I'd like to dedicate this blog to NPH.

 

Over the course of the summer I will be making more of an effort to document the awesome that is  the World Series of Poker. Unlike last year where I totally ditched making money for a summer job at a Jewish camp, I will be playing somewhere around 15 events. Originally the plan was to rent a sick poolside apartment at Panorama Towers and room with Sowers. On Tuesday I was confirmed 100% that we had the place locked up. On Wednesday I was told that they were selling the place and to start looking for other places. Yeah, great. We had this planned for close to a month now  and 5 days before I’m leaving for Vegas I’m told to find a new place. We haven’t found a new place and the whole situation totally grinds my gears. Other than that I’m stoked for the summer.

           I always love going to events and mixing it up with all the players that I play online. Most are good people but unfortunately so many are just notoriously lazy. It's hard to get anyone to do anything but smoke pot and play poker. Oh, and eat. Usually I’ll end up doing some of the same stuff as them just because I want to hang with them but it gets so annoying when you can’t get anyone to go to a bar or club with you. Only place they will go is strip club. But, I digress…constantly. I am going to try real hard to update this blog. Like those aforementioned lazy poker players, I too can be lazy. Writing can be somewhat of a chore at times and usually after a long tough day of poker all my brain wants to do is play FIFA 08, which as I mentioned in previous blogs, is my favorite game. That’s another thing about this summer, there will be ENDLESS amounts of FIFA being played.  It’s caught on like wildfire. In Monte Carlo, the geniuses at Poker Stars (no sarcasm whatsoever) opened up a player’s lounge with a PS3 with FIFA on it, a Wii, a FoosBall table, and a bunch of other cool things. Sadly,  it was where I spent most of my trip because of countless poker players coming in and betting on FIFA.  I had a $2,000 downswing at one point but was able to get most of it back.

So what have I been up to? Lots. Went on another trip to Foxwoods, Monte Carlo, and Las Vegas all in one fell swoop and totally bricked all 3 tourneys. Foxwoods I got 2 outed on day two by none other than THE ERICK LINDGREN (ZOMG POEKR CELEBZ) for 80k at 1k 2k. I never had a huge stack but grinded my ass off so it was a bit of a disappointment but because I was traveling to Monte Carlo later that week out of JFK I was able to stick around to watch Akat11 (Adam Katz) final table the WPT. He got 5^th  after the guy who got 2^nd rivered him for a huge pot. Oh well, still was fun to get on TV again while never making a WPT ft. I guess I’m just “that guy” I on the rail lol. After that I went to Monte Carlo where I busted on Day 2. Sort of standard although I had a hand at the beginning of day 2 where I smoothed Queens pre and two others jumped in the pot. I had position and shipped the 843hh flop for about 10k into 6k. It folds to the initial raiser and he thinks for a little, maybe 30 seconds. I’m listening to my Ipod with those Bose Noise-Canceling headphones when I notice the dealer looking around and calling something out. Apparently this Italian guy in seat 1 saw it fit to call the clock after just 30 seconds. The initial raiser ended up timing out his hand and later said he had 10s which I believed. It angered me that the guy who wasn’t even in the hand decided to call the clock and it looked like the guy was going to call. Oh well, later that level I had 10s into the Italian guys Queens to bust. Nothing I could do especially when it’s cutoff/small blind.

Then I get to Vegas for the WPT Championship and proceed to draw the most ridiculous table: Phil Hellmuth, Barry Greenstein, Lee Markholt, Hoyt Corkins, Mike Sexton, Bruno Fitoussi, random tight guy, a Euro dude who is Traumatize on Stars, and Wei Kai Chang (TAG player with a wild side). It was NOT the way to start my first 25k event. I ran rather bad at the table but definitely did not play my best and was just happy to make it out alive with 30k. The next day I got moved to a much easier table with just Devilfish, Grinder, and tssrast. Oh, and Erica Shoenberg got moved to my table later on so while Devilfish was the table captain, she was the table hottie. Heyyyooo! Bad joke, but bare with me please. So I got it all in for 40k at 500/1k with AQdd vs Devilfish’s 44. Flop came 983ddd. THE NUTS! Turn came 4. River came 9. That was NOT the way I wanted to bust out of highest buyin tournament I had ever played.  Oh well. At least I made it to day 2 in all 3 of my tourneys! Woopitydo.

I ended up hanging out in Vegas for an extra week or two at JC. Alvarado’s humble abode at Panorama Towers. I LOVE that place. It’s a poker player’s dream. I stuck around and played the Caesar’s 5k  circuit event as well as cashing their 1500 event. The 5k event did not fair so well either. I managed to get 150bbs in at 50/100 with 88 on the 862ddd board against 97dd. Frown. Board did not pair and that was all she wrote. After that JC was able to get tickets to the Deal movie premier which was just one big LOL. Granted it’s a far cry from All In or Aces (which if you haven’t seen yet, DON’T. Please don’t! I beg you.) but it still was not by any means a good movie. Still, it was a fun night and I was able to try Absinthe for the first time, which apparently has been legalized in Vegas and the Palms had it. Tastes just like licorice and it made the night a whole lot more fun. After the movie we went to the afterparty at Moon and things got hazy from that point on. I think I chatted with Hoyt Corkins about being a badass with a cowboy hat and found out Jeff Madsen has been on the same trip to Israel that I went on which was pretty random and cool. Other than that, the rest of the night was a blur. At some point we went to Rhino as well. What is a Vegas night out without THE RHINO!!!

I’m not really sure where I’m going with this blog. I’m just spewing right now. My brain is thanking me for this though. I have not written in a while and it is cathartic. The only real thing I wanted to chat about is the AWESOMENESS of Neil Patrick Harris. For those who are not familiar with him, he was Doogie Howser M.D. way back in the day. Wayyy back in the day, circa 1991ish. So yea, he made an appearance in the first Harold and Kumar where he 

was just 100% badass and he effectively re-invented himself. From there he has been on the show How I Met Your Mother which may or may not (MAY) be the most underrated show on tv. It’s a wonder it took me so long to fall in love with the show. NPH plays the coolest straight guy ever and to boot, he’s gay in real life which makes it even cooler and more awesome.  He literally has the chauvinistic straight guy down to a science. The show also has Allison Hannigan from American Pie infamy and Jason Segal (the star of Forgetting Sarah Marshall) in it. Oh yea, Bob Saget is the narrator for the cherry on top. Check it out when you get a chance. It’s on CBS on Thursdays I think but just buy the dvds or download them off the internet. It’s worth your while.

Well, that’s all for now but here are some random thoughts to leave you with:

Did you know the phrase “That’s my roll” is actually a qunituple entendre? Think about it. And if you don’t know what an entendre is, google it and $5 to anyone who actually finds one with 6. You have my word.

I wish there was a way to put voice inflections in text messages because it’s hard to know exactly where someone is coming from, what mood they are in, yadda yadda. Only in a perfect world.

Indiana Jones was solid. Go see it if you are an action enthusiast.

Global warming is upon us. Been like 3 earthquakes in 2 weeks. 4 Tornadoes. I’m happy I won’t be in FL for hurricane season. Yikes. 

An Essay on Fruity Drinks

There is something that has been irking me as of late and it has nothing to do with poker. I'll come out an say it right now. I like to drink fruity/tasty/girly alcoholic beverages and the stigma attached to these drinks is just a bunch of bullshit. While everyone drinks to get drunk, I would at least like to enjoy the taste of it before I am schwasted beyond belief.

Beer is just the worst or as Bryn Kenney (of all it takes is confidence fame) would say, "it's the pitsssss". I honestly don't know how anyone in their right mind can enjoy the taste of beer. And most people really don't they just train their brain to tolerate it. Another reason I don't like beer is I physically can't make myself burp. I might burp once or twice a year, if that. So I have a limit as to how much beer I can drink. By 5 beers I'm bloated beyond belief and if I continue to keep drinking I instavomit. So basically, beer just isn't a viable option. Oh and did I mention it tastes like cow piss?

Another option might be straight shots but realistically that's not too great of an option either. Of course it tastes even worse than beer unless you enjoy the sensation of burning in your throat. I know I don't. Now, I can understand taking lots of shots to expedite the process of getting fucked up but it's never a happy ending when you do that. You generally take 10-15 shots in a short period of time and I'd say 1 in 4 times of you taking this route to drunkeness one shot goes down awkwardly and you find yourself in the nearest lavatory puking your brains out. But if you puke your brains out, what does that mean? You have to start over! Also, if you do get past your 25% bad beat, an hour later you will find that those 10 shots you took in a 15 minute span was way way too much. Shortly thereafter your night ends with a date with the porcelain god. It's just too easy to get carried away with shots. Another thing is when you take a shot you are finished. Buy another, toss it back, and buy another. It's quick and very easy to get carried away. Man, I really think way too much into things lol.
One last reason is I have a hand fixation. I have to hold something while walking around a bar, party, or club. It gives me a sense of comfort. I mean, think about it. If you don't have something in your hands then they are just flailing around awkwardly. You can put them in your pockets but then you look closed off. What about the back of your pockets? Then you just look insecure. You could cross your arms but then you look stubborn. So holding a drink in my hand is the logical progression of this. Getting back to taking shots, it's just not an option.

So mixed drinks it is. They are such a beautiful thing. The world is your oyster with mixed drinks. Just ask a bartender for their drink and you will get a different drink everywhere and nothing ever gets old. Or create your own concoction at home and tell a bartender to make it. The best part of mixed drinks is they taste great!

Now the stigma. I happened to run into this a lot on a recent cruise to the Bahamas. Guys would think I was less of a man even though generally those people are trying to compensate for some insecurity they never got over. Girls would accuse me of being gay and to be honest having a girl say anything to you is great because it's just another in to talk to them. And I really could care less. I want to enjoy drinking what I drink. THAT'S THE BOTTOM LINE. If people want to make fun of me for drinking what I like, then bring it on. I love Pineapple and Goose. In fact I've managed to get at least 5 friends into drinking it on a regular basis. The drink is just good. Yes, it's a bit fruity and it's yellow but who cares. At least I enjoy myself when I drink. In fact almost all tasty, fruity drinks are in fact very vibrant in color. I've also come to the conclusion that the martini is not a girly drink at all. I could be drinking a pink martini and it would still have more alcohol in it than any beer, mixed drink, or shot. Well maybe not all shots. I've heard of and done some of the craziest. Liquid Cocaine. The Four Horsemen. The Flaming Dr. Pepper. But in conclusion, I love fruity drinks. And I hope this rant quashed the stigma of fruity drinks forever and hopefully one day you can shake my hand and tell me thanks, that I changed your life, was the reason you lost 20 pounds, whatever.

10% Poker 90% Everything Else

I've been in Vegas the past three weeks trying to make a buck at the Five Diamond Classic. I didn't make it past the 200/400 level until the last tourney before the $15k, the $5k. I got 11th  for $17k and that made my trip a little less of a nightmare. Unfortunately I was not happy with the way I busted out of the $5k. Had I lost a coinflip, gotten  three outed, or even two outed I would've been okay with all of them but I just blatantly screwed up my last hand. The biggest issue was me chickening out in making a preflop squeeze when I knew one of the players was folding 100% of the time. It was a confidence issue that pops up here and there in live tournaments. Sometimes it keeps me out of trouble because I usually end up folding but most of the time my instincts are telling me to do one thing and I just don't have the balls/heart to go through with it. Even though this sounds pretty ridiculous, I think it was because I had left my super awesome Rayban Aviators at J.C.'s place and ended up playing without them. When I wear them it just puts me in a good place. It's like my beard, mohawk, and sunglasses are my mojo :). And if one of them is missing then I'm just not 100% confident. So I end up compounding my mistake by making two more throughout the hand and bust out. I was pissed at myself for not making the right play preflop and tried to make up for it postflop to no avail. 

The 15k main event went pretty bad. I already wrote about day 1 but I'm not going to go into much about day 2. Basically I lost a 70k pot at 400/800 on the 876ss flop with 77 against JJs. He ran the flush. Well played guy. I had 30k after that and never rebounded after that. Never got a hand, never a good spot and busted at the end of 500/1000. Oh well, I was very satisfied with my play.

That's it for poker in this blog. I'm moving onto more important issues. Something of utmost importance: The Guy to Guy Handshake/Pound Limbo.

I know that any guy has come across this before many times. Before I get into the ins and outs of this. Let me tell you exactly what I am talking about:

 Okay, so you see one of your buddies, not a buddy you haven’t seen in a while but a buddy who is one of your boys but you see him on a daily basis.  You go up to him and say “sup dawg” or ‘what’s happenin’ brosef” or whatever. He replies with some standard “not much” or “nothing” similar to standard convos on AIM. You know what I’m talking about. Then after you are done jibber-jabbering about nothingness you say something to the effect of “Aight, peace” “Lata, yo”, “Adios Muchachos”, whatever it is. Then you go in for some sort of 'bro' affection. Girls hug or kiss their respective friends when leaving, bros, they just pound or give a good handshake. See back in the day it was always a handshake but at some point some guy rebelled against all of man and decided to close his hand into a fist, better known as a “pound”. If I were to guess who started this social phenomenon I’d have to say it was someone like Snoop Dogg or maybe Dr. Dre. I’d bet on it that it was a black dude because black dudes are just flat out cooler than white guys. It’s a proven fact, look it up on wikipedia or something. But anyways, this guy started pounding his homies and then those homies were like man, that’s cool, I gotta start pounding my homies and so on. I assume this trickling affect is similar to those wine pyramids where you pour into one glass on top and it overflows into the rest.  

So this probably took a couple of years to progress and now the pound is giving the handshake a run for it’s money. Granted literally no one between the ages of 14-30 gives a standard handshake anymore unless it’s concerning something with business.  There are many variations of the handshake. One being the handshake and snap where you would give a good handshake, but the cool way, the one where it looks like you are trying to arm wrestle with the other person, and then when you are sliding down his hand you put two of your fingers on his two fingers and it creates a snaplike sound. It’s pretty cool but got old fast. There's also the "bring it in" handshake where you give your 'bro' the aforementioned arm wrestling handshake and then you bring it in for a hug, a manly hug. The pound however is just simple, to the point, and it’s hard not to look cool using the pound. 

So I digress, basically now the pound is up there with the handshake. You go various places across the US of A and I’m sure you will see assorted variants of both of them. But we can all agree on something, the pound has gained a tremendous following and now you don’t know if the person you are about to handshake is going to give you a pound or a handshake and vice versa. This brings me to the topic I wanted to address. This is truly plaguing teenagers and  twenty-somethings across the country. So you go to give your boy a handhake and he’s giving you a pound. This is when disaster strikes. You now fumble to switch to the pound but it’s too late because he’s seeing the same thing only he’s switching to the handshake!!! Oh no!!! So now you are split seconds away from connected hands and that’s when the coolness that you two were about to exhibit turns to awkwardness. You guys touch and then there’s this, “I-dunno-what-to-do-now" type of vibe. You both just glance at each other and someone gives in to the other person and both agree on either a pound or the handshake. But the moment of acting cool is gone and  both of you are left saying goodbye awkwardly.

 

The other day this happened, which I’ve come to expect being at a poker tournament for three weeks. So many handshakes, so many pounds. It’s impossible to think that all of them will go right. So yea the other day, I go to pound my friend Marco Johnson (CrazyMarco, NoraFlum who just pwns souls) and this exact thing happens but he changed his hand up quicker and went for the pound. But I stuck to my guns before he changed back to the handshake and told him to pound me (and yes I realize how awkward that sounds but how else do you want me to express this lol). So basically Marco got OWNED. Yes I’m saying this on the Interwebz, so bring it Marco! You got nothin'! 

But yea, so as a duty to your fellow pounders across America, if you want the pound to become more popular we need to unite as a Pounding Nation and force people to pound over the so so so standard handshake. On top of beating out the handshake you get to own your friends and act like you have control over them because you forced them to pound instead handshake.

I know you never thought twice about the Guy to Guy Handshake-Pound Limbo that happens everyday, even every minute somewhere but that’s just me. I look way way way too deep into things. But hey, at least I wrote a blog about it! So much for keeping it short. This topic could literally be my whole blog lol. Awww fuck it, it is my whole blog today and it works out perfectly because my battery is stone cold dead on my Mac. :)

I really need to start writing more in my blog. I can think of a number of reasons why I should but still, I just sit on my festively plump ass all day (btw ill give you a gold star like in 3^rd grade math class if anyone knows where that’s from. Yes yes, I know it’s a pretty standard quote but at the same time it’s pretty old school) playing poker or eating or Fifa’ing (dunno if it’s an actual word but it should be!) or even dare I say, en fuego(that’s old school too). I mean dare I say, talking to girls! I know aksdakjjklakljfgdskljfkljasdfjkasd Please don’t stop reading my blog now because I mentioned a poker player’s Kryptonite. I happen to dabble in ‘The Game’ (great book) that we call women believe it or not. I really thought I had ended this blog but apparently I can't stop writing. I'm addicted. It's like a drug lol. 

Alright, I swear I'm done! Good night. Peace. ****pound****

Day 1 of the Five Diamond Classic

I havent posted in a long time but I figured this is as good of a time as any to start blogging again. It's going to be short but sweet as I probably should get to bed soon but I'm just stoked to be where I'm at going into day 2.

We started with 600+ players in the field over the 2 starting days and I had a pretty good table draw: Anna Wrobleski, David Benyamine, and this former Magic player I know from way back in the day, Chris Demaci. I've never played with Anna so I was able to see that she does in fact run sick well but at the same time definitely has game. Early on I hit two sets both against Anna where she check/folded the flop and the other she called two bets with a midpair. There wasn't much action early and I missed 15 minutes due to an upset stomach (I know such vital information that you just HAD to know). I ended the level at 32k.

 The next level I lost the biggest pot of the tourney thus far where I had KQo and raised it utg to 525 and Anna called on the button. I was a little confused as to what Anna's range here was. I had been pretty tight but I wasn't sure if she was someone who just liked to peel flops regardless or if she actually took into account that I was tight at the time. So the flop is 1062ss. I continuation bet 850 and she calls. Turn is an off suit king. I check, she bets 2100 and I call. The river is the 4 of spades bringing the flush but I ruled that out of her range by her bet sizing on the turn. I check, she bets 3500 and I call. She flips over AK for the best hand and I muck annoyed at how the only way she gets any action off of me after the flop is by hitting a 2 out King on the turn. After that I was down to 20k and hovered around that until the end of the level.

Level 3 was brutal. I managed to brick a straight flush draw AND and 2 over, gutshot flush draw both in the same hour. Either of those pots would've gotten me back to 30k but better to run bad early than late :).

After that level I found myself down to 10k at 200/400. This was when I had a moment of clarity. I was obviously annoyed with my stack and my bad luck so far and decided that I was going to play some sound poker. First hand back I picked up a 6k pot with top pair and then had David Benyamine shove 44 into my Kings. He really didn't care to play I don't think. He was shoving with 48o and showing it almost as if to induce a wider calling range. He also kept saying how he didn't like playing a shortstack when he had 12k at 200/400 lol! After that nice little dub I was at 25k and was just happy to be out of the redzone for the rest of the level. I did play a tricky hand against Anna and Chris though. Anna raises to 1200 in the cutoff, Chris calls on the button and I see a flop with 109dd in the big blind. The flop is KKQdd and Anna bets 1600, Chris calls and I call. The turn is the Ace of diamonds and it checks around after bringing my flush. The river is the third King which pretty much nullifies my hand. Not a huge deal but was annoying to have the pot won on the turn and then have no shot on the river. 

The last level of the day was 300/600 75 and the first hand back I flopped a flush with J10dd against Chris's KK. The flop came A86ddd and he had the King of diamonds so he paid me off a bit. Once Benyamine busted everyone started picking up the aggression including me and I won a number of small pots to bring me up to 47k. 

Yes, I'm not even average but any day you start at 30k, drop to 10k, and then bounce back to 47k is a good day in my book.

Day 2 starts tomorrow so I gotta get some sleep and be prepped and ready to go tomorrow. Good Night.

P.S. I ate at Craftsteak tonight with JC Alvarado, Waco Kidd, Apestyles, Crazy Marco, BK Ice, and SB Rounder and let me tell you that was the sickest meal I've ever had. Not even joking. AMAAAAAZING. Also it was even better because SB Rounder lost the 2k credit card roulette game after declining to chop with me heads up when we were going to split the bill. LOOOOOL! Weeeeeeeeeeeee!

It was a good day....

EPT Baden and My Trip to Europe

I haven't written a blog entry in over a month and I feel bad. The WCOOP ran me ragged. I was so burnt out from it. I shouldn't have played 16/21 of the events and I definitely shouldn't have done the WCOOP bets. Granted, I did get 3rd in it but 3rd paid nada. The structure is so good in the events that it is really tough to play all of the events to 100% of your ability. It just wears you down. I'm not going to blame my WCOOP main event bust-out on being a litte rundown but I'd say I was only playing to 90% of my ability and made a bad call against Imperium and was out at 200/400. Yea, he was at my main event starting table along with Ims0lucky and LURPED. Like are you fucking kidding me? 2500+ people in the tourney and I get Imperium AND Imsolucky at my table. How fkn lucky. Oh well.

Last week I arrived in Europe with Juan Carlos Alvarado(PrtyPSux although his name sounds like he could be the King of Spain or something) and Jonathan Depa (Hoosier Alum on FTP). The flight was pretty easy. We flew on a 777 and paid $85 for Economy Plus seats. Did you know 5 more inches of legroom actually makes a 7 hour flight sooo much easier? For a good 3 hours we did Dealer's Choice flips. We started at $50 a person and I was up a quick 5hundo. My game of choice was Badugi. We played Triple Draw, Omaha Hi/Lo, Omaha Hi, Razz, 7 Stud Hi and I quickly found myself down 1k once we upped it to $100 a person. That's when things got really interesting. JC mentioned something about Phil Laak and Antonio Esfandari playing 8 Card Omaha on I Bet YOU (great show, definitely need to watch it/dvr/tivo it, whatever). The way it works is you start with 8 cards and discard two preflop, then one on the flop, and one more on the turn. Some pretty sick situations turn up and the variance is insane. By the end of the flight I found myself down 2400 and JC was up 3k. I think at one point JC hit back-to-back-to-back 2 outers on the turn for the higher set. It was so brutal but so addictive at the same time.

We arrived in Frankfurt, Germany at 6AM and managed to get lost finding our luggage for about an hour and a half which was conveniently enough time to miss our flight to Stuttgart. The flight was $7 for JC and I but for whatever reason Hoosier's flight was $350. Bad beat sir. Welllll, when we changed our flights JC's flight was free but of course mine was $220 Euros. I have no idea how it happened but it was so unlucky. Sick thing is, the flight was a 45 minute flight. When we finally arrived in Stuttgart we had a pretty welcoming taxi driver. He spoke English pretty well and told us all about the city. Did you know contrary to popular belief that the Autobon is only speed limit free in a few strips of the highway, not the entire thing? Also, for some reason I thought all of Europe drove on the left of the road and the left of the car. The only place they do this is in the United Kingdom. On top of being very informative, he was attempting to be hip for us. He started talking about the music he listen to. It's called freestyle and the artists he like are Debbie Deb, Jonny B, and Stevie C. This music was popular 15 years ago across all the roller skating rinks in America. I dubbed it roller skating music because it was literally the only place listening to this type of music was tolerable lol. I'm sure you remember Debbie Deb's song. It went like this: "When I hear music, it makes me dance(bah buh!)" And if you are wondering what bah buh! is, that is in fact my translation of the beat from the song to this blog. I hope you know which song I'm talking about lol. Anyways, good guy, good cab driver, good times.

Finally we checked into a pretty sweet hotel in Stuttgart called the Le Meridian and crashed for a couple of hours before going to a Barcelona/Stuttgart Champion's League football(soccer) game. We got to sit in the Barcelona section and enjoy the amazing atmosphere of a football game. Ronaldhino was everywhere just owning anyone and everything and so was Thierry Henry. But this game, the MVP was by far, the goalie. Stuttgart played pretty solid even though we all expected them to get crushed. Multiple times the goalie managed to save the ball on the initial shot and then somehow got in position to save the rebound. Whoever he is, he really impressed me. Barcelona won 2-0 after Stuttgart just ran out of steam.

Stuttgart was a very nice city. All the people were really nice and very chill. The countryside was beauitful, as was the weather and the architecture. The food was decent although there wasn't much selection. It was either you have Weiner Schnitzel or sausages. Granted they both were good but got old fast. The beer was phenomenal there. I'm really not a fan of beer in general. Occasionally I'll drink a Corona or a Blue Moon: beers that actually taste good. Well, I must've tried 5 or 6 beers in Germany and all of them were really good. They also mix beer and lemonade that tastes just delicious. I had never heard of such a thing but after drinking plenty of glasses of them, I'm left wondering how is this only a German thing? It's amazing!

The next day we hopped on a plane to Paris and stayed there for 3 days. The hotel was a piece of poopy but the city was the nuts. I had the best creme brulee I've ever had there and pretty much all the food I had was top-notch. The Arche De Triumph was beautiful and as was the Eiffel Tower although we never made it to the Tower. We did however get to shop on the Champs Elysses. Talk about overpriced! But I gave in to it. I felt obligated to buy some overpriced piece of clothing or else I truly would not have experience Paris. So what did I do? I bought me a $290 Euro Versace dress shirt. I mean, it looks pretty f'ing baller but, what a spew. The most expensive shirt I had ever bought before that was a $90 DOLLAR shirt lol. Well, whatever, live it up or go broke trying. On our last night in Paris I got a hold of YellowHat, a poker player who has a side job as one of the best Magic players in the world. Sick life. He showed us a good time and we went to some Electro (it's like House on Red Bull) club where we made it rain. A good time was had by all and we left Paris loving the city and wanting more. Oh yea, and we left Paris with 3 hardcore hangovers. I vowed never to drink again. Yea, that lasted a reeeeal long time.

From Paris we made our way over to Baden, Austria for the EPT. The casino is real classy, as is nearly everything in Europe. I <3 style="font-weight: bold;">Poker Stars, I love the feel of the EPTS.
I got the feeling that poker is treated as an elite profession in Europe. I'm not saying it's not well-respected in the US, but sometimes I do get the feeling that some, not all, look down upon me. Like when someone asks me "is this what you want to do for the rest of your life?" I guess I should just ask them if they want to be an accountant for the rest of their life because that really sounds like an AMAZING job...if you like plugging numbers mindlessly. But I digress, so the event has a ceremony at the beginning along with a party the night before. Not some ho-hum gathering like the one at the PCA. That's like a happy hour, this is a legit party. It started off slow but as the free drinks started flowing, the party started growing (Man, Lil Wayne's got nothin' on me!) it ended up being the highlight of my stay in Baden. Apparently a lot of good looking girls work for Poker Stars. Go Figure. Once it started getting late the club was opened to the public and as most of the poker players left, girls came flocking in and eventually there were maybe 10 or so poker players still there. I was one of those who stuck it out and I was NOT disappointed. The ratio of girls to guys was at the minimum 2:1. And normally there's usually a good amount of not-so-good looking girls but those were few and far between. The average girl there was a 7 but not many 10s and only a couple of 9s but still it was pretty sick to have such consistency. On top of the high rating of most of the girls, they weren't stuck up and as far as I could tell were genuine. I felt like you didn't even need to game them, they just liked when you went out of your way to talk to them. Very refreshing. I'm not sure when I left but I just know it was at least 4 hours after I got there.

2. Poker Stars, your 'Team' needs an overhaul.
Over the two days that I played in the EPT I managed to play with almost all of the Poker Stars team members there. On day 1 I got moved into a table with 4 team Poker Stars members: Andre Aakari, Katja Thater, Thang Nguyen, and Noah Boeken. On day 2 I played with Rainkhan and Luca Pagono. It seems like they would rather sign people who cater to different ethnicities, genders, regions than the best players. I think their best signing was Daniel Negreanu and before that it was Greenstein. And both of them are their saving grace. Do I think the other players are not deserving? Well, most of them are deserving but after seeing two of the worst plays I've ever seen in a live event by a player on any 'team', I'm starting to think I DESERVE IT. I really don't like spouting off negativity but what other place better to do it than in your blog lol? But seriously, there are certain things that need to be said and this needs to be said. Here are the two plays made by the supposed team pros that were just baffling:

At 100/200 a semi-tight player opens to 800 with about 7k behind. A French guy and Noah Boeken call. Katja Thater, who has been extremely extremely tight has about 4k total. She ships it in for 4k. I think I have to fold Queens there against her. Well, Queens is tough, but for sure Jacks. Anyways, the initial raiser thinks and calls and the other two fold. What does Katja Thater flip over? TEN THREE OF DIAMONDS! And she says "Squeeze, woops". To make matters worse the guy has 44 and actually has her on 3 outs and the flop come 3dd turn d river d. So she hit all 7 cards with her massive hand. Now how does a Team Poker Stars player not know basic fold equity principles?!!?!? Are you kidding me?

The next play was done by Luca Pagano and this one isn't AS BAD but not far off. Luca actually seemed to have a little bit of game from what I could gather. He was pretty aggressive but his standard raise was 4.5x. What is that? It's just an awkward raise. Those were usually big hands and then when he raised to 3x those were weaker hands. At 300/600 75 ante he raises utg with a 25k stack to 1700. The big blind who has been solid defends with 20k behind and the flop comes 746dd. The big blind bets out 3k into the pot. He seemed like he knew what he was doing so I put him on a strong hand. Luca INSTAships it in. I'm thinking man, he's got a huge hand. The big blind thinks for a second and calls with 99. What does Luca flip over? 27cc? Whaaaat?!

Now Pokerstars why not just sign some legit players who will actually bring you a lot of publicity? SCTrojans went deep in the WSOP, has a charismatic personality, and is one of the best online players right now. Where was his signing? Or Imperium's? He doesn't even live in the U.S. which is even more reason to sign him and they showed him at the WSOP! He had 25o with bottom pair against 33 and they checked it down to the river. It was pretty much like the most random hand ever. Or even my signing? I haven't had a good live showing yet but like in the stock market, buy low, sell high :). Full Tilt is doing the smart thing. Signing players like WacoKidd and PearlJammer who have been around the game for a few years now and have had success live. They are good guys who will play well and uphold the Full Tilt Poker standard. Luckily Negreanu and Greenstein are two of the biggest ambassadors for the game, as is Raymer. Rainkhan is deserving as well because he was one of the first Supernovas and has grinded for years on Poker Stars on top of being personality like him or not. I personally like him. I think having respected, skilled players representing your poker site outweighs signing players who are from different markets. So now that you have those different markets, please start focusing on the good, deserving players. Maybe I should send Poker Stars an email after writing this rant lol.

3. Poker is booming in Europe

Cameras were everywhere taking pictures of all the Europe pros. It was similar to how the WSOP is with so many different poker sites taking pictures, jotting down chip counts, and writing down notes on hands. Because there are so many different countries in Europe each country has their own reporting site so there were tons of press. Another cool thing is the observers are allowed to watch very close to the tables as long as they don't get out of line. I didn't have an issue with anyone watching too closely the entire tournament. It was nice to just have people watching you even if they weren't necessarily there to watch you. The donks in Europe are one of a kind. Similar to the Party Poker golden days except worse and in a 10k event! They are different from the American standard donk. Amercians are generally weak-tight but Europeans--they love to raise. They just have no clue how to apply it. Most of the time when they reraise preflop, they are still pricing you in with some awkwardly small reraise. Like 3 people call a raise at 25/50 to 150 and this guy reraises to 300 in the small blind. And he wasn't the only person at the table playing like this. There were 3 others lol. So yea, go to Europe. Play in EPT. Embrace the donks.

Okay, so this has been a long blog but once I start writing it's like Pringles. Once you pop you can't stop! Anyways, my tournament went well but I ended up getting 50th when 24 paid. On day 1 I chipped up quite easy hitting a couple of sets and getting paid off on them. I had 20k after the first hour was over and ended the day at 24k after dropping to 14k midway through the day. My first table draw was pretty unlucky at first sight when i saw JC Alvarado who I traveled to Europe with, sitting next to me. How unlucky! Of course, the 7 others at the table were all really spewy and even with him on my left the table was dreamy. Obviously it got broken right away and I got moved to the aforementioned Poker Stars table. It was a pretty solid table with little room to get out of line with only one donk at the table who quickly busted. I was very satisfied with my play on day 1 and was looking forward to a big day 2.

Day 2 was so so soooooo brutal. I started at I'm sure one of the toughest table draws in the entire tourney. Granted it would be a standard table in a WPT but nonetheless I want donks! The table was solid guy seat 1, Luca Pagano, me, Farzyhad Bonyadi, Nazgul18, Mark Vos, Pascal Perrault, and the only semi-donk at the table in seat 8. Oh by the way, EPTs are 8-handed on day 2 which is lovely. However, I just assumed we were 9-handed for an hour until i realized it lol. So I might've loosened up my play a tad. Early on I got up to 32k after winning a nice pot with top pair but all day I wasn't pulling the trigger and going with my instincts. At one point I got check-raised by Luca Pagano and was really sure I had the best hand on a j34 rainbow board with 88 and just couldn't go with my instincts. Then another spot after he busted I just folded when i knew a guy was trying to isolate a shortstack.
When the table broke I found myself at 18k and was moved to a table with Dave Colclough and other than that I did not know anyone. There was a ton of raising going on though which made it really hard for me to manuever. On top of that, I was really carddead and the few times I try to steal some blinds I got insta-repopped. My stack dwindled to 13k at 400/800 and I had serious trouble finding any sort of momentum. I could've reshoved a little bit but I hate reshoving especially when your hand is Q4o or 92o. Like give me 46dd(kudos to Bel0w) and I'll ship it in there but I'd rather wait for a better spot with complete rags. At the dinner break I was at 11k going into 600/1200. I found a minirush and won 2 pots in a row with AK and 77 to bring me to 15k. After blinding down for another 2 orbits after seeing complete rags again I shoved K8o 7handed with 11k in 3rd position. RainKhan called me with 55 and I doubled up to 22k.

At 800/1600 200 ante the most questionable hand of the tournament came up for me. I raised AJo utg+1 7 handed to 4400. I was planning on raise/calling the 5 people left to act at the table except for this one guy who had seemed like he semi-knew what he was doing after doubling up on consecutive hands in standard spots and raising a fair amount after that . Also, I had an exchange with him at the EPT party that gave me the impression that he was actually better than he was! Damn you EPT parties! So he looks at me and my stack and reraises me to 15k with 3 people to act. Now what was going through my head at the time was: he thinks I have no fold equity, when in reality he was the only person I was willing to fold to. On top of that I'm raising in 2nd position with a very shallow stack so I have to be strong. Along with that, he has to be strong because he is reraising me! Even though I'm pretty short already, I am very confident in my short stack game that it wasn't the end of the world if I folded down to 15k. So I fold and move on. I think he is reraising 99, AQ+ there so I definitely don't see the need to put my money in there. After that hand the table breaks and at my new table I shove J7ss on the button for 11k and run into Aces on the big blind. And that's that.

I later found out after I busted that the guy had A9o and in reality his rationale was: durrrrr he's stealing again like that K8o hand, I'm reraising him. So I've been having nightmares about this hand for the past two days but at the time, I think I made the correct fold. Some people told me I should've just shipped the 19k in but I think I had a very small amount of value in raising because I think the other players behind him could've reshipped with A10 and possibly A9. One person even told me to open fold the hand but that doesn't seem correct whatsoever. Overall I think I played my A game on Day 1 and B- on Day 2. But regardless, I was the most carddead I've ever been in any tournament online or live on Day 2. I never saw AA or KK on either day and didn't see a pair above 88 on Day 2 along with AJ twice, and AQ, AK, KQ once in about 200 hands. No suited connectors except an 810ss utg that I folded and a Q10cc on the button. It was just so sick. But I battled and put myself into position to cash with a little luck and that's all I could've done with the cards that I got aside from that AJ hand. Oh well, poop happens.

Now I'm off to Barcelona to play the WPT if I can get enough people to buy action. After that Foxwoods and then Niagara Falls. At least I'm finally enjoying live poker again.

More to come when I get back to the states or maybe if I go deep in Barcelona :). Oh and by the way to sum up Europe best. Id say the United States is the filet mignon of countries. Well all of Europe is fucking kobe beef!

Poker...is fun...for everyone and so is partying!!!!

9/4/07

Welcome to my second official blog and I hope most of you made it to the end to know that I am in fact NOT the biggest movie retard on the planet and that I was just fucking with you about Superbad J. In fact I have the urge to see it again right now. Actually I had the urge to see it again right after I walked out of the movie. Just like any Judd Apatow movie it’s a necessity to see it twice because there is just so much going on in every scene. There are so many one-liners that you just don’t have enough time to embrace it before the next one. I’d have to say the same thing about Adam Sandler’s masterpiece I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. I have to see that again as well. It’s a different type of humor but equally funny. The scenes with Rob Schneider acting as a gay Asian was probably one of the best things I have ever seen in any movie. I could not stop laughing. Just the fact that underneath it all I knew it was Rob Schneider was enough for me to laugh uncontrollably. “It’s like a circle”.

I think you could easily have a legitimate discussion about which movie had more hilarity: Knocked Up, Grandma’s Boy, Superbad, or I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. Some people think it’s a landslide victory for Superbad, then other’s Grandma’s Boy. I mean that scene in Grandma’s Boy where he’s whacking it to his friend’s doll is priceless. I’m stopping there because, well, it’s quite graphic and I don’t want to ruin it if there’s an off chance some miserable soul hasn’t seen Grandma’s Boy yet. And some would say Knocked Up and Chuck and Larry which actually have a little bit of substance to it. Although that doesn’t really have much to do with funniness, it should earn some kudos points. I think once I’ve seen all four movies twice I’ll actually try to tackle that discussion.

Just to give you a heads up, this blog I’ll be talking a decent amount about poker so ‘deal’ with it. Oh how I love puns.

Tuesday was a pretty blah day of poker for me. I think I cashed 2, maybe 3 tourneys all day. I wasn’t playing bad but I wasn’t catching too many breaks. I probably dropped about 3k on the day.

Wednesday was probably the sickest day I’ve ever had. On the day I had 4 final tables: a 3-way chop, a 2^nd, a 3^rd, and a 5^th. As well as 4 other cashes. All in all I ended up profiting around 40k. The beginning of the day started off pretty slow but I did one out someone playing 2/4 PLO and getting way too many chips in with middle set when he clearly had top set. Here’s the hand history if anyone cares to see just how bad I played it.

Omaha Pot Limit ($2/$4) - 2007/08/29 - 14:42:18 (ET)
Table 'Hiera' 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: dcruz ($806.80 in chips)
Seat 2: ihatecake ($380.40 in chips)
Seat 3: davedaburner ($1048.20 in chips)
Seat 4: Arena2 ($234 in chips)
Seat 5: Chango18 ($382.60 in chips)
Seat 6: Roothlus ($400 in chips)
Chango18: posts small blind $2
Roothlus: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Roothlus [5d Ah 7d 5h]
dcruz: raises $4 to $8
ihatecake: folds
davedaburner: folds
Arena2: folds
Chango18: calls $6
Roothlus: calls $4
*** FLOP *** [Jh 3s 5s]
Chango18: bets $18
Roothlus: raises $34 to $52
dcruz: folds
Chango18: raises $126.80 to $178.80
Roothlus: raises $213.20 to $392 and is all-in
Chango18: calls $195.80 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [Jh 3s 5s] [5c]
*** RIVER *** [Jh 3s 5s 5c] [3c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Chango18: shows [Tc Js 4c Jd] (a full house, Jacks full of Fives)
Roothlus: shows [5d Ah 7d 5h] (four of a kind, Fives)
Roothlus collected $770.20 from pot

I busted out of the 100r and 50r in unique fashion. The 50r I had Jacks lose to Tens when he ran the gutshot straight on me. The 100r was awesomely bad. In fact, it was so unique that I felt the need to save the hand history specifically to show it on here. Without much further ado, here it is:

PokerStars Game #11759776561: Tournament #59096513, $100+$9 Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (300/600) - 2007/08/29 - 16:16:48 (ET)

Table '59096513 15' 9-max Seat #3 is the button

Seat 1: ibetiwin (5665 in chips)

Seat 2: iCeVeNoM (23435 in chips)
Seat 3: Premier (22471 in chips)
Seat 4: Rafaello81 (7653 in chips)
Seat 5: Roothlus (7611 in chips)
Seat 6: alski21 (4476 in chips)
Seat 7: t1wO (26965 in chips)
Seat 8: ComeOnPhish (11580 in chips)
Seat 9: mlowe14 (15976 in chips)

ibetiwin: posts the ante 50
iCeVeNoM: posts the ante 50
Premier: posts the ante 50
Rafaello81: posts the ante 50
Roothlus: posts the ante 50
alski21: posts the ante 50
t1wO: posts the ante 50
ComeOnPhish: posts the ante 50
mlowe14: posts the ante 50
Rafaello81: posts small blind 300
Roothlus: posts big blind 600

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to Roothlus [Jh Qc]

alski21: folds
t1wO: folds
ComeOnPhish: folds
mlowe14: folds
ibetiwin: folds
iCeVeNoM: folds
Premier: folds
Rafaello81: calls 300
Roothlus: raises 6961 to 7561 and is all-in
Rafaello81: calls 6961

*** FLOP *** [4s 5h Ah]
Premier said, "lol"
*** TURN *** [4s 5h Ah] [Qs]
*** RIVER *** [4s 5h Ah Qs] [2s]
iCeVeNoM said, ">>>>>."

*** SHOW DOWN ***

Rafaello81: shows [2h 4h] (two pair, Fours and Deuces)
Roothlus: shows [Jh Qc] (a pair of Queens)
Rafaello81 collected 15572 from pot

*** SUMMARY ***

Um, LOL, pretty impressive right? Check-calling with 24hh. Must’ve put me on 23o or pocket ones. To his defense I had been shoving like that 3 or 4 times over the past couple orbits. Some with hands and some with out. He had also limped in the small blind a few times so I felt like it was a good spot to just take down some chips and on top of that I had sucked out on him as well. Maybe it was a spite call, who knows? Irregardless, the call was astonishing. By the way, does anyone know why all of a sudden people say irregardless? Is there a difference between that and regardless? It’s been irking me lately.

The next tourney I did well in was the 30r on Full Tilt Poker, which is the closest I will come to the Party Poker 30r. That tourney was legendary for the rebuy glitch where you could go all-in no matter if you had 100 chips or 100,000 chips and rebuy. So you could essentially buy your stack. It was lovely. The FTP 30r doesn’t have that glitch but it sure has the same cluelessness of the players. Two-thirds of the field do not double rebuy and play it like a freezeout with a 2000 chip bonus at the end of the hour which is just beautiful for the everyday players. It ends up being a lot of fun because you get to prey on all these helpless tightwads while having a good amount of top-notch players playing the tourney as well. It provides for a real fun dynamic. I love getting involved with good players in this tourney because it’s usually deep and we usually have tons of chips as well as we are playing overly aggressive.

I ran pretty sick in the tourney. This hand will pretty much sum up just how sick it was:

Full Tilt Poker Game #3403114221: $9,500 Guarantee (Rebuy) (25481161), Table 5 - 400/800 Ante 100 - No Limit Hold'em - 19:42:39 ET - 2007/08/29

Seat 1: purethoughts (26,685)
Seat 2: Roothlus (72,627)
Seat 3: mhs8870 (38,845)
Seat 6: Lausey (58,302)
Seat 7: bigganutz (38,944)
Seat 8: yelwahs (25,838)
Seat 9: victor 36 (28,309)

purethoughts antes 100
Roothlus antes 100
mhs8870 antes 100
Lausey antes 100
bigganutz antes 100
yelwahs antes 100
victor 36 antes 100
bigganutz posts the small blind of 400
yelwahs posts the big blind of 800
The button is in seat #6

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to Roothlus [3h 6h]

victor 36 folds
purethoughts folds
Roothlus raises to 1,975
mhs8870 folds
Lausey folds
bigganutz calls 1,575
yelwahs folds

*** FLOP *** [8h Jc 4h]

bigganutz checks
Roothlus has 15 seconds left to act
Roothlus bets 3,775
bigganutz calls 3,775

*** TURN *** [8h Jc 4h] [Th]

bigganutz bets 6,000
Roothlus raises to 19,200
bigganutz raises to 33,094, and is all in
Roothlus calls 13,894
bigganutz shows [Js Jh]
Roothlus shows [3h 6h]

*** RIVER *** [8h Jc 4h Th] [Kc]

bigganutz shows three of a kind, Jacks
Roothlus shows a flush, Ten high
Roothlus wins the pot (79,188) with a flush, Ten high

bigganutz stands up

Yikes at that hand. What bad luck for that guy. Not only did he hit his set but he had heart redraw on the turn. So he could’ve hit any heart (7 outs) or paired the board (10 outs) to win the pot. On top of that he managed to go up against one of the few guys who could actually bust him in the entire tourney. After this hand I had over 100k in chips, more than 130 big blinds at 400/800 and needless to say it would’ve been a Dmitri Nobles-esque blowup to not make the final table. I ended up getting 2^nd partly because I was playing 7 other tables at the time and the guy was taking the full 15 seconds on every street which was frustrating me a bit. He was really tight as well and I was getting impatient knowing it was going to be such a long heads up with this guy. Eventually I was down to 200k at 6k/12k and shoved A2o into his AK. Whatever, no biggie, I was pleased with my play and there were plenty of tourneys left and 3k ain’t too shabby.

The next final table was in the 200 turbo on FTP. I love this tourney. Not because I run sick in it, but because when the blinds finally start catching up to you the action totally heats up. You are also forced to make certain gambles that you normally wouldn’t in a slower tournament. It’s a tourney that you have to hammer out small edges more often than normal but not until the blinds really escalate. It’s similar to a sit-n-go but not as extreme. As usual in any tourney where preflop play is more important, suck outs run rampant. Par for the course I had KK vs AA where the A flopped and then I ran the straight for the win. That was a beaut. Then I had A10 vs JJ. A on flop, yawn. Just standard RoothBoxing. After all was said and done, I got 3^rd in it. My ROI(return on investment for anyone not in the poker world lol) has got to be filthy in that tournament. I’ve played it twice and managed to get 3^rd both times. Another thing about it is how quick it’s done. It’s 8-9k for first and is done within 2 hours. Lovely. So that was another 4k to fatten the roll.

My 3^rd final table was the 50 1rebuy 1addon. I was at 8k after the add-on and grinded that tourney out hardcore. At 400/800 I had only chipped up to 12k. I waited for spots here and there and slowly accumulated chips until eventually I limped Aces in 3^rd position, 4^th position who was a really aggressive player raised, and 6^th position shoved. So by the time I jumped into the pot there was already a ton in the pot. My Aces held vs. his AK and after that I just grinded myself to a 5^th place finish for 1k. I wasn’t too focused on this tourney partly because I was heads up in the 30r as well. I also was extremely short through the tournament. The players were playing so reckless and loose that I had no choice but to wait it out for hands. When I finally got it in I had AJ against QJ and the guy flopped the nut straight on me lol. And that was that.

The night session went great. I almost final tabled the night 30r as well but sputtered out in 11th after reshoving with KQ with plenty of fold equity only to be called by QJ??? He flopped a jack and that was game over. I was chiplead of that tourney for a little bit too but blew half my stack on a move with 95hh against agriffrod when there was no reason whatsoever for me to make any such move. After that I went deep in the FTP 6-max 100r which is a great tourney. 6-max is a blast period and there should be many more of these shorthanded tourneys. I was down to 3k early on after the rebuy period but gradually chipped up until I had a solid stack in the money. With 18 left I had blinded down for a few orbits and found myself short and on the button I shoved A7hh smack into SCTrojan’s Queens. Game over but yet another 1k cash.

My fourth and final final table of the night was by far the toughest and most rewarding one all day. It was the $300 150k guaranteed on Poker Stars. I truly enjoy this tournament but I haven’t had much luck in it aside from one time when I went pretty deep only to have QQ go down to A7. But tonight would be different. Right off the bat I had Aces and the flop came A73. I bet and got check-raised on the flop. I smooth called. Before I put in that reraise I want to know for sure that this guy is strong, otherwise I’m just letting the guy off his bluff or any Ace that isn’t that strong. On top of that it’s hard to really believe that he has the Ace in his hand when it’s the only one left in the deck. Anyways, the turn came 7 and he bet again. I raised and he called. River 7 and I shoved and the guy thought for a few seconds before calling off with AJ. GG buddy and thanks for the dub. Not much he could really do though. It’s a spot where you might think you are beat and then the turn and river make the hand even sketchier by making you think that you might be good. When you think about it I could only have AA and a 7 which was unlikely for me to call a check-raise on the flop with that. So basically I could only have AA and AA only which I did in fact have lol.

After that I just chilled out for a bit and didn’t do much until 75/150 where I started seeing hands left and right but I didn’t stack anyone until I somehow got a guy to check-call three bets with mid-pair when I had the nut flush. By 100/200 I was at 14k and by 200/400 I was at 25k. I leveled off for a bit after making a bad call on Rich Fish but he played the hand well and I couldn’t put him on the straight on a 4-straighted board. I was right, but wrong. He didn’t have the straight, just a set. Ouch. Luckily they moved me from his table which I hated because he was on my direct left. Slowly but surely I grinded to 30k. I didn’t do much for a while. I had such a rush of cards for a good 2 hours then I went card dead for a bit. I’m just happy it happened when I could afford to blind off for a little bit not at a later more important point. Then I picked up AK and won a coin flip against QQ to get me to 60k. It wasn’t until about 30 people left that I caught my 2^nd rush of cards. I fell into a dream spot with AA where a player raised, another player reraised almost half his stack and I was yet to act in the big blind. I shoved, the initial raiser folded and the other player thought forever before finally calling with Jacks. I held for that huge pot and reached 6 figures for the first time all night. Then I saw Aces again and hit another boat only to have AJ pay me off again. Man, I run bad.

With 2 tables left I had amassed 170k and had the chip leader two to my right. That’s when the biggest pot of the tourney went down. He raised my big blind on the button and I defended with 55. It was actually the first time all night I was in a hand solely for setmining and the flop came down a delicious Q45 rainbow. He bet 13k into 20k, I min-raised him and he made it 55k to go. At this point I’m slightly worried that he might have QQ but he could easily have had 44 or even Aces. So I shove not really expecting a call, more expecting to just take down the already massive pot. And then he snap-called and I thought I was done. Amazingly he flipped over KQ and on the turn he was drawing dead and I now had over 350k. Maybe he didn’t believe me or just got caught up in the hand but there was no reason for him to not believe me. I hadn’t been screwing around with anyone all night and he had played with me plenty. It was quite generous of him.

At the final table I was chip leader by a good 100k or so after Rainkhan lost about 60k to me in a hand on the final table bubble. The first 20 minutes or so no one really played many pots. I guess it was because there was a really short short stack that everyone was waiting for to bust. During this I won most of my pots uncontested and chipped up to 500k. He eventually busted, then I busted Rainkhan after my A2o held vs his KJ. We were 7-handed for a bit before two more people busted and we were officially getting down to the nitty gritty. That’s when the toughest spot of the tournament came up for me. Some people had told me that Varico occasionally made preflop bluffs. He had been raising his button every chance he had so I looked down at AQ and was ecstatic about it. Here’s the hand history without the results:

PokerStars Game #11770198069: Tournament #58809313, $300+$20 Hold'em No Limit - Level XX (4000/8000) - 2007/08/30 - 04:16:01 (ET)

Table '58809313 80' 9-max Seat #3 is the button

Seat 1: SANBOB (361808 in chips)
Seat 2: CaerusMax (174934 in chips)
Seat 3: VARICO (392716 in chips)
Seat 4: Roothlus (413666 in chips)
Seat 8: ryanbluf (501876 in chips)

SANBOB: posts the ante 400
CaerusMax: posts the ante 400
VARICO: posts the ante 400
Roothlus: posts the ante 400
ryanbluf: posts the ante 400
Roothlus: posts small blind 4000
ryanbluf: posts big blind 8000

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to Roothlus [As Qc]

SANBOB: folds
CaerusMax: folds
VARICO: raises 16000 to 24000
Roothlus: raises 51755 to 75755
ryanbluf: folds
VARICO: raises 164245 to 240000
Roothlus:

I really didn’t want to bust 5-handed because I really felt destine to go farther and in turn I think I shied away from calling here but more importantly, I wasn’t sure AQ was ahead at all. That play looked like a play you would do with a hand like AK where you are making your opponent think that his hand is stronger than it is by reraising instead of shoving. Occasionally it works but if I know that people do it, I pick it off easier as well. It could’ve also been some pair like 88 or 99 and it could’ve also been a big big hand. I wasn’t sure at all and in turn my indecision led to me folding possibly the best hand. But then again, I had literally been rock solid all night so why would he make a move on me when I had been so solid unless he’s just that ballsy. It was definitely a tough tough spot and I hated that I folded after the fact but who knows, it could’ve been the right move.

Shortly after that Varico won a coin flip to bust another player. I took a stand against another player and shoved to his reraise with 66 and he called off with A10. A six speared on the flop and I found myself chip lead 3 handed. I didn’t have a huge lead and losing one moderately sized pot would put me in 3^rd. Varico and the other player, who from what I could see was better than average, brought up a chip count chop where we would leave 10k for first. Even though a part of me wanted to play for the win and the full 50 grand, I decided that it was a smart decision to take the guaranteed 31k for myself and have a chance at the last 10k. After we agreed on the chop things didn’t go well for me and I busted out in 3^rd. It was bittersweet but any cash is always bittersweet in poker with the exception of 1st. So, that was my sickest day ever.

Once again I apologize for the long drawn out report of my poker day. Now to the good stuff. On Thursday I took the day off and just took it easy. I woke up early at the crack of noon because my soccer jerseys arrived and I had to sign for it. Damn next-day shipping! I’ve recently become obsessed with soccer solely because my friends got me into Fifa 07 on Xbox 360. It’s an amazing game and I’d even go as far to say that it’s better than Madden. So once I started liking soccer, I started watching games, then I started buying jerseys and hopefully soon I’ll be going to my very first European football game. The whole jersey thing has become a separate obsession. I had 6 and then these 3 three arrived today. I bought Thierry Henry, Ricardo Kaka, and David Beckham jerseys and if any girl knows who all three of those players are, well then, we need to hook up ASAP or if you play Fifa 07 that’s even hotter. The Thierry Henry jersey is by far my favorite. Here’s a pic of it:

It looks soooo sweet!

Anyways, I was supposed to go to Gainesville for the Gator’s home opener but we opted to go on Friday instead. That night I decided to go out with my roommate Zhen and his friend Andrew. We went to a place called Pounders. It’s a gay club I like to frequent from time to time. Actually, I go there literally every time I go out. Actually it’s not a gay club at all and I’m just punking you again. Actually it’s more like a bar with a decent sized dance floor. Once we got into the heterosexual club it was decent. They played good music and had free drinks until 12AM. The entire day I was in a funk for no idea so going out and experiencing some Orlando nightlife was enjoyable.

On Friday Zhen, Andrew, and I drove to Gainesville. That took 3 full hours. There was traffic on the Florida Turnpike for some reason and there literally never is unless some ridiculous thing happens like when a tractor trailer flips over or some truck spills cartons of eggs all over the place. When we got there we went to Dragonfly, the best sushi restaurant that I’ve come across and I’ve been to plenty of good sushi joints. At least six different top-notch places in Vegas and this place in Gainesville is by far the best. They have this sushi roll there called the Dragonfly. How original, right??? To tell you the truth now that I think about it, I don’t remember the exact fish that’s in it. I think it’s yellowtail but I’m not sure but it doesn't matter. Just get it because it's that good. Okay, so it’s basically a yellowtail roll with spicy mayo on top of it but what makes it the most amazing roll is they toast the spicy mayo until it’s nice and crusty. Even though nothing comes close to the Dragonfly I’d still give all the rolls that I’ve had there a minimum 7.5 out of 10. If you ever make it to Gainesville, FL you should definitely go there.

After that scrumbtrulescent meal we attempted to go to a local bar named Gator City but because it was the Gator’s home opener it was packed to the brim. We barely found parking. Once we got in there we realized how not fun trying to navigate through a crowded bar was and abruptly left. Then we went to another bar named Mojito’s where we got ‘the hook up’ and didn’t have to pay for cover. I don’t know about you but to me, the meaning the phrase, the hook up, used to mean so much more. Or maybe it never did it just sounded really really fucking cool when one of your boys was like “Man, I got the hook-up at this club tonight.” So in your head you expect the world when in reality the only thing that’s really happening is you get the cover charged waived or maybe you get some free soda at a restaurant. Maybe instead of ‘hooked up’ it should be ‘help you out a little bit’ but I guess that doesn’t sound nearly as cool. Anyways, we left Mojito’s after realizing it sucked and that the night was pretty much shot. We went home and regrouped for tomorrow.

On Saturday I woke up bright and early, well Sean woke me up bright and early because there was absolutely no shot whatsoever of me waking up at 10:00AM on my own. We went over to The Swamp and attempted to scalp some tickets. Last year the tickets were selling for $20 a piece at game time but because the Gators are the sickest team in the country face value is now $40 a piece. That’s just straight up robbery but we found someone to sell 2 tickets for $60 total. They were actually pretty good seats: upper deck but behind the end zone so we got to see the game like I was playing Madden or something. I could see all the routes and the plays go down perfectly which really added to the game. However the game wasn’t much for excitement. Well, it wasn’t bad to watch. Tim Tebow and Percey Harvin played outstanding and the offense looked more streamline than last year. It's just that they were playing freakin' Western Kentucky. Who??? Exactly. The defense was the only thing that looked like an issue but hopefully that will come together down the road. Florida was beating Western Kentucky 49-3 before the game got called due to lightning storms. Luckily we left before the rain fell down and washed away my sanity. Kudos to anyone who actually gets that.

Once we left the game, we got some grub, and just chilled out at my friend Rob’s place. I was going to take a nap but it worked out that the Full Tilt 100rebuy was starting just as I was coming home so I jumped in that. I was in for 1300 and ended up getting 15^th after I ran into bigger hands in back to back hands. Whatever, at least I was able to half of what I was in for back.

That night we got some bottles at this place called Whiskey Room which I’d say is the best place to party in Gainesville. Unfortunately, that’s not saying much. Whatever good club or bar you go to in Gainesville these days it’s overcrowded due to the 70,000 students that go there now. It’s also just hard to compare Gainesville clubs to Las Vegas clubs once you’ve been spoiled by Pure and Body English. Oh my God, Body English. If you’re ever in Vegas GO THERE. We had a solid group of seven and we all got wasted. Thus, it was a good night. However, Rob got a little too crunk. At one point he almost fell into a glass table but Zhen stopped him from doing so. Then he started pushing girls away from our V.I.P. area because they were overflowing from the V.I.P. table next to us. He was like “Why you all up my area?!” with some sass. The girl was like “I’m sorry I didn’t realize. I’ll move.” totally being sincere. “Yea that’s right! You better move!” She had no idea she was doing anything wrong but Rob took total offense to it. It was pretty funny to watch to say the least.

The weekend was awesome even if Friday didn't pan out. Good sushi, good partying, and good friends is all I need for a great weekend. That’s pretty much all for now. I hope you enjoyed it. Next blog I’ll be tackling some interesting subjects instead of giving you the daily rundown.

I got my mojo back, baby! Yea!

It looks like my quasi-blog post on pocketfives.com (shameless plug) was well-received so I started up my own blog thingamagig. Apparently reading about how I do nothing all day is interesting to people. Go figure. Since I haven’t written since Thursday I’ll give a rundown of each day. It’ll probably end up being a bit lengthy but whatever, this is my blog beetches!

On Friday my brother and I ventured to Tampa for the Styx-Foreigner-Def Leopard concert and to party with one of our friends for a going-away bash. On the way there we hit this massive thunderstorm. The lightning was so sick. Like nothing I’ve ever seen before. At one point I looked around to see if I could see any sunlight or blue sky anywhere and I couldn’t. For anyone who’s never been to Florida, it’s extremely wide open and you can see what the weather is like a good distance away. Here’s a fun fact about Florida. The highest point in the entire state is a remarkably low 345 ft. There isn’t anything remotely close to a mountain, just hills and barely that. So during the thunderstorm there was also conveniently a tremendous amount of traffic. It took 45 minutes for us to go a half a mile at one point. We were traveling so slow that my brother took out his laptop and put on an episode of Scrubs. And man, what a simply fabulous show. Zack Braff’s mannerisms are just priceless and the middle-aged doctor whose name I do not know is so blunt, it’s actually refreshing. Anyone who watches the show knows who I’m talking about and if you don’t know about the show, well, you should get in the know. Two and a half hours later we reached downtown Tampa and headed to the concert.

Once we finally got inside, Styx had already finished their set. UGHHHHH!!! The reason why I was going to see the concert was for Styx, not Foreigner or Def Leopard. Granted those bands are good as well, but they are just so standard for 80’s rock. Styx however is really underrated and versatile. They have sappy songs like Come Sail Away that you really can get into and do some major fist-pumping. Then they can also be this outlandish, quirky band with Mr. Roboto and then just totally ROCK OUT with a song like Renegade. Now why couldn’t they have Def Leopard or Foreigner first? All Def Leopard has is one great song about freaking sugar and a one-armed drummer, which is actually pretty sick but nonetheless, why was the headliner not Styx? Styx has seniority anyways.

There were a few brief moments of enjoyment though. Like when this one girl started talking to me and asked what I was doing later. There was really no shot I was going to follow up on anything past this conversation because she definitely wasn’t my type but when a decent looking girl comes up to me, it’s still somewhat flattering. Then she asked me for coke and that’s when I realized what she really wanted. But in my head it was me she wanted, not the coke and I’m sticking to that. Oh and by the way, no I don’t do coke.

The other awesome moment of the concert was towards the end of the show when this guy next to us just started vomiting everywhere. He vomited, then stopped, then vomited some more, then started chanted “USA! USA! USA!” at the top of his lungs. Totally random but hilarious. Of course, throwing up is absolutely gross but at the same time I find it amusing to watch the stream of whatever fluid comes out. We’ve all been there so we gotta laugh at someone else’s harmless misfortune. It’s like in high school when a kid is strolling down the hallways and then all of a sudden some other kid comes by and unzips his backpack so all of his books fall out. It’s always funny and it always sucks when it happens to you.

After the concert we went to see Superbad. That movie was probably one of the worst movies I’ve seen in a long long time, maybe ever. The jokes were just so lame and the plot so generic. Like seriously Mclovin? What a ridiculous name. I loved Knocked Up and 40-Year Old Virgin and in general I love all of Judd Apatow’s movies, but Superbad, was well, for lack of a better term, SUPERBAD. Yea, so Friday night sucked donkey balls.

On Saturday I was able to squeeze in a day session but it was doomed from the start. I was out in 30 minutes from the Poker Stars 300 and lost my first seven sit-n-gos. Three hours into the session I was tilted up pretty badly and just not playing good at all. Looking back, a big reason for playing badly was just being out of my element. I sat on an uncomfortable couch with my laptop on my actual lap. Normally it’s sitting on my beautiful desk that was built by none other than the legendary Speedy McDesk Guy and I’m sitting in a big leather desk chair. Small things like this in my opinion are crucial for ultimate online poker success as well as having a desktop and a laptop. I like playing on my laptop but sometimes it can be a burden playing on such a small computer. With a desktop I can sit back in my chair completely relaxed and make decisions more lucidly. I know this is pretty ridiculous that I’m going through the ins and outs of an optimal poker setup but I think it’s just as important as the poker itself. Well maybe not that important, but close. It’s about as important as showering before your poker session.

After all was said and done I ended up about 4k down on the day but I was very much off my game and when you keep doing stupid shit on the bubble of sit-n-gos it will definitely add up. My mind wasn’t in the right place. I wanted to play sit-n-gos but had to play all the Saturday tourneys. So what ended up happening was I played too many tourneys and too many sit-n-gos at once and never got into a groove. Although sit-n-gos can be pretty mind-numbing and robotic at times, there is a lot more thinking going on when it gets shorthanded and sometimes you just need to take a second, slow things down, and think about the situation. At my low point of the day I was down about 8k. Then I got a hold of myself and started focusing primarily on sit-n-gos. By the end of the day I had halved my deficit and wasn’t happy about it but okay with it.

Generally after I finish my sessions I need to just chill out and take a break. Play some FIFA, smoke the occasional blunt, or just watch some good ole-fashioned TV on my 55 incher. But on Saturday I had to be dressed and ready to go right after my session finished. My friends got a V.I.P. table at one of the hottest clubs in Tampa and we were celebrating my friend, Brian’s departure into the Real World. I actually hadn’t done the whole bottle service/V.I.P. thing since my last time in Vegas. And I barely remember that last time in Vegas but that’s another story. But this is my blog so why not give you a brief rundown of the story. It's a good time for a tangent anyways.

Basically I didn't eat anything before I went to Tangerine, a club in Vegas, drank too much and passed out inside of the club. The bouncers kicked me out along with my friend Sean and then I got lost in the casino for 30 minutes before Sean finally found me. Once we got back to where we were staying, the Bellagio, security guards tried to escort me to my room but since I was passed out, they had to put me in a wheel chair and Kart me up to my room. Pretty much just another normal night in Vegas...

Anyways, the partying done at the club was sick but when you’re in V.I.P. with bottles is it ever not? I didn't find any ladies but I wasn't really trying either. However, our rocket scientist friend did find a lovely lady to take home so the night wasn't a failure for all of us :).

The next day I drove back to Orlando and got ready for a hardcore Sunday session. I was truly focused the entire day and grinded the fuck out of every tournament. I had made a conscious decision to just go back to my basics. If my game is on, I’m really good at finding good spots and just being extremely patient. I can grind a shortstack out for a long long time until I slowly gain some momentum. I did this in so many tournies on Sunday, it was sick. I got 17^th and 18^th in the 2 100rebuys. Although that was disappointing I still got 2k each which adds up. I final tabled the 200rebuy for 5k and got 4^th in the Full Tilt 150 for 6.5k. All in all it was a very good day where I strung together solid cashes without any major wins. Sometimes that’s how Sundays go and I’m cool with that. When I break even on Sunday I consider it a good day. I also went deep in the Sunday Million where I literally blinded myself out but I wasn’t even mad about it. I had a stack for a good amount of time and then lost a few pots and told myself to be patient and wait for the cards to come because of the longer levels and great structre . So I waited, and waited, and waited but they never came. I did get AJo once utg where I open raised for the 2^nd time in 3 hours at the table only to get reraised and I was forced to lay that down. It was just remarkable how I saw so many hands and so few above average hands. AJo was by far the best hand I saw at the table. At one point I was reduced to reshoving with J3o just because I knew I could use my image a little. So that was my Sunday. I was very happy to start winning again and get my mojo back. As the great Bryn Kenney says “All it takes is confidence.”

This whole blog thing is new to me and I have to get a feel for what people want to hear and what people don’t. Also, there wasn’t too much exciting that went on over the weekend. Give me some feedback on what you want me to write about or talk about or sing about, whatever. If you want me to dedicate an entire blog entry to Entourage, I’d be more than happy to do that. Actually, I might do that anyways. It deserves it’s own blog. Or if you want me to talk more poker, I could talk about a lot of things that piss me off. Like that guy who just won twelve coinflips in a row and then he has AK up against deuces and you hear him say “Cmon baby, ONE TIME!”. Like seriously guy? You gotta be fucking kidding me. People like that make me rage inside. Or do you want me to rate the funniest movies of all time? All of these can be and probably will be future blog entires. I’ll get better at it as it goes along. But for now peeeeace.

P.S. And oh yea, if you made it this far, all that shit I said about Superbad was superfalse. You suckas got punk’d! Obviously Superbad was like the best movie ever ever ever!