Adam "Roothlus" Levy
Saturday, October 3, 2009 - Roothlus
Man, right now television is on fire. This past Sunday might’ve been the greatest Sunday in all of television history. There were like 8 shows that I wanted to watch: Entourage, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Family Guy, Bored to Death, Californication, Dexter, Amazing Race (Go Tiffany and Maria!), and Sunday Night Football. It really made my DVR work to it’s limits. It’s so tough to keep up with all of it but I must say after a long Sunday of endless online grinding, it’s so refreshing to have all these shows to watch.
If that’s not enough for you, there’s still Monday and Thursday for some more amazing shows. Two years after the writer’s strike it appears as though television has been restored back to what it used to be, if not better. One show that’s on Monday that I absolutely adore is How I Met Your Mother. The show features Neil Patrick Harris, Jason Segel, and Alyson Hannigan and is about their friend Ted (a previously unknown actor named Josh Radnor) who is shown telling a story to his kids twenty years in the future about how he met their mother. The chemistry between everyone in the show is really great, the character development is superb, and the dialogue is fun and witty. It’s almost like a newer, fresher version of Friends.
In last night’s episode Ted goes on a blind date with a girl who he happened to go on a blind date with seven years before. On the blind date, they realize this after a while and discuss why the first blind date didn’t work. One of the things they discussed was that the girl didn’t even attempt to pick up the check and that irked Ted. This is something that I have had endless discussions about with guys, girls, animals, whoever. It’s a tough situation because some girls expect to not even have to attempt to pay for the meal. Some guys feel the check should be split and some even feel they shouldn’t have to pay at all. There are many different takes on this situation.
Now, I want to bring up a way that will end this discussion and no longer cause the social awkwardness of what was referred to on How I Met Your Mother as “the check dance”. I say we require everyone to play credit card roulette on a date! Yes, CCR! Why you say? Well, CCR is the best way ever to resolve any type of check dispute. Also, it saves time. Instead of the usual bickering and divvying up over who got what, you just throw in your card and whoever gets picked pays. It’s fun! It’s easy! It’s credit card roulette! Now you must be saying, well that’s not very nice to the girl to have to gamble for the bill. Well, there are ways to approach this. You can rig it so you lose or put 3 cards in to her 1 card.
Honestly, if credit card roulette was instituted around the world as a way of figuring out who pays, the human race as a whole would save 10 minutes every time they eat out. Just think how much time that can save in a lifetime! So while yes, sometimes you get footed with the entire bill, there will be weeks, sometimes months where you never pay. Also, it spices up things a little bit and we all could use a little spice in our lives.
I do find it funny just how risk-averse the average person is. If I had never played poker and learned what is considered a good bet, a bad bet, and a neutral bet I probably would be against doing CCR. But thankfully I did play poker and learned how to have a little extra fun. The thing with credit card roulette is, it’s a completely neutral bet. People are scared to pay the entire bill when in reality you are just changing it from paying for a portion of the bill every day to, paying for the entire bill sometimes and nothing the other times.
This is my proposition America! CCR in 2k10! CCR in 2k10!
Hope you enjoyed this rather lighthearted blog and see you guys in Aruba. YEA!!!!!!!
–Adam “Roothlus” Levy
Tags: Aruba, Football, tv
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Wednesday, September 16, 2009 - Roothlus
So this past weekend was awesome. So many great things happened and as a whole September is an unreal month. I’d say it ranks up there with the likes of December and June with July an honorable mention. There is so much going on this month: college football, pro football, real football (soccer hehe), new shows on television, the U.S. Open, the VMAs and the weather is still in top form. Oh and Labor Day weekend is definitely one of the best weekends of the year. I mean, the list just goes on and on. There will be no poker in this blog just me discussing the merits football and soccer, my newfound admiration for tennis, but most importantly, Kanye West. I mean, what’s a blog without Kanye freakin’ West!?
I’m really happy to see the NFL back. During the summer months there is this void in any true sports fan’s heart. There needs to be multiple sports going on at once. And for a two month span it’s only baseball. Come on. Baseball?? What a snoozefest. I used to like baseball a long time ago probably before I was enlightened by the internet and my attention span was a bit longer. It’s just so boring pitch to pitch. Yes, there are brief moments of excitement but they are few and far between. As well, it’s the middle of the season and it’s hard to stay interested in something not ending for 100 games. NFL is similar to that but it’s still faster paced and there is excitement on nearly every play not just a couple here and there. While I’m no Nostradamus, I do think Green Bay, Dallas, and the Giants looked excellent in the first week. I thought Minnesota could be great but Favre is a huge asterisk. The ending to the Bengals-Broncos game was incredible and such an unlikely turn of events to end the game. It’s things like these fluke occurrences that make football an incredible sport.
Soccer helps fill that void midway through the summer. While I have said football is a phenomenal sport, soccer is my favorite. The structure of a soccer game is great compared to all the other sports. It’s two 45 minute halves with no commercials with a twenty minute break in between. And these 45 minute halves run straight through. There’s no stop when the ball goes out of bounds or commercial breaks, just injury time, which is a couple of minutes at the end for fouls and other stoppages during the half. Commercial time outs are definitely one of the worst attributes of American sports. Soccer hasn’t succumbed to it yet, even Major League Soccer thankfully. Also, while yes scoring in soccer is few and far between, the buildup to each and every goal is exciting and tense. Because there is less scoring there is also a massive importance on each goal so mistakes can prove to be deadly. On top of all this, the idea of being able to hit a ball with your head is just cool. I love that there are a lot of different leagues going on in a typical soccer season as well. There are each country’s respective leagues and then there’s the Champion’s League, a league for the champions of the individual leagues. There are some other smaller leagues going on as well but thrown in the mix are World Cup qualifiers as if everything else wasn’t enough to keep things interesting. Okay, that’s enough on soccer for now.
I became a new fan of tennis this past week with the U.S. Open. I watched an epic match between two unknowns that ended up being the longest match in U.S. Open history. After that, watching Federer’s unbelievable shot between the legs on Sunday and Del Potro’s unfathomable victory against Federer in the finals Monday was enough to have me hooked. Federer had a SIX YEAR winning streak at the U.S Open spanning forty matches. That’s just unheard of for any sport and to watch the match where someone coming out of nowhere to take the title and break the streak was truly gripping.
Lastly, the best part of the weekend was Kanye West acting like a total goon. I don’t need to go into it because quite frankly, if you haven’t heard what he did this weekend then you must live in a box. I have no idea what could compel him to interrupt Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech which had to be one of her most special moments in her young life. Kanye must think he’s untouchable but if he keeps these antics up he’ll find himself out of the limelight fairly quick. The best part about what he did are these photoshops popping up all over the place having him interrupting different icons and saying another person was better. It’s been dubbed Kanye Gate and quite frankly, it’s hilarious.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this blog and this action-packed weekend as much as I did. Until my next blog, talk to you soon.
–Adam “Roothlus” Levy
Tags: Baseball, Champions League, Football, Kanye West, NFL, Poker Poker Poker, Taylor Swift, Tennis, US Open, VMA's
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Tuesday, September 1, 2009 - Roothlus
So it’s official I’ve lived in Los Angeles for exactly one month as of today. And so far, I’ve loved it. I’ve been to a bunch of cool spots and it’s very refreshing to be around more lady friends and have the opportunity to do an array of things on a given day. The lifestyle seems way more upbeat and on the go but not in a NYC kinda way where people are on the go but aren’t particularly friendly. Everyone seems way happier and just a tad crazy too which I love. It’s definitely a healthy change from Las Vegas. Don’t get me wrong I love me some Vegas but in weekend doses. As a whole I felt sucked into the whole city. I was extremely lazy and ate horribly. Granted, the food I ate was super top quality but by no means does that make it healthy. Since moving to LA I joined 24-hr Fitness and have been on the workout grind almost day-in day-out. I haven’t lost much weight yet but I feel so much healthier than I did a mere month ago.
My goal is to look good for the best stop on the live poker circuit, the Aruba Poker Classic. And while yes, I am a member of Team Ultimate Bet and you’re thinking, well isn’t this a blatant plug?? Well, you’re only half right ‘cause I legitimately love it. Last year, I was a little bit nervous at first. I had just joined UB and was meeting a whole bunch of new people and was a little bit overwhelmed. By the 3rd day or so I found myself just having a total blast. It’s honestly a great week of partying with a little bit of poker on the side. Oh, and the Phil Hellmuth penthouse party is nothing short of awesome! On top of all this, it’s Ultimate Bet’s 10th anniversary this year and they’ll be celebrating it at the Aruba Poker Classic. So if anyone is undecided about going this year, I hope I swayed you into going because it’s going to be EPIC!
As far as what’s on tap for me the rest of the year, I’ll be taking it easy. The WCOOP starts on Thursday and I’ll be pretty focused on that until the end of September at which point I’ll be making my way to said Aruba Poker Classic. After that, I’ll see my parents for a few days in Florida, jaunt back to LA for a week, then spend a week or so in Vegas for Festa Lago. But after that crazy little patch of traveling, my only tourney I’ll be traveling to is the Five-Diamond Classic in December. It’s kind of nice to not be traveling to every tournament under the sun for a change. And when I am traveling it’s only to Vegas, a mere 4-hour drive.
Well, I guess this is actually short for my blogs but before I go I recently had the opportunity to play in Scott Ian’s home game on Ultimate Bet last week. Hate to make a pun, but it was rockin’. I got to play with Vinnie Paul, Kirk Hammett, Layne Stayley, and a bunch of other rockers including Scott Ian himself. I ended up getting 4th as things unraveled. First was an Aruba package but better someone else win it when I’m going regardless. I’d definitely recommend playing in the satellites to this very special tourney.
Ok, now seriously, lastly, check me out on ESPN’s Inside Deal this week. They did a phone interview today so that was pretty cool. Until my next blog peeeeeeace.
Tags: Aruba Poker Classic, espn, Five-Diamond Classic, Inside Deal, Kirk Hammett, Layne Stayley, Los Angeles, Phil Hellmuth, Scott Ian, ub, UB 10th Anniversary, Ultimate Bet, Vegas, Vinnie Paul, WCOOP
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Tuesday, August 18, 2009 - Roothlus
Hey guys. It’s been a wee bit since I last blogged. Not going to lie, I’ve been a blogging hiatus. The WSOP kind of totally consumed me but don’t fret my blogettes, I’m back! This year’s WSOP was definitely one I’d like to forget. I played 21 events with only 2 cashes for a whopping total of $10k. I will say this though, I definitely ran bad but I wasn’t too happy with my play this year. I had a great year last year with 6 cashes in 17 events so the fact that I didn’t have a great WSOP wasn’t a huge surprise to me. I do think I learned a bit and improved my game throughout it, which is all you can do when trying to get through a rough patch like this.
I saw the Main Event as a last chance to salvage a subpar year but that didn’t go well either. Although, I definitely played excellent throughout the tournament my bustout hand was not my finest moment. I didn’t make a mistake in the hand but I accidentally angleshot and accidentally slowrolled a guy in the same hand. I stress that it was completely unintentional and I would never do that to anyone period. I decided to setmine with 66 against a tight good player and the flop came A96 rainbow. The raiser bet 6800 and when I went to call an extra 5k chip stuck to my fingers and I made it 11800. I was forced to make it 13600. I didn’t mean to do it but it accidentally worked out. So I go back to listening my music and I expect him to take a while. About five minutes go by and I look at him and it looks like he’s in the tank and he never motioned like he was shoving or anything. I look at the dealer and he gives me a blank stare. Two more minutes go by and the dealer motions to me that it’s on me. Apparently he went all in within 30 seconds of my minraise but I never noticed it and everyone thought I was in deep thought. I say to the guy, “I’m so sorry, I call” and flip over my set of sixes. The guy says “It’s cool man” and flips over a set of Aces. LOL. Funny how it worked out. Definitely one of the more interesting hands I’ve ever played.
I took it easy the end of July and wanted nothing to do with poker. At the very end of July I moved to Los Angeles finally. I’m rooming with another poker player, Amak316, and a good friend of mine. I’m ecstatic for the move and I know that I will really enjoy it. We decided to go to San Diego for a few days and I’m not sure which city is better but man is it a close decision. I’ve even been a decent sleep schedule compared to my Las Vegas schedule. On a good day I’d be waking up at 12PM in Las Vegas. That’s me sleeping in LA. And yes, I know 12PM is still super late but I’m a poker player, whaddya want from me?
Last Sunday I played had a pretty good win of $38k when I won the 50 rebuy. I’m not joking the person I played heads up could’ve been in a freeroll and been a losing player hah. Even though I really didn’t have to put too much effort into heads up, a win is a win! And there’s no better feeling than winning a tournament. I’m playing the Bike WPT next week and hopefully I’ll carry my online success over to that. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed. I’m definitely due to make a big live run before the end of the year. So wish me luck! Next time I talk to you I’ll have a WPT win under my belt 
. Peace guys.
–Adam “Roothlus” Levy
P.S. Look for upcoming training videos of me at DeepstackUniversity.com
Tags: Adam "Roothlus" Levy, las vegas, Main Event, Poker Poker Poker, WPT, WSOP
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Tuesday, April 14, 2009 - Roothlus
Hey guys. It’s been a minute since my last blog and I just got back from the time of my life, Mayercraft 2009. It was a cruise on Carnival’s best ship, the Splendor which already sounds like a grand ole time. To make matters better (btw no one ever says this phrase but everyone says to make matters worse. Why?? I don’t know) they decided to get a bunch of bands to play on this cruise including John Mayer, O.A.R., Guster, and about 10 other really awesome bands. So when you have rock bands on a cruise how can it end up being anything less than the time of your life?
Friday was pretty cool. Katie, her friend Lo, my bro, and got on the cruise around 1ish and promptly started the drinking and didn’t really stop until Tuesday. I mean, what else is there to do on a cruise besides drink, eat, and [expletive deleted] . John Mayer came out within two hours and serenaded everyone with an hour long opening set. Later that night we went to go see Guster at the theatre inside the cruise ships. Yes, the cruise ship was ginormous. Guster was unbelievable even though we happened to miss the first 30 minutes of the show. Instead of a standard guitarist, bassist, singer, and drummer they are a bit more versatile. At one point the lead singer pulled out a ukulele and splayed an entire song with it. The drummer however, takes drumming to a whole new level. He uses bongos along with a regular drumming kit set and is so good at hitting the beat. In fact, me describing how good he was isn’t doing him any justice. If you ever get a chance to see Guster live, keep your eyes peeled on the drummer. He was just so intense. That night we all proceeded to get drunk and the girls and my bro and I split up. The girls headed off to bed and my brother and I continued partying.
We ended up meeting these two girls named Sara and… Sara. They were BFFs and apparently they have another two friends back home both named Sara. We went to watch some karaoke hosted by one of the singers on the trip, Ryan Shaw. He was actually pretty lively and seemed down-to-earth. Karaoke on a cruise full of drunken people is fairly entertaining. Either, they are awesome at singing or they are glass shattering bad. There is no in between, it’s just both ends of the spectrum and in different ways they are both great to watch. After the karaoke we were all hammered at that point and we split up with our girls. My bro, Justin, got the hotter Sara. Curses! Whatever, they were both decent looking so it was cool.
Well, I think that’s all for now. Tune in to my next blog for the rest of the Mayercraft story. I know, I said that other story was a two-parter but this time I’ll actually come through and make it a two-parter so don’t fret. Oh, and after I finish the 2nd part of that, the week after I’ll actually talk about poker a little bit. I’ll have plenty to talk about actually with Bellagio World Champs coming up on the 18th and the last week of SCOOP. Bye bye for now and good luck to everyone at the tables.
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Sunday, March 15, 2009 - Roothlus
…needless to say I survived it. I don’t think I’ve had a full weekend of drinking in a long long time. I’m even talking about Sunday night as well. When was the last time you went drinking on a freakin’ Sunday night? I’m usually too bummed out after losing a bunch of money to do anything on Sunday. But not this Sunday. I had time to lose $3k in all the tourneys and then go out.
The weekend started on Friday when my friend Katie and her friend Brooke came into town from L.A. The night started a bit late when we went to Caesars to sweat Chris Ferguson in the NBC Heads Up. He lost to Gabe Kaplan unfortunately but whatevs. I think he’s had a fairly good run the past few years hehe. After he busted we went to Treasure Island for some sushi at this place called Social House. It says it stays open 4PM-LATE but at 11:15PM it was closed. Really??? That’s not late. Maybe somewhere in Idaho, but definitely not in Vegas. So after a little bit of coaxing we were able to get a table…for eleven. Jeff Madsen, Brandon Cantu, and co. came along as well. This was a totally different crew from the online whiz kids I normally hang around and it was a good change of pace. Social House was pretty good and it was very enjoyable but nothing I would rave about. They did have some great sake, raspberry-infused sake. Mmmmm, so good. But more importantly how good is the word infused. I just want whatever is infused. I think the quote at the dinner table was “I love the word infused. It just sounds cool. I swear if they infused tomatoes, I’d want it!” After bunch of sake, sushi, and chats we decided to CCR(credit card roulette) for the bill of $1600 where I fortunately didn’t win and we were out. Phew.
Once we vamoosed from Social House Katie, Brooke, Joe Sebok who showed up at the end of the meal, and I decided to go to Forty-Deuce, a burlesque club at Mandalay Bay. It’s a great place to go if you really don’t want to go to a standard bar or club on a Friday night in Vegas. We spent about an hour there, did a bunch of shots, took a bunch of pictures, did a lot of dancing and then we realized it was somehow 3AM already. We decided it was it was time to go home…and keep drinking. I mean, we had to show Brooke a good time. It was only her 2nd time in Vegas. What a n0ob. I’m not sure what propelled it, but we somehow found ourselves sitting on a futon playing Truth or Dare. Yes, Truth or freakin’ Dare. Four twenty-somethings sitting on a couch playing T or D. Reeeeal mature. Somehow no one did a dare and all we did was four truths and then we all passed out. So basically we played it exactly how we used to play it back in the day where no one ever really got a dare to work.
Saturday was more of the same. We woke up at 12PM, early for me, went for some good hangover food at an omelet place called Egg And I. Nothing off the charts ridiculous but good nonetheless. Does anyone else notice that I just love talking about food? Las Vegas has so many different places to eat and a lot of them are open late as well which I absolutely adore. Anyways, we went shopping. I somehow got convinced to buy 3 pairs of dress shoes when all I wanted was one pair. I always get carried away when I go shopping. After that we went to Naked Fish for dinner which is my favorite sushi place to eat at in Las Vegas. Nobu is obviously super sick but I don’t really classify Nobu as a sushi place. The girls had to experience a good sushi restaurant especially when they think LA has the best sushi. Puhleaseee. I brought Justin “Zeejustin” Bonomo with us to the sushi restaurant and he is a super sicko orderer. When we got there I picked out 2 sushi rolls I wanted and he ordered the rest. I was in a good mood and picked up the tab.
After that we went home to get changed for the night and picked up JC Alvarado a.k.a. the Mexican Superstar and Steve O’Dwyer a.k.a. Mr. TimCaum. And no I have no idea why he calls himself TimCaum when he is clearly a Steve. We all met up with Amak, TheChronic420, and a bunch of online guys at the club X S at the new Encore casino attached to the Wynn. You know a club is cool when it’s only two letters. I might add the club has a similar layout to X S’s sister club over at the Wynn, Tryst . There were small subtle differences that made me enjoy X S much more but this blog’s already getting rather long. We don’t need to go off on ANOTHER tangent. The energy in the air was great. Everyone we were with were all low maintenance and down to just have fun. We got 6 bottles for our table full of like 12 people and I even tried to get the waitress to make us a shot I created called the Slutty Wizard. It’s got Blue Curacao, Malibu Rum, and Bacardi 151 in it and when you can, you should light it on fire. I’ve had it made for me twice successfully but am yet to have it after it was lit on fire. Oh, and the way I like to describe the taste is, for a shot with 151 in it, it tastes pretty good. So they didn’t have Blue Curacao or 151 so I had to create a new shot on the spot called the Green Goblin which is Midori, Malibu, and regular Bacardi Rum. It actually ended up being pretty damn good and it’s always cool to take a shot you created yourself hah. The night ended at 4am when Katie, JC, Brooke, and I all decided to take a cab to Café Bellagio. They have the best Banana’s Fosters waffle. It’s sooooo good and especially great drunken food. If you like Banana’s Fosters it is a must to try. I guess this turned more into a food blog this time. Like I said, Las Vegas is the best for food.
I think I’m going to cut the blog now and post again next week. This is getting pretty long and to be honest, Sunday was the craziest most random night of them all and I would much rather dedicate most of my next blog to that night. Also, maybe I’ll have something to say after I win the Bay 101. Yea, sure, why not. I’m calling my shot. Peace for now.
–Adam “Roothlus” Levy
Tags: Brandon Cantu, Chris Ferguson, Forty-Deuce, gabe kaplan, Jeff Madsen, Joe Sebok, nbc heads-up, Social House, Treasure Island
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Monday, February 9, 2009 - Roothlus
Hey peeps. It’s me, your resident pro Roothlus. It’s my last weekend in Orlando since I’m in the process of moving out to Las Vegas until the end of the World Series. I have wanted to move to the West Coast for years and I’m finally doing it. The West Coast is for me and I’m comin’! With the LAPC, the Bay 101, the Wynn Classic, WPT Champs and the WSOP on the west coast all within the next six months, it makes sense for me to move there. I don’t mind traveling but I really just need to have a home base on the West Coast. After the WSOP I’m planning on moving out to LA which will hopefully be my permanent residence. Alright so enough about that.
The FTOPS started on Wednesday so the tournament fields have gotten bigger which has helped the fields on other sites, Ultimate Bet included. The $1k on Wednesdays at 8:30PM EST got up to 216 players this week because of the FTOPS and so did the 9:00PM $200 sniper. It had 560 players in it this week. This is good for UltimateBet. Now, I just wish there was a tournament series every week! I think in the 2 FTOPS I’ve played so far I’ve lasted a total of, wait for it, 30 hands lol. I got owned by this donk in the $200 NL in back to back hands to bust before late registration was even done. Now, that’s impressive! I somehow outdid myself on Thursday when I played the $200 PLO8 tournament. I woke up in the middle of late registration 20 minutes into the tourney which I then didn’t realize for another 10 minutes that it wasn’t PLO and that it was PLO8. That’s what happens when you roll out of bed and start playing all groggy. Woops.
I took Friday and Saturday off and just enjoyed the downtime. Well, I wouldn’t exactly call it downtime. I went with some friends and my bro Justin a.k.a Roothlus Jr. to Tampa for this parade called Gasparilla. It’s like a toned down Mardi Gras but still a blast. It was exactly what I needed considering I’ve been grinding at home for the past two weeks so having social interaction was very refreshing. That’s definitely a downside of being an online poker player. You have to really try hard to create your own social circles because you aren’t around people besides your roommates on a day-to-day basis. That’s another reason why I’m moving to Vegas. I know soooo many people out there.
Sunday I was happy to be back at home and ready for a good grind session. Once again with the FTOPS there were massive fields all around including the $200k and $100k on UB. They both surpassed their guarantees as well. I ended up having a pretty good but heartbreaking day for a Sunday. I stone bubbled the FTOPS $240 6max which was $170k and this was the 2nd week in a row I bubbled a huge tournament. But, this is what I signed up for when I started playing tournament poker. I live for these ups and downs. In some screwed up way I’m kind of addicted to them. I could totally go off on a tangent about poker and my thoughts on it but let’s leave that for another blog hehe. Well, that’s all for now. See you guys at the tables.
Tags: Adam "Roothlus" Levy, FTOPS, Online Poker, PLO, world series of poker, WPT, Wynn Classic
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Monday, January 26, 2009 - Roothlus
Hey guys. It’s been a while since I last wrote a blog. Well, no worries. I’m back! Recently I’ve been taking it easy at home in Orlando, Florida. I went to the Poker Stars Caribbean Adventure and the Bellagio Five Diamond Classic WPT. I didn’t do well in either tourney but I at least had a lot of fun while I was out there.
So far this year I’ve been doing moderately well online although what I am realizing is it’s tough to come out far ahead in online tournaments nowadays. Basically what I’m saying is, you need to run well in the right tourneys. Like today for instance, I sucked out at least 4 times to acquire a pretty big stack in the $50 125k guaranteed on Poker Stars. I mean yea, it pays something like $27k for first but why can’t I be sucking out in the bigger more important tourneys like the Stars Million or the UB $200k. I hope to do well in the upcoming FTOPS on Full Tilt to really get my year off to a great start. I came really close yesterday to a very nice score. I got 19th in the UB $200k. Unfortunately the way I went out was super dirty. Aces vs A10ss on 10ss board after he coldcalled my 3bet out of the small blind and rivered the spade on me for a $300k pot at $3k/$6k. My tournament was a crazy one. I grinded for a bit early on then won a pretty crucial flip at 150 300 25 ante for 15k. I then got up to 25k at around 400/800 after holding 1010 vs 88. With about 120 left (99 pay) I got 3outed for a 40k pot at 600 1200 and found myself in danger of bubbling. I then got 2 outed with AA vs 88 on the river against a shorter stack to put me at around 4k. I then got it all in with K9o vs JJ and the board ran out with me turning my 9high flush with his Jack of diamonds and holding. Woops. Then AA vs JJ to get to 24k on the bubble. I grind for a little bit, we make the money and I ship the button with QQ and get called by KQo to get to 40k at 800/1600. After that there were a bunch of ups and downs which ultimately ended with that AA vs A10ss hand. It was to say the least a rollercoaster of a tourney.
On a much more positive note, I’m planning on moving to Las Vegas in the middle of February until after the WSOP. What I figured out was I’m going to be spending so much time on the west coast over the next 6 months or so I should really just get my lazy ass over there. After that I plan on moving to LA but nothing is set in stone just yet. I always say this as a tournament player: “Yeah, I’ll most likely be doing this or that, but you never know because a huge win could be right around the corner”. Who knows, maybe I’ll win this year’s main event and have to fly around the world for the next year promoting myself. As much as you can try to plan your life as a tournament player, there’s always a possibility of a wrench being thrown in the middle of it all. Of course, I would totally welcome this ‘wrench’ anytime (poker gods please be listening)
Once I move out to Las Vegas I will be on the move non-stop. As of now, I’m playing the LAPC main, the WPT Celebrity Invitational, the Bay 101, the Wynn Classic, the WPT Championship. Did I miss anything? Oh yeah, I’m flying over to Europe for the EPT Final in Monte Carlo. After that I come home, chill for a matter of weeks, and then the WSOP starts up. Oh and in between these events I have to find time to play online for the different online poker series that run from time to time. Well, I guess that’s all for now. I just wanted to check in and say what’s up. Wish me luck at the tables!
Tags: Bellagio Five Diamond, EPT Monte Carlo, Full Tilt, Poker Stars, world series of poker, WPT, WPT Celebrity Invitational, WSOP
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Monday, December 15, 2008 - Roothlus
I’ve been in Las Vegas for the past week playing the Five Diamond Classic preliminary events before the big show starts tomorrow, the $15k WPT. I was able to cash my first tournament (the $3k) but have since bricked out the three $5ks. The fields are way better than in October when Festa Lago was going on. I think with the combination of it being in October, it being right after the economy went into serious recession, and it going on during other events, the fields were so bad. The three $5ks this time got 141, 170, and 240 respectively which is a stark contrast from the bleak fields of Festa. I think all 3 $5ks combined barely had more than the last Five Diamond $5k. This is healthy for poker. I’m thinking the main event will get upwards of 450.
The $3k event was my best shot to make some real cheese but I found myself extremely carddead very late in the tournament. This is where you ask how card dead was I. I was so card dead that I needed a defibrillator to revive the deck. Heyyyooo. I know I know, bad joke. But who cares, it’s my blog. Anyways, I got in all in with AQo on the bb with 28k at 2k 4k against Amit Makitja’s Kjo. He hit a K, then a Jack, then a K and I was out. That’s a full house for all you poker n00bs out there. Still not bad to cash my first tournament.
The first $5k wasn’t too much fun. I maybe should not have played the $5k because it was right after the $3k and I had stayed up until 4AM the night before grinding that tourney into 17th place. I was playing fine but I soon found out that I was easily tiltable that day. David Pham was on my left, not a problem. Right off the bat he tried to 3-bet me when I raised to assert his dominance as the best tournament player on the planet. Well, he’s pretty close to, if not the best so I guess he has a right to try to show the person on his right who’s boss. But I wasn’t having it so I 4-bet him with A9o. He deliberated and called. Flop came KK4r. I bet 1800, he folded claiming he had Jacks. At the table I was acknowledging his statement but in my head I was like “yea right bud, I’d give you Q10s at best”. I doubled up early on when I hit trips on a 774dd board against J8dd and held. I was chilling at 30k at 50/100. Played some pots here and there while David Pham busted to Elky and they moved in Chad “Lilholdem954” Batista to my table. Bust one sicko, bring in another. Needless to say it was not an easy table. Anyways, after David busted they moved in this guy who was playing every pot and reraising a ton. He was really frustrating because I had no idea who he was and couldn’t tell if he was really good or really bad or a bad player doing good things. Eventually I 4-bet him with 77 to his 3-bet and he called with Jacks. Even sicker, I turned my 7 and he rivered the Jack. So that stung a bit. Shorty thereafter, I was raising 56dd with 14k at 100/200 UTG to 600 and he reraised me in UTG+1 to 2k. I called because I was a tiltbox that day and the flop came 847. LOLOL Really??? The flop went check check and the turn came a King where we got it in and he had AK. Fast forward 2 hours later I found myself with 35k at 300 600 and I flat a tight guy’s raise with AQo. This guy to my left squeezes and I call. He has AK and I double him up. The very next hand I get AQo again and he 3 bets me and I shove. He calls with 55. I brick out and I just went from 35k to out in 2 hands. Well, that was fun.
The 2nd 5k I got 40th in. I got up to 40k and was straight crusing when I got into a 50k flip at 200 400 and lost it on the river. Booooo. Grinded back by battling hard but the blinds started escalating and I found myself at 24k at 800/1600. Button raised to 5k and I shipped with Qjss and he had AKo. Flop even came 367ss and I bricked out. Booooo once again.
Thursday was the 3rd 5k and I played pretty well in this one as well although I was playing kind of bad early on but calmed myself down and after the first break I was fine. I built up to about 20k then won a flip against a AQo with JJ and found myself at 40k. Then I called with top pair against a bare flush draw and held to get up to a very nice stack of 60k at 300 600. That was my highest point and it was pretty much all downhill from there. I gave Elky 10k on a flip, then raise/folded a few times and found myself at 36k going into 600/1200. At 600/1200 I shoved KJdd into AKo after being carddead and having to raise/fold a few more times. It gets frustrating when you have to raise/fold knowing this specific person either has the hand or is not capable of shoving or reraising me light. Oh well, that’s how things go. Needless to say, I’m happy with my performance. Obviously I could’ve used a little more luck late in these tourneys but that’s the way it goes.
Tags: Adam "Roothlus" Levy, WPT
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Tuesday, December 2, 2008 - Roothlus
I had a brief but relaxing Thanksgiving break back home in Fort Lauderdale with my family. It was a lot of fun even though I can’t stand south Florida anymore. After 15 years living in the state of Florida, it’s time to get the heck out! So I’m moving to LA after the World Series this year. Now that I’m back in Orlando I’m going to grind for a few days and then make my way out to Las Vegas for the Bellagio Five-Diamond WPT.
Sunday did not go so well for me. I started at 4:00PM because my step-dad was having a surprise brunch for his 60th birthday. So at least I was well-fed . When I was explaining how big Sundays are to everyone at the brunch, I came up with a good analogy for it. In the past, I’ve been lost with a way to compare it to anything but not today my friend. I said picture April 15th for an accountant and having that every Sunday. It’s that much more important than any other day. If you are a tournament poker player and play less than 80% of Sundays a year, what’s the point in playing tournaments?
I played a pretty thick schedule full of about $7000 worth of buyins after I went crazy in a few rebuy periods along the way. Somehow I managed to spend more with a 4:00PM start time than I would normally with a 12:45PM start time. Woops. My Sunday was filled with misery, coolers, bad beats, and tons of despair. Pretty much a normal Sunday. But all tournament players play for ‘that Sunday’ where you win some huge tourney, final table 2 other tourneys and cash 4 others. It only happens 3 or 4 times a year but boy, is it magical. My last Sunday like that was a little disappointing for me. I managed to get 40thh in the Sunday Warmup and 52nd in the Million. In any other tourneys you would be like, “Big woop wanna fight about it?!” (quote bonus points for whoever knows this). But when the tourneys have 3,500 and 7,500 people in it each week, respectively, it’s a decent feat. Unfortunately I think I might’ve blown the Million after grinding out a really short stack for a long long time. I think it was about 2 hours which is super long for an online tournament. I skyrocketed to 3rd with 2.5million chips with 75 left and was very hopeful. I had a spot where I pretty much knew I was beat but convinced myself he could be bluffing when really he is ALMOST NEVER bluffing in this spot. Just by the way the hand played and because he knows me and I know him, he generally has to assume I have an Ace in the spot. You be the judge:
So I raise A10o to in the cutoff to 155k at 30k 60k with 2.1million behind. The RookieQQ9 (a very good player) calls in the small blind with about 3million behind. I’m curious as to what he has here. I felt he would repop AQ,AK and most other big hands. Maybe slowplay Aces or Kings. I wasn’t sure if he would repop AJo here but I was leaning towards yes. The unknown big blind with about 1.5million calls as well. The flop comes A67 rainbow. It checks to me and I deliberate for a little before checking behind. I don’t like the spot either way. If I bet the flop and get raised I almost always have to fold and not many hands are calling me that I’m beating because it’s such a dry board except for maybe 78 or if the bb defended with a weak Ace. So I opt for the check so maybe I can catch a bluff or get some value from worse hands. The turn is the 8 of diamonds bringing a flush draw now. The Rookie IMMEDIATELY bets 280k into the pot of about 500k and the big blind folds. Honestly at this point I don’t even feel comfortable calling the turn bet but I know I have to. River is a brick 2. So the board is A6782. Now he thinks for about 10 seconds before betting about 550k. This spot sucks. If I had just bet the flop the whole hand plays out differently but we can’t be results oriented can we? So I think for a little bit, and convince myself that maybe he’s bluffing because of the flush draw missing. What I’ve noticed over the years is generally when I start convincing myself of something in a hand that means I’m beat. Sometimes I fold, sometimes I don’t. Today was one of those days where I didn’t. He had AJo and I shipped him about 1million in that one pot. It was very frustrating to get into a spot like this deep in the tourney but it is what it is. I should’ve, as usual, gone with my gut. It’s always right. So sick. This didn’t end my tourney but I was kind of frustrated from that hand and made a hasty decision to reshove on a minraise by a big stack with A2cc into his Queens. Oh well. There’s no going back now and ultimately the A10o hand was still kind of a cooler.
Getting back to Sunday the day isn’t really worth rehashing my lack of luck during the entire day. But I did manage to cash the 100 rebuy and 200 rebuy on Poker Stars to make up for about $4k of my losses on the day. I did cash the UB $200k, which might I add met it’s guarantee by 75 players (woohoo!), for like the 4th week in a row or something. Apparently I’m really good at mincashing that tournament. Overall, I was satisfied with my play and that’s really all that matters. Hopefully, my stellar play will turn into stellar dividends in the near future. That’s all for now. Peace.
Tags: Adam "Roothlus" Levy
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