Grinders, Inc. Poker Blog: March 2011

So got back Monday from my yearly weekend trip to hang out with BigHeeb and play some Rincon tourney's and cash games at Pechanga. The trip started out ok as I scored a marginal cash game win at Pechanga playing 4/8 limit holdem. While winning $45 is nothing great, it was nice to book a win at Pechanga which is a rare thing for me.

We played the $340 tourney on Friday and it got 331 runners. Ship the over/under bet on field size to Stewman. I played for about 5.5 hours and was playing pretty good but not my best. Missed value bets on 3 hands that probably cost me about $5000 in chips because I'm sure guy calls everyone. Nonetheless I was CL at my table for most of the time till I lost half my stacks with 1010 to 88 when guy flopped a set after calling my preflop reraise. I folded on a K8x flop after he check raised me. He showed me 88. After that I raised again with 88 and folded to a guy who put me all in. I'm confident I was beat there. Then my final hand a few hands later was against same guy with 88. Folded to him again and once again he raised. I looked down at 66 and pushed all-in for a 4.5x raise and he calls with AA and I'm out. BigHeeb had better luck and after doubling up with A9 of hearts against KJ on a Jxx two hearts board, he was rolling and eventually made the money till maybe the sickest hand of his poker life came up.

Heeb had about $120k in chips and raised UTG with AA. 2nd position player moves all-in and then fold, fold, fold and then another all-in and then another all-in (CL of the table and only guy who has Heeb covered). Pot is estimated to be almost $500,000 in chips. They turn the cards over and Heeb is up against 99, QQ, and KK. Flop is JJx, turn is a blank and river is a of course a King and send Heeb packing in 28th place for a $200 profit. Very disappointing but this is Heeb's 3rd straight cash in a tournament. Last March at Rincon, he was part of a deal 12 handed, then he won the nightly tourney at Venetian in November and then this result. On a heater, too bad he can't play more than he does. While I waited for Heeb, I played 1/3NL upstairs in the new poker room. Won exactly $200. After downing a drink to console Heeb, we jammed to IHOP for some late night comfort food.

Saturday was some lunchtime playing at Pechanga again in 4/8. We both lost, with me dropping $100. That night we went to Tilted Kilt with Mrs. Heeb to watch UFC fight's. We saw the soon to be G.O.A.T. Jon Jones dominate the overrated Shogun. Jones has a bright future. After going home and dropping off Mrs. Heeb we headed back to Pechanga and played 8/16 for a few hours. I dropped $210 while I believe BigHeeb won $325. I played decently taking three sick beats on the river to a CAL who had no business even seeing the turn. I kinda went on tilt for a little while after dropping $500 in 2 hours and made some comments disparaging her play to her. Not something I was proud of. I never do that but after the lunch session getting beat on the river in crazy pots that players had no business being in, I was tired of it. I was going to leave but BigHeeb convinced me to stay because the game was juicy and spotted me another $200 and I ended up getting $290 back.

The next morning, BigHeeb gave me a much needed pep talk and some strategy. He broke down some key fundamentals about Limit Holdem, especially at Pechanga. I took those to heart and we went back and played for about 8 hours Sunday. I ended up $110 which doesn't seem like a lot but I played much better and implemented Heeb's advice. Of course his insight was dead on and I feel more confident than ever in limit holdem. I feel like a light bulb went off. Still got some glaring flaws to work on especially the ever key value bet. I miss way too many in every session but working on that. Considering going to play this Friday to try and build a roll for the WSOP.

Overall the trip, I ended down about $300 which is the tournament buy-in. I'll take that compared to my last few trips where I lost everything. It was fun hanging out with Heeb and the family.

For those who don't know BigHeeb 91, he is the best holdem player you have never heard of. The kid has all the fundamentals down pat for both cash and tourneys. He just needs that one big break. Anybody out there who reads this, contact us about a backing gig for BigHeeb at this years WSOP. Guaranteed to make a profit from him.