Shaun Deebs poker blog

Blog is moving

2007-09-23T13:13:00.001-07:00

http://www.tworags.com/blog/shaundeeb

As I said in an earlier posting I was asked to move my blog to tworags.com and I have it's a bit easier to write up there etc and I may be more active in the next few weeks before I get bored from it.

next stop Amsterdam

2007-09-17T06:32:00.000-07:00

Heading with Andy 2+2er I've met in London he lives there we are bored before EPT London so decided to go there for 5 days. Should be a good time there didn't enjoy the london nightlife too much so far. Hopefully this will be more what I am used to.

Bustoo

2007-09-14T09:52:00.000-07:00

Anyways shitty day2 for WSOPE. I got up to 90k pretty fast then chipped down to 35k then back upto 100k then I played a 150k pot with nut flushdraw and an over to kk. I didn't get there was down to 27k at 500/1k/100 level get AK vs AQs AIPF for almost 55k pot. A few hands later 3bet the same guy from both the previous hands with QQ he 4bets enough to put me allin I obv call. He looks dejected when I show QQ and he then shows AKo and jamiegold tells me he folded AK as well. I get happy till Ace in the doorcard and I bust.

Day 1 of WSOPE Recap

2007-09-12T04:32:00.000-07:00

Wow what a ridiculous day is all I can say.

I was quite happy with my table compared to rest no big time tounrney player that I knew would give me problems. The names I recognized slightly were Marc Goodman and Loagerborg who I know the name from high stakes LHE.

I started off on fire the first orbit, some guy mistakingly calls without looking at his cards I am raising him any 2 OTB when folded to me and the BB was sitting out but I find jacks, raise 5x and sb and he fold I show to give off a scared live image early I am hoping for. Get 99 next hand raise get the blinds steal another pot in MP after c-betting. Then I get AA utg and raise for the 4th hand in 7 get 2 callers this time. The flop is a beautify Ah 6h 3x I bet 2/3rds pot first guy folds old guy OTB calls. Turns an offsuit 8, I lead for 2/3rds pot he flats again river was an ugly 4h. I felt like he wouldn't call with 1 pair now which was most of his range and go for a c/c of any less then PSB. He quickly checks behind I show my hand and he rolls over 33.... WTFFFF. The whole table just snaps their necks to see that he got less then 1/8th of stacks in on 3 streets when flopping a set in position and a decently safe board.

I then realize just how weak/tight my table is and I start opening a lot. This guy to my left from Poland keeps picking up cards vs me. He beat me in 3-4 straight pots and I then adjusted my opening and postflop play. Another setup hand for me was this bad french guy limps I raise qq 5x BB young sat kid from betfair calls the other guy calls. Flop 85ss3x kid leads for 1k. I call pretty quickly. Turn is another 8 he checks I check. River is Js he fires for half pot 1500. I wanted to fold but getting 3 to 1 I wanted to call show my hand etc cuz I've been sooo laggy. He has AA?????? wtf. I get chipped down a bit more prob looking steaming on the outsite but inside I am super happy because these guys are still weak/tight just getting 10s+ and AK vs me and they flat call with aces and one of them will give me a stack when they trap me PF.

I am whittled down like 15500 at the time in the BB. Folded to the guy on my right in SB he makes it 300 I find black kings and make it 1100 he makes it 3300 very quickly. He's Scandanavian I think so I laugh at how I am going to trap this guy and his Q10s. Flop comes a bice Q55 with 2 diamond for my hand he leads 5k I shove 12k total. He tanks for 30seconds says if you outflopped me with QQ congrats. I sigh and say figures. Cameras come over I am cool with busting first level AA vs KK in a blind battle with my image. Until the very very cute dealer turns me a K. I double up to 31k.I chip up a bit more here and there were a lot of interesting hands first 2 hours as every hand 2 people had hands where 200bbs whould have gone in. People were playing soo scared PF and soo bad postflop it was my dream table.

Anyways I keep chipping up then losing a big pot. Then all of a sudden Marc Goodwin stars trying to bluff me in every pot we play I keep correctly calling him down with a decent read and hand reading and he thinks it's amazing how I am calling him soo lite each time to his river c/r. I laugh and say I am a station he keeps telling reporters that kid is going to give me his stack. Which at the time I have about 45k and he had 15k. I laugh and was soo tempted to say yah when you get my stack it will already have been all of yours. I can afford to gice you 15k back and still have 5k more I took from you over today. But, alas I keep my mouth shut didn't want to get hated had a friendly table image albiet an active one. Showed as many good hands as I could I did have a lot in first 2 hours.

Lagerborg busts with QQ vs AA they both flat called a 4x EP raise lagerborg in CO the button was the frenchguy to my right. Flop comes AQ7 with 2 diamonds they go 6 bets and get it in no one expected AA for frenchie. I was happy to see him go. I keep chugging a lot Jeff Madsen comes to the table we chat a bit nice to have another young american at the table. I get him in some pots bluffing and then getting him to call when I wanted to. He later stacked off in a button vs BB confirtation where I called with 56s floped the nuts on a 874 board with fd and he 3bet shoved with k8. I am upto like 70k and have a sicko image. I basically went like 4 hours and lost maybe 4 pots where I voluntarily put money in the pot. Some of the fun call downs I'll try to recall.

Tough Scandinavian cash game guy def 2nd best player at table calls a tight guys open in the BB after I flatted with 99. flop came Q103 with a club it checks around. Turn is the 8c, He fires out 1200 old guy folds I call. He gave some speech preflop asking how much the guy had and said ok I have implied odds. He def didn't have a strong hand like KQ AQ or a set they weren't in his range. I didn't think he had QJs to Q10s because he's a cash game player and prob hates those hands multiway OOP vs who he considers best player at table and a weak/tight nit opening in EP. anyways river is a offsuit 5 and he bets confidently 3600 into the pot. Which was quite the large bet for him. I tank and realize theres only 2 hands he calls PF that has that betting patter and thats 108s and J9s with 2 nines J9s soo unlike and also if he had J9cc I think he c/r the turn with the nut straight and flushdraw. Anyways I call he shows KJcc and I guess I was off on his range PF but right that he was bluffing. He considered my 99 call amazing etc. Went out with him and betfair guys later to some stripclub and it sucked dances are 0 contact girls were super aggressive because the place was dead me and connor bailed quickly. Ok back to poker.

So other calls downs vs Marc goodwin who prob hates me now. I raise 95s otb to 500 at 1/200 he defends. Flop is 1096 r I check behind. Turn is a 10 putting a fd he checks I bet 500 he makes it 1600 soo quickly. I think he's making a move knowing I don't have a 10. river is a 7 and I decide if he bets less then 3k I'll call if he overbets it's prob a boat hoping I made the straight. I call and he shows Q2hh and I rake it in and he goes balistic to a reporter about me calling HIM with just a 9. Esp considering his PF call I wasn't giving him any respect ever. Another fun one was I raise k4cc OTB he calls in BB with basically anyhing suited anything that looks good flop is 866r 1 club I know he's gunna c/r so I check behind turn is an Ac I know he wants to c/r again so I check behind rivers a K he checks I bet 700 he makes it 2100 I tank and call and he mucks loll. He's def steaming vs me now. I win a nice big pot off him later girl to my right who has Pokerstars stickers who I later findout is sponsored pro Isabiele Mercier (sp) anyways she opens in HJ I flat next to act with JJ hoping scandanavian BB squeezes or the short stack button. The deeper stacked goodwin ends up making it 2500 more a small squeeze but even if he showed me aces faceup I would call for setvalue. But I knew he didn't put me on a pair this big ever he gave me 0 credit. Flop comes 335r he best 3500 with 20k behind I call to scare him a bit see what he does. Turn is another 3 and he checks I check behind river is a 6 he checks I check behind. He goes into a speech I have the only hand you beat nice calls etc. I laugh show my jacks and notice him and the scandanavian are like wow didn't put you on such a big pair shame if board comes high with a J in it I was soo getting paid.

Anyways do a lot of aggro moves chip up well abuse my table while still being friendly. I wish the tables stayed the same would be great as the 2nd best player imo was knocked out. We do a table redraw and resume playing tomorrow. I dusted off 10k chips with 30min left and they suck at reading my handwriting and I have 74825 at the end of the day but they reported online its 71825. That puts me barely behing Patrick Antionus as CL for our day 1b. It's awesome Adam Junglen one of the people who helped me become the tourney player I am now was leading the other room as CL ending the day. Him and PA have quite the history too so there should be some very interesting tables tomorrow.

Look at pokernews.com for updates starting 9 Ester.

London and WSOPE Main Event

2007-09-10T17:18:00.000-07:00

Well as always I suck at planning things out and again Stars support stepped up huge for me. Making my life easy while I made theirs soo difficult. I couldn't get a hold of cash to buyin out here everyones short on cash cuz it sucks to travel with so much. I am playing tomorrow at 2 London time so that's 9 AM EST. You can goto pokernews.com and follow me I am playing in the Sportsclub or whatever. My starting table doesn't look close to as tough as many of the others ones.

It's really been a good time here so far, spent all of today roaming around London with Schafer the old ass pedophile and timex and connor the 18 yearold online phenoms. Quite the different appearance us 4 had walked around the city together. Went all over the place wish I had a camera some sick sick places here. Went up with some eye in the sky or something this massive constantly moving ferriswheel type thing get a great view of the city.

WAFFLECRUSHED the WCP

2007-09-08T02:13:00.000-07:00

Going to be a quick writeup got to do a lot of packing and such heading to london today to play in WSOPE. Had a great time ran good never got big hands during my hands but enough at the right spots. Only had 1 semi suckout JQ beat A9 but we were 3 handed and he was short. HU was a joke they were very weak/tight and I minraised everything lost a race and then won some other pots before he limp shoved J8o for like 21k over my 6600 raise soo bad lol.

WCP final table

2007-09-07T04:18:00.000-07:00

I was able to do just enough in Heat #5 to allow my team to advance to the finals, the structure forced me to play quite differently I may have made a mistake call with A10o when I should have open folded. Anyways I placed 3rd running really bad 4 handed losing AK to Q7 AIPF AQx7x board and QQ to K6 AJ6x6 board. We start the final table at 12:30 eastern time. http://www.pokerstars.tv/wcp/ is the link again to the webcast.

The final is going to be 4 handed and its a tagteam match you should expect tnetter raymer and myself to do most of the playing. Hopefully we can win for our teamates who the money will be much more important to both of them then us 3. Been an awesome trip so far everyone I've met has been great from stars pros to stars support and the fellow competitors. I am trying to get to london right after this for WSOPE where I still need to get some extra cash to buyin.

BARCELONAAA

2007-09-05T01:24:00.000-07:00

After such stressful days prior to my departure the last 24 hours couldn't have gone any smoother.
I crashed at my cousins place at bentley and wokeup around 10:30 and made it to the Passport business and before I even had my car in park the owner was out on the sidewalk with my envelope and passport in hand. Sweet, go hangout with an ex roomate who was nice enough to drive me to the airport. First flight was hour from Boston to phily I was tired slept most of the way don't even remember takeoff I was passed out before we left the gate. Next flight was quite longer 8 hours directly to barcelona, Flight was mostly full I def had some bad body odor fat people no shower and no space not good for cleaniness. Luckily no one took the seat in my row so I had a lot of room.

I didn't know how much that would help until later when the person infront of me put his seat back and it went quite far back and it was soo close I couldn't even us my tray table there was no room so I used the one next to me. Watched spiderman 3 was shitty wish I slept more only was able to doze in and our. Really easy getting currency exchange. I got really worried when I got in a taxi and all I had was the hotel name and the guy was like lost but I keep saying poker casino and luckily theres just 1 casino here. So we head there have a nice convo, you could tell the tapes he is learning english from are for like a double decker tourbus guide. Anyway almost to the casino he goes ohh theres AB skipper let me drop you off there. Checkin was a breeze internets a little weak but Im on.

Also, foundout I will be in heat 5 which will be broadcast during 4 PM EST and 9PM EST, from what I heard about the first 2 heats they were very very nitty. I am lucky since I will know all of my teams previous scores and what we need to advance to the finals so I may be in a spot where I need to get 5th or better or something to advance and thus will just fold my way in.

http://www.pokerstars.tv/wcp/ is the link to the live webcast

also the only webpage I've been to that I've had trouple with is this one for some reason it's in spainish sigh.

Watch me during my WCP play LIVE

2007-09-04T07:30:00.000-07:00

Well I don't know yet if I am heat 4 or 5 but here is all the necessary info to watch the live webcast. heading to the passport place right now to pick it up hopefully.

Thursday

HEAT 4 16:00-21:00 CET (10:00-15:00 ET)
HEAT 5 22:00-03:00 CET (16:00-21:00 ET)

http://www.pokerstars.tv/wcp/ is the link to the live webcast

some changes will be made

2007-09-03T13:41:00.000-07:00

Ok I've been really busy with the whole WCP passport stuff etc, it should be all done tomorrow when I hopefully pickup my passport and flyout of Boston airport a few hours later. I will try to get online ince in barcelona to tell you guys what time my heat will be. There will be a live webcast of the heat and I'll be sure to make sure you guys have a link in time. Don't expect anything that remarkable from me as with the structure the way it is I will be doing lots of folding 4/8 teams advance as long as my team hasn't done really bad my goal will be 3rd place as I think that will help us a lot in advancing and then is when I will really breakout my game.

Also, I have recieved an offer to move my blog to tworags.com. A bunch of my close poker friends who I spent the summer and many other trips with are all writing there. Obv, I'll be the weakest writer out of the bunch but will be sure to give you lots of degen europe stories.

Ohh yah UB support just keeps getting better, they def trying to improve and I think during the aruba classic I will have some awesome stories to tell from the great VIP things they will be doing for me.

more passport bullshit

2007-08-30T09:43:00.000-07:00

I've had a redic week of running around while trying to fit in some grinding in between. It sucks too because I've been playing really good and getting a lot of deep finishes not as many wins as usual but they will obv come. Anyways I've had to change my flight 4 times already within this week for Barcelona, had to miss EPT and if stars doesn't move back my heat by a day I will miss my WCP match as well.

Yesterday I woke up after 90minutes of sleep at 830 to drive to Boston to get my passport hand carried and expedited. All seemed to go well the guy said if I had came a few hours earlier he could of had it done before friday sigh another flight changed. I then set up a flight for monday goto the post office around the corner and get it done with what I had to do there. I have a nice 10-15minute chat with the employee there. I make my usual mistake of snickering when she says how the guy must be charging me an arm and a leg I go why how much is he going to charge me and she says a hundred all emphaticly. I laugh and then apologize cuz that just comes off as a rich prick. We talk about poker I toss out a low expectation for me yearly and she's amazed. She then tells me that Mon is a fed holiday so I need to rebook my flights a day later because I won't get my passport till tues. I am now frustrated and decide to skip seeing my cousin and head home.

I get home meetup with an old student of my mothers and watch the yankee game that was fun, go home pass out for 14 hours wakeup see a few missed calls from Massachusetts, get all happy because the guy said if he can get it to me by dfriday he will call me around 11 the phonecalls were at 1120. I call him back and he wasn't in the store at the time talk to one of his employees. He calls me back 30minutes to inform me the nice friendly post office worker didn't seal my application just the envelope therefore it's invalid. Now I need to drive to boston again by tomorow at 9am to get it done by tuesday. This fucking sucks and if I knew I had this much bullshit I would of just blown off my WCP matches.

getting a passport sucks

2007-08-23T12:34:00.000-07:00

I procrastinate as always and now get royally fucked by the US gov and the stupid ass expediating services who don't make it clear on their website everything that you need to qualify for using their 24 hour services.

So that means I can't make it in time for EPT Barcelona and going to be hopefully there for WCP tentative flight is next saturday. I really am going to make an effort for EPT London if I can't do that prob end up at Borgata with Ray and Thayer.

Final 24hours

2007-08-21T10:29:00.000-07:00

Well I just got home from another great TS trip. I am sure that no future one will be as much fun as this one with all the bullshit that happened between poker players and hotel staff. It was a complete joke how badly they treated us all, it was like we weren't even paying customers. Basically complete harassment of multiple people in many rooms. Constantly barging into the room even when we said no etc. Then making us clean up our room every day it was a joke my mother never gave me that hard of a time about cleaning. Also, I had some very good friends of mine banned from the hotel and/or the whole reservation.

It sucks soo much because everyone there had a great time had a great time playing kickball, seeing superbad, going out for naths bday, and the usual ts rodizio and low limit live cashgames. Also the staff in the poker room are always great to us. I can't say it enough how great of a job Pete, Pete, and Danny did putting together a great tourney series that was a great success for both ends. I had some friends who hit big there as well. Gobbo chopped HU with a TS regular zach for 22.5k, Mlagoo took 2nd in an event for like 22k, and Randall crushed the 5k making a sick day 2 comeback for 105k in a 4way chop with some other good players.

Now that I am home this week getting ready for Barcelona I need to do something I really am not looking forward to doing. Out pet cat has been around a long time 16.5 years, he's gone through soo many odd problems throughout his life. He's had lime disease, lost one eye to glaucoma, had to be quarantined for 6 months due to possibility of rabies. Also has had failing liver and kideneys and about a dozen fights with other animals which he lost pretty much all. Now it's upto me to put him down because no one else in my family will bother. So the last 12 hours I've been back from TS for its just soo weird to be around him knowing I am giving him his last meal etc. Anyways gotta do that sometime today then head to Boston for finalizing my passport.

5th at TS 300

2007-08-11T23:42:00.001-07:00

Sigh really pissed off had 900k which was 40% of the chips 9 handed table was really weak. I was redic ahead. Lost a bunch of races and other gay hands which were Open AQs, 2.5x younger guy shoves OTB we are 7 handed for 16x I obv snap call he has AKo. Few hands later open Q9s he denfends BB KJ10 2d 1 heart, I have hearts I bet 30k he c/r I stick it in for 175k more AQ good. Then cripling hand guy opens UTG for for 36k I make it 106k He has 275 total he calls A76r flop I shove he instacalls with A7 sigh soo gay.

WCP winner I'm going to SPAIN

2007-08-05T22:01:00.000-07:00

http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/

A few exerpts my team beat out 4 other teams for the right to represent the US at the upcoming WCP. I am very pumped to do this. I was going to be in Barcelona anywhere for the EPT event now it's even easier. I ended up getting 4th in my WCP match I was outplayed by Belowabove the best indiviual player prob on all of the teams. He drew the seat directly on my left and abused me. My teamates stepped it up and I got very anxious when the last tourney our member got down to 3 handed and was shortest and me and tnetter estimated we needed a 2nd to garuntee the win. We had some really close calls was down to 1200 when BB was 600 and Avg stack was like 9k. Made a nice comeback got HU when down but came back to take the lead briefly. Was a good hu match but soon noticed it didn't matter we had it locked up.

As for other poker another big 50fo ft bubble, bubbled some other important shit did a propbet with thayer too where we cross booked 10% on cashes and I think I won I have 1 thing left and he has a few things going.

Running bad at life

2007-08-05T05:14:00.001-07:00

Well, at my sisters birthday party I happened to find out my uncle had 4 tickets to the Yankee game. I have yet to go this year so I was happy to be able to go as well as possible see Arod's
s 500th homerun. Anyways a lot of people were heading to the track for beerfest or something and so I found a few friends to go with and we didn't commit ourselves to going till like 9:30 so we finally get everything going and leave at 10:45. We decided to listen to the game on the radio on the way there and obv his first at bat of the day he hits it while we are still driving there.

As for poker haven't been on a good sleep schedule for tourneys trying to fix that. Been playing some HU cash on stars new tables and only down like a buyin or two over a small sample. Here's a funny hand that happened at the first time I plat 3/6 HU and first opp who sat down with an odd 123/7 so we know that that meant. 4th hand we played is the HH below.

PokerStars Game #11319827915: Hold'em No Limit ($3/$6) - 2007/08/05 - 08:10:53 (ET)
Table 'Phoinix' 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: loz007 ($126.15 in chips)
Seat 2: shaundeeb ($597 in chips)
loz007: posts small blind $3
shaundeeb: posts big blind $6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to shaundeeb [Jc Qh]
loz007: calls $3
shaundeeb: raises $18 to $24
loz007: calls $18
*** FLOP *** [2d Ah Td]
shaundeeb: bets $30
loz007: calls $30
*** TURN *** [2d Ah Td] [6c]
shaundeeb: bets $78
loz007: calls $72.15 and is all-in
*** RIVER *** [2d Ah Td 6c] [4c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
shaundeeb: shows [Jc Qh] (high card Ace)
loz007: mucks hand
shaundeeb collected $251.80 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $252.30 | Rake $0.50
Board [2d Ah Td 6c 4c]
Seat 1: loz007 (button) (small blind) mucked [5d 7d]
Seat 2: shaundeeb (big blind) showed [Jc Qh] and won ($251.80) with high card Ace

Chat after

PokerStars Game #11319827915: Hold'em No Limit ($3/$6) - 2007/08/05 - 08:10:53 (ET)
Table 'Phoinix' 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: loz007 ($126.15 in chips)
Seat 2: shaundeeb ($597 in chips)
loz007: posts small blind $3
shaundeeb: posts big blind $6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to shaundeeb [Jc Qh]
loz007: calls $3
shaundeeb: raises $18 to $24
loz007: calls $18
*** FLOP *** [2d Ah Td]
shaundeeb: bets $30
loz007: calls $30
*** TURN *** [2d Ah Td] [6c]
shaundeeb: bets $78
loz007: calls $72.15 and is all-in
*** RIVER *** [2d Ah Td 6c] [4c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
shaundeeb: shows [Jc Qh] (high card Ace)
loz007: mucks hand
shaundeeb collected $251.80 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $252.30 | Rake $0.50
Board [2d Ah Td 6c 4c]
Seat 1: loz007 (button) (small blind) mucked [5d 7d]
Seat 2: shaundeeb (big blind) showed [Jc Qh] and won ($251.80) with high card Ace

Back home

2007-08-01T14:40:00.001-07:00

Finally back home a lot has changed my sisters getting ready to goto college, my eldest brother got engaged right before I left for Vegas and now has canceled it. Other brother has a new gf she seems nice in the brief time I've spent around here. I wasn't going to do the P5 monthly PLB challenge because I was enjoying the lax plkay schedule I had while in Vegas. Now that I am home I am feeling more motivated to focus on tourneys for they next month instead of cash games like I've been doing for last 2 months.

I was lucky enough to stumble upon prob the best possible partner lilholdem. We make a sick combo of volume with his sick skills and my running goodness hopefully. I think we are a 25-30% edge to win even with a really sick field. Chad has other prop bets going and he knows I'll carry my weight and I fully expect him to outdo me. I wouldn't be surprised if we both ended top 5 for the month on all of p5. So expect to see me at every tourney that matters for PLB in the next month even while I am at TS for Aug 11-20. Which for anyone undecided about attending I recommend it I was able to help lobby for some of the different tourneys that are being held which are a 6max, 200r, and bounty. Which will be a lot of fun as well as a nice 5k ME too bad it's same day as FTOPS ME but I'll try to bust fast or be CL before ftops stars.

Vegas almost over

2007-07-26T05:49:00.000-07:00

My first summer/trip in vegas is almost coming to an end I have a few more days before my flight out and as always I've procrastinated a bunch of important things. Sometime tomorrow I need to do something about our carpet really dirty from 2 months of slobs living here and never cleaning up after each other. Place looks cleaner then anyone probably whose hung out here and see the sty. I am on an awful sleep schedule as well and hopefully after today I can correct it. Staying up all night heading to the Orleans for their $500 mtt during their series of tourneys. Haven't played live tourney since ME.

My tentative plan is head home for a week or two then head to TS for the Empire State Championship, lurk around somewhere for a weak then head to EPT Barcelona and then London for a month or so for another EPT and WSOPE. After that I am either going to Aruba or to one of the new Asia Poker Tour event and then prob a few WPTs in Niagra and then maybe LA. So I should be doing a lot of traveling probably not play that much online during this span. I may finally get passed for yearly TLB but I will make an effort prob one week a month to win weekly and thus keep myself in contention for yearly then make a late rush when winter comes.

I checkraised my grandma

2007-07-19T01:59:00.000-07:00

So my vegas summer is coming to an end and I happen to have some relatives in town who are also with my grandmother, who is who first taught me holdem when I was around 5. Anyways we go to an amazing dinner at seafood blue or something at MGM . We decide to go their pokerroom and I know my gram loves her low limit LHE and I say whatever I'll go have some fun at her table. I played my first live poker at her table in florida when on vacation on my 18th birthday I won a little and the first pot I ever played I beat here with a turned nut flush.

anyways I am trying to lose like 50bbs in this game playing the loose passive style with perfection. I am in seat 4 she's in seat 5 random wanna be live pros sitting thinking they are the best players ever. I've been AA bet/call on a A2235 3 club board and think he was beat by the SF/quads. Also a nut str check behind on the river cuz there was a 4 card straight on the 48J9Q so his Q10 was obv beat. Ohh yah she had 3$ behind too so getting river c/r was impossible. So I start to loosen up PF I straddle have some fun with that. About 2-3 orbits in I am raking in a stradled pot and then I hear a soft voice say I want to straddle too I look over and see my gram holding 4 chips in here hand and push them past the betting line. The dealer looks confused asks here if she knows what a live straddle is she doesn't but still wants to do it. Old randoms try to limp for $2 when they are told it's 4 cuz of the straddle they look angirly at me but I laugh and say it was me last hand. Other dealers who came by first time she did it they def perked up in their chair not expecting someone whose 85+ to be gambling it up.

anyways I got 1 c/r in vs her and I didn't have the best hand but I was happy to do it.

success breeds success

2007-07-16T16:39:00.000-07:00

Well as most of you frequent readers know I've had a sick week and a half or so tripling my online roll in the time by absolutely crushing anything I decided to do when it cames to betting/poker. Also, during this time a few of the people I talked to most in the beginning of my poker tournament career always I considered to be great/better than myself but a few of theirs results were not equivalent to their skill for me personally for tourneys I still think that's the case. I've still never fted a tourney with 100k prizepool which frustrates and excites me at the same time. 98% of tourney grinders got their roll a big score 1.9% got it from some other stupid thing. I am in the .1% of people who built up a roll by volume not by quality. I don't think that makes me better just makes me bitter that it could of been soo easy if I just fted a major or something in my first 2 months of tourneys. But I had the more stressful way.

Anyways there are a few other close friends who I expect to be following suite to thayer/adamjunglen/mlagoo/gobbo in crushing a major and anything else they decide to play. It feels great that I was lucky enough to run hot at other things to have equal monetary success to them as well this summer. It just gives us more freedom in the coming months to do some sick things.

I basially am planning on doing a small little live circuit trip with 5-10 other poker players hitting up tstone, EPTs, WSOPE, Aruba, WPT niagra. Maybe even sneak in the Asia poker tour that's starting up. It should be a really good time I doubt it will surpass the 2 months in vegas but I look forward to trying.

Updates

2007-07-14T09:33:00.000-07:00

I've been crushing whatever I decide to play lately. Had my new best day every now at +70k and 0 of it thanks to blackjack. I ran a stack up again in the 25/50 game on cake. I feel bad for john cuz he was downstairs hanging out and decided to split action with me in the game. He came down later on in the night and I ran good 3rd hand flopping a set and stacking our favorite fish. He got us back a few hands later calling 1k on the flop with a gutshot and hitting he plays really well lol.

Anyways after about an hour of teetering upto 13k then back to 8k he decided it's time to goto sleep and just to send him his cut 40% from the game so I am fine with taking the rest of the action for the night tables ok could get great if I suckout at the right time. So I eventually do that and then go on a sick rush getting my stack upto 65k peak. As I right this I have like 62k stack with a 35k stack to my left hopefully soon you get to see an update of the 70k pot I played and hopefully won.

Vegas is still great going me and ray are going to order some ihope neither of us are too tired right now even though it's approahing 10am. So I guess I'll be grinding cash for the next few hours trying to get a 100k stack.

ME BUSTOOOOO

2007-07-09T09:14:00.000-07:00

Well, after the awful start and quick finish I had yesterday I was expecting to put some sob I had a good but not great series post about how I am young still getting used to live big buyins etc. But I changed my mind and after I busted slightly after the break I happened to play a bunch of sundays got some good stacks early busted in everything late around the bubble lost some CLs some ugly ways. I endup tilt playing some Blackjack win like 25k then lost 10k back and went to my site for playing cash and saw a guy sitting HU at 25/50 who sucks nad I've played before I get it in a few hands in with 56 vs Q8 on a 569 board he 3bet and called my 4bet getting like 3 to 1 so I know it's going to be swingy. I only had 2 more full buyins for this level so I knew I had to buckle down. I go on a sick run HU and run my 5k stack upto over 50k 8 buyins from the guy HU 2 of my own. A few others sit we exchange chips I end up about 35k on the session. I take a 30min break feeling great first ever 50k day and then sit and win another 15k playing.

Days like today maybe me wonder why I play tourneys, if I won a tourney today I prob wouldn't of played any cash or attempted to tilt off a few k playing blackjack. So I guess having a shitty sunday worked out for once. That was like a basic double of my online roll right now which is sweet now I just need to spread it out a bit more as its heavily on 2 sites.

As for ME backing info, I am going to double check the math but I think my total cashes was something like 70k for the series thus you will be getting 700 a share as your cut of the profits plus about $60 from the leftover money I didn't use on a few tourneys I had to miss due to day 2s or sickness.

I need all backers to contact me and let me know where you want your share to be transfered too which site as well as which account name. IM me, leave a comment here, or pm me on 2+2 and p5.

Mr. 27

2007-07-03T10:41:00.000-07:00

well as some of you already know 2 days ago I had my 3rd cash of this WSOP. It was my largest cash in a tourney by over 10k yet I couldn't of been more frustrated. All day 2 I was like as long as I don't get a 3rd 27th I would be happy with my result. I had an above avg stack and after raise/folding one hand in LP I then raised next hand with QJo and floated a 668r board when the blind weak led into me I fired 75k on the turn and he instashoved and I had to fold with half my stack in there. Next hand a short stack with 40k shoved in MP at 8k/16k/2k and I shoved my 180k stack in there with QJs unforutnately the guy behind me wokeup with AKo but I was in a great spot when the shortstack showed A9o I had over 40% equity on the mainpot and 44% on the sidepot but missed both. I noticed that the board said we had 28 players left so if both the shortstack and myself busted I would get another 27th. I was quite angry about busting cuz besides tdomski the remaining field appeared to be quite weak.

I have another day 2 to play today I have a little over 90k stack in the 1k rebuy which I was only in for 10k with. As well as a redic tough table that has hoodini10, ZeeJustin, Sirens, Crazymarco, and micheal binger who replaced a European stars sponsored player whose name I forget. I hope my table breaks quickly as there are a lot of good players left but my tables still prob one of the 3 worst. Moneys at 99 109 left and avg stack under 55k.

Also, been a lot of fun the few hourse I've been away from rio got a lot of the 18yearolds been in town and been having a good time drinking with them. Got a bunch of people passed out in our rediculous messy room. I may stop being lazy for 10 minutes and post some pictures of our infestation of garbage throughout the condo.

another 27th

2007-06-20T04:38:00.000-07:00

I made my 2nd day 2 of the series. I had a very solid day 1 which I was happy about because I really hated how the sunday tourney went down. I was 30min late to the event because the taxi company took over an hour to send a taxi to my condo. I finally get to rio pay the cab driver and as I am walking to the cage to register I notice I only have 2 rio 1k chips in my pocket I had 3 when I was leaving my apartment I'm on the phone with the taxi company operators and miss my first few hands at my table once I find it. I recognize a few people jordan morgan, and SIHB craig marc guy to my right is a tv pro whose name I forget remember hearing he's aggressive. I chip up my 6k stack up to 8k nothing too interesting flop a set multi way get some flop action. A few hands later a bad guy limps jordan and craig overlimp I find KK in the SB and make it 325 at 25/50. First 2 limpers call and craig then makes it like 2k to go with like 3500 behind. I stick my stack in he calls with AKo I hold. I win the next few pots and get upto like 15k before first level even ends. It was all down hill from there a few raises/cbets getting called and a few times seeing flops missing/making a move and failing. I get down to 9k tv pro limps UTG I make it 400 at 50/100 with JJ next to act button calls BB who is jamie gold who came late played a hand awful and sucked out after putting his stack in with 4 outs and ace high on the turn. So we see a flop 4 ways and it's 643r I lead 1k get raise by button shove and lose to his set. Takes skill to get a 2.5x starting stack in 30minutes after missing first 30 and still not make first break 1 hour later.

I didn't do much on sunday online after either, so it wasn't like going out quick helped me make more money.

I wokeup and was excited to play the 6max since I missed the earlier one. There was a big screwup with alternates in this, when I first went to signup they said sold out and were checking to see if they would reopen it. They decide they will and they decide to make alternate tables which take 30minutes to setup. We get dealers and then we moved from 1 table to another then back to the first table. While other people were switching. They couldn't decide to use what the computer was saying or what the floor and players were saying. Finally we start to play guy busts first hand and doubles the guy to my left who was only other young kid so prob only person capable of playing good 6max. The empty seat is filled by David Benyamin
he played better then I expected from him. Not that he's bad but more that he wouldn't care about a 2500 tourney. Anyways not many interesting hands from my first table cept when I flat called a shortstacks raise with AA in SB BB squeezed and we both had like 14k when rest of table had under 4k I jammed for a PSB and he folded QQ faceup really shocked the younger kid made that laydown. I prob requeeze with a few hands there.

I move to a new table a little while after with about 15k when avg is under 10k. I make a flop 3bet shove with K8hh on 974 1 heart 2 diamond board I didn't think the kid would ever call and he did with top 2. I turned OESD but whiffed. I got short to like 5k but did a squeeze next hand and then was able to c/shove a OESD+FD and pickup more chips I chip up well over the next few hours and get my stack upto 50k without any huge conformations. Our table isn't going to break at all during the day and we go about 5 hours with the same 6 people at one time we all had over avg when first at the table but now only myself and the girl to my left who played well and was a friendly girl who was giving us amatuers advice on the best strip clubs and why. I later find out she's an ex playmate. She then really misplayed a hand giving me no credit and losing her stack to me. We were only 2 with over 50 avg was 45k everyone else had around 15k. I open AKo OTB to 3300 at 6/12/200. She flats in the SB BB folds. Ac5c3x flop she leads for 4k I flat call turns an offsuit 9 she leads for 7k I make it 20k she verbally instacalls I get worried that she has more outs then I think. And as I am deciding what to do on the river I see it roll off as 4c the worst card in the deck. Anyways she shoves pretty quickly I notice it's a little over 10k so I say whatever pots huge I call. She shows AQo and I win a monster pot.

My table would never get another softer spot again everyone who came to my table was a good 2+2er/p5er or solid live pro after the fact. Hoyt corkins comes to the table with 25k stack which is well under avg but runs really good owning a guy and gets a huge stack shortly after. He plays really well for anyone who hasn't played with him luckily for me he was on my right but still I didn't get much going ever after this point I just fluxuated a lot between 100k-150k. I bust a p5er to my left when he restole from SB with A3s into my A8o button open and he gets replaced by eric siedel. He had a short stack and shoves a few times and gets around 20k when hoyt limps the button not uncommon for him I comeplete with A8o hoping he jams over our weakness of not raising he does. hoyt folds I instacall and he shows A4o. He flops a 4 and I never get there. So I lost my chance to get to 200k stack. I had a really interesting hand vs hoyt that I posted on 2+2 where I made what appears to be a hero call but when you analyze hand ranges I think the all becomes clearer. I wasn't right at the time but I really like my thought proess and hand range which was correct. At the end of day 1 another 2+2er busted at my table and the guy who replaced him was the current CL hoyt was 2nd I was 10th and another guy at the table was 7th. So we had a lot of chips in play going into day 2.

Day 2 stars off bad for me I raise PF with A10s get an ugly board and c/f to a bet. I call a raise with a small pair and whiff badly and get down under 100k. Then get a nice rush getting AA and AKs and 3betting openers and taking down sizeable pots. Played a nicec hand vs hoyt where I flat called his MP raise with J10s floated him on a 632r board and shoved over his turn bet on a Qx turn. We lose a guy and they floor move a dead stack. Not surprisingly vinny vinh did not show up for day 2 again for an event so that changes the table dynamics a lot. Siedel busted and another 2+2er showed up admo who I was told is a very tough cash game player. He played well and I knew we would class since it was his SB when the BB was dead and it was my button.

My most crucial hand I was up over 150k blinds were 2/4k/500 folded to hoyts SB he makes it 10k I call with 56o flops K56r he leads 10k I make it 25k he calls. turns a 9 brings flushdraw he checks I bet 45k he calls. I had like 70k behind here and perfet stack for a river shove which I expect him to all after the j10 bluff. River is the ugly ugly Kx and he checks I chek behind his KQ wins. I steal the blinds a few hands later then hoyt opens CO for 9k the BB is dead and I have 80k and jam with A7s unfortunately admo wakes up with KK and hoyt shows an ace as he folds. I flop a fd but whiff. I wanted to take a bet with admo that vinny vihn outlasts me without even showing and he did. I was very frustrated after I busted that I walked away forgetting I had to get paid and went back found the floor and notice the place card I got was 27th again. I am like wow that's an omen. I get back to my condo hangout with a few people cuz I didn't feel like doing much.

I'm just going to grind online today I really need a win in some little tourney just to get that endgame confidence back.

The worst side of tournament poker

2007-06-15T19:33:00.000-07:00

Sorry for being a little behind on updates not much went on last few days, busted 2nd hour in the 5k NL took the next 2 days off to get a bunch of errands done finally. So I've been semi productive outside of poker for once this trip which was helpful. I played todays 2k NL drew a maniacal first table with phil laak going nuts as well as a few others had 3 people busted in first 4 hands. Those were def the weaker spots one of the people who replaced the person to my right was Kush a person who I've met and hungout with a lot at ts and was with me during the wpt tabling. We are talkative and bullshit for an hour as neither of us do anything. No really interesting hands I bluff my stack down to like 2500 before break. Come back at 100/200 waiting for a spot to shove. Our table is about to break I decide that I am doubling before we move or busting which was in 4ish hands. I wasn't in a good poker mood I was getting way too anxious.

So Kush opens in EP I see an ace and shove I noticed later he was a lot shorter then I realized and def wasn't opening light there. He calls quickly and I say I just saw an ace he is elated and flips his AQo. I find A7cc Flop comes KcQx10x I say gg kush gl etc. Turn 10c river 4c. Now I have 5k shocking. I move to a new table I notice that only 1 person has knocked someone out he has like 10k one guy has 6k everyone else 2k. Thankfully the 2 big stacks that I assume are aggressive are on my right so good table pos. I steal a lot of pots there and chip up well get priced into a few shorty shoves with ok hands and I get there. We break at the start of the new level and I find my new table laak is there as well with about 10k I moved with like 9k a few other deep stacks kid to my right has like 15k. and everyone seems to be deep. I am quite happy with that I like playing big pots and big stacks so this fits me perfectly. I bust a shorty or two and get upto like 18k avg is prob under 10k still Jurollo moves to my table a seat to my left and he has like a little over 5k which means I need to open light as he will be shoving over my LP opens with anything decent. So a few hands go by I find QQ raise to 1100 in MP Justin shoves for like 4500 I instacall and he shows AJo. K high flop I look safe J turn makes it interesting, J river makes it depressing. It wasn't the beat that bothered me it was that a tough player who knows a lot about me now has a stack behind me. I chip up a few times pull a sick squeeze on a utg 3x 2 guys call to his left I shove like 22x in with Q8o in MP and everyone folds I show and justin was like didn't even have to show I knew etc. I usually don't show but I wanted to nit it up now cuz stack sizes sucked and I wanted a bad image with good cards in the future. I get my wish like 4 hands later justin opens 3x in EP laak calls in CO SB flat calls I find AA and ship in like 30x and make the same action betting and seat position hoping to get a loose call. I don't and show cuz now I have a stack and a nutso image I didn't want cuz I was now deep enough to play a lot of pots vs the others but didn't want to get played back at soo much once I commit a few k. So I steal a few more pots chipping up well make a move on a guy who 3xed over a laak limp which he was doing lots I call with Q10s in SB and c/r him on a KJx flop with a flushdraw commited myself and he folded. I was now upto over 20k and avg was prob around 10k. So a few hands go by I am feeling good playing great making the right reads and moves in each spot. UTG 3x same guy who I did the big squeeze over with Q8, A guy to my right who called lots of raises called I find 22 and we all have over 15k at 200/400 so it's an easy call for me too bad everyone behind us folds we see a flop of AJ2 rainbow. I am thinking in my head if either of these guys have Jx or better I am getting a stack my image is that good. They check to me I bet 2500 into like a 4500 chip pot the UTG guy c/r to 7500 I tank for a bit and ship in my 20kish total he snap calls I show my set he just had the most depressed look ever on his face. He slowly shows AJ and looks like he's about to cry until the dealer burns and turns the fucking ace of spades. I am down to 1 out and whiff. I say gg wish justin luck since he's built up a decent stack since he got to the table.

So basically today could of been a stressfree standard tourney day of getting nothing going, I am content with that with these structures you need to win pots in the first 2 hours to get anything going. I am a firm follower of aggro nutjob first hour to get a stack in these live tourneys. I wasn't able to do that and managed to make a huge suckout on a friend to get a starting stack back ran it up if I win that 22 pot I prob am current CL in the tourney with such a monsterous 100bb stack as well as an image to that would stop anyone buy justin messing with me without the nuts and I would be able to abuse my table but noo dealer has to put his 4 outer out there.

Still one race away

2007-06-11T03:25:00.000-07:00

Again tonite was soo close to being my first big score. I got very deep in the sunday mil being 2nd in chips when we got down to 2 tables remaining. I just never got anything going on that 2nd table. I lost a few races a few pot odds calls and also had a few c-bets raised etc. I peaked at like 8mil stack with under 4mil as avg. I liked my play got lucky on 2 hands which I play the same given the situation anyway just my opp woke up with the top of their ranges. It sucks to be soo close to a huge score twice already this week both times having lots of chips rigt when I need to get into high gear to turn my good stack into CL for a FT.

I know I will have a 6 fig score by the end of the summer but it's still frustrating each day longer I have to wait for it. I have the 2500 NL tomorrow which should be nice soft field with a slightly better starting stack. I also plan on going out tomorow night too been a few days since I seen the night scene and so I should either be in the event deep or getting deep into a pint. Either way it's going to be a good time.

27th

2007-06-08T12:14:00.000-07:00

I can't say that I am happy with my result but I am very happy with my play during both days. I had a big suckout at the begging of the 3rd level for the day. I had a very tough table with elky and adanthar on my left with other good aggro people. One kid with a cardrunners shirt who made some comments to me when I sat down but wouldn't give up his online name. So first hand back from the break blinds are 2k/4k/500 a aggresive guy opens MP3 to like 13k with 60k behind I make it 35k OTB with A10 BB shoves pretty quickly for a little over 90k other guy folds. I do the math and I am getting close to 3 to 1 and obv have to call. I am hoping he has KK/QQ but he has AK and I hear guys at the table piping up I folded a 10 etc. I hate when people do that but alas flop comes 10 high and board stays 10 high. I am now upto like 350k, which would sadly be my peak.

Thankfully our table breaks quickly and I move to what I considered the best remaining table. I picked up a few chips here and there but started running into a lot of hands and going card dead. I lost like 80k when button jammed for 80k at 3/6/500 level I find A10 in SB and reshove he shows KJ AQx10Q board quite gay. I was down to like 200k now. I steal a few blinds then same guy from KJ open shoves in CO for like 90k at 4/8/1 level and I find 8s and reshove flop is 855 and I am back up to 300k. Nothing really important happens but I find AQ in SB LP guy who started to lag it up once he won a race to get a 200k stack opens in CO to 27k at 4/8/1 I stick 200k in in SB and BB instacalls for his 100k stack. Other guy folds BB has QQ and doubles through me. I chip my way back upto 300k by stealing blinds guys to my left commenting on how I opened 3 pots in a row after I opened with 22 2.5x he shoved for 5x total with KQ and the SB who was tight reshoved for 12bbs so I fold and the SB had AK and board came J109 so other guy doubled. This particular guy was short all day long and finally got some chips and started reshoving on some guys opens and stuff. So he was opening up his game with chips.

It gets to the dinner bubble I have like 280k blinds are 6/12/1 and they announce it's dinner time and 4 of the 7 players get up to leave before actions to me UTG+1 I gleefully
find A7hh and 2.5x expecting to take it down but it folds to button who shoves for like 17x he looks like he soo doesn't want a call and I think he's making a move knowing I am opening any2 with everyone gone. So I reluctantly call trusting my instincts which may or may not of been wrong but he shows AJo I see such a pretty flop of Qh 8h 2x and fully expect to suckout at this point turn Qx gives me even more outs to win something back but river blanked :(. I was left with 80k stack going into the break. I was utg and find J9o and shove I don't know if it was right shove because it was a bubble and 2 other people on diff tables were all in and I didn't even know. Because if someone got eliminated we redraw for tables so I skip BB possibly. I get called by A9o and don't hit a 3 outer. Then there was a lot of confusion as the TD was like you are 28th and some other guy is 27th I ask him how come he says stack sizes and that I had 71k and the other guy had 72k, I go what are you talking about I had 79k and goto my table and dealer and say did I have 79k and they all agree and the floor is confused he's like you had 3 stacks of 20 1k chips and 11 1k chips ontop. I go no I had 3 stacks of 20 1k chips and 2 5k chips underneat 9 1k chips the guy said then he had trouble seeing the difference of them. I roll my eyes as they are blue as opposed to yellow and not even close in resemblence. Then now the other guy is argueing his stack was 79k as well after a few minutes I say fuck it who cares let's just chop the diff I'll give you cash/chips now and here and then we are set. So he agrees so I hand him 1500 in chips he gives me 250 back and all is square.

So that was sadly my biggest tourney cash ever at 15.4k officially. I made some great calls and obv a marginal call cost me my stack but I'm playing to win and taking what I thought at the time was a +EV gamble I will do all day long.

My first WSOP cash

2007-06-07T03:59:00.000-07:00

I started yesterday with a pretty tough table compared to the other tables I've been at for events. A few seats away from me a guy looked really familiar but a lot of people do to me so I didn't bother figuring out who he was. He ended up being none other then johnny bax I introduce myself and later knock him out with my KJ vs his 44 and another shorites 44. I was playing very lag with the shallow stacks hoping to chip up fast before people adjusted. But, there was a really tough player 2 to my left who was abusing me. I whittled my stack down to 1300 after a failed 2 barrel on same player who check/shoved on me on the turn. A few limpers to me I shoved K10s for 13bbs they fold, a few hands later I get AJo otb an a guy who I had seen open 2x an orbit and show A2o etc at showdown from EP raises 3x, I jam he calls QhQx KhQx 9h 10h blank board really made me sweat my suckout. I chip up a little more after that until my big hand last hand of break. They announce it's break and half my table leaves so obv I open j5o UTG+1, he flats me in MP1 and BB calls I had like 7k stack he had 9k BB had 4k. J93r board I bet 1200 he makes it 3500 I shove for 2k more he has 810 and I hold for the 15k pot.
So I come back to the break chip upto like 20k get KK vs QQ for 7k more. Made a nice move for me PF I raise UTG AKcc to 600 old guys makes it 1375 he had like 8k stack I flat call and c/f J98r board and he shows aces phew, If he made a real 3bet PF I was obv shoving. Really interesting hand the tough kid to my left has pushbotted his way upto 11kish stack at 200/400. Fold to me in CO I open 1100 with A9o folds to him he's shoves really quickly but didn't look happy when he saw his hand. After like 3 minutes I finally decide to call it was 40% of my stack at the time he shows 810s and I hold. Whole table is amazed by my call etc cuz they would all fold AQ there etc. So I chip up for a bit with a good image knocking out the good players already, I double one shorty who shoved 10s over my UTG raise with 99 for like 9bbs after a coldcaller. This guy later angle shot me for a pot. He was really bad asking questions about his oplay never played a tourney before online or live didn't understand antees, coloring up, breaks, etc.
So he was really nitty and opens in CO to 1600 at 3/6 right before the dinner break he's said he's done small goals all day small steps etc so his next one was dinner break. So I raise him to 5k in the SB and he has like 15k I have 40k, I was going to shove any flop even the 997 with fd but before I could he bets 2k. I was first to act so this really confused me, I knew if he had a pair or draw he wasn't folding so therefore I get it in with 5 high praying for a chop. So I eventually c/f. He showed Q10 for complete air and I was shocked he leveled me and I didn't think it was possible.

Our table breaks after a bit I move to a table with another 40k stack and a bunch of 25k stacks avg was still around 12-15k at the time so there were a lot of chips to accumulate. I play tight when I first come over because I came with 4 racks of chips 2.5 of them being antee chips. I recognize oakplayer at the table we joke and jab and I tell him I'm going to stack him. Interesting hand between us he has 25k I have 40k he opens for 1650 in Mp3 I call in BB with K10ss and flop huge with Kx 8s9s. I c/c his 5k for a few reasons which seemed right at the time. Turn is an offsuit Q and it goes cc. River is another K and I bet like 8k and oaks telling me how huge of a flop he hit and I'm like that's impossible to flop bigger then I did even 67ss is a huge dog to me. So he calls and shows QJss and said he was 3betting the flop which sucks that's like 1 of 3 hands he stacks off on the flop that I am ahead of. So that was like 15k I left on the table.
I was upto like 45k now which was my peak at the time blinds 4/8 I open 33 UTG+1 Button with 15k flat calls BB with 35k flat calls. 3c8c9x flop I lead for 4500 Button shoves I instacall he shows A9cc board comes 9A for a sickening way to lose with a set. So I am down to 30k now and frustrated 2 hands later a laggy older guy opens in CO to 2500 at 4/8 still my BB I defend with A10o KQ2 flop with a flushdraw I got bd with my ace. I c/c his 5k c-bet turns an 8 it goes c/c rivers an 8 I lead 7k he folds. I show he gets mad. I get a few real hands and open get some action and now back to my 40k and there's another break. I get back from break fold a few hands Laggy old guy opens to CO 2500 at 6/12 he has 40k I have 45k and considered 3betting by took a flop with 59ss, Flops As 4s 7x I c/c his 4k turns 10s I check he bets 4k I c/r to 14k total and try to look super weak while hes deciding what do do he ends up 3bet shoving for like 12k more I snap call he shows 73o for 3rd pair and drawing dead. I didn't notice that he was drawing dead and the worst river card came the 7s, So I recheck the cards to make sure I won I did. I have 85k now and coast for a bit.

There's a problem with a player coming to our table who the TD says avoided the blinds taking a phone call and comes to the table after the BB passed his seat. So the ruling is that he pays the blinds and 1 chip at a time goes into each pot PF. So first hand theres extra 500 chips in antees I expect a lot of guys to shove behind me cuz they have been shoving a lot, So I decide I'm going to only open tight here cuz I am EP with lots of 15-20bb stacks behind me. I joyfully find KK and open 2.5x to 3k and the tables talking about how Im stealing cuz of the 500 so I'm just praying someone goes by that. BB decides to call he has 60k stack so I'm like drooling. Flop is an ugly A52 with suited A5 BB leads for 4k I call turn is a offsuit 7 he leads for 7k I call, rivers another ace he bets 12k I call he shows 33 I rake in another pot to put me over 100k. Sadly our table broke after that hand and we still had some chips to play from that guy and my image was perfect to lag it up now. But I move to a knew table with another 100k stack and a 75k stack to my left who I later findout is john murphey. He gets bluffed by the other big stack and he shows. I hadn't opened a hand in my first 10 hands at the table so I open Q4s UTG+1 and he flats next to act everyone else folds 1055 flop with 1 of my suit I bet 6k he calls turn is a 9 bringing a flushdraw not mine I bet 13k he calls pretty quickly rivers a offsuit J I lead for 23k he turbo mucks I show. He's shocked so is rest of the table. 3 hands later UTG 3.5x with a 12bb stack the other huge stack flat calls I wakeup with aces in SB squeeze but they both fold I show to get respect on squeezes later. Cuz I could tell the other bigstack 3 to my right loved to CC raises. I keep chipping up well getting some hands here and there. Get upto 150k stay there I couldn't abuse the bubble with the stacks/players behind me but that was fine. I win a race vs a 6bb stack my 44 vs KQ and I chip up a few other hands and end up a little under 200k for the tourney which is CL.

I resume play at 2pm today blinds being 1/2k/300 I think for a few minutes

Sickening 12 hours

2007-06-05T10:45:00.000-07:00

I played in yesterdays 1500 LHE and was a very soft tourney I was never worse than the 2nd best player at the table. I had run up a big stack getting 22k when avg was around 8k but lost most of that in the next orbit just getting redic bad setup hands. I got down to like 3k at 8/16 level raise with AJs get it in vs J9s and 33 and hold. Get upto 10ish really awful guy who was down to 400 and keep doubing with awful hands and was 2nd worst player at table ahead o tj cloutier. Who tries soo hard to intimadate people by talking like hes good. So this awful guy raises I 3bet with KK he 4bets I 5bet Jxx flop I have like 4SBs left he has 3 so we get it in AA good sigh. Built back upto 8k a little while later and busted 155th when bp ran into tp/tk when I had 3BBs left so no chance of folding.

A few other interesting hands I may post about later as of now I was planning on playing the 1k rebuy today but thayer after dominating online tourneys for the night ordered a bunch of food which was bad and got us both sick. Goggles just got here rooming for the next week and a half. I may play in the 1500 o8 at 5pm if I feel better. Hopefully I can get some shit done around the condo that I've been putting off for the week.

WPT TV table

2007-06-03T10:47:00.000-07:00

I'll leave the poker content down for a bit as there was a lot of sick non poker things that went down. I busted in the 1500 NL at Rio at like 440. I then rush to get a cab and find my way to the south convention center. While in route Aaron and Kush call me to see when/where the taping is I give them the info right as I am walking in. I get lost and walk around the set after wishing thayer and Jarrod gl. I find some seats in the back and I am cheering for thayer when they announce him entering the table.

A few hands go by where action got really juiced up big hand like 3rd in the satialite guy whose name escapes me opened 2nd to act shawn buchanen 3bet OTB and the guy ends up shoving with JJ Shawn called with KK. Took forever until they started to show the board the whole production side is funny having to make sure they have every angle and every reaction they want before the cards come. Gotta be tough on the players to see they are behind and sweat for so long.
Door card on the flop was a J the whole crowd goes wild Shawn's crowd screams as they notice a K right behind it. This then made the whole table 4 short stacks and 2 big stacks. By this time a the sat guy and wong busted so it's 4 handed and they go on break. At this time Brendon came by and I go down talk to thayer and his buddy tells us the production team said these seats behind them were reserved for thayers family and friends. So we sit down and the people who were sitting there happened to be David Levi's wife and daughter and some other friends we get into an argument on how they are our seats etc and even had little things saying reserved thayer on them. So eventually one of the staff comes over and corrects the problem and tells them to find a seat so now we are 2nd row with a more clustered cheering section. There are some comments made by Davids section who were such assholes to us but wouldn't even give up THEIR seats for his wife and daughter who were stuck in the back row.

We findout theres a bar right outside so we start drinking very quickly start getting louder as the 4 handed is going longer. The 4 of us are def louder then the other 100 people in there. Jarrod makes some jokes about cutting us off and getting us ided as kush was making fun of the baylor softball team to me since they were on TV and he overheard it and shot a huge grin over to kush.

We get into some intense antisweating once thayer busts out. David gets it in vs Jarrods 99 with 77 Flop comes AJ8 all diamonds david has a diamong jarrod doesn't. Davids section is chanting diamond like 15-20 of them. Us 4 are now chanting club just as loud if not louder then them. Turn comes a Jx so now I start cheering for 9d and yelling at the top of my lungs. One of the people in his crowd turned around with such a sad look on his face and was like common no need to do that. I'm like you root for him I root against him. They all left and we were forced to move to another section where we watched a great HU match. We had some close calls when we keep getting yelled at for talking during the taping but thayer and jarrod were both enjoying the loud rail behind them. It was a lot of fun and I hope if I ever get to one of those FTs myself I have some drunken asshole there to replace me.

My ADD post for the series

2007-06-02T01:39:00.000-07:00

Got a lot of little things to talk about and one big thing thayer.

First little things, heres a copy of the post I made in ATF on 2+2 about one person who bought a share and MAY be scamming people trying to oversell shares and then stick it on me for not paying; here's what I posted

This particular poster(goat_beard) did in fact buy a share from me for WSOP but I think he's using it to scam people hoping to use the fact I am semi-known on 2+2 to get people to invest. I know 2+2 frowns upon any staking agreement etc in public and never posted it here etc. But, this guy is getting redic I am 90% sure he's trying to oversell to people on the forum and prob is going to say I didn't pay him or just make a new 2+2 account keeping whatever money he can raise.

He did send what he owes me and I still plan on giving him his profit at the end but I really don't think his posts should be allowed because most likely I will get the blame for people going unpaid. I would like his posts dealeted the fact he cross posted all over the place is what makes me smell scam which some people may believe. Here are links to the threads I noticed already from a search please edit/remove them

Also moved into my condo in Manhattan Condos really nice going to be with thayer for entire 2 months and otehrs stop in and out for a week or two. Thayers deep in WPT Mandalay bay for the few who don't know already he stars the TV final table tomorrow and he's 5/6 and really short a fellow online player jarrod camby (wacokid) has been crushing with what I've seen last 2 days. Hopefully they get HU with thayer winning with 27o vs AA unlike last time. It's great to have someone I am friends with get so deep and be around him to sweat and helpout with shit.

I am playing my first WSOP event too tomorrow the 1500 NL should be very soft with over a 3k person field that's like 17 180mans I need to win to get to the final table. But tomorrow will be cool regarless either I go semi deep past level 5-6 in the event or I get to go be thayers #1 fan. Also, I've meet some really cool people from p5 and 2+2 so far and everyone seems to be ready and psyched for a profitable and partying summer.

Last minute backing info

2007-05-30T11:26:00.000-07:00

Since it seems a few people are deciding last minute about buying shares and whatnot, you have until friday at midnight vegas time to send the money or get a hold of me. Also, the contract needs to be signed by Saturday at noon since that is when the first event starts. If you are interested and want a copy of the contract to fill out either leave your e-mail address in a comment of this message, IM me at shaundman, or send me a PM on 2+2 or P5. I am down to like 5 shares I am willing to sell to if I am sold out sorry.

Vegas Day 1

2007-05-29T10:39:00.000-07:00

first day of Vegas trip,

I hate flying unless I am sleeping on the flight when flying alone I get bored too easily. So I decided to stay up all night and watch moves play some poker and start packing finally for my trip. I ended up taking a 2 hour nap because I didn't want to fall asleep at like noon and then miss my flight or something. So I got up and packing was really easy cuz my dad just had picked up my laundry and it was nice and folded and even just took 1 of the bags and tossed it into my suitcase so that took much less time then I expected. Had to visit my cousins before heading to the airport because their grandmother just passed away and I was going to miss the wake and funeral.

I am in route to the airport and keep going over to see what things I forgot then I remember I don't even know my confirmation number luckily my aunt who is also a travel agent was nice enough to leave all my information on a voicemail message since the day after she booked my flight last week she left for a 2 week trip in rome. We pull up to the drop off area and they are blocking the passage for cards I can see a few policemen a firetruck and a ambulance both with full staffs. I couldn't tell what was going on they just stopped all traffic so it was hard to unload because there were a lot of people and had to weave in and out of the cars to get to the curb. Finally get in do the self checkin thing and that was went smoothly toss my suitcases up on the scale and the bigger one was too heavy so the employee asked me to switch a few items to the smaller one so I had some heavier stuff on top and switch over my boots and a few pairs of jeans, weave my way through the people back to the front of the line and then put them on the scale the big one dropped from 55 lbs to 40 oops now the smaller one was 53lbs so I had to take a few things out of that now and the women working there couldn't hold in her laughter even though she tried to be professional but you could tell she found it amusing how I was struggling at such a simple task.

I also made some progress finally with getting a meeting with a realtor thanks to john helping me out big time giving me the same guy in his development. So tomorrow I have to get up semi early for the 3pm meeting it will take me some time to adjust to the diff time zone I keep getting confused as 3pm there what would it be here etc. It may be good for me as I was always on a really late sch in NY compared to everyone else in vegas I think I should fit in a bit better with the norm. I dunno how it will effect the days I play online and what tourneys I choose to play but I look forward to trying out something new. I will try to ot down a few notes about each day and post them here, and expect a few drunken messages when I get the urge after a night of going out.

Wow did my 2nd flight suck really badly, first one was really good sat next to a mortgage broker who was a few years older, and we got into a good discussion about poker etc he was wasted but a nice guy and it was cool to chat the whole flight. I got to philly and then it all started to snowball the machine was broke to get on the flight and scan our boarding passes so they had to be done manually which meant it took forever to board then they had to find the empty seats and give it to standby people. So we left the gate like 30min later then we were supposed to most of this time I was seated uncomfortably between two guys almost as big as me.

We get onto the runway and then are stuck for an hour before we even take off what a joke. Luckily our capt made up about an hour in air and we were only 30min late to vegas. I tried to set it up so I could sleep all 4 hours and 30min of the flight but no chance in my seat. They did have a good movie freedom writers playing which I ended up watching reminded me a lot of my mom since she did a part time teaching thing just because she loved teaching and she also had at risk kids. She also had a strong influence on many of her students one who actually called me on Sunday. He happened to see my dad out and they talked and he was her student for 3 years in HS and we became close went to a few yankee games and other things together. He's a few years older and we hand't talked in over 5 years so it was cool to catch up.

Back to the vegas sorry add kicks in, Get on a shuttle after 30min wait for luggage and get to luxor and check in was a breeze thayer did all the work prior and I just got a key. Hung out in the room got some room service and then got like 5 hours of sleep I just couldn't sleep that well. Got a bunch of things to do to set up rest of the trip thayers going to play the 10k at mandalay bay.

More vegas info

2007-05-27T14:49:00.001-07:00

Looks like finally I have a place to stay for the first week rooming with thayer at luxor for 5 days till we find something better. After that we looking for getting a place for the rest of the series etc. Here are the events I am playing unless I get really sick/still in one of the prev ones.

3,6,8,10,12,15,19,25,27 ,28,30, 31, 35,37 ,45, 47,49,52, and def 55.

If I hit big at an early one prob will toss in some more of the LHE PLH and other games.

Updates

2007-05-24T14:56:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been over a month since I've posted something been trying for last 2 weeks to get something up but my login info wasn't working and I keep giving up easily. heading to vegas this monday, thayer fucked up and still don't have a place booked which hopefully I can do once I get out there. Looks like I sold a few less shares then I anticipated but that's fine I'm happy having half my action for the series can't wait to play the super soft events. Also, looking forward to meeting the 100+ people who've berated me online and said wait till I see you live etc comments I laugh at those people who take poker way too seriously.

Anyways going to be active with some good poker and other stories hopefully once I get the living arrangements setup, really excited been looking forward to this trip for a few years now and it doesn't seem like it's here already packing and stuff for the trip it still hasn't sunk in how much these next 2 months will effect the rest of my life.

Also, I don't plan on playing much live cash unless I see the games are very good I do think I'll end up playing some of the 2nd chance events the days I play events other days prob online sess in the morn/afternoon drinking/smoking after.

The upcoming summer

2007-04-21T21:31:00.000-07:00

Well as some of you may know I am moving to vegas in a few weeks with augie who happened to be one of the first online players I ever met and became friends with before I even was playing tourneys. Going out to vegas in 2 weeks to scout for a sick appt/house 2-3 bdrm place in some gated community. After that we are flying to albany to get my truck and drive to tstone for that week of tourneys. Then, I will just be busy packing getting everything organized to move I think it's going to be a lot harder moving then it was for college as I will have a lot more shit and lot more important shit that unlike my college stuff I would be pissed if it got wrecked on the passage there. I always enjoy driving distances by myself so I am making the trek to vegas alone should be a good time to get my mind right for the upcoming tourneys etc.

As for WSOP I plan on playing all the NLH tourneys and and a few have given myself a 50k budget to work with for all the smaller events. I have the roll to withstand that but if I did it and had an awful run I'd be back to a true micro grinder so I've decided to sell 66 shares of myself at 750 a pop. Each share will get you 1% of my action for the entire series. I will prob use my blog as a way to inform all those rooting me on who aren't in vegas with me to how I am doing etc. The shares are going to be broken down like this. I will be using that 50k as a BR for my series as well as my 10k seat I already won from stars and it will be like most generic backing deals you get your intial investment back and then you get your share of the profits based on how much I earned during the tourneys. So anyone who wants to get a few shares contact me on AIM shaundman or PM me on my accounts on one of the poker forums. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. Also, all payment must be upfront and I am selling only 66 shares no more so if you are too slow/late I will let you know if someone backs out prior to the first tourney.

I usually leave this with little poker content but I have been on a sick heater last 24 hours up about 25k with most of the winnings coming from taking down the stars 20R last night for 8.5k and the FTP 40k garuntee which I netted 14.5k winning that at a redic FT. I plan on posting that 300 6max tourney HH on PXF soon as well as my win a few weeks ago in the stars 50r both will be posted here next week at some point.

A disapointing night

2007-04-07T22:15:00.000-07:00

Well, that's how I felt after a session a few days ago. It was a good day profit wise but I ended my session feeling so disapointed because I feel that my endgame is the strongest part of my game. I had a very rough start to my session that day and cashed in like 1 thing at the time on stars and so far the week had been bad since a great sunday for mtts. Since then I've been lacking motivation to play a full session. And I finally persevered through my session and by the end of the night I was HU in an $8 FO on stars and lose HU when starting with a 2 to 1 CL Had a hand I can never get away from HU J high flush vs K high flush. I only played a few ftp tourneys that day too 6 to be exact and shockingly fted 3 of those 6. I fted the 30R first ran bad there some short stack shoved for like 9bb 2nd big stack calls OTB I shove for like 35bbs with AKo and the flat caller had KK. I then later fted a 75 fo I think the 22k garunteed and again had a not so good ft calling a minraise with A4 when I should have folded and I check shoved a J74 flop and KJ instacalled and I was gone. Luckily I saved the best run on ftp for the 40k tourney which I lost a really huge pot with 2 tables left AQ vs QJ AIPF J river obv. had like 3bb after that and was able to battle back to a top 3 stack going into ft. Got 4th and lost all my chips on a huge race for CL with 4 left 10s vs AK K river obvvv.

So I was up like 7k on the day from tourneys and still had a upset feeling after the session maybe it was because I didn't win or have a 5 figure day even though having many great opportunities to get a huge day. I generally feel better after a more modest day where I won a few 180s and cashed in some middle tourneys. Which I guess just shows the motivation I have to win every tourney regarless of buyin which helps me play the low buyins even though I could easily not play them and still have many profitable days. Still working on motivation been doing well playing some short sessions of LHE lately and hopefully that continues.

Best individual day

2007-04-03T15:39:00.000-07:00

Sunday was a sick day for me I ended up taking down the early afternoon 109fo for 9k as well as winning my first WSOP ME seat in the 650. Not bad considering I wasn't even planning on making an effort for the seat and this was the first time I played a sat for it. I'll try to win some other seats now prob for the W$ to sell. Still going to sell shares of myself for the whole series including the ME as I plan on playing all NLH tourneys which would cost about 50k in tourney buyins according to my estimates

I've had a lot of trouble last 3 weeks motivating myself to play tourneys, I've been running really hot at cash games playing higher than usual so it makes it tougher to sit down and grind for a 12 hour session when I could play 1 hour of cash and expect to make as much money. I dunno need get back on the grind still feel like I am playing well for tourneys just so hard to keep reg after a few hours.

A few quick things

2007-03-29T14:14:00.000-07:00

For those who haven't yet read this article on me located at http://www.pokertips.org/weekly.shuffle/archives/2007-03-25, I suggest you do I really want to thank the guys at pokertips.org for coming to me asking for an interview. It was a lot of fun to go back to the start of my tourney career and I was amazed how much I have changed since then.

As for other things, one question I always get at the tables and away from them is why don't you play higher tourneys. I do play higher and other sites just less known there a few diff nics as well as I enjoy privacy at times because it's really hard to be 12+ tabling on stars and typing as well on the other 2-3 sites I am running. I am experimenting with a new ambidextrous setup while using my reg setup and dual monitors for stars while using my other hand with my laptop which will have the other sites running. It's been really hard so far to be comfortable for long times as well as type in bet amounts etc when it's not just a pfr. This basically prevents me from typing at all at the tables so far but I'm sure I'll get stronger with it and soon be back to my old self.

Now for the question of playing higher etc. I do think I am +EV at a 100R etc right now but to do so I would need to focus on that table alone and forget about my other tourneys. Right now I don't feel the urge or think it's in my best interest to do that solely. I much rather have a bunch of 20/180s 50fos and smaller rebuys running than just the 100R. The difference when I guesstimate of my hourly and also include the reduced variance of everything I much rather do the lower buyins, less stress, less noteriety, and more tables for a more enjoyable poker life. I don't care for ROI etc when it comes to online I much rather make more money playing every tourney any site is running and get a 5% ROI than play 1 tourney at a time and have a 300% roi whatever. I play poker for the money it's what drew me in it's what will help me do things beyond poker. Massive multitabling is not for everyone but it's perfect for me right now at this time of my life.

I week filled with ups and downs

2007-03-11T08:19:00.000-07:00

Sorry for it being a month since I updated I always intend to but as most of you should know I am very lazy. A lot's happened since my last update spent a week at tstone, turned 21, and played a lot of poker.

Tstone trip was soo much fun had a great group of people out there and pretty sure everyone had a sick time. Was going to write a trip report but that could be too incriminating lol. It was a disapointment poker wise ended up about even for the trip no live cashes though even though I had some huge stacks early in 2 of them even on my bday I ran sick hot when behind, and the 1 time I get it in good QQ vs 88 lose like 90% of my stack. I always have fun at my tstone trips and each time wish I played some more live cash games but always end up in the room drinking and smoking and playing online. Met a lot of new people this trip which was cool.

While I was there I had a good online week money wise but I had soo many deep runs in tourneys with 5k+ for first which I don't play that many of each day. I was sickened by many ft blubbes and 8ths or 9ths. I got really frustrated as it had been too long since a good score. When I got hoe I decided to make a concious effort to put in a lot of hours for the week as I had a good start for TLB winning 2 20/180s sun and mon. I was waking up earlier in the AM which kind of sucks for mtts since so few run. But the few that do are really fun to play and extremely soft. ended up playing really well and running even hotter. I took down the 20R for 8kish, 20 fo for 4k, $10 deepstack for like 2500 and some other 1k scores. Was my 2nd best week from MTTs.

Also, part of me playing better has been to not chat as much/all at the tables so I apologize for ignoring comments at tables. I just end up doing that too often and timeout at other tables/ miss key info. I will prob have chat on when at a ft or something as that will have all of my focus anyway and I can sneak in a few responses.

I'll try not to be another month till my next update.

.

My newest hobby

2007-02-10T00:58:00.000-08:00

When I was growing up most of my great uncles always were known to be smoking either cigars, pipes, or hookahs. That trend didn't transfer too much to the next generation as most of my uncles really don't smoke anything. They may have in the past but majority of them rarely smoke anything. I have had a few from my non lebanese side try the hookah with mixed results. Sadly, not much of my generation has gottin into them either inside my family besides myself and a few of my cousins. I think there's nothing better than surrounding yourself with some good company sitting outside on a nice day and smoking and bullshitting for a few hours. It's a nice way to spend an afternoon and I try to do it when I can when the weather allows it.

During one of these times over at my cousins house we were discussing his grandfather in particular who used to live in the same house we were in and how he used to smoke his pipe every waking hour. I was too young to remember much about him but his grandson is 32 and he remembers him vivadly as he spent nearly half his life so far in his presence. So while we were on the topic we both had mentioned that we always wanted to try realy pipe tabacco. We both have had black and milds and liked smoking them but were sure the real thing would be much better. Lucky for us theres a really good store in our area for pipes. So we get there and start talking with the owner about pipes, the area, and his business and spent nearly an hour there just chatting. He finds us a few good pipes and we buy some of thier home blended tobacco even chat the with guy who supposedly is an expert at mixing strainds. He happened to be who created both of the strainds that we ended up buying.

We head back to the house to try out our new pipes and it was amazing. I have had some of the top cigars and the smoke blew them away. There was nothing like the smooth smoke that was coming from the pipe. We were both struggling to keep our pipes lit but we keep smoking for about 3 hours while we watched the remake of kingkong. The one biggest difference between pipe and cigars for me was after the fact that after taste on your tongue wasn't as unpleasent as most cigars. Even the morning after brushing my teeth the aroma was still strong on my tongue. I def recommend to anyone who likes smoking to go out buy a corn cob pipe they are really cheap under 5 bucks and get some tabacco and try a pipe if you like it go out an get a nice pipe ranging from 50-250 and start building your collection.

Also, the store we went to supposedly is the top seller on the internet for pipes as well so if you want to get one and some good accessories check out their website at www.pipesandcigars.com

A proud moment

2007-01-30T03:16:00.000-08:00

For the first time tonite I really was able to see how much my game has affected those around me. One of my students tossed me a few IMs throughout the night about his redic swings that he was having while deep in the 3R every 15min I would get an IM saying how hes top 5. 30min later he would say how he lost 80% of his chips. I knew it was brutal for him esp being at a 109fo earlier he bubbled at being aggro. But, he was doing the right things just not getting the results. Keep telling him the chips will come etc. I forget about his run and go watch a movie, get a new update hes at the FT. I open it up and am happy to see him be one of the shorter stacks at like 1.1mil with blinds 30/60k and going up to 40/80k in 2 minutes. I tell him time to make a move soon and he agrees. A few hands later he reshoves in bb with AQs and hits a Q and a FD vs 77 and holds to get upto like 1.6mil. A few more steals followed by c-bets a few more resteals busting same 77 guy within 4 orbits he now has 4.4mil and CL.

It was weird to see my style from the observer point of view watching him run over a table that wasn't willing to adjust they all wanted to move up. He won the key races as well and I think he knocked out 5 of the last 6 people to get HU never losing CL since he gained it at FT. The clinic was great for me to watch in just a few quick coaching sessions he was recognizing the weak points of the table and attacking with blind aggression. It's very diff sweating a student than just a friend because a student you have had much more recent control molding their game to yours. When he finally got HU he had a 17mil to 1.6mil CL with blinds a goofy 85000/15000 stars has some really weird blind levels in the rebuys know. And within like 10 hands he had the tourney won for over 5k his biggest score. And since I remember the first night I had my big score from a mtt back in may from the 35k I was sure he was going through the same feelings I had during that time which is what keeps a lot of people playing tourneys when other things may have a better hourly and less stress.

Another should have been night

2007-01-16T23:34:00.000-08:00

Getting sick of these nights where I keep getting deep in something than choke or lose a race. I finally made my first ft in like 6 weeks where 1st place was 5 figures. I had a good stack for most of the 10R 35k garunteed since we were ITM, had a scare with like 30 left losing 2 400k pots when avg was like 225 where I played fine just got very unlucky. The FT was very even stacked everyone had like an avg stack no true shorties no massive CL. It was a real grind and I made what I thought was a good call at the time after raising UTG with 99 3x and having button flat call and SB shoved for 20x with QQ. Reason why I called is last few hands I had raised and the most recent one I raised UTG+1 with 78o and won with like 3rd pair at showdown vs AQo which was nut highcard.

After tha I was able to chipup back to avg stack than punted it badly with QQ after getting 4 callers PF which was totally rare since we hadn't even had a 3 way hand all FT with seeing a flop. Flop was AA6 with a FD and the blinds checked I checked and first CC bet like 90% of pot which was like 75% of his remaining stack. Everyone folded back to me and like a donkey I was like he has a FD or worse PP and I shove and get owned by AJo. Turn brought the other Ace just so I had no chance of bombing my 2outer. So I got 7th for like 1400 which was sod disapointing. Especially, since I was the best player at the table, though the others weren't bad just overly tight. And for TLb scoring failures I lose a race in the 9/360 PL tourney when we were 4 handed and the stacks were as followed me 270k other guy 260k shortiest at 25k and 20k blinds were 3k/6k. We get our stacks in with my 99 vs his AKo after like 6 raises stupid PL and he flops a K and I lose. Was very angry about that one even though the money was nothing I wanted the good TLB score.

PCA trip report.

2007-01-12T12:10:00.000-08:00

Day 1I had a really early flight out of Albany to head to the PCA so I just stayed up all night packing and getting everything set for the trip. Get to the airport at like 5 for my 6am flight. Get to Detroit grab some breakfast and hangout until my 2nd flight. I see jcmoussa and his buddy from home brendon. When we are boarding we were stuck in the way back of the plane and jc and brendon happened to sit next to slickrick, who I met at tstone like 2 years ago at a random 200max game and than he pmed me on 2+2 and we started chatting often about hands etc. We arrive at Bahamas I'm a little shaky as I don't know if my hookah will give me problems with customs. The lines were very long and very slow moving but eventually we get through. And the customs desk was really a breeze. We wait for our bags obv, mine takes 10minutes longer than everyone else. Finally waiting for a taxi and can't seem to get one split one with 2 other poker players. Who I find out later are premier and someone else whose name I forget. We get to Atlantis and we check in, I was told we had a suite so I assumed it would be similar to the suite we had in tstone with multiple rooms with a door between them. The room was all the way at the end of the hallway and there was a door kiddie corner. So I assume that was augie's room where him and his gf were. So I start knocking on the door once I hear the bed stop squeaking. No answer. I keep banging yelling "augie it's shaun open up, I know you are in there." They don't come to the door I say forget it and go find jc and brendon to go grab some food before the cocktail party, but first we head to the beach as we were told the lifeguards were the hookup for weed on the island. Before we even touch the beach we find a guy who has some stuff. He didn't have much on him so he went to his car and grabed us an oz. And we were ready to start our trip. Goto the room try out the stuff it was very good. We head to atlas to eat and have a good first meal, It was odd for the first time I was able to order a drink and have an id that worked if carded. Next stop was the liquor store on paradise island. We loaded up on a lot of booze for the first few days. Head down to the cocktail party where I see a lot of people I have met at tstone before and finally meet a few other 2+2ers who I have talked to a lot online. Party was alright the free sky and sprite made the party muh more enjoyable. I had yet to see any of my roommates though; tongni or augie. Finally I run into augie at the party and we decide to head back to the room. He was quite happy when he entered the room and was putting clothes away and found what we already purchased. It was this time that he told me that I put my stuff on his bed in the room. Than it clicked the room I was banging on was not augie and gf but some random couple who were on vaca or something. Oops. Day2I didn't drink too much on day 1 because I wanted to play the tourney on day 1a and had to still go down to the room and register for the tourney. Every time I went to the poker room/conference room I was told to come back at some later time to register. Finally at like 11:45 I get in the room pay my entry fee and register. Table was alright a few awful players a few ok ones. No one I felt like would be a big bother to me. Since we were so deep I really didn't play many big pots no one did. But, I was able to chip up to 25k in the first 2 levels. By level 4 I played my first big pot of the tourney blinds were 200/400/50. I open KQo UTG to 1100, MP1 cold calls, SB calls everyone else is out. Reads on players MP1 loved to bet when checked to with any pair to find out where he was at overall a decent player with a few leaks. SB was really bad saw a lot of flops and than loved to fold.Flop was Qx5s4s SB checks, I check, MP fires 3000 into the pot, SB folds, I call after like 30seconds. Turn was 6x I check MP fires 7k. I had like 20k behind after his bet and was put to a tough dec based on how underrepresented my hand was. I decided to call after a few minutes of thinking that he never folds a better hand and if he is bluffing as I expect he would do with a lot of his range on this board to let him go. River was the 3s obv worst card in the deck everything gets there. I check and after 30seconds guy checks behind with 77. I laughed out loud after I showed my KQ and he showed his 77. I was short now and had one pot where I was c/r on the flop when I had AQ on an Ad8d4x board and called the flop c/r and shoved over the turn bet and was called by another AQ. Doubled up my 15kish stack an orbit later when it's folded to my SB and I open with AA and sb flat calls. I had him barely covered. Flop was 8d4d2x I bet out he shoves I called. He had KJdd and turned a king but the river blanked. Back to 30k. I chip up a few more small pots and get to like 60k just winning each pot I am involved in. Pete the beat moves to my right and we started chatting it was like 30min before the day and you know people are tightening up as the end of the day approaches. So I start to open up my game a lot during this time as the blinds and antes were very significant at 400/800/100. Important hand UTG shoves for like 9600 he had gotten short and been pushbotting last hour or so. UTG+2 takes a while to act and after a minute or two I look at my hand and see KK so obv I am more interested in the action of this guy now. But during this time pete turns to me and whispers if he folds I'm calling. So I find it hard not to laugh in his face how screwed he is going to be soon. Guy finally folds and pete calls the 9600 with like 20kish behind. I instashove behind him and everyone else folds. He tanks for 2 minutes and finally calls with JJ, UTG had 77. Too bad the flop brought a 7 and I lost the 30k main pot but still did alright with the side pot and had 70k going into day 2 of the tourney.Day 3 Today was quite uneventful, I made a weak attempt for weekly TLB wasn't too far behind but had taken off last 3 days. I failed pretty badly and wasted a good afternoon in the Bahamas, but I had to play day 2 the next day and was going to be very important to me as I knew I had a good stack and day 2 was the day to setup a deep run no more small pots and no confirmations. I beat tony in air hockey betting at the arcade in the Atlantis. Later on a few people come over to smoke and they were all sober except nlsoldier who was really out of it and made it clear to us within the first few minutes how much he loves his gf and how hot she is. It was an early night for me since I didn't drink because hangovers and early morning poker suck.Day 4Too bad for me I had the toughest table during day 2 by the 2nd or 3rd level. The lineup looked like this(keep in mind at this time the avg stack was close to 60k. ; seat 1 2+2er david ross who had over 100k , seats 2 and 3 good lags who had 150k+, Stevejpa who had over 300k, very tough tag who had 100k and climbing throughout the day. 2 solid but passive players with avg stacks. Me sitting with 90k and than WSOP ME 5th place finisher who was actually the weakest player at the table imo and in seat 10 a guy whose name who john recognized and told me he had over 2mil in career winnings from live tourneys. needless to say it was really tough for me to get chips when it's usually 3bet before it even gets to me. Also, I was quite card dead for the day and my stack dwindled. Most important hand during the first few levels was at the end of level 3. I open QJs to 4k (800/1600/300) Button flat calls he has been quiet most of the time, blinds fold so it's HU. Flop is QcJx8x I bet 7k he raises to 15k. Effective stacks were 90k so shoving was quite an over bet, so I decided to check shove any blank turn. The turn rolls off and it's the 9c I'm not angry that I didn't 3bet the flop to setup a turn shove. I check he fires 25k in blues, I know theres a few minutes left in the level and think to myself he may be making a move on me with the concept that people fold a lot before breaks etc because they want to survive one more level. So after 3minutes I decide to call having like 45k behind and not much of a river plan. The ugly Ac rolls off and now I am thinking to myself I beat like nothing, so I check after a minute with intention to check fold to any serious bet, as I expected him to shove or check behind the river sine pot was huge and effective stacks so much smaller. He checks behind and I show my QJ and say damn I played that bad should have gottin more, he than shows me the two other queens in the deck. I am like wow I should be out of this tourney. I lost over half my stack but was never happier that the board got so [censored] before, saved me my stack. I was now under 1/2 avg stack but still had like 20-25bbs, but with such a tough and aggro table any pot I put money in I should expect to be playing for my stack. I had been grinded down to 35k with monster antes and finally get a hand. I see I had QQ and was finally happy to be ready to double or be out. UTG+1 raised steve cold called in MP1 as hes done a lot taking pots away from the lags to his right, than something I didn't expect one fold and the next guy shoves his 30k stack and right behind him guy shoves his 80k stack. I am sooo angry now, and after a few seconds know I am crushed so I muck and everyone else gets away and first shover had JJ 2nd had KK and no Q ever showed either. An orbit later we are down to like 183 left 180 pay I had like 11bb stack kid who replaces jj guy opens for 11k blinds were 1.5k/3k/500 I shove with 10s for my 35kish total and he tanks and finally calls with 36o. Flop has a 3 but I fade the next 2 streets and finally double up to a workable stack. Short stack busts to my right next orbit and a guy with 25k stack sits down. a few hands later it folded to him in the SB and he shoves his 9bbs with Q9o I call with A8o board comes 97310K and I lose the 60/40 and am crippled. Was down to like 32kish after my SB got raised and RR. I go look at the clock and we just hit 130 players which mean pay jump to 12k and than the next jump is like 40 people later. With 10min left in the day I decided I didn't want to have to sweat all night and not have fun because I had to play day3 with prob the shortest stack left. Following hand UTG raised to 9k 2 cold callers in MP and I look down and see k10s. I expected 1 of the 3 or even maybe a blind to iso me and I was content with taking the gamble as I would triple up if I was able to win. UTG obliged and shoves his AQo and I get a nice 2 to 1 price on my stack for a 40/60, I flop a 10 but he also hit his Q so I was out 124th for 12kish but very happy with my play.I than meet up with gobbo who had a good stack and decide to get some dinner. Pete, (primetime), Joe (locutus), and Mr. Timcaum tag alone too and we goto the deli and have a great meal. Little did I know at the time that meal's convo would become important later on in the week. Pete lost credit card roulette and thinks it's the greatest game ever and was actually happy to win so he could fit in with the kids more. But, he played very well from the hands we chatted about and about really has a good life going for him. I head back to my room and decide to go celebrate and enjoy my vacation now that the business site was done. I find jurollo, twistedecho, coxquinn, badgerpro, and others in the lobby and they say they are going out so I decide to tag along. We head to 2 bars/clubds charlies and senor frogs which didn't look appealing for the darkness as well as senor frogs being closed. So we end up at liquid lounge which had $15 all you can drink. The others had been drinking for a while so I had to catchup and started doing a lot of shots with twisted. The ratio there was awful but free drinks was fun. Badger was quite drunk at the time because he was doing another prop bet with coxquinn with drink for drink and after puking in the bathroom there quinn won and we headed back to Atlantis. But, before he yakked he made sure to dance with every guy he could, the only girl he danced with happened to be also his cousin. Funniest moment was watching him lift his shirt over his head and start grinding against jurollo who was pinned against a half wall. We all goto my room and smoke a little and wakeup tony who was passed out on the couch than I pass out for the night. Day 5We attempt to make this a productive day enjoying the weather which was awesome. Ray, John, and a 4th who I can't remember who right now. We hop in the lazy river expecting to bask in the sun for a bit in it but the lifeguards are yelling at us. We can't understand what they are saying at first but eventually we realize they are saying get out of the water. So we go talk to them and they say the lazy river is closed because they put chemicals in it or something. We find a bar get some fruity drinks and head to the beach. Endup running into jurollo and clan who were hanging out on the beach, stay there for an hour than go walk around the place looking for something to do but there isn't much going on. So like all other days we end up in the room smoking. Later on in the night we find out hiv is playing gildwolf HU and decide to go and watch him play. We also were out of weed and he had some in his room so we headed there to smoke and watch hiv win 10k. The match took forever other people ended up stopping by meet mcsketch and bk but they left pretty quickly with tony. Like 10minutes later mike, john, grim, and me head out to drink a little. I see action jeff with a crowd of people as always and think nothing of it. We head to the poker room and just happen to get there was genuis28 is trying to get a 50k red or black against phil laak. Than we hear about how he lost 2 of 3 flips vs AJ after getting stuck in the pit. So it clicks why everyones celebrating with him cuz he just won 50k. Genius ends up winning when the flop brings 3 red cards and he wins. Nothing else really went down Day 6This ends up to be the sloppy drunk day for who we were with. We decide to go on the booze cruise tony and I planning on meting mike, jc, brendon, josh, whitelime, and others on the boat. Finally meet the legendary bruiser on this day and we all get really drunk. During this time like 60% of the people on the cruise went snorkeling for like 45min. We were given food and saw this large fish swimming around very close to the people. Of course we start yelling shark get out of the water etc. Trying to scare the people, the host/announcer/dj of the cruise starts yelling at us that we can't say that. He also explains that it's a barracuda which to this point I didn't know existed just thought they were a figment of the legend of the hidden temples imagination when he needed another team. He stars tossing bones from the leftover food we were eating into the water. And we watched the barracuda eat it, so us drunk kids start throwing our bones near the snorkelers so that the barracuda would swim at them and eat the bone scaring them. We had some fun with that but quickly ran out of food to throw. Than when we are about to reach and island to go hangout josh gets made fun of by the islander for how badly he broke up a dutch. We try to find a semi secluded area away from the families there and attempt to roll something up. Dutch fails but luckily some random tourist walking by had papers on him and gave us one. The joint was so awful looking but it smoked well considering. So we head back to the boat for more drinking. Make our way upto the top deck and theres maybe 40 guys, 3 girls under 16, 2 girls 16-21 with bfs, and some older ladies dancing. We prop bet whitelime's friend to dance with this 50 year old fat lady dancing around all drunk and he obliges and starts to grind on her from the front and tony makes a move and starts grinding on her back she doesn't know what to do but I think she was enjoying it. Tony starts to dance with this girl who is really young we find out her age shes 14 lolll. She's there with her 10yearold sis 15 year old sis and mother. Don't know why a mom would ever take her young daughters on a booze cruise but it's the bahamas. They weren't drinking though too bad for tony, he also was making moves on the mother at the same time. The girls stole a 20 from JC and had tony sign it since we told them what a big name poker player he is etc, and how hes only 17. We get off the cruise all wasted and decide to head to nobu the sushi place in the casino. We had some time to kill before our meal so john, josh, nlsoldier, JC and me go play craps. nlsoldier was too drunk to play so he passed out on the floor in between me and john as I was rolling and looked like naths pic at tstone. Too bad we didn't have a camera at the time to take the pic, there are some good pics from the cruise whitelime who was the only one who had a camera on the cruise. Anyways, first few rollers for craps do awful we get nothing and the dice quickly get to me, JC blows on the dice in his drunken state and the pit guys get all angry and force me to put the diece back in and change them. I bet a little heavier because I have faith in myself the others don't and bet lite and I start hitting numbers like crazy. But it was taking 5min to do just 1 roll as an older gent on the other side was taking 5minutes to make sure he was betting everything and was slowing down the game. So I keep rolling and hitting a few pts and all of a sudden we all have like 1k-2k in bets on the board and like 2k profit, I finally crap out but thanks to the old slow guy it was time for our dinner reservations. So we all color up and head to nobu.Once we get there jc and someone else gets turned down at the hostess because they are in swim attire. So a few of us sit down whitelime had rejoined us after putting his friend to bed who was dancing with the older chick and later passed out on the cruise while we were all upstairs hitting on underage girls. Finally 7 of us sit for dinner and it's alright sushi we all enjoy it. I try saki for the first time and didn't like it much. Surprising as I was still drunk from the cruise a few hours earlier. We play credit card roulette and john losses after he was the one who proposed it haha free meal and 2k in the pit while still being drunk what an awesome day. Head back to the room tony is passed out from the cruise he didn't even make it to dinner neither did mike he just left atlantis and went back to his hotel since he was gone too. HIV stops by the room we head to the lobby and that's when the drama bomb that's timcaum happened. HIV lied to him about what he wanted naths cellphone and ended up flipping out at the 3 of us in the lobby we had back and I end up in rays room with them and we enjoy the train wrecking that happens from the threads about that night. Little did I know the discussion I had at the dinner 2 days prior about an idea john had to make tony money turns out to get me involved in a hilarious scandal, that amused me for the rest of the week I was on vacation. Day 7 wakeup pretty early and en dup going to eat with augie, his gf, and tony and me and tony end up at the arcade with a few other people and we play some more air hockey I win a few and lose a few, lost to mike who is only person on the trip who made money off me on air hockey. That bastard did this redic shot that messed up my goal keeping abilities soo badly. Still was a good time. We tried to make an attempt to head to senor frogs for the last night but I got way too high to bother going out and drank a little in the room and than tried to sleep but ray was passed out on my couch/bed for 6 hours from earlier. Wake him up tell him to goto his room he finally does and I goto bed, after a quick online session where I did pretty badly bubbling the bigger tourneys I played and running bad at everything else. Still was up on the trip with what I lost online the 2 days I played. My computer was being used by my roommates and others a lot since they didn't bring their laptop on the vaca or they were in our room and left their laptop at their own room. Ohh yah, I wish I had a camera as my room had the sickest view ever. Perfect view of the beach and ocean couldn't have been a better thing to wakeup to each day than that view and tony with just boxers on. Overall a quiet final night as we were all very tired from a lot of drinking and smoking for the week long trip.Day 8This was pack up and leave day really uneventful. Augie got sick in the AM and he didn't even drink the night before. His gf had a virus earlier in the week guessing he got it from her later on. Finish up packing and me and tony go try to eat at the atlas but it was close. Than we try to head to the deli, but that was closed too, so we settle for pizza. Find JC, brendon, and robbie a live pro on the way back and share a taxi with them to the airport, since JC and brendon were going to be on same flight as me again. But JC is too much of a baller to take 2 flights so he pays for a jetblue ticket which is direct flight for himself and brendon and they head to their flight. Tony had like a 4hour wait till his flight so he moved his up as well. We all go through customs I obv get stopped at the last 2 security check points for about 30min each. Thankfully I cleaned my hookah really well the night before because they were checking for resin and I got most of it out of it. At the final stop they had me pulled to the middle for another 30min going through every piece of my hookah looking for drugs. End up seeing a lot of people in the waiting area and talk to stow for a bit and say congrats to him for his 70k score a few nights prior. Get one last miami vice before I head to my plane. Got a [censored] setup for flights since I had a 3 and a half hour layover in Detroit but it was good because I was able to write up this trip report and make a few phone calls since I hadn't called anyone in a week or received any of my calls. Also, I lucked out as for both of my flights I was able to change my seat assignment to the exit row which has like 2-3 times more legroom which is nice for a bigger guy like myself. This trip was a lot of fun I met a lot more 2+2ers sorry for not mentioning all of you as there were wayy too many all of whom I got along with shockingly. Also, I am missing a lot of key details for each day as a lot went down and this is all from my recollection which is hard considering how messed up I was for most of the days. If I remember anything really good I'll be sure to add it after or I'm sure one of the other people involved will mention it. I think this is my only big tourney time before WSOP so I can regain some stamina and be ready for it all again in vegas in a few months when I am finally 21 when there will be even more nightly insanity. So totals for tourney PCA +4k 2k after backers got their cutAir hockey +500Pit +2kFood -500 thanks to never winning CC rouletteweed+alc -1k def worth itSo I made close to 3k besides what I lost online which is awesome. I spent a week in the bahamas with some people I've talked to for a while now and never was able to meet. And also got to meet up with the guys from the FW monopoly game as well as all the players I've meet at countless trips to tstone. Next time I def need to bring a camera because some of the mental pictures I have from this trip can not be expressed properly with words. As a side note there are more older 2+2ers than I expected and they were all soo much like us kids but just have families etc. They also get away with a lot more because us kids respect older unknowns when they raise.

New years goals

2007-01-01T10:41:00.000-08:00

Well last few weeks have been crazy for me. Getting my backing and shit together for PCA was just one of the many things I had to get done. I also made a pretty strong attempt to win weekly/yearly TLB during the last 2 weeks and came close but short in both of them. Mostly because I took a few days off to do some other things which were def worth it. Met up with a few guys to play some monopoly while ESPN interviewed mike for their upcoming USPC broadcasts where that should be one of the human interest stories they show in the middle of episodes. Have had a decent 2 weeks made a few grand but nothing big in a while not even a 5 figure FT in the last 2 weeks.

Goals for 2007, with a full year to grind for mtts I figure I need to set the bar very high as 365 days is a lot of time and a lot of tourneys. I expect to play over 8k MTTs and 180s during this span. Shouldn't be that hard with a little under 200 a week which is def a pace I can handle. Also once I get from PCA and get back into my groove of grinding I expect and should moveup to top yearly pretty quickly. I do not want to relinquish that control as soon as I get it whenever that may be this year. I am unsure what to set a monitary goal at for the year so I think I will leave that out. The one goal with winning I know I want to do is winning 100 180 mans during the year which should be pretty easy for me if I get to my other goals.

This years been such a change from switching to mtts, finally getting away from table games(so far), and meeting some of the top poker players and prob a lot more at PCA and WSOP upcoming.

TLB

2006-11-14T06:12:00.000-08:00

For the second time on stars I won the weekly TLB, I played almost 500 tournys for the week to win it. I made a over 40fts for the week too but only had 5 wins which I was quite disapointed about. I am only playing 5 days full days this week as sunday I had an incident where my neighbors got kicked out by thier parents and came over to my house for a few hours before their parents calmed down and sobered up. On monday, I was conned into being a chauffeur to a tstone trip with my some of my family. I really didn't want to go up on a monday knowing the games would be only a few and low limits. Ended up doing a $65 tourny with 55 runners because there was nothing else to do. Ended up winning that pretty easily for 1k+. Sick hand of the tourny (600/1200 200a) was folded to UTG+1 who just lost a big pot who had 1BB he calls with 910s, next guy to act CL at table overlimped with AA. Guy behind him shoves for like 6k total with 77 ; next guy calls for over half his stack with 88; next girl took 2minutes before folding 55 she said after. Folds around to BB who also calls for more than half his stack with JJ . Get's back to AA guy and he shoves both call. So 5 to the flop everyones in pot is over 140k and the avg stack at the time is 13k. Flop was A44 and the Aces held and the FT bubble was busted when we were just 14 handed.

At the final table I really didn't play much did a few blind blind steals OTB and in CO that worked. Big hand when we were 7 handed 6 paid guy had 200 chips UTG after antee(800/1600 300a) next guy calls the BB; I call with A8hh 2 other guys call. Flop is AdAx8x guy infront of me leads 3k, I call, others fold. Turn is a Jx and he shoves I call and he shows 88 for the flopped underful that is drawing dead. Next big hand we were 4 handed (1.5k/3k 500a) CO raised 9k which is a big hand cuz table was very passive and predictable PF I have AA make it 25k afew a few moments. SB hems and haws and finally folds claiming JJ and I believe him. Other guy insta shoves his AKo I hold and double to become CL. Get HU after guy opened in SB with A9o I shove KK and win on the AQJ108 board. Had 1.5 to 1 lead HU early but we both had 40+ BBs. Not many interesting hands we were just playing small ball guy had to see every flop and I was card dead. For a 35 straight hands we went to showdown and 3 of those hands I had a pair never anything more. I was dwindled down to 70k when he had 200k+. I open KJs he shoves I was priced in call and beat his 44. We are now even in chips, a few hands later I open Ax10c OTB he calls, flop is AK3 all clubs. He checks I bet like 2/3rds pot he calls turn is a 4c he checks I check behind because he has been shoving scare cards a lot. River was like a 7x he shoves for a little over pot I instcall. He shows A4 and my flush is good. He was left with 6k which was 1 BB and so we just run it he has KK I have 68o and make a straight and win the tourny.

A solid start to the Nov team challenge

2006-11-06T04:55:00.000-08:00

Well I wokeup yesterday around 3:00 am estern ready for a serious amount of tournys. I played alright when I had chips I went deep when I didn't get chips I was out pretty much my usual situations. One thing I lacked was top 3s. I made it to 8 FTs on the day and 1 FT bubble when I 3 barelled a fellow 50k stack in blind confitation knowing he had a really weak ace and turned trips. Of my FTs I only won 1 a 10/180 and that was quite disapointing. Thanks to a new stars feature evg told me about I foundout I had played in 60 180 sngs about half 4/180s and other half split between 10 and 20. And only 14 MTTs. Numbers were lower than I expected bu for a 14 hour spawn I signed up for every 180 that went on as well as all buy 1 MTT. I am going to try to adjust my sleep schedule to be a bit later so I can start my sessions around 11-12 am. Thay way I can make more of the peak times when more tournys of larger buyins are going on.
My team all made a respectable effort in their tournys evg is in top 20 so far for the weekly TLB rankings, while BMX and smitty matt both had a few 20/180 fts neither winning but still solid efforts. Timex came in 30th in the mil which was very clutch for us to pretty much cancel out the TLB score that adam junglen had going 4th in the 2nd chance. Overall as expected my team is way ahead of the team we are playing as well as the other teams in the challenge. I expect is to have this locked up mid to late thursday so we can rest up and prepare for the next week's win.

A special surprise

2006-11-01T01:26:00.000-08:00

Well I've been extremely busy the last week doing a lot of work on the up coming nov team challenges. Also, snuck in a nice 12 hour session helping timex get a seat to the top 150 yearly TLB sat for the PCA. Been running pretty well for my 180s, played in the 4/180 challege for a little change of pace and had a good time and ended up winning it. Played prob around 50/40 stats from 25 players on. Had some huge swings as expected with that play, if you want to see some differnet spots I picked up chips where 99% of players fold the HH was put on PxF for anyone to view. http://www.pokerxfactor.com/HA29850/8699_20061101_004754/8699 you need an account to view it but not a subscription. No cashes over 1k besides 2 20/180 wins this week.

In some non poker content last night I went with a few of my cousins who's business was sponsering a concery that was going on at Ualbany. It also was a costume party, but very few people were dressed up. It was extremely unorganized as the kids about 400-500 of them were lined up, up stairs waiting to get in. But, the state troopers there wanted every to get searched by the metal dectetor wands. So some students who were part of the staff had only 3 of them to do the crowd. It was a really slow process and delayed the show by 2 hours. During this time we were just sitting at our table talking to a few of the students who were attending the show. There was a VIP lounge for the sponsors/bands that was supposed to have beers as well as food. While I stayed at the booth my cousins went with the head of who was putting on the show. They came back 15minutes later and said there was no good food in the vip room or beer. They said the only decent thing were these cookies and they handed me 2 of them. I ate them because I hadn't eaten in 12 hours, also I hadn't slept since the previous day since I spent from midnight to 3pm playing for timex. So I was really tired waiting for the show to start. When I finally met the kid running it who was busy doing a lot of legwork, he asked me how I felt I said really tired and he said yah the cookies do that to you. And I was like... I look over to my left and my cousins are cracking up. They are like as soon as you ate those cookies your eyes shut and when you actually opened them they are as red as a firetruck. I've smoked weed a lot in the past not much since my last ts trip with augie. So needless to say I was gone off those 2 cookies. First time I've had weed anyway besides smoking. Overall the night turned out fun had a good time with my cousins even though it took up most my night.

stars 55 ft

2006-10-25T02:43:00.000-07:00

Well for the first time in about 3 weeks I won a 20/180, felt good to get the rust off. Also, I fted the 55k but lost a high pot 5 handed 10s vs Qs. Ended up busting out shortly after that for 3700 or so. felt good to have a solid tourny day. I am going to try for 1,000 180s this month shouldn't be too hard now with the addition of the 10/180s. Which seem to be filling up faster than the 4/180s. Guess they took a good chunk of the player base from both the 4s and the 20s . I just wish sometime soon stars makes them have 10min blind levels.

first day back

2006-10-21T01:31:00.000-07:00

First full day of online poker since the party poker canceling. I lost a few hundred but did alright for a while getting back to my multitabling ways. Had 20-25 tables going 90% being 180s of all buyins $4-$20. I was doing just fine with a new table situation setup. I had 15 on left screen 12 on right. But, than I accidentally hit tile tables and than it sent 20 tables to my left screen and left 6 on my right. Left screen was so crowded and I kept timing out in a lot of tournys. I didn't have a score about 100$ though hit a few fts for 180s never getting better than 4th. Also, got down to 2 tables in a 5$ FO, but tanked half my stack on 2 table bubble restealing. Than my 9BB shove of j10 got called by A9 and AK. looked good on the 10xx flop bad on the Ace river. I did a little bit in cash to make up most of my tourny fees.

I was planning a trip to TS this weekend for their tournys but due to having a few things to do with the nov team challenge as well as being too lazy to drive 2 hours to get there. I will be spending the weekend grinding my 180s. Time to get back to my roots where I enjoyed poker.

And down goes partypoker

2006-10-13T16:24:00.000-07:00

Well there goes my first site and what is the reason I am where I am in this crazy poker world. Really sad to see it go for US players. Had some great times there and from poker I made over 100k on poker yet overall I am down like 20k on that site I believe. Really sad how that turned out, even had a nice run at 100/200 while doing a honorary last shot at party while I could made like 10k, next day lost that 10k and 5 more playing table games again. Still had a little in my account at the time ran it upto like 5k now it's stuck on that site.

Now I am totally screwed it seems for the coming week or two. Firepay won't accept my money so I have no way of getting money online until I figure out how to do a wire transfer. My debit card does not work with poker sites. I was hoping to be able to either trade party money for stars or just get a neteller account working but looks like neither of that can happen either. So I guess I am stuck with the 300 I have on stars and playing a few 20/180s and the newly added 10/180s and hopefulyl win a few so I can have a actual workable roll until I figure out a way to get 10k or so online

WCOOP and running bad

2006-10-04T20:04:00.000-07:00

Well I am still running really bad on stars buy luckily the only 2 tournys they decided to let me cash in were the 1k LHE ad the ME getting I think 180th and 136th respectively. Besides that I can't cash in anything there my tourny game has escaped me dunno what's going on. Cash games been bad for me. I am also trying to force a lot more hours in this week due to the possibility of stars following suit with party poker and other sites and preventing US players from playing.

I am really unsure of what I am going to do I could go play live at TStone and get a place closer so I don't have to drive 2 hours each way. Or I may goto school out west either UNLV or some Socal school. Another option I am considering is canada either for school or just getting an appt with a few other poker players.

I think this week I am going to try to organize a TLB team challenge to start this sunday. I'll prob have a post up on 2+2 about it see if theres enough interest. I need to be moitvated to play with an unknown timespan left for US and online poker.

No good news lately

2006-09-22T14:56:00.000-07:00

Sorry updates been slow just nothing worth while to talk about. I don't think I've cashed in my last 100 stars tournys WCOOP going horribly doing great early in 200R top 50 stack than get moved to the toughest table easily in the tourny. I just have horrible luck with table placement. I've dropped a lot of my roll most of it not from poker. Also, going to be busy next few weeks my grandma is getting her hip replaces so that means helping her out here and there and taking shifts keeping an eye on her.

I am going to try to make the 2 events tom for WCOOP if I don't at least make a strong showing I might just end my WCOOP early because it's just a waste of money.

Best Cash day ever

2006-09-16T04:18:00.000-07:00

Well, I continue to crush 40/80 lastnight and afternoon I booked about 14k in profit over a bunch of sessions my month profit is passing 50k and it's been a sick run. It's funny how good I am running at LHE yet so 6 tournys in the last 2 days I went out within last 2 tables not making 1 FT outside of a 50/90. Sadly, it wasn't cold decking either just losing the races and 60/40s I need to win to win those gambles. All is not lose tomorow is WCOOP can't wait for some razz to donk around in maybe get lucky and cash.

I will be playing more on stars lately so be sure to be on the lookout for me if I get in anything deep. Not as many 20/180s because I want to focus on the bigger buyin tournys that I will be doing up coming and get out of my non 180 grove where I suck endgame. I am really tired and need to get some food and some sleep right now I'll try to update mid-day tomorow.

The good side of variance

2006-09-14T15:54:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't updated recently not been much news just been playing a lot of cash lately and doing very well. I am just starting up my first serious tourny night session in a while hopefully I have a nice score to brag about later. I feel like I need to get back in the swing of tournys for WCOOP up coming. I plan on playing almost half of the events as long as I feel like I have an edge even just a small one because the return on taking down one of those is life changing. I also need to get back to my 20/180s one of these days besides the challenge last night I haven't played really any in the last 405 days. The only month goal I have no reached was winning TLB. That is a long shot right now, but hey thats the way I like to be.

Goal completed

2006-09-12T00:59:00.000-07:00

Well amazingly I have reached my goal far and away faster than I could have ever dreamed of doing it. I have run extremely well on dise in tournys as well as cash games. I know I cheated a little but damn I've been having some sick sessions there. I only made a 1k depoist there to play in their rebuys on the 7th and already I have made close to 20k on the site. Funny how good I am running there and bad I am running at stars. C'est la vie, still I can't complain at all. I FTed the 40k again yesterday and had a disapointing 7th place finish for 1700.

In other news I want to say congrats to gobboboy FTing the dise 150k sunday and taking home 20k for 2nd place. He played great as usual if any of you are wondering whose a guy to keep an eye on in tournys to learn something fron search for him and sweat his tables a great overall player. Also, made a good post in the MTTC forum on 2+2 about styles of play a must read for anyone who wants to become a winning poker player.

I wouldn't mind some feedback on what my next goal is. I want to try to go for 35k this money I have plenty of time but do plan on playing a little bit less the next few weeks. I def am playing in most of the 200 and 500$ buyin tournys for WCOOP and if I do well in any of them expect to see me in the ME. I had a suggestion to maybe do a 100k in 100 days challenge that would def push me to my limit, but I do have a lot of free time to devote to poker since I am not in school.

Day 11/30

$$ 21k/20k GOAL reached hopefully no downswing takes it away from me.

A day that could have been

2006-09-10T13:05:00.000-07:00

Well today was a profitable day even though I only played for 4-5 hours. I made close to 1k but I was really disapointed since I was doing well in the 35k and should have gottin to the FT if the only 2 big pots I played went my way. Oh yah, and both of those pots all the money went in PF KQ vs K9 and A10 vs A8. Those were the only pots I played that were over 100k. they were 250k and 300k respectively. The A10 was my knockout hand putting me out mid 30s. If I win that hand I was top 5 in chips at a very weak tight table. I also got 2nd in a 20/180 lost a few big flips late kept making comebacks then knockout hand was QQ vs A8 AIPF. Still a good day made over 1k but I hate getting deep in a tourny and not at least getting to FT. I just know how high my edge is at that stage.

Day 9/30

$$ 16k/20k

A day off basically

2006-09-09T02:09:00.000-07:00

I decided to not do much today tourny wise just wanted a day to relax and recoup. I am well on my way to my goal hopefully I reach it by the end of this week so I can aim for another 10k the 2nd half of the month. I spent most of last night doing 4 tables of 100max helping out a good friend of mine get away from his 10VP$IP and 4PFR at 100 and 200 max FR. Had a nice little session too for only playing for like 45 min. I cashed in a few small tournys, one on party and cashed in two 2/180s but neither was a FT. I am alright with that I ran bad and didn't play enough tournys to have 1 with some good variance.

Tomorow I might have to help out my dad at one of our restaurants in the morning so I might just get in an afternoon session then go over to a friends to watch the ND game hopefully as they get win #2 for their up and coming undefeated season.

Also, I am working on spreading out money to FTP and UB soon so I will be able to play a lot more 20-100$ tournys with 10K+ for first place, I seem to motivate myself much better when 1st plce is over 5 figures.

Day 8/20
$$ 14.5k/20k

Monster turnaround thanks to dise 40k

2006-09-07T18:27:00.000-07:00

Well I just finished up the dise 33R 40k garunteed I think I played one of my best tournys in a long time considering the cards I got. I only got my money in with the worst of it 1 hand on the FT I shoved A9s with 10BBs and got called by JJ AQ8A8 board clinched it for me and I never looked back from there. I just happened to decide to put 1k on paradise today after running bad in another 20/180 when I lost QQ vs 66 for 35k pot guy made a horrible call of my 4bet allin getting bad odds and rivered his 6.

I am almost garunteed to to make my goal for the month with the 11k from the dise tourny so it feels really good to go deep in something and close out like I know I can and should 60% of the time. Final hand I opened KQs and he shoved with K9s I had to really sweat the river when the board was 7s 6x 2x 5s blank came on the river and tourny was mine.

I may have to bump my goal upto 30k so I commit myself to the rest of the month as hard as I have this week.

Days 7/30
$$ 15k/20k

Day 6 not so hot

2006-09-06T20:57:00.000-07:00

Well today was a very rough day for me. I didn't have 1 score over 100, not 1 FT in any 20/180 even though I made it in the money 6 times today. Also, I should have won the challenge since at one point I had 4 tournys left open all with less than 30 people yet I didn't FT 1 of them. Shame I had the challenge locked up if I could only have gotta a FT out of any of those 4. Really thinking of not playing online tomorow and just going to TStone or something to get a break. Oh yah and I also dropped like 500 playing 30/60 prob worst FR game I've been in a while a lot of open limping A8o 107o UTG etc yet I won like 2 pots out of 20 I played. Did really shitty in the 22R too was in for like 280 and getting it in with the best of it almost everytime.

Final tally for today is -1500 which is really bad considering besides the 30/60 what low limit games I really sucked at. That brings my monthly total down to 5k now I am on pace for my goal but still very disapointed.

Day 6/20
$$ 5k/20k

My september challenge

2006-09-06T12:38:00.000-07:00

I'm sure most of you are aware of my current september challenge I posted on 2+2, so far it has been going really well and I am way ahead of my planned pace which is a very good sign. I've been logging in a lot of hours so far this week almost upto 65 hours which is far and away my biggest week play wise. That was helped greatly by my friday 24 hour challenge.

I am trying for a nice push for TLB over the next few days I have 3 20/180 wins good for 319 points a piece so farand a few other top 5 finishes. But, sadly I am not doing as well in the rebuys. I have had a nice stack in a few of them getting deep in the money to lose it by running into big hands with bigger stacks. I am expecting to FT something that isn't a 20/180 either today or tomorow I have had a lot of good starts but my middle game has been very weak. I hope I can played a more solid game during that crucial stage of the tourny.

I will try to keep this blog updated daily during my challenge for anyone who wants to always know how well I am doing.