You know I'm online way too much when I get satisfaction out of emptying the Spam folder of my Inbox. Went to a home tourney down in Pleasanton, a kid who I thought I went to school with (but found out we don't) has been running tourneys for the past few weeks. A friend was going down there so I tagged along for the $25 buy-in. They have a website, East Bay Poker, and it says there that they are "a non-profit organization... We return 100% of the collected money in terms of poker chips, cards, poker tables, and freeroll tournaments." There were 32 players, so that makes $800 ($25 X 32), but the payouts were as follows: 1st-$298, 2nd-$119, 3rd-$89, 4th-$60, 5th-$30. Add that up, it equals $600, unless my brain is broken. So where the fuck did $200 go?!? We were trying to figure this out as we drove away and actually thought about it all. I had brought down a PokerPadz mousepad as a bonus for the 1st place finisher since I had thought the kid was part of the school poker club I created (and have subsequently done crapola for); after figuring out this discrepancy, I sure wish I had taken it back. Had fun though. It was mostly young kids, as we were definitely the oldest there. 9th place when I went all-in w/QQ UTG, JJ called behind, AK raised all-in over the top, and KK called from the SB. JJ made a straight on the river. Two things that this tourney brought to my attention-1. I am a ton better at restraining emotion after getting beat, ie. shrugging it off and moving on, and 2. I have gotten a ton better at playing post-flop. I offered some friends a piece of my World Series attempt and have gotten as much as 45% offered to be staked. Never thought I would honestly get that much (or even any really), so it feels good knowing that some of them have faith in me as well. Or they're just degenerate gamblers like myself. I think 30% will be the cut-off on my action. But nothing would be more satisfying than to be able to hand those who "invested" a nice little return, you know what I mean? Last game at Checkpoint Charlie's tonight before Vegas, so I can get a few days rest before my trip. Michael says he's gonna come cross the Bay for the game and another FCPer, Matt, lives right here in town and may come also...

$20 X 93=$372 for me!

JJ snaps AA by spiking a Jack on the flop to propel me to the top 10 for the duration of the entire tourney pretty much. Another Glenn Chervin on the flop, with a pair of sixes to boot. 77 calls a short-stack's all-in and their QT gets a T on the turn when we're under 20. Down to 12 and it's folded around to me in the BB w/QQ-argh. AA-I min. raise on the button, no action. Grrrrr. Start playing a little too tight. AK takes the blinds. 83 flops 2 pair and my trap attempt almost backfires when a 4-flush hits the river. My Aces hold vs ATs (even with a scary-looking inside straight draw on the flop)! 3s have to make a value call but 9s win. 6s double me up, with a set on the river even. AK, no action. QQ loses a big one to AJs. This makes up for losing all my earlier profits back on a $1 table when I flop top pair, big kicker but opponent flops set. 46 flops a wrap draw and calls in position, 3 RIVER!

$372 for 2nd. I'm going to bed.

I love snapping Aces...

...with a 46.

NO_LIMIT TEXAS_HOLDEM $5+$1 (Real Money), #717,499,786
5+0.5 NL Holdem Multi Table Tournament, 14 Jul 2006 5:53 AM ET
Seat 1: Mr.Edman ($2,390 in chips)
Seat 2: XX44466XX ($1,380 in chips)
Seat 3: xUGLYTUCOx ($1,060 in chips)
Seat 4: Grambo2 ($1,240 in chips)
Seat 5: Troymahn ($1,460 in chips)
Seat 6: slottet8 ($1,170 in chips)
Seat 8: cbaden ($1,450 in chips)
Seat 9: Stian-H ($1,460 in chips)
Seat 10: paavo13 ($3,390 in chips)
ANTES/BLINDS
Stian-H posts blind ($10), paavo13 posts blind ($20).

PRE-FLOP
Mr.Edman calls $20, XX44466XX calls $20, xUGLYTUCOx calls $20, Grambo2 calls $20, Troymahn folds, slottet8 folds, cbaden folds, Stian-H calls $10, paavo13 checks.

FLOP [board cards QD,10H,4D ]
Stian-H checks, paavo13 checks, Mr.Edman bets $80, XX44466XX calls $80, xUGLYTUCOx calls $80, Grambo2 calls $80, Stian-H folds, paavo13 calls $80.

TURN [board cards QD,10H,4D,4S ]
paavo13 checks, Mr.Edman bets $200, XX44466XX calls $200, xUGLYTUCOx bets $960 and is all-in, Grambo2 folds, paavo13 folds, Mr.Edman calls $760, XX44466XX bets $1,080 and is all-in, Mr.Edman calls $320.

RIVER [board cards QD,10H,4D,4S,10S ]


SHOWDOWN
XX44466XX shows [ 6H,4H ]
xUGLYTUCOx shows [ KD,9D ]
Mr.Edman shows [ AH,AC ]
XX44466XX wins $640, XX44466XX wins $3,400.
SUMMARY
Dealer: cbaden
Pot: $4,040
Mr.Edman, loses $1,380
XX44466XX, bets $1,380, collects $4,040, net $2,660
xUGLYTUCOx, loses $1,060
Grambo2, loses $100
Troymahn, loses $0
slottet8, loses $0
cbaden, loses $0
Stian-H, loses $20
paavo13, loses $100

BWAHAHAHA! The 46 is taking the WSOP by storm bitches!!!

Slept for 15 hours straight. Mmm, good. Got repeatedly screwed in a $5 re-buy WSOP tourney. At least I made back 80 BB @ the 50 cent NL table and 30 BB on the $1 table. Plus I cleared a $40 bonus. Nothing but Vegas on the brain. Matt called from FCP and he's gonna hook me up with one of those sweet long-sleeve button-downs for my event. You the man Matt! Anybody want a piece of my WSOP action?

Edit: I almost lost the 30 BB on the $1 table until I turned the nut straight w/a 46 vs a set! WOOHOO! And I got a Glenn Chervin earlier!

Did something I haven't done in ages this morning: lit the wrong end of a cigarette. I was driving, it was real early, I hadn't slept at all that night-but it wasn't dark. Oops. That, combined with being one of the first donk-outs in the Neg-O again this week, is the worst thing that's happened to me today. So I guess you could say life is good. I've decided to play the $2K NL HE in the WSOP on the 21st. I'd like to satellite in if possible for $225 but we'll see how that goes. My plan is to play under the FCP banner. I'm a little nervous and a lot excited. 1 week from now I will be boarding a plane, next stop, Sin City...

Jiddy

Aka 5 Card Draw 10s Wild. The game originated way back when we first started playing at the house I think, the very first time it was played was between Jiddy & I; he had quad Jacks, I had 4 Aces, he was very unhappy to say the least, thereby naming the game in his honor. It's become somewhat of a House classic and last night we played it 3 times. I had AA and picked up 2 Ts the first one, Spence hit quad As the 2nd, and the third I kept AT and got 2 more Aces on the draw!?!

Spence & I ended up killing the table tonight. Made some big hands and only a few mistakes. Stuart-welcome back. Mateen-slow down. Blackjack was not your ally tonight B. Steve-you're a trooper, your win is coming. Vegas is a only a mere week away!!! Saw Dead Man's Chest-2 thumbs up.

Golf With Daniel Qualifier

43 entrants, top 3 get a seat in a freeroll with a prize of a golf weekend with Negreanu (funny when my friend called him Negeanru earlier today) in Vegas, top 10 get an autographed FCP hat.

Premium hands (AA back to back for example) propel me to the FT, AA right off the bat eliminates AQ on a Q high flop. Then luck, or divine intervention, or Bob, but something helped get me $172 off the $11 entry fee, as I was in 3rd with under 10K while #1 and #2 each had over 20K, then I river higher 2 pairs like 3 times. The AK v 55, flop KKK, between #1 and #2 helped also. The winner: K7 v 47, 4 on the flop, 4 on the river. Theresa-thanks for railing too BTW! (My teammate from the H/U league and friend from FCP, she also has a blog with other links too) Funny thing about the match too, I was 15 minutes late and lost almost 100 to blinds before I sat down because I was thinking 9PM PST not EST!

FCP WSOP Fantasy Pool, 130th out of 472 after 12 events with 2888 points.

Justin Pechie finished 3rd for $206,207 in Event #13 after he got it all to the center before the flop w/66 and his opponent showed 88. Both flopped sets, the case 8 also falling on the river! Congrats Looshle!!!

Riders Out Of It

Chris lost to Zimmer today, sliding us down to 5-7. Thieves and Cigars both lost as well but still are tied at 7-5. Broccoli is 4-7 going into this week. No chance for the playoffs but at least we get to participate in the perfect attendance tourney as well as maintain eligibility for next season (as long as we don't miss one of our last 3 matches). Italy beat Francois in PKs to take the 2006 Cup!

Started off slow and went on a huge run at the end of the game, ending up regaining 5/6ths of my tilt-off from last time. Sweeeet. Chris faces off against Zimmer today in Week 12. 10 days till Vegas baby...