먹튀검증업체Legends

In my last article, I stressed the importance of having the right mindset. Dealing with both the ups and downs in a positive manner. The Legends of 먹튀검증업체Tour event, in Los Angeles on Aug. 27, put me to the test of my own preaching.After cashing in the last three WPT tournaments at the Foxwoods World Poker Finals, Bay 101 Shooting Star, and WPT Championship at Bellagio, I felt great going into the Legends event. This was my first sponsored event, by ParadisePoker.com, so I really wanted to do well. I quickly had a stranglehold on my table. As I always preach, you should never have a plan to play tight or loose, but rather adjust to situations. My table was playing straightforwardly and that gave me the opening I needed to start pressuring them. I saw over 40 percent of the flops the first day! This is way out of the norm and usually gets you in trouble, but I had my opponents read so well that I was confident throughout every hand. If I didn’t hit my hand, I knew whether they did or not and I’d simply outplay them for the pot. I never picked up any big hands except for A-A once and picked up a few thousand chips with it. Due to my loose image, players started to get frustrated and one of two things happened every hand. Either they picked up a very good hand and had to bet it strong and “advertise” how strong they were because they were afraid of what I might do. Or, they tried to bluff me due to their egos. They were getting sick of seeing me rake in pot after pot. I accumulated chips throughout the day picking off bluffs and outplaying my opponents on the flop. Heck, I even called an under-the-gun raise with 5 3 on the button and made a full house to beat the player’s pocket kings. Yikes. I finished the day with $62,000 chips and after the second-day starters finished up, I went into day three in 14th place overall.Day three began. I was the chip leader at my table. I took notice of those who were ogling my stack. Stack envy for some, fear for others. All I could see was nine fish swimming in a tank with one shark and they were bleeding. I told them that, too, with a smile. Some laughed, some steamed. (It was cocky, I know, but all in good fun.) Well, I went right back to work. Again, playing lots of hands and talking a lot. Verbal psychology is a big part of my game. I devastated that table and by the end of the first break, I was up to over $90,000 in chips. Returning from break, I took notice of those making comments like “Slow down, Todd,” and “Are you done beating on us now?” To me, these words mean respect and fear. I took full advantage and within an hour, I was up to approximately $130,000 and the blinds were only $200-$400. Oops! The table was breaking! I got dealt my random seat card and headed over to my new fish pond.Hmmm. Who would be at my new table? Did it really matter? Nah … I arrived in the small blind so I didn’t get dealt a hand. This was a good thing because I needed time to stack my chips. As I was stacking, I looked around the table. I saw Barry Greenstein, some unknown faces, and then I noticed the day one chip leaders, Luong Trinh and Anthony Reategui, who had won the $1,500 no-limit shootout at this year’s World Series of Poker. Anthony had been at my first table the first day and I beat on him pretty good. He had amassed a large stack (about $130,000) while away from me. Luong also had about $110,000. This was a bit strange, over 200 players of the original 839 still remained and the three chip leaders were seated at the same table and all three were aggressive. This could get ugly.OK, I was done stacking my chips and here came my first hand at the table with me on the button. Anthony was under the gun and raised to $1,600 (the blinds were $300-$600). I looked down and saw two black kings. Nice, a first big hand. I reraised to $5,000. This was beautiful due to my image that I built with Anthony on the first day. He probably would think that I would do that with anything just to mess with him again. But then Luong in the big blind raised both of us to $10,000! Uh-oh. All three big stacks fighting already. Anthony called and I only called, as well. I had to fear aces a little bit due to the fact that he was so willing to reraise the other big stacks. I didn’t believe in pushing and praying with K-K in this situation. I wanted to see a flop. Here it came, with $30,000 already in the pot. (The average stack was about $29,000 at this point.) The flop was 9-6-5, with two spades. Luong bet out $20,000 and Anthony moved all in! Yikes. I thought a long time. I needed to take him off A-A or a set. I felt quite confident he had neither of the two. But, I still had Luong to worry about. What did he have? After deciphering, I felt pretty good that Luong had A Q, considering that I had the K, and thought Anthony had J-J or 10-10. So, here I went. I called all in. Ugh. Luong got visibly upset and went deep into the think tank. He was having a real hard time folding his hand. Oh no. He had a set! I immediately started my verbal psychology. I told him his set was no good. Maybe he had 5-5-5 or 6-6-6. Would he have reraised us preflop with either pocket fives or sixes? Didn’t think so but who knows? He told me, “I know you got ace-ace.” I said, “If I had aces, I’d have folded,” hoping this would make him believe I had 9-9. He was really having trouble getting out of this hand. I needed him to fold. By Anthony’s face, I knew I had him beat but I was very concerned with Luong. After a long time, he finally folded his hand and yelled out that he folded 9-9. Top set? Wow! No way; nobody believed him. Didn’t matter, though; he was out of the hand. Whew. I had been right about Anthony’s hand. The cards were turned over. Anthony had 10-10. I turned over my K-K and he was disgusted. I could hear his thoughts saying, “Damn, he got me again!” Greenstein gave me a smile. In a blur, the turn card came, the 10. Argh! Since I had the K, I had hope. But the river was the 8, bringing me no luck. GG me. He had me covered by about $3,000. With this pot, I’d have had over $300,000 with the blinds only at $300-$600. A confident final table stack. Within an hour, I was on a plane back to Florida.Now, I know I say never tell bad-beat stories and here I am writing one. My point is not to tell the bad beat but to show how to deal with it. I shook Anthony’s hand and said good game even though pushing with 10-10 against our stacks was insane considering the preflop action. He should have known he was beat. Anyway, on the plane, I kept thinking how much this one hurt. I started questioning myself and the situation. I even asked myself, “Hey, did the dealer burn a card?” After Luong thought so long, it was possible, she didn’t. “Wait! Stop. Get control, Todd, or you will go insane.” I took a deep breath, shook my head, smiled, laughed and told myself, “Hey, that’s poker.”I got home in the a.m. and slept a few hours. I woke up refreshed and registered for three online tournaments. I finished eighth, fifth, and third in those for a combined $6,700. Certainly not the $1.1 million that I felt was stolen from me at Legends but a little consolation. If I had steamed, tilted, cried, or exploded in anger over it, I’d surely have lost the entry fees into those online tourneys as well.