JeffreyLipsey.com

I would have screen shot it had I not been playing other tables. I also turned my head once I saw I nailed the flush on the turn and didn’t even know it was a royal until 5 minutes later.


***** Hand History for Game 31513771129 ***** (Poker Stars)
$100.00 USD NL Texas Hold’em - Tuesday, August 11, 03:55:57 ET 2009
Table Numerowia IV (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Seat 1: CodeRedRulez ( $193.50 USD )
Seat 2: Remichl ( $25.55 USD )
CodeRedRulez posts small blind [$0.50 USD].
Remichl posts big blind [$1.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to CodeRedRulez [ Jd Ad ]
CodeRedRulez raises [$1.50 USD]
Remichl raises [$4.00 USD]
CodeRedRulez raises [$36.00 USD]
Remichl calls [$20.55 USD]
CodeRedRulez wins $12.45 USD
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qd, Ac, 2d ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Kd ]
** Dealing River ** [ Td ]
Remichl shows [Qc, 8c ]
CodeRedRulez shows [Jd, Ad ]
CodeRedRulez wins $50.60 USD from main pot

Q

I didn’t spend much time at the Venetian today, busted in the 3rd hour and what is now my quickest bust yet. I had several interesting hands though, much different from my other tourneys before the first break. Unfortunately my day off resting yesterday did nothing to help my sickness as I felt queezy the entire time again as soon as I sat down. I had to send back my diet Pepsi because I just couldn’t drink it; the waitress brought me a soda w/alka seltzer which tasted bad but she assured me it would work. Well, I didn’t get to finish it in time before I busted so I guess we wont know until later lol.


The very first hand of the tournament I pick up AA and squeeze two opponents, both of which fold. Blinds are 50/100 and we’re all 15,000 chips deep and it was a good start to the day. Meanwhile, an aggressive asian had been raising nearly 30-40% of hands and folding when played back at, so he’s not doing it with too strong of a range (keep this in mind for later). Eight hands later I’m in the BB and squeeze the asian and a donk cold-caller to my right (he was very bad) with AKo and they both fold.


I get AA again in EP with blinds of 50/100 so I open to t300, I get reraised by the aggressive asian so I call knowing he’s at the top of his range and not wanting him to fold QQ/AK to my 4bet. My plan was to c/r any non-Q flop and build the pot that way; unfortunately for me I flop top set with the flush redraw so I practically have the nuts (and changes the way I play the hand. I am trying to do as much acting as possible to make it seem weak and I did get my opponent to cbet the Ace. I called and the turn brought a blank and it went check/check. The river brought another blank and I tried to represent a missed Flush Draw somehow by betting nearly full pot, hoping for a hero call. It didn’t work out and he folded so I’m assuming he had QQ-KK and played it bad on that flop. I’m up to 17,000 chips and feeling good.


Blinds go up to 75/150 and I pick up K7s in the SB. It is 5 way limped so I complete and the flop comes K93 rainbow; I check to pot control my hand and see where the action goes. UTG, who had been fairly weak/tight so far, bets t700 into the t900 pot and I wanted to fold but couldn’t help but feel exploitable if I just c/f TP everytime there. If someone else had come along then I throw it into the muck and not feel too bad about it. I call and the turn gives me two pair and completing the rainbow with the 7. So now the board reads: K937; I’ve got this guy covered probably 2-1 so I was up in the air on whether I wanted to c/r or just c/c down. The pot is t2300 and he bets 1500 into it; he could have a wide range in that position: 33, 99, K9, KQ+ and maybe even KK+ depending if he was going for a limp/reraise preflop. Using those calculations I’m not liking my equity when my shove gets called so I again c/c. The river is a blank and I check to him and he bets t5000 into the t5300 pot and I don’t think he’s bluffing; I have a hard time folding two pair so I call and hope to see AA but my read was right: he had 99 for middle set. It was kind of a cooler and I don’t know if I can fold two pair there given I’m representing a weak King and can beat AA which is still in his range.


That takes me down to t10,000 chips and I get AK in the big blind with blinds of 100/200. I’m not feeling very well and at the same time I’m having a conversation with the noob to my right about how he cheated once in online poker. There was an EP raise to t550 and the donk to my right called and I make a horrible reraise to only t1200 for some reason. I totally forgot about the person I raised and as soon as I made the raise I was like ‘fuck me’ because I new I made a mistake. I was then hoping that I would induce a light shove or something but that wasn’t going to happen; both players call and I’m facing a 3 way pot of t3900. The flop comes 953r and even though I can’t represent anything than a monster pair I decide to cbet it to t2300. It was an OK cbet since my reraise size was so small I know the guy to my right never has a hand and the original PFRer might fold a small pair although it is unlikely. The original raiser called though and we both check the turn, then he puts a small 1/2 pot river bet out there and I’m forced to fold. I’m down to 6500 chips.


I pick up 22 UTG and raise it up to t600; not the greatest raise and probably is a fold given my stack size. I get cold called by asian girl to my left but I’m not too worried because she’s a huge station preflop but has played well postflop. The flop comes A96 rainbow and is the textbook board for me to cbet my crappy pair on and hope to get 33-88 to let it go. I cbet to 1000 and she looks at my stack then calls. The turn brings another ace and I just check/fold; I’ve got a little over 5000 left going into the first break.


At this point I text Adil saying I’m playing like shit, he just texted me back saying “stop it” and I lol. Anyway, blinds are now 100/200/25 and I pick up JJ UTG+1 and raise it up to 600. The aggressive asian looks at my stack and then calls, the pot is 1700 and the flop comes Q92 rainbow. I check to him and he bets t700 and I call. The turn brings the 8d which puts the flush draw out there; I check him again and he bets 3000–nearly full pot. I really want to call here as he could have a lot of hands; his weak flop bet followed up by a big turn bet with little to no money behind doesn’t make too much sense for value. I also had the thought in my head where if I fold I can keep playing but with only 3700 chips; I didn’t like that idea and he was aggressive so I stick in my remaining 700 chips and go all in. He calls quickly and for a second there I thought I was behind, but when I flipped up my JJ he had the Ad4d for the flush draw and I hold. I’m up to t10,000 chips and feeling like I’m finally playing well again.


The very next hand I get KK UTG and I’m not even done stacking my chips yet. I raise it to 600 again and get FIVE CALLERS and I’m like ‘Oh shit.’ With an SPR of 3 I’m going to need to play this hand correctly or risk getting owned hard core by a nut camper. The flop comes Q55 with a pot of t3900; I think the best way to play my hand right now is to NOT continuation bet. If I check I get to see what the action is and if I bet I’m representing a monster hand. With only the Ace that I’m afraid of coming on the turn there aren’t many collective cards out there to hurt me if I am ahead. So I check and the very first cold caller, two my right asks how much is in the pot but before he can count it he throws a t5000 chip out there. I’m fairly confident that I have this guy crushed as it makes no sense for this guy to bet a 5 this way; also, if someone comes in and calls that big ass bet (t5000 into a t3900 pot) then I can fold my hand. Everyone folded though so I check/raise all in, knowing he’s committed himself with all his Qx hands. He instantly calls (this was the same guy who open limped the 99 and flopped the set vs me above) and he shows QQ, for the flopped boat. GG. I’m not folding there to the first guy who cold called and vs his massive overbet it would make no sense to.


I might play tomorrow if I’m feeling well enough; I realized today that I was not fit for playing but not until after I sat down. I know if I feel the same way tomorrow as I did this morning (I thought I would be OK) then I will know to not play.

I woke up in the morning with a little bit of stomach sickness but it wasn’t that bad; I felt like it was just some bad pizza I had the night before. After taking some medicine I was feeling good and motivated to play the $2k at the Rio. I wasn’t originally going to play that and instead play the 1500 on Tuesday but after some backing fell through I really wanted to play this one. As soon as I sat down at the table though I got really sick, like I was going to throw up if I didn’t sit extremely still (there’s a way to work on your live reads lmao). My stomach was in my throat and at the break I went to go buy some pepto-bismol; hopefully it will work.


My first table was pretty decent; the players played fairly predictable and had a fair amount of leaks. There was an aggressive guy to my right and a couple of passive players to my left and I think one of them was a live pro, although not that great.


Blinds start at 25/50 and I get AQo in the BB. UTG raises and gets 2 cold callers, one random tag and another internet player who has a ton of leaks; I decide to just call getting a good price. Here is the hand:


UTG raises to t150, 3 folds, MP Calls, 2 folds, Button Calls, 1 fold, Hero Calls
Flop: Ad 9s 4s (Pot 600)
UTG Checks, MP Checks, Button Bets 400, Hero Calls, 2 folds.
Turn: Qs (Pot 1600)
Hero Checks, Button bets 1200, Hero Calls
River: Qc (Pot 4000)
Hero Checks, Button bets 2400, Hero Shoves, 1 Fold.
Hero wins a net of t4500


I don’t think he had a real hand or anything as I saw a 4c in his hand when he mucked. I spent the first 2 levels doing not much else except that one hand. I remember doing a lot of folding and just watching what others were doing. The aggressive player on my right would reraise ANYONE isolating the donk open limper–an interesting and effective strategy and he really didn’t care much about the position of the isolator. I go into the first break with around 9500 chips.


It was the 3rd and 4th levels where I started to amass a huge stack. UTG open limps and he’s down to t3000 after starting with 6000, blinds are 75/150. This guy is the table fish; he always open limps and then calls raises only to fold the flop and when he doesn’t do that he’ll just fold preflop. The aggressive player, instead of isolating, over limps as well and I isolate to t750 with ATo. It folds around to the fish and he gets a frustrated look on his face before he just says ‘fuck it’ and goes all in. I wasn’t getting 2-1 on a call but I didn’t need it: his hand reeks of a small pocket pair and he’s tired of getting pushed around. I called and he showed 88, probably the top of his range. I binked two pair off and I’m up to around 13,000 chips.


Blinds go up to 100/200. The aggressive player to my right raises to only t475 and I called with QTs (my new favorite hand on this trip). It was such a small raise and we were deep that I can show a profit by calling; 3 others came along with me so it’s a 5 way pot. The flop couldn’t really get much better: QT4 rainbow. Only one hand beats me and if someone outflopped me with a set then gg. The original PFR checks, I check, the suspected live pro bets about 1/2 pot, SB check/raises half her stack to around 4000 then I shove to go over the top. For some reason the live pro hemmed and hawed before folding–he either hand TP or the straight draw but both would be insta-folds. The SB committed herself with her raise so she has to call with AQo and I hold. I’m up to 20,000 chips and we are moved to a new table.


This 2nd table I had a horrible draw. There was a Card-Runners instructor to my left (I don’t know his name though), a (bad) tag to his left, Brief (a very aggressive, very good tourney player) wearing a PokerVT sweater across from me. Later, a Deuces Cracked tourney pro would sit down across from me as well as two other Card Runner players, one a high-stakes pro. Luckily for me I had my big stack.


I had sat there for only 3 hands before I figured out the guy to my right, with the second largest stack on the table other than me (probably only 10k at the time), was the table donk. Inexperienced and he did a lot of calling but pretty much unbeatable because he was so bad lmao. The first hand I played I isolated the fish up in MP with TT to t800; SB 3bets me t2000 and he seemed to be fairly solid player. We’re 50 bb deep and I don’t think I could fold TT in that spot given how deep I am and how wide my range is in that spot. Calling wouldn’t be that great either so I just grab a big stack of 1k chips and ship it in. He thinks for a while so I figured him for the bottom of his 3betting range, either a thinly for value or for a bluff. He open folds JJ face up and I take the chips, narrowly dodging the wrong end of that 80/20 and building my stack up to $22.5k.


The next hand I play I’m in the big blind with QJo. The (bad) tag to my left was going to open raise but instead limped accidentally; everyone on the table noticed so obv no one would raise him here; one other player limped in and I checked in the big blind. Here’s the action:


1 Fold, UTG+1 Open Limps, 4 folds, CO Limps, 2 Folds, Hero Checks
Flop: Ts 9s 3d (Pot t700)
Hero Checks, UTG+1 Checks, CO Bets 300, Hero Calls, UTG+1 Raises to 700, CO Calls, Hero Calls
Turn: Ad (Pot $2800)
Hero Checks, UTG+1 Checks, CO Checks
River: 8d (Pot $2800)
Hero Bets 2000, UTG+1 Calls, CO Folds
UTG+1 says: You rivered me didn’t you?! Fucking bull shit.
He shows: 99 for worst played flopped set in history of WSOP
Hero shows QJ for straight and wins net 3800 chips.


If that back door flush draw didn’t hit I bet I get the rest of his stack. Oh well, my stack is now up to 26k with blinds still 100/200. The next hand I get Ac Jd in UTG+1 and I raise it up to t600. Button, the guy who folded and showed JJ to me before, cold calls in position and its HU to the flop. I was putting him on the range of any pocket pair, including now JJ-QQ and possibly AQ-AK because he’s playing a bit scared. The flop comes Tc 9c 7c giving me a nice little combo draw and we’re only around 40 bb deep. I cbet 1200 and he raises me to 3000 and I put the rest of my chips in. I figured him now for 77+ in his range but I have a ton of equity even vs that range so lets just get it in. He actually thinks for a long, long time and he almost folds; alas he didn’t though and showed QQ. This guy has absolutely no idea what he’s doing haha but oh well, I’m still a favorite with my 1 overcard, straight draw and flush draw. I bink my flush on the river and I hit the top of my stack at a massive 35,000 chips with blinds of 100/200.


For the rest of the hour I pretty much just fold, as I know I have pretty close to the chip lead right now and I can fold to the end of Day 1 and almost fold to cash. The donk to my right though has started to amass a large stack too, he’s up to around 25,000 chips and my goal is to try and get those! We’re about ready to go on break when I get 99 UTG and raise it up to 600 again. Here’s the hand:


Hero raises 600, 7 folds, Button Calls, BB Calls
Flop: Qd 9c 8h (Pot 1900) - This was a sick situation, the very first card I see when the dealer pulls the cards up is my middle set and near nuts vs the guy to my right. My goal is to get his stack and this is the perfect hand to do so.
Hero bets a large 1600 (build that pot), Button folds, BB raises to 4600, Hero shoves for 25,000 and BB calls.
When he raised me I was a little worried about JT, but I mean not that worried. I know he has the extreme top of his range and he’s not bluffing me here so I don’t feel like I was turning my own hand into a bluff. I think he rarely has QQ in this spot too but it is a possibility; given how much he’s calling though he just as likely has 98, 88, or Q9 as he is TJ or QQ. When I shove though he ‘probably’ folds 98 for 125 bb and it would probably be a good fold too. I overshoved for 2 reasons: to represent like I have an overplayed AA to get a call out of Q9 and I don’t want a T or J to come to either give him a possible straight or lose value on a worse two pair hand.


So when he calls there rather quickly he showed JTs for the nuts. I’m sure he has JTo and JTs there in his range and if he calls the all in with Q9 that gives him 19 (16 for JT and 3 for QQ) combos that beats me when calling a shove and 12 that I beat (9 for Q9 and 3 for 88). That makes getting it in on that flop a not-so-great play, at least shoving it like that. I think a reraise to like 10.5k keeps 98 in his range for at least the turn and see if I can’t get it in on the turn. Given both our hands though I had a super, super sick cooler in the biggest tournament of my life for 25,000 chips. I missed my draw and now I’m down to 11k going into the 2nd break with blinds going to 100/200/25. I went back to the drug store to buy some aspirin because my stomach sickness moved to my head and I now had a small fever. This is fun.
I pretty much fold my way to the third level where blinds go to 150/300/25 and I'm down to 8000 chips and 27bb. Kinda bad CardRunners player raises in EP and he gets 3 cold callers, all fairly solid but also all on the weaker end of their range; they would have reraised if they had anything. I wake up with AQo and have a solid squeeze opportunity; I shove. Original raiser folds and the first cold caller asks for my stack size--this is a tell of him having a medium strength pair wanting to know if he can call profitably. He did call and showed TT and I was in standard flip mode. I managed to actually win that coinflip; I have little hapiness though because I feel horrible and I can barely stack my chips. I fold to dinner break and will start the next level with 16,000 chips at blinds of 200/400/50.


I blind down for a while after dinner, maybe stealing a couple times but nothing too substantial. I play very tight and before I know it blinds are 300/600/75 and then the final break. Only two hours to go until we end day 1 and it can’t come soon enough; we’ll probably get in the money very early in Day 2 and if I can come back the next day I’d feel so much better and hopefully play better too. Blinds will be 400/800 and I float (both in my head and in my chipstack) around 15 bb ~ 12k chips for as long as I can.


I’m down to 12 bb in the big blind and it folds around to the donk to my right who has managed to donate 1/3 of his stack back to the rest of the table. He’s stolen my blinds a couple times even though I’ve wished for a walk. I’d reraise him if I had something but so far when he goes to showdown he has the best hand. This time though he raises me again to 3x - t2400 and I look down and see KK. If it was a solid player I would reraise all in and expected to get looked up by an extremely wide range. Since he’s a donk though and he should have a fairly blind stealing range I don’t want him to fold and I want to get max value. I flat in the big blind (probably to other regs this would be suspicious) and I’m just hoping for a non-ace flop, even though i’m committed to any board given there is 5700 chips in the pot and I have 6500 behind. Flop comes QQ5 with a flush draw and he checks. I bet 3000 and he raises me all in and I call, expecting to see the flop Q but hoping for something worse. Unfortunately he did have AQ and it didn’t matter how I played it nor if I had even double my stack as we’re getting this in preflop 100% of the time (I’d be more likely to reraise with the larger stack) and he’s beating me regardless.


So that was my very long Day 8, I played for nearly 9 hours and busted 340/1500 with top 170 pay. I feel like I played fairly solid and I was able to stay alive for 5 hours after losing my mammoth stack. I don’t like making excuses but my sickness had to have played a role at some point as I have 1 final hand to share:


Brief, who has been raising my blind every single time (correctly too) as I haven’t done shit, feel like shit and look like shit, throws out several chips while I’m in the big blind. It folds around to me and I look down and see A3o and throw it into the muck. I had no idea but apparently he didn’t raise my blind, in fact he just called it. Granted, I probably wasn’t going to win the hand anyway but it can’t hurt to see a free flop; Brief’s open limping range is probably fairly polar there but even if I hit the weak ace I will be screwed. It didn’t do well for my table image and looking back the dealer never said raise; I might have been tilted had I not been so out of it. Either way it was fairly embarrasing.


I’m taking Tuesday to recover and hopefully play Wed-Friday at the Venetian before I go home on Saturday.

Hand 1: It was seriously my 3rd hand at the table so I have no reads on anyone. I’m dealt JJ in MP on a 10 handed table and UTG+1 makes it $15 to-go at 1/2 blinds (a very big open raise). Right now I have no idea what kind of player he is but i did notice that A) he didn’t have a full stack so he probably wasn’t that great and B) I had previously seen him open limp/fold A5o from UTG+2 the hand before so I know for a fact he plays too many hands and has no value for position.


Even still I decide to call it and not re-raise it as I give myself an opportunity for post-flop play. I get a real good flop: T82r I believe and he bets out fairly strong–probably $25 into the $30 pot. I call, the pot become $80 and the turn brings in a backdoor diamond draw. My opponent rather quickly over-shoves the pot for his remaining $110 and I couldn’t think of a reason to fold, especially with no read so I call. He flips over AA and I get it in pretty bad. I later find out he’s very passive and had I had this read I would have folded the turn so with that I consider it a cooler. Not bad, 3 hands played already down $150.


Hand 2: I fold for pretty much 30 minutes trying to build reads. There is an aggressive guy wearing an FTP hat to my left, halvsame across from me and 2 stations to my right; in all I think I have a fairly decent seat. I didn’t know how aggressive this guy was to my left but I opened once in my MP to $7 and he 3bet me when I held JTs. I wanted to call but being OOP here pretty much forced me to fold; if I’m in position I have no problem peeling one and playing 3-bet pots (something that playing a lot of HU gives me confidence to do). The next rotation around I’m dealt Q6s on the button and I think we are 5 handed so i open it to 7. I already have it in my head that I will 4bet bluff the aggressive player if he does decide to 3bet as he’s been getting out of line. I make it 7, he re-raises me to 25 now that he’s OOP and I think for a moment and make it $60 total. Its a rather large size but I couldn’t think of making it too much smaller but right now I would have preferred to make it $55. Either way it didn’t matter as he shipped me in 100 bb deep and I folded; he showed ATo and I still am confused at his play. I can’t decide if he was doing it as a bluff or for value, both in the 3bet and the 5bet. Obviously ATo is a pretty big underdog to my 5bet calling range let alone my 4betting range including bluffs and I know my ratios; given he showed the ATo I think he was just a maniac and I’m leveling myself. However, with perfect information I like my 4bet bluff in that spot even if it was a bit on the large size; but I should probably get out of this mindset if I’m playing 1/2 live.


Hand 3: Unfortunately I wasn’t able to take advantage of any meta-game with the maniac on my left as it seems like I folded every hand for the next 90 minutes. I did win a coin flip for 30 BB while 6 handed with 88 vs AQs and that helped somewhat (that was actually before Hand 2 above). An old guy from Texas sits down wearing a cowboy hat and a bunch of bling; he was pretty bad and he seemed like he just wanted to gamble. The first hand he plays he shoves all-in 100 BB deep with 44 vs an UTG reraise and a bunch of cold callers and gets called by the manic’s ATo and holds. That set the tone for one of several of his 100, 200 and even 300 BB Allin pre-flops in minuscule pots. He was also straddling and would limp in every time he had the opportunity. This set the tone for me as I folded myself down to 65 BB or so (I was all out of cash I only brought $400 with me) and I opened 77 from MP. The hand before, the cowboy shoved Allin and showed Kx, although he said he had KT and they were well over 200 bb deep. So I open my 77 and get 3 callers and cowboy says ‘why not I’ll do it again’ and I pretty much insta-call for my remaining 60 bb. Unfortunately for me he had QQ and I don’t hit and I’m forced to take a loan from Halvsame because the table is just that good.


Hand 4: This hand happened before hand 3: I get AQo and open it like normal and get 4 callers, including halvsame. The flop comes Q92 all diamonds and I don’t have a diamond; Halvsame leads $25 into the $35 pot and I figure him for either A) a strong draw or B) a made hand as it doesn’t make much sense for him to just plain bluff into the 4 of us, especially when the other 3 were pretty horrible. To be honest, I really wanted to fold TPTK vs him there but I felt like that would have been too exploitable as I can see myself leading Qx with the x of diamonds a ton in that spot (probably the easiest way to play it). So I call and the others fold and its HU between me and Halvsame with a pot of around $80. The turn brings the Ad so its 4-flush to the board and he bets $60 into the main pot. At this point I couldn’t think of a single hand I beat even though I have 2 pair so I just fold my hand, feeling very dirty about it. Thinking about it though even if he was semibluffing the flop the only hand that DIDN’T get there was JT with no diamond, and it doesn’t make much sense for him to play it that way. He later said he flopped the gutshot+FD+overcard and led it; not a bad play and I don’t fault either of our plays there.


That was pretty much my day though in terms of 5.5 hours. I did finish down about $440 but I feel like I didn’t have too much of an excuse to not play the way I did even if I could have done a better job of isolating + continuation betting.

Heads-Up went extremely well for me for the month of May, even if I didn’t put in much volume. After I get back I’m going to have to take a closer look at my priorities in terms of my time and responsibilities, especially if my success at heads up continues.

Today was a fight, that’s for sure. My first 2000 hands I played like complete ass, going from +200 to -300 in that timespan. I was able to finish that session only down 150 and decided to take a good break to come back. In that time I looked over my old hands as well as my conversations with Renton from a couple months ago in order to get my magic back.


A couple interesting things I noticed: I was 0-20 in hands in which I cold called preflop, with 2 hands going to showdown. I interrupted this as me giving up too easily and or putting myself in easily bluffable situations. My red line was still pretty nasty as I’m spewing postflop. So I made some adjustments:


1) Reraising AQ and AQs again esp. vs LP raisers. I did this a long time ago and for some reason I started to cold call when they play real easy if I’m ever 4bet.


2) Fix my PFR amount. I was reraising way too much and inconsistently for some reason. I’m keeping it at 3x IP and 3.5x OOP which should be fairly standard.


3) My button play has been negative now 2 days in a row, or for 7k total hands. I’m not doing something right and I need to find out what it is, considering that’s supposed to be my most profitable position.


4) trying to manipulate bet sizing so it works in my favor. i had a couple moments of brilliance today but not enough.


5) opening too many pots then finding myself OOP against players who don’t like to fold to a bet. I either need to 1) open less, 2) barrel more or 3) combination of them. I’m still working on this.


I came back and got in another 1200 hands to break even on the day with a lot more stuff to work on.

I actually made it past an hour today roller blading, and that’s with the breaks included. The picture above is the local map with my route in it.


I was pretty tired during the last 10-15 minutes so I stopped to take a small break and a drink, but I’m pretty happy I went almost 7 miles.

Woot! Well, it wasn’t exactly free but close enough. I traded in 4 games: Halo 3, Fifa 2008, Lego Star Wars: Original Trilogy and G.R.A.W. 2; in total these four games got around $45, but Gamestop also gave me a free $20 to go with them because of some promotion. Thus, the total was over $65 and, when combined with my $45 gift card, I well covered the cost of the $70 Wireless Guitar. And, obviously, I still have $40 left on my gift card (which might go towards a Rock Band Drum Set).


So, now Kiyoshi and I can play Guitar Hero Co-op all weekend long! Or at least until our wrists get tired (already done).

Yeah, I got up late again, I may just keep this same schedule until I have a need to get up early. I made a video for Grinderschool already and I’m debating whether or not I want to keep it. It is due out late next week and I may try for higher poker quality but I need to run it by JGB first.


I am seriously going to try and get some 400 NL hands in. I’ve already watched another DC video and I need to get some experience in. The first thing I’m going to do is move my laptop back over to the dining room and get ready for some serious play.


After I play I am going to get some exercise and then watch the Sox/Cub game tonight.

Still 16 left in the $550 at the Venetian, I’m probably ~12ish or so, maybe 10th at best. We start up again at 4pm local time and 1st is $70k. If I make final table then I break even on the trip.

Blinds are 10k/20k/4k and I’m at 340k in chip, 17 bb but only 5m, which is kind of gross but that is my comfort level. I was 4th in chips with 45 to go but went hot/cold on hands, I either got monsters or complete air and nothing even marginal enough to blind steal with. I built my stack by sucking out 10 BB with AJo vs AQ AI preflop and then got AK allin vs AQ and that held too. I got a couple RR in there to get as high as 450k but then blinded down until we quit for the day.

We stopped at 2 am and most of the other players wanted to keep playing, I pretty much told them to go fuck themselves as they were trying to pressure the two of us into playing until the Final Table. I was tired as fuck and I wasn’t going to budge.

Anyway, wish me luck. I figure even if I get into 2 coinflips thats 25% chance I’ll get top 4 with 2 double ups, top 6 get 5+ figure cashes. I was able to build my stack yesterday from 30k and 10 BB up to 100k and 20 BB without ever going to showdown over the course of a couple hours. I dont know how good these remaining players will be in shortstack play but I imagine they will be better than the previous ones. I’m a little nervous before we start but I’ve played against better players online and have been in worse situations so experience is definitely on my side.

Wish me luck!