PWND !



















Angels run goot!

after whompin Detroit in friday night's game 11-6, the Halos take down Saturday's game 10-3. wudda game too!

with the game locked at 3-3, the tigers intentionally walk Gary Mathews Jr. to face Garret Anderson in the bottom of the 8th with 2 men on. Garret pounds the 2nd pitch he sees deep atop the right field wall and some kid "allegedly" reaches over and snags it. the umps call it a HR. i call it home field advantage. haha

our starting catcher, Mike Napoli pulled a hammy the night before. so, we had a rookie catcher playing in his spot. the kid was batting .095 coming into the game. Carlos Guillen stole 2nd and 3rd on him one inning which really made him look bad. he could've easily just hung his head like a loser. instead, he had two key hits including an RBI single after the tigers intentionally walked the batter ahead of him. wheeeeeeeeeeeee

all KOD could say over and over was "wait 'til October". bitter, bitter KOD. thanks for comin' out.

all kidding aside, we had a good time watching the game and all the bad beats the Tigers took with KOD and his wifey. we went to Alcatraz Brewing Co after the game for dinner then headed back to the hotel lounge and saw Jim Leyland boozin' it up with a bunch o' Motor City drunktards. apparently, the Tigers were staying there. we also saw Brandon Inge, Detroit's third basemen hangin out after the game. his stats say he's 5-11" / 188lbs. but, he looked closer to 5-7" / 160. like most football players, baseball players like to exagerate their personal stats.

btw, our Chargers season tix arrived this weekend. we're probably gonna skip the pre-season games. but, can't wait for opening day. Da' Bears will be in SD Sunday, September 9th.

Drunken Motor City Fans invade OC...

the Detroit Tigers are in OC this weekend. KOD (King of Drunks?) is coming to the land of fake boobs and fake blondes for some of this:



















finishing it up like this














we're meeting KOD and the missus at the game on Saturday. GL at the tables this weekend !

GRRRRR........










Full Tilt has been smackin' me down alot lately. i needed a break from the madness anyway.

another SoCal guy wins the Main Event...

















we drove back from Vegas yesterday morning. so, i missed the first four bustouts of the Main Event. as soon as i fired up the final table on ESPN PPV, i saw Rain Kahn reraise Jerry Yang enough preflop to commit himself to the pot. Yang took an extremely long time to make the call and once he did, Kahn said "i'm all-in in the dark". this screamed weakness to me and when the flop came K-high, Yang didn't take long to make the call with JJ. Kahn showed AsQs, bricked the turn / river and was out in 6th.

i really didn't know much about the remaining players. shortly after that hand, i found out Yang was from SoCal and won his seat to the Main Event thru a $225 satellite at Pechanga. i've played that satellite before and it's a craptastic structure. i had to root for anyone who could get thru that redonkulous minefield.

Phil Gordon and several other commentators were unimpressed with Yang's play. they questioned some of the all-in calls he made (JTo vs ATo / ATo vs KK). in both situations, he was up against a shorty and he had a TON of chips. they obv turned out to be bad calls. but, he's trying to eliminate a player and was willing to gamble. none of the "bad" calls he made hurt him or affected his play.

personally, i think Yang played extremely well, putting constant pressure on the table. he was raising / reraising a lot of hands preflop and took down a lot of pots doing this which allowed him to maintain the chip lead. he even withstood a bad beat all in preflop with QQ vs AQ against Raihm when they were 4-handed. but, still maintained the chip lead.

here are two reports that go into more detail about how each of player busted out. so, i won't go into that.

this is the 2nd year i've watched the final table of the Main Event on PPV. even though there are no hole cams, it gives a very realistic feel of each player's table image. most of the action is over preflop. which is usually how it is deep in tournaments. but, it's interesting to see how players react to the dynamics of the table after a big pot is won/lost.

i couldn't stay awake long enuf to see the final hand. when i finally went to bed, Yang was heads up against Lam and was controlling the HU match after the 1st dozen hands with over a 4-1 chip lead.

for the second year in a row, an unknown from SoCal takes down the Main Event. let's hope Yang proves to be a better diplomat for poker than Jamie Gold was or neverwas.

Orleans Open, drunken table games, TI final table....

we get to LV around 11:30am Saturday morning. Tina drops me off directly at Orleans and heads to TI to check in and "luxuriate". the freakin tournament registration line is rediculously long. luckily, they held off the start of the tournament for about 30 min to let everyone register. i catch up with Chad and Don before the start of the tourney.

i luck into a coupla good hands early and win some nice pots. tight lady on my right raises 3x in EP. i reraise 2.5x with KK and she calls. flop comes 8 high. she checks i bet half the pot. she thinks for a while, folds and said she had AQ. i believe her. somehow, i dodged one of the 14 aces in the deck.

later i limp with AA utg. there was a dead seat to my right and everytime the BB hit that seat, some young asian guy with sunglasses would raise it preflop. he raises and some other guy jams with AQ. i ask the dealer to count out his chips and take my sweet ass time. hoping the asian guy calls after i call. i call, he insta folds and says he had AK. i think he's FOS. i take out the player with AQ and have about T$5000 in chips at the first break. before the break i made a good laydown. but, woulda sucked out. i pick up JJsuxballz in EP and raise. two guys go all in. i know one of them has AA or KK so i fold. turned out they had QQ and KK. i knew i was way behind. but, a Jack came on the flop and i would won a monster pot. sometimes, i wish i'd make a donk call once in a while.

after the 1st break i steal a some blinds. i raise one hand with QhTh. a shorty moves in. i'm priced in to call and he flips KK. flop Q, river T. oops!

some kid was raisin a lot in LP to steal blinds/antes. i was just waiting for a hand to repop him with. he finally gets caught raisin with 7-8o and a shorty moves all in with AK. he calls. flops comes A-7-x. 7 hits the river and he scoops it. so sick.

i'm forced to fold 88 twice and 99 once to big reraises preflop. i have about T$4000 after the 2nd break.

i pick up 77 right after the 2nd break and raise it up. a shorty moves all in for about half my stack. he raised with KTo a few hands earlier and doubled up. i figure it's a coin flip and i've folded the 3 pocket pairs earlier to reraises, so i call. he flips QQ and i don't get lucky. i move my short stack to a new table, pick up 88 on the first hand and push. no one calls and i take down the blinds/antes. a few hands later some big stack in EP raises it up, i insta-push with AKo. he calls with Q8sOOted and flops a Q. i don't catch up and go out 140-something. 4.5hrs of play for no payout. a bit frustrating. there were 592 players to start with 54 spots paying out. the structure was awesome tho. the dead seat blinded out and finished ahead of more than half the field.

so, i head back to the room to change, pick up Tina and catch up with Lucko and his buddy Zack (with K) at Caesars poker room. we head over to a steak house for dinner and drinks. then, we decide to roam the strip to drink and gamboool it up at the table games. for an irish guy, Lucko had a tough time keeping up with me. he passed up on shot after shot and was always at least a beer behind. weak/tight.

we play craps at some dive across from Caesars. we found a hot table and I cashed over $200. we go from casino bar to casino bar drinking it up and finally catch up with SprStoner. we play blackjack against an asian dealer. def -EV. the deck hits her and i finish down the $200 i won at craps. we call it a night and head back to the room.

Tina orders us room service for breakfast and also gets me a cake. fool, i'm too old for b-days.

i decide to play the donksac 2pm tourney at TI. it's only a $60 buy-in and turned out to be a pretty small field. only 3o players. i triple up right away with AJ vs QJ all in on a J-high flop and i crack some slow playing donk's AA when i catch a nut flush on the turn with Ac2c. i take another player out with JJ vs AQ all in preflop. flop comes K-J-K and JJ doesn't suck ballz one time.

i go completely card dead after the 1st break. some old asian lady kept pushing all in preflop. the deck was hitting her hard. she got AJ 3x, AQ 3x and QQ once. she kept showing her cards after she pushed even if she wasn't called to let us know she wasn't just bullying the table. i was praying for a hand against her. but, i never got one. the structure in this thing was so bad. we finally get to the final table 10-handed. only 4 spots paid and i was down to $T3100 chips when the blinds went up to 500/1000 in the 6th level from 300/600. i finally pick up KJ, best hand i've seen in a long time and push. everyone folds to old asian lady push monkey who calls from the BB with A8o, flops an Ace and i'm out in 8th place. no payout for me again.

we're heading over to Planet Hollywood Casino for dinner and play the 7pm tourney. it's another cheap buy-in. so, should be plenty of donks. need to get lucky tho.

we're leaving for Vegas tomorrow...














A coupla months ago, Tina reserved a room for us at TI this weekend for my b-day (Sunday). I was going to call it off because i wasn't running well. but after making two final tables this week and with a renewed sense of confidence, i'm excited about the trip now.

we're driving up early tomorrow morning so i can try to make it in time for the Orleans noon tournament. it's a $225 buy-in and the structure looks very good. Chad and Don are also playing it. i know we're supposed to hate The Orleans after the June WPBT tourney director treated us like crap. but, Chad says it's ok to play their tournaments during the Orleans Open cuz the structure kicks ass and it's in the tournament room upstairs. who am i to argue?

:P

i'm hoping to catch up with Lucko and SprStoner while i'm out there. it sux how they both got knocked out of the Main Event. they played their asses off for two days and went out on bad beats. i'm sure they're still stinging from it. i'd still like to hear more about how some other hands played out over several beers and shots.

Good news !

Bad news...

this is how i busted out in 6th.

sitting on 32k in chips i pushed with Ad9d into an EP 3x raise of 12k. he had 76k behind at the start of the hand and calls with KhQh. he flopped a gutshot draw, i catch 2p on the turn and his draw comes thru on the river. i don't think it's a great call (obv). but, i've seen much worse.

top 3 payouts were:

1st $10,000

2nd $6,360

3rd $4,818

GOOOOOO LUCKOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooo!

Lucko and Stoner are kickin' sum donkey azzz in the Main Event. NFulton has taken over live blogging duties.

stop by and wish him luck!

helps to win a race once or twice....

i pushed with A9o in LP ran into 88 and it held.

Putting things into perspective

i decided to drag myself to the gym yesterday after playing a couple of satellites. i don't know why i don't get to the gym more often. i always feel great after getting a good workout in. it's a good way to clear my head and get back to the tables with a positive attitude.

while i was doing some crunches, i noticed one of the trainers was touring the gym with a prospective client. she was in her 20's and rolling alongside in a wheelchair. i thought to myself, this girl probably struggles just to get outta bed every morning and still finds a way to get herself here.

i continued my workout and kept thinking how hard her life must be. just doing the simplest things we take for granted must be a real chore.

i headed out to my car after i was finished and noticed her sitting in her SUV, struggling to take apart her wheelchair and load it by herself while sitting in the driver's seat. so, i stopped by to offer my help.

she just smiled and said "no thanks, i got it. no problem".

she could've probably saved herself about 10 minutes of frustration if she accepted a little help. but, she insisted on doing it on her own. i drove home thinking how determined she was to be self-sufficient with such a serious disability. a real inspiration.

this young lady gave me a whole new perspective on everything.

i'm a very lucky man.

dontcha luv picking up KK in the BB

hope everyone had a fun, safe 4th of July. we decided not to fight the crowds at the beach and chill at home.

there was a big overlay in the 50/50 last night (over $8k) due mostly to the fact it was a holiday. but, FTP also forgot to run any satellites for it. so, i bought in directly.

treading water most of the time before the 1st break. i was sitting on just over T$3k in chips after the break and about half the field left, i pick up KK in the BB. nice huh?

it's folded to the SB who raises me. last orbit he did this and i pushed all in forcing him to fold. this time, i reraise and he reraises me back. schweeet! it all goes in, he flips ATo and obv one of the ten Aces in the deck hits the flop and i'm out.

standard.

i lost a TON of 3-1 fav races yesterday.

i finished the night off playing sng's and did well. i also, final tabled the mOOK. it was a small crowd tho. only 26 players.

i ran Ac7c from the button into IslandBum's JackAce which he minraised from EP (weird). i will give him a little credit tho. he thought for a bit before calling off a 3rd of his stack with it.

good times.

mOOk bumped up the starting stacks to 3000 chips. he also cashed in 2nd place. wtg mOOK!

anotha cash in the 32k

with approximately 40 players left, i was 2nd in chips with over T$30k. i decide to call a raise from the cutoff in my BB with 5-5 when it was folded to him. i had him covered by about 9k. we go heads up to the flop.

flop comes Q-5-x with two clubs. i have the 5 of clubs.

i check the flop, intending to check/raise his c-bet. c-bet never comes and a harmless deuce hits the turn. i bet the pot (5k) and he calls. i put him on a weak Queen at this point, maybe QT/Q9. the flush completes on the river and i bet out half the pot. he thinks for a while and pushes. i'm already committed and call off another 6k into a 16k pot. he flips Ac7c. i didn't expect to see this. i was very surprised he would check the flop with a nut flush draw after raising my BB.

i end up limping into the money and finish 26th outta 258 players.









the 32k is quickly becoming my favorite daily tournament. you start with 3000 chips and 12 min blind levels. it's a $150+13 buy-in. so, most players know where the fold button is. there are still some donks. but, the play is nowhere near as bad as all $26 or even alot of $75 buy-in tournaments. the field is always less than 300 players. i satellite in thru their $26 daily turbo.

today's 32k payouts:
1st place $10k
2nd place $6300
3rd place $4837

if i could dodge a flush draw, i take that pot down and the chip lead deep.

A-5 is THA SHIIZZZNUTTZZ...

i played a SHITLOAD of poker this weekend and luckily....i broke even.

the play on the weekends is horrendous, even in larger buy-in tournaments. i went out on the very 1st hand of the 13k DS tourney (1am EST) on FTP Saturday night. all i'll say is i limp / flopped a set and he flopped TPNK. it all went in and he caught runner/runner straight with his lame-o kicker (A5o).

luckily i was killin my sngs

the sng play late at night on the weekends is really bad and i've been able to take advantage of it to keep my online BR where it is.

The Big Game

what a debacle that turned out to be, for me anyway. i found a way to blow the chip lead after the 2nd break and bubble in 6th for no $$$$. i made a terrible fold after a raise/reraise with AKo in the SB. the initial raiser folded and later i discovered, the all in reraiser showed a tendency to raise all in with A-crap. i insta-call there if we're not 3-handed. i expected the inital raiser to call the push and didn't want to get into a 3-handed race with AK. but, instead he folded to shorty.

later, he kept raising all-in to my BB from the SB when it was folded to him. i finally gave him fair warning that i'd call him with ATC next time he did that.

..and that's exactly what happened on the next orbit. it's folded to him in the SB and he pushes. i insta-call with 2c8c and flop a flush draw. he flops a pair and hits runner/runner boat with......

u guessed it, A5o

good news is, i cracked MTT Legend's (allegedly) AA with 7-8o on the 1st hand of the Big Game. he played it terribly post flop IMO. but, i'm sure he'll say i tried to donate chips.

congrats to Tripjax and Hoyazo for playing alot better than i did at the final table and finishing 1-2 for a nice cash.