The Razor Blog
Tequila time in Vegas : February 2010
December and January were action-packed months both from the poker side of things and my life in general.
I started off the month of December with a bang in MTTs, having my best finish in the 50k rebuy yet, coming 2nd for 8k, but a bigger accomplishment in poker was to follow when I began talking to both Connor “Sealey” Tate & Paul “Action” Jackson.
After a few weeks of chatting to them a conversation came up between me and Connor which involved them both and he told me that he and Paul were long time friends who hadn’t spoken in years and would like to reunite, so this gave me a chance that i couldn’t refuse, reuniting two long time friends and also poker greats - may not be a big deal to some but to me it felt like I had won the 50k, a lot of people are just in it for the money and in my opinion if that’s the way you are you’re not going to be consistent with your play, you have to enjoy the game to be the best you can be and stay consistent.
I hate taking breaks from poker, but sometimes it helps more than you know, it brings back the hunger to win and some lost love for the game.
After playing for a few months without at least a little break, and losing about 7k in SNGs on ipoker, I decided to slow down on them and switch focus for a while.
So as not to get bored I freerolled on to another poker network for a laugh and came out flying, final tabled 3 out of 5 nights in their second biggest daily tourney which was a 15k guarantee, wining it once for a cool $3,500.
I then decided to gamble with this fun money a little bit, which I don’t do too often.
I sat down at a $3-$6 PLO table with $600, first hand I get AA78 double suited, flopped top set with a flush draw... and lost to the nut straight on the river.
I needed a smoke after that so once I returned I bought in again on the same table, sat for about 40 minutes and left with $2,800, broke the table.
After a few more top 10 tournament finishes I had built my roll from zero to $8,000 in two weeks.
Over the next few weeks I made another 2k in cash and MTTs, so this made it a very good month for me especially considering I just wanted to try it for a week as an experiment...
I then flew off to Las Vegas to meet the Nutspoker team, Montel Willams and most importantly my idol - my Grandfather to whom I had once promised I’d meet him in Vegas one day.
This meant a lot to both of us, he was impressed, that alone made my trip - love ya gramps!
I ended up busting Montel Williams out of his own charity tournament on the first day - sorry, Montel, but i just couldn’t fold top set!
The people I met on this trip were all amazing and confirmed my choice of becoming part of the Nutspoker.com team.
I didn’t actually get much playing time in Vegas, but I still managed to chop one tourney on the Strip and bubbled in another one in Caesar’s Palace.
I must say the one I chopped I got lucky as I was heads up with Laura``tequila`` D, and she had mercy on me and let me have half!
I also played about 20 hours of cash in the Hard Rock, just $1-$2 NLH, profiting about $2,000.
Some photos from the Vegas trip have surfaced, join us on Facebook & Twitter to view those.
The team of players I’m trying to gather are still not in place, but I’m proud to announce that Nadim ``The Doctor`` Shabou is back with Nutspoker again; he and I will hopefully soon be seeking and destroying some live events in the near future.
Once I’m settled in a bit more I’ll try to blog more often.
Good’s Not Far From Greats M8s!!
@ Conor `Sealey` Tate: remember to keep an open mind, just because you are a better player than someone doesn’t mean they can’t help you with your game and teach you a few things! ;-)
Out for now, keep on razoring and not limping! J
December’s Roller Coaster Ride!
At the start of December I first kicked off my pro sponsorship with Nutspoker and I steamrollered everything at the start of the month.
I came over to my parents’ place on the 4th of the month to refocus and make this work to the best of my ability; the first four days I spent here I won about $6,000 and I felt I was playing the best poker of my life... but then boom!
The 2 and 3 outers started hitting for about two weeks straight and by the middle of the month I had dropped about 50% of my bankroll in a nasty downswing.
I have to admit I got a bit worried and I went to my drunken mentor, who just slurred these wise words to me:
"The three things in life I’m sure about are death, taxes and The Razor taking down tournaments".
(Russ Connor).
This gave me a complete and utter confidence boost, and the following week i found myself and Russ putting together a dream team of players which i will unveil in next month’s blog.
After I had gotten the guys sorted and ready to start firing I then went back to focussing on my game – as you can imagine I was not too happy that I had lost 50% of my bankroll in so short a period of time, so I came back very aggressively and was only putting my money in when I knew I was ahead (93% & above, typically) for the rest of the month.
I razored the MTTs during the last week of the month, racking up around 13k profit in doing so.
This month I ran very badly at SNGs, losing about 4.5k - with my volume that equates to about 2 straight days of losing and any good SNG player will know how easy that is to do.
I also challenged myself to play about 250 Fort Knox jackpot SNG tournaments in a couple of days to see if I could do it and in the process ensure I annihilated the Rapid Races leaderboard at http://www.nutshouse.com/rapidraces.html to throw down a challenge to any SNG specialists out there – if any of you think you can challenge my supremacy and topple me, please feel free to try... I’m still in first gear here... J
This December blog shows you how sick a game poker can be even for the best players - the only thing you can really do is get your money in when you’re ahead and make big folds when you’re running bad.
The most important thing to do during these downswings is to maintain your bankroll - never be in for more then 5% of it at any time.
These swings are going to happen in poker to even the lucky and the good – it’s how much money you save yourself at these times which is most important.
Happy New Year Everyone, Hang On For The Ride!
Final Tip From 2009 - Stay Out Of My Pots In 2010!
Razor Ramone
P.S. Mom & Dad & Sher - love u so much and thanks for all the support, I couldn’t do it without you!
December Stats
Final Tables : 37
Top 5 Cashes
1) 12/29/09 $50,000 GP Rebuy - 2nd place for $8,107.50.
2) 12/21/09 $20,000 GP Rebuy - 4th place for $1,812.30.
3) 12/29/09 $5,000 GP Rebuy - 1st place for $1,687.50.
4) 12/26/09 $5,000 GP Rebuy - 1st place for $1,368.50.
5) 12/09/09 $12,500 GP Double Stack Freezeout - 3rd place for $1,250.
Total December Mtt Stats Via Top Shark
- Games played : 586
- Avg Profit : $31.47
- Avg ROI : 130%
Total Profit : $18,440.43
