ThePokerhaus.com

Sorry, I tried to make this post twice before but something was wrong with the blog where it wouldn’t allow me to write more than a couple lines so they got deleted. Hopefully the third time’s a charm.

double1meup is the new sn on Pokerstars and Full Tilt. After a lot of thought I realized that it had to include some form of “doublemeup” in it because so many people know me as that and then I decided on double1meup. I like it.

So this whole vacation I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. A part of me wanted to figure out what I wanted to play in 2008, then study all vacation and start fresh in January. Another part of me wanted to just go ahead and play multis because I’m not gonna have so much time on my hands. Still undecided I got a call Saturday night from Justin asking to play the $11,500 grtd at 11pm with him. I agreed but decided since it was only 8pm I’d just play Mtts all night. The first one being the $27.50 FO on Stars.

Come 11pm and I’m out of everything but the $3r and $27.50. I ran/played pretty bad in all the others.  I eventually busted on the bubble in the $3r but cashed in the $27. As I kept busting from more and more mutlis, I kept getting chips in the $27. Finally, we get down to the final two tables. I made a standard push sb to bb with A5 into 10bb big blind. He wakes up with AK and I’m down to 4bbs. I was pretty dejected. I then proceeded to shove 10 hands without getting called once. I pick up AK, and double to 20bbs. With 10 left, my QQ holds vs. AK AIPF and I go into the FT as the CL.

3 hands in, I raise otb with AQ, get reshipped AI by 13bb sb who wakes up with QQ but I make broadway on the river. 5 handed I raise AK, guy 3^rd in chips calls. Flop comes K95, I bet, he shoves, he has KQ.

Eventually I get heads up against this weak calling station. Even though its 7 grand to first blinds are 20k/40k, I have 2.2 mil, he has 1.6 mil. Theres just no way I’m ever chopping. We’re plenty deep and I felt like I was gonna destroy this guy heads up. The first two hands I take sizeable pots off him with air. Then I pick up AK otb. I raise to 120k, he rr’s to 280k, I reship AI. He calls with A5dd

Flop: J88

NO CHOP, HOLD UP ONE TIME

Turn: 6

222222222222222222222222222222222222222

River: Q

SHIP IT! FIRST TIME PLAYING AS A LEGAL PLAYER SO SHIP ALL OF IT!!!! WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Double you, oh, double you

W-O-W

Just unreal I can’t even describe how great it was to win that. I’m not sure what exactly I’m gonna do in the near future but that’s the least of my worries.

Ship It All

—-Don—-

Here were my goals for 2007:

• End with a bankroll of $10,000 or greater

This goal was not achieved but only because I cashed out multiple times. So I guess technically it wasn’t achieved but I didn’t plan on cashing out any money when I made the goal so I guess I meant I wanted to profit more than $10,000 which I did.

• Play all forms of poker(hopefully well)

This was a goal that I totally ignored. I attempted here and there to talk strat about a couple different games but that’s basically as far as I got. Honestly, I don’t regret not achieving this goal because I’m not too concerned about learning different games at this point in time. But when I made that goal I was interested in getting good at all forms of poker.

• Play more cash games

I did achieve this goal and with moderate success. I didn’t put in a ton of hours playing cash games but definitely more than in ‘06.

• Improve NLH Mtt game

Boy oh boy has my game improved since end of ‘06. I mean I’m still not 1/100000th of where I need to be but last year I was not half the player I am today so I’m very happy about how much I’ve accomplished as far as that goal is concerned.

• Start playing $100 freezeout Mtts consistently well

This one kinda went along with the $10k bankroll one because if I had a $10k+ br I would start playing $100 multis and hopefully consistently well. However, I’m not for several reasons.

• Play a lot more tournaments

I definitely achieved this one. Before these last three months of strictly sngs I put in a lot more volume than in ‘06.

• Get Ranked Top 100 on Pocket Fives

I’m not 100% sure this is even possible as a high school student but I definitely didn’t even try to put in the necessary volume.

I’ll be making a separate post about my 2008 goals but for right now I just wanna reflect back on ‘07.

I started 2007 with a bankroll of $1,600. Its hard to say exactly how much I profited in 2007 but it’s in the 5 digits. I did very well in home game tournaments especially the SSOP (Southington Series of Poker) winning two events including the Main Event. I’ve also gotten better at reading people live. Not so much specific physical tells but getting inside people’s heads and then using it against them. For example, if someone five tournaments ago said when discussing payout structures “lets give that extra re-buy money to 4rth place because you wanna get your money back when you play these things” then in future tournaments I’ll be pounding on him on the bubble. For the most part I play the same 30-40 guys so I know their play very well and know their physical tells well.

There’s an interview with Shaniac on CP and he talks about how important understanding the mood of your table is when playing live poker and that he thinks part of the reason why a lot of online guys don’t do so well live is because they don’t understand that its not all about fundamentals. I mean obviously good fundamentals are the key to win online and live but you have so many more things that you need to be good at live to be successful. That’s something I want to be prepared for when I sit down for the first time at a casino.

Overall I’m pretty happy with how ‘07 went. It was my last year as an underage poker player and I did pretty well. Nowhere near as well as I expect to do in 2008 as you’ll see when I make my goals but I’ll more than happily take it. It was the first year that I talked openly to my friends about how I was doing and now a ton of kids in our grade think I’m this really sick poker player which is cool. Anyways, it was nice knowing you ‘07 but its time for ‘08 to begin.

Lessss Goooooo

—-Don—-

Today is my 18th birthday. For years I thought this day would never come. As a kid you look forward to three birthdays. Your 16th, 18th, and 21rst. They’re the monumental ones, as with each you gain more opportunities and freedom. For me, ever since I started playing poker, I looked forward to this day. I am now a legal poker player. I can legally play on any poker site and I can legally play in certain casinos. Its amazing because its like I have all this poker/life experience and I should just be starting to play poker today.

Then again, now I’m on a level playing field with everyone in the world. There’s no more of “well I shouldn’t be making this money anyway because I’m underage.” No sireee bob, now its all on me. I welcome the challenge with open arms. I expect big things from me in the near future and now they’ll all be credited to me.

In the next week or so I’m gonna write a couple blogs on the near future for me and looking back on ‘07. But as for right now, I just wanna say…….

Welcome To Legal City

Population: Don Deutsch

Peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeace

Exactly 3 months into this Sng experiement and I’m sick of the grind. Maybe its because I’m starting to lose, maybe its because I need more creativity, or maybe its because I feel like I’m not making enough money. But whatever it is, I’m sick of the grind. Overall for the month of December I’ve played 199 sngs, and I’m actually down $308. Pretty gross. I know people go through downswings or whatever but I expect better of myself. I feel like I’m not playing my best and not working nearly enough on my game than I had in previous months. Skill wise the $60s are much much tougher than the $36s with a ton more successful grinders. Even the average player has some knowledge about general strategy. Apparently from what I’ve heard, a 5-10% ROI in the $60s is very good and over 705 $60s I have a 5% ROI. The problem is that I started out with so much success in the $36s that I expect so much of myself. The reality is that I’ve only been playing sngs for 3 months so I’m just a beginner.  I know a couple very very successful players in the $36s that just completely bombed out in the $60s. I dunno I guess I just had this hope of achieving a 20% ROI in the $60s and making $12k/mo but it seems impossible now. As for right now, I just wanna achieve an Iron Man Medal this month to earn a January bonus. 

Grinding

—Don—

I could write a full entry for each of these subjects and maybe in the near future I will but as for right now I’m just going to list them because I’m lazy. Sorry Guys

-So sad Chip Reese died a couple days ago. Hes a guy who I admired for being content with being the best and not being in the spotlight, and being so consistent over all these years. R.I.P. Chip, you will be missed

-Played first home game tournament last night since school started and finished 2nd, gotta love it

-Finished up 8 hour session earlier today which oddly enough still leaves me still waaaaaaay behind pace of playing 1000 sngs this month

-My birthday is next Saturday, lots of things will change because of it

-I’m starting to really focus on controlling tilting at and away from the tables

Peeeeeeeeace

—-Don—

I’d like to delve into this issue a little more. I’ve read a lot of posts on several forums about whether its good or bad for people to play online poker under the age of 18. Now from having personal experience and knowing a lot of players that play underage, I think my opinion means a little more than say a 50 year old father who says he’d never let his kid play poker. That being said, he has the right to his opinion and I can see where hes coming from. But before I talk about why it may not be a good thing, let me talk about some positives. As young adults we’re presented with choices. What deceisions we make will affect most of us in the short term and some in the long term. If someone asks me to have a beer, its fairly harmless. It probably won’t turn me into an alcoholic. If a 16 year old kid decides to play a play money poker tournament, its fairly harmless. He probably won’t be homeless on the streets of Vegas.

When I played my first play money tournament 4 years ago, I never thought I’d still be playing poker. Some may argue that it was a good thing I’m still playing poker, and some may argue that its a bad thing. Personally, I’m not so sure. I think over this time, I’ve matured a lot and learned many valuable lessons that I wouldn’t have, had it not been for poker. I’ve learned how money changes people, how few people you can truely trust, how emotional stabilitiy is important in poker as well as life, and the list goes on. I’ve also made a decent amount of money so I’ve always been making more than my friends working minimum wage jobs.

However, with all that being said, I think there are a lot of negatives to playing online poker underage. Just speaking for me personally, I can’t accurately say how much poker has negatively affected school but it definitely has. I never really liked school even before poker. I loved the people and some classes/activities but for the most part, I just hated the work and never was thrilled about learning new things. Also, I never joined a ton of clubs or after-school activities. My grades overall have been pretty shitty throughout high school due to me not caring. Now maybe most of this stuff happens whether I started playing poker or not but I can’t honestly say that poker has had zero effect on my school work or outlook on school. As for making decent money playing, this past summer I was pressured by my parents to get a job. I figured out the numbers and working a rediculous amount of hours, I would make 1500-2000ish for the whole summer. I figured I could probably make more playing poker so I decided to pursure poker instead of working a “real” job. As it turned out, I made a little over $6000 for the whole summer so it turned out to be a good decision. In the long run though, having zero “real” work experience at age 18, will probably hurt me. Also, my social life has suffered. I’ll choose poker over doing other stuff, or not be able to go somewhere because I’m at the final table of a tournament. I’ve lost friends because they don’t understand that its not that I dont want to do stuff with them, its just that I have to finish playing a tournament.

When my friends ask or tell me they want to start playing online poker, I always tell them not to. While poker for me may have been a good thing, I think it takes a very special person to handle everything you’re going to go through as a poker player so young. Not to mention, as with poker players of any age, most aren’t going to be successful and I feel that one of the major reasons that it may have been a good thing for me is the money I’ve made and money I could potentially make in the future. I have a lot of friends that are all losing poker players and some who take their weekly checks, deposit it, and wait for the inevitable of losing that money. Its a vicious cycle.

I would say for most kids underage, playing online poker is a bad choice. For a prodigy like Annette_15, playing online poker was a great choice as now shes found something thats shes good at, that will be her full time career. For most kids though, they should stop before they get in over their heads.

—Don—