It all started about 5 years ago.  I was battling a problem with sports betting.  I really wanted to quit.  You could say that I really needed to quit.  Sports.com gave me a free $50.  I didn’t want to bet it because I feared it would catapult me into betting regularly again if I won.  Instead, I bet it on the democrats to win the 2008 election.  That’s right.  I bet on the democrats to win the election that was 4 years from the time that I made the bet.  So, I shipped that obv.  It felt kind of could.  The money didn’t matter.  It was kind of a cool thing to see that bet come in after I had successfully recovered from a sports betting problem in the previous 4 years.  I requested a cashout, but Sports.com required that I sent in verification.  Now that seemed like a lot of work for $100, so I decided to wait and just bet it on something.

Fast forward a few months.  Hailey and I had been watching American Idol every week.  I felt that the bet was to bet on the guys to win at -110 several weeks  into the competition.  The girls seemed pretty weak to me.  I didn’t make the bet in time and when the competition was down to 36 the line had dropped to something like -330.  There was no way I was going to bet 100 to win 30ish, so I decided to bet it on a person to win.  I scouted the bets for a few weeks.  I thought Kris Allen would be a good person to wager on.  Every 12 year old girl was going to vote for him like they voted for Jason Castro last year.  KA seemed like a lock to make the last 4 to me.  When he hit 25 to 1, I jumped all over it for my case money in the Sports.com account - $100.  It’s amazing how this has transpired.  I remember making large compulsive sports bets all those years ago.  In the end, I actually made money, but it was very bleak there for a while.  I was making 500 - 1,000 bets almost randomly.  I faded disaster then, kicked that habit and now somehow have $2,600 in my account.

Ah, it feels sooo nice!  I’d like to thank the supposed 38 million votes that came in from Arkansas out of the near 100 million votes made.  Yeah, you may have stolen most of your name from my beloved, but I sure as heck don’t care about that now.  Yes, I’m going to send my i.d. verification now.

May has been a disaster each and every year since I’ve gone to Vegas for the WSOP.  I just can’t seem to avoid it.  This is the fourth year in a row that I’m going to head into the WSOP on a significant losing streak in cash games.  I’m not sure what it is.  I’ve been playing alright and not playing above 1/2, so I’m not sure what happened this time around.  Whatever!  It’s not that bad…  I have lost 9 of the last 10 days that I’ve played.  I’m pretty sure that’s a person worst, but it’s onlya minor influence of my psyche.

Reed and I are going to live at The Pointe in Woodland Hills starting in a couple months.  It’s really nice and should serve as a very good home base for 9/10 months.  I’m moving things out Thursday and Friday, spending the weekend with Hailey - I think we’re going to the La Brea tar pits - and I’m off to Vegas on Monday!  Tonight, we’re watching American Idol and I’ll be voting religiously for Kris Allen.  I decided not to hedge and just go for it all.  He’s currently running at 12/5 on Bodog.  That’s a lot better than the 25/1 price that I got him at.  Gogogogogogogo…

No, I didn’t graduate.  However, I’m getting close!  Unless I go back to my old ways from a few years back, I’ll graduate in December.  My sister, Marla, graduated from LMU on Saturday.  She started at Colorado before she transferred there after one year.  She grinded like the 70-somethings at 4/8 LHE to graduate in a very impressive 3.5 years + summer school.  I have to say that is very impressive!  Mass was on Friday.  I hadn’t been to mass since I was in high school.  It was everything that you would expect besides the massive excess of incense that was let out throughout its entirety.  At one point, I thought they were going to have to call the paramedics.  This elderly woman was sitting in the handicap section and during prayer incense was shot out directly in front of her for at least 5 minutes.  My grandma, dad and I almost died of laughter as they very apparently struggled with the strong aroma.

Hailey and I concocted an alcoholic beverage for Saturday’s graduation.  She got the recipe from Cosmo.  The ingredients were cranberry juice, lemonade, 3 types of polmegranate and vodka.  It was quite the hit for those that drank it.  During the graduation, Marla made her way over to us before she was called up to get her diploma.  She was visibly drunk after having gone to a pre-graduation celebration at The Hacienda, a very good Mexican restraunt, earlier that morning.  Being the great brother that I am, I hooked her up with a bottle of it and she took it with her back to her seat.  Now if you know my sister, you’ll know that this is unlike her.  About 1,600 students were called to the stage and received a diploma.  Marla was the only student that ran up to the person that was to hand her the diploma and jumped into his arms in celebration.  They had 2 big screens showing the action from the stage so everyone saw it quite well.  It was hilarious.  And no, she didn’t know the person.  It must have been that extra kick of alochol that I had given her and probably a lot of bottled in excitment as well.  She was rightfully excited.  I’m very proud of her.

I played 2 sessions of cash games today and it didn’t go particularly well.  I lost 1,000 playing 100 & 200 NL.  I ran pretty terribly, but I’m very happy with one thing in particular.  In the last month, I’ve played 9-handed 400 & 600 NL when it’s running.  I was very cautious about game selection.  In doing so, I noticed that I was playing much differently at those tables and it wasn’t for the good.  I was playing overly cautious and at other times very stubbornly.  It didn’t feel very good at all.  I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately and in doing so I’ve lost much of the desire that I had previously to play at those limits online.  This is a very good thing and especially after losing 7,500 at Commerce the other day.  Things are really starting to line up for me I feel.  At this point, I’m in a position of great comfort playing 100 & 200 online and playing higher only in live cash games.  Lately, I’ve been playing in the later evening hours and I think I’m going to continue doing that.  This will allow for me to have more time to play live during the day and early to mid evening hours.  I’ll have to wait until mid-August to see how this schedule will go.  As long as I play regularly at Commerce and play well of course, everything should work itself out with the rest of the business ventures that I take part in.  I’m going to try my best to practice this type of a schedule when I’m Vegas this summer.

Tomorrow I have the second charity golf tournament of the year.  This one if for the high school that Matt, Russell and myself graduated from.  We’re also golfing with another grad from Chaminade.  This tournament is a shamble.  Each player takes their first shot, the best shot is chosen and each member of the team plays their own ball out from there.  I’d rather it be the scramble format from last week, but I’ll do my best to contribute in this format tomorrow.

I regret not posting earlier in the week.  Instead, the content is not going to be that uplifting.  I did, however, make a 60ish foot putt on Monday in the golf tournament with a 7 footish breaker from left to right with about 10 beers inside of me.  I hit the ball better than I ever have before and made plenty of contributions to the team. We finished 1st in Net.  Basically, it was a way to do the scoring to award us 1st place instead of 3rd place.  Matt and I shipped the raffle for a foursome to Calabasas Country Club and received  a $45 gift certificate to the pro shop as well.  The beer was cold, the beer mom’s were hot and I obviously got sub burned.

So, I went to Commerce last night.  I started at 5/10 and made a terrible play that left me not wanting to leave.  I grinded out half my losses back there before I went to play 10/20 after the easy spots made their way to the exit.  The 10/20 was playing relatively slow which I liked until this Russian player sat down.  Boy, was he ready to play.  I’ve never seen someone get away with so many bluffs and continue to keep showing.  It was miraculous.  He went broke twice early and then went on a heater after the worst fold I’ve seen in a while.  Tight player raises in a straddled pot to 150 and 4 players call him.  The flop comes J73.  Russian check/calls 400.  The turn is a Q.  There are now clubs and spades on board.  Russian bets 500 and tight player calls (lol).  The river completes the flush and Russian goes ai for 800.  Tight player tanks and folds QQ face up.  Russian shows K3.  I have no idea what the other guy was thinking obviously and neither did he nor anyone else.

the Russian goes on a tear.  He built his 2,000 rebuy up to 8,000ish when Hand #1 comes up.  I’m really upset about this one and will be for a long, long time.  I’ve always wanted to be able to make this type of play and wasn’t able to pull the trigger when the opportunity arose.  It’s my straddle.  Action is folded to the Russian and he raises to 240 which he had been doing just about half the hands per round.  I call with ATcc.  We’re headsup.  The flop is 744 with 1 club and he bets 400.  I call.   The turn is the 5c.  He bets 600.  I deliberate for a little time and raise to 1,600.  Also, there was an A9 (no club) exposed pre after I had already called.  The Russian asked the dealer for no point on 2 occasions I believe.  Immediately after I raised, the Russian said, “reraise 2,200.”  So, it was only 1,100 to me.  It really smelled fishy.  He was bluffing so much and I just didn’t believe him.  To be honest, Iwas thinking more about trying to raise him off a better hand and not a bluf or AJ/AQ/AK.  The problem is that I only had 2,600ish after the 1,100.  I thought for several minutes trying to find more money (lol) to raise with.  In hindsight, I should have listened to my guy.  It was crying out to me, but I couldn’t think clearly because it was obvious to me that I at least had to call.  This guy didn’t have a 4 or a full house.  I was very certain of that.  I thought too much about the outs that I had rather than the merits of shipping it in his face.  I finally called.  The river was an 8 completing a backdoor straight.  He immediately bet 1 stack of 100s for 2,000 and said, “2000.”  I immediately felt that he was bluffing, but I just wasn’t thinking clearly.  I wasn’t prepared for this situation after awaiting it for 5+ years.  Here I was in a spot to make the HOF bluff for my last 600 and I was so confused I forgot to pull the trigger.  I thought for another couple minutes.  I knew that he could have me beat with AJ/AQ/AK, but I didnt’ put the pieces together and realize with confidence that he couldn’t call with those hands.  I even said, “I’m going to be so sick when you show AK” right before I threw my hand away.  He showed KJ and I wanted to throw up.  This was a terrible lapse of judgement on my part.  I genuinely felt that he was going to show a bigger A and for some reason I didn’t raise allin for my last 600.  I simply just wasn’t prepared for this one.

I regained my composure and battled back.  In less than an hour, I was a winner in the game again.  I kept chipping away at and the Russian.  Then, Hand #2 came up.  The Russian raised to 120 early, I called with KK.  This was really stupid looking back.  I was more afraid of him folding more than anything but I did have position on him and why I just flatted.  My friend Jerry called behind me.  The flop was JT5 with 2 hears.  The Russian cbet 240, I called and Jerry raised to 800.  The Russian thought for a few moments and called.  I backraised to 3,200.  Jerry folded.  Action is back to the Russian.  He has 6,960 left.  He thinks for a few moments…

TR:  “Will you check it down if I call?”

Me:  “No.”

TR:  “Ok, I’m all in.”

Me:  “I call”

I show KK.  He shows AJ.

Jerry:  “Don’t worry [Mike].  I had AJ.”

Turn… X

River… J

Today Hailey and I are going to Beverly Hills for lunch and to shop.  She has a dress that she wants to get at H&M.  We were just there the other night at Ruth’s Chris for dinner.  Dinner was great and even better was not losing credit card roulette for the tab.  Yesterday we took it easy.  I played online for a few hours at Hailey’s and nipped $1,500, watched the Kentucky Derby and then went to dinner a Alessio’s in Westlake Village for dinner.  Again, we were pretty tired afterward and hit the hay like an old couple as the clock struck midnight.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.  I have a golf tournament in the morning until the early evening and have to write a paper that is worth 50% of  my grade that is due on Tuesday at 2:00.  I got a A-/B+ on the first paper.  Not sure what that means yet, but I’m not too worried about it.  I’m writing the paper on a pasttime of mine.  Television!  I choose to The Office to write my semiotic analysis on.  I also have an Anthro paper to write this week as well that I would like to get done by Tuesday afternoon, so I have the rest of the week to attend to more important things.  We’ll see how that going.

I’ve managed winning sessions each of the last couple days.  It isn’t anything spectacular, but like I say, “Small wins will eventually add up to a lot of money.”  I went on AIM earlier today to see if GBecks was online.  He’s playing in Monte Carlo this week and 58th place for 28,000 Euros.  While I was trying to track down Garrett, I saw that Titan Tom was in town for the week.  We had a little Pow Wow and lined up some evening plans.  We’re going to start at Ruth’s Kris for dinner.  Garrett’s future roommate for this summer, Dave, and his girlfriend will also be joining, so it’ll be six of us for dinner at 8:30.  Afterward, we’re going to a bar/club.  I don’t know which one and nor do I have any idea what’s there is to go to in Beverly Hills.

I’m just about settled with next year’s living situation.  Matt is going to live in Santa Monica next year, so it’s going to be Reed (badbeatme) and I next year again as roommates.  It should be a blast.  We’re trying to sign a 9/10 month lease at The Pointe in Woodland Hills.  It’s half way between Friday’s and B.J.s and right across the street from Morton’s.  The rent is the same that I’m paying this year, but I’m sure with such close proximity to the aforementioned places I’ll be spending a lot more money on food and drinks next year.