What's up, Broseph?

Wow, it's been 2 weeks since my last entry. I'm not sure why I just quit blogging but I think Vegas took its toll on me and I just felt lethargic every day. I finally left Vegas on Sunday, spent two nights in LA, and drove up to the Bay Area last night. I'll be here at my dad's house until Friday when I start the drive back to Seattle. I'll probably stay at my Grandma's in Vancouver, WA on Friday night and get back to Seattle on Saturday afternoon. Hallelujah. I've been thinking about a lot of things so be prepared for a bit of a braindump.

The Mariners are officially done. They were as close as 3.5 games out of first as recently as 2 weeks ago. Then we ran into our eternal nemesis, the Oakland A's. Tonight's loss marks the 15th consecutive time that the A's have finished a game with more runs than the M's, tying a major league record for consecutive wins against a division rival. Throw in a 4-game sweep by the Rangers over the weekend and the M's are now 12 games out of first place. TWELVE! Doce! Gross. I'll still be attending a lot of games once I come home but I'll probably be drinking a lot of beer and razzing a lot of visiting centerfielders from the beer garden. I never expected the M's to be 3.5 games out of first place at any point this season but it was nice while it lasted. Wait 'til next year.

Football season is officially here and I'm ridiculously amped. I think the Hawks look better on paper than they did last year and I think their defense is going to be nasty. Julian Peterson is no small upgrade. Obviously losing Hutch hurts but I'll take the tradeoff. I don't think we'll go 13-3 because the schedule is pretty dang tough but I think we can get 11 wins and take down the division. Everyone is on the Cardinals' nuts but they were supposed to be a sleeper team last year too. Screw the Cardinals and the rest of the NFC West. We own it. My friend and fellow Superfan, Curtis, wrote a great analysis of the Seahawks' draft that I meant to post earlier but here it is anyway:

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What I keep hearing about the hawks '06 draft is "TOO SMALL!" To those who
would criticize our selections based on the players physical size I would
offer 3 words, or names actually...

1. Chuck Darby
2. Leroy Hill
3. LOFAAAAAAAAAAA

Pick # 1 -

So Kelly Jennings only weighs 178lbs! Are we forgetting about his 40 time &
40 inch vertical leap?! Jennings is a true cover corner who may not be the
flashest pick but he has shown that he can bring his A-game EVERYGAME in a
solid football program. No disrespect to Matty Hass or Pat Ross (Seahawks
new 3rd string center) but playing for Boston College is not the same as
succeeding with the Canes. I know that everbody would have loved Hali or
Lawson but it didn't go down like that. Beside, the Mount Nittnay Lions of
Penn State are a soft program these days. Lawson would have been legit
though. Same unit as Super Mario. Bottom line solid pick if not flashy and
someone who can come in and play NOW. Adjusting to the speed of the
Hawks/NFL game won't be as hard for a guy out of Randy Shannon & Tim
Walton's Miami's defense. BTW- The Canes have had a 1st round pick for 12
years running

Pick # 2 - Darryl Tapp, Virginia Tech.

It's a little tougher to be undersized on the line but he's getting a little
shortchanged. He's keeps getting listed as 6'1 but he's closer to 6'2. One
inch isn't was got him selected @ pick 63 though. Sure he can rotate
through w/ Wistrom & Fisher but you don't use a Round 2 pick on a
releaver!...or do you. **See also the rotation of Darby, Bernard and
another early pick Mr. Tubboat** Seemed to work out pretty good didn't it
and EVERYBODY knows that Darby is WAY TOO SMALL. Now we could have 6 SOLID
guys to play 4 defensive line positions. Crazy?...or draft day genius? I'm
also thinking immediate impact on special teams. Tapp had a blocked kick
both his Junior & Senior year. Rotating him through will leave him with
enough gas to pick up a couple more blocked kicks for the Hawks.

When asking Holmgren what any Draft Day plan is he usually identifies a few
areas of need but says that the Hawks will take the best player available.
I'm not entirely convinced that is what happened this weekend ESPECIALLY
with Sunday's picks but let's think of the near dynasty of the recent New
England Patriots. Not very many of those Pats were stars prior to the first
couple of superbowl but New England put together a work ethic/winning
culture that I believe is what Seattle is building too. Sure we'd all love
to have Mario Williams but I am defiinitely happy with our #1 & #2 cuz they
really are career guys.

Pick # 3 - 4th Round Rob Sims, Ohio State.

Obviously he's no Hutch but Guard isn't the most demanding position either.
He's played some Tackle as well. I would hope for him to develop his
versitility into a Pork Chop sort of player. Animal in the weightroom but I
won't expect him to compete w/ Spen-dogg for Tobeck's position as some
speculate. This is the last year of Tobeck's contract and similar to the
Mili/Stephen scenario, the job is Robby's to lose. If we could ever get two
blocking backs & Chris Spencer at center, maybe Matt could finally go to the
Shotgun from time-to-time to find Warrick downfield. Holmgren's probably
not interested in that scenario.

Pick # 4 - 5th Round David Kirtman, USC.

This was a favor! Did the Hawks forgetting about Mack's contract and that
he's just getting better? No need to draft for the future because of the
Carson-Newman rising star that is Leonard Weaver. So now people critisize
the difference in pedigre between Carson-Newman & USC but Weaver is WAY TO
MONEY to have somebody trash his small town program. If we can remember the
2005 preseason, Matt was shaking Mack's hand on the sidelines while they
both watched Leonard run like he was 50lbs lighter. Matt told Mack, "it's
been nice workin' with ya."

I think this was a reach and I still haven't called out who I think this was
a favor to. Has anyone noticed where Kirtman's parents address is???
That's right folks, David's parents are Holmgren's neighbors. Shakey Pick +
Friends Nextdoor = impared 5th round judgement!

That's it for now. I should probably get some work done. GO
HAWKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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If you didn't think that was awesome then you aren't my friend. Thanks, Curtis!

Check out the Seahawks' road schedule: @Detroit, @Chicago, @St Louis, @Kansas City, @San Francisco, @Denver, @Arizona, @Tampa Bay. The three division games are automatic ally assigned, obv, but the others are pretty sick. Soldier Field is never easy, The Chiefs don't lose at home, The Broncos have a sick home field advantage and Tampa won't be a cakewalk. The only soft spot is opening day at the Lions but we looked like crap the last time we played at Ford Field. *cry*

The UW MBA program emailed me about two weeks ago and basically said, "write back if you still want to come because we don't want to admit waitlist people who already have plans." I wrote back and they told me that they can tell me their final decision as late as September 15th. I'd really like to get this damn MBA and I'd like to do it sooner rather than later.

If I don't get in this year I have a pretty sweet backup plan. First I'm going to take some undergrad business classes this Fall to strengthen my application for next year. After Fall quarter I'm going to resubmit an application and take off for a while. My friend Ivan got a job in India and is living there now. Two other friends, Scott and Matt, are going to visit him from December 26th until January 6th and I'm going to tag along. On January 6th I'm going to fly from Mumbai(formerly Bombay) to Melbourne. There's a big poker tournament in Australia that ends on the 19th of January. I'll probably stay in Australia for a while longer then fly to Vietnam around February 1st. I'll stay in SE Asia for a month or so and fly back to Seattle around March 1st. Sounds fun, huh? Seriously, I'd rather just get my damn MBA and work from there but travel could be fun too.

As far as poker is concerned, I'm playing a lot of 5/10 and 10/20 NL cash games and I'm really enjoying them. I still suck and make a lot of dumb mistakes but luckilly they suck worse and make more mistakes. My bankroll has grown from around $7K at the end of the Main Event to its current value of $22,679.87. I think I've run pretty good but I also think that my resluts will get even better as I learn to stop making ridiculous payoffs and hopeless bluffs. I've probably given up about $5K making terrible calls and terrbile bluff attempts. $5K in obvious mistakes that I look at in retrospect and shake my head at in disgust. There are probably a lot of smaller mistakes that I'm making too. Gross. Anyway, I think NL cash games are a great way to make money and I'm going to continue to build my bankroll through them(only when I'm outside of the State of Washington of course). I'd like to get the roll up to $100K so that I can take shots at the 25/50 NL regularly. I'll keep throwing random bankroll updates on the blog and hopefully I'll stay motivated and play as much as I have been over the past two weeks.

There were a few things that happened that got me into cash cames: (1) Spending a lot of poker money on travel and expenses, (2) Dropping most of the rest of my poker money on the WSOP, (3) Living with some of the best NL cash game players in the world. I really believe that a few of the guys I was living with in Vegas are the some of the best players out there. One of them is 20 and the other is 18. Years old. Ridiculous. Anyway, they don't give a crap about money because they make so damn much playing cash games. One day, on our way to dinner, Smokey, the 20 year-old, gave one of the best one-liners ever: "I'd kill myself if I only made $100K a year". I'm pretty sure he didn't literally mean "kill himself" but to hear that kind of stuff from a 20 year-old is unreal. I'd like to make that kind of money and I think getting really good at NL cash is one of the best ways to acheive it. I'm fairly certain that I wouldn't ever treat money the way that they do but I'd like to have the funds available to abuse if I so chose.

Here's an article that my man ADB sent me via email. It's about the online poker laws in Washington. I think it encourages people to play, especially quotes like this:

----In Washington, other than a handful of cease-and-desist orders issued to billboard and radio advertisers that promote illegal gambling sites, the state has not busted a single person for illegal Internet gambling.

"Our enforcement does not focus on individuals," Arland said. "We respond to complaints."-----

Arland works for the Washington Gaming Commission. Not focusing on individuals is good news. I'm still not going to play unless I'm out of the state. Obviously.

I've bought almost nothing of real value since the big tournaments that I won. I bought some Bose headphones for $300, my Treo phone for about $550 and I can't think of much else. While at the house in Vegas, three guys bought watches and the cheapest one was a $9K Jacobs. I think I'm going to buy a nice watch as my first major purchase. The watches that the guys bought were really amazing but I'm probably going to go with a "cheap" Breitling for about $3K. Cliff is my official fashion consultant and he loves the Breitlings. I don't know why I included this paragraph but it's my braindump and I can write what I want.

Speaking of Cliff, he moved to Germany on Monday. I'd really like to go see him soon but I'm not sure when I can do it. Maybe for a few days on the way to India?

It's 3 AM and things are going down the tube. Who knows how much longer I'll ramble. On September 23rd I'm flying to Philadelphia for a charity poker tournament/boozefest called Bash at the Boat. This is the seventh annual Bash at the Boat and I think it started as a crazy party then evolved into a charitable crazy party. Obviously it's something put together by AlCantHang and I'm excited to be a part of it. He's promised to hold the 1st Annual Brandon Schaefer Beer Pong Championship so I better get some practice in while I'm at home. We played a lot of beerpong at the house in Vegas and I got pretty deadly by the end. We played 10-cup with teams and in one game I went 7 for 7 and our team won with 8 cups left. Smokey and Bushman may be great poker players but I own them at beerpong. I've never gone 7 for 7 before and I'm pretty sure I'll never do it again. It was just one of those Jordan vs the Blazers moments when you shrug your shoulders at the commentators and the cups look as big as peach baskets. Carl actually ruined me a few times during the trip but he flew home early and missed me when I was in my groove. He's going to enter the WSOBP and I can't wait to hear stories about how good other people are. Supposedly the great players use a fingerroll technique that I tested for a while. It seems like the fingerroll gives a better arc but I was having a hard time controlling distance and accuracy. Anyway....

I'll Florida from September 2-8. Renee and I are flying into Tampa on the 2nd and watching the Devil Rays play the Mariners on the 2nd and 3rd. Then we're renting a car and driving down to Miami for a few days. We're going to stay on the beach and hopefully it'll be a nice vacation for her. She's very excited about the trip because she has a real J-O-B and doesn't get to do crazy things like yours truly. I'm not saying that I'm not excited to finish the stadium tour and take a vacation with a pretty lady but I've been around the world ya-ya-ya, I've been playa hated, I don't know and I don't know why, why the want us faded. I feel like the travel schedule has jaded me a bit and I can't really get too fired up for any domestic travel. "I don't need my passport? Pssssh." Anyway, if any of you loyal readers know anything about Tampa or Miami or parts inbetween please leave a comment.

I wonder if I still have any loyal readers. 2 weeks is a long ass time to go without updates.

I'll be in Seattle on Saturday afternoon but I'm heading to Cle Elum with Renee on Saturday night. I think my first time kickin' it will be at Kangaroo & Kiwi on Monday night. Darts? Wings? Mongoose IPA? Holy crap I can't wait to get home. Seattle, the greatest place on earth. Except I can't play poker while in Seattle. Only when out-of-state. Obviously.

Busto

I busted 5 minutes before the dinner break. I played a tough pot early on against a good player and for the last 5 hours I nursed a shortstack between 9 and 15 blinds before finally busting with QJ against 22. It was definitely a frustrating day and a frustrating World Series overall. I really feel like I was playing a lot better with each successive tournament and my results kept getting worse and worse. Oh well.

Just about everyone from the house is out of the main event and they're all heading home. I have some friends coming down from August 9-13 so I'm going to have to stay down here until then. I'll probably be indulging in some hookers and blow during my free time so if that's your bag, feel free to come visit sometime over the next 2 weeks.

The Main Event

Tomorrow is my Day 1 of the $10K Main Event. I'm getting pretty excited and it would be really nice to catch some cards and run good. I haven't blogged in a while because poker has been pretty brutal over the past few weeks and every time I started to write a post it would come out extremely negative and I'd scrap it. Who needs negativity? Tomorrow, I start with a clean slate and I think it could be a lot of fun. I feel really calm and confident. One time, poker gods, one time.

Here is the Shaniac post about the poker scene and why it sucks. I'm really lucky that I have a great group of friends within the poker community who also have a lot of interests outside of poker. Together we can escape the weird world of poker for games of beer pong, pool and darts. I can't wait to get back to Seattle and start the next chapter of my life: heading back to school and trying to figure out another source of easy money. It sounds like a lot of fun.

Cliff is in town for a few days and, like always, it's really great to see him. He's moving to Germany in 2 weeks and will be stationed there for 3 years. I'm going to try to visit him in mid-December when it's cold as hell and he can't make me go running. He's driving back to Seattle on Sunday morning and I kinda feel like going with him if I get knocked out of the tournament tomorrow. Since they knock out 2/3 of the field on each day, I think each individual might be a dog to make it past Day 1. I guess if you're twice as god as the average player then you're a favorite to be in but it's still kind of a toss-up. Whatever, no negativity. I'm going to be playing poker for two more weeks and once I win, my life will become just like Entourage but waaaay cooler. Vinny Chase ain't got nothin' on me.

Bedtime. Everyone pray to whomever you pray to for me to run good. I'll pay you back once I'm living the Entourage lifestyle.

Gooooooo Carl!!!!!

Carl made his first WSOP final table in the $2000 No Limit event. He's 5th in chips out of the 9 players remaining and 1st place is around $840,000. I'll be courtside for this one and hopefully can vibe some good cards his way. Gooooooooo Carl!!!!!!

Yuck

Got in to Vegas at 2 AM, supposed to arrive at 11 PM. The weather in Vegas was bad to we flew to Ontario, CA, refueled, then flew back here. I'm tired and I'd skip tomorrow's $1500 NL event if I wasn't already registered for it. Wish me luck.

Today, from 5 PM to 6 PM Pacific, ESPN will be airing the New Orleans Circuit Event won by my friend Peter Feldman for $500K and change. Be sure to catch all the action. If I bust tomorrow, I hope it's before 5 PM.

Tired. Soooooo tired.

Oh yeah, my phone works. Sweet!

Going Going Back Back to Vegas Vegas

It's been a fun little vacation but I'm heading back to Vegas tomorrow night and I'll be playing in the $1500 NL tourney on Tuesday. Tuesday is my birthday so hopefully the poker gods smile on me and let me go really deep.

Getting out here was quite the debacle. I had a short layover in Chicago and we boarded the plane on time, ready for the short flight to Boston. We stop mid-taxi and the pilot informs us that there will be a 2 hour delay because of the weather in Boston. Apparently, there was a lot of fog in the morning and all flights throughout the day were pushed back. It would have been nice to know about before boarding the plane. We end up waiting for about two-and-a-half hours and I wasn't a very happy camper.

Once I finally got to Logan I rented a car for the weekend and drove to Cambridge to pick up my mom. A tunnel on I-90 collapsed a few days before and traffic was horrid. I had to take a wicked detour and would have never found my way without my trusty GPS. Greatest purchase evar. My mom and I ate a late dinner at Legal Seafoods then went to the top of the Prudential Tower. There was a line for tables so we snuck a quick peek at the view then went back to Justin's place for the night. Thanks a million to Justin and Caitlin for letting us stay at their place. I didn't know where they were registered but they had a ton of Crate and Barrel boxes in their house so my mom went online and we bought them some champagne glasses. I figure they can think about their alkie friend Brandon every time they drink champagne.

In the morning I went to a laundromat to wash all my clothes. I refuse to pay the prices at the Rio($5 to wash a t-shirt!) so I flew to Boston with all my dirty laundry. I wanted to get a haircut but the dryer at the laundromat was horrible so I didn't have time.

THe drive up to Vermont was pretty nice. I really like the lush green hills of New Hampshire and Vermont. We stopped in Concord, NH for lunch and saw the domed capial building. We got a bit lost on the way to Killington, VT, where the wedding took place, and drove about an hour north to Montpelier. It was cool to see our second capital of the trip and we pretended like the detour was intentional. Did you know that Montpelier is the only state capital without a McDonald's? Now ya do!

The resort in Killington was pretty nice. It's a skiers destination but they have weddings there in the summertime. It was hot and humid as crap and I was sweating non-stop. The wedding was short and sweet and the reception was long and awesome. Open bar from 4-10 PM, does it get any better than that? Ramsey brought a pint of Goldschlager to the table since they didn't serve shots at the bar and we had a grand ol' time. At the end of the night I was so sweaty that my clothes were literally sopping wet. I went to the room to chang and then headed to the pool for more beers. I ended up getting pushed into the pool and my phone may be dead forever. I'm still holding out hope that it'll work once it dries but I'm not very optimistic about things.

Today my mom and I woke up at 6 AM to go hiking. I birched and moaned the whole time and ended up turning around after about a mile. I had a wicked hangover and there were a ton of bugs and I was sweating like a stuck pig. Not fun. I slept in the car as my mom finished the hike and we got out of there around 11. I tried to get to Boston in time to register for Pokerstars' big WSOP giveaway but I missed it by about 15 minutes. We headed to the airport to return the car but all the hotels out there were too expensive to we drove back to Boston. The whole debacle took a ton of time because of the collapsed tunnel and the traffic was as bad as I've ever seen anywhere. What a horrible time to be in Boston.

We're staying in a hotel a few miles north of the city and we're going to do some touristy stuff tomorrow before I fly out at 8 PM. We have a car but I might just park it in Cambridge and use public transportation to get downtown.

I can't wait to get back to Vegas. I feel like I've been playing better and better with each tournament that I play and I think I want to make a final table someday soon. I've been working on a new strategy: getting it in with the best of it. It hasn't worked so far but I think things are bound to turn around. I'll give it another few tournaments then I'll go back to my old strategy of getting it in bad and sucking out.

Tomorrow I finally get to move into our sweet house. I'll take some pictures there and finally post some. If you're in Vegas, I'll see you soon. If you're in Seattle, COME TO VEGAS!

All-Nighter

I'm staying up all night to make sure I make it to the airport on time for my 6:30 AM flight. I just lost almost $2K playing 5/10 NL on Party and it wasn't much fun. Here are some random links:

Zidane game

Seal Dribble

Jean Carlos Chera

Thank Allen Barron for the Zidane game. I think it's hilarious. That Chera kid is 5 years old in some of those clips. He's pretty insane.

This is a well written blog entry by Shaniac that does a good job explaining why I could never travel the poker circuit full time. Shane's a great writer and his blog is awesome when he has the motivation to write.

Well, it's 4 AM so I better finish packing. I'm going to try to play a bit online this weekend but I have a feeling that I'll drink too much. Ramsey and Damon had better watch out. There I go, talking about drinking again. Carl told me that people who know me obviously know I'm not an alcoholic but from reading the blog people might think differently. Well, I'm also going hiking this weekend with my mom. Hiking is good. I will drink water.

The 2003 WSOP was on TV tonight and it was pretty funny watching Moneymaker suck out on Humberto. It's the worst feeling, having the maniac at your table, patiently waiting to get your money in with the best of it, then watching him suck out.

OK, seriously, time to pack.

Poker is Stupid

I went pretty deep in the $2K Pot Limit event yesterday but I took a rough beat and couldn't win an important coinflip near the bubble and I busted around 63rd place with 54 people making the money. I could care less about finishing 63rd compared to 54th but I really want to go deep in one of these suckers. I tilt very rarely but I've never lost in a live tourney with KK to KQ all-in preflop and it stung quite a bit.

After the tourney I was really disappointed because of the bad beat so Carl and I went to Treasure Island to play a drunken 2/4 mixed game. The mix was 2-7 triple draw, A-5 triple draw, Badugi and Stud/8. The play was loose and the drinks were flowing and I soon forgot all about the stupid WSOP. We stumbled out of there around 5 AM and crashed hard back at the Rio.

Today we did absolutely nothing and it felt great. The only time we left the room was to eat lunch at the Rio's mediocre Carnival World Buffet. We watched a few episodes of Arrested Development and I took a nap around 6ish. Laziness rules.

Tomorrow I fly to Boston at 6:30 AM. I'm meeting my mom at 7 PM EST and we're driving up to Vermont for Justin's wedding on Friday afternoon. By the time I return on Monday, everyone will have moved into our house and we won't have to put up with life at the Rio anymore. Casinos are pretty depressing.

Cruel

The $1K tourney went OK and I actually got my chips in with way the best of it for a change. I just need to work on making my good hands hold up.

Today is the $2000 Pot Limit event. The $1500 PL event was the first ever live Pot Limit tournament that I've ever played and I really enjoyed the additional mental challenge of counting the pot and figuring out how much to raise. It's cruel and unusual that the Rio starts all these tournaments at the ungodly hour of noon. I need my sleep!

I fly out of here on Thursday morning, headed for Boston to attend my friend Justin's wedding. I've stayed with Justin and Caitlin in Boston on 3 different occasions and I'm really happy for them. I don't know how a loser like Justin pulled a girl like Caitlin but she's definitely out of his league. I credit Justin for turning me into a wining poker player so I'll refrain from calling him a "loser" in the future. Congrats, you crazy kids.

Time to shower and get my butt downstairs. This is the last tourney that I'm playing before leaving and I'd like to get ahold of some chips. Sayonara.

Wait 'til Next Tourney

The first time I made it to day 2 in a WSOP event I lasted 4 hands and finished in 64th place. This time I lasted 3 hands and finished in 65th place. The first hand UTG pushed for 13,500 chips, exactly the same amount that I had. I looked down at K5o and decided that it wasn't big enough to look him up. The next hand it's folded to me in the cut-off and J3o is plenty big enough to stick in my chips. Everyone folds and I'm up to 17,000 after posting the 200 chip ante and I look down at 77 in the hijack, again plaenty big enough to jam. Sadly, the button had AA and IGUTPON. I've cahsed in 2 out of 3 tournies and actually lost about $2000. Like they used to say in Brooklyn, Wait 'til next tourney. Monday is the $1000 freezeout so I won't find myself making it into the money and actually losing money. It would be really nice to go deep in one of these things but I need to stop bluffing off all my chips. Bleh.

I'm still shocked over the Zidane head-butt. I don't know what to say. He's one of the last athletes that I'd ever expect to do something like that in such a huge spot. Now Italy get 4 stars on their jerseys, boooooo.

The MLB All-Star break is upon us. The Mariners sit at 43-46, better than expected. They're in last place in the West but only 2.5 games out of first. Don't count the boys out just yet. Gilbertino Meche is pitching really well and we finally got rid of Everyday Eddie. If the bats can be more consistent I like our chances. I wrote this team off during the first week of the season but they've been a pleasant surprise.

I fly to Boston on the 13th and back to Vegas on the 17th. It'll be nice to get out of here again but once I'm back, I'll be here for the long haul. We'll have the house at that point and I'll be able to stock up on grapefruit and cereal. Carl and I were sitting in our hotel room this morning, wistfully yearning for a simple bowl of cereal. One day, Carl, we WILL get our cereal. One day.

Bleh

I got my chips up to 42,000 then ran a big bluff on the bubble that got called and now I'm down to 13,700 going into tomorrow. There are 66 people left and the blinds will start at 800/1600 200a and I'll be moving my chips pretty early. I tried to find a spot tonight but just couldn't do anything. I have the button to start the day tomorrow so I guess there's one thing to be happy about. If I bust first out tomorrow I get $4Kish and I spent $5K on this event. I actually need to get all the way to 54th place before I turn a profit. Oh well. I'm tired and my bed is calling. The World Cup final is tomorrow at 11 and I'll be rooting for France. Allez le Bleus!

Treo Update

4th break in the $1000 rebuy, I have 23,500 chips and the average is 21,245. 114 left, 72 get paid. We're playing 2 more levels before breaking for the night. Blinds moving up to 400/800 100a. I'm at a tough, aggressive table. Let's pick up a hand. One time.

Busto!

I busted 4 hands into the 2nd level today. I'm pretty sure that's a record for me. I felt really good during the first hour, getting a lot of medium pairs and suited connectors and splashing around a bit. I missed most flops but won some pots in position and I had around my starting stack of 2500 chips going into my final hand. With blinds at 25/50, I raised to 150 UTG+1 with KK. Bernard Lee, 13th in last year's Main Event, moved in behind me for about 600 or 700 chips and the button, who had me covered, instantly moved in. I felt pretty good about the spot, hoping to see an AQish type hand for Bernard and AK for the button. Unforunately, Bernard had AJ and the button had AA. Bernard flopped 2 jacks, jumped out of his seat and kissed the picture of his kids. It was pretty funny. I thought to myself, "If you can give Bernard two jacks, I know you can find me a King," but the turn and river blanked off and IGHN. Whatever.

I think I'm going to head over to the Venetian and play some 3/6 limit to blow off some steam. Tomorrow's the $1000 rebuy and that'll be a lot of fun.

Pictures coming soon, I promise.

Busto!

I busted 4 hands into the 2nd level today. I'm pretty sure that's a record for me. I felt really good during the first hour, getting a lot of medium pairs and suited connectors and splashing around a bit. I missed most flops but won some pots in position and I had around my starting stack of 2500 chips going into my final hand. With blinds at 25/50, I raised to 150 UTG+1 with KK. Bernard Lee, 13th in last year's Main Event, moved in behind me for about 600 or 700 chips and the button, who had me covered, instantly moved in. I felt pretty good about the spot, hoping to see an AQish type hand for Bernard and AK for the button. Unforunately, Bernard had AJ and the button had AA. Bernard flopped 2 jacks, jumped out of his seat and kissed the picture of his kids. It was pretty funny. I thought to myself, "If you can give Bernard two jacks, I know you can find me a King," but the turn and river blanked off and IGHN. Whatever.

I think I'm going to head over to the Venetian and play some 3/6 limit to blow off some steam. Tomorrow's the $1000 rebuy and that'll be a lot of fun.

Pictures coming soon, I promise.

I hate poker

This morning, Carl got a phone call from Cliff around 10:30. We were both pissed that he would call so early but he had flown into Vegas and wanted to have brunch. When I say "he flew into Vegas" I mean it literally. He came with two warrant officers in a sweet gray military plane and they called it "training". Carl and I had gone to bed around 6 AM but I managed to throw on some clothes and meet Cliff and his friends at the Bellagio Cafe. He had to leave around noon but it was a nice surprise.

After brunch I ran a few of my errands then drove back to the Rio around 1:30 PM. Carl was still sleeping in the room so I woke his punk ass up and we headed downstairs to sweat the $5K NL final table. We got there just as it was starting and the crowd was just too big. It was a star-studded table and the railbirds were out en masse. It actually may have been bearable if the smelliest man alive wasn't standing right next to me. He was about my height, 350 lbs. and smelled like rotting flesh. I picked up the smell immediately, looked around for a second and immediately knew it was him. I watched one more hand then left the area. I bought into today's $2500 NL event and headed back to the room with Carl.

Around 4 PM we headed to an Italian place off the strip called Carmine's. I wasn't terribly hungry but Carl convinced me that I should eat. We met my friends Mike and Brian and had a pretty nice meal. After linner, Carl and I headed to Mike's house to watch the latest High Stakes Poker and Entourage episodes. I love both shows and have decided that Tivo is the greatest invention of all time. At 6 PM I entered 4 tournaments: 3 WSOP qualifiers and the $30 rebuy on Paradise. I spent a lot of monry on the $30 rebuy but went pretty deep and busted in 17th. I felt like I played well but ran into some big hands at inopportune times. Ah well. I went deep in one of the WSOP qualifiers and busted in 6th place with 3 seats awarded. It was pretty painful, especially because I don't think I played very well. I have some sort of mental block when it comes to satellites and I definitely boched a few hands. I need to get it into my head that it's just another tourney until you have enough chips to fold your way in. Bleh.

I'm excited for tomorrow's event. It'll be nice to have 2500 chips and I enjoy live play much more than online poker. Here's hoping that I run good and play decent.

Al's in town and I'm excited to say hello. I'll probably throw back a few SoCos if I get knocked out early. Pauly is still going strong with his WSOP updates and there's no place better to get your news. I actually like his personal blog better but I think the first link has most of the poker stuff. Here's Carl's blog again and here's the website of the house that we're moving into next week. It's so sick. I can't wait.

Tomorrow I finally play in my second event of the year. Carl's cashed in 2 out of 4 events so far and I'd love to go 2 for 2. Hasta.

Back in Vegas

I'm back in Vegas for about a week. Updates should come more often.

I really appreciate comments like the one from DeAnna. The reason why I feel so confident that I'm not an alcoholic and not addicted to gambling is the fact that I'm very self aware AND I'm blessed with a great family and great group of friends who aren't afraid to tell me when they think I'm screwing up. They definitely keep me honest and I don't think they'd allow me to fall that far down the addictive slopes. With that said, I really do appreciate their input and I appreciate the random comment from someone that I've never met. It takes a pretty special person to put forth that much effort and have that much concern for someone she's never met. Thanks, DeAnna. It's people like you that will keep me under control. I try to keep this thing light hearted but I'm not afraid of confronting serious issues if I have to.

This weekend was a lot of fun. I hung out with my little bro most of the time and there isn't anyone else on this earth with whom I'd rather kick it. He drank pretty heavily on the 2 nights that I didn't see him so he was recovering most of the time that I saw him. He's probably going to drive through Vegas during the Main Event before heading off to his duty station in Weisbaden, Germany. He'll be there for 3 years and I'm definitely going to try to get over there a few times.

Tonight I played a bit of online poker, winning about $300 in the 3/6 NL on EuroBet. Around 12:30, Carl and I went to the Bellagio for some 5/10 NL action. He's definitely a lot better than I am and I think I play too tight. I'm not comfortable opening up but I think that will come with experience. It's not a terrible way to play but it's pretty easy to play against weak-tighties like me and I'd like to find ways to loosen up. Luckily there was a big Laggy donk at the table and I stacked him once, ending the session up $800.

Tomorrow is an off day. I'm going to try to run some errands but there's a sick final table that I might try to sweat. Vinny Vinh, Phil Hellmuth, Marcel Luske and Isabelle Mercier are the 4 chipleaders in the $5K NL event. Those characters will definitely put on a good show. I have to get to the bank to get some cash but I might put off washing my car and pressing my shirts.

It's late. I'm boring myself with this crap. Hopefully I'll have something fun to talk about tomorrow.

Congrats, Rizen

I spent all day today sweating my friend, Eric "Rizen" Lynch, at the final table of the $1500 Pot Limit tourney. He was chipleader 3-handed but suffered a few brutal beats and busted in 3rd, winning $104,544 in the process. The final table was pretty exciting and featured a ton of 2 and 3-outers. It'll make for great television, October 3rd, on ESPN. Congrats, Eric, you played really well.

Last night I won my biggest ever pot in a cash game, stacking a guy at 10/20 NL. Here's the hand history:

BB ($1806)
UTG ($1495.83)
UTG+1 ($1203)
SchaeferBeer ($1940)
MP1 ($1923.48)
MP2 ($1429.76)
MP3 ($2244.50)
CO ($1950)
Button ($3565.29)
SB ($3535.50)

Preflop: SchaeferBeer is UTG+2 with Qd, Qs. SB posts a blind of $10.
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $20, Hero raises to $80, MP1 calls $80, 3 folds, Button calls $80, 2 folds, UTG+1 calls $60.

Flop: ($350) 9d, Qh, Kd (4 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $270, MP1 calls $270, Button folds, UTG+1 calls $270.

Turn: ($1160) 5s (3 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $860, MP1 calls $1573.48 (All-In), UTG+1 folds, Hero calls $713.48.

River: ($4306.96) 3s (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $4306.96

Results below:
Hero has Qd Qs (three of a kind, queens).
MP1 has Kh Jh (one pair, kings).
Outcome: Hero wins $4306.96.

I was pretty worried about JT but I wasn't folding. It's pretty fun when you can find people like this at stakes as high as 10/20. When I bet that much on the flop and turn, KJ is good exactly 0% of the time and I'm probably not folding. I guess KJ gets there 9% of the time but anyway, I'm excited. I won more in that pot than I did for my tourney finish. This was the third time I've ever played 10/20 NL and winning a big pot was fun. Carl recommends a site called Card Runners for NL instruction and I'll probably join. $20/month is insanely cheap for good lessons.

I'n flying back to Seattle tomorrow to spend the weekend with my family. I'm excited to see my brother, sister, pop and mom. On the 4th I'm heading to an apartment near Mercer with a great view of Lake Union and the Space Needle. Beers will probably be consumed. I come back to Vegas on the 5th and my schedule looks like this:

July 7: $2500 NLHE
July 8: $1000 NLHE (rebuy)
July 10: $1000 NLHE
July 11: $2000 PLHE
July 13: Fly to Boston
July 17: Fly to Vegas
July 18: $1500 NLHE
July 19: $2500 PLHE
July 21: $2000 NLHE
July 22: $5000 PLHE
July 23: $1000 NLHE (rebuy)
July 24: $1500 LHE (shootout)
July 25: $1500 NLHE
July 28: $10000 NLHE

That's $41,500 if I play all those tournies, assuming $6K in each $1K rebuy event and I don't satellite into the Main Event. Hopefully I'll make some day 2s and maybe even a final table. If I don't cash in any more events I will be BUSTO by the end and my poker bankroll will be gone. Let's hope that doesn't happen.

I'll try to get some pictures up soon. I'm excited to come home. Peace.

Busto!

Busted in 5 hands. Tried to run Q5s through black Aces and AJo through AK. I got $3008 for 64th place. IGTTBN(I go to the bar now).

Stayin' Alive

I made the money in my first WSOP tourney this year! There are 70 players left in the $1500 Pot Limit tourney and I’m in 32nd place with 24,000 chips. 24K is about average but blinds are starting at 1K/2K so I’ll need to find a hand or make a move pretty early. The payouts are very top-heavy so it makes sense to gamble for some chips. If I go out on the first hand today I win $3,008, 19th place gets $9,777, 9th wins $33,845, 2nd takes $180,508, and the winner will get $345,984. Today might take a while but I feel good and I’ll try to get lucky. Carl got knocked out of the $1500 NL tourney yesterday with one of the nastiest beats you’ll ever see. I might quit poker if it happened to me. He has a blog here where you can waste more time.

Brad “Otis” Willis is a guy I met last year at the EPT events and he keeps a blog for Poker Stars here. I’m not reppin’ Stars in this tourney but he still might throw in an occasional update for me.

Pauly has been running updates and if he pulls himself away from the hooker bar, he might have some news. His updates are written in his own style and, trust me, his style rocks.

For something a little more formal, check out CardPlayer. They’ll let you know when I bust. I’m heading downstairs for some breakfast. Let’s get lucky, ONE TIME!

Vegas

Vegas is fun.

My flight was delayed a bit last night and I ended up arriving around 1:30 AM. By the time I got to the Rio to sign up for the first tournament, it was already sold out. Boooooooo. They got 2200 entrants and 500 alternates, amazing! They’re down to 122 players left and obviously Carl’s still alive. He doesn’t have a ton of chips but it looks like the field is full of medium sized stacks and that should be good for his steals and resteals. Hopefully he finds a hand when they make a stand.

My first event will be the $1500 pot-limit event tomorrow. I wandered around the poker room today and really wanted to play poker for the first time in a while. It’s a good feeling and I can’t wait to splash some chips tomorrow. Today, I played a single table $525 Sit n’ Go. The tourney is played 10 handed and the winner gets 5K in tourney dollars and $120 cash. That means that the juice is only $13! The play was horrible but I busted in 7th, making a pretty terrible play to go out. The first hand after blinds went up to 100/200, I’m in the big blind with 1450 left after posting. It folds to Moneymaker on the button and he raises to 700 total. It’s a bigger raise than normal and it’s pretty obvious that he’s calling a push. The SB folds and I look down at 88. It’s a clear stop and go but I figured that he’d see through it and I may as well just get it in. Pretty dumb and way too hasty. He calls with QsJs and the board comes A74(Q)(J). Before I pushed I knew a stop and go was the right play and I’m glad the board smacked me in the face. If I just call then push on the flop, he has to call 950 more to win 2450. He’s getting better than 2.5-1 but it’s had to call there with QJ. C’est la vie but it’s frustrating when you know the right play and you still botch it. Let’s hope I play better tomorrow.