Yeah, Yeah

I should blog more. I know. I have a ton of respect for people who can live full lives and still find time to blog every day. Since I've come home, I've done a lot of kickin' it and feel like I never have time to blog. On the other hand, I do still spend a lot of time online and the "not enough time" excuse is pretty easy to shoot holes through. I guess it ultimately comes down to laziness and, as you know, they don't make men much lazier than this one. C'est la vie.

I've been getting in quite a bit of poker over the last week. I'm still playing like crap but I've made almost $7K since my return so it isn't all bad. I made the final table of the Stars $100K tonight but busted on the 5th hand of the final table. Here are the last 3 hands of the tourney:

1) Big Blind is t8000

CO (t132391)
Button (t70721)
Brando (t156536)
BB (t127604)
UTG (t222784)
UTG+1 (t83016)
MP1 (t200747)
MP2 (t85512)
MP3 (t616689)

Preflop: Brando is SB with 6c, 6h.
2 folds, MP1 raises to t20400, 2 folds, CO raises to t56400, 3 folds, MP1 folds.

Final Pot: t79600

------------------------------------------------------------

2)

MP3 (t167591)
CO (t70321)
Brando (t152136)
SB (t119204)
BB (t222384)
UTG (t82616)
UTG+1 (t180347)
MP1 (t85112)
MP2 (t616289)

Preflop: Brando is Button with Ac, Qc.
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to t20000, 3 folds, CO calls t20000, 3 folds.

Flop: (t43200) 6s, Qh, Tc (2 players)
UTG+1 checks, CO bets t49921 (All-In), UTG+1 folds.

Final Pot: t93121

-----------------------------------------------------------------

3)

MP2 (t167191)
MP3 (t105521)
Brando (t151736)
Button (t114804)
SB (t213984)
BB (t82216)
UTG (t159947)
UTG+1 (t84712)
MP1 (t615889)

Preflop: Brando is CO with Ah, Qh.
UTG raises to t20000, 4 folds, Brando raises to t151336, 3 folds, UTG calls t131336.

Flop: (t305472) 5c, 4s, Kc (2 players)

Turn: (t305472) 8s (2 players)

River: (t305472) 6s (2 players)

Final Pot: t305472

So, the same guy opens to 20K on three consecutive hands. The first hand is an easy fold when the shortstack makes a small reraise. Then, on the second hand, a short stack just calls for almost 1/3 of his stack. I had a tough decision without the call but I was planning on jamming. The short stack's flat call looked very scary to me and I talked myself out of the squeeze. I think the third hand is close but I'm not sure if pushing was correct. I was really hoping that the raiser would make a FU call with AT or AJ but he had Queens and I was gone. I usually fold AQ in that spot but I'm not sure what the correct play is. I don't really ever get frustrated when I get bad beat or set up at a poker table but I get annoyed beyond belief when I make a donkish play or don't know what to do. Hopefully I can iron out the holes by the time the World Series of Poker rolls around. I really feel like I'm a much stronger live player than online for a number of reasons, mainly: (1) I pay attention all the time and (2) There are so many tells to pick up. Also, live players are much worse than the average online pro so that helps a lot too. Speaking of the WSOP...

I suckered some people into backing me for the entire World Series so I'll be playing in a ton of tournaments this summer. I considered taking $60K out of my investments and trying to hit it big on my own but I ultimately decided that I'd rather just take the backing deal. I think it's a good deal for both of us and I'm really looking forward to winning some money. I'm staying in a house with some great poker players again and those guys will help my game out a lot. I felt like I got really good last summer just being around these guys and getting to pick their brains about hands. They're kind of a who's who of online poker and I'm really lucky to have them as friends. We're also hiring a live-in cook this year so we won't need to hit the Carl's Jr. as often. All-in-all I think it's going to be an awesome summer. I definitely want to blog a lot during the series to organize my thoughts but who knows if it'll really happen.

So there you have it. Sorry, I'm not reforming. I am going to make a concerted effort to cut down on my drinking between now and the Series. During the Series I will drink verrrry rarely and only on nights when I don't have a tourney on the following day. It would be extremely irresponsible to take on a backer and come hung over to the tourneys that he's paying for. That's all for now.