1,000 Pageviews!

Today, my blog was viewed for the 1,000th time since I started it 3 years ago.  I really appreciate that people care enough about me to read the blog or at least glance through it, even if many of you have 0 interest in poker.  I enjoy keeping the blog for 2 reasons.  First of all, it is nice to go back through it later and recall my time in Vegas.  More importantly, it helps me stay connected with my friends and family while I am out here away from almost everyone.  The blog is always a good excuse to reach out to friends who I haven't spoken to in a while each summer to reconnect.  So to all of you who have read any of my ramblings over the last 3 years, thank you!

The last few days have been up and down.  I have run pretty bad in some key spots, but I have also won some big pots, including set over setting someone with 88 vs 55 on a 10 8 5 flop.  I have been putting in a bunch of hours since Amy left.  It is grind time, as we only have about 9 days left unless I decide to stay for the Main Event of the WSOP.  That will depend on what my bankroll looks like coming up to the main.  I have had a great time so far, and we have been having alot of fun both on and off the felt.  It is great having people here to hang out with when I am not playing, and it has made this summer wayyyyy better than the last 2.  Time to get back on the grind, as my name is about to be called for a seat at the Aria.  Thanks again for reading, and hopefully the pageview count will keep going up for a while!

-Danny

Quick Update/Birthday Weekend

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to drop in with a quick update since I haven't had internet in a while.  This weekend was great, and I had an awesome birthday.  Thanks to everyone who sent me bday wishes.  Amy was in town, and we went to an awesome birthday dinner at Carnevino, my favorite steakhouse in Vegas, with Cliff, Tony, and Austin.  Everyone's meals were spectacular, and we had a great time.  After dinner, Amy and I ran over to Bellagio for "O," their Cirque du Soleil show which is just insane.  It was my second time seeing it, but it still amazed me how talented the performers are and how intense the stage and choreography are.  It was really great having Amy in town, and it changed my luck a bit too.

I had 2 big winning sessions the night and morning before she arrived, and I had a nice win this morning after she left for the airport.  I feel great still about my play, and I am running much better, so things are swinging upward at the moment.  Hopefully I'll be able to update more soon when I find internet to use again.

-Danny

The Case of the Missing Chip

WSOP 1500 Starting Stack of 4500 Chips

I just busted from a WSOP 1500, which was pretty standard and uninteresting except that I had a 100 chip taken from me.  It was probably an accident, but here's what happened:

The blinds were still 25/25, and I was the small blind.  I had just put my last 25 chip in for the big blind last hand, and all I had left were 2 1k chips, 2 500 chips, and 2 100 chips.  I put in a 100 chip for the small blind, and the dealer would give me change from the pot once everyone had acted.  After I put my chip in, I looked down to send a text, while at the same time my 2 neighbors exchanged a 100 chip for 4 25s.  When I looked back up, the transaction was complete, but my 100 chip had somehow been scooped up with all the rest.  Neither would cop to accidentally taking my chip, so we had to call the floor person over.  The dealer and I recounted the story to the floorman, who said that they would check surveillance footage to see if they could figure out where it went.  To be clear, I always know with 100% certainty how many chips I have, especially when I have so few chips, and I was 100% sure I put the 100 chip out for my blind.  40 minutes later, he had not returned, so I asked another floor person to find out what was going on.  They returned a few minutes later, saying that the security footage was "inconclusive" and that I would have to play on with 100 less chips than I should have.  Pretty frustrating stuff, considering that there are 4 "eyes in the sky" in view of my table.  It should have been incredibly easy to see that there was a chip in front of me and then 5 seconds later there wasn't, so don't believe what you hear about these high tech casino security systems.  I told them that my Tivo could have done a better job, but accepted the loss and played on.  Unfortunately, I never really got anything going, and lost to Blair Hinkle, a sick player and good dude, in a pretty standard spot when I got short stacked.  

The last few days have been pretty brutal, as most of my hands have looked something like this:  Player 1 raises to 25, Player 2 calls, I reraise to 80 from the big blind with Aces, Player 1 folds and Player 2 calls.  Flop is 9 4 2 all different suits.  I check to him to induce him to bet, which he does: All In for 215 dollars.  I snap call, and the board runs out 8 on the turn, J on the river and my Aces lose to his Q 10...no pair, no draw that turned into an unbeatable straight somehow.  Since getting back from Chicago and Stl, I have broken even in cash games, which I guess is commendable after that and a few other beats, but it feels pretty crappy.  However, I feel reeeeeally good about my game right now, so hopefully I'll start running good too.  

Time to get back on the grind.

-Danny

Coming To You Live from 30,000 Feet

As I write this, I am on a flight back to Vegas from Chicago and St. Louis. I had a great time with my family in Chicago for Mitchell's college graduation. Congrats Mitch! I also got to spend a day in St. Louis with Amy for the wedding of two friends who were on her freshman floor. It was a really great time, and it was nice to see some old faces and hit up a few wustl spots like Fitz's and Morgan Street. It was really nice to take a few days off from Vegas and see my family and Amy, but now it's time to get back on the grind. I'm looking forward to getting back to Vegas to finish out the trip with a bang.

For today's blog entry, I wanted to backtrack and tell you a bit about what was going on just before Cliff won his bracelet and proved that he's the sickest and that we're a crew to be reckoned with. After spending our first week at Polo Towers, it was time to move out of our timeshare. Because there was a huge music festival and the Pacquiao fight in town on the 9th, we had to stay one night at the Jockey Club next to Bellagio before moving to Harrah's for a while. The Jockey Club, also a timeshare resort, was a very nice surprise. The place was much nicer than I thought it would be:

Cliff barely got to enjoy it, as he spent the day and most of the night gathering chips at the Rio. After our night at Jockey Club, we hustled our way over to Harrah's to check in before heading to the Rio for Day 1 of my WSOP $1k and Day 2 of Cliff's $1500 (see last post to see how that turned out if you don't already know!) The line for checkin at Harrah's was too long, and I tried to use my old platinum card to checkin in the VIP room, but was denied and sent on my way with 2 mini water bottles and one fake smile (Now that Cliff is a baller Diamond status player, I don't think we'll be getting denied there again). As a result, we ended up having to wait until we returned later that night to check in. It turned out that Cliff had a long day in the tournament, which worked out in more ways than the obvious one.

When we got back at around 2:30am, we checked in, only to find out that they had given away all of the standard rooms. Bummer right? Not really, because this is what they put us in instead:

And that was just the master bedroom, bathroom, and living room. The second bedroom with two queen beds, shown to the left, is basically the room that we have now that we have moved out of the penthouse. We just don't get the huge master bedroom, insane bathroom, or living room...or a powder room, bidet, bar, or anything else for that matter. But it's more than enough for us. Even though we had to check out of the penthouse the next morning and move into our standard room, Cliff apparently wasn't ready to stop living the high life, so he decided to just take down half a million dollars that day. Easy game.

After the big tournament win, our friend Marshall decided to snap book a flight out to celebrate, and it was fun to enjoy the victory with friends in Vegas. Now, it's back to the grind. Cliff's home friend Tony just got to Vegas to spend the last 3 weeks grinding with us, and I'm gonna be putting in alot of hours to try to make something big happen before the end of the summer. Hopefully we'll all continue to run well and make some more noise at the WSOP!

-Danny

Victory!

Cliff before the final table

It all started a few days ago with a bad beat.  I decided to play the WSOP $1k tournament on Sunday, June 10th, expecting to have another shot at making a deep run in a WSOP event.  Things went wrong quickly though, as I took a pretty sick bad beat that knocked me out of the tournament.  One of the best players many of you have never heard of got moved to my table: WPT Paris winner Matt Waxman.  Soon, he and I clashed and were all in on a flop of 10h 9s 7s with my 10s 8s vs his 8c 9c, making me a huge favorite.  However, things were not to be, as one of the only 2 really bad cards for me hit the turn: the 9h, and I couldn't hit my straight, flush, straight flush, or full house on the river.  I was a "good sport" about the beat and chatted it up with him for a bit afterward and wished him good luck, and Waxman even offered me 1% of him if he final tabled, which was really cool of him and unnecessary, but appreciated.  I was disappointed to be knocked out of the tournament, but it turned out to be a huge blessing in disguise.

After losing, I went over to check on Cliff, who had just made the money on Day 2 of WSOP event 19, a $1500 No Limit Hold'em event.  When I got there, Cliff was busy building a big stack.  I planned to stay for an hour or so and then go play on my own, but I ended up standing and watching for close to 11 hours.  I didn't know quite what I was witnessing yet, but something made me stay and watch that day when I almost always would have left to play my own game.  By the end of Day 2, Cliff was 3rd in chips with 19 left after a dominating performance where his aggression took over and made it very hard for the rest of the table to compete.

Odds on Cliff at the Rio Sportsbook

Coming into Day 3 of the tournament, we were very excited, as Cliff would be playing for a shot at a WSOP bracelet and more money than any of us had imagined ever winning in one tournament.  Already guaranteed 16,000 dollars for his efforts, it was time to go for the gold.  Cliff was unfazed, as he did not even know how much he was guaranteed or how much 1st place was.  But I knew: first would pay over $550,000 cash money to go along with the coveted WSOP gold bracelet.  Cliff and I, along with our friend Austin, made our way to the Rio, where the sportsbook would be offering bets on Cliff at 6 to 1 odds to win the title.  These are not great odds with 19 players left, but Austin and I decided they were good enough for us, and we booked small bets on the final day of play.

After starting with 19 players, a few hours in they were down to 11, and Cliff was still dominating.  Disaster struck, as he lost a huge hand with pocket Kings versus 67 of diamonds that could have made him chipleader but instead knocked him down to probably 9th or 10th place out of the remaining 11.  Cliff fought back though and entered the final table as 2nd or 3rd in chips out of 10!  With 9 left, a hand occurred that changed the course of the tournament and propelled Cliff into a major chiplead:  http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/2012-world-series-of-poker/event-19-no-limit-hold-em/chips.28846.htm

After getting the chiplead, Cliff was relentless and knocked off a few more players on his way to a 9 to 1 chiplead heads up.  The final table was incredibly exciting, as we could feel that Cliff was inching closer to an incredible feat: defeating over 2,300 people in just his 4th WSOP event.  By dinner time, just 2 were left, and Cliff had over 9 million chips to his opponents 1 million.  After dinner break, we walked back with 12 seconds to spare on the clock, and one hand later it was all over:

Goldkind's pocket sixes held against the two Broadway cards of Nguyen, and the latter was sent off with nearly $350,000 as the runner-up.

It was the moment of victory for Goldkind, and he spent it celebrating in the arms of his friends on the rail. As we soon found out, he wasn't even sure how much money he'd just made.

"You wanna know payouts now, Cliff?" one of his friends (ME) asked.

"Sure," Goldkind answered.

"Five-fifty-nine," came the reply.

Goldkind's eyes rolled back in his head. "Oh," he said with an impenetrable grin.

Read more: http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/2012-world-series-of-poker/event-19-no-limit-hold-em/

Victory!!!

Cliff won the tournament for over $550,000 dollars and a gold WSOP bracelet, the dream of every poker player.  It was amazing to be able to watch it unfold before my eyes over the course of the last 2 days of the tournament.  Winning a WSOP event is everything we have dreamed about and worked toward, and it is still unbelievable that Cliff is a WSOP bracelet winner and over a half million dollars richer.  That's crazy to try to wrap my head around.  There is so much more I could say about the tournament, but that is the gist of it.  It is the culmination of all of our hard work and focus that we have put into poker, and I am so happy for Cliff. It feels awesome to have played at least a small role in it all, and it will be something that we never forget.  Hopefully there will be more bracelets in our future soon!  I am currently away from Vegas for a few days, but I will be back soon to get back on the hunt for more bracelets.

-Danny

Big Blog Upcoming

Here's a taste:
http://www.wsop.com/news/2012/Jun/3843/CLIFF-GOLDKIND-BAGS-559514-PLUS-POKERS-MOST-COVETED-PRIZE.html

Live from the MGM Grand

More stacks like this on a daily basis, please!

Hey everyone,

After losing yesterday, I decided to take the night off from poker and enjoy the Heat's win over the Celtics.  Tomorrow is a big game 7, and I am looking forward to watching it on the huge screens at one of the sports books.  As we walked home from the Bellagio sports book, I weaved my way through the many, many people on the strip handing out cards and pamphlets for sex workers to anyone who is willing to take them...and some who are unwilling.  As I walked down the Strip in front of Paris, I suddenly felt something hit me in the chest and fall on top of the box of leftover pizza I was taking back to our timeshare.  I looked down and discovered a pamphlet advertising "escorts" and other services.  Apparently someone was determined to make sure that I received their publication, much to the delight of those who witnessed the sneak attack.

Pokerwise, today went much better than yesterday, and I have started to recover from yesterday's loss.  I went over to Venetian today and played cash games, which went great for a while.  In the last few minutes, I lost back about half of what I had won over the few hours prior, but I still booked a good win.  It was a bit frustrating, as I was up alot more, but it was still nice to get a solid win.  I feel much more comfortable playing cash games than I did last year, and I am enjoying playing alot.

Tonight, I decided to head over to MGM to play, as this weekend is the big Pacquiao fight at MGM, and I was expecting there to be alot of money thrown around here.  The poker game, however, was a bit of a let-down, but the good news is I made a quick few bucks in about an hour before I decided to call it a night.  I am hoping tomorrow will be a big day on the Strip, as lots of people are in town for the fight and the Electric Daisy Carnival, a huuuuge techno/electronica concert/rave thing that takes place in Vegas every year.  Should be lots of games around town.  Wish me luck!

-Danny

Swings

My stack in WSOP event 9 at around my high point on Day 2

Man, the swings in poker can be brutal!  Last night I had a great cash game session at Aria and was feeling on top of the world.  The night before, I had lost 1 buyin playing at the Bellagio after trying a few bluffs, but I recovered plus some last night after winning a huge pot.  I had 6 9 of spades, and the button raised.  The small blind called and I called from the big blind.  The flop was the King of spades, 6 of hearts, and 3 of spades, giving me middle pair and a flush draw.  This was a huge flop for me, so I checked to the button who bet.  I raised, he reraised, and I moved all in for the biggest cash game pot I have played since I came out here.  I was in about as great a shape as I could be, as all he has was a lower flush draw with 8 4 of spades.  All he could really hit to beat me was an 8, as spades gave me a higher flush.  We both ended up hitting the flush, and I took a monster pot to end the night.

Aria chips after winning the big pot

Today, unfortunately, was a different story at the WSOP cash games.  Every big hand I had today was either already behind or ahead but got outdrawn.  While yesterday felt like I was unstoppable, today feels like I can't win.  But that's okay with me.  It's what I signed up for, and it's why poker is a tough way to make money.  If you can't handle the swings, you shouldn't be playing because they can destroy you.  Downswings are inevitable, and I have learned to take them in stride over the last two summers here.  I just have to keep playing my game and things will turn around.  I have seen it time and time again.  I am still doing well for the trip, as I am down some in cash games but up more from the tournament.  It is time to start heading back in the right direction and go on another upswing soon!

Tonight, I will probably watch the Heat game somewhere and hope that they pull off a big win in Boston.  For the last game, I went and watched the game with a few friends at the Caesars sports book, which was fun until we lost.  Walking back down the strip, I was openly mocked for my Heat jersey by Boston fans and Heat haters alike, so hopefully we can get some revenge tonight.

Whether I play cash games again tonight or tomorrow, hopefully things are about to turn back around!

Strong Start at the WSOP!

 Hey everyone!

My first post from Vegas is an exciting one for me.  Warning: It got a little long, but I bolded the basic points so you can skim if you want.  I hope you enjoy it!

Saturday
First things first:  I arrived in Vegas Saturday night at around 7 Vegas time, so I headed straight to our room at Polo Towers, which turned out to be pretty sweet.  Big master bedroom with a King+ bed, living room with a pullout couch, solid kitchen, and big bathroom.  It is definitely more than I expected from the timeshare that we got a pretty great deal on for the week.  Here are a few pics of the room:

So after I checked in and put my stuff down, I had a couple hours before Cliff got in, so I did the only thing I could think of: go play poker!  I played for about 2 hours at Aria before Cliff called and said he was on his way to Polo and took a small loss.  Even so, it felt great to be back at the poker table, and I was now even more excited for the summer than I already was.  After Cliff got in, we headed over to the Rio, as we had both decided to play in the World Series of Poker event the next day!  It was going to be one of the biggest tournaments of the summer, so we decided to take a shot at the $1,500 buyin tournament.  I had planned on playing a tournament later in the summer, but this was going to be a big tournament with a huge prizepool, so we both decided it was possibly the best value of the summer and too big to pass up!

Sunday
We made our way over to the Rio Sunday at noon for Event 9 of the WSOP, hyped for the event, which would be the first WSOP tournament for both of us.  It got 3,404 people, and first prize is over $700,000. The top 342 players would get paid a minimum of $2,800.  The tournament started slowly, as I remained around starting stack of $4500 in chips.  After grinding for hours, I finally picked up a few hands and got up to 24,000 chips at my high point.  However, near the end of the night, disaster struck as I attempted a big bluff that got called.  I was left with just around 6,000 chips, but I didn't give up and finished the day with 10,200 chips.  I was ecstatic to have made day 2 of my first WSOP event!  I was concerned about my chipstack though, which would be just under 12 big blinds when I came back today.

Monday
I came in to the 2nd day of the tournament very short and knew I had to make moves quickly.  As luck would have it, I picked up pocket Aces the first hand of the day!  I limped in, as I had many aggressive players at my table and alot of short stacks who I thought would shove.  It folded around to the small blind, who was the chip leader of the tournament at that point with over 100,000 chips.  He started to put the wheels of my plan in motion with a raise to 2800, and then the big blind moved all in for about 13,000 with pocket 5s!  I called all in for my 10,200, and the big blind called with Ace Queen.  My hand held up and suddenly I had over 30,000 in chips and felt really good.  I won't bore you with all the details, but after a few hours of play, we finally made the money!  I cashed in my first WSOP tournament, and it felt great, especially since the buyin was very large for my taste at this point.  For most of the tournament, I was short stacked, including for much of the time after we got in the money.  I never gave up, even when I got very short, and I kept myself afloat long enough to get 102nd place for $4,595!!!  It felt like such an accomplishment, as I was card-dead(never got many great hands) for almost the entire tournament but kept myself alive to finish in the top 3% of the tournament.

The money is a great boost to my summer bankroll, but more than that the experience was incredible.  I am so glad that I decided to play.  Even if I didn't make it into the money today, I was so glad to have gotten the opportunity to play the entire day yesterday.  I had such a great time.  It has always been a dream for me to play in the WSOP, whether in the Main Event or a side event like this one.  The last two summers here playing cash games were great, but I regretted not ever entering a WSOP event.  I have no more regrets.  I got to go after my goal of winning a bracelet and the cash that comes with it, and I came out ahead.  I am really looking forward to the rest of the summer as I try to build my bankroll further playing cash games.  Hopefully I will get to play another event this summer, but if not, I am really glad I got to accomplish one of my goals so early in the trip.


This has gotten long enough, but I was a succinct as I could be about the tournament.  I would love to go through all of the interesting hands I played, but you guys would get crazy bored!  Thanks for reading, and I will update again soon.

-Danny