Hey guys, I'm about to pack up and head out for Vegas. I have a 7am flight, so I don't have to get up at 4:30 because that won't happen. I'm going to Detroit tonight to play all night at one of their casinos. This will be probably the last hour I'm online before I get to the airport in the morning, so I'm updating this thing now because I plan on sleeping at the airport.

We arrive in Vegas at 8:30am, and are staying at the Venetian. I'll probably be playing poker a lot, but am definitely down to get dinner or see a show with anyone that lives out there or is visiting out there. Any advice for shows to see while we're there? I wanna see something breathtaking that will give a lasting memory of the city.

I don't really have too much else to ask/say, so I'll just cut this off now, but I'll have wireless in my suite so I'll update with pictures and stuff when I can.

GL at the tables!

Trevor

I leave for Vegas on January 4th! I have to get up at like 5:30am, but it will be worth it hopefully. 5 of my friends from BG are going and we're meeting up with PJo336 and Kaz2107 (both from the South Carolina trip). We're staying in the Medici Concierge suite at the Venetian and got the poker rate for $120/night when it runs at like $300 normally.

Hopefully it goes better than last time, I'll try to keep the blog updated during the trip since we have free wireless this time, as opposed to at Harrah's last time when the wireless cost like $15/day and rarely worked.

If anyone will be in Vegas or lives in Vegas, I'm looking for $5k cash for FTP/Stars money. I can't get a bank wire fast enough to get extra. Let me know please!

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PS - Jan. 4th will be good for another reason too, my first video with Leggo gets released! So look forward for that, I really feel like it was a good video, and am excited to hear all the comments on it.

I'm done for the year because I'm hanging out with my girlfriend tomorrow, so without further adieu, my 2008 results:




+$2500 in PLO.
+$27k for 6th place in an HPT Greektown event.
+$13k in rakeback.
-$13k or so in staking.

Approximately $153k for the year.


My goal for the year was $100k. I'm super happy.

Goals for 2009:
Learn PLO well enough to beat 5/10
Play a bunch of hands at HSNL, and get to be a 25/50 regular
$300k profits
Get better at staking and selling pieces

Reminiscing on my poker career lately has been quite fun. I've had bits and pieces of my poker story thrown around places, and maybe I'll do a lesser version of sauce's poker story, but it'd be a huge letdown. Here's the cliffnotes of everything that's happened since a year ago.

- October 2007: I was so broke and bad at poker that I needed a stake/coach for nl100. I had grinded out a few dollars at uNL but was horrible at this game and tilted like crazy.
- February 2008: Ended stake, was breakeven or marginally winning at nl200.
- April 2008: Got 17th in the Sunday Million for $6k, got coaching from Terp and took nl400 shots. They went pretty well.
- May 2008: Got coaching from mynameizgreg, learned how to play poker.
- June 2008: Worst downswing in terms of my mental game.. Dropped $7k of my $11k roll in a mixture of nl200 and nl400, couldn't book a winning session, couldn't stop losing.
- July 2008: Had $3500 in my bankroll, 12-tabled nl100 on a mixture of desperation and Adderall. Played 76k hands and kinda robustoed my roll as seen here:


- August 2008: Took shots at nl400, went to the Empire State Holdem Championship at Turning Stone and took a few nl600 and nl1000 shots and ran like god. Had my first $10k day and won $20k in the last 3 days at TS.


- September 2008: I broke pretty much even, won like $4500, mostly at 3/6.. lost money at 200, 400 and 2000, broke even at 1000.
- October 2008: Final tabled a Heartland Poker Tour event for $27k, and won like $12k online. Didn't put in much volume at all.
- November 2008: Had the biggest monetary downswing of my career, when I took a nl2000 shot again and dropped $15k at the end of the month. Ran really hot in all other stakes.


-December 2008: So far I'm up $32k this month, and need to play a bit tomorrow yet. I'm closing in on $150k for the year, and I'm not entirely sure how close I am, but I know it's achievable with a good win (~$5k) tomorrow, so I'm putting one last day in before ending the year.


I mostly wrote this because I couldn't sleep, but also to help some of the micro and small stake grinders that are playing right now.. I don't think I have any special talents that have made me succeed, but I put in a lot of work studying the game and went from a struggling nl50 player to beating nl1000 pretty well in just under a year (technically 6 months since I was at nl100 in July). Good luck to everyone, and may we all prosper in 2009.

I said in my blog earlier today that the fish will be there tomorrow and not to grind today.. while I took alllllll the monies!



Merry Christmas to me, back to a decent profit for the month!

I need something to help increase my volume per month, it's been slacking recently.


Edit - played a little bit more, won a little bit more. Ship my best non-tournament day ever I think!

I haven't posted lately because I've been busy with Christmas stuff for the family and have been hanging out with Alyssa since she's home from school. I figured out that my HM hands total was wrong and I had 21k hands instead of 11k and that made me feel a bit better about my work ethic. I got my new mouse in the mail earlier this week and love it.

Went to the lights at the Columbus Zoo and there were more animals than at the Toledo Zoo but the lights weren't as good. Other than that I haven't done a whole lot I don't think. I got a 4-piece luggage set from my mom for my Vegas trip, and Alyssa got me a Fred Taylor jersey that's on back order, so I can't wait to get that.

Update on poker: 25k hands, +$12.5k (after dropping $8k in my last session )

Enjoy your holidays everyone, remember that the fish will be there tomorrow, there's no need to grind on Christmas.

I have a dog because she chews up all of my belongings, and wonders why I get frustrated when I find the remains.
I have a dog because I love chasing her when she sneaks out the front door when one of my roommates or my girlfriend leaves the door open too long.
I have a dog because I don't like sleep, I like staying up with her while she whines and barks at every big truck, ambulance or train that drives by my house.
I have a dog because I like spending the ~$300 a month on food and belongings and vet visits and everything else.
I have a dog because I like being stuck at home all night, every night because she can't stay here by herself without chewing everything up.

Despite all this, I have a dog because I love her.

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Brought to you by this insomniac that can't sleep.. because there are ambulances, big trucks and trains that drive by all night.

P.S. - Using a touchpad to grind because Chloe chewed the cord off of my mouse.

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Some fun hands from my 300 hand touchpad session since this blog sucks:

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HAND #1
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$5/$10 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BB: $2,042
Hero (SB): $2,389

Pre-Flop: 8 7 dealt to Hero (SB)
Hero raises to $30, BB raises to $125, Hero calls $95

Flop: ($250) T T 3 (2 Players)
BB bets $175, Hero calls $175

Turn: ($600) 5 (2 Players)
BB bets $450, Hero raises to $2,089 and is All-In, BB folds

Results: $1,500 Pot
Hero showed 8 7 and WON $3,138 (+$2,388 NET)




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HAND #2
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$5/$10 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BB: $815.95
UTG: $1,576
CO: $2,386
BTN: $835.50
Hero (SB): $5,173.50

Pre-Flop: J Q dealt to Hero (SB)
2 folds, BTN raises to $35, Hero calls $30, BB folds

Flop: ($80) 4 T 7 (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $55, Hero calls $55

Turn: ($190) 2 (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $135, Hero raises to $780, BTN folds

Results: $460 Pot
Hero showed J Q and WON $1,102 (+$877 NET)



And a not so fun hand..

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HAND #3
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$5/$10 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BB: $1,221
Hero (SB): $2,000

Pre-Flop: A 8 dealt to Hero (SB)
Hero raises to $30, BB calls $20

Flop: ($60) 7 2 8 (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets $45, BB raises to $145, Hero calls $100

Turn: ($350) 2 (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets $210, BB raises to $600, Hero raises to $1,825 and is All-In, BB calls $446 and is All-In

River: ($2,442) 9 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $2,442 Pot
BB showed T 9 and WON $2,441 (+$1,220 NET)
Hero showed A 8 and WON $779 (-$442 NET)

So I was driving to Toledo tonight with Alyssa to get Christmas presents for my family. I got onto I75 and saw a cop in the median, but he didn't have his radar on and I was going the speed limit anyways. I drive by him and see him pull out soon after we pass. He speeds up and gets behind me and pulls me over and I'm like "lol wut" cause I wasn't doing anything wrong. Turns out he pulled me over because I don't have a front license plate, and because he was checking out my car, he saw that I didn't have one.

As he brought my license and registration back to the car, he says "This is a nice car, my sister-in-law has one and it's probably the fastest car I've ever driven." I lol'ed, he just gave me a vehicle defect warning and isn't making me verify that I got it fixed, but he wouldn't have even pulled me over if he wasn't in love with my car. Oh well, at least he liked it.

So, in the last month, I've began to notice a lot of things. Nature is trying its hardest to get my ex and I back together. Now before you say "lolz you're just thinking that cause you miss her".. hear me out.

I went on a road trip in the early part of last month because I was pissed at this area of the country. On the way to Maryland, I texted Alyssa when I passed her town on the freeway and we talked for a bit and decided that I could come to see her on my way back into the state for like an hour or whatever just to see how things have been. We hadn't talked in months prior to that, but she had just re-added me on myspace/facebook probably 4-5 days prior. So we have an hour meeting planned, fun times!

My road trip turns out to be utter hell. Everything that could go wrong, did. I got my life threatened twice, I woke up to my best friend having sex in the next bed in our hotel room, I didn't get laid at a huge party, and just every small thing went wrong. When I say everything went wrong, that also includes running into a snowstorm about 5 minutes outside of Akron (where Alyssa lives). This being my first time in a RWD car in a snowstorm (seriously though, it was a whiteout), I slid off the road while trying to get to the offramp. I mean, the snowstorm could've been bad at any time in the mountains, but no, it had to wait until I was right outside of Akron. So I called Alyssa, and she came to wait with me while the tow truck came to get my car out of the ditch - there was no damage to me or the car - and we went back to her place after we got the car free.

So we hung out that night, and because the snow was so bad, I ended up staying the night. Nothing happened since she had a boyfriend at the time, but just sleeping next to her felt amazing. So to recap so far, ex-girlfriend randomly starts talking to me again, I say we should get dinner when I come back in the state, life turns to ****, and weather forces me to stay at my ex's for the night.

If that's not enough, everything that we do when we're together is extremely lucky. Like, here's the basis of what happens, described by our last trip to Walgreen's. I was thirsty and she didn't have any Mt Dew and the only thing they had was Pepsi, and that messes up my stomach.. so we go to Walgreen's. They have 12 packs of every drink but they're sold out of Mt Dew. So I get four 20oz bottles. We open the first two while we eat our KFC, I win a free 20oz, and she gets 15% off of NFLShop.com. Later that night, I got another drink... free 20oz. So we're 3/3 on not getting a "team cap" or whatever. The next afternoon as I'm packing up my car, I forget that I have a Mt Dew still left, and we run back in and grab it. I open it... free 20oz. So, we're supposed to win a free 20oz 1 in 8 times, and we went 3 for 3 last night AFTER seeing that Walgreen's ran out of 12 packs.

Like, it just seems so weird that everything bad happened to have our one-hour-long meeting turn into an all-night sleepover, and then to have everything go above expectation (to use sort of a poker term because I can't think of anything else) when we're together. It seems almost like fate, ya know?

Poker's been swingy and dumb this month, so I'm not blogging about that right now.. but life is fun

(My "k" key is busted so if I have words without k's, fuc off)

This is going to be half-assed because I don't remember hardly anything from Friday-Saturday, but the party was sick good. So many people there and the Santa outfit was a huge hit. Met a bunch of new people and had a good time.


(From L to R: Zak, Wade [dawade], me)

Saturday we went to Ryan's Steakhouse and it was pretty good. The service sucked but it was nice to have a good steak and stuff. Saturday night was more of the party.

Sunday was the recovering day. Slept til 2:30ish, got Applebee's "Carside to go" while we grinded the Sunday tournaments. They were a big mess and included me getting KK < AK in like every one. Sunday night we didn't really do much either, I don't really remember. I stayed up all night grinding so I could sleep on my 4:30pm flight.. good idea. NOTTTT.

Monday, we left Zak's house at 10:30am to head to Greenville to take Justin to the airport for his 12:30 flight. I got extremely carsick, and we ate at this place called Five Guys, some burger place, and I had like half of my small order of fries and couldn't eat the rest. We went to the mall after that, and I decided that I absolutely *needed* a watch. We looked at every jeweler and decided on a TAG Aquaracer. Here's a quick picture of it with my cameraphone, sorry for the bad quality:



After that, I got on my flight and headed home. I drove straight to Alyssa's house and have been here since.

There are plenty of pics from the party scattered all over 2+2, but I can post some more.. here they are, randomly:


(L to R: Mike (hockeyav), Black Phil (dawade's roommate), Wade (dawade), Zak)


Peter (PJo336) lit the incense on fire.


Santa the thug.


Hockeyav and PJo.


Thac the grinder!


Wade getting pounded by Bevillthedevil after passing out.


Wade's outfit after waking up from passing out.


Justin (LetMeLive) with all of our Wal-Mart essentials for the party - Mt Dew, Hawaiian Punch, and an assload of Christmas lights.


Bevill on my lap.


There are pictures of a lesbian 3some makeout session, but they're all on Justin's camera so I'll try to get those when he gets them online.