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.