Got into Vegas last Wednesday night. So far I'm having fun and enjoying myself. I certainly eased into the grind and have only played two events, but I plan on kicking it up and playing a lot. I have a few interesting hands to talk about, but am waiting for a cab to the RIO to play some PLO so will post them later. I will say that I am crushing small stakes prop betting so far. I shipped a $20 winner take all draft of the final 8 in the $25K heads-up between me, Casey, Shaun and Derek. And a very emotional $10 off Casey in game one of the NBA finals (he won it back in game 2). I've also won $10 in pool when floes scratched the 8-ball and faded a CCR at all you can eat [More...]

  It seems that the name “Black Friday” is more than apt to describe yesterday’s events. To those grinders living under a rock, yesterday the US DoJ unsealed fraud and money laundering charges against the principles of Poker Stars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker. I’m not writing to speculate as to what this means for the money many of us have sitting in accounts on those sites, or what it might mean for online poker in the US. I will say that it seems to me that your money will be far safer in an account on a site whose best interest is served by getting it back to you safely and as quickly as possible. Whereas if you chose to withdraw your money, you risk it being seized by the Gov’t while it’s processed, where it can be used [More...]

So I'm a little more than a week into my challenge, and I have some good news and some bad news. Bad news first: I did not play 20K hands. Not even close. I got in ~10K. The good news is that I have the account up over $200 and am taking shots at 25NL. I got it up to over $250, and then had a terrible session on Sunday where I played really bad and dropped several buyins making a couple terrible calls, at least one horrendous shove and some tilt plays here and there. I was able to take a deep breath and slow myself down, and that's when I started running bad, losing KK<AK and QQ<TT both AIPF. For the most part, though, I'm really happy with my progress. With the exception of Sunday, I think that [More...]

2011 hasn’t been so great thus far. I have made some deep runs and got a big monkey off my back with a win in the FTP 50r turbo. Still, I’m deep in makeup and feeling really burnt out from MTTs. Fortunately, the weather is starting to turn in Vermont, so I’ve been able to get outside more which is good. This past Sunday, instead of paying something like four times the rake to FTP, I went out to a friend’s house and helped him with his sugaring operation. For those who don’t know, sugaring is the process of making maple syrup. We spent the day collecting sap and then boiling it. It takes ~40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup, so we did a whole lot of boiling. We also drank a lot of beer and [More...]

So the cleanse didn't go as planned. As I mentioned, I was doing it to support my girlfriend. I think to do something like that for three weeks requires a real desire from within to change, which I didn't really have. So when she started to struggle, it became very easy to give up. In the end, I went ten days, so just under half of what I set out to do. I never fully gave up the caffeine, as the headaches were just too much, and I can't play my best, or even grind at all, with a headache. In other news, I really think I'm playing some of the best poker I've ever played right now. I had a terrible 2010, and am determined to turn it all around this year. In doing so, I decided to, in [More...]

We've all been there: deep in a big tournament, playing great and poised to win it all, before everything goes down the toilet when your KK loses to AK all in pre-flop and you're crippled and end up bubbling the final table. It's not that this situation doesn't happen to the best players. If you play tournaments long enough this will happen to everyone. It's how we deal with these situations in our minds that in many ways means the difference between the best and the rest. Some people, after experiencing that crushing defeat, will start shoving in the rest of the tournaments they are in, hoping to end their session as quickly as possible. Others will take a deep breath, allow a moment to recognize the disappointment before moving on to the rest of their tournaments, perhaps even all [More...]

Before I speak on my colon, which I'm sure has you all bristling with anticipation, allow me to apologize for the lack of blog posts. It will be a short apology, as I don't want to assume that anyone wants to read a blog written by me. But an apology nonetheless for those out there with deficient enough taste to want to read a blog written by me. I'm sorry. With a New Year upon us, I've been, like many people, making resolutions to change, many of which will be quickly forgotten. One of them is to blog more. We'll see what happens. Onward to the colon… A bunch of my girlfriend’s friends decided to start the year off by doing the Quantum Wellness Cleanse, which is three weeks of no animal products, no sugar, no gluten, no caffeine and [More...]

It’s over. While I think that I played very well throughout the series, and that overall my game is as strong as it’s ever been; I am very unsatisfied with how this WSOP went. I only cashed in one event, and that was a 25th place in a Venetian 2k for just under $7K. I didn’t run nearly as bad as last year, which consisted of my flopping the nuts/sets in multiple events, getting all-in and then losing; so this year wasn’t nearly as heartbreaking as last year, but to go one-for-whatever and head home with nothing to show for my six weeks here is still very disappointing. And I find myself very depressed as I prepare to go home. I spend nearly none of my time at home with other poker players. So pretty much all of my contact [More...]

I got a gym membership for my time here, and have really enjoyed going every few days or so. It’s open 24 hours and has a pool, steam room, sauna that’s open all night as well. So going after a long day of grinding live poker for a run and steam and soak is very relaxing. Tonight I went and tried to leg press a little too much weight and slipped a disk or something. It’s some of the worst pain I’ve ever had, although I’ve never broken a bone or anything. Regardless, my back is fuuuuuuuucked. If I’m standing or sitting, then I’m sort of OK. But the act of sitting down or getting up is pretty painful. And if I just move wrong or shift my weight the wrong way then it pinches. Awful timing as there is [More...]

The WSOP is a funny thing. Weeks leading up to the flight out and first few events are filled with excitement and anticipation. Then you find yourself in the RIO, grinding a 15-20BB stack without antes, hour-long levels and people hollywooding every hand, hemming and hawing like the people on TV and realize that it is going to be a very long summer. My results thus far have been underwhelming. I’ve made a few dinner breaks, and am accumulating chips well. However, I’m not doing very well in pots that go to showdown, and as they say, the all-in move works every time but once. I had plans to update this blog after each event, but the fact is that I have very little interest to do so. I’ve been having a lot of fun though. Last weekend HITTHEPANDA got [More...]