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, he is sick. I've gotten quite a bit better, but it's amazing the skill difference between someone like him and me. Apparently he and Morgan (Morgan is also very good - was a state champ or something like that a few years ago) are going to play in a Vegas chess tournament next week, so I'll go watch that. (A chess railtard)

June 5th

Drove back from LA at 2AM with Assani and Alex. Got in at 5am; I passed out the last hour in the car. Assani was very drunk. It was a fun car ride, to put it mildly. (Major topic of discussion: Religion)

Slept until 2:30 or so. There was a leggo BBQ held at Chewy's house where, well, a bunch of leggo (and non-leggo) people were there. Got some new hoodies/tshirts - they look pretty good - and hung out for a little while. I actually got a little bored (although it was nice seeing people of course) and I heavily desired to play basketball... But everyone there was drinking or just didn't really want to play. (That's what led to the idea of playing the following day)

But, a few of my Maryland friends had called me/talked with me the day before, and well, they are in Vegas right now! This is the Aaron Kaiser (manchild)/Steve/Alex/AMT group of poker players or whatnot who are all from Maryland. Aaron is hurt right now (he looks and plays exactly like Hedo Turkoglu) so it was just Steve, Alex, and me. Random basketball details probably bore most of you reading this, so I won't really spend too much time on this, but we played 4s and didn't lose a game. The passing was simply phenomenal. Steve plays like a mini-Chris Webber, I think. Best way to describe him? He operates so well out of the high and low post because he's a very willing and able passer, plus he has a solid enough shot where defenses have to stick on him. Further, he runs a great pick and roll.

*And, random "small world" note: Alex has lived in Somerville (about 5minutes from me) for the past 2 years. Did not know this at all. Further, he played in a different CAC league then me this past year. Even weirder, he's from West Hartford, so knows a few of my cousins. (His older brother or sister is friends with my cousin Lauren) I wanted to note the "small world" factor about a month ago, actually, so I may as well jot it down here. I've played basketball with a Tufts grad student named Sarah for the past 2 years. (She's friendly with Xorbie's brother/that group of friends that I know through basketball) It's the sorta thing where finally we just facebooked each other. As it turns out, she went to RPI (and is my age).

Now, I hated RPI and had a miserable freshman year there. I didn't really meet many people there - frankly it's very tough socially there - but my immediate circle was basically limited to my freshman dorm (and not even that much there since I didn't like a lot of people there) and the SAE fraternity house. (I did like them, solid/nice people) One of the FEW parties I went to was one of the early mud wrestling parties which, coincidentally, Sarah won. So, we reasoned we probably *did* meet sometime 6 (or is it 7?) years ago. And now reconnected through pickup Tufts basketball. lol.

SO! Played basketball. Went home after we ran the court a bit (really felt good, even though Friday night competition isn't the best) to shower etc. Ryan and Dub went to play poker, so it was my responsibility to pickup JC from the airport. (At 11:30) But... I didn't hear from him, even though I texted him etc., so Tri and Bill (we had spoken about going out at the leggo bbq) finally texted me about how they were going to the club "Surrender" at the Wynn. I had never been there, so I figured that would be a lot of fun!

On my way out, JC finally called me - apparently he deleted all his texts and didn't get any voicemails - that he had been waiting for a while at the airport. So I picked him up, that little dilemma solved. Travis wanted to go to the club too, so we both drove to the Wynn. I can't find any good pictures of the place, but basically it's a huge atrium. There is no roof, (I believe the Romans would call this an Impluvium) and in the middle there is an outdoor pool with lifeguard/chairs/cabanas on the outside. The action is basically shaped around the huge pools (that no one goes in, ofc) along with the VIP cabanas on the side. Very cool.

Travis and I had to pay cover (by the time we got there, the table(s) had waaay been full), and had to wait a bit, but it wasn't really an issue. I didn't drink much at all, but I recall having a few good conversations with Will (real nice guy - Aaron's housemate from Indianapolis), Chris, and Starkey. (Basically, I need to spend more time in Indiana IMO)

We both weren't there that long - an hour and a half tops? Maybe just an hour? At that time Ryan busted from cash and went home (was Alex's ride) so Travis had to pickup Alex (They were playing in the Wynn). That said, this somehow turned into Alex, Travis, Tri, and Bill wanting to go to the Rhino. I'm done with strip clubs, so I wanted them to drop me off at the Bellagio. (Mike had texted me saying there was open seating at 25-50)

They went to the Rhino; I went to play my first session of cash about a week into the summer! There were a bunch of hands that were notable (obviously), and this included a kinda drunk Martine wandering over to the table to say hello. During that time, he witnessed me put a real awful beat on a dude...
I had only been sitting for about 10 minutes or so, because I had bought in 5k but lost a pot so wasn't even 100bbs. Someone limped (8handed) and I raised AhTx to 225. He called. Flop came 9h3h2d. He c/r my 425 to 1225, I moved all in. He tanked/called with JJ. (oops) Ace on the turn, and I ship it w/ 18.7% equity.

*FWIW, after this session, I hate my play vs this specific villain because he was pretty tight and limped his ENTIRE pf range. Against an unknown, my play is MUCH better because:
-I have 2 solid bdoor draws (gives me 5+% vs a set)
-Unknowns don't c/r->call TP in this spot in a live game; that happens more often online, so I wasn't worried about something like T9 or A9
-Most unknowns raise their bigger pairs pf, obviously. THIS GUY didn't, but at the time I didn't know this. Further I have a T for a blocker vs tens... (And this guy DID limp/raise me later in the night, which makes me think he's not limp/calling all overpairs anyway)
-No 2pair possible, so basically the value range is very narrow to 99/33/22
-Most importantly, I have the Ah, so he can't have something like AJhh which dominates my ace high.
So it's very possible I get it in ahead; rarely I get it in with 5% equity when he flopped the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd nuts, and sometimes he folds if he was flatout bluffing or raise/folds a marginal weak hand like 55.



I played a bunch of other pseudo interesting hands, and I actually (gasp!) got sucked out on in a pot (I still ran above EV thanks to the ATo hand obv). But the game was fantastic because the "good" players that were in that game are all the tight/passive variety; I didn't get 3bet at all. There were 2 pretty big fish, so every hand was me vs 1 of the fish. Perfect conditions for me. *I ended up leaving at around 730AM because I had a splitting headache and was VERY tired and had drank a LITTLE bit. Ended up around +12.5k.

Actually I may as well detail my "little war" vs one of the fish. He was an Italian v young guy who sat down with huge white aviator shades and a stack of bills.
1. Fran (v tight/solid player, I've played with him a few times throughout the years, but no real history) opened to 200 in EP. the Italian dude (i'll just call him TID) flats with a stack of bills. Unbeknownst to me he had a 1k chip+some black chips underneath; he was sitting on 3000 bills. (So his stack ended up being around 4.5k) I had about 12k or so at this point. AJo in the BB, normally I wouldn't really rr here ever for "value" vs Fran (it's never a value raise there) but since TID was in the pot, I can expand my squeeze range to basically hands that play very well all in and try to reisolate vs him, all the while pushing Fran out often. I will say I didn't realize TID was 100bbs; I thought he was only 60bbs, so vs a range that just flats an open AJo functions v well all in. Anyway, I make it 800, Fran thinks and folds, TID flats. Flop comes J9xr, I check, and TID over ships. I insta call, and he has KQo. He spiked (to his credit, he has more then 1/3rd pot equity - around 37% actually) so it's really not that bad.
2. TID opened from EP to 200, guy called on my right and I called in the CO with 86cc. He was sitting on about 9k at this point and I had a little more. Flop came 933cc, he led out for 450, guy on my right called, so I overcalled. Turn was the Tc, and he bet 1500. Guy on my right deliberated and folded, I called. River was a blank (6?) and he bet 1700. Uhh... I called. He showed me a flush But it was the 74cc! My 8 high flush was good. Yay!
3. Shortly after that - he was playing a very up and down game to put it mildly because his stack was somehow down to only 5.3k or so when this hand came up - I opened T8cc in EP to 200, got flatted in MP by fish #1 and TID in the blind. Flop came K83 w/ 2h no c, checked through. Turn T putting up a 2nd diamond, checked to me, I bet 425. TID c/r to 950. I shoved, he called, and had KTo. Hmm, very gross. It ended up being 3,2k more or so.
4. The cooler of the day, maybe, or "coup de grâce" was a few limps, I overlimped 22, and folded to his BB. He made it 300 total, the limpers folded (lol?) and I called. HU, flop Q92r. He bet 450, I called. Turn was a 6, he bet 1300, I called. River Q, he shoved for 7k (yes, overshoved) and I snapped. I won that hand.
5. He had rebought and was just under 5k. I was going to leave before I stacked him actually, but once I stacked him and he rebought, it's poor etiquette to hit and run. (Even though my head was ringing hardcore) Anyway, I opened AQo from MP to 200, got flatted by the button (or CO) by "Scott" (think that was his name - solid/nitty live pro maybe? who is very very good at mixed games apparently - he didn't do anything stupid in the game, but nothing special either) and TID made it 1025 out of the BB. Scott covered me actually - I had 15k or so - so I had a lot of options. In retrospect, 4betting is the play here, but I decided to flat, thinking it would be headsup on a lot of flops so I could just get it in vs the wild man. But Scott came along, so maybe that was for the best.
Flop was TT9 w/2 diamonds (I had none) and TID insta shoved. Ugh... This was my one "mistake" of the night. I can blame it on the headache, or having played for several hours, or whatever, but I folded my hand. Scott mucked pretty quickly - TID showed 72dd. It's a call. Boo.

Since I'm posting this ~3+ days after the actual session, I'm omitting several other "key" hands, but those were the big pots of the night.

My taxi ride back home was awful. The guy got lost. He kept wanting to talk about his ex-wife who got into crystal meth. It was friendly banter - he was from Massachusetts and had somewhat recently moved to Vegas (which is when the wife problems started) but I was exhausted and had a migraine. He shut off the meter about 15 mins in the ride when we got lost, so it wasn't an expensive cab ride. It was just the situation where he was enjoying the conversation (I was... at first. then it was ringing in my ears painfully) but I was thrilled to just get home, shower, and goto bed.

The trip to LA!...

June 3rd/4th

We woke up June 3rd, day of the game, and left around 1pm with Assani. His old car doesn't have AC (but we were handcuffed, since we couldn't borrow Isura's car and Travis hadn't rented the car that we would be splitting at this point) so, needless to say, it was a rough ride across the desert.

It was a fun ride in spite of the heat/driving conditions (I felt a little windblown, to put it mildly) in which we played a considerable amount of Lodden thinks. (For snacks/gas money - I lost) We didn't encounter traffic, so we got to Keith's house with time to spare before the game. I was able to shower, change into the Rondo jersey, and away we went to Staples center for G1!

~~

Game 1 was a disappointment. No need to remind anyone of it. Not only did Boston get thumped, but it wasn't much of a GAME. Boston led 2-0, and that was the only lead. The reffing was SO tight there was very little flow. And to top it all off, my impressions of Staples is basically it's quieter then most regular season Celtic games. Alex and I felt people go literally to just say "I went to game 1". Like, "Cool story bro".

We called it "Bizarro Boston" because of all the differences. Oh, and, Keith got tickets not together, so it was Alex/Me and Him/Assani on opposite sides of the section. People on his side didn't want to switch to our side because they didn't want to be further from the center of the court, and people on our side didn't want to switch because they didn't want to be in front of glass. It's the opposite of grass-is-greener!

As far as wearing Celtic green into Staples... Yeah, it very much felt like enemy territory. I had a jersey and Alex had a celtics shirt. (Both were "Rondo") We both heard about 200+ insults, and it was kinda strange. The dude in front of us, after every kobe basket, would turn and clap his hands in our faces.

My post kinda encapsulated my feelings about the game/afterward: (Posted in TZ)

Heh. So Alex and I were dejected and wanted to drive back to Vegas after the game. But we didn't! We ate sushi which was terrific. I did not lose CCR, yay. I ended up sleeping on a futon in Keith's new condo, and it wasn't that bad. A little hot downstairs, but perfectly comfortable.

The following day, woke up pretty late. 2? 2:30? We got breakfast at a nearby cafe (the same cafe I had eaten w/ Asa and Assani when I was in LA for the commerce stuff after the long A&A session) and then when Keith went to soundcheck, Assani, Alex, and me went to play bball. (Of course, every 3rd paragraph in my blog is about basketball!...)

Keith's band, the Robotanists, are actually pretty great. They were playing in a place called "spaceland". This was my first taste of an LA Hipster concert. The band that warmed up before Keith wasn't that great, but they weren't bad either. Robotanists were awesome. Here's a picture taken by kbfc of Assani/me doing the classic "The Assani Fisher" (double fisting vodka crans)


We stayed later then I wanted (wanted to hit the road before 1, didn't want to be in the Vegas desert when it got light) because Assani's ex-gf named Kristen met up with him there. She was pretty cool - hung out with her for a while. I also got to meet Keith's bandmates. And played some pool at spaceland. (They have 1 table, which is kinda out of place)

Anyway, that's the past week! I'll update the house goal stuff once I figure out what everyone is. I think we're waaaay ahead of pace right now. But I'm not sure.