Ryan Welch's Blog

Good news is that Ive final tabled two tournaments this month, bad news is that Ive had the chiplead 5 handed and 8 handed and gotten 5th and 8th! The more disappointing of those two tournaments is by far the Biloxi 5k because the prize pool was so top heavy and I ended up only cashing for 60k in a prizepool that was over 1 million dollars. Although the finish was super disappointing Im glad my friend John Dolan ended up winning the tournament at least. He played very well and also had the luxury of being on my left the whole final table. We were both top 2 in chips for a long time so ICM wise he was able to put me in a lot of awkward spots. Next time Ill be on his left for a change :) When I got back from Biloxi, I played the WSOP Circuit event at Caesars Palace. It was an awesome tournament getting over 650 players in their two starting days. I didnt get anything going and busted early on Day 1. However the following day I went to the Venetian to play the $560 Deepstack tournament. It ended up with only about 101 players. But after the first day finished I was sitting 6/9 at the final table. I was chipleader for most of the day but the quick blind levels and the fact that I ran into two coolers in the final 20 minutes of the day knocked me down a bit. I was still very hopeful coming into the final table and was able to almost double my starting stack in the first blind level. I started 3k/6k with 300k, then I lost a small pot when I 3bet and got cold 4bet from a young asian player. I folded. Then I opened A6o from the Cutoff into the two nit stacks, the sb folded and the bb almost folded before pulling his hand back and calling with only 9 bbs behind. The flop fell Q76dd and he shoved into me, it really felt like a stop and go and I couldnt imagine him playing top pair like that so I called. He said "good call, Ive got nothing" and turned over A7o for a better pair. That knocked me back to about 230k when the final hand went down. Frank Rusnak (Round42 online) opened the pot from UTG2 I flatted AQ in the next spot, and the young Asian squeezed the button to 40k. Frank folded and I decided to back ship allin only to find out he had it yet again with AK. I recieved no help and was out in 8th place. Oh well, I dont think I would of played that hand any differently and with the structure at the end it was going to come down to a bit of a crapshoot anyway. Ill be back on the felt today playing the $450 Big Bounty at Venetian. $100 bounties!!!!

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Since my last entry Ive been right on track to achieve my first big Final Table of 2012. After a great Day 1b, I managed to survive Day 2 with about 264k, it was still good for 5th place going into the final 27 players. The day didnt quite go as planned after I lost a 180k flip AQ to JJ of CommanderCool, then I lost AA to AA for 100k pot. However, I never really wavered and was able to slowly grind all my chips back with a few good pots including some big river bets that got paid off. As day 3 started we still werent in the money yet, we needed to lose 9 players. That happened pretty quickly and when the bubble broke I had about 450k. I also won my first flip of the tournament 99 to AQ, QJ4 flop and 9 turn! After that I had some timely 3 and 4bets and won a nice pot off this russian kid that was on my right. It was an interesting hand so I will discuss it: Steve Barshak (Illini123) accidentally limped from hijack, the russian limped behind him, and I limped the button with 96cc. Both blinds completed and the flop came down 985 rainbow, Steve bet 15,500, russian called, and I raised to 35,000. Steve folded and the russian called quickly which to me looked a lot like 78 or JT or a random 9 or 8. The turn brought a 6 giving me two pair but letting 78 make a straight. He checked to me and I checked behind. The river was a Jack, not a great river because j9 j8 or QT got there, however so JT did make top pair and my line now looks kinda bluffy. The russian kid bet 50k on the river, and I called after about 15 seconds. He had exactly what I thought JThh. We broke to two tables after that and I knocked out Sn0wman with AA to his 88. I also squeezed QQ from the BB after a raise and a call and the flatter back shoved QJcc for about 100k. I snapped and flopped him dead on the Q64 flop. By the time we got to the final 10 players I was up to about 700k at the 3000/6000. The final hand of the night occured when I limped the button with J9 and both blinds checked. The flop came J87 rainbow, John Dolan in the sb checked and the "Trucker" Kenny jammed about 100k into me. I called quickly and he showed 69dd for an open ender. I had to fade a 5 or a T for a chop which I did and I ended the day with about 870k. Good for the chiplead going to the final table today. The belt is worth about 336k, so it would be a great ending to my Biloxi trip!! My next entry will hopefully have my picture with all the chips :)

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Hey guys, so Im sitting in my hotel room at the Beau Rivage kinda reflecting on my previous two days of poker. I played Day 1a but basically lost 3 silly unavoidable pots and busted at the end of level 2. I was really disappointed in the result but not so much in my play. Luckily for me it was a re-entry and I played again on Day 1B. We started with 20k stacks and played 10 70minute levels. I ended the day with 205k, so needless to say it was a great day. I felt like I got maximum value when I had it and got the folds when I didnt. The biggest hand I played came at the 200/400 level vs an opponent who I view as capable and a decent hand reader. He started the table with around 85k and was very active opening a lot of pots, I had already won a big 4bet pot off of him without showdown. So he viewed me as aggressive and capable of bluffing Im sure. He opened to 1100 from the hijack and it folded to me in the big blind. I looked down at A7o and decided I was going to test him again. Normally I would prefer to have a hand that flops a bit better and not dominated like A7 but his opening range was so wide that I would feel just fine post flop. I was rougly 80k deep at this time and he had about 40k. Anyway I 3bet to 3200 from the big blind and he calls. The flop came AA6dd, alot of times I would just blast away on this flop however I think its going to be very tough to get more than 2 streets in spots like this. Not to mention its very possible I can be outkicked as well. I decided to check and see what he did, he checked behind. The turn brought the 7d which is pretty much the nuttiest card ever for me, I was also glad to see him check back which pretty much meant he had some kind of pocket pair. I led for 3500 on the turn and he called pretty quickly, the river came the 6diamonds. That card completed a flush and made any ace a fullhouse, so it was a great card if he actually had an ace. I really didnt think he had an ace though so in my eyes it didnt change much. There was about 15k in the pot and he had about 33k behind, I tanked for about 2minutes and shoved. First off I felt like this looked the most bluffy and I took a similar line earlier vs him and he folded. So I felt like he was kinda over me and was capable of hero calling off. Sure enough after about 4minutes in the tank he called off 2x pot and mucked after seeing my hand. From there it was just me using my stack and position to increase that stack up to over 200k. The blinds start back up at 500/1000 so Ill be sitting quite deep to start the tournament. There are 64 left with 18 spots paying and first prize is 336k. I hope to write my next blog about my latest tournament win :)

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Unfortunately Im going to have nothing too exciting to report back from my recent Los Angeles trip. I played 4 tournaments and went 0/4. I was able to build two pretty good stacks, in the 1k and the main event. The 1k fizzled out near the end of day 1 when I 3 bet called 88 from the big blind for about 37bbs...

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A couple days ago, I was fortunate enough to experience my first meteor shower. To make the experience more memorable, my wife and I joined Bryan Devonshire and his fiance on his brothers boat that was docked at Lake Mead. For those that don't know Lake Mead is the result of the Hoover Dam and is actually quite scenic as the mountains rise out of the water...

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2011 has officially come and gone with lightning speed and now 2012 is here. 2011 was by far the toughest year for me to date as far as poker success goes. Obviously that is partially because of Black Friday, and the transition to being a full time live pro...

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I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas/Holiday festiviities. I know I certainly did, some cocktails, football, great food, and even better friends. Thats what makes the holiday season so great. Not to mention its always nice to have a vacation from your career and enjoy the more important things in life...

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So as you probably know the WPT went absolutely awful for me. I busted on Day 1 for only the 3rd time in a WPT main event. Mostly due to the fact that I flopped top set vs a flush twice :/ Then missed an open ended flush draw in a 3bet pot to bust...

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After Thanksgiving, there was about a 1 day break from when the next tournament series started up. That series is the Bellagio Five Diamond, a WPT series. It is one of the few 10ks still left on the circuit. The first preliminary event was a 3 starting day $300 NL with unlimited re-entries...

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So in my last blog I told you guys I was playing some of my best poker the last few months and things just werent quite panning out. I had managed to build some really nice stacks only having to flip at the end and that wasnt going my way AT ALL.  The Venetian Main Event was a $2500 buy in and drew about 280 players, which was a very nice turnout in my opinion...

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Well as i sit here writing this blog, Im about 2 hours away from playing the final table of the Venetian Main Event. I could feel a deep run coming my way in a big event and sure enough Ive managed to build a nice stack going into the final 10 players...

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AFter succesfully bubbling like 5 of the last 8 tournaments Ive played, I finally have a cash to report! Unfortunately it was only a min cash in $350 Venetian, but I played really well and just got unlucky to run QQ to AA of Dantes11 for a huge pile of chips...

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Since my last blog Ive been grinding the Venetian Deepstack series pretty hard. Unfortunately I havent had a single cash in about 6 tourneys. I have been able to build some pretty great stacks but have basically lost every single flip late in these...

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Yesterday I had an awesome experience with my wife and 6 of our friends! Thanks in big part to Bryan Devonshire who shared his knowledge of the outdoors with us during a drunk coversation at our Halloween party. We set out on a half day hike thru the Goldstrike Canyon, with our final destination being a hot spring at the bottom...

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So I finally made it back home from Foxwoods. My main event run came to an end in the 3rd level of Day 2. The entire day just went awful for me and I was rivered in 4 meaningful pots. Including one where I had ATcc on a T75TJ board in a 3bet pot. The 3bettor had 89o and rivered that straight for a huge pot...

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Ive been in the middle of Connecticut for the last 5 days and unfortunately have no great news poker wise. I have played 3 prelims and manage to bubble 2 of them. The first event was the $1k No limit event which drew about 203 players. The structure was awesome with 20k starting stacks and 50 minute levels(which included every level) I managed to build my stack to 135k at 1200/2400 when a very interesting hand occurred...

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Since my last 1k bust Ive played the Festa al Lago main event only to bust in the last level of the day in a somewhat standard flip. I then played 3 of the MGM $340s only to be bad beat out of all of them, so Ive taken a couple days off before I leave for Foxwoods tonight...

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Well after my 2nd place finish in the $540 I was pretty disappointed after having all the chips, but there wasnt anything I could do about it. Thats just the way poker goes. The next day I fired up another $540 and made that final table as well. I lost a big flip 99 to ATo to drop me to 25bbs 5 handed...

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Well, since my last blog Ive been quite busy playing the Bellagio Festa al Lago series. My first event was the $540 re entry No limit. They got about 140 runners and I found myself chipping up quickly and controlling my table. With a 10k starting stack, I found myself with about 40k after the first 3 levels...

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So its been a long last week and half or so. I set out to start my trip to Borgata on Wed 21st, unfortunately that didnt work because the flight was cancelled :/ And there were no other possible flights thru the airline to get us into Atlantic City that day...

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So the last week or so has been soooo hectic for me. On Sept 2nd, Blueberleez and I finished packing up his house in Henderson NV and headed out on an 1800 mile road trip with his two dogs Ralph and Lila...

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Hey guys. Since my last blog Ive made my trip to Los Angeles for the WPT Legends of Poker. It was a very disappointing trip as far as results. I placed 16th in the 1k prelim(9cashed) and got 101st in the Main (81 cashed). But i was chipleader thru the first 3 levels of Day 2...

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Just returned home from a sub par cash session at the Venetian. Basically boiled down to 2 dumb hands. First one was vs the table fish who had dusted off 2k already, and he opened with a raise to 20. One player called and the button who was capable reraised to $70...

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Hey guys, Ive switched my blogging site from PokerNews to good ole PXF! Im excited first off for all of the new changes that are taking place with the site. I really think you all will benefit greatly from the many forms of instruction that will be available...

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