Catching up

It's been over 2 months since I last posted, which is the longest I've gone since I became a blogger in early 2006. I'll do my best to catch you guys up on what I've been doing since late September.

I finished up my time in London in early October. To put things lightly, things went miserably there. I ended up airballing everything I played. My winnings for the year took a huge drop because there were several big buy-in tournaments that were hosted there. I did largely enjoy my 23 days or so in the city though and definitely got in my fair share of partying.

From London, I came home and took a week or so off before heading off on a 3 stop tour: Vegas to Chicago to WPT Foxwoods. I bricked all 3 Texas Hold'em poker tournaments I played in Vegas and was really hating live poker and considering cutting the trip short and just taking the rest of the year off. Instead, I trucked through to Chicago for the first ever $10,000 WSOPC Regional Championship poker tournament event.

I cruised most of day 1 in that event before I tried to give away all my chips on the very last hand of the night. One of the nicest guys in the business, Michael Pesek, opened up front to like 2300 at 500/1000 and I made it 6500 from MP with J7hh.

It folded back to Mike and I told myself if he 4bet then I was going to trigger a 5bet all-in. He did just that and made it 14500ish and I moved in for 65000. He called with Queens but I managed to double up and cripple him when the board came Jd5h3s4hTh. I kinda stubbed my toes and got unlucky once on day 2 and really had to battle hard. We played deep into the night, around 3:30 a.m. before finally reaching the money of 24 players.

On day 3 I had the misfortune of having elite tournament player David "Doc" Sands to my left for most of the day. He played very well albeit unbearably deliberately. I thought I, too, played well that day and eventually we made it down to the final table of 10 where Doc busted Steve Zolotow on the TV table bubble.

My mom, dad, and sister Carly flew into Chicago last minute for the TV table which will be televised on the Versus network. I entered the final table 3 of 9 but unfortunately busted 6th for around $100,000 after running into two huge coolers, once with QQ vs AA and once with JJ vs AA to bust button vs BB. I really enjoyed the experience and really appreciated how the eventual winner, a 20-something Ohioan named Jim Anderson, conducted himself at the table.

Early the next morning I flew up to WPT Foxwoods in Connecticut and bought in on day 2. I doubled up quickly but then lost a flip before running a big pair, tens, into Aces for the 3rd time in 24 hours. I was on the next morning's flight and got to spend another week or so at home in Birmingham.

My next stop was Los Angeles for the NAPT event there. This was a well run tournament that got like 800ish players, if I remember correctly. I pretty much cruised through this tournament and then in the middle of day 2 the wheels started to fall off. First, I opened two red Aces and this little Asian guy named Tom Lee shoved 27bb from MP the exact hand after losing a big pot and I was shown K6dd. The flop came like Kxx with two diamonds and the turn was a diamond. Lee shot out of his seat in celebration despite the fact that I had 7 outs. The river, however, was not a diamond. I battled back. A kid opened to 7500 and I decided to flat Aces. The button called and then the maniacal Lee pushed a stack of blue 5000 chips totaling 100,000 in from the SB. It folded back to me, I moved in, and he called off his last 50,000 with Jacks. A jack came in the door. I battled back again then 4bet all-in on the bubble with 54dd after Lee 3bet me for probably the tenth time that day. I flipped the cards in high enough for Lee to see the 4d on the bottom. We made the money and then shortly into it I opened 44, and Lee 3bet once again to 30,000. The flop came 653r. I checked with the intention of CRAI but Lee blasted it all-in for 222,000 into the pot of 75,000. He just looked totally full of shit to me, so I called and was shown ATo. The turn, remarkably, was a ten and Lee once again jumped out of his seat despite my 10 outs. I missed and was out like 87th for peanuts.

Finally, I went down to Florida for the Fall Poker Open in Fort Lauderdale. It was my first trip to South Florida, and boy did I fall in love with the place. My boy Tim "timkrank" Miles let me stay with him at his bad ass condo on the beach in Miami. This tournament was set up such that if you busted day 1a you could rebuy on day 1b. I did just that so I was in for $10,000. I kinda limped into day 2 but quickly rallied to an above average stack and we made the money later that night. On day 3 however, I played for an above average stack with JJ vs KJdd and the chips were pushed the other way and I was out 21st for a few hundred dollars in profit :/

The above probably sounds like one big bad beat story, so I apologize for that. Just sorta trying to report things as they were. A lot of people would probably forget to report the J7hh > QQ hand, I guess.

After Florida I came home and enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving with my family before heading to Tuscaloosa for the Alabama vs Auburn game. I don't even wanna recall that experience. As I type this I'm in Vegas. I'll play the $5000 prelim and then the $10,000 WPT. After that I'll head home for a couple weeks before my final poker trip of the year, Atlantic City's $10k WSOPC Regional Championship.

I made out my schedule for all of 2011 up until the World Series of Poker. I'll be traveling a bunch. I have mixed feelings about that. I enjoy playing live tournaments, a lot, but it's quite a grind sort of living out of a suitcase and always being on the road. I really am past the stage of sitting in front of the computer grinding online tournaments, too. I'm kinda itching to play a lot live since I was trapped at school for 21 months recently, so I think I'll grind through the 2011 World Series and then kinda evaluate whether I wanna keep traveling a bunch. There are, though, some changes in my personal life that I want to make, and being on the road complicates that.

That's it. Thanks for reading. Next blog entry hopefully sooner than later.

SS