Alright, first off, let me say I think I played awesome. I came into the day at 24,000 in chips with the blinds being 800,1600 200ante for the first 30 minutes. I immediately started chipping my way up when I had an online player with 90k to my right. He raised on the hijack one time to 4400 and I shoved 88 for about 20k more and he was forced to fold. I worked my stack up to about 60k from winning pots without showdowns and then I lost a 30k flip when a player moved in for 12k at 1000/2000 200ante and I called in the big blind with AJ and he had A5 and turned the 5. After this pot I was back down to about 40k or so.

Now at 1k/2k blinds I definitely wanted to have more than 40-50k in chips. I was down about not having 90k (if I would of won the AJ vs A5.) I tried not to let it bother me and then this hand came up. It folded around to me in the small blind and I raised with 99 to 5200 at 1k/2k. The big blind called (I had been active all around the table so I didn’t think he would give me credit for a hand here.) The flop came Q35ss and I bet 6600. He called and then turn came the 4d. I don’t like when he calls the flop but my hand is pretty strong in this spot, considering he thinks I have nothing in my opinion, and I think he raises the flop with a Q. I check to him and he instantly bets 8k. I have about 27k total at this point and go into the tank. My feel for the situation is basically this guy doesn’t have anything, and I decide to shove in for 18k more. He folds pretty quickly and I chip up again with no showdown.

A couple hands later I am faced with a tough decision when Kirill Gerasimov makes it 5500 preflop in third position at 1k/2k and the guy next to him moves all in for 31k total. I am on the hijack and look down at JJ. The guy who moved in moved in pretty fast and had been moving in a couple times but I didn’t think he would do this really weak. If I called his all in I would be left with about 25k or 20k. So basically it was a huge call/shove if I was going to play the hand I had to be absolutely sure I wasn’t crushed. Well, since I wasn’t sure, I decided to muck. It got back to Kirill after I thought for a couple minutes and he thought and mucked a smaller pair. The guy went to muck and flashed an ace that Kirill saw. Its most likely this guy had AQ or AK but he might of had Aces as well. I’ll never know and I don’t care.

I get moved to a new table and the table seems alright. I sit around and watch for an orbit or so and realize its a pretty easy table. I open a couple pots and then this hand comes up. UTG Raises to 9k at 1500/3k (this is the first hand this guy has played in a couple orbits) and I look down at QQ on the button. I think about it for a while and no way I can ever fold here or just call, so I shove all in for about 50k more. He tanks it with AQ and mucks.

Just a couple hands later an online player shoved in 23k in 3rd position and it got to me in 6th position and I looked down at ATdd. I thought about it for a while, and with 4 people still to act behind me, I figured this guy had to shove a lot of hands, and I decided to call. He had QTo and I won and moved up to 120k.

I get blinded down a little bit and have about 110k to start this hand where I raise to 7800 on the button with 33 (blinds 1500/3000.) The small blind thinks for a little bit and makes it 20k. It gets back to me, I ask him how much more he has, he has 71k for 91k total and I started the hand with about 105k. I have him covered by like 15k and I shove on him. He folds pretty quickly. This hand was a huge turning point for me because I went with my read and wasn’t scared to lose. I need to follow through with my instincts more because they are normally right in these situations (Like with the 99 earlier.)

I get moved to another table once again with Akat11 and g0lfa (online guys.) In my first couple of orbits I pick up AA, KK, and QQ with no action. Wow. I still have yet to cooler anyone this whole trip, like AA vs KK all in preflop. Oh well. I am about 160k at 2k/4k when the cutoff makes it 14k with 38k behind. I look down at KJo in the big blind and decide to shove on this guy. I definitely thought he could fold and I honestly didn’t think he was that strong once I asked him to count out his remaining chips. He called pretty quickly. Uht oh. I turned over my KJ and he turned over 22. Wow. How did he call? The board runs out QQ38A and he doubles up and wins about a 120k pot. I go down to about 110k after this and I was shocked that he called/I didn’t win with that flop/situation. Oh well.

Roothlus (another good online player) is then moved to the table and all three of them are on my left, ouch. I just hang around with nothing interesting and make it to the dinner break. Roothlus, Akat, and I all went to eat dinner on the dinner break at this BBQ at the Rio. We talked about some poker and just the table and how things would play out when we got back from break when the blinds went up to 3k/6k 500a. Me and Roothlus both had about 100k and Akat had 350k because he coolers the shit out of people religiously. Honestly, lol. UTG raises, he calls on button with KK, big blind shoves AKdd, UTG Reshoves QQ and Akat calls and wins a huge pot and eliminates two players to get all his chips (He plays well too =).) Anyways, we eat, Akat loses Credit card Roulette, and we go back to the tournament.

A couple hands back I raise to 14.5k on the cutoff with AJ and g0lfa shoves on me for 90k. Roothlus then reshoves in the big blind instantly. Wow. I muck and g0lfa flips over Ad9h and Rooth has AKcc. The flop comes K63dd and Roothlus is in sick shape to win a pretty big pot. The board comes running diamonds and g0lfa doubles up and sucks out nasty on roothlus. Roothlus was pretty upset, because he knows I’m not raising light there with my stack, and was pretty pissed g0lfa shoved in a9 there and sucked out obviously. Roothlus busts the next hand on a steal and now both the guys to my left have chips.

I hang around, shoving here and there, picking up zero hands and no chips. I blind down to about 80k at 4k/8k 1k ante with about 50 players left. I’m picking my spots to stay above 80k and I get down to about 60k and it folds to my sb. I look at the Ah and don’t bother looking at my other card and move all in. g0lfa shows the 3c and mucks. I look at my other card and it was the Ks, for AKo. Ouch. I wish someone would have raised.

I still have 80k in chips and we are playing 7 handed. I look down at ATo in the hijack and shove all in. It folds to the small blind and he instantly calls. Shit. There is 0 chance I am ever good here. I thought he was going to flip over QQ for sure. He turns over 88 and I’m in a great spot to double up to about 180k chips and have a shot to compete for this title. The board comes K25K6 and his 88 holds and I am knocked out in 46th place, for $11,400.

It’s really frustrating when you play really well, make a ton of correct decisions, and lose a couple flips. I don’t mind losing one flip if I win the next one. They are called coinflips for a reason, right? But oh well. You cant lose coinflips late in a tournament like that and expect to have a shot. You can lose one but you cant lose a couple if you don’t have the chips to support it. I was pretty handcuffed after I became a shortstack, because I couldn’t really splash around and chip up and the KJ vs 22 pot really hurt because that took away all my leverage.

OH WELL. OH WELL OH WELL OH WELL~!!!!!!! I am sick of being a failure, haha. Just kidding, its just the nature of tournament poker. You fail forever and then finally win.

After I busted I went to PF Changs with Stu and his mom and that was awesome. I had lettuce wraps which is by far my favorite thing there. I wanted to go out tonight but nobody really wanted to do anything so I’m just going to finish this blog and then goto sleep. Last night I went to Kaizen (sushi place) with Roothlus and his 2 friends. Stu, Hans, Rob Miz, Louie and some others met us at Kaizen and we had a lot of fun messing around and talking crap. Slowly one by one Stu, Hans, Louie, Me and others left the table and went outside and left Rob with the bill. LOL. He had absolutely no clue we were just leaving one by one and he was there alone with one of his buddies and realized we all left and he had to pay. Hahahahahahaha. It was pretty messed up what we did but Rob is the man so he wont mind.

I might play the $1500 Horse event tomorrow. I really enjoy horse but I don’t know If I will pass up playing online to play it. I’m pretty pooped from the 2k and every time I start a new tournament it seems like forever until you get deep into it. I was really hoping to make the final table but it wasn’t meant to be.

Alright, I think I’m about done writing. This blog has gotten pretty long. On an ending note we had the creator of the Television shows “Moment of Truth” and “Next” at our table (when it was Akat, me, g0lfa, and roothlus) and I got involved in a pretty serious discussion about him and his show. I remember watching it a couple of times with my family and realizing how loaded the questions were such as: “Do you think you are a better father than your father?” I basically got on the guy about having questions with no distinct answers and he argued that people over complicate things when they are really black or white. I told him that’s not really true, such as you could have a question: “Do you think you ever cheated on your wife?” If I think cheating is intercourse, and someone else could think going on a date with a co-worker to dinner while there is an attraction is cheating, the question has different meanings.

We discussed back and forth, he commented that he can READ people VERY WELL IN REAL LIFE and he started telling me about myself. Like the fact that I enjoy arguing with authority. I don’t really know how he is an authority there, but whatever. First Impressions and assumptions are funny. I was just interested in his show and the reasoning behind it and everything. I also discussed the validity of Lie detectors and one of the players talked about how he had to take a lie detector test before and completely told the truth and it said he failed. -Shrug- You could tell the creator of the show was offended at first I think, but I was more interested about the show and talking to him about it than trying to attack him. Psychology is a great thing. On the flip side we talked about how the show could destroy relationships and then to make the guy feel better I said that the show could help a couple financially if they win money and also allow them to clean the slate and possibly mend a broken relationship.

Okay lol, I’m done. My mind wanders sometimes so I will really end this post here. Workout tomorrow, win a poker tournament, write a new blog (trying to update daily) — all on the agenda for tomorrow.