Well, after losing a half dozen games in a row, I’ve been mathematically eliminated from each of the 4 pools that I’m in.  I still had a chance to win the $250 pool on 2+2 if Mizzou met either Oklahoma or Villanova in the NC.  Oh well, it’s all over.  It could have been worse.  Mizzou could have beat North Carolina in the NC and crushed my spirits while leaving me just short of 1st in a handful of pools.  Thankfully, that didn’t happen and I can now go back to hating on Mizzou until the next time I take them deep into the NCAA Tournament.

Poker has been a bit of a struggle since I won the 22.5 on Tilt a couple weeks ago.  I just can’t seem to get anything going.  I’ve been grinding a lot of 100 & 200NL, but I just can’t scratch anything together.  Because of this, it’s unlikely that I’m going to play tournaments tomorrow.  I’ll most likely go to Commerce and grind a session of cash games online before I go.

Hailey and I are going to her dad’s for dinner tonight and then meeting up with friends at the Copper Bucket.  It should be a fun night, but I’m going to take it easy on the booze.  I want to wake up tomorrow refreshed and put in a good day of poker.  I really want to grind out 20,000 of earnings by the time I go to Vegas for the WSOP.  This is a bit of a stretch, but I should definitely be able to do so if you add in backing and coaching.  I’m really going to put in a lot of volume on Poker.com and go to Commerce at least 2 times a week up until I go to Vegas.  This should be a good mixture and insure me the best possible chance of reaching those goals.  I don’t have a lot of room for error considering I want to play 20kish worth of buyins this summer.  I’ll have to stay on my best behavior and wouldn’t mind a little bit of good fortune along the way.

Well, Duke played terribly yesterday.  Even if they had won, I wouldn’t have felt that great.  They just didn’t have the pieces to put together a NC run.  I’m still in each of the pools that I’ve entered but with less scenarios to won obv.  This is a rough estimate and applies only to the HSNL pool.  I need at least the following to happen for me to win that pool.  I need Kansas, Syracuse and Gonzaga to win today.  I don’t think it matters which team makes the F4 out of the Midwest so as long as Missouri beats them.  Villanova needs to beat Pitt which isn’t unreasonable after watching them play yesterday.  As long as Gonzaga and Syracuse wins tonight, I don’t think it matters who makes the F4 as long as Kansas wins but if Gonzaga were to make the NC they would have to lose to Missouri.  I’d say I have about a 4% chane of winning.

For today, I want Louisville to get upset, but there is a scenario in which that could potentially backfire and must have Gonzaga win.  I’d like Kansas & Syracuse to both win, but I think I can settle for 1 of them to do so to still be mathematically alive.  Unfortunately, you can’t plug in scenarios into CBS like you could using the site that I used when I ran Jensen Madness, so I’m not sure if I got this thing down right.  It’ll be much easier to figure out my winning scenarios after tonight, but first I need to win a few games.

Last night I had a unique dream.  I’ve never had a dream in which I won a poker tournament.  There was an occasion that I finished 3rd at the LAPC M.E..  I dreamed about winning a satellite into the WSOP M.E..  If you know my track record in satellites, you’ll probably laugh just as I did when I woke up this morning.  Other than winning a WSOP M.E. seat 3 years ago via freroll, I’ve never won a satelitte into a live poker tournament with a minimum buyin of 10,000.  I’ve won a couple single tables into 1,000s, etc..  I figured what the hell.  Lets see if it can happen.  I played a 216 DS on Tilt this afternoon.  I got off to a great start, but I was unable to draw out in a 40/60 with 4 players remaining for about 60% of the chips.  It’s alright.  I’m used to losing those.  I’ve played a coupld DSs so far, but I won’t go overboard and end up playing the M.E. for 15kish like I did last year.

I decided to wager my last $100 on Sports.com.  I tried to cash it out after winning a $50 free bet that I made over 4 years ago.  They wouldn’t let me cashout until I sent in some info, so I decided to put it back into action instead.  I’ve thought about the wager for a couple weeks and decided to bet $100 on Kris Allen to win American Idol at 25/1.  It’s not the best bet by any means, but I think he’s the top sleeper in AI.  Eventually, I think everyone is going to get sick of Adam Lampert, but it’s going to be tough to beat out Danny Gokey.  Obv the girls on AI are pretty much zero chance at least imo.  We’ll see how it goes.

Tomorrow I’m going to sweat the games after I get back from class.  The first 2 games are freeoll games.  I want the underdogs to pull through even though I have the favorites.  Losing those games won’t hurt me whatsoever since I have each of them losing in the next round anyways.  Also, everyone has those teams making the Elite 8.  The last 2 games of the day are pretty much must wins.  I have to win Duke.  If they lose, I’d be pretty much eliminated from HSNL March Madness pending unlikely circumstances in future games.  Even still, I’d have to run like Gbecks in DSs.  Mizzou is pretty much a must win, but I still have somewhat possible chances of winning if Duke were to still win it all.  If they both win tomorrow, I’ll be sitting pretty good.  I’ll also need Kansas, Syracuse and Gonzaga to win on Friday.  Gonzaga is a huge game for me if Thursday works out.  It’s a must win if Kansas and Syracuse lose and it’ll open up a lot of doors for me to scoop 80kish if they all somehow win.  Only a handful of people have Gonzaga over NC.  That shouldn’t come at too much of a surprise.  There’s an outside chance that I may make a sports bet on Friday.  If I get Duke, Mizzou, Kansas and Syracuse, I think I have to hedge the Gonzaga game.  It’d be more of a gamble if I didn’t.

I entered the $1,000 HSNL March Madness bracket pool on 2+2.  I had to fade quite a few sweats, but I managed to hit 15/16 for the Sweet 16.  I have Louisville, Mizzou, Duke and Gonzaga with Duke beating Mizzou in the NC.  This isn’t the most likely outcome, but I have a lot of possibilities given that I tore it up in the 1st and 2nd rounds.  Besides Duke and Mizzou, I need to win 2/3 of the following:  Kansas, Syracuse and Gonzaga.  Gonzaga being one of those 2 is just about a must.  If I can manage to get Duke, Mizzou and Gonzaga, I’ll be sitting very, very pretty.  There’s a backdoor chance that I can just about clinch this thing by the start of the weekend but that’d take a miracle and a number of upsets.

Either way, this definitely calls for a “One time please dealer!”

It finally happened.  After 500+ attempts across a handful of sites, I finally finished 1st in a poker tournament.  I won the 22.5k on Tilt for 15,000ish.  Although I’m still stuck a couple thousand since September [in online tournaments], I’m elated to have crossed the finish line in 1st.  I made a really nice play inside the money to chip up after I raised the button with AQss that really got me going.  The sb called and lead for 6,000 which was a little more than half pot on an 842 board with two clubs.  I had a little more than 20,000 left and shipped it ai after a little thought.  I decided that he had sized up my stack and was just taking a stab at it.  Thankfully, I was correct.  The first really big spot came up after I made a really nice comeback after having been crippled with three tables remaining.  I had just been moved and decided to flat a raise with KK from UTG+2 after the player to my right had opened.  We were both among the chip leaders with two tables remaining.  The flop came KQx.  He checked and I checked it back.  He bet the turn (A), I small raised and he shipped it ai.  I called, he showed JT for the straight but I got a Q on the river for a full house.  Phew!  I cruised into the final table and was amongst the chip leaders.  I couldn’t get much going early and pretty much sat back for a while and let the others fight it out.  I was low man with a bit less than 250,000 with the blinds at 10/20k with 3 players remaining.  The other two players had about 1.25 million each.  It all went so fast from there.  I doubled with AK v. KT.  Against the same player a few orbits later, I completed from the sb with TT after he had shipped ai for a massive amount a few orbits before.  He raised ai for 600,000ish, I called and held against his AT.  He was knocked out a couple orbits later.  HU didn’t last long.  I raised K8hh to 72k at 12/24k and villain called.  The flop was J7x with 2 hearts.  He checked, I bet small, he raised and I just stuck it ai for a million+ more.  He snapped, showed AJ and I caught a K on the river to cripple him.  I finished him off a few hands later with K3ss v. ??.

With 2 tables remaining, I was called an “Idiot” twice once being after the KK hand and one obviously after the K8hh by said villains in those hands.  I could really care less.  I’m ecstatic and finally something to show for in tournaments on Stars/Tilt.  I’m still a little stuck since I sold half my action in September, but I’m actually a small winner if you include the time that I accidentally played in the 100 R on Stars.  I don’t plan on playing any tournaments until next Sunday.  I have a huge paper due tomorrow that I obv haven’t started writing, class all day on Tuesday, going golfing on Wednesday and hanging out with Tom and watching March Madness (obv).

I’m very bummed for St. Mary’s who didn’t make the tournament.  I don’t feel that the selection committee made a mistake in doing so.  Unfortunately for them, there were too many upsets in the conference tournaments and they haven’t to get squeezed out.  Other than that, Sunday was a great day.  I won another prop bet!  After losing 2,000 to SpaceGravy over a year ago, I won 4,000 against SG last month and 2,000 v. Hodge05 after he threw in the towel late last night.  I promised myself that I wouldn’t make any more of these bets a few days ago but that was when I thought I was a near lock to lose 6,000 in the one I ended up winning somehow.  Therefore, I’m probably going try to parlay those winnings.  I’m not going to just bet against anyone.  I decided to pass on a prop bet that a player couldn’t turn 100 into 10,000 in 15 days playing only SNGs as high as 16s.  It seemed sooo impossibled I decided to not bet.  Good decision on my part!

There’s finally a converter for Merge.  I’m sooo excited to actually be able to use PT for myself and to assist players that I back/coach.  I’m converting a couple hundred thousands hands at the moment.  Also, I wanted to post another hand history from the other day.

10/20 Commerce

Villain raises late to 80 with about 4,000ish behind.  I called out of the big blind with 55.  The flop came 754 with ALL spades.  I lead into him for 120.  He instantly indicated that he was playing and raised to 320.  I thought for a bit and reraised to 720.  He quickly indicated that he was playing and reraised to 1720.  I thought for a few moments and reraised for his last 2,000.  He thought for a while and folded.

I was very surprised that he folded, but I was obv satisifed.

Matt and I went to Commerce yesterday.  I hadn’t played in nearly a month.  This visit was obviously overdue.  I had complete control of the action until Jack Haley, formerly of the L.A. Lakers, sat in the game.  JH is the table captain.  If you’ve played with him before, I’m assume you consider that an understatement.  He’s gives a lot of action and is very fun to play with.

Anyways, here’s the hand of the day.  I was about done playing when JH put up the live straddle.  He convinced a player that had to play a hand at the table but whom he had played with at the must move table to put up a live double straddle for 80.  It didn’t end there.  He asked the next player who obliged and put up a live tripple straddle for 160.  I picked up JJ on the button and the action was folded to me.  I was sitting with about 9,000 and raised to 400.  I wanted to play a big pot and raise a small amount to induce a lot of hands to come along and/or 3bet me.  The sb went into the tank.  He had 3,000 and I was obv going to play against him if he were to ship.  He thought for a couple minutes and folded.  The big blind almost instantly raised to 1320 with 1,500 back.  JH folded and the player in the double straddle raised ai for about 5,000.  I genuinely thought for several minutes before folding.  I shouldn’t have thought that long because the ai player had to have a good enough hand to play for 3,000 since the 3better wasn’t going anywhere.  However, it was his first hand, was in the live double straddler and was anxiously waiting for 20/40.

The big blind thought for a while and was visually very annoyed.  He called and lost to AA.  He said he had QQ but he never showed.   When I folded, the player to my left asked instantly what I had which indicated to me that he had a pretty strong hand.  But why would he if he folded after my raise?  After the hand was over, he said he had AK and folded because the live double straddler made a comment while he was in the tank that lead him to believe that he was very interested in the hand.  I agreed that it was a good read unless he hadn’t looked at his cards.  Neither of us confirmed that we saw him look prior to the action reaching him, but it was one heck of a hand regardless.

I really need to start going more regularly and especially with the WSOP coming up in preparation for playing cash games about half of each week throughout, but I’ve been doing well online and don’t want to overdue it playing live.  I’ll maintain a healthy balance and see how the next couple weeks go.

Of those in the generation that I belong, I’m certainly amongst the oldest.  I’ve been playing poker since August ‘01.  It’s been quite a run I must say.  7.5 years is a lot for a person in this profession.  Of course, I haven’t played professionally for even half of those 7.5 years, but it’s quite accomplishment to have made it this far and especially with only having a lone brief hiatus from the game.  During the second semester at Kansas, I quite (lol) online poker for a few months.  After I moved from the dorms to my apartment, I quickly realized that I should stop kidding myself and start playing online again.  I jumped right back on Party Poker (RIP) and the rest is history I guess.  Last summer I took a 1.5 month hiatus from online poker during the WSOP.  It was a very good decision considering I was struggling immensely with playing at reasonable stakes.  Unfortunately, the lifestyle has its consequences.  I recently spotted several white/gray/grey/whatever hairs scattered sparsely throughout my beard.  I wasn’t upset, but it was a little bothersome.  Lets just agree that it gives me some character.

I haven’t blogged in quite a while.  Life has been fairly eventful since the last post.  I’ve been dragging through the semester with pretty close to no motivation at all.  I haven’t played at Commerce in a couple weeks and have been playing splitting my time between cash games and tournaments across three sites.  I’ve yet to play above 1/2 since I posted that I wouldn’t do so.  I’m actually a bit surprised and haven’t even had the urge to do so for that matter.  This has allowed me to stay in the groove at 100 & 200 NL.  I’ve been grinding away, but I’m going to start going to Commerce again starting on Wednesday.  Today I grinded the tournament for about 14 hours.  It was a drag.  I played well and built stacks in a handful of tournaments, but I couldn’t manage to get to the final table of any of them.  The closest that I got was a 10th place finish in the 20 Rebuys on Tilt after I got crippled with AK v. K9.  I’m going to go back to the grind and probably not playing any tournaments until next Sunday.