Shermhoy’s Weblog

After my first losing month of the year it was a relief to get off to a good start in June.  Through the first 7 days I’m up alomst $7k and I haven’t even put in that many hands.  I’d really like to get another $20k month in and start rolling again.

I’m leaving to vegas in 2 days and am super pysched.  I’m playing in two $1.5k WSOP events and really would like to ship the Gold bracelet.  I’m playing some really good poker lately and just hope the stars are aligned for the big break.  We have an awesome qrew comming: Myself, Radus, Heath, Rob, Anthony.  It should be a great time with lots of poker and lots of partying.

Other news – Dana and I are just about finalized with the Italy Plans.  I am so excited to go there and it will be a nice break after playing tons of poker to just get away and do nothing but relax and tour for 10 days.

I’ll hopefully be updating soon as a new bracelet winner.  Wish me luck

Ryan

Sorry for dissapearing but I’m back finally.  A lot has gone on in the past 3 weeks. 

First I moved out of my apartment in the city with Dana and we moved down to the shore in NJ for the summer.  We plan on moving back into the city in September and get a bigger place since rents have dropped like 30% and its nice to spend the summer at the beach anyways so thats the first thing.

Second, Tyler just got Married to his new wife Amy.  Congratulations to them.  I was the best man at the wedding and had a lot of responsibilities and luckily didn’t mess anything up.  I think the wedding went off well and all the other stuff surrounding the wedding was tons of fun.  I had to make the best man speech and wanted to include a copy of the speech since i was happy with how it turned out:

So I googled “Best Man Speeches” and apparently this speech is supposed to be approximately 5-10 minutes . . . but Tyler you know I’m not a man of many words, so you’re only getting 2.

Ladies and gentleman, for those of you that don’t know me, my name is Ryan Hefter and I have the privilege of being Tyler’s best man.  It’s fair to say that being the best man can be a very nerve racking experience.  As you would expect there is one person here this afternoon feeling really nervous, apprehensive, and queasy about what lies ahead.  All I can say is don’t worry Amy, its probably because you’ve just married Tyler and I’m sure it will pass!
Everyone, please raise your glasses and join me in toasting Amy and Tyler.  As I begin this wedding speech, one of the first thoughts that comes to mind is . . . if I’m the best man . . . then why is Amy getting married to Tyler?  (Pause)

I guess because today, I am just an average man and Tyler is the best man.

In my extensive research to find out how to deliver the “perfect” best man speech, I learned that I am expected to sing the praises of the groom and tell you what a wonderful guy Tyler is.  Unfortunately, I’m a bad singer and an even worse liar.  (Pause)

Tyler . . . Amy is a wonderful, kind and good-hearted person who deserves a great husband.  Thank god you snapped her up before she found one.  (Pause)

All kidding aside, I’m honored to be here today . . . Tyler and I have been best friends ever since we met in college 8 years ago and he has proven to be not only a great friend but a better man.  I value our friendship and I look forward to having the same friendship with his lovely new bride Amy.  I can tell you one important thing about Amy is that she has made Tyler happier then I’ve ever seen him, all it takes is one trip to their Saturday night line dancing lessons to see how happy these two are together. This is a day of great joy and happiness for all of us but more importantly it’s a special beginning of a new life between Tyler and Amy. I love you both and wish you many years of happy marriage.  To AMY AND TYLER! 

After the wedding I’ve taken care of a lot of errands before we leave to vegas next month to hopefully get my first bracelet (one can dream at least).  I’ve bought an extended life battery for the laptop, an anti-glare protector so I can use it outside, and i just bought the verizon wireless card so I can use the internet anywhere anytime.  Since i’ll be at the shore all summer i felt it would be great to have and I can play poker out at our pool, on the boat, or on the beach and be able to relax in the great weather and still be playing. 

So other things comming up.  You already know about the Vegas trip with Radus/Heath/ and possibly Anthony.  Dana and I are planning on going to italy in late July for 8-9 nights.  We are meeting with a travel agent this friday to get some plans ironed out.  I am super excited for that trip, its up there as one of the top places I really want to go.

Poker has rebounded lately.  I made a late rebound in May to get to just about even (down slightly) and have started off June great with two nice winning nights.  I’m hoping to kill june and early july and then enjoy a nice 10 days off.

Hope everyone is enjoying there summer and i’ll update back soon.

So Radus, Heath, and I are going to vegas for the WSOP.  We finally booked our trip to the Encore at an amazing rate for a suite there.  We also just booked one way flights out there as we don’t know when the events will finish.  We plan on playing two $1,500 NL events one on May 11th and one on May 13th.  Hopefully one of us makes a good run and makes it a successful trip for all. 

Full Tilt had been going horribly untill yesterday.  During the first 10 days of the month I hit -10k for the month.  That is by far the wost i’ve ever been in any month.  My worst downswing ever was -12k but that came after being up 20k in the month already so it was easier to swallow.  I’ve been reviewing some hands and it just seems like there was not much I could have done.  There were a few hands I could have laid down and not called but other then that it was just running into monsters non stop that were slightly better then my made hands.  Well last night finally changed all that.  I played about 800 hands all at 5-10 and 3-6 and booked a 6k win to get me to only down 2k for the month.  It felt amazing to finally run good and get a lot of action vs the typical FTP donks.  I was also fortunate enough to get some rebuyers which always help to make the night good.

I also played two FTP turbos last night.  The mini and the regular.  I obviously busted out of the big one early but made a deep run in the mini which had 6,600 players in it.  I busted in 48th and lost 2 flips at the end where both would have put me above average stack.  It was very frusterating but thats tourny poker. 

For the rest of the week I got tons of stuff going on.  We are moving out of our apartment for the summer and trying to get it rented and have to pack everything up.  We’ll be moving back into the city after the summer into a bigger place but just figured a summer at the shore would be fun.

Tylers wedding is comming up in 2 weeks too which should be a good time as well.  Lots going on and i’ll update more frequently going forward.

Ryan

Friday Night we celebrated Heath being done with Busy season by going out to a nice dinner at Kurama – a top Sushi restaurant in the city (28 rating for food on zagats).  The place was really good, although super expensive and definetly was among the top 3 sushi places I’ve been in the city – Sasabune still ranks #1 in my book.

After dinner we walked around for a bit trying to decide what to do … we couldn’t decide.  We wanted to get bottles at a club but not spend an insane amount of money and the lines were so long at all of the good clubs that we just couldn’t decide on one.  We ended up going a different route and went to the Hustler Club ( a strip club on 11th ave).  This place is massive with almost as many strippers as people there.  We were drinking the normal red bull vodkas all night and each got a bunch of dances and it was a classic time. 

Saturday morning I had to get up early since I had my club fitting reservation at 12pm at chelsea piers.  I ended up going with Ping.  The representative was very knowledgeable and was able to give me a set of G10’s that were really customized for my swing and I was hitting them amazingly.  I also purchased a 24 degree hybrid wood there too that was just awesome. 

After Golf I headed over to SCLA to meet the guys for some bball.  We literally played over 2 hours of very competitive bball there.  It was tons of fun although I was left really sore and we still had a game sunday morning.  After BBALL i ordered dinner in and then headed to Raders to watch the Bulls/Celtics game 7.  We were both ruiting for the Bulls but they just couldn’t pull it out.  After the game I went home and just passed out.  I haven’t been that tired in a while and there was no way I could go out.

Sunday morning again we woke up early and headed to chelsea piers for our 11pm game vs raders group of friends.  We had the court from 11-1pm and played 2 games.  They won both games but we played well and kept it competitive.  I was very happy with my play and led the team in scoring and was able to play most of both games without getting too tired.  The second game I was on and hit 5 three pointers which was nice but we weren’t able to get the win.  We are definetly playing better as a team and hopefully we’ll just keep getting better throughout the season.

Sunday afternoon/night I played some tournies and cashed in the 750k.  I played for about 5 hours only to lose to somebody calling a bet of half my stack to hit a inside straight draw on the flop and hitting it.  Very dissapointing but what can you do i guess.

I think we finally picked the events we are going to play in WSOP too which is good.  Rader and I are definetly playing and heath might play too.  We are playing the two $1,500 events on June 11,13th.  I’m hoping to come back with a nice gold bracelet : ) one time!

Ryan

So 4 months are in the books and I couldn’t have really asked for a much better start poker wise.  Online cash games have been going great so far this year and I’ve booked about $47K on that front.  Also as I’ve mentioned before I got 24.5K from Anthony’s amazing cash at the borgata winter open.  I’ve also recently been playing in a home game once a week that Anthony got me into which has been tons of fun and am up slightly from that as well putting the 3 month total all together at 72.5K

I want to talk more about the cash game since I played last night.  Everytime I play its giving me the itch to get back into live poker more (both tournaments and cash games).  There is just an element you miss from online poker, whether its the facial expressions, the social interaction, or actually just seeing and dealing with the chips, it really provides a nice change of pace from the online game.   I’ve played in this game for 3 weeks in a row now with some moderate success but have also noticed some leaks in my live game mainly being that I am acting differently with made hands then draws then bad hands etc.  I really need to develop a routine of looking at my cards, putting the chip over them, and then acting the same facing each decision whether I have the nuts/a draw/or pure air.  Its easier said then done but something to work on. 

I’ve also been thinking about playing some WSOP events this summer.  This depends on a couple of things but mainly whether i’m still employed or not.  I’m hoping to be laid off around June and try the poker scene out for a little while getting severance/unemployement which will make the transition easier but if that doesn’t happen i’ll have to be mindful of the days off I have and might not be able to make the trip.  I’m definetly going to play live in AC a good amount of times though as thats more convenient.  Dana and I are also planning a trip to possibily Asia this summer so I am not going to have many days off if i’m still employeed.

Not much else is going on.  We got crushed in our bball game last monday.  It was mixed feelings for me becuase I played my best game by far and am really feeling my game improving and am seeing the court well while playing the point and also shooting better but I want to win and am very competitive so loosing by a lot (even though the team was far more skilled then us) is still dissapointing.  The final score was something like 27-59 and I scored 15 points and shot a good percentage from the field.  I’m really hoping our team improves and we have a scrimage this sunday vs a team thats a lot better then us so that should help.

Other then that not much is going on.  I think all my ailments are getting better which is good but its so slow and frusterating sometimes.  I’ll be updating more regularly again and hope all run well at the tables.

Ryan

So again I dissapear for about 20 days.  I promise I’ll get better and more regular with updating the blog.  A lot good/bad has been going on and i’ll touch both.

The fun stuff first.  We had Tylers Bachelor Party in Vegas April 10 – 13th which was a blast.  We stayed at Mandalay Bay which was nice (everything except the pool area which was a zoo).  We partied hard as every bachelor party should be for 3 straight nights.  Two of the nights ended around 7am and I found out the next couple of days I’m not as young as I thought.  We also all played our first round of golf of the year out there at Legacy Golf course about 20 min from the strip.  It was a nice course and we had good playing conditions untill about the 17th hole when it got really really cold.  We had a couple of great dinners at Burger Bar/China Grill/Craftsteak and went to some fun clubs Pure/Rum Jungle/among couple others.  All in all it was a great time and we even won a little playing craps which made it even better.  Oh and I almost forgot, the last day right before we were about to leave, Mike Sexton walks up to our table and starts shooting craps with us.  It was really cool and he was a super nice guy when we finished playing and were chatting with him for a little.

Basketball Season has started again.  Our first game got postponed so we got to just scrimage on the open court.  Our second game was a disaster.  We were outmatched for sure and didn’t have our normal roster but we also played horrible on offense and just couldn’t get anything going.  We were down 23-12 at half and it just got worse from there losing something like 44-24.  I scored 8pts which I was happy with on only about 7-8 shots but we need to improve big time after that performance. We have our second game tonight.

My Good friends Tim/Marrissa just got engaged and wanted to give them a shoutout!  Tim was super sneaky and planned a surprise b-day party for her at Public House and when we arrived his whole familly as well as hers were there and it was a surprise engagement party instead.  He proposed at Asia De Cuba during dinner and then brought her over to Public House for the surprise party.  It was a super cool thing and a fun night. 

Now for the not so  good things.  I finally was able to take my cast off from my sprained thumb and have been goign to physical therapy for a couple weeks now.  Its almost better but I still can’t lift that great and notice it while playing basbketball.  I’m really hoping to have it fully recovered soon as its been lingering for too long now.

I’ve also been having some tough problems with a bacterial bug I got somehow called C difficle.  The thing is miserable and needs a concoction of anti-biotics and pro-biotics to cure and its still not 100% better yet.  If I can rid those two things soon i’ll be very happy.

Onto the poker.  Poker has been good this month.  So far i’m up about 9k online and about 300 live from home games.  I’ve barely played this month becuase of all the medicine making me tired and just generally not up for playing but when i’ve played i’ve had a lot of sucess.  I’ve discovered a new game to play on FTP that I like a lot, 5-10 Cap Short handed ring game.  This game has terrible players in it and is great to play while waiting for action at the HU tables. 

I’ve also been invited to this home game that runs once a week that my friend Anthony is a regular in.  The game is awesome with tons of action and some big swings and everyone there is super successful and really fun to talk too.  Its definetly a fun game to play once a week.

Thats all I got for now and will try and update more

Ryan

Ok so lets talk poker first.  Since the last update on March 23rd I’m up about 2.8k.  Thats about 2 weeks worth so nothing special on that front.  Ever since the amazing start to the year i’ve really been struggling piecing together any winning streaks.  I was able to finish march up 8k which was great but played about 18k hands ( my most ever by far) and only ran at 2bb/100 which is well below my average of 7.5bb/100.  I am constantly trying to get back to where I was and its tough sometimes when you have such high expectations to live up to them.  Last night I took a couple brutal hands again which contributed to my 1k loss.  I ran a set of 2’s into a set of jacks on a dry flop and lost 900 in that hand and then lost 500 in a hand where i had AA and got it all in on the turn with 2 hearts and he hit his flush draw on the river.  Such is poker but these hands are keeping me from breaking out.

On the non poker front I’ve been extremely busy:

The weekend of March 28th Dana and I went to Philly to visit Jaime and Adam for the weekend.  It was an awesome time.  We went out friday and watched the games/got a bunch of drinks/and just relaxed.  Saturday we got massages, I smoked a cigar with adam, we watched a movie, went out to watch the games/got dinner, and went out at night.  It was an all around really fun weekend.

The next week was fun up untill thursday when i went to the doctor for my thumb and he gave me a soft cast i have to wear for 2 weeks which is super annoying.  It makes it hard to do all normal tasks and I’m going to vegas for a bachelor party in a week and supposed to play golf out there which I’m not sure if I can do now so that is definetly a downer.

Last weekend was fun as well.  I went up with Dana to Quakertown PA (10 min from Lehigh) to visit Tyler and Amy.  We got up Saturday afternoon and got to see there house for the first time.  We went to dinner and then out to watch the games/went line dancing (LOL).  I wasn’t super thrilled about this but have to admit it was kind of fun.  I also sang a killers song doing chareokee and I def have no career as a singer lets just say that (LOL).  Sunday Dana went to the shower with Amy and I hung out with tyler and went to lunch at 5 guys a really good burger spot.  After the shower I drove home with Dana.

This week has been pretty meh so far.  Dana came in last night for the week which is good and I got a lot of fun things comming up (b-day dinner for my sister, Vegas bachelor party, etc) but this cast is really making things tough.  Oh well its only 2 weeks i guess so I can’t complain too much. 

I’ll try and update more often now but typing is tough with this thing. 

Ryan

Its been a while so have a lot of updates here.

First off I just bought a new tux since I have Tylers wedding comming up and then my own in less then a year.  I figure if I wear it about 5 times it will pay for itself in terms of rentals so its a decent long term investment.  It looks really nice too and I wouldn’t be able to rent anything like it so it worked out well.

This past week has been a fun week with the ncaa tourny games.  Its always my favorite week of the year and I took off friday to watch the games all day.  It was a lot of fun and brought me back to my college days of lounging around, drinking beers, and watching sports.  The first round wasn’t too exciting in terms of upsets and close games but was fun nonetheless.

Saturday I attended a surprise b-day party at Midevil Times.  This place isn’t exactly my thing but it was a good time with all my friends nonetheless.  We had a limo and got beyond drunk which made the whole experience definetly more interesting.  After we got back to the city we went to the bars to watch the end of the games.  There was two amazing finishes with Duke beating Texas and Gonzaga beating Western Kentucky on a buzzer beater. 

Sunday was more of a chill day.  I watched most of the games again during the days and took the dog out for a couple nice walks and did a couple of errands.  Other then that not much happened on sunday except for some poker and my usual bustout of the 750k guarentee. 

Poker went ok this weekend.  I won about 1k total for the whole weekend but just reverted back to running pretty crappy.  The run in December and January was great but it gave me a taste of what its like to hold most of your hands and now i’m sort of expecting that to happen and everytime I keep getting bad beated I’m getting very frusterated.  I guess I need to just change my mindset and not expect to win all the favorites to keep my emotions more in check.

Sunday also we finalized our bachelor party plans for Tyler in Vegas.  We just have to work out a couple of the places we will be attending but its all comming together.  Its comming up very soon and i’m starting to get excited for a nice little vacation.

Ryan

For the first time in, no joke, 3 weeks I actually ran above expectation once the money was all in.  I played this guy Tenking who is down a ton but runs like god vs me and was finally able to reverse the trend.  He short stacks 200 and usually plays me on two tables.  If he get up he’ll leave but if I get up he’ll keep rebuying.  Well finally I won basically 7 flips in a row.  Not pure flips, I was 60-40 most of the time, but in FTP thats basically a pure flip.  I was able to win about 1600 off of him in less then an hour and it was great.  He finally left both tables and I called it a night up 1800 for the night.  That was my 4th winning night in a row and felt amazing.  I’m hopefull that I’ve finally turned the corner and can get back to my all time high for the year.  I still have about 8k to go but hopefully a couple good nights and I’ll be there before months end.  This year has been a great start for me and I think I took for granted how amazing it was and I thought I could just cruise through the year running at 15bb/100 which is obviously not possible.  I’m back to reality and have a new approach on playing and hopefully you’ll see me crushing the tables every night from now on.

Ryan

It felt amazing to book the third winning night in a row last night.   It didn’t come easy just like every day for the past 3 weeks but I really worked and played some good poker and was able to book an 1,100 win.  I played Scott Fischman HU last night, a red  pro and famous for winning two bracelets in the wsop.  We played pretty even at 3-6 for about a couple hundred hands.  I snapped off some of his bluffs, and he value bet me hard in a reraised pot when he called the flop bet with a gutter and hit it on the turn.  Other then that no major hands.  I was able to get all the profit from bask1000 as I was just in the groove showing him bluffs at the right times and getting him to call down 3 bets when i actually had hands.  I played another 700 hands last night bringing the month total to over 11,000 hands already the most i’ve ever played in a month.  This month i’m really putting in effort to get out of the downswing and by putting in as many hands as possible i’m hoping i’ve finally done it.  Now FTP let me run like god for once please.  Thanks.

Ryan