Trip Prep

Your mental and physical health are two huge components that are needed for any poker tournament. My first part of August was a big success. The second part was pretty much non-existent as I was plagued with being sick. So, I have not written in my blog since early August. During the past 4 weeks, I have played mainly online to keep up my reps on seeing hands and to keep my analytical skills sharp. In two major online tournaments, I placed 70th out of 2400 at BoDog and in another placed 37th out of 3400 on another site. Both were good enough to finish in the money. Other than that, not much else for playing poker the last half of August. My full-time lob and poker work (not playing poker) have been keeping me busy. I had to cancel my trips to Deadwood and Tunica due to being ill. The time taken off from poker was much needed and my focus/tournament bug appears to be coming back to me.

The 2008 campaign is well underway with my second foray into Vegas: Harrah's Caliente 100K Invitational. First place, 40K and a seat to the 08 Main Event. I have registered and will be playing in the Saturday AM Flight. The urge is there to gamble it up the night before the tournament but I refrain from doing so and instead focus on why I came out to Vegas this trip: to win this tournament. To prepare me for this tournament, I play in a small tournament the night before and make it to the final table through shrewd all-ins despite being card-dead. My goal for the small tournament was to read different playing styles, body languages and betting patterns. Winning would have been nice but only the top 6 were paid for this tournament. My instincts tell me that reading body language and betting patterns will be key for the upcoming tournament.

In my four week hiatus, I have picked up on four major traits that a lot of players do:
1) Movement in the player's nose when they are ready to be confrontational in a hand.
2) A player interested in playing a pot, will lurch closer to the table.
3) If a bet appears out of place, chances are it's a bluff/everyone one has betting tendencies (online or live).
4)Talk to a player, if they can speak coherently to you, they have a hand. Bear in mind, that the above traits are for live and on-line poker poker and a majority of the players do the above as well.

The next time you play, put on a hoodie and don't breathe until you pass out. If you do this, then you will not give away any tells or facial expressions. Huh, you're probably thinking "what is Chewey telling me to do?" I'm just kidding.

See you and your face at the table- go ahead wear the shades- we can still see you!
Chewey