Visits

I got back from my three visits, and I liked all three schools a lot. I think that Texas Tech is probably my first choice; Boise State was also great though, as was UNM. I’m very excited for college, and I don’t think I can go wrong picking one of these three.

Boise State was my first visit, and the team is pretty solid, and a great group of guys. They played Oregon on Sunday and won 5-2. The coach is a really cool guy, who is obviously very determined to have a good team. He always has a pretty big roster, because he likes to have a lot of guys competing and working hard to play top 6. The courts are right in the middle of the campus, and it’s probably awesome playing there when you’re the center of attention.

New Mexico is in Albuquerque, which I read was rated one of the most beautiful cities in America. The campus is in a picturesque setting with a nice tennis facility. However, the downside is that the facility is off campus. The team is mainly English players, and I got along with them pretty well.

Texas Tech is a huge campus with a great facility and in every regard is an awesome school. The coach is a high-intensity guy who expects a lot out of his players but is willing to help those who want to work hard and improve. I know this is a school where I will get a lot better at, as well as get a pretty good education. I think Tech is everything I could want, and there is a fairly good chance I end up going there.

College Visits, Update

I’m visiting three schools over the next few days, including Boise State, University of New Mexico, and Texas Tech. I’m pretty excited, these are my first “official” visits, meaning that the schools pay for my expenses.

This week is my first week back at the academy, and I’m beginning to get back into the groove of waking up early, eating healthy, and reading daily. “Atlas Shrugged” has been taking me a while to get through because I usually only read for a half hour or so, and often reread some parts that are particularly interesting.

Tennis has gone well, I had low expectations as I hadn’t played much at all over break, but I think the week went fine and I’m starting to get my timing back. My serve is probably the biggest problem right now, I haven’t had a chance to hit a bunch of serves and it’s just not 100% yet.

I played a decent amount of poker this week but I really have been too tired to put a ton of hands in. I’m playing well and running pretty well too, so if I can keep this up I’ll be back to 25/50+ fairly soon.

Lastly, please vote to help make online poker legal: http://citizensbriefingbook.change.gov/ideas/viewIdea.apexp?id=087800000004m5M&srPos=0&srKp=087

Junior career high rank: 641

Dear Zach

Your IPIN Membership has expired on 31 Dec 2008.

Be aware that from 2009 you are no longer age eligible to

play on the Junior Circuit. As a result you will only be able to renew

your IPIN Membership for the ITF Pro Circuit.

Please note that all players entering 2009

ITF Pro Circuit tournaments are required to pay the annual

IPIN Membership fee before they will be allowed to play.

To renew your IPIN Membership please log in, go to ‘My Profile’

section and select the ‘Registration link’. For further information

please visit the IPIN Online Service at https://ipin.itftennis.com.

Regards

ITF IPIN

Eddie Herr Wildcard Tournament

The Wildcard tournament at the academy was this weekend, all the fulltime players played and the winner got a wildcard into main draw of Eddie Herr, and two qualifying wildcard spots are given out as well.

I won my first three matches easily, 6-0 6-1, 6-0 6-0, and 6-1 6-2. My semifinal match was against a good player in the group above me, and although I was up 4-3 serving in the first, and 3-0 serving in the second, I couldn’t pull it off and lost 4 and 4.

Qualifying for Eddie Herr is next weekend, so hopefully I can get through although it’s going to be very difficult. I got a call from Angela Garcia who is in charge of Orange Bowl (the week after Eddie Herr) and they are giving me a wildcard into qualifying.

I’ve been playing a little poker lately, mostly 5/10. Last weekend I played the $5000 tournament on full tilt, and came in 70th out of 500 after about 10 hours of play. It was a two day event, and we were in the last full hour of the night when I busted. 54 players cashed, so it was pretty frustrating, especially when I was the chip leader with about 125 players left. I believe 9th and up all got at least $90000, and first place was $550000.

I’m having two people stay at my apartment for Eddie Herr, they both went to the academy last year but this year they are training in their South American hometowns, in Puerto Rico and Ecuador this year. After Eddie Herr I’m just going to drive down to Key Biscane for Orange bowl and will probably take a couple people with me. I don’t think I am playing Prince Cup the week after, so I’ll be at the academy for one more week before going home for a couple of weeks.

Boca Raton

I’m leaving today for a tournament in Boca Raton, Florida. Instead of taking a flight, I’m driving down to my grandparents’ house and spending the night there and finishing the drive tomorrow morning. It’s a tough tournament but it’s so close that I can’t afford to skip it.

I was hitting well yesterday, played a match against some girl who’s training here for the time being; I would guess she’s ranked at least top 100 or so. I won the first set 6-1 basically just hitting a lot of topspin, which girls have a very tough time dealing with. In the second set she started going for shots a little more to avoid letting me go on the offense, and it worked better. I still didn’t get broken and took one game off her serve to win 6-4.

The last few days have been okay poker-wise, I haven’t really played much. Yesterday I got home after practice, which was an hour longer because I hit with my coach Jorge, and I just didn’t feel like playing because I was too tired. I’m pretty disciplined in the sense that I know when I wouldn’t be playing my best, so I don’t play. Maybe that’s just me looking for any excuse to avoid putting in the hours.

When I get back from Boca I’m going to start going to sleep a lot earlier, something like 8 or 8:30. I usually wake up at 5:40 so that should be more than sufficient to keep my energy level high after practice from like, 12-7 or so. (the general time when I play)

I’ve been doing OK as of late but I just want to be putting in more hands and when I feel too tired to play, I end up wasting the rest of the day. (well, reading isn’t exactly wasting time but xbox and TV are)

Santiago Tournament

First round is tomorrow for the tournament here in Santiago, and I’m the 6th seed I believe. It’s a pretty tough tournament by Grade 4 standards, (http://www.itftennis.com/juniors/rankings/tournamentgrades.asp) and I’m again at a disadvantage because of the clay. However I’m playing solid and am looking forward to tomorrow.

I’m changing my schedule. Instead of playing the Grade 5 on clay next week, which is a tough Grade 5 because everyone playing these two 4’s is going to it, so it’s essentially a 4. I’m going back to the academy for a week and then going to the Curacao tournament, which I played last year and made 3rd round. I’ll have to defend for the points I won their last year; your points expire a year later and so I need to make it to the quarterfinals or better to improve my rank. I’m looking forward to that tournament because I’ll probably be 1st or 2nd seed, depending on who shows up.

Put in a quick session tonight, broke even or something on fulltilt, up 500 or so. Had a solid day on UB, some low variance action at 10/25 6max, this dude “pushbot” who is a shortstacker (a player who buys in for the minimum and pushes a small edge by shoving over others’ raises) was just playing terribly for some reason. He’s a decent shortstacker but shortstacking is looked down upon, because these players wait around for decent hands and shove over someone’s opening raise. Once they double up, they leave.

Fortunately, this guy was playing atrociously, doing things like shoving his 20bb stack over my limp. I quickly adjusted and began limping some big hands and he dumped maybe 3500 to me, as well as some to RolledUpJacks. We were having fun with it, needling him and such as it’s extremely annoying when someone like pushbot is at our tables when they are full, because you really can’t make a standard pot-sized open raise preflop when he’s to act behind you. Shortstackers leech off the big stacks, so I hope he’s busto or close to it, as 10/25 is the highest regular 6max game and he probably doesn’t have a very big bankroll.

No Internet

Just got into Santiago and there is absolutely no internet in this hotel. What this means is that over the next week I´ll have finished reading both my books as well as rewatched the few movies I brought. I am in a little internet room, not a cafe that lets you use your own computer but one where you have to use their provided ones, and it´s pretty expensive. I don´t know how much I will be posting or playing poker in the next week but hopefully I can get the international sim card on my phone working (which I have been trying to figure out over the past couple of weeks) that would let me get online and get grinding again!

The acceptance list came out for a touranment in Curacao after I get out of Chile. My schedule right now is two Chilean tournaments the next two weeks, and then I am planning on going back to the academy (Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida) and staying in my apartment for a week to train before going on a four week tour in the US. However the Curacao acceptance list is appealing, so I might pull some strings and go. Right now I have scheduled the MyBrightHouse people to come to my apartment the first Monday I return, as well as the BestBuy guys with my TV (50in Pioneer Plasma) to come set that up as well.

How the tournaments work is that you sign up for the tournament by getting permission or sponsorship from your federation (whichever country you are from) three weeks beforehand. Then, the Sunday before the tournament you sign in at the location, and they make the draw that evening. Tournaments start on Monday, and finish on either Friday or Saturday, with one Singles match per day and doubles likewise.

So I would need to reschedule this, as well as figure out how to get to Curacao in time, I haven´t scheduled a flight yet. Here is the acceptance list.

http://www.itftennis.com/shared/medialibrary/pdf/original/IO_36658_original.PDF

Pretty Ugly Session

Got up and went to the club to watch the semifinals, a friend of mine from Ecuador named Emilio Gomez was playing the #1 seed. He’s a tough player with a big forehand but the guy he played is an excellent clay-court player and put on a clinic. Well, 6-4 6-3 so nothing ridiculous. He should win the tournament.

I hit for a while with another Ecuadorian who had to play the doubles final later on. I am really happy with how I’m playing and I am excited for next week. I can do a ton with the ball on clay despite the fact that you really can’t blow the ball past anyone quite to the extent that you can on hard court. But it’s awesome how easy it is to set up for the ball, an excellent example of how important movement is in tennis. If you ever watch a clay court match- professional or junior, you’ll notice the difference between a hard court match. The players look so much better. Their shots cleaner, and strokes more fluid.

It’s all about movement.

As for poker, it didn’t go well. Soon after I jumped on a couple 6max 10/25 games, ragen70 sat at my 25/50 table. He’s very aggressive, and is more than willing to make super light calldowns if you give him a reason. He ended up just destroying me AGAIN, with some ugly coolers, and another disgusting sick sick hand. (if you’ve seen the AJ hand)

Hand #55254630-11100 at Edessa (No Limit Hold’em)
Started at 19/Sep/08 15:44:53

ragen70 is at seat 0 with $12313.50.
zcj90 is at seat 1 with $8094.
The button is at seat 1.

zcj90 posts the small blind of $25.
ragen70 posts the big blind of $50.

ragen70:  — —
zcj90:  Kh As

Pre-flop:

zcj90 raises to $150.   ragen70 re-raises to $550.
zcj90 re-raises to $1200.   ragen70 re-raises to $2600.
zcj90 calls.

Flop (board: 4s 7c 9s):

ragen70 goes all-in for $9713.50.   zcj90 goes all-in
for $5494.   ragen70 is returned $4219.50 (uncalled).

Turn (board: 4s 7c 9s Js):

(no action in this round)

River (board: 4s 7c 9s Js Qs):

(no action in this round)

Showdown:

ragen70 shows Ts Ks.
ragen70 has Ts Ks 9s Js Qs: straight flush, king high.
zcj90 shows Kh As.
zcj90 has As 4s 9s Js Qs: flush, ace high.

Hand #55254630-11100 Summary:

$.50 is raked from a pot of $16188.
ragen70 wins $16187.50 with straight flush, king high.
—————————————————————-

Preflop I think is OK. I’m a little worried about running into a big pair but I think he’s a little predictable postflop in big pots so I wanted to get some EV out of it instead of just shipping it preflop. I exploited his ineptitude to the maximum when he just shoved the flop. With only a PSB left (pot sized bet), he’d check the flop with a big pair trying to mimic what he’d supposedly do if he missed. Instead he shoves pretty quick and it’s a pretty easy call. I was confident on the flop that I had the best hand, and by the river I was certain. Ouch.

Here’s the other hand I was referring to:

—————————————————————-

Hand #55254643-4660 at Eleusis (No Limit Hold’em)
Started at 29/Aug/08 21:17:46

ragen70 is at seat 0 with $14010.25.
zcj90 is at seat 1 with $12146.50.
The button is at seat 1.

zcj90 posts the small blind of $25.
ragen70 posts the big blind of $50.

ragen70:  — —
zcj90:  5s 6c

Pre-flop:

zcj90 raises to $150.   ragen70 re-raises to $550.
zcj90 re-raises to $1250.   ragen70 calls.

Flop (board: 4h 9d 2h):

ragen70 checks.   zcj90 bets $1600.   ragen70 raises to
$4200.   zcj90 goes all-in for $10896.50.   ragen70
calls.

Turn (board: 4h 9d 2h As):

(no action in this round)

River (board: 4h 9d 2h As 8s):

(no action in this round)

Showdown:

zcj90 shows 5s 6c.
zcj90 has 5s 6c 9d As 8s: ace high.
ragen70 shows Ad Jd.
ragen70 has Ad Jd 9d As 8s: a pair of aces.

Hand #55254643-4660 Summary:

$.50 is raked from a pot of $24293.
ragen70 wins $24292.50 with a pair of aces.
—————————————————————-

I don’t want to really explain the entire hand because if you’re not at least a mid-stakes player there’s a lot going on here. But basically he doesn’t think I’d jam on the flop with a big hand; instead I would flat call and get it in later. He snap-called too, which is ridiculous, he thought my flop bet meant I had air so he checkraised to induce a shove from air. Totally insane considering we really didn’t have the history for this to be okay.

Lastly, I played a session on FTP against a very good high stakes player, pr1nnyraid, or Jason Rosenkrantz. I was very surprised to see him sit at my 10/20 table, as the last week or so the big 500/1000 game has been running and I believe he’s been playing there. I believe his normal stakes are anywhere from 50/100-300/600. He told me he was doing a video so I was happy to play him for the sake of it, as I’d get to watch him comment on my play which is very valuable and more than compensates for the EV I’d be losing for playing such a good player.

I looked him up light early in a couple of small pots, mostly unsuccessfully, and I’m pretty sure he thought I was going to try to get in the levelling business and play very tricky. So I tried to keep it simple for the most part, but got into an interesting spot taking an unorthodox line nonetheless:

FullTiltPoker Game #8144041024: Table Effort (heads up) – $10/$20 – No Limit Hold’em – 21:16:48 ET – 2008/09/19
Seat 1: zcj90 ($3,440.05)
Seat 2: pr1nnyraid ($2,030)
pr1nnyraid posts the small blind of $10
zcj90 posts the big blind of $20
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to zcj90 [Ks Ad]
pr1nnyraid: fwiw im not releasing this as liek vid vs one player
pr1nnyraid has 15 seconds left to act
pr1nnyraid: im cutting hand sequences together
pr1nnyraid: duno if that makes a diff to you
zcj90: what does that mean
pr1nnyraid raises to $60
pr1nnyraid: like
zcj90 raises to $205
pr1nnyraid: if we play no interesting hands
pr1nnyraid: i wont use it
pr1nnyraid has 15 seconds left to act
pr1nnyraid: if we play a big pot and its interesting
pr1nnyraid: im only using that one hand
pr1nnyraid calls $145
zcj90: ok
*** FLOP *** [Jc 2c Jh]
zcj90 has 15 seconds left to act
pr1nnyraid: and cutting it together w similar hands vs diff opponents at diff stakes
zcj90 checks
pr1nnyraid checks
*** TURN *** [Jc 2c Jh] [4h]
zcj90 has 15 seconds left to act
zcj90 checks
pr1nnyraid checks
*** RIVER *** [Jc 2c Jh 4h] [Kh]
zcj90 has 15 seconds left to act
zcj90 checks
pr1nnyraid has 15 seconds left to act
pr1nnyraid checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
zcj90 shows [Ks Ad] two pair, Kings and Jacks
pr1nnyraid mucks
zcj90 wins the pot ($409.50) with two pair, Kings and Jacks
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $410 | Rake $0.50
Board: [Jc 2c Jh 4h Kh]
Seat 1: zcj90 (big blind) showed [Ks Ad] and won ($409.50) with two pair, Kings and Jacks
Seat 2: pr1nnyraid (small blind) mucked [Qc Kd] – two pair, Kings and Jacks

I flat out do not understand his river checkback. If anyone has an answer feel free to comment. I was obviously planning on checkraising, if he shoved it’d be a pretty sick spot.

I booked another small win on FTP today, but it could’ve been 6k more as a poor player cracked my aces with A8 suited allin preflop for a 150bb pot. A few coolers later he quits with a ~6500 something stack. Fortunately I got some other action against a decent player and ran pretty well for a couple buyins. After the -20k session with ragen70, I got some dinner and went back at it, quickly getting down a couple of buyins at 6max, but recovering over the next few hours with some nice heads up action, to book a solid 6k win. -12k on the day.

Tomorrow I’m leaving for Santiago; I’m in Vina Del Mar right now. Let’s hope there is good internet there. If not, I’ve got some reading to catch up on. I’m in the middle of “The Way of the World” and it’s a pretty difficult read about how the US government, American society, and rest of the world run when it comes to terrorism. I also brought “Atlas Shrugged”, and I plan on finishing both by the time I get back to the states in two weeks.

Quite frankly, I can’t wait. I appreciate everything about the country I’ve grown up in, after being in some places that I never want to go back to. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for experiencing different cultures, but I like mine better. Two more weeks here, then I will be in the US for all but one week for the rest of the year. I just want to be done with South America.

But that doesn’t mean I won’t do some damage the next two weeks. 🙂