crowdstaker-blog

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Campaign is 7% funded with 13 days left.

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Crowdstaker is featured on PokerNews...again!

Read about the return of Crowdstaker on our exclusive PokerNews article. 

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Crowdstaker is BACK!

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It's over :(

Fellow backers, I'm sorry to tell you, but our run has come an end.

I'm sitting here at 7am, writing this in my hotel room before catching a last-minute one-way flight to Toronto in four hours.

I still need a day or two to get over the disappointment. But on the bright side, there were some important lessons I learned on this trip, but before I get into that, let me recap the final tournament of the campaign.

It was the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza $2500 buy-in with a $300,000 guaranteed prize pool.

For the first two hours, only recreational players were at my table and I was able to build my 20,000c starting stack to 30,000c.

Then Marc Daubach sat down at the table, with over $380,000 in live tournament wins under his belt. 

I was the aggressor at the table until he sat down, but in one hand, I used his aggression against him.

I called his raise in the blind with KJ, not a strong hand, but I was willing to protect my blind with it.

King flopped with two diamonds on board and I check, letting him c-bet and he does. I call.

The turn is a blank and we go check check.

River is a blank, and unless he has a King with a better kicker, I'm pretty sure I'm good. I could value bet if I want to, but I thought I would make more money if I check the river to look weak, and call his bluff.

He bets the pot, which is a quarter of our stacks, and I feel like he doesn't want me to call. I decided he either missed his draw and is trying to steal, or he genuinely has AK or KQ with top pair and a better kicker than me. It feels more like he missed his draw because of his huge bet, so I take the chance and call. He says "you're good" and I show my hand. He mucks.

He loses again to someone else, and eventually he's down to half his starting stack.

That's when I look down at AA and raise. He re-raises and I put him all-in. He says "is this a re-entry tournament?" and someone says "yes". Then he says "good" and calls with JJ.

The flop didn't hit him, so I knocked him out and built my stack to close to 40,000c.

Six hours into the tournament, half the field remains, and as always, the recreational players are mostly out, and the pros, both online pros and live pros, are mostly still in.

You can tell who the online pros are, who are a lot tougher than live pros, because they're all in their 20's, some of them look like teenagers, they almost always have headphones and iPads to listen to music and watch movies while they grind 12 hours a day. And they always have a back pack carrying snacks, books, and probably stacks of money.

There were 4 of them at my table at the 6-hour mark.

One pro to my left kept 3-betting my pre-flop raises in late position--and I mean always.

After the fourth time he did this, I 4-bet him a third of my stack, and he pushes all-in. It was amazing. I had to fold, and I wish I asked him his name so I could look him up.

Sometimes I'd just sit back and watch two pros go at it and I learn a lot. One major quality they have is their willingness to go bust early in the tournament--risk their whole stack on a hunch--and I just don't have that yet. Maybe I never will. 

These guys got me down to 10,000c, 50bb, just before the dinner break. On the very last hand before dinner, I look down at AQ on the button. A short stack with 5000c goes all in. Everyone folds to me. His range is wide so I want to call, but I don't want the blinds to call, so I go all-in. If the blinds have a good hand to call me, so be it. But they don't.

I go heads up for a showdown with AQ vs AJ and win.

Back from dinner, I have 15,000c with blinds at 150/300 with 50 antes.

The table breaks down again and now I'm at tougher table with five online pros.

I'm in seat 9. Seat 7 is the chip leader, a smart online pro who looks 17 years old and plays 50% of his hands.

Eight hours in, the blinds are up to 300/600 with 75 antes, and I blinded down to 10,000c.

I raise under the gun with 10 10. Everyone folds and Seat 7 in the small blind puts me all-in.

I've seen this guy go all-in against short stacks with A8 suited, so I figure I beat over 70% of his range with 10 10. I'm hoping he has 9 9 or A 10.

I say "alright" and push my stack.

He shows AJ. It's a coin flip. Our whole campaign came down to one coin flip. And I lost. Ace on the flop.

I was devastated, but at the same time, I felt like I played well.

In fact, I think I played my best this whole trip.

And that's when I learned the biggest poker lesson of my life -- Vegas is too good for me.

Poker isn't about ego, it's about making money.

If I play in smaller tournaments with recreational players, in the long run, I will make money.

If I play in Vegas tournaments against kids who do this for a living, then in the long run, I will lose money. 

Being in the top 20% of the Canada All Time Money List,  I actually thought I was better than 20% of the field out here. After taking my shot, I'd say I'm in the top 50%, which isn't enough.

This doesn't mean I'm going to quit on the WSOP or Vegas--I'll come back next year to play a couple.

And I think I'll be better this time. Losing to these pros made me better.

For example, let me break down an interesting hand I got into with pro Jeremy Joseph in the $1000 buy-in on Sunday.

Joseph plays any two cards. He sat on my right.

He was small blind and I was big. Everyone folds and he raises me. I 3-bet with A10 and Joseph calls me.

Flop is 2 7 8, rainbow.

He checks, and I don't want to c-bet here because I want to control the pot size.

Turn comes 9. I have an up and down straight draw with a back door draw to an ace.

He checks. I think I can take the pot right there so I bet. He check raises me a big chunk of my chips. 

He's representing a straight here, or he's semi-bluffing with a straight draw. It's highly unlikely he's doing this with a pair, or 2 pair. If he hit any part of the flop or turn, I feel he would have lead out with a bet instead of checking.

So if he's semi-bluffing with a straight draw, that means he either has a 6 and is looking for the bottom end of the straight, or he has a 10 and is looking for the top end. Which in the latter case, means I have him beat with Ace high and a 10.

In my head, I decide that he's semi-bluffing, which means I should go all-in here, but i don't. And maybe that's the difference between me, and a pro. A pro would 4-bet all-in with Ace high in this position. But like scared money, I just call and hopes he checks the river.

River comes a 10. 

He value bets so small that I have to call him.

He turns over K 6.

This is just one of the hundreds of tricky hands I had to play here, which wouldn't happen in Atlantic City or Buffalo, no disrespect to those players. But these guys are just on a different level. And when I play them, I'm really gambling.

Jeremy Joseph went on to final table the WSOP $1500 no-ante event the next day, winning over $20K.

And the week before, he won over $12K in another WSOP event.

But with all that said, I want to thank my 76 backers for giving me the opportunity to play here.

I got to meet James Woods...

...play beside a world champ and watch him lose before me...

...had some of the best, most authentic Chinese food I've ever had (Vegas sure knows how to treat us Asians)...

...had the pleasure of drinking tons of free beer (free beer is unheard of in Canada)...

....I got to experience my first big buy-in win...

...and I got to watch my heroes play and learn from the best.

So that's the end of our journey. I hope you enjoyed following my blog.

Running this campaign was just as much fun as playing in the tournaments, and therefore, I'm planning on helping other players crowdfund their big tournament buy-ins in exchange for shares of their winnings, and all the meanwhile, I will document their progress here for backers to follow.

Maybe the next "crowdstaker" will be a pro?

Or maybe it'll be you?

Until next time, please stay in touch. I'll be updating this blog on the regular, talking about poker and the future of Crowdstaker.

Thanks again for your support, and I hope you enjoyed following me on this ride of a lifetime. 

- Ian Tuason

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35bb at the dinner break #crowdstaker

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Whatta ya know, I busted the pro. He's re-entering though. Must be nice to be able to afford two $2500 buy-ins #highroller

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Playin better today. Won a big hand from Belgium pro, Marc Daubach, letting him float to the river to call his big bluff with top pair. At 30,000c at the 1st break #crowdstaker

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Back to the scene of my first win, putting all remaining funds into the biggest buy-in I've ever played - the $2500 buy-in Deep Stack at the Venetian. This is our last chance, backers. We are officially all in. #crowdstaker (at Venetian Resort & Casino)

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Day 6 Summary of Operation Crowdstaker

As the legend goes, Jack Strauss bet all his chips early in the 1982 World Series of Poker Main Event and was called by a better hand. As he got up to leave the table, he discovered a single chip hidden under his napkin on the table. Because he didn't announce all-in, the floor director allowed him to keep playing. With that single chip, he built a stack, and eventually went on to win the tournament, becoming the world champion.

After that, two things happened that forever changed history:

1) Napkins are no longer allowed on the table.

2) The saying "all you need is a chip and a chair" became a saying.

I'm telling you this story because it gives hope to people with one last chip. And that's how I feel now -- the guy with one last chip.

But yesterday morning, I felt the complete opposite. I started the day with 15,000 chips in the deepest tourney I ever played in. I was excited. Maybe too excited. 

They predicted over 7000 entrants, and now, they're at over 10,000.

This was a monster tournament, and with the huge starting chip stack and deep blind structure, it was my best chance at winning big for you guys. 

The tourney started great for me. My first table was soft, no pros I recognized, and I controlled it well. I played 80% of my hands and had everyone guessing. Built a 20,000c stack in 2 hours. 

But then I was moved to a tougher table. I should have slowed down my wild play, but my momentum was on high gear, and I felt pressure to build my stack. I started bluffing in the wrong spots and calling with second best. By 4 hours in, I donked away half my chips to 10,000c. 

Then i was moved again and the table was even tougher. Every time the weaker players got railed, the stronger players remained, making each hour tougher than the one before.

These two guys were solid, and I could tell they were online pros. I also recognized them, maybe from magazines, TV or some winner's photo. Does anyone recognize them at all? If you do, tell me their names. I'm curious to look them up.

6 hours in, I was down to 5000c, but with blinds at 100/200, I was still at 25bb which isn't such bad shape. I went into grind mode.

Then just before the third break, I found a good spot to raise with AK in mid/late position with no limpers. I was thinking of a standard raise, but chip leader (the pro in green) was in the big blind, and his calling range was big. I knew he'd call anything, and if my flop missed my AK, I'd be stuck with a tough decision. So I decided to go all-in and actually hoped he'd call. Lucky for me, he had a calling hand that I had dominated -- AQ. He called.

I took out my phone and was busy snapping a photo of both our hands on the table when the flop came. I was focusing on my iPhone screen so I didn't actually see the flop clearly, but when all the players at my table moaned, I knew I was beat. I thought maybe he hit his Q. It was worse. Flop was K J 10. Dude flopped broadway.

Oh well. Shit happens all the time. But this time, it just hurt a little bit more.

Now here's the situation.

The backer fund is at $0, and the total prize pool is at $2083. But with the World Series of Poker and the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza still running, the $2083 will be put back into the fund, keeping our original campaign alive. Playing for a spot in the WSOP Main Event, and a chance to win millions, is what this campaign has always been about. 

  So this is it. We're down to our last chip. 

Today, I'll be going back to the Venetian where I won earlier this week, and put our remaining funds into the $300,000 guaranteed Venetian Deep Stack at noon.

Buy-in to this tournament is $2500, so as an added bonus to my backers, I will top up the fund to $2500 while all your percentages of winnings will stay the same.

This is our last chance. Sudden death overtime. Do or die.

Let's see if this 'chip and a chair' mumbo jumbo is true.

- Ian Tuason

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Arg! Brutal loss. Got it all in with AK got called with AQ. Flop K J 10 #wsop51

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20,000c going into the first break. No pros at my table. Playing every hand. #wsop51

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What a structure. 15,000c with 1 hour blinds startIng at 25/25. Let's get this going #wsop51

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Event so big today, they set up tables outside the tournament venue and in the actual casino floor near the slots #wsop51

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WSOP Event 51 $1500 buy-in Monster Stack. Over 7000 entrants. Over $1million for 1st place. #wsop51

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Feels like the main event today #wsop51

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Day 5 Summary of Operation Crowdstaker

I got to the Venetian and my chips from day one were waiting for me at the table.

I was 10bb and the plan was to play tight and pick great spots to go all-in to either steal the blind and antes or double up.

In late position I looked down at AJ and went all in. Big blind called me with KQ. I flopped two pair and won the hand. Goal one accomplished.

A few hands later I look down at AA in mid-position and raise. KK puts me all-in. I double up again.

At 30-40bb, I was sitting comfortably for a while and cruised into the money.

My first cash!

I was guaranteed  $2083 but of course I'm drooling over the $183,506 first place prize.

But with blinds making huge jumps, I was down to 10bb and back to my original plan of going all-in in good spots.

Too bad that spot came a little too early. I went all in with a strong Ace and was called by QQ. The dude hit trips on the flop and I was drawing dead.

I came in 101th place out of 1008 for a $2083 cash. 

After that I went back to the WSOP and played the $235 Daily, and the $185 Daily twice (with re-entry), and lost. I'm done with these Daily tournaments. They're deep in chips, but the structure is too quick.

So here's the situation now.

We have $2083 in our total prize pool, and $1425 still remaining in our backer fund.

With the remaining $1425 in our backer fund I will add $75 out of pocket to top it up to $1500, and buy into the second biggest WSOP tournament this year -- Event #51 $1500 buy-in Monster Stack starting at noon today.

They are expecting over 7000 entrants with a first place prize over $1,000,000.

Consider this our main event, fellow backers. This could change everything.

As always, I will keep you posted on the regular.