Meant to write a lot. Had one planned called "leaving Las Vegas," which happened more then 10 days ago. Had a video blog I did with my best friend, Bach. But that got erased before I could host it on youtube. Nuts I haven't done a blog in a month - I really like blogs. Either way, I want to make something clear, although it wont make sense:

I am an incredibly competitive person. I do not take losing well. Some could say I hate to lose. If I am playing a game - be it athletic or academic - and I am going to lose, I go a little berserk. I've become quite numb to a lot of things (desensitized, largely, to losing money for example) but losing just will never become apart of my nature.

Funny, but I've been staying w/ Dave, and he's seen me play Chess. I've flipped out after some losses, and he's told me he has never seen me get upset in that way about poker. He's right; I think I've outgrown my emotional fits with regard to poker. This was how...

I used to rage with regard to tilt. It wasn't so much the cards that fell ("I cannot control what they do, I can only control what I do") but rather when I misplayed something in poker. In many ways, perfectionism is an undoing, since it's hard to come to terms with the fact that in poker, you are going to make mistakes. It's just not a solved game.

4 years ago (wow, has it really been that long?) I lived in California. At the time I was using a T42, which was an IBM laptop. IBM had a great support staff, where if you "broke" your laptop, you could send it back, and they'd ship you a completely new laptop.

This was probably very negative for my growth in the tilt department. I destroyed - yes, destroyed - 5 laptops. If I had a particularly tough poker day, I would smash my keypad first, then shatter my screen, and maybe throw my laptop against the wall. Or, what was left of it. I often cut up my hands on my keys, since I would just punch right through the computer. On the phone with support, I wondered when I told them "I dropped it," and they got this completely unrecognizable metal chunk, what sort of drop must have occurred. Err, a 50 ft. drop from a mountain onto spikes, maybe?

I cut this behavior out when the warranty ended. And, I nearly scarred my hands because I punched glass and slit them with deep cuts. Essentially, it was a rational decision when I realized that destroying a laptop would cost me ~700$ or so. Was the release of pent up anger worth spending that much to buy a new computer? No, it wasn't. So I stopped acting in that way.

I went to a sleep away camp when I was little - went there for 7 years. I loved it! (8 to 15) It was in the Adirondacks, which is truly upstate NY. There was this game, of sorts, where every camper was integrated into a "tribe". There were 5 tribes (Seneca, Cayuga, Mohawk, Onondaga, and Tuscarora) which were loosely based on the Iroquois tribes. (I believe Tuscarora were actually ~Tennessee or so Indians, but who cares about details when you're 11 years old?) and I was on the Seneca. We wore yellow.

Every ~week there was an indian event. Man, they were fun. (Some, better then others though) After the first event, there would be a tribal council, where you elect officials. There was chieftain, assistant chieftain, medicine man, and treasurer. (Treasurer was called something else) There were also the female equivalents (sages, I believe, although I'm not positive that was the word. Definitely starts with an "S") My final year, I was one of a few seniors, and had been there a while. I had a lot of experience with the strategies for upcoming games, and frankly, deserved to be the chieftain. So I ran for chieftain, of course.

I didn't win. My friend - a person named Chris Reinkeins, probably spelling that poorly, won. He had been there just as long as I had, frankly, and there weren't really any compelling reasons for the random Seneca people (ranging from 8 to 15 in age, I guess, about 40 people) to vote for him over me or vica versa. The main thing I remember about Chris Reinkeins is he had magic cards but didn't play, whereas I used to be into them. Not in the Zeejustin or Polyballer "top 5 in the world" type of way, but in the "I have a bunch and think I'm pretty good at this game" kind of way. He had a mox ruby, which is an incredibly rare, old card. (One of the few that still has value, although I could be wrong about this... I haven't looked at M:TG prices or cards in at least 10 years) At that point, it was worth 150$ or so, and I knew it. I bought it for 10. (To this day, I still have that card)

I was pretty astonished that I lost. Everyone said, "Well, you can just be assistant chief!" That didn't fly. I didn't want to be the assistant. I wanted to be chieftain. I declined. So, a kid named Jacob Itzkawicz won. (Definitely spelling THAT terribly) He was a friend of mine, too. My main memory of him was that he insisted people call him "nature boy". And his gf throughout camp (for like 3 years) was a girl named Zoee. Zoee was OK.

We went on to win that year. I acted like the de facto Chief at every event. I orchestrated who ran which specific legs when there was the race, (forget the name for it, but it was an awesome event) our strategy in the final war game (lots of fun, you throw socks filled with flour at people) etc. But I didn't get any credit for it, because I had lost the actual election.

I like to think I'm over that bit of disappointment. But it took me a while.

Great song.

So the Leggo Party is tonight - starts in a bit. However, I'm stuck in the house waiting on the cleaning lady - she's already 2 hours late.

Yesterday our upstairs AC broke. Can't figure it out. And the landlady's number doesn't work! Hah. Seriously, I call it and I get a message saying she doesn't receive incoming calls. W T F?

Somehow the cleaning lady can get through to our land lady, I believe - so everything is interlocked. In any event my room is pretty hot, I have my fan going but alas I feel like I have a fever.

The past 12? days (since the last blog) I've done a bunch of things...
-Busted from tournaments (got 3h w/ the chip lead in the super turbo 1500 shootout but I can't beat retards! Go figure)
-Have had a few losing live sessions with exactly zero winning sessions. Feels like I've gotten into some really bad spots lately...
-Went to Tryst w/ Assani + the house. Hadn't been there before; it's cool, obviously, but still < Pure and Surrender.
-Karaoked with Mikech (was lots of fun! We've done that before) where we sang a bunch of various songs. Our rendition of "Dream On" was classic.
-Lost a bunch of CCRs (not fun! Luckily we haven't really gone to expensive places so I haven't been burned too bad)
-Saw Toy Story 3D & the Karate Kid. Both were good. Actually, Toy Story was great.
-Ballooned my chess rating up on FICS, only to have it crash the past 2 days. More frustrating then poker because when I lose it really feels like I have no chance to win. Good news is when I win I feel like there's a 0% chance of losing
-Adam arrives tonight; Chris got here a few days ago. So the house is truly full!!!
-In terms of bets/world cup, for Ghana v USA when Ghana scored I gave JC 3:1 on the US. (My 150 to his 50) My thinking was that it's a life hedge, the USA winning would be way worth the 150. However, as soon as the USA scored, I wanted to just root for them, so I bought out for 50. Then, Ghana went ahead and won anyway. ARGH. I also have money against Jeff (lostinthesaus) winning his prop. Just seems impossible to me.

Bunch of random updates. Today was the 5k 6m, but I opted not to play. Possibly a good decision; the NBA finals is going on right now, and I didn't want to miss it. Heh.

Video below is from sometime last week. Just kinda random but possibly some may enjoy it. *Note that the microphone is AWFUL for the first minute. But it gets better, so if you stick it out, you get rewarded.



Other then that:
-Yesterday JC and I went to a cooking class. It... Wasn't really what I thought it would be. I didn't like the main course at all (salted cod) or the desert (some raisin thing) and the wine pairings were "meh". (All whites except 1) But it was a good experience.

*What happened is earlier in the day, Isura Jc and I went to the "Sunrise Cafe", which is close to our house. I went there a lot 2 years ago - very good place for breakfast. In any event, we saw a deli next to Sunrise that we had never been to before. So, we went there for lunch. Lunch was solid, and I saw a sign for a cooking class, which was being held that night. Soooo... We signed up! There were only 2 spots open, but we convinced them to open 3 seats. (For Alex)

You see... JC and I knew Alex would never go to a cooking class. So we concocted a scheme; it was held at 6, and we'd say, around 550, "hmm, we feel like getting some Italian. Want to come Dubby?" 100% he'd go, then we'd wind up at the restaurant with 1 car, we'd have the keys, and bammo, he's stuck there.

However, somehow, (Alex went to bed really late so when we got back from lunch he was still sleeping... Or so we thought) he overheard jc and me explaining our plan to Isura (or whomever was home). I guess my voice carries... So, he didn't go. Yeah, cool story.

The cooking class wasn't what I expected. I thought we'd actually GET to cook. Instead, we just watched the cook do all the preparation etc. Which was OK, but again, I wanted a more hands-on experience.

-I've been playing a lot of chess. Ryan and Morgan are incredibly good - just under "master", as a matter of fact. They've been helping me out, and as a result, I've gotten much better from where I was even just a week ago. For instance, I now know various things like "the perk defense". About this, there was a Las Vegas Chess Tournament that took place a few days ago. Ryan started 3-0-1 (his draw was a result only because he took a bye in order to watch USA's 1st game vs England) so he was actually poised to possibly win. (The prize pool was actually pretty good for chess; Ryan is in the division just under Master, 2000-2200 IIRC, and it's 5k for first) and then he ran into a buzzsaw... He took this picture only because, well, it's funny:


Yes, Ryan fell to a 12 year old. Kid is probably a genius though, so I guess he can't feel too bad!

-The house has been a story of 2 directions. Alex has been dominating; he took 9th in the 1500 6m for 30k, and followed that up with 26th in the 2500 for 15k. So he's keeping the house goal very much alive and well! But... Ryan, JC, and I have not done well. I saved my previous 2 sessions in terms of note keeping on my phone, but I'd rather not post all the hands. The fact is I played well but ran badly - boohoo, I haven't won an allin in either tournament/my equity in cash hasn't been realized.

Because of that, I decided not to play the event today. (Although the C's being on was def a solid secondary reasoning) So, between JC, Ryan, and myself, we've kinda wiped away all of Dub's progress. I think Isura/Morgan/Travis are up a little bit, but I don't think the aggregate is that positive. So basically even though Dub is destroying people, we're below pace.

-I've been playing a fair amount of FF13. It has been a good distraction after a really really really awful live session, and now I want to beat it. I'm ~midway on disc3, so probably 3 more days or so and I'll wrap it up.

-After starting well on CCR, (not paying the first few meals) I've literally lost the past 4 in a row. Luckily they've been on the smaller scale (like breakfast, the 'cooking class' w JC, also a Japanese place off the strip that was recommended called "Sen of Japan" w/ Vanessa, Dub, Jc, and Travis - I do not recommend, it's not better then Naked Fish but a bit more expensive) but regardless it wiped away all my prior built up equity. So, I just hope I don't get completely owned like I did last year.

So... That's about it! Other then that, C's are up 6 right now and I'm feeling a mix of huge uneasiness/worry but also happy we're going into the 3rd up 6. Later all!

So, quite a lot to report! Some good, some not as good. May as well go reverse chronologically, because that's the easiest way to shape my thoughts. So:

It's ~4AM right now. So it's not *really* June 8th. Alex (I swapped 5%) and Ryan (I unfortunately did not swap) both are ITM in the 6m, and are alive for day 2. I, of course, am not.

June 7th
Woke up after about 6 hours of sleep. I was up all night because I couldn't sleep - obviously - and I was listening to random Blink182 songs. (like the one above) Good band. Anyway, Alex knocked on my door at 11:30 and I told him to go away. (Tourney started at 12) He left with Ryan and Morgan. (Our house is finally full BTW! Morgan arrived around 2am June 7th, after his flight from Oregon was delayed ~5! hours)

I grabbed a water, pulled on a leggo shirt, and Barker drove me to the Rio (we left around 11:45) so I only missed 1 or 2 hands. I'm going to just copy + paste the notes I took on my blackberry notepad about the tournament... If anyone cares about specific hands, ask away I guess. I just have a real sour taste in my mouth from this one.

Random notes as I preview this blog: The dude when I had QQ later told me he had KK, so, cool. I saved money not getting it in pre and I made the right river fold. Feels nice I guess. And, the one hand I had a question about, which I did some homework when I came home, was I made a bad raise/fold. I essentially minraised the button w. KTdd and I should have called the 15bb push - it's at worst break even and at best slightly +EV. Not really a bad fold but not a good fold. Oh well!



The bustout hand probably deserves a little bit of elaboration, so:
-I was at Anksy's table for all of 5 hands
-I had come to the table with 8k, but lost 2k of it in the 88 hand (and when I raise/folded my SB v BB) so I was sitting on under 6k, or about 26bbs
-The table was playing 5handed; either someone was sitting out or they just didn't fill a seat

With that said, Anksy opened in the CO to 550, and I had 66. I mean, I don't think I'm supposed to fold there and I'm not going to flat, so it's reraise or just flat out shove. Figured an awkward amount probably meant the same to him but it's more fun to not just bland ship it in, so I raised to like 1825. The SB behind me, the guy who won the 88 hand and who shipped on me in blind combat, jammed, and well, I obviously called and lost to AA aipf.

*About my AIPFs; I went 1-4, winning the smallest. But, my equity was poor in all my all in hands. (KQhh to 22 win, KJhh to 22 loss, 22 to KK loss, 66 to AA loss) So I think I was just a little under expectation, but nothing too awful to talk about.

Anyway, GO ALEX! (And Ryan, of course, but to a lesser extent, bc of fiduciary reasons LDO) After busting, I went to Ceasers because I needed a car to drive home. (And Travis was playing cash games there) Obviously, ferrying back and forth by means of a taxi kinda invalidates the purpose of the car, but what can you do. I came home and played FF13 for several hours, ignoring my phone, and basking in the house alone. I probably should have written this blog then, hmm. Oh well!

June 6th

This was Sunday, the day of G2 Bos/Lal. A bunch of people went to 24hr fitness around 3pm or whatnot, but I missed it, since I was up all night playing poker. (Will talk about that shortly) Alex and I decided to take it easy in preparation of the game, which was a brilliant plan.

We watched it at home - and wow, what a sick game! Ray & Rondo came through. (And Pierce, to an extent) After that, we went to register for the 1500. Some guy sold Dub and me 3000 in chip vouchers for 2800 (we both bought 1500 for 1400) but for the life of me I can't figure out if I paid him 1500 or 1400. Hmm.

Played basketball, there was some pretty intense balling that apparently takes place Sundays Tuesdays and Thursdays at ~9pm+. Then came home and chilled for a while. Ended up watching Ryan play chess for a while, and wow,...

I've been listening to that a lot lately.

Anyway, let's work backwards. It's still the 2nd to me, since it's only ~12:45 (past midnight) Vegas time. But, tomorrow when I wake up, I'm going to drive w/ Alex and Assani to meet up with Keith and attend G1 of the NBA Finals. Yay! So here goes... Note: now that I'm finished with this blog, it's 230. lol. I was sitting with the housemates and being generally distracted, so this took me quite some time! Wow. Well, enjoy

We (Alex, Travis, me) had an ~8oclock flight out of Logan on the 31st. Since it was Memorial day Monday, we *thought* there would be a lot of traffic. But there wasn't, so we got to the airport early - leaving around 5pm EST - and had more then a 2hr wait. While going through security, my friend Colin (kidcolin from 2p2) randomly was going through as well. (He lives in Sacto, was flying home, so odd coincidence). Anyway, just our luck, our plane was delayed 2.5hrs (had to fly from JFK where they were backed up). Initially we wanted to go to Naked Fish upon landing, but we got in too late. Landed at 1 AM Vegas time, which made for an 11hr travel day. Yuck.

Alex in the foreground, Travis in the background, waiting very patiently during our 2.5hr delay...


Alex got a room comped at Caesars - due to last year's BJ playing I'm sure - so we taxied over there. Had to endure what seemed like an eternity of a line, since we were all exhausted and there was just 1 dude working there. Anyway, the room was pretty nice, and I passed out pretty quickly. (Travis and Dub went downstairs to get food)

The following day (the 1st) we met up with Tri in the lobby. We ate at the caesars cafe while waiting for Isura to arrive (both guys had rented cars already; we had a lot of stuff so we needed 2 separate cars to transport our luggage... but I was having trouble reaching Isura). Kinda a nondescript meal. Isura and Tri didn't eat much so it was technically a 3-way CCR, but since Tavaris and I owed Dub a CCR equity each (from losing a 100m sprint with him nearly a month ago) we just chopped it up. We then checked into our house, which is *PRETTY* nice. It's much better then last year, but not quite as nice as 2 years ago. Next blog, when everyone arrives, (JC and Ryan arrive Saturday) I'll do a video walk around / introduce people.

This year, as well, rather then giving myself the master bedroom (and paying more for it) we decided to just leave it all up to fate. There are 5 bedrooms - Ryan and his friend have 1 - so that left 4 bedrooms for 5 people. Tri was the dealer (initially he was going to stay with us, but actually somehow has a hookup with a Palms place - details are a little foggy, but that worked here because although there is bed space, it would be a tight squeeze) and we dealt a PLO hand to everyone. We decided to work backwards - the WORST hand would have 4th pick, and so on. Dubby unlucked-out and got 4th. (So JC will be rooming with him) Travis got 3rd, I got 2nd, and Isura "won" the master bedroom. I'm alright though - my room is the 2nd best / we moved a dresser there so I'm in fine shape. Also, we got to the house while the cleaning lady (named Maria) was still there. I hired her to clean for the house weekly - 50$/visit, which seems reasonable. Very glad we have a cleaning lady this year, specifically for the kitchen and bathrooms.

After figuring all that minutiae out, Dub/Isura/and I went to 24hr fitness to meet up with Assani and play basketball. Was pretty good, we played about 2+hours - met Nicolak and his friend Nathan. (About this: If you want to play bball in Vegas, just PM me w/ your number or whatnot, I normally just send a text out when I play, which is nearly everyday...) I played OK. I'm breaking in new shoes (that I bought a while ago) and they gave me awful heel blisters. Impacted my play marginally - everything was good (defense, running the floor, finishing) but not so much shooting. I connected on only 1 3, and my form felt way off. Mixture of adapting to the Vegas heat/dryness, being overtired from the exertion of traveling/jet lag, the new rims (vs Tufts gym etc.) and all that. Excuses excuses, but give me 3 more days here and I wont have any excuses left!

I had heard from Matt Flynn earlier in the day that it was his last day out in Vegas - fortuitous timing in the sense that I had been there for 1 full day, so was able to meet up. Unfortunate in the sense that since Matt is a doctor, he can't come back out to play the Main Event, since that requires not scheduling patients etc. I wanted to go out with Mikech as a "customary" Nobu dinner (welcoming to Vegas so to speak) the first night, but since our flight would've gotten in (even on time) too late we passed on that. I made reservations for 6 at Nobu to make up for it.(Isura, Dub, Assani, Matt, Mike, and me)

The food was excellent. Mike and I ordered for the table, and frankly, Nobu is unbelievable. Def. my favorite. Was pretty good conversation all around - Matt talked about some interesting hands he had played to that point and so on. Leading up to the bill, Mike and I were going to bet our CCR equity on an over/under for the bill. He thought it was more then 700; I thought no way that much. (Nobu, relative to 5 star restaurants, is "reasonably" priced) The sticking point was I demanded a price - since it makes sense to me - that if he "won", my wager was greater (say the bill was 800, his equity share would be 125) whereas if I "won" (and the bill was under 700, like 600) my equity share would just be 100.

Instead, Assani offered to Johnny Loden w/ anyone for CCR equity. I jumped to take it, but Mike did too and was matched in a best-of-5 against Assani. The questions were as follows: (Mike had "home court," which meant he got to chose the Q first)
1. With Matt as Johnny, how many pounds does a full grown average african elephant weigh? The real answer is 15,000 pounds or so (nuts!) and Mike got the over on 6k pounds. Matt thought it was 11k, so 1-0 Mike.
2. Assani asked Matt how people made 1 million (or more) from poker in the past year. (This actually led to a pretty interesting discussion since everyone varied widely) The stipulation was tournament winners who were backed (which is like 80% of them!) didn't count. Matt's line ended up being 28, and some how the two of them got into a bidding war with Assani finally having 215 and up. lol, 2-0 Mike, going for the clean sweep.
3. Mike thought of another good q, since Matt had just told the story about going out with a few people (including Dave Clark, who is a mod on 2p2 and some reason has serious issues with me... He's the cause of ~all my sporting events temp bans, the bastard!) to the rhino and well, racking up a bill. Will omit details, but in short - Ouch! The Q was: In the 3.5 years he had...

TA is one of my favorite players, so this was awesome. The C's won tonight - just finished watching the game a 2nd time - and wow, just amazing. I was at G3 (where we got curb stomped) and basically this series was a true roller coaster of emotion:
G1, we played (what I thought) our absolute best, but crumpled in the 4th; Cavs won. After this point, thought IF we stole G1, we'd have a nice chance. But we hit them with our best shot and lost. I was devastated.
G2, it started as an afterthought - call it an emotional hedge. I didn't care that much because I was checked out... But then we BLEW THEM OUT! Rondo tore it up through 3 Qs, so much that the 4th Q wasn't even in jeopardy. (The Cavs had a 15-0 run or so in the 4th, helped by sick pro-Cavs reffing, but we were still up 15 or so, lol)
G3, was at the game. Beforehand, I was worried, since G1 the loss was deflating and yet G2 restored all hope. However, they passed out thunderstix before the game (always a bad sign) and we never led. (I missed the 1st 2 mins getting to my seat, so it's possible we led in the first minute, not sure) At this point, seeing an entire 4th Q of garbage time, I thought "well at least we're back to Sq. 1, maybe we can get 1 more home game (G6)".
G4, amazing turnaround. Mother's Day, we just defended our home court. Although I didn't think we were going to win the series, I felt it was at least going to "go the distance" and be a true great playoff series.
G5, lol, riding so high thought we had it in the bag. But didn't want to reverse jinx!
G6, confirmed. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

On a sadder note, the Jazz were swept by the Lakers. I love the C's, but I love the Jazz *more*. So that was a bad day for me. I especially can't stand the Lakers, too.

Last year I did a comprehensive review/projection for the playoffs, and although I didn't post it on my blog this year, I did a similar thing this year. I'm leading the field in my playoff bracket (unfortunately only 8 people in it ) so that's good. http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/46...94/index2.html

Essentially...
R1 picked Spurs and Jazz correctly
R2 homered it up with the Jazz; had I been able to change AFTER R1 (after knowing Memo was out for the rest of the playoffs, basically) I would've picked the Lakers. Obviously picked Cavs to advance too, so I was wrong there.

Anyway, picked the Magic to win it all. So, that is viable. *Slight beat: A friend of mine, right before the playoffs began, was in Vegas. He was supposed to put down 2 bets for me; 500$ on Spurs/Dal (at +172 or thereabout) and 500$ on Orl winning it all (6:1!). Obv Spurs won, and the Orl championship line now puts them as the favorite. (At +145 or so, which is nuts) I'm a little bummed the friend didn't end up doing it, (he was playing cash, had an AWFUL session where he lost the money he brought with him from LA, so he wasn't able to make those bets! lol) but hey, maybe the Magic don't win it all and he ends up saving me a little bit of money.

As far as poker is concerned, I've actually played 2 online sessions recently. And a live one. A bunch of quasi-interesting hands, but since some of them are going in a video (yes, I actually filmed the session! So it'll be a vid! Wooooo) I'll just discuss them in that format. Those sessions, though, got me thinking about PTR. Not sure exactly why (I like their hand replayer) but I decided to look at my page. (Hadn't in a while) Anyway, this was good for a laugh: (Yes, I picked full ring specifically because of how outlandish the %s are)



That's generally the story w/ the various stakes they have tracked for me, that I get an "F" for both preflop looseness + aggressiveness. I dunno, it's served me OK so far.

Finally: My trip to London was (obviously) postponed. The people at Expert Holdem lost their website (over some issues, technical, that I'm not fully sure exactly what happened) and when that happened, so did our contact. So I was supposed to fly last week/be there, but that fell through because we couldn't confirm plans. Since I'll be in Vegas soon (2.5 weeks as a matter of fact! Wowza!) I'm likely going to be in London at the end of June. http://www.expertholdem.com/
Filming more DVDs.

Also, there is only 1 more group coaching meet up. It's kinda staggered to the finish line, so to speak, but I'm glad we're finishing up before Vegas. That's all for now!

Wow. I haven't blogged in forever. And a bunch of things have actually happened, mainly friends staying at my house. I also have a few random stories. But, they seem to be not important at the moment. The purpose of this blog is that finally - yes, finally - I have the Vegas summer house issues settled. The whole ordeal was a minor fiasco (I could post the emails back and forth, but I'll leave that alone for now. Maybe later) but the fruit of it is:

http://www.vrbo.com/97312

Only will be in Vegas for 6 weeks, not 2 months, but should be good fun either way. The people in the house will be Alex, JC, Travis, Ryan, Isura, and Adam. I think. Hopefully I'm not forgetting anyone. (Tri, and one of Alex's friends named Jeff, may make a cameo too)

Alright. I just woke up, strangely (well, I went downstairs to eat breakfast) but I figured I'd get my thoughts out. I probably will leave Mohegan Sun shortly, but I don't want to get caught in traffic, which I imagine will be bad for another hour or so. For those who just want cliffs notes: I busted at the end of day 1. And, "Better" was stuck in my head for the entire day. I literally hummed it to myself 40 times. Maybe 40.

*So, I actually didn't type this up until tonight. (now) I intended on leaving to go home, but got sidetracked in Mohegan Sun stuff. Will likely head home soon tho...

I recorded pertinent hands on my bberry - I hadn't been compulsive about live hands in a while, so this is a nice change. Pretty much any relevant (and some not so relevant hands) I wrote down, so here's hoping less than 24 hours removed I can remember the action, too.

I woke up Tuesday, April 6th, sometime in the early afternoon. I know I had some things to do (various errands) and I think I got them done. I think. I was planning on leaving for MS that night, so I could sleep before the tournament, but I think I got trapped watching the Bos/Nyk and then Uta/Okc (great game) tivos, then ended up finishing S3 of Mad Men (I had a few episodes) and before I knew it, it was morning. So, par the course, I drove exhausted to MS, and played the event on no sleep. Sadly, this is probably why I can't play tournaments: I never sleep for them.

In any event, the big problem is they separated cash buyin players from satellite players. Generally cash players are much stronger (for obvious reasons) so the fact they split them up, (when table draw is so important) was really ridiculous. For nearly the entire day, we basically played a mini tournament on our side. That said, I thought my starting table was pretty good. I didn't recognize anyone aside from 1 player*, and there was some fishy play. (Although nothing compared to some of the hands ppl from the other room told me about...)

*2p2er Martine, Mike, was sitting at my table. Funny enough, I actually met Martine many years ago, when I first went to Turningstone. Martine is a super nice kid, very laid back, obviously very good at poker - anyway, have remained connected by means of 2p2, I suppose, but hasn't been an active friendship, so it was nice to be at the same table. Onto the hands...

Blinds started at 50-100 w. 30k stacks. I got to the tournament about 20 minutes late, but had only missed 1 orbit (150 chips, heh).
-A4cc co, I open to 350, btn makes it 850, I make it 2850 he calls. The guy seemed like the type to 1. think he should 3bet a fair amount 2. didn't want to go broke early on in the tourney 3. i didnt think he had AA, combination of card removal and some body language. 30k effective, perhaps I had a little less, but Flop came k54r, 1c, I bet 2800. He tanked for a long time before finally throwing his hand away. He kept saying he had QQ later, and I 95% believe him.

-Mp opens to 300, fish sb calls, - I call w a5dd in the bb. Flop q97 w 2h, chk through. Turn jc, chk I bet 725, fish calls. Riv 8c, chk, bet 1625, he folds showing AcX. Kinda confusing, but the pfr seemed solid, so when he checked that board with a fish, he literally is giving up, isn't just checking a marginal. (Up to this point, to explain the level of fishiness of the guy on my right - well, I was in the 1 seat, he was in the 10 seat, so he wasn't on my direct right, the dealer was, but yeah... He was cold calling 3bets, donk bet/folding, etc. Up to this point, perhaps 25 hands I witnessed, it was pretty clear to label him as awful) Against this type of person, clearly I don't want to have a bluff here, but I just think the board ran out such that even this player would be able to fold a 9.

40 mins in, made 0 hands, but was up to about 34k by virtue of those 2 bluffs.

75-150
-Utg raises to 425, I smooth QJhh in MP. Flop 886r 1h, he bet 625 call. Turn kh, bet 1125, I make it 4400, he folds kqcc faceup after tanking for a while. Conversation ensued amongst the table about whether it was the right fold, and everyone was unanimous it was a great fold and I obviously had 66. (haha, 2 people then criticized the guy who folded face up for "taking so long")

-Mp raises to 425, 2 callers, I call 23ss out of the bb ending the action. Flop q54 all spades - first legit hand! - I lead 1125 pfr calls, other 2 fold. Turn 7 I bet 3300/call. River 8o I bet 8850 he folds showing the ace of spades, and saying he had a gutshot too. I thought it was more likely he had a Q then the As, but I'm not sure how bluff happy this guy would have been had I checked. Regardless, nice to scoop it in.

-Same villain as the hand above, but this time he's in EP. He raised utg 425, so I call kqo in position. Flop akq w 2c, he cc 700. Turn blank, he cc 2100. River jc, he checks I check he has ajo. Ugh.

-Last hand before break, the fishy sb open limps, I raise 75ss to 450 he calls. Flop kj4 w 2 clubs, he bet folds 700->2150. Not a good flop air bluff spot, but I had seem him donk/fold, so I decided to pull the trigger with zero equity.

So, ~37.5k entering break.

100-200
-In the hijack or CO, one of the first hands back from break, I get the splasher (J4ss). So I opened to 525. Guy on my left called (dude who 3bet QQ/flatted the 4bet/folded Khigh board) as did the BB. Flop came 4-4-4. Yahtzeeeeeeeeeeee! Check, I bet 750, guy on my left called, other guy folded. Turn was a 5, I bet 1725, he called again. River was a 7, I bet 5100, and he called. He showed QQ (wtf, but I figured he had 88/99 which isn't too far off anyway) and pretty much bemoaned the fact I played J4ss for the duration of his tournament.

-Aqo, open from EP, same guy (on my left) reraises from 525 to 1600 even. Normally I'd throw my hand away in a 10h game/against most opponents (like a middle aged dude) but in this spot after he had just lost the pot to me, was visibly tilted/upset, and only had about 15k, I figured if he actually picked up a legit hand in this spot, good for him and he was going to get paid off. Luckily for me, flop came q74 w 2hh! I checked, he bet 3k, and I just smoothed. Turn was an offsuit J, I checked, and he bet 3.5, leaving himself about 8.5k more. I fiddled with chips for a little while and then shoved it in, I'm not really thrilled about my play here but I'm not sure what my other options are. Basically, I'm not folding, so it's a question of whether shutting him off the pot/protecting my equity is more important then giving him a chance to bluff/value shove worse. In THIS case, I wasn't sure if he would bluff off his tournament life he + there were enough semibluffs (even something like AK) that in a huge pot with only about half pot bet behind, I don't really want to shed off 7 outs or so. After he played QQ in that fashion,...

I've gone almost a month without an update; my apologies. A LOT has happened this past month, so clearly I'm omitting a lot of life details. My bad, and I'll try to pick it back up.



Throughout March, I had a lot of guests. Here are the cliffs notes of the guests:

-My dad's birthday was the 13th. He was actually up around Boston for business, so I took him out to dinner. We found a really nice restaurant and had great good; was a lot of fun.

-GKA and his gf Odessa - They stayed with me to and from their trip to Costa Rica. Would've liked to hang out with them a bit more, but oh well. Apparently they got food poisoning while there, so the day they came back they did not want to do ANYTHING. Understandable!

-My older sister Martina and 2 of her friends (Kary and Blair) - Was alright. They were visiting because they attended a friend's wedding shower. We basically just watched movies, they weren't really in a mood to go out after drinking all day, so I pretty much played the role of the host. (One of the movies we watched was the Princess Bride, which I love)

-My younger sister Amanda. It was her spring break from Oregon, and this was pretty cool. She spent 2 full days with me, and the big thing is we went bowling. (Why I used the youtube above) My friend Shane went as well, and he turned out to be the best bowler. Also played pool; I'm a much better pool player than bowler. (I'm awful at bowling, my best score was a 98, so I'm still searching for triple digits, lol. But pool I can hold my own)

-CVig (Chris) - He came up because I got courtside seats to the Kings @ Celtics. Brought an Israeli flag, since we thought we could get TV time. (Omri Casspi, obv) Cs blew the Kings out, but the Kings made it interesting in the 4th.

I also went to the Cs/Nuggets (great game, Cs smashed them) with Alex, Brendan, and Pete. Afterward went to the north end, and enjoyed some good Italian food.

My bball league ended; we made it to the semi-finals. I had been playing better each week, but had by far my worst game "when it mattered most". Plagued by foul trouble I just couldn't do ANYTHING. That said, I've started to wear a red head band, and I like it.

Some action shots of said headband playing 21 w/ Alex and a ~sorta friend named Marcy from 2 weeks ago or so: (Nice kid, just don't know him that well)



I've been playing a lot of Axis & Allies online against my friend Asa. Great game, full of strategy. We're also betting on games, and ATM I'm up a fair amount Mad Men S3 came in the mail, so I've been rolling through that... Bought a shaker, so I've been experimenting with mixing drinks. (Perhaps because of Mad Men, lol)

Sometime during the month, I broke up with Sherry. It was a pretty mutual thing, so not really hard feelings on either side. I've been on a few dates the past ~week and a half, they've been OK but nothing notable.

The NBA is heating up. A few of my bets are end-of-the-season sweats, so when the season is done (2 weeks) I'll do an overall recap.

Didn't go home for passover. I don't celebrate any of that stuff, but the truth is those sorts of events are just to see family. Instead I went to Shane's house, it was a small affair with good cooking. I brought vodka, and apparently they thought that was funny.

The Mohegan Sun NAPT has been going on; I believe the main event starts the 7th. Tomorrow I'm supposed to meet up w/ Charder and a few other people to watch the NCAA championship game. I think they're heading down to MS after that, and I'll probably follow suit and head down to CT for the main event.

Lastly, a quick story: I was driving to the gym to play basketball. I went through a speed trap zone and got pulled over (about 200 yards from the parking lot). Anyway, the whole ordeal took about 15 minutes, and when he came back to give me a ticket, he said "I'm just going to give you warning [for going 41 in a 30, lol]." Awesome, I thought! But then he said, "instead, I'm going to write you up for having a CT registration". Not having a MA registration, but having a MA license, is a 300$ ticket, so basically the dude butnahhed me. Frustrating, but if I appeal it/get my registration changed, perhaps they'll waive it. Really I would've just preferred getting the ticket, because that's going to be a lot of work. Ugh.

Oh, I've also agreed to do a 2nd DVD series w/ Expert Holdem. I fly to London next month (actually, in just under 5 weeks!) so that's pretty exciting. This DVD will focus exclusively on postflop play.