Yo

Hey y'all. If you're still reading this, you're really dedicated. Bless you, child.

I'm in London for the European World Series of Poker, or E-WSOP for short. This is the biggest buy-in that I've ever played and might be the toughest field that I've ever played against. I start tomorrow and at my table are two tough Scandinavian pros, a very good 2+2er that I spent all day with today, and 4 other players that look pretty good. One of the Scandinavians is Patrik Antonius, arguably the best player in the world. The other is Lars Bonding, a successful tourney pro that is known for being very aggressive. Sadly, he's in seat 8 and I'm in seat 7 so I might be playing pretty tight for a while. Anyway, the best updates can be found at these two websites:

http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/2007-wsop-europe/wsope-main-event/
http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/

They might actually be running the same updates but if not, definitely go with PokerNews. They employ Pauly and Change100, two of the best tournament reporters out there and they'll definitely be on top of everything. Wish me luck!

In sports news, the Mariners have imploded. There's still time to turn things around but it looks really bleak. However, IT'S FOOTBALL SEASON!!! There won't be many Mondays where I can post after TWO big wins from my teams in Seattle so I have to take advantage of it this week. Boise State 14-game win streak? OVER. GO DAWGS!!! Obviously the Seahawks won and it's nice to get a good game out of Shaun. I love Mr. Hasselbeck and I know he'll be good so if the run game holds up its end, I think we're going to be good this year. Go. Hawks.

Soon, I'll put up a better post about traveling and whatnot but I'm going to bed for now. Holla.

Deep

I made it pretty far in the $5K NL on Wednesday, busting a little before midnight. It was my second straight long say and I woke up on Thursday morning feeling like crap. I decided to skip the $5K Bellagio event and hang out at the house, recharging my batteries. Evidently it worked since I made Day 2 of the $2K NL. I'm 5th in chips out of the remaining 130 players and we restart today at 3 PM. I have 151,200 chips and the blinds are at 1K/2K with a 300 ante. Pokernews.com is the best place for updates. Pauly is doing the love updates and he'll definitely be on the ball. Here's an article about the tournament thus far: http://tinyurl.com/2hnze8

As you can see, the jafro is making a comeback. If I make a final table I think I'm going to have to pull out the weedwacker and get it trimmed down a bit. Anyway, send your good vibes and I'm confident that I can make this final table. Holla.

HOLLA!!!!

Step 1: Post a blog entry bitching about running bad.
Step 2: Run good in the next tournament you enter.
Step 3: Profit!

I won my first table today in the 1500 NL Shootout. The 90 winners come back at 9 PM for the second round and the 9 winners of those tables advance to the final table tomorrow. 90th through 10th places all get $6,757, 9th gets $9,828 and the eventual winner gets $264,107. Tournaments are so ridiculous.

Anyway, it feels good to cash but I'm obviously not totally satisfied with the result. The best place to check for updates on round two is PokerNews.com and we'll be starting at 9 PM. Wish me luck!

Blech

29,000 chips at the dinner break. We'll have about 30 minutes left in the 300/600 level when we come back at 9 PM. My table is easily the toughest that I've ever been at in my life. Let's try to pick up some hands, eh?

Runnin' Good

35,650 at the second break. Had a nice suckout for a 24K pot. My table is pretty tough...good loose players on my left with a lot of chips. I'm playing pretty tight and hopefully I'll find a hand to win a big pot off these mofos. David Benyamine is the only name at the table but everyone seems pretty good. Peace.

5,000 NL

right around 20K at the first break. last hand I defended my SB to a LP 325 raise with 77 and check-called his 450 flop bet on a 422 flop. the turn was a 7, a decent card for my hand. I led for 1100, he raised, and we got the rest of his 9K in there. AA no good, sir. Let's hope I keep turning sets against overpairs. Holla.

break time

I have 57,000 at the break. There are 7 left so the average is around 43,000. I don't think I'm playing very well and I think I could be at 80K if I were playing perfectly. I'm going to come back more focused and hopefully take this one down. Erick Lindgren and Nam Le's brother seem to be the only tough spots at the table. wish me luck.

Running Good

I have 13,775 at the first break. 7 left and everyone else has between 1000 and 3500. blinds are going up to 100/200 so I think I'm a decent favorite to win this table. Wish me luck.

WSOP

Yes, I know. It seems like half of my bog entries start with some sort of apology for not blogging very much.

Poker has gone pretty poorly so far and I haven't had much to write home about. I've entered 7 tournaments and have cashed zero times. I've made exactly one dinner break and failed to ever get above my starting stack in a whopping five out of seven tourneys. It's been pretty gross. I think I'm playing well and I'm getting better every day so I'm not panicking yet. The weird thing about tournaments is that I can go deep in just 1 of 25 and still make a lot of money. Anyway, I took the weekend off and came in to today planning on playing really good and breaking the slump. It wasn't to be but I'm planning on typing up reports of my tourneys from now on to make sure that I'm not leaking too badly. Here's my write-up for today:

First hand of the tournament. MP limps, I limp on the button with J9o, SB completes and BB checks. Flop is KQT with 2 spades, MP bets 100, I raise to 350 and he calls pretty quickly. Turn is an offsuit 6 and he check-calls a 775 bet into the 900 chip pot. The river is the 2s and he leads for 1000. I call pretty fast, deciding that I'm never ever finding a fold and he obviously has A2ss for the nuts. One hand and I'm down to 2825 chips.

I splash around for a bit and chip back up to almost 5000 chips. Memorable hands include:

I raise QJs to 150 in EP. Annie Duke calls, as do the button and BB. KJJ flop and I bet 400. Annie calls very quickly and the others fold. The turn is a brick and I bet 1000, leaving myself with about 1600 behind. She thinks for a few seconds then folds. I feel like 800 may have been a better amount but I don't really like checking.

I raise to 150 with 55 in EP and both blinds call. The flop is Q86, I bet 350 and only the BB calls. The turn is a 3, the BB checks and I bet 1000 chips. He asks how much I have left, about 2200, dwells for a bit, then folds.

Blinds up to 50/100. UTG+1 limps, I raise to 400 in MP with AJo, guy directly to my left coldcalls the raise and the SB makes it 1150 total. UTG+1 thinks for a while then calls 1050 more. I fold and the guy behind me calls. Flop KJJ again, SB check-calls 1K from UTG+1, turn goes check-check, then UTG+1 calls a 1K river bet. AA for BB, QQ for UTG+1. Why can't I just play bad here?

Same QQ guy limps, Bushman limps on my right, I raise to 600 with 99, 3500 behind or so. UTG calls immediately and Bushman folds. Flop is 863r, and QQ guy check-folds to my 1100 chip bet. Bush informs me that he folded 88, lol.

Now comes the second big pot of the tourney. I open in MP to 300 with red Queens. Guy to my left calls and the Laggy donk in the BB calls. The flop is JJ7 with 2 hearts, I bet 650 and the BB asks how big the bet is then calls pretty quickly. The turn is an offsuit 9, he checks and I decide to check behind. This guy is cabaple of c/ring with a heart draw or some sort of T9/89 hand and I figure I'll still get money out of his 7s on the river. The river is another J for a final board of JJ79J. He fires 1500 and I think for about 30 seconds whether or not he'd call a shove with a 7. I have 2450 behind. I decide that it's a bad spot since his most likely hands are a Jack or a missed heart draw. I call and he obviously has Jc3c.

The table breaks and I'm moved to a tight table. I fold every hand until the break and I'm down to 2200 chips. First hand back from break, loosish dude limps in MP. This is never any sort of good hand. Jeff Madsen limps on the button and I look down at A9cc in the SB. I think it's a pretty easy shove and I stick in my final 2100. Now the BB tanks for a bit and calls the 2000 more. Limper and Madsen quickly fold and I can't beat AQ. GG.

Despite the poor start, I'm actually really enjoying living in my house and having the opportunity to talk to my roommates about poker. They're all really great players and are excellent at explaining hands. Steve Billirakis won the first event of the WSOP for $538K and became the youngest bracelet winner ever at 21 years and 10 days. That'll definitely be a tough record to beat. Another roommate, Justin Bonomo, finished 4th in one of the tournaments and cashed for over $150K. There are only 4 of us playing at the WSOP so Chris Bush and I definitely hope that our turn for a 6-figure cash is coming up. The sick part about the house is that the two 19 year-olds, Ozzy and Roman, are both amazing players in their own rights and have helped me as much as anyone. I'm so ready to go deep in one of these bad boys.

I tried to figure out a schedule for every day coming up and here's what it looks like:

6/12: Event 21, 1500 NL Shootout
6/13: Event 22, 5000 NL
6/14: Bellagio Cup Event 4, 5000+180 NL
6/15: Event 25, 2000 NL
6/16: Event 27, 1500 NL
6/17: Event 28, 3000 NL
6/18: Event 30, 2500 NL/6-handed
6/19: Bellagio Cup Event 9, 2500+120 NL
6/20: Bellagio Cup Event 10, 5000+180 NL
6/21: Event 35, 1500 NL
6/22: Event 37, 2000 PL
6/23: Event 38, 1500 NL
6/24: Event 40, 1500 Mixed HE
6/25: Bellagio Cup Event 15, 1500+90 NL
6/26: Bellagio Cup Event 16, 2500+120 NL
6/27: Bellagio Cup Event 17, 5000+180 NL
6/28: Event 45, 5000 NL 6-handed
6/29: Event 47, 2000 NL
6/30: Event 49, 1500 NL
7/1: Bellagio Cup Event 21, 2500+120 NL
7/2: Event 52, 1000 NL with rebuys
7/3: Bellagio Cup Event 23, 2500+120 NL
7/4: Bellagio Cup Event 24, 5000+180 NL
7/5: Bellagio Cup Event 25, 5000+180 NL
7/6: Event 55, 10000 NL, MAIN EVENT!!!

I'm already $18K in the red and there are over $70K worth of tournaments left on this schedule. I'll probably(hopefully) make a few Day 2s and will probably(definitely) take a few days off for my sanity. Anyway, I'm going to try to blog daily from now on and I'll even post updates from my cellphone if good things are happening throughout the day. Obviously my next post will really be in a month but I feel like making outrageous promises.

Anyway, if you don't really care about poker, rest assured that I'm doing fine. I love the guys in my house and we're getting along really well. Hiring a cook was one of the best ideas that we've ever had. If you're reading this, please come and visit me soon. I usually only play from noon until 1 or 2 PM and then have the rest of the afternoon off so we'll definitely be able to kick it if you make it down here. Check out Chris' blog if you want proof of the awesomeness of what's going on down here. I was planning on writing more and possibly posting some pictures of my own but it's getting late and I'm tired. Peace.

Yeah, Yeah

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

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

1) Big Blind is t8000

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

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

Final Pot: t79600

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

2)

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

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

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

Final Pot: t93121

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

3)

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

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

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

Turn: (t305472) 8s (2 players)

River: (t305472) 6s (2 players)

Final Pot: t305472

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

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

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

First Place

First place in the AL West: Your Seattle Mariners! Let's hope that more games get canceled so that Felix can pitch every other game.

No pics of French girls from last night. The party was a lot of fun and I met a lot of really nice people. There was also a lot of good wine. We're driving back to Wiesbaden this afternoon, as soon as Cliff and Matt finish their marathon. On Monday, Julia and I are heading to Munich for the day and I'll be flying home on Tuesday! Homeward bound!

I'll answer the questions re: poker and drinking in a later blog when I have more time. Thanks for the concerns and I'll see everyone early next week!

Partaaaaaay!

We didn't leave Wiesbaden until 10 PM last night which means we rolled into Paris right around 3 AM. I drove the whole way and ate sunflower seeds to stay awake. Sunflower seeds rule.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that our hotel offered free wireless internet and, tired as I was, I hopped online for a few minutes. I started talking to my French friend, Gab, on Instant Messenger and he invited us to a big party this afternoon/evening at a friend's apartment. Apparently, the party starts around 4 in the afternoon with everyone drinking on the lawn in front of the apartment then everyone heads inside once the sun goes down. It sounds like a lot of fun and since Cliff has his marathon on Sunday, I'll be drinking enough for two. My only hope for tonight is to return with some sweet pictures of French girls doing morally questionable things. Is that too much to ask?

Belgium

Belgium, a.k.a. the 32nd country that I've visited, was never really on my "must see" list. I like Belgian beer but I didn't know much else about the place. It was my mom's idea to drive out to Bruges and Ghent and Cliff was working long hours all week so we headed out early Tuesday morning.

Our first stop was Cologne, one of my favorite cities in Europe. My mom was impressed with the cathedral but wasn't in the mood for any of the old Roman artifacts. Cologne was an important city in Roman times and there are still a bunch of cool old walls and roads right in the middle of town. We didn't spend a lot of time dawdling and after hiking to the top of the Dom's south spire we continued east into Belgium.

 

We got to Bruges around 4 PM and it was teeming with tourists. The town is really "cute" as my mom would say thousands of times over the next 24 hours. I do recommend coming here with a lady friend. Mom and I checked in to our hotel then rented bikes and tried to get away from the craziness of the city center. We spent the last hours of daylight bouncing on along on the cobblestones of a very quaint town and eventually returned to the city center once things died down. We didn't get many good pictures of the Bruges town center but you just have to believe me when I say the charm was through the roof.

 

On Wednesday morning, mom and I took off on our bikes for the coast. It was an overcast day and the ride through Belgian farmland was quite pleasant. Our bikes were horrible but I only complained about mine 75429731042720 times. The seaside reminded me of Normandy and it was pretty cold so we didn't linger for long. The ride back to Bruges was good but toward the end I really started to get sore. All told we rode about 40 Km which is about 25 miles. This weekend my brother will be running 26.2 miles in the Paris marathon. I can't even fathom the ridiculousness of that. Anyway, once we got back to town we returned the bikes and drove to the Bruges Brewery. They have a dark beer called Zot that my mom liked a lot and we bought some glasses as souvenirs. I almost bought a shirt that said "I'm Zot(Mad) About You" but the "Mad" in parentheses angered me. Again, I limited myself to a single beer so that I could drive and we made it to Ghent around 3 or 4 PM.

I liked Ghent even more than Bruges. Ghent has about 90% of the charm that Bruges has but only 10% of the tourists. The first thing we did after check-in was go to the top of the belfry for a city view.

Ghent also seemed like a nice town to party in but I never really found out. The closest I came to the party was sitting outside of the gay bar, The Out, and using their free wi-fi. The bar had a steady flow of patrons and looked like it would be a lot of fun if one were so inclined. Anyway, here are more Ghent pictures:

On Thursday we had to drive back to Wiesbaden but Cliff was working until 7 PM so we had plenty of time. I found out that the Hoegaarden brewery was only a 30 minute detour so we obviously headed there for lunch. The smoked salmon salad was delicious, as was the glass of white beer. I like Hoegaarden a lot and bought myself some of their paraphernalia including a sweet beer tie. The drive home was uneventful and my mom snoring kept me from falling asleep.

This morning I picked up Cliff's friend Julia from the airport and we went on two different walks. It got up to 80 degrees here in Wiesbaden and beer gardens seemed to spring up anywhere and everywhere there was open space. We drank a few Erdingers, not the best beer in Germany, and now Julia is passed out. We're all sitting around waiting for Cliff to get off of work so that we can drive to Paris. I think the marathon is on Sunday so tomorrow we'll do something low-key like drink 3 or 4 bottles of red wine. Peace.

P.S. BONUS PICTURE! They're just called "sprouts" in Brussels.