So far this month has been pretty good for me. I’m up right around $3500 in the cash games, but down about $1000 in tournaments. I knew this downside of tournaments would come eventually since I was running so good in tournaments two months ago, its just really frustrating. I will continue to play tournaments everyday and grind it out, as I love the competition of them, even though their hourly wage doesn’t work out to be higher than my cash game wage.

Now, onto some other things, on Tuesday night we did some more bowling. I mean, how can you go wrong, $1/games, and $1/beers, what could be better? The night had some heavy gambling going on, our buddy Daniels kept giving Mike and I some sick odds to do certain things, like marking out or breaking 200, I only won two small odds to break even on the night and Mike won zero. After bowling we went back to the apartment, and low and behold it finally happened, I puked from drinking for the first time in Vegas, not even really sure how it happened since I only drank about six beers, and I usually never puke off beer, weird. Anyway, that night, Daniels, who is about a scratch or one handicap, decided to give me 8 strokes and Mike 11 strokes for $50/matches during golf on Wednesday morning at the TPC of Canyons. This should’ve been the easiest $50 I have ever won, but as fate would have it I am a Bakken. Mike and I had Jimmy shaking in his booties, as $50 is a lot to him and not to us, not to mention after five holes Mike and I were both up on him by one stroke straight up, and I was hung over!!!! Until the inevitable, Bakken blowup, I got a fucking 12 on #6, that’s right, a 2 handicap, can get 12’s. But, in all fairness, the bunkers at this course were ALL different, some were hard, some were soft, so I never knew what club or how to play the shot, because I never knew if sand was underneath the surface or hardpan, arg, I spent a total of 8 shots in bunkers on that hole, and was still two shots ahead of Daniels, but this kid is a pretty good golfer, and he might be the luckiest human being on the planet, I have never seen someone get so many bounces. He literally should’ve been in the gorge about 5 times, or at least had to take an unplayable, but to no avail, he always got a good kick with a clean lie. Me, I always landed on top of rocks or right next to them. So I ended up losing the bet, while Mike won his, no biggie though, I still got to play the TPC of Canyons for dirt-cheap. On another note, paying for groceries sucks balls. Until next time…

-Bakken

And I continue to run like shit, if its not the tourney’s it’s the cash games, if its not the cash games, it’s the tourneys, and sometimes its both. I played in the $150+12 Ace of Spades Tourney today and was cruising, all the way to the final table; I never got my chips in being a dog (as usual) and was third in chips at the beginning of the Final Table. A player with 60K raised to 20,000, which was large since blinds were only 2000-4000. I picked up AK on the button and had a decision to make; I am either raising or folding. I knew by his raise he didn’t want any action, I figured any pair under 99’s I could get to fold and any ace other than Ace King would fold as well, so I moved in, and my opponent instacalled with AQ?????? OK, sweet, I have him dominated and will be an overwhelming chip leader, until of course, I get outdrawn, AGAIN!!! Not only am getting sick of getting outdrawn, but also it’s happening against hands that shouldn’t even be there. The only hand my opponent beats AJ, not only has he been playing with me for three hours and see me showdown nothing but monsters, but he figures he is going to call and HOPE to be in a coin flip situation. I am sick of these donks knocking me out or crippling me in tourneys. But I guess without donks, I wouldn’t be able to make a living off of this game. I then proceeded to make a donk-like call with 88 for the rest of my chips, hoping to be in a coin flip, and ended up being dominated, see ya in the spring, I ended up in 9th, so fucking frustrating.

I also got CRUSHED in the cash games today, KK running into AA, sets running into bigger sets, it was the worst day I have had in awhile, and it really sucked. Not mention, every single one of my opponents draws getting there today. I ended up losing $850 in the cash games, and won $400 in the tourney. Feels like a goddamn $6K swing. Completely disheartened right now, and now I am going to get good and drunk, and will be back at it tomorrow.

-Bakken

I've been playing a ton of poker lately, somewhere around 1000 to 1500 hands a day; the cash games have been going pretty well, I am up around $2100 after 60 hours, tournaments however have taken a huge turn towards a valley in variance. Haven’t cashed in my last 11 tournaments, due to some dirty bad beats, but I won’t get into those, I want to talk about a few other things. First thing I wanted to talk about was playing quantity not results. What I mean by this is, treat the game like a job, play a certain amount of hands or hours every day and don’t worry about the results. The more you play, the less variance involved, if you set yourself a realistic goal, (mine is 5 Big Bets per 100 hands) you’ll notice that the more you play, the closer you’ll always be to that number or higher by the end of the month. So, if you’re in a valley of variance, play through it, only if you are disciplined enough to stay off tilt, and if you’re on a peak of variance, just know that a valley will be coming soon to even it out.

Next thing I wanted to talk about is how to not be a retard when picking tournaments to play. I’ve been this retard this week, I played SIX satellites trying to get into the GRAND tourney on pokerroom, didn’t win one, I played the $50K guaranteed twice and didn’t cash once. You are all probably thinking, “big deal, so you played some tourneys and lost?” Here’s my point, those tourneys I played had bad structures and the buy-ins were higher than I normally play. It’s ok to play a higher buy-in tournament every once in a while, but I did eight in two days, and netted a hit of $850 to the bankroll.

Last but not least, I have a ton of friends coming for spring break so Mike and I will be brushing up on our drinking game skills so they don’t come into our house and dominate. One other note, My grandpa and I are planning on going to the Big Smoke Event here in Vegas next November, so hopefully we can get my uncle Eric (bakdraft.blogspot.com) and my dad Whiffy to come down for that. Time for me to go buy some cereal as I have been plowing through a box every two days; see ya in the spring!

-Bakken

We drove down to my grandparents in Phoenix on Tuesday night, the drive was only about 5 hours, but the two lane highways in combination with the semi’s were brutal. Once we arrived we said our hellos and commenced the cigar smoking of grandpa’s cigars =)

Wednesday Mike and I went golfing, my Grandpa was going to come with, but had some other things to do at the house. We got too play with a couple who just moved here from Washington State and lived on Sahalee, they were very nice people and pretty good golfers, not to mention the lady was pretty good looking for 50 years old, heh. The golf game is still a little rusty for both Mike and I, but I still managed to shoot a 78, and was crowned champion for the day beating Mike’s 81. The weather down here has been gorgeous, upper 70s to low 80s and sunny. After golf, we proceeded to smoke more cigars and played some GOLO, for those of you who don’t know, GOLO is a golf-dice, which is extremely entertaining. We even found an old scorecard that had the record high score from my uncle Eric on it; he shot a smooth +18 for 72 holes. Then came what I was hoping, Steak dinner, oh baby was it good! My Grandpa, no matter what he says, grills some of the best steaks around, and I always look forward to having steak dinner with my grandparents.

Thursday Grandpa talked us into staying one more day so we could play Tuscany Falls and he could tag along smoke cigars and drink beer. What was even better was Grandpa was nice enough to pay for our round of golf on this day. I was striking the ball very good today, but left stroke after stroke out there from my short game, I can count 11 that definitely shouldn’t have been missed. Mike also decided to try my Nike Ignite Driver and was hitting some staggering drives, easily going over 320 hole after hole. Unfortunately, Mike prevailed on this day shooting a god awful 80 topping my horrendous 82. Grandma and Grandpa made us another good dinner, Pork, and we also had a Cuban with Grandpa that was very good. My grandma kept finding things to give us too; we’re taking a sofa, loveseat, entertainment center, sheets, glasses, bowls, and a TV. Needless to say that won’t all fit in my truck and we will have to make another trip in a few weeks which doesn’t bother me, because I love coming down to visit my grandparents, its always good to see them, and they always spoil me. Maybe next time I can Grandpa too actually golf nine holes, although it was fun having him as a caddy today. Mike and I will stop by the greatest cigar shop in Arizona before our ride back tomorrow, then should be pulling into Vegas at around 6.

Also, I put in five hours of poker down here and made about $250, Mike played a tourney finishing 4th pocketing $250 cash and a $100+8 ticket for any tourney. There was one hand that I played that I found interesting. Villain made it $5 to go from mid position, I called with 22, I figured him for AK, AQ, AJ, something like that, and a mid pair was likely as well. The flop came down 379 rainbow, and Villain led out for $7, normally I’d raise here and find out immediately if my hand was good or not, but I hadn’t seen this player lead out into a pot with a had once, he always check-raised his good hands, so I decided I was going too let him dig his own grave and just called. Turn was a 4, and Villain bet $15, and I called hoping he’d fire again on the river. River was a 9, and Villain led out for $45, a pretty large bet, now he has done what I wanted to happen, but I still retraced my steps just to make sure my read was correct, I went with my read and called, he showed down KQ and took down the pot. The lesson here is you don’t always have too have a monster to take down a big pot, if you can put your opponent on a hand and are confident in your read, you can string them along almost as if they’re your puppet for some good profits. Until next time….

-Bakken

Well…I am now in Vegas, living in my new apartment and finally got my network setup. I really like the apartment and it’s coming together nicely. Now to what I’ve been doing for the last few weeks.

Me and my roommate Mike set off on January 30th for Las Vegas from Minneapolis, about a 24-hour trip. We drove through Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona, and I have to say all the states are quite boring. There are some cool Mountains in some of the states but you get real bored with them, real fast, and the thin air in Denver messes with your vehicle, lighters, head, it really gets lame. Nebraska and Iowa are just fields, fields, and more fields, as boring as those are, it really makes you think, some of them goes as far as the eye can see, and one farmer takes care of it, those people must put in some sick hours. And then Utah just plain sucks, its boring and there is virtually no civilization, no clue how anybody could live there. So we drove for 16 hours on Monday, then 8 more on Tuesday, it was a pretty easy drive, but I wouldn’t want to do it again. We were going to stay with my buddy Dan, but he didn’t get off work for another hour, so we had some time to kill. We went to our favorite bowling alley on Fremont St. and got pretty annihilated; we ended up staying at the Four Queens, which was pretty fun.

On Wednesday we went to move in, and spent about 4 hours driving around trying to get Mike’s cashier’s check cashed. Boy are those things worthless, they have the same holding period as a regular check, so what in god’s name is the point of them?? Mike ended up paying $240 to get it cashed and a check-cashing place, which was totally lame. So then we spent the next 5 or 6 hours buying stuff for the apartment, it took me TWO days to put together the dining room table, lol. We then proceeded to go golfing with a friend down here, and proceeded to play like CRAP. After that we went to Callaway golf Center to hit some balls, and Jimmy straightened out my swing for me. Yesterday we played, TPC of Summerlin with Jimmy, and even though the course was dormant and we had to play on temporary greens, it was still sweet to play the course, I shot an 84, which was pretty bad, but the wind probably cost me 4 or 5 strokes, and the temp greens at least 6 or 7 strokes, so all in all I didn’t play too bad. I am looking forward to playing the course when the reconstruction is done. Last night we went bowling with my buddy Dan and his girlfriend, and Dan got just totally annihilated. I ended up winning around a $100 from Dan and about $65 from Mike, I also bowled my career high game a 206. I’ve come to the conclusion the drunker I am, the better I bowl, lol. I just started playing poker again yesterday, and am making a whopping $1/hr. It’s tough to make money when your nut full house runs into quads six times!!! Needless to say that cost me a pretty penny every time that happened. I am planning on playing the 20K guaranteed tonight on poker room, so hopefully that goes well. That’s about all that has been going on lately, I am going to visit my grandparents tomorrow in Phoenix to golf, smoke ceegars, and pick up some furniture, so I am pretty excited to see them, and eat my Grandma’s cooking, and my Grandpa’s grilling. Until next time, this is Bakken signing off.