get the UTG player to make some pretty big laydowns based on previous history.

However, epic failure of mass proportions occured. I pot committed myself with the squeeze since re-raising and folding with these stacks really sucks (that's a high-level mathematical term, of course). My opponents literally showed me the worst news I could possibly see, A A and Q Q!!!

Somehow, I didn't manage to make broadway. I lost most of my chips there, and then we redrew tables. I picked up J J with about 150k left at 3/6k, and made it 15k in early-middle position.

Normally I'd be more than happy to get it all in preflop with this stack and hand at this stage of the tournament. However, it's a good rule of thumb that you better have the nuts when someone over 55 re-raises you. An older heavy-set gentleman with a stack of 200k made it 35k to go in middle position.

I'd never played with the guy before, but his bet sizing and demeanor definitely made me want to make a huge laydown on a relatively short stack.

However, I let something influence my decision that I shouldn't have. A $1k online event that would be awarding almost half a million to first had just started, and I could still make it on late registration!

I shoved, he showed me aces, and I rushed home so that I could make a deep run in the other $1k and not cash in the short version of that pathetic story.

My final missed opportunity came in the $1,500NL, but I'll leave that and the story of the loser who berated and threatened me after I busted him on the bubble of the Borgata 400NL for my next post.

Time to get some rest and pack up...off to the Bronx tomorrow night to watch the Yankees crush the Red Sox, then headed to London the following morning for the WSOP Europe main event and EPT event.

I'm really looking forward to seeing London for the first time, but miss Vegas badly. It's strange, but this may be the first time in my life that I've truly felt homesick. I want a chocolate-banana from Tropical Smoothie!!!!!!!!!!

--Matt Stout

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Prop Bet Frenzy, In the $$$ Borgata Event 1

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:45:01 +0100

I should have been asleep about an hour ago, but I figured I'd get a quick blog out there because I had a blast at my first trip back to Borgata (aka "home") since moving to Vegas in February.

Jason Young and I had been toying around with ideas for a couple of prop bets, one of which was a bet on who would cash for more money during the series at Borgata.

Since I'm skipping several events to play online we decided to do most gross winnings across five tournaments: today's $400 NL, the two $1k NL non-HU events, the $3.5k WPT main, and we each get to pick one other tournament.

We added this to the bet because I'll be playing the $1650 NL, which he can't make. He's going to pick one other event that I'll be playing online during to compensate for this.

The bet is $10k, but there is an interesting "pity rule." If one if us wins six figures and the other doesn't, the person who cashed for more will instead owe the "loser" $10k.

The combination of this bet and being on my home court had me pretty fired up for the opening event today, a $350+50 that drew a relatively small field of ~850.

I say relatively small because this tournament usually has over 1,000 entrants and pays six figures to first. But the $87k for first is definitely not going to disappoint me if I take it down. Nor is it bad for the prop bet!

I had a really fun first table. Tom Balla (yea, really his name, plays as "CrystalBalla" online) was on my left and wanted to keep himself entertained with some prop bets.

We started out with the normal red/black bets on flops for $5-10 at a time, and played a fun new game. As players busted off the table, we'd pick a line and bet over/under on how old the next player in the seat would be, and bet $20 each time.

We kept bumping the line until it got to 40, and still somehow we almost always got a player that was over. Amazingly, two of the ten players who sat down caused a push by being exactly the age we had set the line at.

Unfortunately, I was unable to chip up a lot early despite the fact that I was actually paying attention and playing my best game amidst all the fun. I grinded my way through and managed to get my 10k starting stack up to 28k just before dinner break and the 500/1000 level.

Jason Young decided to join us from the press box after dinner, and was none too pleased to see my continued presence in the tournament...at least from a prop bet standpoint. His heckling from the rail just reminded me to keep my eye on the prize though...

After I started the 1500/3000 with just 42k, I finally went on a heater and chipped up pretty significantly just in time for the bubble. That, in turn, helped me chip up some more since a lot of players in Borgata tournaments are more than willing to give up expected value over tournament life anywhere near the bubble of a tournament.

I ended day one with 234k going into the 4k/8k level. There are 70 players remaining and the average stack should be about 120k right now according to my half asleep, top of my head calculations. Hopefully I can make an appearance at my first Borgata final table in quite some time tomorrow...

Matt Stout

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The Tilt Piñata

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:14:40 +0100

I finally left the Vegas and CA area for the first time since February, when I moved to Las Vegas. After arriving at the Philadelphia Airport I decided to stop at a store to pick up a few things before I headed down to the Atlantic City area to stay with my friend Kenny "Kenny Rap" Weinstein.

I'd like to thank Kenny for his hospitality. Had I just been playing the main event at Borgata I'd probably have just stayed at the hotel, but I flew in a week ago so that I'd be out here and settled in before the World Championship of Online Poker kicked off.

Besides, I don't get to see Kenny enough now that I've made the move out West. We used to play a lot of online sessions together in Jersey before I moved, and he's fun to talk hands with since he has an interesting and sometimes unconventional approach to the game.

I'd also like send some hate and ill will towards the slew of mentally challenged roosters who live outside his place. These evil creatures will roost at ANY time of the day.

They try to get me to rise and shine at 3am, longgggg before the sun comes up, and are out there as I write this at 5:35pm roosting their little heads off.

They're lucky I don't have a gun...

One creature who is not so fortunate is Spongebob Squarepants. Like I was saying before I got sidetracked by Kenny and roosters, I stopped at a store to grab a few things on my way down.

As I was walking past an aisle after I had finished shopping, I noticed some Spongebob and Transformers piñatas. I figured it would be a fun way to relieve the stress that would come after Kenny and I had a long session and fruitless session of tournaments one night, so I decided to buy it.

We stuffed it full of some of the greatest candies known to man, and now he awaits his certain doom. He sits on death row in the closet, awaiting his painful stick beating.

We probably should have done it Sunday night after we lost close to $10k combined, but we spaced out until after the anger and settled into a lethargic blah-ness and decided to wait until the next time we are feeling destructive.

Fun pictures of his remains sure to come...

Matt Stout.

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I'm a Lock Poker Pro!

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:20:08 +0100

Well it's now 4:21am and I've officially given up hope of going to bed before my flight leaves from the airport in Vegas at 9:10am, so I might as well get a blog post in before I get to Jersey. I'll sleep when I'm dead I suppose. Oh, and on the flight.

Anyway, I'm really excited about what I mentioned in the title. Lock Poker, a member of the Cake Network, recently signed a group of pros including myself, Jason Young, Lee Childs, Mike 'GoLeafsGoEh' Leah, Joe 'JoeytheB' Brooks, Kyle 'kwob20' Bowker and Jonathan Jaffe.

Eric 'Rizen' Lynch, who was the first Lock Pro before the rest of us were signed, was also announced as VP of Product Development in the same press release.

I'd also like to give a big thanks to my agent, Randy Kasper, founder of Poker Players International, for helping forge this deal.

After 21 years of reaping the benefits of being a white American male, it finally worked against me when it came time to get signed by an online site.

This was especially difficult since the UIGEA took effect as my career really began to take off, and as a result of the legislation the major sites stopped marketing in the USA due to the difficulties of getting funds online in America.

Some may say that it was highhhhh time that it worked against me, and I say fair enough.

But now that's all over anyway, and I'm really looking forward to working with a slightly smaller and newer site. It gives me the opportunity to work with the site as they grow and use my experience in the industry to help them along the way.

Not to mention picking up a few dimes along the way. In the few weeks that I've been a Lock Pro I've already made several final tables with two wins, a $109 and a $55, both freezeouts. With the help of these wins I'm already up nearly $10k...not a bad start to my Lock career.

Well, I might as well finish packing since my flight leaves in a few hours. It's going to be a chaotic month of deciding whether the online or Borgata tournaments will be juicier for the day...what a tough life!

It's the scheduling equivalent of having too many chips in a live tournament and not knowing where to put them....ahhh these are the problems we long to have!

I'll leave you with a few words from the owner of Lock Poker...

"We are thrilled to welcome this incredible group of players as part of the Lock Poker family," said Lock Poker CEO Jennifer Larson. "We will be integrating them into all aspects of the business. These pros are the insight we need to really create the best online poker experience worldwide."

-- Matt Stout

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Going Back to Cali Strictly for the Weather, Women and the Weed

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:16:00 +0100

Well Biggie was close, except you can replace "women" with "Legends of Poker $10k WPT @ the Bike" since I have a girlfriend. =)

Since they're playing out the final table right now while I sit at home watching Tommy Boy after a long online session and writing this blog, you can probably tell that it didn't go too well!

I continued my strange streak of having a heavily stacked table on day one of a major event, which is ironic because the later days are usually where you find the toughest tables after most of the soft spots have been eliminated.

My table on day one:

Seat 1: Gavin Griffin

Seat 2: Joe "floes" Serock

Seat 3: Mike "goleafsgoeh" Leah

Seat 4: random #1/random #2

Seat 5: me

Seat 6: Markus "LURPED" Gonsalves

Seat 7: random local/Yosh Nakano

Seat 8: David "not Bakes, the other one" Baker

Seat 9: Josh "SDouble" Schlein

My natural strategy was to lay back a bit since it was day one and it's all about survival ... especially at tables that aren't going to budge.

The few moderately large pots I lost on day one happened when I was constantly bricking straight-flush draws and top pair/nut flush draw types of hands.

A couple of these were against Gonsalves, who was extremely tough to play against out of position against all day. He played very well, and I was definitely impressed with his game.

I grinded it out for most of the day, and was amazed at how my opponents would three-bet whenever I didn't have it and snapfold when I did. That's usually the sign of a tough table. I ended up getting short and got lucky to double A Q through K K

Now I don't want to say slowroll karma nailed this guy, but he did ask for a count after I shoved my short stack over his opening raise. He snapcalled as soon as I said the approximate count, but still...thanks poker gods!

Well, at least for trying, that is. The poker gods didn't know that this double up would only keep me afloat long enough to miss the Sunday tournaments.

I finished the day with ~18.5k going to 300/600 (50), which was a good thing except that day two started at 3pm Pacific on Sunday. In other words, after most of the juicy Sunday schedule is over. =(

During the first level of play on day two I ended up with A K early on...uneventfully up against my friend Zach "CrazyZachary" Clark's A K. After a few orbits of grinding it out I ended up all in with a flush draw against the big blind's top pair and whiffed it.

Oh well, at least the trip wasn't a total bust. I was feeling too tired to drive to LA the night before the $500 one rebuy PLO, so I just came in and took a trip to Six Flags Magic Mountain before the main event.

The park was run like crap, but they have some good rollercoasters. If fact, they have probably the sickest rollercoaster I've ever been on: X2. It's one of the newest ones in the park.

The best way I can describe it is that they let your seat dangle and spin during the ride for added fear. Good times. Must be experienced.

Back in Vegas now, headed to my home state of Dirty Jersey on the first of the month. Just booked Yanks vs Red Sox on the 25th since I haven't seen the new stadium yet. About to book a flight to London for the next day, and am thinking about planning another cross-country road trip once I'm back from that.

"Just can't wait to get on the road again...the life I love is [playing poker] with my friends...and I just can't wait to get on the road again..."

Matt Stout

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Aquatic Misadventures with Matt Stout

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 21:23:37 +0100

So after a long and unproductive FTOPS series, my roommate and I decided to go jet skiing on Lake Mead to relieve some stress and get away from the soft glow of our monitors.

Had I known what was to come, I'd have stayed home for some R&R instead ...

The day started out well, even though my roommate and I got split up from the start. I was still signing my contract for the rental as we were leaving the dock, and he left a few minutes ahead of me.

I couldn't find him once I got away from the docks, but I figured he'd headed over to the Hoover Dam to check out the view since that's what we were planning on doing.

Apparently I overshot the Dam...guess it wasn't big enough for me to see. But I was having so much fun jet skiing through canyons and finding new coves that I just kept going. I took a break for a little while and headed back in the direction I came from ...

Or so I thought. I came across a harbor, but kept going when I realized it wasn't the Las Vegas Boat Harbor (strangely named, as it's 40 minutes from Vegas). I didn't see anyone for about 40 minutes, and realized that I was starting to get low on gas.

Eventually I came across a family who was wakeboarding. I asked them how to get to my harbor and got a strange look. After trying to give me directions he asked, "You got enough gas to get back?" Of course I didn't, but more importantly I started to realize that maybe I was a bit further astray than I had thought.

He directed me back to a harbor that I'd soon learn was the one I'd just found and left. Within a mile of heading back towards the harbor the gas light came on, accompanied by eardrum-piercingly loud beep in case you happen to be operating your jet ski from outer friggin' space.

I manage to get to the "Temple Bar" harbor within minutes of what I have to imagine was going to be me stranded with no cell phone (left it in car because those compartments on board are definitely NOT waterproof) while waving that stupid orange flag while I watch the water flow and no one go by.

While fueling up and asking to see a map, I learn that:

a) I'm in Arizona

b) my rental is due in thirty minutes

c) the gas attendant estimates return time to be "three hours, maybe two and a half"

#&*%#*($@(#)@*$)%*&#($&*@(&%$@)*#(@)$&@&$*@)*#)%@*&($&(#)@&)%@*)%*$)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To make a long story short, it wasn't quite that bad. I gassed up, bought a map, and headed out. Apparently the attendant had never take a jet ski at full throttle for about 60-70 straight miles. I made it back in about 1:40, ended up paying an extra $140 for being late, and only missed the 5pm online tournaments while still making the $1k.

Next time I think I'll just bring a map with me to begin with ...

-- Matt Stout

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Is It FTOPS Time Again? Already?

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 20:58:32 +0100

It's that time again, the time we wait literally weeks for, FTOPS!

Seriously ... I haven't done a timeline on it yet or anything, but I'm pretty sure that FullTilt is slowly closing the gap between the different FullTilt Online Poker Series at an ever increasing pace.

They probably won't stop until they're running one continuous FTOPS series. But hey, if they can keep the fields huge I'm not complaining!

My FTOPS hasn't been great so far, but it hasn't been terrible. I made a deep run in the $215+rebuys event, which is always one of my favorite FTOPS tournaments. I was one of the chip leaders for a decent portion of the tournament but ended up fizzling out not too long after we got into the money.

I also cashed in one other event of the series so far, the $500 6-max PLO. I ended up getting it in on a pretty standard Omaha post-flop flip, holding bottom set and a straight draw against top two with a flush draw, and cashing for barely more than the minimum.

This is just going to further my recent desire to improve my Omaha game through books and training videos, because I seem to go deep in a lot of PLO events even though I'm self-taught and relatively inexperienced.

I'm going to try to finish reading Hwang's book on the game before I play the $500 rebuy PLO prelim at the Bike next week. It'll be the only preliminary event I play leading up to the WPT Legends of Poker $10k.

Anyone with a sick memory or anyone who may be stalking me (you like em chunky?) will be saying to yourself, "Really? You're going back to the LOP after what happened to you last year?"

Season 7 on the WPT was not a fun one for me, highlighted by losing a couple of six figure pots deep in 10k events with A-A all in pre. However, the Bike tournament really took the cake.

In the first orbit of day 3 as we approached the money, I stacked off with A A against K Q on a A J T flop. Still optimistic that the board would pair, I was in full sweat mode ... until the K hit the turn and sent me out the door laughing.

Yea, laughing. I distinctly remember walking out the door cracking up at how sick it was, because what else could I do?

A couple guys from one of the other reporting sites saw me as I was getting to my car and asked, "What the hell happened Stout?" They looked at me a little confused as I laughed and told them, "Top set of aces vs a Royal, gg." I assume they thought I was delirious.

Anyway, I'm going back for that tournament with a vengeance. They're going to have to cooler me again if I'm not going deep because I've been staring at computer screens too much since the WSOP ended and I'm really anxious and ready to play some live poker. Big money, no whammies!!!

Speaking of big money, I think I'm going to play the $2,500 2-day FTOPS event tomorrow. It's a very tough field, but I usually limit myself to 3-4 tables and really pay close attention to it ... basically playing it more like a live tournament than a typical online donkament.

I've had some decent results in it, with two cashes and one bubble in it over the five times I've played it (they ran a $5k 6-max in its place for a while), but it's time for me to really go for the kill in this tournament.

After FTOPS and Legends in LA, I'll finally be leaving the West siiiiiiiide for the first time since I moved out here. As much as I REALLY love living out here, it's time for me to visit my homeland of New Jersey.

Even though they shrank one of my favorite WPT events down to a $3500 buy in, I'll be skanking around the Borgata for most of September just like the good ole days!

Then I'll be making a trip across the pond for the WSOP Europe Main Event and the EPT London event. Strangely enough, despite all the travel I've done I've never been to London ... or England or all for that matter.

I've decided that it's time to visit the motherland (well, one of the many, since I'm a European/Native American mutt), and a couple of huge tournaments laden with crazy Euros seems like good times.

Time to get some travel booked and get some rest for this $2500 ...

-- Matt Stout

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WSOP Main Event Recap Part 2

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:16:55 +0100

I might as well stop putting off writing this blog before I manage to completely block this tournament out of my memory...because I'm pretty close as it is, thankfully!

As I mentioned in the first part, my starting table looked more like a tough final table. I wouldn't be surprised in a WPT event, but since this is the softest $10k buy in tournament of the year it was pretty bad news.

Unless I managed to get in a good spot against one of the softer spots at the table it was going to be tough to accumulate.

But since the first day is all about survival I just decided to lay back, taking a lot of flops with the soft spots and picking my spots against the better players.

I picked up one big pot early when I set over setted someone. Normally I get all 30k even though it was 50-100 in this spot if I play it correctly, but the flop was Q J 10 and my opponent just check-called me down on a 2 turn and 6 river with J J

Although a cleaner flop or us both filling up would have been great, I still picked up about 7k in that pot and was up to 36k. I was still happy with the result and felt like it was a great start and a good sign.

Unfortunately, that was the last significant pot I won for the rest of the tournament! I kept playing pretty solid and wasn't involved in many big pots...which is all well and good in terms of strategy and everything but just resulted in a more painful and slow torture.

Towards the end of the day, I raised under the gun with A A and got flatted by Alex "AJKHoosier1" Kambaris. It was 200/400 (50) and I had 28k which he had well covered.

We went heads up to the flop, and I wanted to puke when it came Ks-Qs-Jc. I check-called a pot sized bet from him, and just gave up on a ragged turn card to his 2/3 pot bet.

It's a good thing, too, since any doubt of me having the best hand went out the window when he showed 10 9! He later told me that he only showed because we're friends and he knew I was feeling pretty crappy after losing pot after pot. Thanks Alex!

I managed to squeeze into day two with 18k going to 250-500 (50). It was literally the most boring and card dead day of live poker I've ever had. I ended up laying down J J to a shove on a queen high flop in one of the only pots I played during the first couple of levels.

In the end, I was more than happy to jam my short stack in with 5 7 from the small blind when it folded to me for the first time in what seemed like six weeks. The big blind woke up with A 9 and called. It seemed like it was over when I saw the 9 in the window, but the 4 and 6 were behind it for a full sweat.

Of course, this was merely part of the epic torture that was my WSOP Main Event 2009. The turn and river bricked out, and I darted out of the Brasilia Room as quickly as possible.

Matt Stout

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The $215+Rebuys Final Table

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 06:04:41 +0100

In my last blog I was pretty tilted after a brutal session of 20 or 25 online donkaments. I was down to just the $215+rebuys on Stars, and decided to blog while I was one-tabling because I can still pay enough attention when it's only one table.

As the Editor's Note mentioned, I finished 2nd in the tournament for $28.5k. It felt pretty good to get back on the right track after a pretty significant downswing. Not out of the hole yet, but am off the starting block and ready for another heater!

It also felt great because I was pretty tilted from that session and hadn't had a single cash yet...unless you count the MONSTEROUS $95 I cashed for in the Turbo Takedown $1M prize pool freeroll. That only left me down $4-5k for the day!

But seriously ... I managed to stay focused and keep playing my A game, even though I only had 4k chips at 75/150 after rebuys were over. I managed to overcome the desire to dust off my short stack and play Mario Kart and turn it into a solid cash.

There weren't too many tricky/interesting hands in that tournament, despite the fact that so much of the field in that tournament represents the best players in online poker. The fact that I put coolers of three of them deep in the tournament helped out...in more ways than one.

To be honest, I even considered quitting the $215+rebuys about a year ago since it's such a high-variance ego battle in a way. The fact that it is held at the very end of the high stakes Sunday schedule when I'm either tired, tilted, or deep in other tournaments also made me consider cutting it out of my schedule.

It seems as though Stars must have been in my head though. Shortly after I considered cutting it from my schedule I took it down for the first time during my Sunday heater of a lifetime during the last quarter of last year.

I'm not a particularly superstitious person, but since blogging while I was down to just the $215+rebuys on Stars last Sunday resulted in a deep run I figured I'd try to trick the random number generator again.

Like Deja Vu, I found myself down to only that tournament shortly after rebuy hour was over again. It's going pretty well so far since I've tripled up since I started blogging, so it's time to get back to focusing on the grind.

Matt Stout

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Matt Stout's Separate Lives

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 19:46:01 +0100

I'm going to interrupt my WSOP Main Event story because there's just no need for me to write about something that sucks that much right now. I'd rather focus on the positive at moment...after just a couple more lines...

As I write this, I'm down to one table after another brutal Sunday session. I lasted a grand total of eight hands COMBINED in two of the biggest tournaments of the day: the Warm Up and the $750k guaranteed.

This was partially due to something that was such a statistical anomaly that I have to share it. I busted out of three different tournaments by running into quads, twice when I had boats...all on paired boards, not ones with open sets.

To be fair, I also flopped quads once during the session. And a note to all of the people who think all online poker is rigged for action: I've never seen quads this many times in a session (25-35 tournaments), let alone hold or be up against them that many times!

But despite being on another brutal, six-figure downswing, I've managed to remain positive and still be pretty happy overall. It's probably partially due to my move to Las Vegas, which I'm very happy about so far.

Another thing that has really helped is my conscious efforts to keep my poker and my *real* life separate. Now, this is an easy thing for most people to do...but at some point after I learned how to play hold'em, I became so engrossed in the game that I did almost nothing but grind for a couple of years.

Although this helped me cut my teeth, it was often not healthy...physically or mentally.

I lost touch with friends and some family for a while, lost track of current events and politics (partially due to the Bush Reich making me want to pull my hair out), and wasn't even watching my favorite sports team in the world, the New York Rangers.

Over the past couple of years, I've gotten back to living a relatively normal life, for a poker player.

Although I've spent most of my time living in casino towns since I was of age, I haven't played any table games at all since I turned 21 and started playing poker for a living. That's not to say I wasn't playing blackjack at the Taj when I was 19, but that's another story...

A friend was asking me about a hand right after I had just finished a particularly brutal online session on Tuesday, and I replied something to the effect of "Pleasssse don't ask me about poker right now. I'm done for the night, and trying to get back to my other life so that I won't feel like crap."

In response, he asked me to teach him how to do that. I thought he was being sarcastic, but then he said he was dead serious. It made me think of how many poker players must get stuck in the same grind and mentality that I was once in.

It's a bit of a stretch to call it a separate life, but I guess that's a good way to describe it in a sense. Many pro poker players seem almost manic-depressive based on their short-term results.

This is no way to live, especially when you play tournament poker for a living. You will be losing in the short run a vast majority of time when you play tournament poker!

I spend a lot of time going out with my girlfriend Aimee (yes, AllInAt420sGirl/AllIn420Girl is really my girlfriend. She must get that question every session she plays). We go to the movies, shows, tons of restaurants...all the normal stuff. I'm also getting back into some of my old interests, the next of which is hockey.

I played very seriously in high school and college, but basically stopped when I started grinding so much.

I recently checked out the rink that's here in Vegas, and am going to start playing some pickup games and eventually get back into leagues. I really can't wait, especially since it's the only way that I can really stick with an exercise regimen.

I've also recently begun to pursue some new hobbies, which are shooting and boating/tubing. Much thanks to Paul Wasicka for being the one to finally dragging me out to do both of these things, and training my newb arse at both.

I hadn't shot a gun since I was 8 years old and my Dad helped me hold a shotgun while we shot cans at my Dad's friend's campsite atop the Catskill Mountains in upstate NY. We went to a local firing range in Vegas and shot 9mm and .45 handguns, then decided to try out "Little Dragon."

"Little Dragon" is a FULLY automatic HANDGUN that fires off 25 rounds in under two seconds. The kick makes it very difficult to keep it under control, though. I still managed to hit the target with at least 13 of the rounds, and actually performed quite well overall despite being such a rookie.

We also went down to Lake Mead with a group of people, which is 40 minutes from Vegas. It's the artificial lake that's held in by the Hoover Dam. We rented a speedboat and a "party boat." We just go out there and have a party on one boat, and use the speedboat to take two people tubing at a time.

Let me just say...trying to hold down your lunch after a few beers while friends try to fling you off the the tube at ~40-50 MPH is good times. Such good times, in fact, that I've rented the boats again for tomorrow. Hopefully I can keep up my streak of never being flung off the tubes!

I just went from ninja mode to a pretty good stack in the $215+rebuys, so I guess I should probably get back to focusing on that instead of continuing to ramble...

Editor's Note: We received word that Stout went on to finish second in this event for $28,500 and has thusly retracted his statements about the brutality of this particular Sunday.

- Matt Stout

PS - While writing this blog, my friend jfiiue4/Petit just busted deep in a $50 freezeout while across the table from me, said "good game me," and ripped his shirt in half like he was The Incredible Hulk. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. I nearly choked!

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