"Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power."- Lao TzuI hit the tables on Party Poker the last two days with some highlights. I won two $20 SNGs (played 3 for a net profit of $134). Al Can't Hang witnessed one of my feats... which squashed his theory that he's a jinx when sweating us fellow bloggers. It's always cool to get support, especially when I'm playing well and catching cards and hitting flops! I played with Tilted Litt for a while on the $25 NL ring tables. He took down a nice pot when he flopped a set.
Quads... Twice?
One session at the NL ring tables, I took a big hit early and fought back to get even. I hit quads, when I caught runner runner to take down a tiny pot. Then I went on tilt when my 99 lost to QJs and my AQ lost to KTs. Two beats in less than two minutes. Whooosh. I hit the SNGs, and bubbled out in 4th. The only highlight was when I was shortstacked and went all in with A8. The flop: A88. Nice. The turn: 8. The river: A. I won... for my second Quads of the session.
The next SNG was one of those instances when I got all the good cards. First hand AKs UTG and I limped. I went all-in against 10-10 when he pushed it all-in on the button. Yep, on the first hand and doubled up. I was off and running. I KOd the first three guys and built up a hige chip lead. I bad beat'd one dude when my A-10s took down AKs. By the time it was three-way I held a 5 to 1 chip lead on both guys. They couldn't handle me with a big stack. Pauly the Maniac was too tough for them and I quickly won my second $20 SNG in less than two days. I haven't played too many of those. I know Signor Ferrari has been kicking ass in the $50 SNGs and he suggested I step up... which I might do if I have a decent run in the next week. Gotta build up that bankroll after my cashout last week.
Did Somebody Say, "Freeroll?"
Party Poker has a promotion involving raked hands... be in the top 140 each day and get cash. I didn't realize that they also had a Freeroll $5000 tourney last night at 8:30pm EST for people who played 150 raked hands that previous day.
With over 1500 participants, I signed up for the Freeroll, mainly because WPT was a repeat (NBC aired that episode prior to the Super Bowl)... and the Yankees game was in the middle of a rain delay. Heck, it was free and first place paid $1000. Top 50 places paid. I was relaxed and didn't care too much. I normally take stellar notes when I play, but I slacked off... probably because I assumed I would get knocked out early.
In Level 2, I almost folded K2s when I misread a flop: A-K-2 and caugth my mistake in time. I won a decent sized pot and had T1535. Then I got switched to a new table. The table chipleader was bullying everyone with over T5500, while everyone had less than T1000, except me. I found AA in the LB. He was in LP and pushed out a T500 bet, I came over the top all-in and he called with Nicky & Paris! I doubled up and had almsot T3000.
In Level 3, an orbit later... AA again! I riased 3x the BB in EP. This time, Tiltboy decided to go all-in on the button with 77. It was no contest, and I took his entire stack with pocket aces... twice. I had T5795 and looking good. By the first break... I lost one pot but still looked strong with T4750. The average stack was T1850 and 911 remained.
In Level 5, Nicky & Paris hooked me up again against A7s.
In Level 6, AA again and picking up blinds with some button raises. I have T7070 with 413 players left. I have twice as much as the avg. stack. I was 5th or 6th overall. Time to start paying attention!
In Level 8, my 99 were cracked by J10s and lost a little bit. Then it got ugly when a guy slowplayed KK against my AQs. I went all-in with a flush draw and lost, KOd in 219th place (out of 1452)!!! I was pretty pissed since I felt I was in the top 25 at the time and I was feeling great. Ugh. Fuckin' freeroll! I told my brother that he could play for me in tonight's freeroll. If he doesn't have to work late, he's going to do it.
Fear and Iggy in Las Vegas...
Yep, read all about the infamous trip. HDouble has some interesting things to say about meeting Iggy for the first time. And he confirms that me theory was wrong... Iggy is not a sober house wife from Ohio! He's really a guy. Felicia mentions the historic meeting on her blog as well.
In other news... Ugarte is trying his skills at stand up comedy here in NYC. Visit his blog for specific details of when he'll be performing. I will try my best to make one of his two upcoming gigs. And yeah... he's funny for sure.
Welcome back to Sean from Anistropy! He has a great post about... fish.
Yep, the WSoP is in full swing. I haven't been ignoring it at all. I just haven't had the time to blog anything about the epic event. 2200+ entries? $5 Million to the winner? Check out kick ass reports from the Poker Prof who's embedded in Las Vegas. Also, take a peek at his project: 35th WSOP Main Event Database. It's an amazing search tool. Good job, Poker Prof! There are 43 players left. Man, next year, I have to be in the mix.
All In Magazine
Congrats to HDouble for his first published article in the inaugural issue of All In Magazine. He brought some kick ass publicity for us poker bloggers, which is something that will help our entire community. Good job to HDouble and Iggy for getting the ball rolling. And I'm flattered and humbled that the Tao of Poker was mentioned in his article. Thanks again, HDouble.
I have been approached from Ravi at All In to write something in a future issue. I haven't figured out what will be my topic. But rest assured, it will be an opportunity for me to showcase my writing skills. If only I could play poker as well as I wrote! Thanks to Ravi for the opportunity to contribute and for shedding light on our communtiy.
It's Not Really Poker... It's More Like O'Douls
And lastly... tonight is the first episode of the new season of Celebrity Poker Letdown. Yes, I coined that phrase, and I want fuckin' credit. Otherwise, I will send a stedy flow of post-modern thugs (a.k.a. lawyers in dark suits who haven't been fed in three days) to your place and wreck havoc. My only hope is that the popularity of Celebrity Poker Letdown will lead more fish to the frying pan. More to come for sure.
Phish No More
Thanks to everyone who sent me emails about one of my favorite bands breaking up. It's true. Phish is breaking up after this summer tour. I will be attending 11 of their last 13 concerts. I wrote a rambling post to the Tao of Pauly called: Phish: The End of an Era. Here's a bit:
Part of me feels that "appreciate what you have in your life before it's gone" vibe. I had an amazing run with Phish and at least I won't be bitching about seeing any more subpar shows. It's weird, because I really felt that Phish turned the corner and started playing some of their best stuff since the Japan shows. I know nothing compared to 1998 and the Year of the Funk, when Phish threw down some of their best shit history. I'll put 1998 Phish up against any other band... at any time in their careers and they will give anyone a run. (With the exception of The Grateful Dead in 1977... when in my opinion, they achieved musical perfection.)Yeah, I'm bummed, but I understand why they are breaking up. At least I got to see them 139 times, including 6 shows in Japan in 2000.
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