1K at Caesars WSOPC and Cleveland (or is it Zevelanddddd)

Your Cleveland.....Cavaliers!!!!! Is everyone as excited as I am for the playoffs in Cleveland? Cleveland has risen from the late season dead to show that they are still a team to beat in the East. I guarantee you ladies and gentlemen that Boston does not want to face us in the second round. In fact, they are probably legitimately scared. Why? The Cavaliers are running on all cylinders. They are in the playoff intensity mode and they have the best player in the league playing for them. The chemistry problems that we keep worrying about came together last night in game 2 when the Cavs made a statement game by mauling the Wizards at home. For those of you that have ratted on Mike Brown, you have to give him credit for making moves to put this team in position to win. Finally, we saw why Ben Wallace and Wally were brought into the mix. Ben Wallace fought right back with huge defensive plays early in game 2 to set the tone. When the Wizards started fouling hard, Ben was right there to lay someone out in his paint. Wally finally started nailing shots. When we have shooters out there, Gibson, Wally, and strong inside defense of Wallace and Varajao, we are very tough to beat. We are simply deeper than the Wizards and should beat this team in a max of 5 games.


For the Lebron fans out there, I read a great article about him yesterday that you should all check out. Lebron is hands down my favorite athlete in any sport, so my opinion might be biased.

http://sport.guardian.co.uk/ussports/story/0,,2275032,00.html


Poker

Played the 1K WSOP circuit event at Caesar's yesterday. It had an excellent structure with 4k in starting chips, 25/25 starting blinds and hour levels. I was quickly up to 11k after the first two levels giving myself an excellent position early on. I won a big pot with JJ early and made a couple of moves to get my stack. The JJ hand was interesting. An UTG raiser to 150, another loose caller, another caller and I have the button with JJ. I could raise here, but I was convinced I could find a great spot by staying patient and keeping pots small preflop. I flat called. The flop came 10 9 6 two diamonds. All 4 players checked to me and I bet about 600 into the 750 pot. I received two callers. Turn was 3 of clubs. It checked to me again and I fired 1500 into the pot. The other loose caller who I just saw blow up with Q9 off suit preflop calls. River is 3 of spades. He quickly checks and I really thought I could get it all about 2500 of it. So I put it in and he quickly called and tapped the table. That was the extent of the big hands that occurred for the next 2-3 levels. I basically tried to stay active, but was never dealt a big pair or anything. I eventually called a shortstack's 2k all in when I had about 9500 in chips 200/400 blinds with 50 ante. It was an easy call even though I had the blinds, button and cutoff to get through. I won the 88 vs AJ with a flopped set. After that, there weren't many big confrontations, but with blinds rising quickly right before the 300/600 level change with about 10 minutes to go in the level I picked up 88 again UTG and raised to 1200. It folds to the BB who goes all in. At this point, there is 500 (antes)+200(bb)+1200(my raise)+ 5500 of his total. I have to call 4300 more into this 7400 pot. Another tough situation here even though I know lots of people at my table would quickly call here. I have about 11000 before the hand, so this represents about half my stack. I decided to call and looking at pokerstove giving him a range of 66+, AJ+ KQ, I have 45% equity, so having roughly 1.75 to 1 in pot odds, I don't think it's a bad call. What factors in here though is do I lose fold equity in the later rounds. Online you probably do, but in live tournaments fold equity is actually achieved with a lower M or BB count. I ended up losing the race when he showed AK KK7 flop 6 9.

I was kind of crushed because being so patient for so long you just have to hope to win the big race. I was down to a shoving stack and eventually settled on J8 off suit when it folded to me in the cutoff at 300/600 blinds and I had 4500 chips. I pushed was called by 10 10 Bink Jack and I'm still alive. Then I raised with 9 10 of clubs and was called by a looser older guy. Flop came Ac 8c 3h. In playing against this guy, he floated with hands and wasn't afraid to put people to the test. So I just decided to take the play away from him and pushed about 7500 into a 4800 ish pot. He folded and I was healthy again. Same guy called again when I raised in the cutoff with A5 off. Flop came AQ10 rainbow. I fired 3k into the pot and he shoved 13k in the middle. I had about 7k left and was put to the test here. If I have a dominated ace, I'm crushed and out. I still have 7k if I fold which is a little over 10 BB's. I decided to call after really thinking for about 3 minutes. My reasoning here was that QJ, 10J, KQ, Ax are in his range enough here. I know this guy would raise with AK or AQ b/c I saw it several times and any of those pairs over 10's. When really breaking this down, I looked at A10 being the killer hand and only one he had. AJ also and KJ was weird because I would have expected him to slowplay. I called and he showed A6, so we were basically even to chop. I protected some chips here, but made a decent call in my opinion. Then I was moved to another table shortly after losing a small pot to a shortstack with KJ of spades vs 77. At the new table UTG raises to 1800, the button reraises to 7k. I pinch an A, and I pinch another A. AA!!!! FINALLY THEY HAD ARRIVED!!! I'm all in for about 8500 I think. Other guy folds and the other guy has KK. SUPERCOOLER!!!! K54 flop. Good game Kevin. Out in about 46th of 237 players with 27 getting paid in a terrible way to go out. I played well today, but I need a little break to get refocused for the next round. I'm on a bad downswing online since my big tournament win and think I'm just not focused enough. In live tournaments though, I feel like I've been playing very well. Playing well doesn't always mean winning though in this game.