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Jody gets on the scoreboard!

So, congrats to my boy, Jody, for his first ever WSOP cash. He busted 198th, but cashed. Pokernews got the hand wrong that busted him, but whatever. Roland de Wolfe limped in, Jody shoved the nuts (ie. J7o) and Roland calls w/ AKo and it holds un-improved. But still, a great day for him. Glad he got it and glad I was there for it.

Afterwards, he, myself, and his brother, Jeremy, (who is here for the week) all played some more $2/$5. For the 2nd time this week, between the 3 of us, we had a +$3k day (me w/ +$1700). Good times.

I'm sick w/ a cold, but still managing to put in hands/hours, since the games are so ridiculously soft right now.

That's all I got for today. I'm sick, and tired, but seperately...but I just read something that had me in stitches for about 4 minutes. I laughed so hard and for so long, my sides still hurt:

from mydrunktexts.com comes this gem:

"(703): (rec'd): fucking a dude (rec'd 1 min later): i mean: fucking a, dude (sent): wow, that comma made all the difference there"

Tears :)

Slow 'n low

So I haven't written in a long time. I just got tired of telling the world all about me. I dunno, whatever.

So I'm still playing poker and I'm still grinding away, although it's been really tough, at times. The only other thing that I would rather be doing is running/cooking/owning my own restaurant, but for those that know me, that's nothing new. But, all things considered, I'm really happy, still.

Anyway, having a good time during the WSOP this year and beating the cash games for a good bit. Also, my best friend, Jody (Fidodell to 2p2'ers), is getting dangerously close to going deep in today's $1500 event. Gogogogogogo Jody!

Speaking of which, someone posted this and I it really struck me as, well, damn good motivation. Maybe it will help someone else too?



I've really learned that day-to-day results really don't matter one bit...it's all about the long-term and the correct decisions. I mean, I've known this all along, but KNOWING it and not just saying you know it, I've learned, are two very, very different things. I've learned that slow 'n low, (ie. the tortoise, not the hare) wins the race. Life's is easier now that I understand that.

Never quit on your dreams!

Never quit on your dreams!

Mmmmm rain...

Let me start by saying that I have absolutely been killing the games the last couple/few weeks. That is not the reason for lack of updates. I just write when the mood strikes and, well, it struck this morning.

It's 830am here in Vegas and it's absolutely POURING rain outside and I couldn't be happier. Amanda & I have said that the only thing missing from Vegas, which would make it 100% perfect, is rain. Since we first said that @ 6 weeks ago, it's rained 7 times. It reminds me of growing up back in Portland, Oregon...

There really is something just pure and wonderful about waking up early on a Saturday morning and enjoying a cup of tea (or coffee) and listening to the sound of the rain. It's really a little slice of heaven for me and right now, life couldn't be any better than it is. It really is the small things that can make everything in life seem just a little bit sweeter. Today is a good day.


Since it has been a while since I last updated here, I had planned this whole long, drawn-out post about all the 'events' that have happened:

- Sugarland concert
- Amanda & my week long trip to LA
- The WSOP
- My best bud, Jody, coming to stay during the entire WSOP
- The 2p2 gathering
- Go-Karting/Golf
- The big BBQ w/ a bunch of 2p2'ers
- Meeting Floyd Mayweather @ a NBA Summer League game
- Coldplay concert

Well, that'd make a ridiculously long post and I don't know that many would want to read about all of it. I'll just summarize. :)

I played in Event #2 of the 2008 WSOP and busted out #229 of the 3k or so that entered it. John Nieznanski, tournament director @ the Bellagio, shoved his A2c into my AA in blind vs blind and had the flop come 225r to essentially end my tournament run. It was pretty awesome to cash in my first ever event, but it really showed me the crazy variance that goes along w/ tournament poker.

I didn't play in any other events and to be honest, wasn't that "up" for the WSOP this year. I don't know...maybe it's because we still were getting settled into living here and whatnot that I wasn't really mentally prepared for the 7 weeks, but for the most part, to me, it was a lot of "meh". I fully expect next year to be completely different.

Having Jody here was a total blast, though. Everything from battling it out racing Go-Karts, playing bogey golf, getting my ass handed to me in NHL07 on the 360 (he IS Canadian, eh), or talking poker, non-stop, for 6 weeks, Amanda & I thoroughly enjoyed having him here. Hell, Assani and Anthony seemed to like him here too. A great guy and we had a helluva lot of fun. I just wish we could play as much poker as we'd both wanted. C'est la vie. That's what the other 11 months are for, right? :)

Speaking of Jody and poker, it occured to me this morning, while perusing the regs thread over at 2p2, that our little poker group really has come a long way from when we first started a year ago. The group consisted of me, Jody (Fidodell), Mark (Awful Fish), Alex (RiverFenix), & Tony (PHILIVEY9563). While we're not yet killing it up as high as we want to be, we're certainly gettin' it done at SSNL. So congrats fellas and keep crushing!

So, to recap, life is good, I have a fantastic girlfriend, great friends, and I couldn't be happier with my life.

Tonight is the Miguel Cotto v Antonio Margarito fight @ MGM. We're gonna head down and pick up tickets there at the arena. It should be an incredible fight. I hope to post about it soon with some pics we take tonight.

High Stakes Poker...sort of & more!

I really enjoy writing in my blog here. I really do. I just find that when I'm running really badly, two things happen:

1)I want to play more poker to get of the schneid (which means less time to write)

2) I don't enjoy writing because losing sucks and writing about losing sounds like whining, which sucks even more.

So yeah, I've been slacking. But a lot of fun things have happened since my last post.

Back on Apr 23 (Wed. night), during the $25,000 WPT Championship, Assani and I ventured up to the SWPC and there was an incredibly soft/juicy/good 5/10 game going on w/ a must move so I took a seat in it. Assani was only there to play some pot limit Omaha (PLO) so he didn't want to be bothered slumming it in the 5/10 :) So things are cruising along when Vanessa Selbst (aka fslexcduck, an instructor for DeucesCracked.com as well as a well known MSNL poker player) walked into the room. She also is 'famous' for in the 2006 WSOP at the Final table of one of the preliminary events (which has been on ESPN numerous times), she raised then 4 bet shoved on a guy who had AA w/ 52s. Anyway, she's made some fantastic videos for DeucesCracked and whatnot, so I was excited to be able to play vs her. She ended up getting a seat in the must move on my right, so we were chatting it up a bit.

A bit later, we both got moved to the main game and it was just as juicy as it had looked earlier. So we're playing and BS'ing and everyone was having a good time and there were some guys who were there to do nothing BUT gambooooooooooooool. I mean throwing yellow $1k chips around like they were $5 chips. It was a great game. But then a few guys walked in the room and that changed for me. Phil Galfond (aka OMGClayAiken/Jman28) walked into room with Andrew "Good2cu' Robl and a couple of other 2p2'ers. Phil saw Vanessa and they started talking about their WPT bustouts and just general BS. Phil said that he and the fellas were gonna try and start a 5/5 PLO game and Vanessa said she'd join. Well, while this 5/10NL game was rockin', guys at my level don't get much of a chance to sit with guys who routinely play on "High Stakes Poker" & in Bobby's Room @ the Bellagio. So why not have some fun right? Juicy poker games will come and go all the time, but experiences like this, at least at this point in my career, don't. And life is all about experiences and not necessarily always about making money, so I quit the 5/10NL and got a seat @ the 5/5 PLO game.

Here was the lineup:

Seat 1: Brett 'gank' Jungblut
Seat 2: Andrew ' Good2cu' Robl
Seat 3: Vanessa 'fslexduck' Selbst
Seat 4: Me
Seat 5: 'KhalynYohrk'
Seat 6: Mikey
Seat 7: Phil 'OMGClayAiken' Galfond
Seat 8: 'Bones'
Seat 9: Assani Fisher (my roommate)

Long story short, we were all doing rounds of shots and just all BS'ing and having a lot of fun. Everyone at the table was really laid back and very cool. Noone had any type of attitude or whatnot, we were all just there to have fun and chill. Phil was joking that he was going to get unstuck from earlier in the day, by taking down the blinds, $10 at a time (he said he'd dropped $250,000 earlier that day playing 300/600 NL/PLO in Bobby's Room). Phil was really cool about answering some various questions some of us had. Overall, I dropped $800 but had a fucking BLAST doing it.

*click pic below for a few more*




In the last couple of weeks, Amanda & I have gone to the Shark Reef @ Mandalay Bay and also went to a benefit concert for Lili Claire
featuring the Goo Goo Dolls concert (with Sugar Ray) and really enjoying life.

*click for more Goo Goo Dolls pictures*



*click for more Shark Reef pictures*



Also, during my absence, Amanda had her birthday. I gave her a week-long trip to LA coming up next week so we could hit Six Flags, a few Reds games, and she could get her tattoo from Kat VonD @ High Voltage.

Then last night, we all (everyone here @ the house: me, Amanda, Assani, Anthony, & Katie) were going to head out to a club, most likely, Tryst. So around 7pm, Amanda, Assani, and I piled into the Caddy and we headed out to the Wynn. The plan was to play some pokers until Anthony & Katie met up with us @ 11pm and head to Tryst from there. We were thinking of getting bottle service, but they had a two bottle minimum (read: $1200), so we decided to pass. If it had been a one bottle minimum, we'd have gotten a table, but c'est la vie.

So when we get to the SWPC, there's a pretty long list for the 5/10 even with two games going. So the three of us are just sitting around and Assani asks if I wanna play some Chinese Poker while we're waiting. Sure, why not. So Assani and I start playing $15/point and Amanda is playing vs both of us for $5/point. After about 10 mins, Jean-Robert Bellande walks up and asks what we're playing. We tell him Chinese for $15/pt and he walks around for a bit then sits to play. He wants to play $20/pt and Assani & I are game and he joins (Amanda keeps playing $5/pt w/ all of us though). We play for about 30 mins when a seat opens up in the 5/10. Assani's up first but he'd rather keep playing Chinese, so I take it after dropping $200 @ Chinese. Amanda also quits, dead even, since she doesn't want to play if I'm not. She had a really good time though and J.R. was a good sport. Cocky, but a nice enough fella.

So I sit in the 5/10 and it's like 7 regs and 2 tourists, but I think I'm finally coming out of my DS. I hit two sets and value bet top pair vs one of the tourists and come 11pm, I book a nice $1k profit. Novel, trust me.

Now, about 10pm, Anthony & Katie show up and watch the fellas play Chinese. About that time, J.R. hollers over at me and asks if I want him to walk us into Tryst. Well, since I loathe waiting in lines (got enough of that shit in the USMC), I was like, "Sure...handle that will ya?" :)

So I cash out and watch Assani, J.R., T.K (Chinese/mix game reg @ SWPC), and another guy play Chinese. During the next 15 minutes or so, we all are doing shots of SoCo w/ Lime and pounding drinks. Then the final two hands, the guys want to play double ($40/pt) and the final hand is triple ($60/pt). Since they were 3-handed, J.R. says he's gonna play 2 hands on the button and at $60/pt, asks me to set one of his hands...heh. I take a look at the hand and he's got dick. I mean, a really bad Chinese hand, so I tell him he's not gonna like it and set it for him. Assani ends up making a good bit the final two hands but when they quit, he's still stuck pretty good...maybe that will keep him from playing too much Chinese vs real poker ;)

So after the game ends, we're all sitting around Table 2 drinking and waiting for J.R. come back from the bathroom to walk up into Tryst. We're all cutting up and doing more shots and overall just being loud, obnoxious and having fun. About 10 mins. later, J.R. asks if we're ready and we head over to Tryst.

Now, for those that have never been to a club in Vegas, the lines on the weekends are just stupid. They go on for about 54 miles. So being able to avoid them w/o getting bottle service is a big deal. So we walk up to one of the hosts and J.R. talks to him...and J.R.'s contact isn't working that night and the host is kinda like, "Sorry for ya"...and he's about to walk away when I pipe up and say, "Bro, you really don't know who he is?!?", hoping to pique the guys interest. I'm sure some/most of y'all reading this also know that J.R. was on "Survivor" fairly recently, so I figure this cat would ask and once he found out, would let us in. J.R. trys to play it off, but the host is like, "Ok, now I'm curious..." and we're in ;)

We get a script that lets us in w/o waiting in line and w/o having to pay. We still ship the head host who J.R. DOES know $60 and we head into the club. The place is obviously bellybutton-to-asshole with people, but it's a pretty damn impressive place. Not a place I'd want to hit up weekly, but if you're gonna go clubbin', this is definitely one of the places to check out. Obviously the drinks are expensive, but that was to be expected, hence why we were pounding the drinks & shots at the poker table (read: free + tip). Fast forward 3 hours and we're all feeling no pain and having a really good time. Katie and Anthony headed out to meet some other friends and we were going to meet up with them, but Assani really wanted to stay at Tryst but didn't want to be by himself so we stayed another hour or so. But then, Assani is toast and wanders off never to be heard from again, or at least until the next day from a random chix's hotel room. So we text Anthony and they're home already so we call it a night and head home.

*click for more drunken Tryst pictures*


All-in-all, though, a great time had by all. Vegas is still a helluva lot of fun and it seems as though I'm emerging from my downswing, so things are just going to get better with the WSOP only 3 weeks away!!! My good buddy, Jody, is coming to town for most of June for the WSOP so that should be a blast as well. I'm looking forward to 96-hour work weeks during the length of the WSOP and maybe even scoring a nice chunk of change in a couple of the events...either way, it's going to be a fantastic 7 weeks!

FIGHT NIGHT!!!

Welcome to Vegas!!!

We woke up Saturday @ noon and I asked Amanda what she wanted to do today. "I thought we were gonna try to get tix for the fight tonight?" Oh snap...that's right. The Bernard Hopkins/Joe Calzaghe title fight was that night and I told her I'd try to land us some tickets. The fight was taking place at the Thomas Mack Center (home of the UNLV Runnin' Rebels) and should be a great fight. So why not, right? Provided we can land tickets for the price that I want to pay.

So I get dressed and hop online and check out both craigslist and eBay. It's now @ 12:30pm and the fight starts at 6:45pm local time, since it's being broadcast on HBO, live. So I see adds for tix for like $800/ea and such and heh, no. But I see one on ebay that offers $1500/ea tickets for $600/each. Well, it's not 5 hours til fight time and I send him a message saying I'll buy a pair for $300, total. I also made a couple of calls to craigslist listings and said the same. I figure $0.10 on the dollar is fair, being so close to the actual event. I figure the scalpers and brokers would rather make something for the tickets, right? Well, a couple of them said no, but to call back later. The cat I left a message for thru eBay called me back and we agreed on section 106, Row M, two tickets (lower bowl, center of the ring), for $300 total. He asked if I could meet his guy on the Strip. I said, no, that I'd meet him at the main entrance of the Thomas Mack center. He agreed and I knew that doors opened at 1:45 and that there were 7(!!!) fights on the undercard so we said 2pm. He agreed and we got ready to go check out the fights!!!

I was still a bit apprehensive, getting SUCH a good deal on the tix that they might be counterfeit, but that's why I wanted to meet by the entrance so that I could get the tix scanned before I paid him and make sure everything was on the up-n-up. Plus, if they were legit tickets, he shouldn't mind. So we head out and he texts me to let me know he can make it at 230pm. Ok, no problem. Gives us time to grab a quick bite then head to the TM Center.

We park at the back of the parking lot, near one of the exits and start walking toward the main entrance. "Nick" calls and tells me what he's wearing and we meet by the escalators heading to the main entrance. I ask if he has a problem is I take one of the tickets up to get scanned and if it's all good, Amanda would pay him the money. He says sure and I get it scanned and we're all set. I give Amanda the thumbs up and she hands him the money and we're in! I also asked if he usually gets tickets to the major fights here and he said yes, so I have a hookup now it seems. Good deal!

So we walk around the concourse and I sneak a peak inside one of the entrance ways and holy shit we're gonna have some good seats...

We finally find our section and just wow. We were like 25 rows behind ring-side and had an incredible view of the ring. It was pretty empty during the early undercard fights so we moved down pretty close and enjoyed the first few fights. We went and bought a brew and some dogs and it seemed as though most of the inhabitants of Wales were inside the Thomas Mack Center. I swear that we were out numbered 3:1, Welsh to American. I know they travel well, but fuck me people. And they were hilarious. We met a few of them and had a great time.

So the place started filling up, so we headed back to our 'real' seats and as we're sitting there watching the 6th of the 7 undercard fights (Audley Harrison was the only real *name* fighting on the undercard, mostly a sad undercard, really), former Heavyweight Champion Chris Byrd and his wife walked by, down to their seats. About that time, Amanda points out that she really liked Chris' wife's hair. See, she's been looking for a good place to get her hair 'did' since we moved out here to Vegas and has not been able to, yet. So about 2 minutes later, I say, "So you really liked her hair, eh?" She says, yes, she really did. Ok cool...

So I head down to where Chris Byrd and his wife are sitting and say something to the effect of, "Excuse me, Mr. Byrd, I hope I'm not intruding but y'all just walked past us and my girlfriend really likes your wife's haircut. I was wondering, do y'all live here in Vegas?" He has this look on his face, at this point, of, Um, oh, ok you're not here to talk to me, cool. "Yes, we do". Nice... So I look at his wife and ask, "Would you mind tellling me where you get your hair done then? We just moved here and she's looking for a place to get her hair done and hasn't found one yet..." At this point they both kinda laugh and she then proceeds to ask if I'm familiar with the Henderson area (score!) and gives me a reference and a phone number and tells me to just tell her that she referred me. "Um, do I just say that Chris Byrd's wife referred me?" "Yeah, that'll do it!" LOL. During all of this, Chris and I are bullshitting about his upcoming fight on ESPN's Friday Night Fights and how they are promoting his opponent: 'The always dangerous Shaun George'. I joked with him that that means that he's gonna get his ass kicked. He got a good laugh at that. BTW, at first glance I didn't recognize Chris as he's dropped a shitton of weight dropping down to Light Heavyweight from Heavyweight, so he's a LOT smaller than I expected.
We then got to talking about the Hopkins/Calzaghe fight and I asked who he liked. He said he really didn't know because although Hopkins is getting old, he still knows how to win and although Calzaghe is moving up in weight, he's still the bigger guy between them. He thought Calzaghe might win, but that it should be a good fight.

I thanked them for the reference and their time and went back to our seats. Now, prior to this, there was a guy two seats over from us who we had been talking to during the last fight and he was wide-eyed that I had gone down there and chatted w/ them for the better part of 5 minutes and I came back and told the story to he and Amanda and they both got a kick out of it. Good times.

A little later during the Audley Harrison snoozefest (read: final undercard fight), I went down ringside (or at least like 5 rows from ringside) to get some pictures and it really was a who's who of A-list fighters and celebrities there. I mean, I KNEW it was going to be, but it was pretty cool seeing all of them. Everyone from Catherine Zeta-Jones (supporting her fellow Welshman Calzaghe) to Jay-Z, Sugar Ray Leonard, Winky Wright, Marco Antonio Barrera, Sly Stallone and a ton of others. So after the final undercard fight the place was really starting to fill up and Amanda came down to see all of the "beautiful people" and we were having a good time BS'ing with some of the punters down there. I kept my eye on a block of seats that was about 10 rows behind ringside that had been open the entire time. Fuck it, I said, and I grabbed Amanda's hand and we plunked down in two of the seats, dead center, like we owned them. :)

We never had to move the rest of the night. People all around us were being asked to vacate their seats and the real seat owners were arriving (some as late as the 6th round...I mean, really?!?), but not us. I guess I run good at life.

Click the pic below for the photo album from the fight!



I'm sure you've already heard the results, but Joe Calzaghe won in a split decision. I think that it was a 2 point win for Calzaghe, as I was scoring the fight. I'm not sure what fight that Adelaide Byrd was watching, but she's been a pretty horrible judge for a long time now. At least two of them got it right and the right guy won.

That said, the atmosphere was just electric in the Thomas Mack Center last night. The Welsh were doing all they could to energize Calzaghe and he was returning the favor by just dictating all of the action. We completely enjoyed ourselves and had an absolute blast at the fights last night and can not wait for the next one. Cotto/Margarito should be awesome, but if Floyd Mayweather stops dodging Miguel Cotto, I'm going to do whatever it takes to get us tickets to that fight. That should be one helluva fight!

God, are we loving Vegas!!!

Rekrul, Elky, and a fun night at SWPC

Friday night was an interesting evening for me. For the first time ever, I was asking myself if it was worth the aggrevation of dealing with this one asshole for "only $1k-$2k". But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I headed out to play a session at the SWPC (Steve Wynn Poker Club ie. the Wynn for my non-regular readers) at around 8pm. I was a pleasantly surprised to see 3(!!!) tables of 5/10 going. I immediately got seated in the 3s in the must move game. I loved that I recognized a whopping 1 player at my table. Almost always this is a good sign, as they're not regs there.

About an orbit into the session, I got locked up in a hand where I had AA in the BB and I 3bet a guy from MP. Long story short, we got it all in on the turn, he had a set of Q's vs my AA and I river one of the two A's left in the deck to take down a $3k+ pot. Not much else happened the next 30 mins or so when in a 5-way limped pot, I flop top set w/ 88 and get it all in for @ $1k each vs the nut flush draw. I boat up on the turn and I'm off and running.

But shortly after that, I got moved to one of the main games and there was a guy who was just the epitome of annoying. He thought he was the life of the party and was slowing the game down to an absolute crawl. Now, normally, this wouldn't bug me so much, as happy tourists usually don't mind losing lots of money, but there was something about this cat that was just grating me. I finally put my headphones on and turned my Ipod up loud enough to drown him out. But even then, the pace of the game was almost unbearable. I even got to the point where I got up and went over to where Assani was playing some Chinese poker w/ Mike Chow, Bari, and Brett 'gank' Jungblut, and I asked him, "Is it worth the aggrevation of dealing with this one asshole for 'only $1k-$2k'?" He said to stick with it for a bit and if it gets to be too much, fuck it, just leave bro. Ok, I'll give it a go.

Around this time, two young looking guys came over, one of which was taking our one open seat and the other was in the other main game. I knew they looked familiar, but I couldn't place them. I assumed that since they both bought in pretty deep, they were decent players (young + deep usually = online players = good). We got to playing a bit and I finally loosened up and the guy wasn't slowing the game down so much, so I got to talking...

"Hey bro, where do you play online?" I just assumed he was an online player so we'd see where that went. "Pokerstars". Oh yeah? Cool, "what's your name on there?" "Rekrul"...so at this point, it still isn't sinking in, so we just get to talking and such and I find out he lives in South Korea and was a former professional "Starcraft" player. No shit, eh? Cool. We kept talking a bit and he mentions that the other cat in the hoodie at the other table was none other than ElKy. No kidding? So at this point, even though I can't figure out who the fuck this kid is (I know I know rekrul from somewhere though...), I give him a good bit of credit since he's rolling w/ the 2008 PCA champ, ElKy. I also figured that he was going to try and run the table over w/ aggression so I made some pretty good call downs w/ marginal hands and took him for @ $2k over the course of the evening. He was a nice guy and quiet, but didn't mind chatting it up a bit either. He and I cashed out near the same time and he said he was heading over to play in a bigger game over at the Bellagio and I told him GL and maybe I'll see you around some this summer during the WSOP.

I got him and I googled "rekrul" and oh yeah...now it hits me: Rekrul. And here I was playing back at him because I knew he was going to be superaggro being an internet kid. Maybe it's best that I didn't know who he was at the time...it may have made me more timid. Dunno. Either way, that was pretty damn fun and I'm glad I stuck it out and didn't let that asshole bother me to the point of leaving!