Amit Makhija

Ice cold in the Bahamas

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Not literally cold, its actually as beautiful as always! Poker can be a tough tough game though . This trip I managed to lose 40k in 3 tournaments, the 10k main event, the 25k highrollers, and the 5k postlim event. I felt like in the main event I only played my B game, didn't do anything particular amazing, but still played solid winning online poker but lost a couple key flips and that was that. The 25k was an awesome tournament, albeit a super stacked field. My starting table was one of the toughest tables I have ever played at, Good players kept rotating in, and the final lineup before it broke was super sick. I was in the 1 seat, Isaac Haxton in the 2 seat, Elky was in the 3 seat, Erik Seidel in the 4, Gus Hansen in the 5, a ftp pro i didn't recognize in the 6, and Scott Seiver in the 8. This table had no soft spots and I was very happy to increase my stack from 50k to 140k by the time it broke with no huge pots. I was super happy with how well i played at this table.

Right when the table broke it was an insta-nightmare though (about 10 hrs into the tournament). I got moved to a new table that was considerably softer but still a challenging table. This table featured Josh Arieh, Busto_Soon, Bill Edler, Ivan Demidovs girlfriend who's name I forgot (she's pretty tough though) and Pokerstars 25/50nl regular Molswi47. When I got to the table I decided to make my first big bluff of the tournament and made a play that is very uncharacteristic for me as I ran a super long ball air bluff vs Bill Edler, for about 50k in chips, I cant remember the last time before this that I bluffed off a significant portion of my chips deep in a major tournament and I definitely am still bitter about this play. I went with a read I had and like anyone else I make mistakes. This apparently set up a sick image for me however, despite leaving me with only ~85k in chips. The very next hand Josh Arieh limped the button, I made it 4x from the button with AsAh, and Busto_Soon monkey shoved 61k from the BB with ATs, turned out to be a pretty good play as he turned the nut flush on me and I was down to 20kish chips at 800/1600. I actually didn't know that the villain was busto_soon at the time, and was very surprised to see a good player make a shove like that when he had that many bb's, oh well the nature of tournaments. One hand after that sick beat I got AcQs and reshoved on a Bill Edler open, he had JhJd and won the race in the only way that was appropriate for how I've ran on this trip, the board ran out Qc 9c 8c 2d Th and I was out in 23rd place, oh well I can't complain usually i run like god. Poker news.

In the 5k I reallllly grinded. After the first 4 levels I was running good and playing good and chipped up from 10k to 50k in a few big pots. After that I went cardead for the next 5 levels are so without seeing a hand better than A6o, I had 36k at 600/1200 and raised 99 from the cutoff, and the bb shoved 31k, I called and he had AK, The flop braught two aces and I lost my only race of the tournament, and I was crippled, and finished shortly after a few spots away from the money. Overall I was pretty happy with how I played in the high rollers and the 5k, but obviously not super happy with how the trip went, but oh well cant win them all. I think I will be skipping WPT Biloxi and heading home a little earlier then expected so I'll be refreshed for LAPC in February. Im in the beautiful bahamas till Monday though so I'm going to be drunken Jetskiing, swimming, and going on water slides for a few more days, Stop on over and say whatsup if you see me and I'll buy you a drink!

Ill keep you guys updated,

~Amit

Bellagio 5k final table

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Today I decided to play the Bellagio 5k that got a massive turnout of 94 runners! It was a pretty small turnout and definitely a very tough field, but luckily my luckbox was working pretty well and I ended the day 2nd of 9. I feel like I played online poker very well and am obviously happy with how the day went.

We start up again tomorrow at 3pm Vegas time, we have ~30 minutes left of the 2,000-4,000/500 level, my stack is at 243,000 and the average stack is ~150,000. Im super exhausted as we played from noon to 2am, Ill include some interesting hands tomorrow and hopefully can blog about a first place finish! Hopefully my luckbox keeps going strong, more poker news!

~Amit

Wire to Wire EZ game

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

All I can say is wow, today was totally surreal. I was able to hold the chip lead essentially the entire tournament and go wire to wire in the Full Tilt $5000 6max FTOPS event #22 and it felt incredible to book a win against a very tough field.

I finished the event in first place for $550,000 which was good for the second biggest cash of my life, but definitely the most satisfying. I really appreciate all the support from everyone, all the text messages, phone calls, and instant messages I have received in the last few hours have been truly awesome, its great to have friends as cool as you guys.

With all that said I am incredibly tired as I put every ounce of energy into that online poker tournament, after winning I went out to Kraft Steak at MGM with some friends and had a few drinks, but tomorrow we'll probably all out celebrate and maybe ill post some hands about poker news.

Thanks for the sweat guys, take it easy!

~Amit

Chip leader of the FTOPS 5k at the end of day 1

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

A day of running good is soooo much fun, it feels like its been awhile since a booked a really sick day in a major, even if it is only an online major. Today I feel like I was in the zone and playing my "A" game most of the day and I was definitely rewarded for it.

I ended the day with 280k with the blinds at 600/1200 in the $5000 6 max FTOPS event #22, which is good for 1st of 35 remaining players. 1st place in this tournament is $550,000 and the satisfaction of defeating one of the toughest fields in online poker history, which would definitely mean a lot to me.

Im going to get some sleep, play resumes at 2pm EST tommorow, you can catch the action on www.fulltiltpoker.com, my screen name is amak316, hopefully my next blog will be a drunk blog after celebrating a big win =). Poker news.

~ Amit

Foxwoods day 1, so easy even a caveman can stack me!

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Adam Katz, Jamie Rosen and I flew from Vegas into the big city of Providence, Rhode Island, from providence we took a limo into foxwoods and we were finally checked into our suite (which actually turned out to be super sick despite the horror stories I have heard about foxwoods) by 1:30 am. I was still very much on west coast time, and I couldn't get to sleep till around 5 am last night, then had to play today at noon, so I was only a few hours of sleep and had no time for breakfast. This lead to me being super out of it today and not nearly mentally prepared enough to play my absolute best.

When I sat down at my starting table this morning I felt like I hit the jackpot, Im pretty sure the table I drew was pulled straight out of a nursing home as all I saw was a sea of grey hair. Don't get me wrong, I respect my elders, but in general random old people at your table might as well be turning their hands face up with how transparently they play. Unfortunately for me this table had 2 empty seats when I sat down and within a few rounds David Singer and David Williams scooped the empty seats, that being said this was definitely a table I wanted to be at. Not a lot seemed to go my way at this table though, and I missed a bunch of flops in multiway pots and saw my stack dwindle to 25k (30k starting stack) when my table broke at the beginning of level 3.

I was obviously disappointed that this table broke, and I was even more disappointed when I saw my new table, the table was definitely not very soft. This table had some great players, Andy Bloch on my immediate left, Pokerroad's own Gavin "the Caveman" Smith on my immediate right, Brent Richey across the table, Anna Wroblewski on Andy's left and another young (probably internet player) kid at my table who played very well. This table was playing very loose and aggressive, and since I had a pretty decent seat with position on Gavin I planned to play pretty active. I played a bunch of small pots, nothing too interesting all day, flat calling and three-betting Gavin a fair share in position, eventually chipping up from 25k to about 45k then the 300-600/75 level started which was the last level of the day, and all hell broke loose.

I folded for the first few orbits of 300/600 because I was pretty card dead/situation dead, then missed a couple set hunt attempts against early position raisers and chipped down to about 38k when a big hand with gavin came up.

Gavin raised preflop to 1600 from the cutoff and I flat called from the button with 9d7d, Gavin was the table chip leader with about 130k or so. The flop comes a beautiful 976 rainbow and Gavin checks. I bet 2200 knowing that Gavin thinks I'm going to stab at this flop very often when he checks. He then raises to 6100, and my initial instinct was to 3bet this flop but Gavin is very good at making big laydowns and I feel like my hand would be a little overrepped and I feel like gavin would get away from trickily played overpairs etc if I opt to 3bet here, and obviously get it in when I'm crushed. I decided to flat call the flop with the intention of getting it in on the turn on a lot of cards hopefully squeezing one more bet out of his air bluffs with the benefit of disguising my hand because I feel like Gavin would expect me to 3bet the flop with 2 pair. The turn brought another 7 giving me pretty much the nuts. Gavin checked to me again and i decided to stab for 8,000, a small bet but I didn't want it to look like I am committing myself and want to induce him to come over the top with some sort of combo draw. Gavin insta shoves and I obviously call and he has 5s8s for a flopped straight and I obviously got very fortunate to cooler him and chip allll the way up to about 75k.

A couple hands later it folds around to Gavin and he raises to 1600 from Mid position. I decide to just flat call with AJo because I didn't want to 3bet Gavin too light because I felt like he may have been steaming after his cooler and would be ready to flat call me wide with the intention of outplaying me post flop. I didn't feel like getting into a pretty deep stacked spew war with a good player so I decided to flat call and play a hand that figures to be the best hand vs Gavin's opening range in position. It then folds around to the young player i mentioned earlier and he shoves his stack into the middle, for a total of 18k. This reshove is obviously a lot of chips, but before he shoved I saw him look around the pot and realize how many chips were in the pot, he also was definitely good and smart enough to realize that Gavin is raising like 40% of the deck, and given that he seemed like he may have been steaming at this point he would expect me to 3 bet a big hand for value, thus I felt that he was very light here a lot. After some deliberation I made the call and he tabled pocket Tens which is a stronger hand then i expected, but still a race. I lost the ~40k race and was back down to around 55k. The blinds went through me a couple times when Gavin raised the hijack to 1600, I looked down at QTo and decided to 3bet him to 4800 because he was obviously raising very wide in this spot and the stacks were incredibly awkward for 4betting thus i expected to take the pot down preflop a huge % of the time, and if he calls I could play a big pot in position with a hand that figures to be the best hand. The blinds both fold, and it fairly quickly Gavin decides to 4bet to 16k, which was a big F my life moment. Obviously my natural reaction is to snap muck in that spot, but having played with Gavin and hearing him discuss hands on Poker radio he rarely seems to 4bet his huge hands (QQ+) unless he has reason to believe his opponent has a huge hand, he tends to flat call with these premiums a lot. He definitely knew that I did not need a big hand to 3bet him here, and thus i thought he was bluffing sooo often, I counted my chips and was literally ready to grab them and shove all in but instead I went away from my read, didn't have the balls to pull the trigger (not usually a problem of mine) and folded after a lot of deliberation. Gavin tabled the old 63o. OWNEDDD. I get sooo frusterated when i don't go with my reads and they were right.

Oh well, after playing a few pots and making a few preflop raises that did'nt work i end up chipping down to 40k when another hand with Gavin comes up. Gavin raises Mid position to 1600, I flat call with KJdd, and the BB flat calls as well. The flop comes Tx6s3s. BB checks, Gavin Checks, I check. I decided stabbing here would be bad because its a pretty coordinated flop and one of them is likely to at least have a big draw. The turn is an off suit Jack. BB checks, gavin bets 3600. I decide that on the flop Gavin often has something with moderate showdown value like a midpair 77-99, an A6 type of hand or a draw that he planned to checkraise the flop with (Gavin plays really tricky postflop). I think with my steaming image if i raise the turn it will look really bluffy and he will have a hard time giving me credit for a hand as it looks like I'm trying to rep a strange holding like J6 as he wouldn't expect me to raise with a naked jack and wouldn't expect me to check back anything top pair or better on the flop. I thought Gavin was definately capable of looking me up very light with this line and I have the additional benefit of making his draws pay more to get there. I opt to raise to ~12k and gavin peels. At this point I was planning on firing for value a fair amount of rivers to try to get value from hands with marginal showdown value. The river, however, brings a baby spade card, completing the flush and gavin leads in for 23k and I muck fairly quickly. At this point I beat pretty much nothing and I didn't feel like Gavin was likely to turn a hand with showdown value that he peeled with on the turn into a bluff.

I blind down a couple of orbits to 25,075 to end the day in very frustrating fashion, but I suppose the title is a bit misleading because Gavin did not quite stack me, even though he hammered away a huge chunk of my chips, that being said he was a pleasure to play online poker with and a very nice guy. Hopefully tomorrow I can hit a rush and chip up, things can happen so fast in this game.

Ill keep you updated tomorrow, thanks for reading!

~Amit

blogggg uno ...

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

... Finding ways to avoid cashing tournaments all over the world!

Hey pokerroad! This is going to be my first blog for the site, and Im super pumped to give you guys a little window into the crazy roller coaster that has been my life since I decided to take "the plunge" down the poker road. OK, it turns out that line sounded better in my head then it did on paper, but whatever, I had to start off blog #1 somehow =).

For those of you who don't know me I will throw in a little background info, I am currently 23 years old, and recently finished up school at the University of Minnesota. I learned to play poker around my sophomore year of college when I discovered online poker. I grinded hard for a few years under the screen name "AMAK316" which is probably familiar to many of you. Since finishing school I decided to take this whole poker thing a little more seriously, with bundles of free time I decided to hit the road and play all the major tournaments in the US and a few overseas. Fast forward 9 months later and I have ran like Zeus already making a world series of poker TV final table (10k pot limit holdem) and getting second in WPT Legends of Poker at the bike, amassing over 900k in live cashes.

Alright thats about all the brag-blogging ill do (for now) but on to other stuff. I've been super busy since the bike, I made a trip to borgata but got banned from playing that WPT, then I jetted off to europe to play the WCOOPs (world championships of online poker) in Amsterdam with a group of friends. After bricking off the WCOOPs in epic fashion we all decided to hit up World Series of Poker Europe in London. That tournament was ridiculously awesome, and a great structure but I got coolered pretty hard on day 1 to find my way to the rail, I may have to relive this moment a bit because it was on the ESPN feature table so maybe you all will see it. Later that week I played EPT London, which I felt had a terrible structure and was kind of a poorly ran tournament, I also found a way to stack off on day 1 (drawing stone dead all in on the flop) and grabbed the first flight back to the states. Running bad in London is way less fun than running bad in the US because the travel expenses there are unreal. Losing buyins + spending 50$ on a cheesburger = life tilt, that place is absurdly expensive.

After London I came back out to the US, hung out at my parents house for a week or so and skipped WPT Niagara because I was the best man in one of my friends weddings, it was really strange to see one of my good friends getting married and starting a family already while I have literally 0 responsibilities at this point in my life. After that I moved into what is now my house in vegas, and I love it here! This city is pretty awesome, and my roomates are all poker players who are very fun guys. I am currently living with Jamie "TheCronic420" Rosen, Hunter "HemipowerSWT" Frey, Ben "Shanking You" Palmer, and Adam "Akat11" Katz. Hopefully all these guys motivate me to get back on the online grind, because I have been ridiculously lazy the last few months. Since I got to vegas I have played a few events here, WPT Festa 15k at the Bellagio, and the 10k at Ceasers, I made day 2 of both of them, but couldn't run good deep in either =(. My next stop on the circuit will be Foxwoods (which I hear is not the most fun stop of the year but oh well) hopefully next time you guys hear from me Ill be 1.5M dollars richer =).

Sorry if that was a little long, in the next few blogs you can expect less of a summary and more interesting hands and individual trip reports, maybe I'll even do a write up of some Sunday online tournaments this week. Later guys!

~Amit