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Down with the sickness?? Friends

I have a good reason for my delay in blog entries....

Date: Mon, Oct 22, 2007 Professional Internet Live Tournament

Hey guys, I'm excited to announce that we are moving. I have recently come to an agreement to start blogging for www.pokerroad.com, a website started by Barry Greenstein and his son Joe Sebok. Tonight I submitted my 1st entry for the site, and we should be live by the time you read this post. Needless to say I'm very excited to work with these guys, along with other poker professionals they have brought on.

My next entry will be on the pokerbowl tournament I played today in Vegas, and then I will post a 2 or 3 part blog series on what I have been promising forever to do and you guys have been anticipating since this summer........ My win in the Bellagio Cup III World Poker Tour event in July.

So come join us at www.pokerroad.com.

Until then~

BeL0W

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I have a good reason for my delay in blog entries....

Date: Mon, Oct 22, 2007 Professional Internet Live Tournament

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I have a good reason for my delay in blog entries....

Date: Mon, Oct 22, 2007 Professional Internet Live Tournament

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I have a good reason for my delay in blog entries....

Date: Mon, Oct 22, 2007 Professional Internet Live Tournament

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Not a good start to WCOOP

Date: Tue, Sep 25, 2007 Professional Internet Live Tournament

So today we start event #16 of 23, Pot-Limit Omaha Hi/lo. So far I have a whopping 1 cash, which was in event #5 the 500nl last Sunday. These events are long and take a lot of concentration to stay focus, because one slip up over a 14-22 hour tournament and your toast. I've had good starts in both Sunday NL events, more then tripling my starting stack by the 1st break yet I ended up making mistakes later. I also had a very good start to the 200 rebuy, had like 31k at the 1st break and was in for either the minimum of $615 or 1 rebuy for a total of $815. Again I fizzled late, as has been the trend for me outlasting like 75% of the field but not making the money. I'm not really worried though, variance is obviously a part of the game and will catch up to me in time for the main event =).

A lot of people have been complaining about the length of the tournaments, saying that they need to be 2 day events. The debate really heated up after event #5 lasted 20.5 hours, starting at 4:30 est and finishing at 1:08pm est Monday. I definitely agree that perhaps the Sunday events could warrant being 2 day events, but I think making them all 2 day events is a little extreme. Conversation especially was sparked when a couple of top players went deep in this and complained that they were falling asleep while trying to play for over 400k. It takes a different kind of animal to stay focused for the long haul, which is why I want to give props to James "mig.com" Mackey for taking down event #14 the 1k NL for a cool 580k on Sunday. I had to sleep when there were only 3 tables left but he was putting on a clinic for the hours I had been railing.

Hopefully the last 8 events go better then the first 15 have. There has also been an interesting trend developing in the 100 rebuys on stars, which I will go into in a few days but I think there maybe some funny business going on. In closing, I wanted to send a big congrats to Annette_15 who last week won the 1st ever WSOP Europe main event. At 18 years and 363 days old, not only did she become the 1st ever woman to win the main event, but also became the youngest main event champion breaking Phil Hellmuth's record, but also became the youngest bracelet winner, including preliminary events breaking Steve "MrSmokey1" Billirakis's 3 month old record. Beyond her just being a deserving person of such an amazing event, I really think it could end up doing wonders for poker in general, possibly having a similar or even better effect on poker as Moneymaker's win 5 years ago did which caused the poker boom which we enjoy today.

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Moochi in the little league...

Date: Sun, Sep 16, 2007 Professional Internet Live Tournament

Growing up as a lad one of my favorite movies was Moochie in the Little League. It was a black and white movie about a little boy about 8 or 9 years old and his little league team. They ended up going on a lengthy winning streak, and being superstitious Moochie had a pair of lucky socks which he wore for every game during the streak, without washing. When I was about 9 or 10, I used to emulate this character during my own little league seasons. I remember one team I was on was undefeated and won the championship, and by the end of the season I had to hide my socks from my Mom when she would be doing laundry. Man were those socks brutal by the end of that time.

Why do I bring this up? Well with all the big tournaments on Sundays, which are usually followed with major disappointment which is where the term "suicide sundays" has come from, I find myself on my own little Sunday winning streak. With the variance of MTTs, no one should ever get too down on themselves for a losing session or consecutive losing sessions causing a losing streak. As a rough estimate, I think it would be safe to say that I probably have a winning Sunday only about 25% of the time or so, if even that much. Today I'm trying to have my 3rd consecutive winning Sunday, which I'm not sure if I have ever done before, and this maybe my 1st back to back winning Sundays ever. If not my 1st time, it's only been a handful of times. So last week I took 2nd in the warm-up for 41k, 2 weeks ago I won the UB 500nl beating a sick player and good friend Rizen heads up to win 20k. Just like Moochie, I woke up today and put on the same pants, t-shirt and hoodie that I have worn for the last 2 Sundays, finding myself a little superstitious although I have washed these items.

Today is a big day, with the 3rd day of WCOOP underway with event #5 and FullTilt having their monthly million guarantee. Here is a look at my schedule for those who are interested. (all times are local for me, chicago time)

11:45 200+15 Poker stars Sunday Warm-up
12:00 100+9 Poker stars
12:00 100+9 Bodog 30k guarantee (already busto, runnin AA into QQ in level 1)
1:00 100+9 w/ rebuys Poker stars
3:00 100+9 Bodog 100k guarantee
3:00 10+1 w/ rebuys Poker stars
3:30 500+30 Poker stars WCOOP event #5, 2 million guarantee
4:00 200+15 Ultimate Bet 200k guarantee
5:00 500+35 FullTilt Million guarantee
5:30 300+20 Poker stars Wcoop event #5 second chance
6:00 100+9 Poker stars 20k guarantee
6:05 200+16 Fulltilt Sunday Mulligan 100k guarantee
6:30 100+9 w/ rebuys Poker stars
7:00 150+13 Fulltilt 55k guarantee
7:00 150+12 Absolute weekly 75k guarantee
7:30 500+30 Ultimate Bet 75k guarantee
8:00 200+15 w/ rebuys Pokerstars

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I've been slacking...starting WCOOP today

Date: Fri, Sep 14, 2007 Professional Internet Live Tournament

Wow it's been so long since since I've made an entry, and I apologize. I've been super busy and I apologize for my slacking. Alot has gone opn in the last 3 weeks, poker related and un related. Last Sunday, I feel like I finally broke thru in a major. A few months ago I took 3rd in the UB 200k for like 17k, and in the past I had won the Paradise 150k two times, along with their 150k masters PLO (when we used to be able to play there *tear*)but even tho they were considered "majors" I personally didn't consider them to be majors because none of them had a prize pool over 200k. Each of the Dise wins were between 28k-35k, which is nothing to turn my nose up at, but up[ until Sunday I felt like I only had done well in a major event online 1 time in 3 years of playing online for a living, and that was a 3rd place finish a year and a half ago in the party 750k for about 80k. On sunday I took 2nd in the stars sunday warm-up, which had a 400k guarantee, and paid roughly 40k for 2nd, while 1st was about 80k. I feel like I pretty much played perfect poker the whole time, and don't remember a single hand I would have played different. I will know this for sure when I make the video for WWW.PokerXfactor.com.

The final table was stacked with talent, fortunately I had a pretty good seat on the other 2 great players at the table, with SCTrojans on my immediate right and Apestyles on his immediate right. Both really good friends of mine, SCTrojans ended up finishing 6th for 14k when his AJ couldn't beat A9 aipf, and I found myself heads up when apestyles went out 3rd losing a race A5 vs 44 aipf to the other player, and eventual winner yokerface. Heads up started almost even in chips, yoker had a slight CL on me but it was not a significant one, something like 11m to 9.5m, and the blinds were 100k-200k. With about 100 BB's in play, I figured the HU would last a while, as I planned to chip away at this guy, but only a few hands into it I was dealt AK, he was dealt 1010, and after a few raises back and forth pre-flop we ended up all-in pre-flop and I lost a huge race for most of the chips in play.

I was definitely disapointed with 2nd, but very happy with my play. I switched gears when I needed to, got lucky when I needed to (except the last hand), and think it will make an excellent video. With 2,085 players, a victory would have marked the largest online field I had ever conquered, but the 2nd place cash of 41k did mark my highest cash ever on stars, and 2nd highest ever online. Oh well, there will always be more in the future......LIKE TODAY'S START TO POKER STAR'S WCOOP (world championships of online poker. There are 2 events today, the $200 NLHE 6-max, which already has a whopping 3,400 entrants registered 30 minutes before start, and $200 pot limit 5 card draw, which will have a much smaller turnout, I imagine around 700 people. The next 2 weeks are going to be so much fun, with killer prize pools in not only the WCOOP events but regular tournaments too because of higher volume of players. It's time for me to get my 1st big win baby...book it!

So I'm excited, On Wednesday I finally bought my new car, a 2007 Chrysler 300 Touring. For the most part everything went smooth, until it came to closing the deal, when for every time they told me "it will take 5 minutes" it really took about 30...LOL. I drove it off the lot that night, met my Mom and Nephews Timmy and Tyler for dinner to show them. The look on my nephew's faces when I pulled up was priceless.

I returned the car today to have some upgrades taken care of, like 20" black rims, a custom front grill and tinted windows. Overall I'm very excited and happy with my purchase. OK, WCOOP is starting now, 4,610 players and 172k for 1st...wish me luck.

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Tilt shoves are -EV

Date: Wed, Aug 22, 2007 Professional Internet Live Tournament

So I was cruising along tonight, playing great and stacks in a lot of good tournies. I end up losing a 45 BB race approaching the $ in the Tilt 55k, then AK<89o 10 from $ in stars 100r, and all of the sudden the only really good tourney I was left in was the Stars 1k which was paying almost 80k for 1st. I also had a really good stack in the 20r, and had started the 10pm 100nl's on all sites though the prizepools was kind of crappy comparatively speaking.

And then it happened... Having just made the money in the 1k with about 40 people left, I had a 45k stack which was almost 2x the average. A very strong player and friend of mine made it 2k @ 400-800 from UTG. I had J10o and clicked to fold before it was on me, but then as the table was folding I looked at the pot and realized that there was 3800ish in the pot and only 1200 more to call so i flipped it in to see a flop. I normally don't go broke w/ this hand on a Q10x flop, but utg bet 3700 w/ 13k behind and I read him for weakness so I shoved and he called pretty quickly w/ AK and promptly spiked an ace on the turn. So instead of approaching the chip lead and 70k I was back near average and eventually had 13k @ the 500-1000 level.

It folds to me on button, I jam 13k all-in w/ A9o, the SB calls quickly and I think I'm crushed but he flips over A8s. Eight ball np, I'm out and tilted. I then simultaneously shoved all-in in all 4 games, and of course I was only called in the 20r where we were deepest, and I had a 56k stack @ 600-1200 going vs KK against the only player who had me covered. OOPS. On the bright side it was my 1st cash in a stars 1k NL, and just the 2nd time I ever made the ante levels LOL.

So I was supposed to leave for L.A. on Thursday to play the Legends WPT starting Saturday but I decided to cancel my trip yesterday. I haven't really been feeling well the last week or so and I'm just not up for the travel so my next live event will have to wait until Foxwoods in November. I also plan on taking some time off after this weekend until the WCOOP in 2 weeks in hopes to be completely fresh and focused, not to mention take care of a bunch of other shit in my life.

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Frustrating Sunday stacks, Monday crushilation

Date: Tue, Aug 14, 2007 Professional Internet Live Tournament

So I came up short once again in the majors, but played pretty well overall. I ended getting decent stacks and going deep in both the stars 2nd chance and FTOPS, finishing 29th and 85th or so. I was a little bitter about ftops, as I shoved 11 BB's from utg+1 w/ 88 and some moron who had like 500 chips less then me called off his whole stack on the button with A10 sooooooted. nh sir. My stack was a little swingy, but I don't think it was due to my usual big stack carelessness but rather situations that dictated themselves. I've really been trying to work on managing my big stacks deep in tournaments as this can be a major leak in my game at times.

The stars 2nd chance looked like it was going to be the one for me, I had about 150k @ 2k-4k with about 40 people left which was the biggest stack/ best chance I have ever had in this tournament, and I was playing great. I then lost a big race for about 65k of my chips, and at 3k-6k I made a standard 2.7x BB raise w/ 77 and about 78k stack, the BB shoved me and I called and I lost a race to his QQ. So overall I was happy with my Sunday, if not my results then definitely my play and I used the momentum going into Monday.

So on the bubble of the afternoon 100 rebuys, I was 17/19 with a stack of 14k and the blinds of 1k-2k. The bubble was pretty intense as there were 2 guys who had under 3k and just kept folding hoping that someone else would make a mistake. At one point, the BB had 2k in pot and 500 chips behind and he folded hoping to survive his SB hand, which of course he did LOL. At one point I folded KdJd in the hi-jack with a chance to be 1st in the pot with my 7 BB's (normally an auto shove), but a fold because of 2 players having less then 1 BB. So we get into the money and I've successfully blinded down to 11k with the blinds going up to 1.5k-3k when I picked up QQ in the SB to double vs A2 and I was up to about 25k. Sweet!!!! Still 17/17 LOL.

My short stack ninja expertise would be the them of this tournament, as I never had more then one player covered if not dead last in chips until we got to the final table, and at the final table I had 45k at 2.5k-5k and was 9/9. Soon I was 8/8, then 7/7 and 6/6...minutes later 5/5 and eventually I got 3 handed and was of course in 3rd place with about 100k @ 4k-8k while my two opponents were both between 400k-500k. I eventually got my stack up to about 550k, and after playing really snug the final 3 tables and even once we got 3-handed I decided to make a play. I called a button raise (his stack about 350k, while sb had 180k or so) with J8o in the BB. I then check/raised his c-bet all-in on an AQ10r flop with a double gutter, he tanked until he had about 5 seconds left and finally called with A2 and I missed my draw. I eventually went out in 3rd place, and also finished 8th in the 50 rebuys losing a CL pot for 25%+ of chips in play with QQ vs AK all-in pre.

Not a bad start to the night, and I was super pumped for FTOPS, the 1k NL 6-max tourney. That didn't go so well, though I did hit a one outer early on ( I was also one outed in the 50 rebuy earlier, kind of odd). I had a steady stack of around 6k during the 1st 2 hours until the antes kicked in entering the 3rd hour. I was very swingy and was eventually out around 300th of 1200+ starters after flopping TPTK vs bottom set w/ only 13 BBs to start the hand.

I had been grinding along in the tilt 150, having 10 BB's at the 120-240 25a level, when after shoving 63hh pre and sucking out on A10, I found a little rush and began stacking chippies. I was also deep in the 150 on stars where I eventually finished 29th. With 27 left in Tilt, Apestyles and I were both top 5 in chips and running our individual tables over. He's a really good friend of mine and almost as sick as I am. When we got down to 2 tables I was not really happy to see him at my table. He brings out the best in me, but I still would have rather seen him at the final table and no sooner. We entered the final table 2nd and 3rd in chips, and ape had direct position on the chip leader ( I mean how good does he run?). The final table was sick stacked, with Jason Gray, xxRagedxx, projectsix, and bubbledav along with Ape and I, not to mention #1pen who finished 11th just short of the final table.

When we got 5 handed Ape and I were 1/2 in chips, and I thought for sure we would end up heads up. Unfortunately for him it wasn't meant to be as I started some retardedly sick poker and abusing the entire table including him. I was making alot of huge bluffs at all the right times and showing to tilt everyone, still they still didn't start looking me up light as expected. I don't have any hand histories and was too lazy to record live for www.pokerXfactor.com but it would have made a great video. I took 1st out of 542 runners for just over 20k and for the 2nd consecutive Monday I had a really great day of poker. Of course last Tuesday I followed it up by playing awful, and I haven't had a very good start today though not due to bad play. Hopefully I can avoid a repeat Tuesday performance after a welcomed Monday repeat.

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A funny story from Friday night.....

Date: Sun, Aug 12, 2007 Professional Internet Live Tournament

So in my apartment, we had one of our outlets wired to a separate electrical fuse because when we had the a/c plugged into the main fuse, we were blowing the fuse about 4 times a week, usually at night when it would be nice and dark outside for some reason. So Friday night, my friend Anne came over before going out to the bar to hang out. She was there only a few minutes, when we noticed the A/C wasn't on. Brilliantly, she determined the outlet wasn't working, noticed the outlet right next to it (on the main fuse) and plugged it in. BOOM! The A/C was working, I completely fail to realize what was ahead and she heads off to the bar.

About 12:30, everything goes out... I had blown a fuse. A little backgorund... I've lived in this apartment for 15 months, and have been so lazy that I still don't have keys to the laundry room or the storage room (where the fuse box is). No problem, I'll just call my roomate and see where he's at and when he'll be home, oh yeah he's in St. Louis for a wedding till Sunday night. Fuck, so I call my best friend George to see if he has keys, and of couorse that is the one key he doesn't have a copy of.

So I go outside to see if either of my 2 neighbors' lights are on showing possible life of being awake. Of course thats a big negative, along with the gut shot that maybe the door is unlocked downstairs. So I go back into my pitch black apartment, try calling my roommate but it goes right to voice mail meaning his phone is probably dead. I try searching for any keys that might be laying around, when I eventually find a flashlight in my roommate's office, of course the batteries are dead. If it was like 8pm I'd call the landlord, of course I realize that I don't have his phone number either so I start looking for something to break the window to the storage room and let myself in.

It's hard to find things in pitch black apartments, so I first grab the remote control and I think I would have had better luck breaking the window with the actual key. Fully armed with an oven mit on my hand and dish towel covering my arm I take a couple whacks ( trying to prevent cutting myself if my arm should happen to go through the window if I'm actually successful in breaking the window since that would be an even bigger disaster seeing as I don't have a running car to drive myself to the hospital.) I head back up stairs, and grab an iron....sweet this should work. You ever try swinging an iron? Ya... not so much.

I head back up to the apartment, and this is actually the point where I find the flash light in the office. This was one of those heavy duty flashlights, built like steel, easy to swing...should be no problem. I spend like 5 minutes taking about 50 swings, and I swear this glass window was laughing at me the whole time. This was the strongest glass I had ever encountered. After breaking the flashlight, I headed back into my apartment on the verge of tears. Not sure what I'm going to do, I go outside to sit on my front porch and ponder the situation. I noticed my downstairs neighhbor's TV on, I peak in the window...DING! He's up, I borrow his key and turn the fuses back on and I'm saved. WHEW!

So my sunday is off to a rough start, which is why I have time to write this. Hopefully I'm just getting the bad shit out of the way early. I lasted about 20 minutes combined in the warm-up and 1pm 100nl on stars. The warm-up wasn't really my fault, I thought I was making a value shove on the river vs a very active opponent, but was blind sided by my opponents hand. In the 100nl I lost AA to QK, and definitely should have folded the river with plenty of chips to play.

Hand from the warm-up....

PokerStars Game #11447802073: Tournament #57254865, $200+$15 Hold'em No Limit - Level II (50/100) - 2007/08/12 - 13:00:24 (ET)
Table '57254865 102' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: appelmoush (10300 in chips)
Seat 2: BeL0WaB0Ve (9850 in chips)
Seat 3: Dellboy64 (8125 in chips)
Seat 4: netzroller (10725 in chips)
Seat 5: jorg1 (8925 in chips)
Seat 6: imawhale26 (9650 in chips)
Seat 7: EX_IT_LJ (8825 in chips)
Seat 8: shaneAMSTRDM (13000 in chips)
Seat 9: gino47 (9700 in chips)
imawhale26: posts small blind 50
EX_IT_LJ: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to BeL0WaB0Ve [9h 9d]
shaneAMSTRDM: raises 200 to 300
gino47: folds
appelmoush: folds
BeL0WaB0Ve: calls 300
Dellboy64: folds
netzroller: folds
jorg1: folds
jorg1 is sitting out
imawhale26: folds
EX_IT_LJ: folds
*** FLOP *** [Tc 7h 9c]
shaneAMSTRDM: bets 200
BeL0WaB0Ve: raises 500 to 700
shaneAMSTRDM: calls 500
*** TURN *** [Tc 7h 9c] [3d]
shaneAMSTRDM: bets 1000
BeL0WaB0Ve: raises 2250 to 3250
shaneAMSTRDM: calls 2250
*** RIVER *** [Tc 7h 9c 3d] [Qs]
shaneAMSTRDM: bets 2000
BeL0WaB0Ve: raises 3600 to 5600 and is all-in
shaneAMSTRDM: calls 3600
*** SHOW DOWN ***
BeL0WaB0Ve: shows [9h 9d] (three of a kind, Nines)
shaneAMSTRDM: shows [Kd Jc] (a straight, Nine to King)
shaneAMSTRDM collected 19850 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***

I really felt my opponent was putting out a block bet with QJ, when he had actually flopped a double gut shot that I hadn't seen. Alot of times I will flat call here, but I felt like I would be losing value for some reason and called. Hopefully my day isn't filled with more mistakes like this.

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OK, im back.....

Date: Wed, Aug 8, 2007 Professional Internet Live Tournament

In 2 ways, bloggin here and crushing some MTTs online. As most of you know, during the world series I was blogging for www.pocketfives.com. That period has ended and my blog is returning here. I'm currently working on a blog of my recent WPT victory at the Bellagio Cup, but that will be released in the near future.

As for online, to say I've been in a drought between pokerstars and fulltilt the last 2 months would be an understatement. Thankfully I had some success on UltimateBet and Absolute to keep me from completely drowning both mentally and financially. That all changed Monday, as I had one of my best days online in months. I gained dominating stacks in most everything I played, made 4 FTs with a win in the Tilt 50 rebuys, 3rd in stars 100 rebuy, 3rd in stars 30 rebuy 6-max, and 6th in Tilt 75nl after losing a big race 6-handed to get short. In addition, I also bubbled 2 more final tables including the Stars nightly 100k. The ironic part is of all the tournaments I played, the 50 rebuy win was definitely the one that I played the worst in. It was my last tournament after busting from the stars 100k, and I seriously think I voluntarily put chips in the pot pre-flop on something like 60 consecutive hands, folding "occasionally" to a few shoves after I had raised, called a raised, or just limped. It was completely insane, and in all honesty I got really lucky to win.

After my big live win, I took a week away from poker for a few reasons. As far as poker goes, I wanted to make sure I was completely focused when I returned online playing my usual tournaments after making such a large score live. I am confident I was completely focused when I returned, but I have been running bad and it was taking a toll on me mentally. Again last Wednesday, I took a 4-day break, returned Sunday refreshed and focused and it showed. I also took a chance to hang with some friends and family during my 1st week back from Vegas, which felt good as I usually don't have a ton of time away from my usual poker schedule. I've decided to stick to taking Thursdays and Fridays off from poker to enjoy other aspects of life more (of course exceptoins for FTOPS/ WCOOP).

In conclusion, FTOPS V starts tomorrow, and like I was saying last Monday night "MY TURN". This is my new slogan, kind of like that KenneyBrynn guy and his "all it takes is confidence." I feel a big series coming up, and it all starts tomorrow. I bettter get some sleep.

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World Series blogs on Pocket Fives...

Date: Thu, Jun 14, 2007 Professional Internet Live Tournament

After talking things over with Adam Small from www.pocketfives.com I have decided to do a series of blogs for their site while I am out here in Vegas. Part 1 of the series was released yesterday and the following parts will be released in order. You can find the blog on the front page of their site.

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One week down, but still one more ahead

Date: Mon, Jun 11, 2007 Professional Internet Live Tournament

So I got out here last Monday and played my 1st event on Tuesday, which was the 1k rebuys. Sorry I haven't given any write ups in the last week but I have spending alot of time over at the rio. Unfortunately more of my time has been spent railing friends and observing the play late in these tournaments then actually playing myself.

Tuesday- Played the 1k rebuy and Imper1um was at my starting table. LOL @ him wanting to go all-in blind 1st hand. I told him I wasn't going to go all-in blind but I was going to be willing to gamble if I picked up a hand like QJs, 10Js, suited Ace, pairs, etc. 1st hand he shoves blind 35o and I wake up to AK and double after somehow dodging his 46Q flop. Up to 8k and wide-eyed at the prospects of a large stack if I found some hands and Sorel decided to run bad for the 1st time in his life, after Sorel's 57o cracked JJ he shoved 5k or so with 22 and I called with AK again. He flops a set, let the rebuying begin. The rest of the rebuy period, which was 2 hours long, did not go very well and I ended up with just over the minimum of 8,400 and I was in for 10k, 7 rebuys and 2 add-ons which was 2k over the budget I set for myself. Oh well.

After the rebuys were over I dipped down to 5,500 then started to gain some momentum and was back to around 11k when I picked up AdKd in the SB. The worst player at the table opened to 700 @ 100-200 25a from MP, I made it 3500 he shoves for 6,200 and I turn a flush draw but miss for 13k pot vs his KK. Left with about 5k, I pretty much folded and the 1st hand after the break I shoved 4,200 utg+2 with JJ and Imper1um called with AQ in th SB. The blinds were 150-300 25a and my stack was very odd to play so I just decided to ship and see 5 cards. He flopped a Q and GG me.

So I move onto the 1,500 Omaha hi/lo which I won 1 complete pot the entire tournament and I was eliminated shortly into level 3. This wasn't originally on my schedule but I felt it was worth playing since they had around 700 entrants. My desire to win my 1st bracelet definitely influenced this decision.

Wednesday was the 2,000nl which also had a huge field. My 1st table had David Williams and a couple other players who I recognized. I started out pretty aggressive and had chipped up around 5,000 when I 3-bet an 8c2c2h flop with 8h4h (I raised pre-flop) and ran into KK. The pot was about 7,500 with 2 others who had seen the flop also, and I went running hearts for my 1st suckout...oops?

That table broke with about 15 minutes left in the 50-100 level and my new table was very different. I didn't recognize anyone and everyone was between 2k and 4k (we started with 4k) except for the 2 players who were seated to my immediate left. They both had around my 9k give or take a thousand. Seeing as I was fortunate to have the 9k stack I was holding, I decided to establish a tight image and proceeded to only play 5 or 6 hands over the next hour and fifteen minutes until the 100-200 25 ante level. Then the plan was to get aggressive once the antes kicked in.

This pretty much worked and I was up to aroound 15k when I attempted my 1st official blow-up of the tournament. I say official because I know had a great stack where as early I was willing to be aggressive to get a stack. Chris McCormick had been moved to my table a little bit earlier and he opened utg+1 for 650. He had about 13k and I decided to just call utg +2 with 99 and see the flop. The flop came down KK10 w/ 2 diamonds which I really felt was a good flop for me and I called his 1,200 bet on the flop. The turn was awful...another 10 now giving me 9 high. He checked and I decided I was going to try and make it look like I was trying to get value with my king betting 1,400 on turn with plans of betting 3,500-4,000 on river as long as a baby came. I really felt like he would look me up on turn with Ace high but fold on river. Instead he check-raised with his ace high to 3,200 and I folded immediately. So now I feel outplayed having to fold the best hand bc of the board and he limps utg for 200. This is where I decide to get retarded and make it 900 w/ 10d4d utg+1. He calls and I bet 1,500 on KdQd4h flop, which he raises to 5,000 and I end up shipping for 7,500ish more. He calls with KhQh and I river the 8d for a pot worth something around 26k.

Right here I should have gone back to being tight after what the table had just witnessed and waited for some good hands to play or the blinds to get even higher and worth stealing but no, of course I couldn't do this. I had to try and win the tournament in the next 2 hours of course. Long story short, I got chopped back to 15k before the 200-400 50a even started and proceeded to yo-yo between 9k and 15k playing way to many hands when I raised to 1,350 from MP w/ K7cc and the BB shoved for about 4,500 more. Everyone was shoving on me, and I was getting a little frustrated and knew the BB was capable of shipping it in light so I decided to call hoping I was a 40/60 at worst vs a hand like AQ or AJ and maybe even a 60/40 favorite vs QJ or something like that. He ends up having QQ and I lose a race chopping me down to 8k. After paying the blinds and seeing a flop on the button I had 6,100 at the last hand of 200-400 25a.

I opened with Ah10s from the c/o for 1,300 and this old guy in the BB asked me what I had behind and then proceeded to shove about 20,000 chips in the middle very forcefully. I could tell he was faking his strength, and he wanted to show me a wild bluff but I'm to proud for that. I called and he flipped over 2c3d and the board came out QhJh6x4h...river off suit 5 NH sir GG me?

Thursday/Saturday- Thursday was the 1,500 short handed event and Saturday was the 1,500 NLHE, which I decided to group together because they went the same way. Both were crap shoots and I didn't make the 1st break of either one, end of story.

Friday was the 5k pot-limit hold 'em event and after my blow-up in the 2k NL I was really psyched for this. PL strategy is so different then NL strategy and since there is never an ante the play is much much tighter. I knew this and I really needed this tournament to get back in the right mindset of playing tighter then I had been. Early on I played a few pots but never committed a lot of chips during one single hand when I was sitting slightly above the starting stack of 10,000 chips. At 50-100 I raised to 250 from MP with 9h7h and got called by John Hennigan in position, the small blind and John Gale in the BB. The flop came down Q96 with 2 diamonds and I bet 600, to which Hennigan and the SB folded but John Gale raised to 1,800. This board was so draw heavy that I really thought I might be ahead so I decided to call and re-evaluate on the turn. The turn was a complete brick and Gale lead for 2,200 with about 3,200 behind and i decided I likely have the best hand given how wild he plays, and my line would likely make him fold any queen. I was wrong, he called with 96 for 2 pair and I was left with about 2,000 chips.

I grinded so hard from here, playing only 3 or 4 hands the entire 75-150 and a few minutes into the 100-200 levels when I finally doubled up. Sitting on 2,700 chips I decided to raise to 550 from the c/o with A5 and the BB called. The flop was A high, the BB check/called my 800 bet and check called my shove of 1,300 on the turn. Slowplayed KK is no good son....5,500 for me! I get up to 6,400 when this very loose player opened for 700 from UTG+2. This was the 4th or 5th he raised my BB and I looked down to AQ, so I contemplated my options considering my sack and decided to make it 2,200 with 4,200 behind. The LAG player called very quickly and I was somewhat concerned. I decided I could still check/fold the flop if it wasn't a good flop for me, but when the flop came Q97 rainbow I moved all-in for just under a pot size bet. I have never seen anyone call so quickly, I surely thought I was dead to 99 for a set or slow-played KK/AA...but I was wrong, he flipped over the oh so powerful K10 off for a gutty and 1 over, and proceeded to spike a king on the river. I stormed out, didn't say goodbye to 3 friends at the table, didn't wish the players GL like I normally do, didn't attempt to say goodbye to Bax who was on the table behind me either. I was trembling with anger, confused as to what the heck had just happened.

Bax saw me storm out and came after me and asked me what happened, and I told him I'd tell him later but I couldn't talk about it. I got all the way to the taxi stand when I remembered that I had my ticket for Saturday's 1,500 NL in my back pocket. I decided to head back in and un-register, un sure if I wanted to stay here or head home on the next flight out. Fortunately for me the line was a gazillion people long since alot of people were registering for the 5 P.M. stud that was starting in less then an hour so I decided to go talk to Bax and a few others while they were on there break. I managed to cool down a bit and made it back to my hotel room in time to play all the nightly's online.

Every story has a happy ending. My game has been pretty sloppy that few weeks online, and I brought that into the live arena which can get very expensive very quick. So I ended up firing up 7 tournaments for the night and I was completely focused. I ended up bubbling the 100 rebuy on stars for a chip lead pot in a complete cooler hand, but managed to stay focused and not tilt out of the 3 tournaments I had left. I had been grind a 15-20 BB stack for some time in the FTP 30r, a tournament I normally don't play and ended up finishing 12th when my AcQc lost to AsQs all-in pre-flop....such a fun game I know. No worries, I was still grinding the UB bounty with about 30 people left I had just over 10 BB's and I was just reaching the final table of the 100 rebuy on which paid the top 5. I ended up crushing the 100 rebuy, taking it down for 6k with pretty much no resistance at all. I ended up getting a stack on the $ bubble of the bounty, and getting to the final table 2nd in chips. I also crushed this final table until I got heads up vs a complete moron who should probably with draw the 7,800 he got for beating me. I wasn't bitter, still +10k or so online for the night, not to mention a ton of confidence in my game that I regained that night.

I didn't have my usually bloody Sunday, and actually ended up making 2 final tables in Major events today. I took 3rd in the UB 200k for 18k, which was really disappointing but not as disappointing as taking 9th in the 200 rebuys on stars for just under 3k. I got retardedly un-lucky in that tournament and really feel like I should have at least ended up getting short handed if not winning the damn thing....oh well, fun game we play.

I'm really looking forward to the rest of the week here in Vegas. Tommorrow I'm playing the 2,500 NL, Tuesday I will likely be online if I don't make day 2 of the 2,500 as I don't care to play the 1,500 shootout and Wednesday is the 5,000 NL which is my favorite event of the series, just ahead of the 1k rebuys. thursday is a 1,500 PLO, Friday 2k NL, Saturday is another 1,500 NL circus, Sunday is a 3,000 NL which I think will end up being a pretty good tournament despite being on Sunday, and Monday is my last event for this trip the 2,500 NL short handed and of course I may play the 1,500 razz on sunday if I bust from the 3k NL event.

I feely really good about my game right now, better then I have since December probably. I was extremely focused today online and plan on having a great tournament tomorrow focusing on playing mistake free poker and switching gears when I need to. Good luck to everyone else playing in Vegas, hopefully I will have good news to report very shortly.

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Such an Obvious Day...

Date: Mon, Jun 4, 2007 Professional Internet Live Tournament

Another Sunday Bloody Sunday for me, but fuck me and my obvious Sunday Suicidal Moments (this is a joke family) for right now. It took 7 hours, but the inevitable happened and online phenom MrSmokey1 won his 1st ever WSOP bracelet in his 1st ever WSOP event ever played, event #1 of the 2007 series the 5k 1/2 NLH 1/2 LHE which concluded this afternoon just 10 days after he turned 21. Clearly one of the sickest online players around, Smoke has always been a good friend to me and huge influence on my own game. This couldn't have happened to a sicker poker player, more less a better person.

Quick story about MrSmokey1. He's a Chicago boy like me, yet I met him through online poker. Two years ago a bunch of us online players met for the first time at Turning Stone Casino. I headed out to Rochester, New York a week before the tournament and was staying with a friend who was to accompany me for the entire trip. One day in, I was stranded and at the end Smokey drove me 2 hours back to Rochester to catch my flight. That's good people.

Quick congrats to TheWacoKidd, cashing in his 3rd straight WPT Main Event taking 2nd place for close to 450k. I know it wasn't the title you wanted, but winning 3 of your last 4 heads-up matches live ain't too bad. Just make sure you shipped Kimberely ;-).

As for me, I haven't been able to post much the last few days. I took Thursday and Friday off, went out with my Father and Step-Mom for dinner Thursday night and my friend Robby was in town town and we went out drinking followed by the mandatory "Forest Park House Game" between us and my friend George. Let's just say we started with $5 tournament with 3 maximum rebuys of $5 the last one getting you double chips. Robby won, I didn't bother re-buying as I was lacking focus on the game, which then turned to .25-.50 NL cash and ended around 9 A.M. at 1-2 NL cash. I also took a few days to prepare for vegas, as my flight leaves tomorrow afternoon. I obviously had some errands to run but I also wanted to take a few days away from poker as I will be completely focused on poker through the next two weeks live. After last summer I look to this series as being my redemption summer, and I won't be satisfied if I don't make at least one final table giving me a shot at my first live tournament win.

All I've heard and read about is that the 1st few days of the series have been an absolute mad house, which is to be expected and why I chose to stay home for the few days. I'm not a big fan of crowds and chaos, and even once the Rio people get their shit together and run things at the ability that is expected I still feel it is all a little overwhelming for me. That's just who I am, oh well I think it's a little too late and a little less profitable to switch professions now :-P. My 1st event will be the 1k rebuys, and I'm really excited about them giving us double the starting chips this year. I figure I will budget around 8k for this event like I did last year. I've promised myself that I will be 100% focused on the WSOP this year, on and off the tables, unlike last year when I was hopping from casino to casino looking for the next tournament. No second chance tournaments for me this time.

As for blogging during the series, I'm not sure if I am going to post here as Cardplayer has asked to speak with me once I get to vegas about blogging for their site. I may end up posting in both spots but we will have to see. I will let everyone know obviously. As far as following coverage online from home this weekend, Cardplayer and pokerwire have been a mess and I actually have found the coverage of WWW.worldseriesofpoker.com, which is powered by pokernews.com to be the best by a long shot. They also provided live radio feed of the final table at http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/bluffmedia.asx which I found to be an awesome way to follow Smokey's win, even if the broadcaster were a couple of blubbering idiots. Time to tighten up things for vegas......

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