Kwicky's Journal

Bronco collapse and UFC 102 thoughts

2009-09-03T11:41:00.003-06:00

I am incredibly excited for football this year but watching the Broncos implode just disgusts me. Kyle Orton disclocates his finger so badly that it bursts through the skin? So nasty. Now there's talk of Brandon Marshall going to the Jets. I don't really know what else to call this offseason other than an absolute disaster. I guess the only good news is that the defense is looking better than it did last year. But it couldn't have gotten any worse. Anyone see that hit by Brian Dawkins in the last game?

In other news, the UFC fights this weekend were awesome. Brandon Verra looked sluggish but got the W. Also, loved to see my boy Nate Marquardt do well. I was surprised to see how fast Randy Couture still is. Good fight, good night.

New Shodown Shirt Sneak Peak!

2009-08-25T15:13:00.004-06:00

Shodown Couture just posted a sneak peak of the new KwickFish t-shirt designs to their facebook! For the last six months, I've been working with Shodown to design clothes that represent the poker lifestyle ethic. My design above signifies the strength and peace of mind that I think it takes to play winning poker. The shirts are bamboo, so they’re ridiculously soft and renewable—two things that are very important.

Shodown also has their original shirts which I wore throughout the WSOP. Here’s everyone’s most diplomatic fight promoter showing off the Hooks shirt. Do they make shirts big enough for Brock? :) Check em out!

Summer: Highlights and Things Yet to Happen

2009-08-25T12:47:00.003-06:00

It's been a whirlwind summer.

I began the summer by taking a river cruise with Amber through Europe. On the second night there, I proposed and she said yes! Obviously things off to a phenomenal start.

Then, as always, I spent the next six weeks in the Rio poker room for the WSOP. Historically, I've had trouble with smaller buy-in events but I really started figuring things out. I only had one small cash but I feel now that my game is at a much better place. The main event was one of the most rewarding and also the most heartbreaking tournaments I've played in recently. Still though, I'm proud of the way I played. Good luck to the nine! :)

Since the WSOP I've been all over the place, mostly outside. About a month ago I backpacked up to a natural hot springs and then climbed Conundrum and Castle Peaks, two 14,000' mountains in Colorado. A few weeks ago I went white water rafting with Amber, Daisy, and a bunch of good friends. I've been playing a lot of softball and volleyball too.

As I pointed out in a recent post, the biggest news since Amber's and my engagement has been the addition of Bella to our family. It's fun having a puppy again but this dog has a mind of her own.

Other than that? Getting ready for NFL, working on a Heads Up book, and trying to stay on top of the changes in MMA. Football starts in 16 days!

Brandon Marshall

2009-08-21T14:10:00.005-06:00

B Marsh wants to get paid. My Broncos are afraid of his off the field ish. Keep in mind, this is the team that paid Travis Henry to finance a cocaine trafficking ring. They're understandably a little gun shy.

I honestly think if Brandon can shut his mouth and walk the straight and narrow this year, Bowlen will give him the big bucks.

Can we please save the drama and just play some football?

Bellisima!

2009-08-20T12:54:00.004-06:00

Amber and I adopted another dog! Meet Bella. She's about 3.5 months old and the people at the Humane Society think she's part Plott Hound and part Retriever. She's all awesome!

Doing her part

2009-07-02T14:03:00.004-06:00

A few nights ago I was chillin' with my friend, Mandy Baker. She mentioned that she was on a mission to do her part in fighting global warming by going to her friend's houses and installing energy efficient light bulbs. Go Mandy!

The Master

2009-07-01T20:35:00.004-06:00

HUGE congrats to Jason DeWitt, aka TheMasterJ33 for taking second place last night in the $3,000 Triple Chance. This is his second final table this summer. Very Niiiice!

Check this out!

2009-06-14T19:45:00.002-06:00

$1,500 NL - 6/11

2009-06-12T10:52:00.002-06:00

I played two hands of consequence today. The first came in the second round when UTG limped for 100, I limped 5,5 in late position and both blinds were in as well. The flop was Ks, Ts, 3h. Checked around. Turn was the 2h. Checked around. River was the 5h. Small blind lead out for 350, fold, fold, I thought for a while and decided to raise to 925 and he called. I thought I was good for sure until he showed Jh3h for a flush.

I literally didn't play another hand until the following hand. UTG limped for 150, then a guy who was on crazy mega-tilt (raising and re-raising literally every single pot) raised to 475, I picked up K,K two spots behind and made it 1,500 of my 3,000. The tight old guy who had the flush against me earlier re-raised to 3,000, folded around to the mega-tilty guy, who put in his last 2,200 or so. Tilty guy has Jd,6d and old guy has Ah,Kh. Ace on the turn, g'nightkwicky.

Two early exits, but I'm optimistic for the next tournament.

'09 WSOP - 0/2

$2,500 NL Short Handed - 6/8

2009-06-12T10:45:00.003-06:00

A couple rounds in it folded to the cutoff, who made it 175, button called, sb called, and I looked down to see Q,Q. I squeezed to 900 and the cutoff quickly threw in 4,000. Fold, fold. I decided to go with it because it was the beginning of the day and I wanted to either double up and have a chance to run over the table early or go home. Unfortunately the latter was the case, as he turned over K,K after I went all-in and was called. In retrospect I think I could have made a good fold here. I don't think he would have made that play with J,J very often, so I was likely either flipping or a 4.5:1 underdog. Maybe the real mistake was playing the event in the first place, given the fact that I had just gotten into town from Germany the night before. I was so excited to play though! Anyway, I'm feeling great about my game, so I can't wait for the next one.

'09 WSOP - 0/1

Day 14: Antwerp, Belgium

2009-06-06T09:12:00.000-06:00

Scrambled eggs...yet again. After breakfast we took the buses into town and toured the Museum of Fine Arts. I’ve visited many museums in my travels, and I just didn’t feel like this one had much to offer. Maybe I just wasn’t feelin’ it today, but very few of the paintings kept my attention for longer than a couple minutes. I think it was in large part due to the fact that most of the paintings were dark, oil paintings. The audio device that explains some of the pieces nearly put me to sleep. I think I may have been spoiled by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Unfortunately we had an hour and a half to kill before leaving for the walking tour of the city.
The walking tour was worse than the museum, if you can believe it. Our tour guide was the worst yet, walking at a freaking snails pace, slurping up saliva in between each sentence, and rambling on about uninteresting facts. Amber and I ditched quickly left our group behind and toured the city ourselves. There really wasn’t anything that stood out as unique or interesting about the city. Antwerp is dirty and industrial - not really my bag. We met back up with our group and made our way back to the buses.
The highlight of the day came when I decided to grab a last minute Schoarma before leaving. We got back to the bus and had penne pasta with marinara and cream of chicken soup for lunch. I typed up a few blogs, Amber packed our bags, and we spent the rest of the day drinking yummy Belgian beer on the boat.
We ended up having a fun trip after a very rough start, but we are both more than ready to come home. I thought we were coming home on the 6th, but we actually get back on the 7th, so unfortunately I’m going straight from DIA to Las Vegas when I get back - sorry Daisy & Kitty :(

Antwerp - .5/10

Day 13: Brugge, Belgium

2009-06-06T07:49:00.006-06:00

Brugge was by far my favorite city thus far. The city of 120,000 inhabitants is over 1,200 years old. We started out the day with a three hour walking tour. Along the way we walked through a beautiful courtyard that was part of the town’s monastery. We then walked over a bridge alongside a small park where there were many swans and ducks meandering about.
“Chocolate Street” was our next destination. This street was filled with chocolate, lace, and souvenir shops. Horse-drawn carriages, bicycles, and canal boats were the primary methods of transportation - very few cars, which was very refreshing. The street dead ended into the Church of Our Lady - the tallest building in Belgium for the better part of the country’s existence.
From there we made our way to the Market Square via a few back alleys where there were some really cool shops. We made our way back around and ended the walking tour at a restaurant, where we had lunch. Local beef stew, braised beef in a rich Belgian beer sauce, and Belgian waffles for dessert.
After lunch we had a couple hours of free time, so Amber and I headed back to “Chocolate Street” and loaded up our backpack with 86 euro worth of Belgian chocolate. We then took a thirty minute canal cruise through the city, which was great. Amber got some great shots of the architecture along the way.
Then, we made our way to a beer shop, where I bought five bottles of local micro brews. The shop keeper was rather uninformative, but I’ve had a couple of the beers and I was very happy with my selections thus far. We had twenty minutes or so until we were supposed to meet back up with everyone, so we went to a pub and had a couple beers. The place we went to had over 400 choices of Belgian beer goodness to choose from. They brought some spicy peanuts out with our beers as well.
Unfortunately our day in Brugge came to an end as we caught the buses back to the ship. We ate dinner - I had turkey breast stuffed with plums in gravy while Amber stuck with the trusty sirloin steak. After dinner we fell asleep watching Must Love Dogs.

Brugge - 10/10

Day 12: Delft & Rotterdam, Netherlands

2009-06-06T06:52:00.004-06:00

After breakfast we took the buses to Delft, where we toured Porceleijne Fles - one of the few remaining 17th century factories still producing entirely handmade Delftware. It was really cool to see all the steps that are taken to create these extremely expensive pieces of porcelain art.
We decided not to buy anything because it didn’t seem worth it. This vase was 12,500 euro...
Guess how much this piece cost?

Anyway, after our tour of the porcelain factory we took the buses back to Rotterdam, where they gave us a quick bus tour of the city. Rotterdam is basically just like any city you’d find in the states, nothing really special or anything. There was a McDonalds on every other street corner it seemed.
Once we got back on the boat we had lunch, during which time the boat sailed to Dordrecht. There were a lot of windmills along the way, but not much other than that. Once we arrived in Dordrecht some of the passengers deboarded the ship for an optional windmill excursion that didn’t really sound that great, so Amber and I just chilled on the boat checking emails and such.
We ate a very bland dinner and then fell asleep watching Burn After Reading.

Delft - 4
Rotterdam - 2.5

Answer: 1,200,000 euro

Day 11: Gouda, Schoonhoven, & Rotterdam, Netherlands

2009-06-06T05:54:00.003-06:00

Frosted Flakes with warm skim milk... not quite as good as it sounds. After breakfast we drove through the countryside en route to a local farm. The recently shorn sheep were baahing away as we made our way into the barn, where we were shown a video on the cheese making process.
After the video we were given some samples of “young” Gouda (pronounced “how-da” by the locals). Young cheese is aged less than four months and is soft and mild. Old cheesse, on the other hand, is aged up to eight months and is much harder (obviously) and has a much sharper taste to it. We tried the normal Gouda, one with herbs, and one with paprika & onions. All were very good and we bought some of each.
Anyway, after our visit to the farm we went to the town of Gouda and walked around the marketplace for a while. There we bought 5 DVDs for 20 euro; the selection was rather slim but we ended up buying - I, Robot, Death Race, The Dark Knight, Burn After Reading, and Must Love Dogs.
We then rode the buses to Schoonhoven, where our ship met us. There were many silver ships and a few animal shops lining the streets of this small, quaint town. We walked around for half an hour or so and then went back to the boat.
We set sail for Rotterdam. I played online poker while Amber read her book for the better part of the afternoon. The slow, unreliable internet connection was driving me crazy, but I was glad to have it.
For dinner, I had spinach risotto and amber had butterfish with an almond crust. By far the best meal of the trip thus far (that the ship offered). We arrived in Rotterdam around 8:00pm. After dinner we decided to watch I, Robot. I really liked the movie - Will Smith is one of my favorite actors. We were both pretty tired, so we crashed right after the movie.

Gouda - 8
Schoonhoven - 5.5
I, Robot - 8

Day 10: Amsterdam, Netherlands

2009-06-03T23:06:00.003-06:00

I saw more bicycles today than I’ve ever seen in my life! Thousands and thousands of them! There was even a four story bicycle “parking garage,” where the above photo was taken. Amber and I were nearly taken out many times throughout the day.
We started out the day by taking a canal cruise through the city, which was really cool, other than the fact that our first boat broke down and we had to wait for another one to come get us. On a positive note, we finally had an awesome guide for the day. She was very informative and funny. One of the many tidbits that she shared with us was the fact that Amsterdam has more canals than Venice, which I found surprising. The canals are essentially streets - it was a really great way to see the city. Some of the “parking spots” on the water cost upwards of 200,000 euro (no boat included). Pretty crazy! After our tour of the city we loaded back onto the buses and made the short trip to the Van Gogh Museum.
At 18.50 euro, the museum is rather pricey, but well worth it, in my opinion. They give you personal audio devices that explain a lot of the influences and themes of the paintings, along with excerpts from Van Gogh himself in letters to his brother, Theo. Although he is famous for his second Starry Night, I really liked all of his paintings - some much more so than Starry Night. I think my favorite is Landscape at Twilight.
After the museum we walked the street for a while in search of a place to have lunch. We finally decided on a sports bar, where Amber had a cheeseburger and I had dutch meatballs in gravy. They were showing a replay of the 2006 World Cup Finals match between France and Italy, which kept us entertained for a while.
After lunch we walked the streets for a while and found a family of birds nesting on a piece of floating styrofoam in the canal. There were four recently hatched chicks chirping and swimming around while mom and dad found food for them. Sadly, the nest was comprised mainly of twigs and trash. We watched them for a good 20 minutes, it was quite the find by Amber.
We made our way back to the boat and watched Talladega Nights before falling asleep (Amber and I love Will Ferrell :p) Dinner time came, so it was back to socializing with the old people for a while. We were both fairly tired from walking around all day and we felt like we had seen enough of the city, so we decided to just chill on the boat for the night....

Amsterdam - 7/10

Day 9: Arnhem, Netherlands

2009-06-03T23:03:00.000-06:00

After breakfast we loaded onto the buses. Today’s excursion would be a visit to the Airborne Museum. Along the way we had a tour guide ramble on in a thick accented monotoned voice about random, uninteresting facts, almost as if reading directly out of a textbook. Arnhem is industrial and ugly, but apparently they have plans to remodel a lot of the abandoned buildings around town.
When we arrived at the museum, we saw a brief video clip that explained a lot of the strategy and details of Operation Market Garden. The museum was built right on the land site of the 82nd Airborne and is a memorial to those that gave their lives for Holland’s freedom. The museum’s curator was extremely knowledgeable and had a lot of stories to tell, as he was five years old when Allied troops liberated his hometown. Overall, I thought they did a really nice job with the museum - a lot of interactive exhibits and information throughout. On our way back we made a small detour to visit the military cemetery in Oosterbeek.
Once back to the ship, we ate lunch and I took an afternoon nap while Amber read almost 300 pages of the book she’s been reading. We had dinner and then it was Amber’s turn to crash, while I went to the lobby and checked emails and such.
The terrain has really leveled out in the Netherlands - much less mountainous than Germany. A lot of locals were riverside enjoying the hot summer afternoon. We passed a number of windmills, sheep, cows, and horses throughout the day.
Well, that’s about it for today...next stop - Amsterdam =)

Arnhem - 1/10

Day 8: Cologne, Germany

2009-05-31T20:30:00.002-06:00

Today we had an omelet instead of our usual scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausage. I guess we were feeling adventurous, lol. After breakfast, as usual, we left our tour guide behind and walked through the trash ridden streets. It was a ghost town for a while, but things picked up by the time afternoon arrived.
We made our way to the cathedral - a massive display of gothic architecture at it’s best. Apparently the cathedral took 640 years to build. There were a lot of church goers, being that it was Sunday morning. Inside we could only stare up at the elegant stained glass windows, simply jaw dropping. Attached to the ceiling was by far the largest organ I’d ever seen. We lit a candle and quietly exited the church.
While waiting for the Tourist Information place to open, we sat at a cafe overlooking the cathedral square and people watched. That’s an under rated activity, I must say. I had a glass of Champagne and an apple, sugar, and cinnamon crepe while Amber had an Irish coffee, which she thoroughly enjoyed.
At 10:00am we crossed the street and into the Tourist Information building. We got a map of the city and discussed what we wanted to do for the rest of the day. I picked a few nominees and Amber decided on one. We made our way to the Ancient Roman Ruins Excavation Exhibit. Not much to say, really. It was short and sweet - the way all museums should be.
Later we made our way back to the riverfront and strolled through a farmer’s market. I was ready to buy, but most items were antiques that were of no interest to me. We then went to Lindt’s Chocolate Museum. A very interactive, fun museum where you can actually see the machines making the chocolate in front of you. It was fun seeing all the different processes happen assembly line style.
Right outside the museum there was a terrace where we decided to grab a beer and some currywurst. Shortly thereafter we returned to the boat and took a nap. Around 6:00pm we woke up and had dinner at a cafe riverside. I ordered quatro formagio macaroni (which actually ended up being ziti) and Amber ordered the lasagna. After getting our meals, though, she wanted mine, so we switched. The lasagna was really good, so I didn’t mind.
After dinner we headed back to the boat in time to set sail for the Netherlands. We went to bed fairly early and I woke up around midnight, so I decided to come to the lobby and type up the trip report. Anyway, I’m gonna go to bed now so that I’m not exhausted tomorrow. Auf Wiedersehn!

Cologne - 6/10

Day 7: Cochem & Cologne, Germany

2009-05-31T19:58:00.006-06:00

Cochem is absolutely beautiful. Lush rolling hillsides and wine vineyards fill the valley. Clean cobblestone streets with a number of shops and restaurants line the riverfront. Oh, and did I mention the bad ass huge castle overlooking everything?
After breakfast we walked the streets in search of our first excursion - a wine tasting in a cafe lined with beautiful ivy creeping up the outer walls. We had a Pinot Noir, and three Reislings. The owner spoke excellent english and was full on insight. That was probably my favorite excursion thus far, other than driving through the Black Forrest.
Once all the wine was gone we ditched our group, yet again, and roamed the streets in search of allergy medicine because my hay fever was reaching alarming levels at this point.
An hour later we found ourselves sitting on a terrace people watching while having lunch. Amber was craving Italian, so we both had spaghetti bolognese accompanied with a refreshing glass of pils.
12:30pm arrived and it was time to set sail to Cologne. We arrived in Cologne around midnight and decided to check out the city, since it was Saturday night. Thus far we’d been in small, quiet towns. However, Cologne is a pretty big city with a rambuncious young crowd - at least it was this night. A lot of drunken frat boys singing at the top of their lungs in the streets made for a pretty entertaining night. We stopped at a late night food stand and I got my usual - doner kebap and a beer - while amber chose unwisely and got a vegetarian pizza which she only ate half of.
We chose one of many pubs with loud hip hop music and dancing to grab a beer and watch the chaos. If I didn’t know any better I would have thought it was New Years, lol. Surprisingly, we were younger than most of the party goers, at least in this bar.
After an hour or so we were ready to hit the hay, and finally were able to sleep through the night! Today was my favorite day so far =)

Cochem - 9.5/10

Day 6: Rudesheim, Braubach, and Koblenz, Germany

2009-05-29T22:31:00.000-06:00

Neither Amber nor myself wanted to take the Music Museum Tour, so we decided to walk back to town and see what we could find. We came across a Medieval Torture Museum, so we decided to check that out. Both of us were pretty creeped out by the place, not to mention that we love scary movies, and this place looked like something out of Tarantino’s Hostel movies, so we booked it out of there!
We had to be back by 12:30pm to embark towards Braubach. Along the way we passed a few castles overlooking the Rhine. They were pretty bad ass, I must say. We were both pretty tired, as usual, so we took an afternoon nap. Unfortunately we slept through Braubach and Koblenz. We woke up at 6:30pm, had some dinner on the ship, and then passed out in the room again. We’ve somehow developed a pattern of sleeping during the day and not being able to sleep at night, so I decided to write up these trip reports and hopefully the internet will finally work so that I can post them. Anyway, Day 7 is beginning now, so I’ll post about it tomorrow night.

Braubach - ??
Koblenz - ??

Day 5: Heidelberg & Rudesheim, Germany

2009-05-29T22:30:00.002-06:00

We took a bus from Mannheim to Heidelberg in the morning. Our guide for the day was the worst yet, but the city of Heidelberg made up for it. We started the day by touring the ancient castle overlooking the city. The castle was fairly small, but the views overlooking the city, the Rhine, and the surrounding countryside were spectacular.
After our tour of the castle we made our way down to the city, where we proceeded to ditch our tour guide and head to an internet cafe to catch up on a few emails. We had an hour or so to stroll around the city, which had a huge pedestrian promenade with many shops and restaurants.
We grabbed a bite to eat - Amber had a margarita pizza and I had a doner kebab, both of which were terrible. We walked the streets for a bit and then headed back to the buses, which took us back to the boat.
The boat then sailed toward Rudesheim while Amber and I took our daily afternoon nap. Around 6:30pm we arrived in Rudesheim. Because the dinner menu looked unappetizing, we decided to walk around the town and find a restaurant on our own. There were many restaurants and bars with live music playing in many of them. It started to rain, so we took shelter in a bar and grabbed a beer. Then we continued down the main street until we found one of many restaurants that looked great.
We both had goulash for dinner, which was amazing =) We strolled the streets a while longer, and found a biergarten. A few drinks later we made our way back to the ship and called it a night.

Heidelberg - 9/10
Rudesheim - 8/10

Day 4: Strasbourg, France

2009-05-29T22:25:00.000-06:00

Although we were supposed to tour Strasbourg, neither Amber nor myself had any sleep, so we decided to stay on the ship sleeping for most of the day. At this point I was pretty upset about the whole trip, given the boat didn’t even have a pool, the internet wasn’t working, no couple was even close to our age, and the chance of some time of refund was slim to none. We were seriously considering ditching the cruise and doing our own thing for the next ten days or so. We even got a map of Europe and started planning out where to go, but when push came to shove we gave in and decided to give the trip another shot. We slept through most of the day and decided to start fresh in Heidelberg. The highlight of the day was watching Planet Earth - Deserts.

Strasbourg - ??

Day 3: Breisach & Black Forrest, Germany

2009-05-29T22:21:00.003-06:00

After breakfast we took buses through the cute town of Breisach and into the Black Forrest. Along the way we passed through a few cute, quaint little towns. We made two stops along the way. The first of which was a quick tour of St. Peter’s Cathedral. This non-traditional cathedral had walls of plaster and a lot of ornate paintings lining the walls. I gave it a 2/10.
Our next stop was deep in the beautiful mountains of the Black Forrest. One of the coolest (and biggest) gift shops I’ve ever been to. Full of cuckoo clocks, traditional German steins, swiss army knives, and home blown glass vases. We bought a cuckoo clock for Amber’s parents and a couple steins for ourselves.
We went across the courtyard to eat at the less popular restaurant (of the two). Unfortunately we had to leave before we had the chance to eat because our server decided to take a 5 top’s order before ours.
Once back to the ship, we had some free time, so we decided to walk around Breisach and find a place to eat. Along the way we bought a bottle of wine from a wine store and they recommended a few restaurants. We settled on one that featured traditional German dishes of the region. I had Burgundy marinated sirloin and Amber had black pepper crusted rack of lamb. Mine was better :p

We walked back to the ship and chilled in the room for a while. I decided to head to the lobby to see if I could get online and play some poker. When I came back to the room an hour and a half later, the lights were on, the window was open, Amber’s room key was on the desk, and everything else looked normal... except no Amber. I searched the boat (by this time I was the only passenger still awake), but couldn’t find her anywhere. I told the girl at the front desk that my girlfriend was missing and she helped me look, but after a few loops around the boat it was obvious to both of us that Amber was no longer on the boat.
She notified the captain, who then notified the whole crew to search the boat, but still no Amber. At this point I was starting to panic because I figured that she must have fallen out the boat and into the Rhine. The captain called all of the checkpoint stations we had passed and eventually got in touch with someone who had Amber with them. A few hours later, the police caught up with our boat and she was able to re-board the ship. She was totally disoriented and dirty, badly bruised and cold.
She still doesn’t quite know what happened. I think she must have hit her head and fallen out of the boat. She thinks she may have been sleepwalking. Regardless, I was happy that she was safe and we crashed in bed - both exhausted because at this point it was 6:00am.

Breisach - 8.5/10
Black Forrest - 10/10

Day 2: Basel, Switzerland

2009-05-29T22:04:00.004-06:00

We had an early morning breakfast, and then rode the buses to town. Once downtown, we were given a guided tour through the Old Town. Strolling through the cobblestone streets, we arrived at the Basel Munster, the city’s cathedral. The architecture was pretty cool, and there was a beautiful open courtyard with flowers in full bloom. On the terrace there were some great views overlooking the Rhine and countryside.

We were given a half hour to shop around and be on our own, so Amber and I headed up the pedestrian mall and found a modern home improvement store similar to Crate & Barrel and the like. We bought a few items and then had a beer at a streetside cafe.
Next, we walked up to the “Internationally Recognized Museum.” I’ve been to my fair share of museums, and I must say that this one had to be in my bottom five. Mostly it was the due to the chaos in and around the museum, but I’ll give most of the credit to the tour guide. She spent the majority of the time talking up her favorite painter before we were even allowed to see anything. By the time we actually got to see our first painting we had only 20 minutes left to see what we could of the rather small museum.
After catching the buses back to the boat we had a quick lunch and then took an afternoon nap, as both Amber and I were still pretty jet lagged. We woke up for an unimpressive dinner and then headed back to the room and watched Planet Earth - Seasonal Forrests and called it a night.

Basel - 6/10

Day 1: Basel, Switzerland

2009-05-29T22:00:00.003-06:00

We flew from Denver to Frankfurt, Germany and had a four hour lay over before making the short flight from Frankfurt to Basel. Basel is located at the intersection of Switzerland, Germany, and France. We landed in the late afternoon and were on the ship by 6:30pm. Unfortunately the ship isn't a typical cruise liner - there isn't food out all the time - just during breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Also, there is no swimming pool or any other amenities :(
We had a traditional Swiss dinner on the boat and then crashed fairly quickly. At dinner we noticed that of the 200 or so people on the ship, we were by far the youngest couple there. There was one other girl our age, and the next youngest couple was probably around 50 or so. Depressingly, the average age of each couple on the ship seems to be around 65 or so...

New Computer!

2009-04-30T12:14:00.003-06:00

I just made the switch from PC to Mac. Honestly I thought I'd never say that, but it's true - I just bought a MacBook Pro and I love it :)

In unrelated news, I'm flying to Kentucky tomorrow to watch the Kentucky Derby for the first time. No, I don't know any of the horses, but yes, I plan on betting one of them. I'll probably end up betting the one that has the best name :p

I'm thinking about training for the Boston Marathon a year from now with my second cousin, Joe. Joe is a total sicko who runs 50 mile races in Boulder City, NV (just outside Las Vegas) in the middle of summer when it's 115 degrees outside! Vegas has me 10 to 1 against at this point.

Anyway, I've been playing more and more online and can't wait for the World Series! Come say hi if you see me this summer =)

Kwicky

What's new :)

2009-03-31T15:51:00.002-06:00

So I've been in Vegas the past few days just chillin and playin a lot of poker and switch blackjack over at Casino Royale. I was out for the Dream Team Poker Tournament and decided not to take the 12 hour road trip back with Tru on Sunday (sorry man).
The Luxor has a nice little cardroom - not a ton of action, but they offer a high hand of the hour bonus. Basically if you have the best high hand at the end of the hour they give you a hundred bucks - 24/7. I thought this is a pretty cool way to induce action and attract new players as well.
Katie, Justin and I watched some Planet Earth last night - that show is so amazing, I highly recommend watching it if you haven't.
Anyway, I'm not sure if I'll head back to Colorado as of yet - it depends on if our softball game is cancelled or not, lol. Go Rippers!

Kwick

Home for a few days...

2009-03-09T13:48:00.003-06:00

Amber and I arrived back in Colorado last night, but in less than a week I'll be headed off again - this time to San Jose, CA for the Shooting Star. I really can't wait. I feel like I've been playing some really good poker and want to keep the "mo" as Nappy would put it. I've started to become obsessed with poker again, which is really nice because I know a big score is right around the corner.
As for news around these parts.... I just received my new bowling ball, compliments of Lenny which I'll get drilled today so that I can test it out at league tonight! Wednesday is our second game of the season for softball -unfortunately I missed the first one :( Also, I'm thinking about hiking Bear Peak sometime this week if anyone wants to join me.
I'm not sure when I leave for San Jose yet, but I'll get to see my cousins while I'm out there, so that will be nice - see you soon Brad & Miss :)
In other news I've been crushing my MMA bets thus far and I'm really excited about the next UFC card. Anderson Silva is always fun to watch, and he might have his hands full with Thales Leites, not to mention some of the preliminary fights featuring some up and comers whom I've followed from the WEC. Steve Cantwell looked absolutely amazing in his last fight against Brian Stann (who is a total badass himself, and who is also making a UFC appearance in this card). Cheick Kongo vs. Antoni Hardonk has "Knockout of the Night" written all over it. Also, a few entertaining vets will fight. Jason MacDonald vs. Nate Quarry and David Loiseau vs. Ed Herman will be good fights.
Alright, well - time to get out of bed and go for a run!

Fishy

What a beautiful day

2009-03-02T14:10:00.002-07:00

The past few days I've been a little depressed. I've thought about why, and it's hard to pinpoint an exact reason, but I think it may be due to a number of things.

I haven't worked out in a while, and I think that has a lot to do with it. Also, I never really realized how much I depend on my friends, but social interaction is definitely something I depend on. I think that part of the reason might also have to do with the fact that whenever I come back from a trip it's hard to get readjusted to normalcy, for lack of a better word.

I've tried doing what I like to do - poker, bowling, computer games, movies, etc. - but they haven't provided the same pleasure over the past few days that they normally do. It wasn't until about an hour ago that I felt much better.

I decided to go lay on my porch and enjoy the day, and I think that my depression has stemmed from being inside all the time. I have no scientific reason for the way I feel, but whenever I'm outside I'm immediately in a better mood. When I think back to some of the low points in my life, there is always one constant - not seeing the light of day for hours, days, sometimes even weeks.

Sometimes it can be hard to get the motivation to go for a hike or a walk (often times because the wind is so absurd where I live), but I have to remind myself how much better I'll feel.

267!

2009-02-19T12:13:00.001-07:00

1: X 2: X 3: X 4: 9/- 5: X 6: X 7: X 8: X 9: X 10: XXX

Slight Change of Plans

2009-02-12T11:47:00.003-07:00

So yesterday Brooks, Natalie and I arrived at J's place up in Silverthorne around 11:30pm. We played a game of Catan with J's two roommates, Jeremy and Jeff, and then started discussing plans for the following day. After hearing that Wolf Creek had received 41" over the past 48 hours (21" over the last 24 hours) my decision was made. I ended up making the four and a half hour drive with Jeff and Jeremy right then - 3:00am so that we could get there by the time the lifts opened.
Even though we were exhausted, the trip was well worth it, as I would easily put it in my top 3 skiing days of all time. The only knock on Wolf Creek is the lack of vertical terrain and the traversing that you have to make to get back to the lifts. However, the good far outweighed the bad - no crowds, awesome weather, great snow, and a down to earth feel to the resort.
When we got home I immediately hit the hot tub, then watched a Most Evil before heading to bed. All in all it was a great trip, even though 13.5/24 hours were spent in the car. Jeremy took a couple videos of us on his phone, so I'll look into getting those from him if/when possible.

Monday Night Fever

2009-02-10T14:52:00.004-07:00

Now that football is over I need something else to become addicted to. Outside of Puerto Rico, Call of Duty, and Mario Kart I've decided to add bowling to the list. I joined my friends' team and we kicked some ass last night. I bowled a 231, 189, and 223! We ended up winning 17 out of 21 possible points, plus it was double points night, so we ended up raking in 34/42 points. Yes, I'm a huge dork.

It's been dumping up in the mountains over the last few days, so I'm going up to Vail tomorrow to ski with Brooks, Jeremy, and Natalie. I can't decide whether I should head up tonight or tomorrow morning - maybe if they want to play Puerto Rico and tub it then I'll head up tonight. Anyway, the Mario Kart is calling my name, so I have to run.

Oh, p.s. if you haven't heard the Mario Kart Love Song, it's like the best song ever

Puerto Rico

2009-02-06T14:46:00.003-07:00

No, not the country. Puerto Rico is one of the best board games I've ever played, which definitely says a lot. I'd describe it as a mix between Chess and The Settlers of Catan (which is also an amazing board game).
I get addicted to things very easily, so it came as no surprise to many of my friends to find out that I had even outlined several Puerto Rico strategies on an Excel Spreadsheet. I even found a strategy guide (well, I didn't - Moon found it) written by someone far more knowledgeable about the game than myself. Pretty interesting stuff, really. Right now I'm still exploring new and improved ideas, but I've got a lot of the basic game theory down. The frustrating, yet awesome, thing about the game is that a lot of times you will make a move and then realize that you made the wrong play shortly thereafter.
I think the thing I like most about the game is that it gets me fired up to play poker. Anyway, if you see me at IHOP at 4:00 in the morning, you'll know what got the best of me ;)

kwicky

Eco Friendly

2009-01-15T11:34:00.002-07:00

Sorry for the belated blog, but I'm still counting this as my week 2 entry :)

So Amber found these really cool garbage bags that are 100% biodegradable the other day. I encourage everyone to switch to these "BioBags," as they are much better for the environment than their plastic counterparts.
Speaking of being eco-friendly, I also encourage everyone to buy their own cloth grocery bags. Many grocery stores offer really nice bags that zip up and even insulate. Sometimes I forget to bring my bags into the store, in which case I usually just cart my items to the car with no bag at all.
Sometimes ending up with plastic bags is inevitable, in which case they can always be re-used to pick up after your dog or re-used in a trash can at home.
Amber and I were even considering starting our own compost pile to reduce waste even further, however, our HOA association prohibits compost piles because they attract bears :(
Anyway, if anyone has any other simple, practical ways to be "Green," then feel free to e-mail me.

New Years Resolutions

2009-01-02T15:06:00.002-07:00

So we had a great New Year's Party over at Tom's place the other night, my place was a disaster the following day, but I've grown accustomed to cleaning around the house for an hour or so everyday, so it really didn't change much around here, lol. As for resolutions, I have three. Because I usually flake out on just about everything in my life, I decided to make my resolutions fairly modest. Even so, I think Vegas probably has me at around 25:1 against, haha.
1) Blog at least once a week
2) Go to Yoga at least once a week
3) Meditate at least once a week
If I'm somehow able to make it through the year with these goals, then maybe I'll try something more aggressive, but I think I'll have my hands full at this point. I never wrote about Zoe dying, but that post will be reserved for another time. I was proud of myself this year - I actually went Christmas shopping and bought some presents for everyone =) Adam Friedman is staying with me for a few days, he came out for our New Year's Party. It's been fun talking football with him, as he brings new perspective on a lot of stuff, and is far more knowledgeable than myself about College Football. Our new puppy, Daisy, is a total sweetheart. We've been taking her to the dog park just about everyday and she loves to go around making new friends. Anyway, Happy New Year to everyone, and hopefully I'll make it at least a week with my New Year's Resolutions!

-kwicky

Hey everyone

2006-12-13T13:06:00.000-07:00

I'm now going to be bloging on my website, www.kwickfish.com
Sorry for the run-a-round.

-P

Final Table - $10,000 Main Event

2006-11-13T12:47:00.000-07:00

Ok, so the final table started at 2:00pm with a ton of energy in the room - some people were there since 10:00am to get in line to get a seat. After a folding a couple rounds, a hand came up where Richard Lee raised the BB 3x one from the cutoff and I re-raised on the button with A,Q 2.5x. He called and the flop came rags. We both checked and the turn was a king. He didn't think long before announcing all-in and I folded - I have absolutely no clue what he had, lol. I tried to see a couple cheap flops with suited connectors and small pairs, but quickly siphoned off a couple mil and now I was down to 4mil or so. A much needed break came and I went back to the table focused and ready to go. A hand came up where Richard Lee raised one from the cutoff again, and Eric Friedberg called and I decided to come over the top with any two because it looked to me like he had decided to raise with any two himself. The steal worked and actually had a decent T8s :) I went a little card dead for a while and was blinded down to 3mil when it was folded to me on the button and I looked down at A,J. I didn't want Binger to make a liberal call now that he has more chips and take the pot away from me if I don't hit. So I decided to go all-in for a fairly large overbet of the pot and he ended up calling with A,9. My hand held up, and now I was up to 6mil. A while later, I opened for 700k in early position with Q,Q and Doug Kim made it 2.1mil in middle position. He had been fairly active at the table, and decided to go with it, shoving for approximately 5mil more, which would put him all-in as well. He thought for a long time before folding and now I was at 9 mil. A few rounds later I opened with Q,Q again and this time Doug called me on the button. The flop was a picture perfect 2, 2, 4 or something thereabouts and I weakly bet around half the pot. He thought for a bit and decided to move it with 9,9 and I insta-called. Winning this pot put me up to around 13mil with a ton of momentum. Shortly after, playing six handed now, Allen raised UTG 3x and Richard Lee called. I thought Allen had been raising a little too much and decided to re-raise with any two, which happened to be a J7o. The steal ended up working after Allen quickly folding and Richard giving me the look of death. Over the next 22 hands I either raised, or was somehow involved in 19 of them, quickly changing my style to that of a maniac and acquiring a fair amount of chips. Then a hand came up where I raised Binger's BB 3x from the cutoff with K,Q and he thought for a while before shoving all-in for 6mil (5mil more to me). I thought for a while and decided to call for a few reasons. First, he could easily be on a complete steal, and I might have the best hand - afterall, I've become the table maniac and we are playing six handed and he can't keep blinding to death. He has the perfect stack to make a move here and I'll fold most hands....or so he thinks, lol. Also, I thought he might have a hand like T,T or J,J which would be fine with me, considering I already have 1mil invested in the pot. Furthermore, he might have a hand he thinks is best, but still not that powerfull, like an A,J or A,T. Another thing that factored into my call was the intangible aspects of the situation. If I call here, even if I lose, no one is going to make a move on me because I've shown that I'll call a large all-in with a K,Q. I didn't want to fold and for people to think that I would continue folding to re-raises. Anyway, he ended up having the worst possible hand I could see - K,K and I lost the pot and was now down to 11mil. A little later I picked up KTs in middle position and raised Jamie's BB and he called. Flop came Kd, Jd, x and I bet half the pot. He re-raised huge and I decided to go with it and went all-in for the rest of my 9.5k. He quickly called with A,K and things weren't looking too hot. However, the turn brought a ten and quickly turned the tide. The river bricked and now I was at an all-time high of around 19mil. This was the one hand I regreted at the final table because Jamie either had a draw or better than a K,T. This means that either he has me dominated, or I'm a slight favorite - either way it's not good. For the next bit I decided to open-limp into more pots on the button with less than premium hands because it was working perfectly. I was routinely limping, Allen would limp or fold and Binger would check. Then they would check to me and I'd bet very small and they both would fold. This happened on numerous occasions and I decided to keep doing it until it failed, which it did eventually. After a break we came back to the table and Rhett Butler went all-in UTG with a short stack. I really thought he was getting desperate and his range would be fairly large, so I called with 8,8 and lost the coin flip against his A,T. This one hurt because I lost not only the 10mil pot, but more importantly, the momentum. A while later, Allen raised my BB 3x and Jamie called in the SB. I looked down at K,Q and thought about re-raising, but this would mean I would have to go all-in based on stack sizes. If he called, I would be in a world of hurt, and decided to just wait and try to flop a hand (we are playing four handed at this point). Flop came Ah, Jh, 9h and we all checked. At this point I didn't think Allen would slow play, especially considering how loose Jamie is and at this point in the tournament the risk isn't worth the reward. The turn came another 9 and at this point I bet 1mil into the 3mil pot - thinking either my king high was good, or a small pair might fold. Allen raised me to 3.5mil and I was getting ready to fold the hand and give it up, but then I started thinking about the situation a little more. I thought his bet seemed like it was intended to get me to fold, and wasn't a huge hand. The only possible decent hand it could be is a flopped flush, but even then why risk so much? Either he would fold his flopped flush if I moved all-in, or call, but either way, why put in the extra large raise? He could save money if he was intending to fold, or price me in if he wanted to get it all-in. Also, I decided it couldn't be a full house because a) he most certainly would have bet the flop, and b) he would want me in the pot on the turn. Therefore the only hand I was somewhat worried about was the A,Kh, but even then I thought he would flat call on the turn. If he had a 9, this bet would make sense, but I thought a nine would almost certainly have to fold if I moved all-in, so that is what I ended up deciding to do. He quickly folded his Th,T and the momentum was back in my favor. After Allen was taken out by Jamie, we were three handed - Binger and I with approximately 11mil each and Jamie with the rest. A few rounds into the 3-way bout, a hand came up where Jamie limped on the button and I limped in the SB with 87s. Binger raised from the BB and Jamie called and I called. Flop came T,6s,5s and I thought for a while about what to do. My first thought was to check-raise all-in, but then I needed to make sure I would have some fold equity if I checked. I ultimately decided that if I checked, Binger would either check and Jamie would bet and I could go all-in, or Binger would bet, but would have enough to possibly fold if I went all-in. So I elected to check-raise all-in rather than lead out all-in (I wouldn't just bet, because if someone went all-in I'd have to call and I like to put people all-in rather than call all-in). Binger bet 3.5mil, leaving himself with around 6mil, and the plan was working exactly as I had hoped. I even got ready to move all-in, but then Jamie suddenly went all-in and now I was in quite the dilemma. The way Jamie went all-in so quickly really made it look like he had a draw of some sorts, most likely a flush draw, possibly with a pair of tens as well. If I called, Binger would almost certainly have to fold, as an overcall all-in by me would be the sign of a monster at this stage in the tournament. The only hands we wouldn't fold would be a set or a flush draw himself. Therefore, because I thought Binger was going to fold, and I put Jamie on a flush draw, the decision seemed pretty easy that I should fold because I'd be drawing to just an open ender and he'd have re-draws. I folded and Binger called with an A,T and Jamie showed a horrifying 4,3. I was right that he was on a draw, but I was wrong about which draw. Had I seen the hands face up it would have been an easy call, but obviously hind sight is 20/20. Thankfully the turn brought a 7 and Binger was drawing dead, thus making it head-up between Jamie and I. The first hand head up Jamie limped on the button and I raised in the BB with A,J and he folded and I showed. A couple hands later I raised on the button with A,7s and he called. Flop came fairly normal with two spades. He checked, I bet half the pot and he called. Turn was another spade and he now bet into me and I quickly called with nothing. I did this because he was trying to represent a turned flush, but what he forgot to think about was the fact that I knew he'd raise me on the flop with a flush draw. The turn came another spade, giving me the 7 high flush and he bet large again. I talked with him a little bit, trying to get him to give me information and ultimately decided to call and he mucked. A couple hands later he limped into the pot on the button and I raised with T,T. He called and the flop came Q,8h,5h. He checked and I bet weakly again hoping he'd come over the top and I could go all-in. However, I made a mistake - had I gone through the dollar amounts more indepth I would have realized that he couldn't raise and fold if I went all-in, he'd either have to raise me all-in, fold, or possibly call. Either way, the plan was flawed - I should have bet large, trying to make it look like I was bluffing. Anyway, the end result would have been the same, as he went all-in with Q,9 and I called. I thought his range would be very large here...anywhere from a pair of queens, to middle pair, to a draw, to a complete bluff. His actions at the table ultimately led me to believe he was on a draw, and, though I didn't like it, I thought I needed to gamble with him to get ahold of some chips and make it a real game. Even though I didn't get the title, I was still extremely excited with my accomplishment, and thought Jamie played an excellent final table. Though most people don't like his demeanor at the table, he is a really nice guy if you get to know him.

Day 7 - $10,000 Main Event

2006-11-11T18:40:00.000-07:00

Ok, final three tables and the two short stacks exit after less than a round of play. I'm in push mode now, with my stack equivalent to approximately five orbits. After folding a while, a hand comes up where Rhett Butler raised my BB 3x and Prahlad Friedman called, Fred Goldberg thought for a while, then decided to fold his pocket sixes on the button, and I quickly went all-in with Q,Q. Rhett folded and Prahlad called with AQs. I doubled up and the process repeated - me patiently waiting for either another big hand or a good spot to put the money in. After folding a while, I was down pretty low again and decided to move all-in with a 73s in the SB after it folded to me and Jamie was in the BB. He showed me an ace, then decided to fold, as it was by no means a small raise to him. A while later I picked up K,K in the BB and Allen Cunningham raised in mid-position and I moved all-in for not much more. His A,Q failed to suck out, and I got back up to 2mil. I had a very tight table image at this point - so far the only hands I've shown have been K,K and Q,Q. Then a hand came up where I picked up A,K UTG and raised 3x, got called by Rhett in middle position, then William Thorson went all-in in the BB for a huge overbet of the pot. At this point I'm torn, I can't see how he could do this with A,A or K,K, so at worst I'm a coin flip. However, the fact that I also didn't think he would do that with A,Q or A,J coupled with the fact that I didn't want to play a coin flip for my tournament life, made the decision a pretty clear fold. A few rounds later, Jeff Lisandro limps UTG and three other people limp. I'm in the BB with K,K and decide to shove for a huge overbet of the pot. He doesn't think long before calling with J,J and I double up to 4mil! Shortly after, I catch a fortunate break and got moved to the other table (two remaining) and both tables are playing short handed. At the new table I'm one of the big stacks, ironically, and over the course of the next hour or so double my stack without playing a single all-in pot. I raised many pots and took a lot of them down preflop, or with a continuation bet on the flop. One interesting hand came up where I raised in mid position with A9o and Michael Binger called in the BB with 8,8. The flop came Qh,Th,T and I bet after he checked. He called and the turn came an offsuit queen. Now he bet into me about half the pot and I quickly called. The river brought a rag and he bet into me pretty large on the river, and I decided to make the call and take down a monster pot right before dinner, putting me at over 8mil. After the dinner break things did not go well, as Richard Lee felt the need to become the new sheriff and kept coming over the top of me preflop and forcing me to fold. I never had a hand that could play an all-in pot with him and dwindled back down to 4mil over the course of the next hour or so. The tables combined with ten players remaining, and now we are waiting for one more to bust. Eric Friedberg was to my right and was raising just about every single time it was folded to him, and this time was no different. Folds to him in the cutoff and he raised 3x and I was going to come over the top with any two, which happened to be a 7,6 and he quickly folded. A pot like this may not seem like a big deal, but with that much money out there and the risk of someone waking up with a hand behind me, believe me, it was tought to do. After a few rounds of folding, Jamie Gold raised my BB in mid position and I looked down at an A3s and decided to come over the top. He quickly called and the flop came J, 9, 8 and we both checked. The turn was a 7 and we both checked again. The river was a ten and we both checked again and split the pot. The funny thing was, he had T,T and turned the straight, haha. When I turned my hand over, he was shocked that I came over the top of him with such a weak hand, but I wanted to send the message to people, that I wouldn't just keep folding my BB to a raise because it seemed like it was getting raised every single round for the last two days. A while later I picked up 5,5 in early position and raised 3x and got called by Jamie on the button. Flop came Ks, T, 5s and my continuation bet was called. Turn was a Q, and now I checked, he bet half my remaining stack, and I moved all-in. He was forced to call drawing dead with K8s, and now I was back up to 8mil. Over the course of the next five hours or so I stole the blinds enough to break even, but there were no other really interesting hands, and we ended the day with nine left, and I was in fifth position with around 8mil.

Day 6 - $10,000 Main Event

2006-11-05T10:51:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I started the day with 2mil in chips and blinds at 15k/30k/5k and Mr. Gold to my left. It ended up being a fairly short day, playing from 60 down to 27 people. I wasn't picking up many hands, and had a very tight table image as I was being blinded away. Then a hand came up where UTG tight guy raised to 100k and I look down at Q,Q in the cutoff and decide to flat call. Gold calls behind me on the button, as does the BB. Flop came K,4,4 and UTG checks, I check, Gold bets 300k and everyone folds. He then flips over AKs. A while later, with the blinds now at 20k/40k/5k, UTG loose guy makes it 120k and the button - who was making a lot of opens, but not many re-raises preflop - makes it 350k. I'm in the BB with AKo and a 1.1mil stack and think for a while about what to do. In retrospect I should have just folded, but instead I opted to call and hopefully get it head up with the button and shove on any flop. I thought UTG would either fold or go all-in (in which case I would fold, because he'd have to have A,A or K,K to do that) because of his stack size. I also thought there was no value in going all-in because I thought the button re-raiser would have to call with any hand he would re-raise UTG with because of the odds he'd be getting, and I didn't want to play *hopefully* a coin flip for my whole stack at that point. Instead what happened was UTG called and now I had to hit. Flop came Qs,7s,3 and we all checked. Turn was an offsuit T, I checked and UTG goes all-in for about 700k and the button and I fold. Now I'm down to 700k as the day comes to an end with 27 remaining. Average at this point was 3.3mil and I'm in 26th place...not looking great, but I'm still in it, and that's all that matters.

Painful

2006-10-06T10:01:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was the third day of the USPC and I got knocked out mid-day with QQ vs AK...pretty typical. I was really bummed, though, unlike the other tournaments I've been knocked out of since the WSOP. I guess I felt like since I was playing so well - remaining patient and making some really tough laydowns - that I deserved to get some hand over hand, gift, or other lucky situation. Maybe my luck will be reserved for High Stakes Poker, which will be my next poker venture. So far I haven't had much success since the main event, but I'm really getting excited for the upcoming month or so. I guess a plus is the fact that I can go home that much sooner and leave this dump. I can't decide whether I hate Atlantic City or hotels more.

Sorry it's been a while

2006-10-04T23:22:00.000-06:00

Day 6 has not been forgotten about, but I will continue with that after I post a few other entries. Currently I'm playing in the U.S. Poker Championships in Atlantic City at the Taj Mahal. We played a short Day 1, and I ended the day with 33.5k, just over average I beleive. Day 2 was today, and I had a pretty rough day consisting of making numerous tough laydowns. I ended the day with 20k in chips, which is really low, but there is still plenty of room to maneuver back. Tomorrow the blinds will start at 500/1,000 and 100 ante, wish me luck!

Day 5 - $10,000 Main Event

2006-09-06T15:51:00.000-06:00

135 people left and the real money starts at 90 or so. Blinds will start at 6k/12k/2k. Despite drawing a table with a lot of chips, I like my draw. After folding a couple rounds, I'm in the BB when the cutoff open limps and the SB limps. I check my J,4 and the flop came T,3,2 and everyone checked. The turn was a queen and I fire out 25k once checked to, because I don't think the cutoff (a big stack) would limp with a Q,T, Q,J, or K,Q, etc. and there is 56k just lying out there. Both players fold and I pick up a fairly nice pot. One from the cutoff makes it 27k, then the cutoff moves in for 240k and I look down at AKs with a 550k stack and decide to move it. I'm releived when everyone folds and I look over to see a K,9 and my hand holds up to eliminate the second to last woman in the tournament. Next level was 8k/16k/2k and the second hand went like this: mid-position min-raised to 35k and I called in the cutoff with Td,8d and Cunningham calls in the BB. Flop came Kd,7d,6d and the raiser (Mr. 7,7 vs. my 4,4) bet 90k after being checked to. I think for a while about what to do and make it 200k. He went all-in and I called for 95% of my stack and he flips over a scary Ad,Ax. However, no help came for him, and now I'm crusin with 1.5mil. Now I decide to open it up a little, nothing too crazy. I raise 3x BB with Qc,Js in mid-position and get called by the BB. Flop came As,6s,5 and we both check. Turn was a Ks and now he bets 80k into me, leaving himself with 300k behind. I fairly quickly move all-in and he insta-calls with a set of aces. However, the ten on the river gave me Broadway and sent him packin (first suckout of the tournament I believe). Now I'm up to 2.1mil. Michael Binger was now moved to the table to my immediate right with a big stack and the blinds now at 10k/20k/3k. He raises UTG to 60k and I call with Q,Q in second position, as does the SB. The flop came J,7,2 rainbow and Binger bet 140k and I flat call. I bet 150k on the turn, which was a 5, and he calls. The river was a queen and he folds to my bet of 400k. A few rounds later second position makes it 60k, button calls, and I call in the SB with 8,9 and the BB folds. Flop came A,7d,4d and we all check. Turn was a 3 and I bet 120k into them because I don't think the preflop raiser has much of a hand, and the last guy might have a pair, but might fold it in this spot. Preflop raiser folds, but the other guy calls, so now I'm done with the hand, as he could easily have an ace here. River brings another ace and we both check and his pocket queens take it down. Second position makes it 60k, cutoff calls, button calls, I call in the SB with 8d,7d and the BB calls as well. Flop came 8h,7,5h and it checks to the preflop raiser, who bets 145k. Folds to me, and I make it 400k after a long think and he confidently goes all-in. I think for a little bit, then call and I'm releived to see his 8,7! I thought he had a big draw and really didn't want to play an enormous pot in a coin flip situation. A while later, mid-position made it 65k and I call in the SB with Q,J. Flop came Q,J,5 with two clubs and I check. He bet 100k and I made it 325k and he folded. Unfortunately I got moved to a different table at this point. I felt in complete control of the table and worked my stack all the way up to 2.6mil by now, with the average only at 1.35mil. After a few blind steals and no hands worth reporting, this interesting hand came up. One from the cutoff makes it 80k (blinds now at 12k/24k/4k) and I call on the button with Kd,Qd. Flop came Q,Jd,5d and he checks to me. I bet 120k and he calls. Turn was an offsuit 7 and we both check. River was an offsuit 3 and he bets 225k and I call, but he flips over the A,Q and takes it down. Last hand of the day, I pick up 8,8 and make it 100k one from the cutoff (blinds now at 15k/30k/5k). BB called and the flop came Q,9,2 rainbow. He checked and my continuation bet took it down. I ended the day with 2mil (almost exactly an average stack) and very happy with how the day went.

Day 4 - $10,000 Main Event

2006-08-25T08:25:00.000-06:00

Ok, so today started with 481 players and I'm 19th in chips with $383,500. The day started with some pretty crazy moves - i think there were five people all-in the first round. A couple hands in third position makes it 12k and I call two behind. The guy right behind me then moves all-in for 140,000 and we both fold. After being moved to a different table, I pick up 2,2 in the SB and it folds to me. I make it 17k and the BB re-raises to 38k. I flat call and the flop comesK,9,3 and we both check. The turn brings an ace and we both check again. The river is a duece and I check because it really looked like he wanted to bet the turn, but seemed a little afraid of a check-raise, so he checked. Now if I check, he will almost certainly bet, which he did - 25k. I think for a while to determine how much I can raise, then make it 80k and he calls. Cutoff makes it 15k with blinds at 2,500/5,000 and 500 ante, I call in the BB with QTs. Flop came Q,7,5 rainbow and I check call a bet of 25k. Turn was a jack and we both check. River was a 2 and I check call a bet of 30k and lose to the K,Q. I think I could have folded on the river, given the guy was a fairly tight player and the bet on the end definitely didn't look like a bluff. A while later I make it 15k in second position and get called by a short stack in middle position. The flop came Kc,6c,2 and I check. He bet 20k and I moved all-in with my A,K and he folded. The a short stack moved all-in from early position for 42k and I call in the BB with J,J. After the board of 7,2,2,K,3, however, his K,T bested my hand. Then a hand came up where the K,Q guy raised to 15k and I called with 9,9. The flop came Q,6,4 rainbow and he bet 25k and I called this obvious continuation bet. The turn came a 3 and he bet 50k and I call again, because I feel like his bets are much bigger this hand than last hand and, thus, are more likely a bluff. River was a 6 and we both checked and my 9.9 held against his A,T. I raised in second position to 15k with J,J and the SB re-raised to 50k and I called (same K,Q/A,T guy). Flop came 5,5,2 and he bet 100k and I called. Turn came an ace and now he moved all-in and I fold in disgust, however, he shows me the K,K, so I ended up getting pretty lucky that A came on the turn. After the break we came back to the table and a guy had gone all-in the first two hands, and was all-in for the third time in a row UTG (he had just lost 80% of his chips on a bad beat before the break). I look down at 9,9 and decide to go all-in myself on the button, which covered his 200k all-in. Blinds are only 3,000/6,000 with a 1,000 ante, so this was actually a pretty difficult decision. Anyway, the 9,9 holds up on a board of J,J,3,A,T to his 5,5 and I'm now over half a mil. A little bit later, the nine seat opens all-in for 120k and had also taken a couple bad beats and become very aggressive. I look down at A,K on the button and move all-in myself and I'm in great shape against his A,Q. The board of 8,7,2,J,6 does not improve his hand and now I'm at close to 700k. UTG I make it 20k and two behind me shoves all-in for 192k and I call. I have A,K and he, weirdly, has 9,9. The flop of 9,6,Q all but kills me and the 6 turn put the nail in the coffin. The meaningless river was a Js. A bit later folds to the button, who raised in late position 100% of the time when folded to, and he makes it 12k. I call with A2s, as does the BB. Flop came A,7s,2s and I checked. The BB bets into the preflop raiser 25k and the button makes it 75k. I decide I can't fool around on this board and make it 250k and they both fold. The same guy makes it 18k when it folded to him in the cutoff and I call on the button with K,J. The SB calls and we have bigstacks battling it out, yet again. The flop was K,K,8 rainbow and they both check to me and I bet 20k. SB folds and preflop raiser check-raises me to 70k. I call and the turn was a jack. He bet 150k and I decide to flat call, as he wouldn't fold to an all-in with A,K or K,Q, so why not let him bluff a worse hand on the river? River brought a dreaded A, but he checked, so I'm pretty sure I can value bet it, and that's just what I did - 150k and he called and mucked. I make it 0k in second position with J,T and two behind me calls with A,T. Flop came T,7,2 rainbow and I bet 20k and he calls. Turn was a 4 and we both check. River was an ace and I check call a bet of 30k. In retrospect I think I could have folded here, as this guy got in through a $2 qualifier online and was an extremely weak/tight player. Plus his small bet didn't seem like a bluff. A while later, after the same guy kept position raising, he did it again when it folded to his button. I look down at 4,4 and decided to go with it against him, but not the BB, so I make a 3x raise and he shoves in for 5k more and I insta-call. Unfortunately, however, he has 7,7 and I get no help and take a 275k blow to my stack. After dinner a hand came up where UTG raised to 20k and I call in the BB with 67s. Flop came 9h,5h,3h and we both check. Turn was a T and I check-raise his bet of 50k to 150k and he moves all-in for 700k after a long think and I'm forced to fold. I could have flat called or folded, but by flat calling, how do I know if I'm good if I hit? Plus, I wouldn't want to hit, but have it be the forth heart. I think I should have just bet out the turn and folded to a raise, but oh well. For the next four hours I went completely card dead and lost the only decent hands I picked up. I got T,T in early position and raised and a new guy to the table in middle position called. Flop came Ks,J,3s and I check folded. The other time I raised UTG with A,Q and a guy who had seen me fold for the last 3 straight hours raised 3x and I decided to fold, given he knew how tight I was playing and couldn't possibly be bluffing. He showed me J,J unfortunately, but I was still happy with my fold, as this was the worst possible hand he could have had. I ended the day with $550,000 after being up to 1.1mil. I was a little frustrated with how the day went, but was happy to still be in the mix. The average at this point was 650k. More to come...

Day 3 - $10,000 Main Event

2006-08-23T18:42:00.000-06:00

Ok, so it's been a while unfortunately, and I dont know if I'll be able to accurately recall most of the hands, but I'll do my best. I started out Day 3 with $380,000 with high expectations, however I had a fearless table that wouldn't let me play aggressively, so it was fairly frustrating. The first few pots I played I couldn't hit a hand and quickly siphoned off 30k or so. Then a hand came up where a guy two to the right of me limped, and I looked down at AQ and raised 4x the BB. Folds to him and he calls. The flop came 8,4,4 and he bets half the pot. I raised 3x and he called. Turn came a duece and he checks and I bet 2/3 pot, which was about 1/3 of his remaining stack and he calls. River came another deuce and he checks and I decide he's not going to fold and end up checking and his pair of 6's are good. Later, I raised UTG with Ks,K to 8k and middle position goes all-in for 43k and I call. He has A,K, but the flop comes As,xs,xs. Even though I still have a flush draw and a king, I ended up losing and now I'm crippled down to 111k with the average at 130k or so. Then a hand came up where the guy two to my left raised to 8k and I called with 8,8 as did the BB. Flop came J,8,2 rainbow and the raiser fired 16k after the BB check. I flat call and the BB folds. Turn was a 6 and the raiser now bets 30k and I weakly flat call again. River was a 5 and now he goes all-in, which put me all-in and I call and he has A,9 for ace high and I double up. At this point I was playing the tightest poker of my life. Pi had me playing four hands in two hours, and that was the most patient I've ever had to be in my poker career, so I was very proud of those two hours. Then a hand came up where it folded around to the SB, who made it 8,400 and I flat call with 3,3 in the BB. Flop came Qd,8,5d and he bet 7k and I called. Turn was a 4 and he bet 9k and I called. The river was the Ad and he checked and I bet 15k and he insta-called with A,Q. I thought he could have nothing, or a Q on the flop and I would take it away later in the hand. Then his weak bet on the turn made me think he had a Q,T or something close, so I called, thinking I could take it away with the right card on the river. The river brought what I thought was a perfect scare card, but I didn't bet enough to get him to fold, not to mention he had a much bigger hand than I thought he had. Then a hand came up where UTG made it 9,500 and two people called. I look down at A,A and try to refrain from licking my lips. I make it 45,000 and everyone folds, except one of the callers. Flop came A,K,2 rainbow and he bets 40,000 into me and I think for a while and flat call. In retrospect I really wish I had min-re-raised, but oh well. Turn was an 8 and we both check. Then the river was another 2 and he checked and I bet 100k and he folded. A little while later I raised on the button with K9s to 9k and the SB re-raised to 25k, leaving himself with 60k and I pushed in and he folded. Last hand of the night I raised to 9k with T,6 in the cutoff and the BB called. Flop came As,T,8s and we both check. Turn came a 5s and he checked, I now bet 12k and he called. River brought an offsuit 3 and we both check and T,6 takes it down with middle pair. I ended the day with $383,500 after a very long, frustrating day. Day 4 to come tomorrow

Day 2 - $10,000 Main Event

2006-08-02T01:48:00.000-06:00

Wow, what an emotional rollercoaster today was. Truely amazing...
So I started the day with 38,200 in chips and folded the first round and a half. Then I pick up 8,8 in the cutoff and raise to 1,300 and get re-raised by the button, who had also folded every hand thus far, and decided to lay it down face up. After the table broke he leaned over to me and said he had Q,Q that hand...I think he was honest (at least that's what I'll keep telling myself). The very next hand UTG limps for 500, middle position limps for 500 (both players have under 10,000 in chips and I look down at A,K one from the cutoff. I make it 3,000 and everyone folds to the middle position limper, who calls. The flop came T, 9, 6 and he goes all-in for 4,100 and I call instantly, obviously, and he shows a lame ass A,T.
"Nice hand buddy, calling off half your stack to a tight player.....I guess I'll see you at the final table."
I get moved to a different table and look around and see a bunch of moderate stacks and no one notable. I was playing pretty tight for a while, then folds around to the SB and he makes it 1,500 and I call with A,8 in the BB. The flop came A, 9, 8 and he checks. I weakly bet 2,000 and he calls. Turn is another ace and he checks and now I bet 3,000. He calls and the river brings a ten. He checks again, and now I put him all-in for 4,600. He thinks for a while, then calls with A,7 and now I'm up to 50,000. Shortly after I raise in early position with 8,8 to 1,500 and get one caller. The flop came Jc, 7, 5c and I bet 2,000 and he thinks for a little bit and calls. At this point I really think he has absolutely nothing and is calling to see what I do on the turn. The turn is a jack and I bet 4,000 and he calls after a short think. At this point I still don't think he has a hand, as I thought he would raise me on the turn there with a jack, because of all the possible draws. The river is a dreaded 7 and I checked dark. He thinks for a bit and bets 5,000 and I reluctantly call. He flips over K,Qo and I take down the pot. Now I'm cruisin up to 65,000 or so. Table move and now I'm across the table from Andrew Black, who seemed to be playing with caution. I quickly build up the tight, but solid image and pick up many pots uncontested. The guy to my right liked to "dance", but it was pretty obvious to even the cocktail waitress that he was getting boned pretty routinely. After a few small pots and a couple continuation bets gone sour I was moved to a different table with around 60,000 in chips. This was a pretty tough table, and definitely not where I wanted to be. A lot of chips were on this table, I could tell immediately that it was an action table. Many raises and re-raises preflop. I pick up 6,6 in middle position a couple hands in and raise to 1,500 and the guy to my immediate right quickly re-raises to 5,000. I look over and see three stacks of black and four stacks of green (a sign that he has been picking up many blinds and antes, and is thus extremely aggressive preflop) and give a little chuckle and fold. A few hands later UTG limps and I limp in the SB with 2,2. BB checks and the flop came T,T,9. I bet out 1,500 and the aggressive guy to my left immediately makes it 5,000. UTG folds and I think for a few seconds before calling this obvious Q,J. The turn came a 6 and I check, knowing this guy won't be able to help himself from betting. Sure enough, he doesn't disappoint, and throws out 6,000 and I quickly move all-in for around 25,000 more.
"Nice bet, I fold"
"I don't get bullied....just so you know..."
The 2,2 was then facialed as the level came to an end.
At this point I'm sittin on 65,000 or so and feeling pretty good. Then, after having an extremely tight table image, I raise to 1,500 with the blinds at 300/600 and no SB one from the cutoff. A guy two to my left re-raises me on the button to 3,500 and I flat call with J,9. Flop came 9, 7d, 7 and I check and he bets 5,000. At this point I'm pretty sure I have the best hand, but can't raise, because I think this guy could easily re-raise with crap and I'd have to fold. Thus, I flat call. Turn came a 6d and I check and he checks. River brought a Qd and I check and he throws out 5,000. At this point I don't think he's bluffing, most likely he hit the queen on the river with his A,Q, K,Q, or Q,J and I think I can represent a monster. So I check-raise to 20,000 (I meant to make it 25,000, but screwed up and only threw 20,000 in). He thinks for a long time before calling and flipping up the Kd,6d. I was so pissed off because there was no way I could possibly put him on a hand that big. I think he would have folded if he did have the queen, based on how long it took him to call with the king high flush. I couldn't beleive that he re-raised me with nothing invested and no SB with K,6 when I hadn't raised a pot in God knows how long. A round later I raise to 1,500 with AJs UTG and he calls. I notice out of the corner of my eye that the BB is staring me down to see if I'm at all weak and I just have a really strong feeling he is going to re-raise with any two cards because I thought I was emitting weakness. Sure enough he re-raises 6,000 more and I flat call because I think the other guy will call as well. This forces the BB to hit a hand because he has two big stacks behind him and he can't just go all-in on any flop with his remaining 10,000. The flop comes K, 5, 5 and he goes all-in. After siphoning off another 7,500 I fold and the caller immediately calls with K,Q. The BB shows A,A and the turn comes a disgusting king and the BB gets no help on the river and is eliminated. Now I'm down to 27,000 or so and extremely upset, but luckily a break came shortly after and I was able to calm down. I really think that the K,3 hand from yesterday allowed me to handle losing a good amount of chips and emotionally recover. I decided playing tight was in my best interest and folded just about every hand that came my way for the next hour or so, which was pretty easy, considering Q,7 was one of my best hands in this time frame. Finally, a guy in early position limps for 800 and I look down at 5,5 and decide to make it 3,000. Everyone folds and he calls, flop comes Kh, 9h, 5d. He checks and I weakly bet 4,000. He makes it 14,000 and I quickly go all-in for my last 8,000. He calls with K,J and I'm sitting pretty. The turn came a scary king, but the river bricked, and now I was back up to 60,000 or so. I kept up my tight, aggressive game for a bit and built my stack to 70,000 and then raised with K,Q in middle position and got a caller on the button and the BB. The flop came Kd, Jd, 4 and I bet 6,000 and the button calls and the BB folds. The turn brought a 7 and I checked after a few second think, under the impression that the guy won't be able to help himself from betting his obvious draw, and sure enough he bets 14,000. I quickly go all-in for 40,000 more and he reluctantly calls with 7d,5d and I hold strong for the 140,000 pot! Now it's on. This pot was such a confidence booster, and now I have enough chips to severely cripple the guy two to my left who seemed to have it out for me the whole day. After raising and getting re-raised or called every single time by this guy the following hand came up. He raised my BB from 2nd position, as he had done the ENTIRE day without exception and I look down at A,K and decide to flat call to disguise my hand because I think he makes critical mistakes postflop - he has 290,000 and I have 140,000. Flop comes Kh, K, 5h and I check. He weakly bets 3,000 into the 8,500 pot and I check-raise him to 7,000. He re-re-raises me to 17,000 and I think for a while about what to do. I finally decide to make it 37,000 and he calls. At this point I'm praying for no queen or 5, as I have him on K,Q. The turn came an offsuit 4 - perfect card - and I go all-in for my last 100,000 and he insta-calls with K,8 and the river bricked. Now I'm up to 270,000 and on a tear! A break comes not too long after, and I decide to tighten up my game a little for the last hour of play. I made a few raises to pick up the blinds and antes and a re-raise with AKs and ended the day with 308,000. More to come on Friday...

Day 1 - $10,000 Main Event

2006-07-30T16:21:00.000-06:00

Ok, here is how my day went...
After calling a few raises with suited connectors and pocket pairs and missing all flops I was down to around 8.5k. Then there was a pot where I called a raise with QJo and the flop came 8,7,6. He bet 225 and I made it 600 in position. He called and the turn came a 3 (board is rainbow) and he checks. I bet 1,200 and he quickly called. River came an ace and he checked again, now I must win this pot as he probably has J,J or T,T so I throw out a "value" bet of 2,500 and he folds. That put me back on track to 11k or so. Then a pot came up where someone raised to 150 in mid position and two callers. I look down at AKo and make it 700 and everyone folds except one of the callers. Flop comes T, 6, 4 rainbow and he checks. I bet 1,000 and he makes it 3,000. I look at his remaining chips to make sure he can still fold, sure enough he has 7k behind and I move all-in and he folds J,J face up. This pot brought me up to around 16k. Shortly after I call a raise in position with T9s and the flop came A,J,8. I immediately knew I would raise him if he bet and check if he checked, knowing he would bet a mediocre hand that would fold to a raise and would check a monster. Well, he checked, and I checked. Turn came a 7 and now he bets 500. Can you be any more obvious that you flopped a set buddy? I make it 1,500 and he quickly makes it 2,000 more. Now here I had a couple different ways to play it - I could go all-in, knowing he'll call an all-in and 80% of my chips will be at risk as a 4:1 favorite or I could just flat call and see if he boats up before committing all those chips. The only problem with the latter is if the board gets scary I might not get his whole stack if he just check/calls or check/folds. I decide to move it and he calls after a long think and turns over the 8,8. The river pairs the board and leaves me out of breath....just kidding, the river bricked and I took down the 22k pot, now up to 27k. A few rounds later I call a raise with QJo and the flop came Ad, Td, 7. The raiser made it 500 and I decided to call, either to take it away on the turn if he doesn't have the ace, hit the gutshot if he does have the ace, or bluff the diamonds if he has the ace. Turn came an offsuit 9, giving me the open ender and now he bets 1,200, leaving himself with 5,500. Easy call to make, because now I'm sure he has the ace, and if an 8, K or diamond come, the pot is mine. River is the 6d and he fires out 1,500. I grab my big stack of yellows (1k chips) to put him all-in, but then think for a second and decide to throw out 4k, for a raise of only 2.5k, which would leave him with 1,500 if he called and he was wrong. He gave out a big sigh and thought for a while, but ultimately couldn't stand the heat and folded A,T face up for top two pair. Then a pot came up where I raised to 700 with AcQc and got two callers from the button and the BB. Flop came Jc, 7c, 6 and the first guy checked. I bet 700 and the button called. BB check-raises to 2,100 and I think for a bit and decide he has a big hand, maybe two pair or a set and don't want to play a monster pot until I'm there, so I flat call. Plus, flat calling here might get the button in there with clubs of his own or a straight draw that might pay me off if his straight and my flush get there. He ends up calling the 2,100 as well. The turn came an offsuit queen and the raiser bets a mere 1,300. Call, right? Well, not exactly... I mean, what does this guy have?! He doesn't want to protect against the flush draw? He had two callers behind him and now he's underbetting the pot? There is over 9k in the pot and both of them have less than 7k in front of them. I'm all-in. Button folds and the BB thinks forever and decides to fold, disgusted with himself. Now I'm up to 46k. A tight player in early position makes it 700 and I look down at K,K right behind him. I decide to flat call, not wanting to play an all-in pot preflop, also trying to induce a squeeze play by some of the internet players at the table. Button calls and the flop came A,7,6. He throws out only 600 and I call and the button folds. Turn is an 8 and he checks, I check. River is a 5, he checks, I check. He shows A,A and I show off my K,K, only losing 1,300 when most players wouuld have played an all-in pot preflop and lost over 8k.
I raise with KJs in early position to 700, one caller. The BB moves all-in for 1,000 more and I call, as does the caller. Flop came Kd, Jd, 7 and I bet 2k, he calls. Turn is a 7 and I go all-in and he instantly calls with A,K and the other dude shows A,Q. I take down the pot for an 8k profit and now I'm up to 54k and CRUISING. Average was probably under 15k at this point. Then a pot came up where a late position raiser looks at his cards for a split second and immediately makes it 600. I don't even bother to look at my cards, knowing I'm going to raise no matter what cards I have. I make it 2k and the BB immediately calls and the raiser folded quickly. Here is where I made a crucial mistake - I should have just given up, knowing that the BB isn't going to call a raise and a re-raise without a huge hand, but I just got so frustrated that I read the situation correctly and had a guy wake up with a hand behind me. I look at my cards and see a K3o and the flop came K,T,9. I should have either check/folded or bet out and given it up if I got called or raised, but instead I check/pulled on him and he instantly called with A,K. The turn came an A and I was drawing dead. I lost 12k this hand and now my table image was shot, right before the rounds were going to 100/200 with 25 in antes (where stealing becomes a must). The table then proceded to 'high five' the guy who won, as they were so happy that someone had finally won a pot off me and the bullying would now slow down. Though it was pretty poor ettiquite on their part, it somehow made me feel like a true world class player when the table is releived to see my chips diminish. This was a huge turning point in momentum, which is the weakest part of my game, as discussed in the previous Pot Limit post, but I had to continue and put this pot past me as best as I could. A round later I raise in middle position with KQs and get called by the cutoff. Flop came J,T,7 and I bet 1,000 and he makes it 3,000. Now, because of the K,3 incident, my bluff equity is shot and I can't re-raise and take down the pot. So I just flat call. The turn came a rag and I check and he bets 3k again and I call. River was another rag and it went check/check. He shows A,J and takes it down. So many damn outs and I know it would have been mine if I hadn't had to show that K,3 earlier. Now I have to really tighten it up until the table breaks. I fold most hands, then get moved to the softest table imaginable. I win a few pots without any showdowns and then get moved shortly after to a new table that has a few good, but unknown players at it. I steal a ton of pots the first few rounds and I'm working my stack back to around 42k. There was a pot where I called a raise in the SB with Q9s and the BB called. I flopped a flush and the raiser bet 2k and I check-raised to 5k and he called. I shoved all-in on the brick turn and he folded K,K no club face up, as if it were a tough laydown for his whole tournament life. At this table it was mostly preflop and flop poker, very few showdowns or bluffs, just continuation bets and check/raises. A pot came up where I raised in middle position and got called by the button and the BB immediately moved all-in for 10k. I was pretty confident he didn't have a huge hand, but had to fold, as I thought the initial caller still to act had a huge hand and was trapping me. I had 9,9 and reluctantly mucked and then he proudly shows off the T3o after the button folds. I ended the day with 38k and now I'm at a table that I think will suit me well. I have Phil Ivey across the table from me, but he has only 16k in chips at the moment. I'm still agonizing about that K,3 blunder, but I have a good support group here that is helping me pull through it. What I'm trying my best to do right now is pretend that I'm starting a new tournament on Tuesday, in which the starting chips are 25k (the average going into day 2 so far) and I'm sitting on 38k. I'll post day 2 later in the week.

7/22/06 $5,000 Pot limit

2006-07-24T15:39:00.000-06:00

This is probably the most painful entry to post, so bare with me. I played some phenominal poker up until dinner break, then just had what I equate to a mental breakdown, where I had trouble even counting chips, let alone making tough decisions. Here is what happened....
Level one I played about two hands and had a tighter table image than Prutsa herself (inside joke between Moon, Bag and me). Level two I made some awesome plays, including raising to 150, call, call, SB made it pot and I decided to just re-re-raise small to 1,500 more. I knew this guy knew I was extremely tight, and if he wanted to get it all-in, my AK wouldn't be lookin too hot. Therefore, I re-re-raised small so I could still fold if he went all-in (which he wouldn't do without A,A or K,K). He didn't think long before folding K,K face up. Wow! Awesome, that is the difference between $5k events and $1,500 events, lol. Anyway, I made a couple more plays and bluffs and was up to 8,000 when the following hand happened. Cutoff made it 150, I called with JTo on the button, and SB "pots" it for 600 more. Cutoff calls, as do I and the flop came 6s,6,4s. SB "pots" it and cutoff folds. I decide to call, because I really didn't think this guy had the overpair. I thought if he did not have the overpair, he would get scared of my call and check/fold on the turn, and if I was wrong, and he did have the overpair, I could just fold on the turn, only losing 1,800 chips, which would suck, but I would hate myself for not going with my conviction. The turn brought a J and he immediately moved all-in. Interesting spot! Haha. Now all of the sudden I can beat the bluff, but I told myself before that I didn't think he would move in on the turn without the overpair. However, this guy couldn't have convinced me any more that he was bluffing and I had absolutely no intention of folding after his bet. I started laughing and said, "You are really going to hate me when you see this hand." I called and, sure enough, he flips over AQ and no help came. He stormed off furious at me and the table was in complete shock. The tightest player at the table just called a pot sized bet on the flop with no pair, no spade, no draw, jack high and called an all-in bet for 90% of his chips. I was now up to 13,000 and lookin hot. Another pot came up a little later where UTG made it 300, SB called, and I bet the pot in the BB with TT. UTG "pots" it back at me for 95% of his chips and I had an extremely tough decision, but getting 3:1 on my money I couldn't fold, even though his hands were shaking uncontrollably (a sign of a monster). I called and he had AK and won the race, and now I was back to 8,000. UTG raised to 300, one caller, and I called in the SB and BB folded. My 9,6 hit the 9c,7,5c flop and I bet into the raiser 500. He was an old man, who was pretty tight/weak. He called and the other dude folded. Now I know I'm beat, and decide the only way to win the pot is a check/raise on the turn, which is what I did. He bet 1,200 and I bet "pot", which forced him all-in and he was so mad at himself for betting when he showed the JJ. I couldn't bring myself to show him my hand as I scooped the pot. Up to 15,000 and lookin hot. I was moved to another table and kept the same table image of a solid, aggressive rock. I won a few pots after raising, getting called, then making small continuation bets and built up to 25k or so. Then a pot came up where UTG limped, I bet the pot with AK, and a guy three to my left raised me the pot. I decided to flat call, as we both had many chips.
"Alright then, lets play a big one, shall we?"
Flop came 6d,6,4d. Check, check. Now I have this guy on AK for sure, and the Q on the turn is an easy check because I'll either steal it on the river, or....He bet 5,000 and I made it 10,000 after a short think. He starts shaking his head in disgust and folds. Another hand came up where UTG limped and I had AcKc and raised the pot. A new guy to the table, who had just won the previous pot now re-raises all-in and I'm feeling sick, because I know 100% certain he has an overpair. The question is, is it A,A, K,K, or Q,Q. Regardless, I can't fold for 2,500 more after putting in 1,000 and he shows K,K. Poor bastard was drawing dead after I hit my flush on the turn, and now the fish is up to 43k. After a few more raises and re-raises I went up to 54k and then Jason Lestor sat down. Here is where the tournament went to shit. I have plenty of chips to just coast into the money and I have been patient all day, but decide to start opening it up a little, especially after playing so tight and only showing monsters all day. I raise to 2,000 one from the cutoff with A3s and Lester calls on the button. Flop came Q, 9, 6 and I bet 2,500 and he called after a short think. Turn was a 3 and instead of giving it up, i went ahead and bet 5,000, which was a huge mistake. He ends up calling and after the T came on the river, now I feel obligated to put him all-in for his tournament life for 16,000 because there is too much to just leave sitting out there when I think he'll fold a J,T, K,T or Q,J. He calls for the forth time after a short think and shows the A,Q. I lost the 56k pot and was devastated. The dinner break came shortly after and I never went back to my solid play. Shortly after the break folds around to one from the cutoff, who made a 3x BB raise and I decided to flat call in the cutoff with T,T because I didn't think anyone would give me credibility for a hand after that debacle before the break and I didn't want a race for all my chips. BB called and the flop came 9, 6, x. They both check, and I bet three quarters the pot. BB moves in for less than a min raise more and I call. He shows 6,5 and I end up taking it down. One pot came up where it was folds to my cutoff and the tightest player at the table was in the BB. I decided to raise with JTo and she called. I was a little worried about the call, as I thought she would fold most hands, and didn't continuation bet the flop like I normally would have. A king came on the turn and she now bet into me. Now I'm thinking I want to represent the K,Q or A,K, but instead of putting her to a tough decision, I decide to flat call and play it tricky, which was a complete dumbass move on my part and I hate myself for it. The river was a brick and she check/called an all-in bet by me on the river with her K,T. At this point I'm so disappointed with myself for blowing all those chips and I'm trying for the life of me to pull it together, but was just mentally fried. I couldn't even calculate the odds I was getting when I would get raised or even count the chips that someone would throw into a pot for that matter. It was the most embarrased and disgusted I've ever felt at a poker table. The hand I exited on when as follows: A big stack limps in late position for the second consecutive hand and I limp in the SB with 76o. The flop came K, 9, 8 and I check and the BB checks. The limper bets 2,500 and I decide I need the chips at this point pretty badly, so I decide this is the spot to let it known I'm going with the hand. I raise the pot 8,800 more and he thinks for a long time before putting me in for my last 6,000.
"I really wish you would have folded, but I'm obviously calling"
"Two pair?"
"No, just a draw, I thought you would fold just about all hands here because of how tight I've been playing"
"I almost did"
He then shows A,A and I'm in a bit of trouble. No help, and I'm eliminated out of the money, after having enough chips to be average in the money earlier. I was so disgusted with myself I can hardly bring myself to post this blog, but it has to be done, as I will hopefully learn from the experience. What did I end up learning? Just because you bring your "A" game for 90% of the day, doesn't mean you can let up at any moment. One pot can change a tournament and every ounce of concentration needs to go into each pot. I also learned that I still have major tilt issues to not be able to rebound from one lost pot.

7/22/06 $5,000 Short handed no limit

2006-07-24T14:14:00.000-06:00

Wow, this was an amazing tournament, just as I was hoping it would be. I truely felt like I played the best poker of my career thus far, including my run in the WPT Championships. Below is a detailed report of some hands throughout the days.
Starting out the tournament, I was an alternate (meaning I had to wait until a few people in the tournament went bust before I could play). When I arrived at my table with 5,000 in chips, I immediately noticed the Asian dude two to my left had 13,000 in chips, and assumed he would be playing pretty fast. My first hand I pick up 6,6 UTG and raise the 25/50 blinds to 150. As expected, the Asian guy made it 400 and I'm the only caller. Flop came Tc, 4, 3c. I checked and he threw out three pinks, trying to force me to fold (this was a 1,500 bet into a 900 pot...). I called after a little think, and the turn brought the 4c. Now I'm debating what to do with my hand, as I don't have a club. I'm certainly not going to check/call and I don't want to check and give his crap hand a free look at another card. So, the only other option for me was to move in, because if I just bet and he moved me in, I was going to have to call. So I moved in for my last 3,100 and he called after a short think. Immediately I stood up, preparing for a short exit, but when he flipped over 5,5 with no club, I was exstatic. After the double up I tried to just play small to medium sized pots - mainly just winning pots where I raised, got called, then took it down with a small continuation bet on the flop. One hand, Dapo, a friend of mine, limped UTG for 100, followed by three other limps. I looked down at A,9 and decided I didn't want to play a five handed pot with this hand, so I made it 1,500. Unfortunately, Dapo called, but then the crazin moved all-in for 3,500 more. When it got back around to me, I couldn't wait to call this guy, but really wanted a fold from Mr. Dapo. I decided I would call the bet, rather than move all-in, which, in retrospect was probably a mistake. I think I should have just moved all-in and forced Dapo to a tough decision. In any event, Dapo folded, and my A,9 held up against the other dude's measly 57o. A couple rounds later folds to the button, who makes it 600 and I look at JTo in the BB and call. Flop came Qd, Jd, 9. I checked, he threw out 1,000 and I decided to flat call. Turn was a 2 and I checked. Now he fired 2,000 and I called again. River was a 7 and I checked, he bet 2,000 and I beat him into the pot. He turned over J,7 and I was furious after reading the situation so perfectly. I couldn't raise his ass because he had plenty of chips to cripple me and I thought he was the type of player to make a very rash move at any point. Shortly after I was moved to a perfect spot on another table, and the domination began. I moved to this table with 15,000 in chips after losing that devastating 11k pot to that one guy. The chip leader of the table was directly to my right with a 15,000 stack of his own, and the rest of the players looked like easy bait. I folded most of the hands for a couple rounds to try to get a feel for the table, but after I started picking up a few tells and sensing the fear, decided to bring out the aggressive cash game play in full force. If someone wanted to raise my BB in the cutoff or button, a suited connector or any ace was an auto re-raise big. If I raised and got re-raised, I went all-in with sub-par hands if I felt the guy was at all weak. It seemed like every single pot I ented I took down, both hitting hands and bluffing a lot, and in a short time I ran my chips up to 44k by dinner break. One pot I raised with a J,T and got called by the button. Flop came J,T,x and I fast played it. He came over the top, and I moved all-in. He thought for a while, then folded. Another time the guy to my right raised on the button, I looked at A,A and re-raised and he called. I bet the Q,7,4 rainbow board and he thought for a long time (I could see right through him that he had nothing and was thinking about making a move), but ended up pussing out and folding. What wasn't working so well was trying to see flops with the guy to my left. Every time he raised and I called, someone would re-raise huge and both of us would fold. Finally I was able to get in there with a J8s and the flop came Q, 7, 3 rainbow. He made a continuation bet, and I called, planning on taking the pot away with either a raise or a bet on the turn. The turn was a and he checked. Beautiful! He has nothing and a small bet will take it down. However, to my surprise he went for the check-raise and I thought for what must have been three minutes on all my options, and decided a fold was my best play. A little later he raised and I called with a 6,6 and everyone folded. The flop came 9,9,3 and he bet, as expected, and I called. The turn was a queen and he checked. Now I think I have the best hand (I wasn't sure on the flop) and so I bet 4k - the same bet he made on the flop. However, he calls, and now I know I'm behind, as a worse pair would have probably kept betting on the turn. The river came an 8 and now he checks. There is so much lying out there that I can't afford to check and have him turn over 7,7 or T,T, so I moved all-in, which put him all-in for 15,000. He thought for a bit, then folded. Now I must have been up to 60k or so. A little while later the guy to my right went bust and a new guy sat there with a good amount of chips. Unfortunately for him, he lost a very large pot one of the first hands he played, and he had the fish to his left. He raised to 2,400, and I called with 8,8 and everyone folded. Flop came J,J,7 and he bet a healthy 4,000 and I called. Turn was a 6, he checked, I bet 6k and he raised to 16k. I quickly moved all-in and he folded his garbage hand. "Don't try that shit with me, bud". I was at around 80k now. A round later I raised UTG with J,J to 2,400 and folds to him in the BB. He went all-in for 15,000 and I called. I almost laughed when I saw his T9o, but he picked up an open ender on the turn. No help, and now I was over 100k. I lost a few all-in pots with 9,9 against K,Q and K,Q against Q,J, but with how many chips I was accumulating through raises and re-raises, these were all free rolls and thus, minor setbacks. Rolling my way up to 140k on the bubble was fairly easy, but then some devastating news came. My table was to break, and my new table featured the chip leader of the tournament to my left, Eric Lindgren with a healthy amount of chips across the table, and a short stacked Phil Helmuth. After Phil went bust, David Pham joined us with a 120,000 stack, and the news kept getting worse and worse. I was playing very tight poker here, just trying to make it through the day and wait for a table change. I raised two pots in the cutoff with A,Q and J,J and both times the chip leader came over the top and Eric Lindgren came back over the top in the BB. Then, I picked up A,Q again in the cutoff, and, almost as if expected, he re-popped it again. This time I decided to call, because I was convinced he had AK and I would take the pot away from him, based on the size of his raise preflop. I made it 4,800 and he made it 18,000 more. I called and the flop came 6c,6,4c. I checked and he checked. Now I'm 100% sure he has AK, as he would never slowplay against someone who could potentially cripple him with two clubs out there. The turn brought a Qc, which I was very happy about. I was planning on betting regardless, but now I'm not bluffing, which is always a plus. I bet 25,000 and he called. Now I'm pretty sure he has either Ac,K or A,Kc. So, basically I don't want a K or a club to hit the river. The river is the Kc! I reluctantly check, knowing he is going to throw out a value bet and make me sick to my stomach, but he checks. He turns over a red A,K and I went ballistic! What the hell was this guy thinking?!
"I thought you had AK too"
"Ohhh, ok, yeah, that makes sense. So you called my bet hoping to chop the pot....that is assuming a club doesn't come and I was freerolling, right?"
"If a club came, I would just fold to your bet on the river"
"After giving me an additional 25,000, that makes perfect sense, you are most definitly right man"
Losing a 100,000 pot, as well as being put at this table is what cost me the tournament in my opinion, but 'se la vi', or however that saying goes. I ended the day with 120,000 in chips. The following day more bad news came, as I found out my table would be the last to break and I would have to play tight poker until that happened. One pot Eric Lindgren limped for 2,000 and I made it 8,000 more in the SB. He called and the flop came Q, 9, 6. I checked (planning on check-raising) but he checked as well. Turn came a T, and now I bet 11k and he called. River was a brick and it went check/check and he turned over the lame KTo. I was happy with how I played it, though. I was at about 115k when the table finally broke and at the new table I raised in 2nd position with A,T to 9k, got one called, then John Juanda moved all-in two behind me for 57k total. I folded, as did the caller. The very next hand I raised to 9k with Jh,9h and he re-raised me again, to 29k this time, leaving himself with 50k behind. I decided to move all-in, as he would have to fold most hands, it looked like I had a beast, and even if he did call, I would have a hand that could compete with an overpair. Sure enough, he called with his K,K. The flop brought 8h, x, x, then the 7h on the turn. Yes, you guessed it, the Th on the river gave me the runner runner straight flush, sending poor 'ol Johnny packin. I truely felt horrible for the guy, but if I had to do it over again, I liked my play at that particular moment in time. I couldn't afford for people to think that I'll raise UTG and in 2nd position and fold to re-raises for the rest of the day. A few rounds later I raised to 9k with A,J and the SB moved all-in for 35,000 more. I immediately grabbed my chips to call him, but I read him for an absolute beast, just based on his body language and how easy of a decision it was for him and I decided to fold. Another pot came up where Vanessa Rousso raised to 12k and I called with a 8c,9c and the BB (a new player to our table) made it 42k. She folded, but I wasn't about to let this guy make a possible squeeze play on us. I thought he either had an overpair, or complete crap, based on the size of his raise. I decided if the board came scary or A high I would raise him all-in on the flop. However the Th, 5c 2h board wasn't either and I folded to his 40k bet on the flop. A pot came up where UTG moved all-in for 50k and I was in the BB with AQ, which was an obvious call four handed, but I ran into A,A and no help. Shortly after, Vanessa limped and I checked the BB with Q9o (God knows why I checked). The flop came K,K,9 and she checked. I bet 5k and she made it 12,500. I then had a tough decision to make....either re-raise or call, haha. I decided to flat call, as I knew she wouldn't be able to help herself from bluffing the turn. She didn't disappoint on the Q turn and bet 30k. I called and the river brought a beautiful 6. She thought for a very long time, asked how much I had left (100k) and finally checked, followed by my check.
"Jack high"
"That's what I thought," as I turned over the pair of queens for the pot.
Then, I lost a big one to Vanessa when she limped in the SB and I checked my disgusting T2o. Flop came 7h,6h,2. She checked, I bet 5k, she called. Turn was another 7. Now she bet 10k into me, and I made it 30k, honestly thinking I had the best hand. She called and we checked the K river, and her 5,6 was good. Now I was down to 120,000 and this is where things went sour. I went card dead for what must have been at least two hours and was blinded down to 70k playing four handed and getting K6o as my best hand. In fact, I was so excited to see the K,6 that when Vanessa limped in the SB it was the easiest move I've had to make all day, as I fumbled the chips forward with such glee all-in. She folded, and I proudly showed off my K,6 when she showed me her six. You know the cards must have been pretty bad when even the fish won't play them four handed! Shortly after, I was at 67k, and moved to a different table. One of the first hands folded around to the button, who made it 17,000 and I quickly moved in with my K,Q and he reluctantly called with 7,7 and won the coin flip. I went out 12th place, very happy with my two days of play. Sorry for all the detail, but I had to make sure that I forever remember some of the awesome plays that were made. What did I learn from this tournament? I will never play a tournament under $5,000 again, as my track record thus far is:
Reno Hilton - 2nd in chips after day one, failed to cash
WPT Championships - 15th place
WPT Grand Prix de Paris - out on day two after sleeping through the tournament and being
blinded out
WSOP $5,000 No limit - 14th place
WSOP $5,000 Short handed no limit - 12th place
All other tournaments under $5,000 - one 22nd place and one 11th place, totaling $1,400 in
prize money

7/13/06 $2,500 Short handed NL

2006-07-18T12:22:00.000-06:00

Ok, so this tournament was pretty frustrating as well. I really need to get focused and play up to my potential like I was earlier in the WSOP. I did have a rather unfortunate table draw, with Evelyn Ng to my left and Mr. Mark Seif to my right, but that should be no excuse to not play my best. Especially since I have an excellent track record against both of them. A hand came up fairly early where a few people limped in the pot, I check the SB and the BB checks as well. I had 3,4 and the flop came A, 2c, 5c. Checks around. Turn came the 8c everyone checks to the cutoff who makes it 100 (blinds were at 25/25) and I make it 300. Folds back to him and he calls. Turn came the Qh and I throw a pink chip in (500) and he gives a big sigh and goes all-in for 1,400 more, which put me all-in. I think for a while, and decide he must have turned the nuts - God knows why he didn't bet the flop though - and 1/3 of my stack was gone right off the bat. A couple more hands passed where I raised preflop, got called, made an obligatory continuation bet and they raised, forcing me to fold my crap hand, etc. etc. etc. Then, I made a fairly big mistake when I decided to raise 150 UTG with AJ and a 1,000 stack. As some of you might have guessed, there were two callers, then the SB made it 850 and now I have to fold, rather than just limp re-raising all-in (blinds at 25/50 now obviously). Shortly thereafter UTG makes it 150 and I weakly flat call in the SB with ATs and a 900 stack. Flop came QQJ and I was just going to check fold, but then he only bet 200. I immediately thought this guy was betting weak to either take the pot with a weak pair, a suited connector, or an AK. So I quickly shoved all-in for only 500 more and he thought for what must have been two minutes, then finally called and flipped over AJ. I was shocked he took that long, I thought he was thinking about calling with his AK. Anyway, no help and the fish is out by level two, unfortunately, even though I was trying to play tight poker till the antes kicked in, lol.

Yup, it's the same dude, lol

2006-07-18T00:49:00.000-06:00

sefat53 ( $1000)
Kwickfish ( $3220)

Dealt to Kwickfish [ Td, Th ]
Atak4Infinit folds.
Kwickfish raises (70) to 70
demimoore111 folds.
shadsvet folds.
sefat53 calls (50)
** Dealing Flop ** :  [ 2h, 8d, 8s ]
sefat53 bets (200)
Kwickfish raises (500) to 500
sefat53 calls (300)
** Dealing Turn ** :  [ 4h ]
sefat53 bets (300)
Kwickfish raises (2650) to 2650
Kwickfish is all-In.
sefat53 calls (130)
sefat53 is all-In.
** Dealing River ** :  [ 3c ]

sefat53 [ 6d 9c ]

Glad it wasn't me! Hahaha

2006-07-18T00:45:00.000-06:00

shadsvet ( $2194.79)
sefat53 ( $1978.71)
GOLDENBOYBCN ( $470)
Atak4Infinit ( $2355)
Kwickfish ( $9361)
demimoore111 ( $2776.35)

Dealt to Kwickfish [ Ac, Kh ]
demimoore111 calls (20)
shadsvet calls (20)
sefat53 calls (20)
GOLDENBOYBCN calls (20)
Atak4Infinit calls (10)
Kwickfish raises (130) to 150
demimoore111 calls (130)
shadsvet calls (130)
sefat53 calls (130)
GOLDENBOYBCN folds.
demimoore111: lloolo
Atak4Infinit calls (130)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 7c, 6s, 4s ]
Atak4Infinit checks.
Kwickfish checks.
demimoore111 checks.
shadsvet checks.
sefat53 bets (1500)
Atak4Infinit folds.
Kwickfish folds.
demimoore111 folds.
shadsvet raises (2044.79) to 2044.79
shadsvet is all-In.
sefat53 calls (328.71)
sefat53 is all-In.
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 8s ]
** Dealing River ** : [ Js ]

shadsvet [ 6h 6c ] set of sixes
sefat53 [ Tc Qs ] flush, queen high

Same dude as previous post...

2006-07-18T00:43:00.000-06:00

Kwickfish ( $2095.50)
chadgr ( $2190)

Dealt to Kwickfish [ 2c, Ah ]
chadgr calls (20)
Piddzilla calls (20)
Goat_King folds.
loloTRICKEDu folds.
wenyingniwei folds.
Kwickfish checks.
** Dealing Flop ** :  [ 2s, Tc, Ts ]
Kwickfish bets (40)
chadgr calls (40)
Piddzilla folds.
** Dealing Turn ** :  [ Ad ]
Kwickfish checks.
chadgr bets (100)
Kwickfish calls (100)
** Dealing River ** :  [ 2d ]
Kwickfish checks.
chadgr checks.
chadgr [ 8c Td ]

Too bad no suckout : (

2006-07-18T00:38:00.000-06:00

chadgr ( $3171)
Goat_King ( $1970)

Goat_King raises (80) to 80
loloTRICKEDu folds.
Kwickfish folds.
chadgr raises (130) to 140
Piddzilla folds.
Goat_King calls (60)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 6h, Ah, Th ]
chadgr bets (100)
Goat_King raises (400) to 400
chadgr calls (300)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 6d ]
chadgr bets (150)
Goat_King raises (400) to 400
chadgr raises (500) to 650
Goat_King raises (1030) to 1430
Goat_King is all-In.
chadgr calls (780)
** Dealing River ** : [ 7c ]

chadgr [ Kc Ks ]
Goat_King [ Td Tc ]

7/11/06 $2,000 Pot limit

2006-07-13T01:40:00.000-06:00

This was a frustrating tournament. I started out playing really well, and accummulating chips through raw aggression without ever having to show a hand. Then a hand came up where I took a chance to become a monster stack. This is what happened: folds to the SB, who limps in, I look down at 94o and I check (blinds at 100/200). Flop comes Tc, 8c, 7s. He quickly fires 400 and he seemed like a fairly passive player, so I thought he probably hit the hand pretty big. He also seemed like the type of guy that might hold onto hands a little too long, but we were also the two big stacks at the table (probably 7k each at this point), so I also thought the bluff equity would be large if clubs got there. Basically this all added up to a call to see what he wanted to do on the turn. Turn came a 4h. Not quite the card I was looking for, but who knows, maybe now a 4 on the river, or even possibly a 9 on the river might make my hand superior if he decided to limp with an overpair and hope that I raised in the BB (as I had been showing a lot of preflop aggression at the table). He fires out 900, and I can't wait to get my money in the pot, as he will A) pay me off if I hit, and B) be really scared if a club comes and the pot will most likely be bought by the fish. Unfortunately, however, the river bricks with an offsuit 2, and he immediately puts 1,200 chips in. I fold, a little disheartened, as I had so many "outs" to win the pot. He then showed J,J and I realized that if I hit my J he was going down for the rest of his chips.....so painful! Later, after being moved to another table, I folded what must have been six consecutive rounds, then finally woke up with AA in 2nd position. I make it 600 and John Gale flat calls behind me, everyone else folds. Flop came 8s, 2s, 2h. I bet 700 and he immediately "pots" it. I go all-in, and he insta-calls with Js9s. Turn and River bring no help for him, and now I'm up to 7,300. A few rounds later, after continuing my extremely tight play a guy in 3rd position (7 handed) raises my blind to 700. This must have been the eigth raise this guy made in three rounds, and the fish was getting sick of it. Especially because I felt people were taking advantage of my tight table image to steal my blinds repeatedly. I pretend ot look at my cards, then make it a cool 2k. He immediately "pots" it, and I sadly look down to see a measly 74o. He and I have identical stacks, and I take a while to fold, but eventually give it up. He shows K,K and said he would have folded Q,Q to me, but not that one. Shortly thereafter I get moved to a new table where the shortest stack at the table looks to be 10k, bleh! I pick up a few small pots shortly after moving there. Then UTG "pots" it, folds to me on the button, and I look at A,Q. I call and the flop come 9,9.Q. He immediately "pots" it, and I move in for a fraction more. He thinks for what must have been two minutes, and finally calls his last 300 after putting 4,000 into the pot. He shows A,T and I'm in good shape. The turn brought a scary J, but no help on the river and the fish is up to a high for the day at 8,000. However, after a few pots where I siphoned off a good number of chips and blinds eating my stack, I shortly found myself at 1,500. This is where I'm not sure exactly where my focus went, possibly due to a lack of sleep, but I was in great shape and just didn't want the tournament bad enough I suppose. There was one pot where I moronically made it 900 in mid position with KTs, which normally is a fine play, but I had an extremely aggressive re-raiser to my left by the name of Jon Bonetti, who I could have told you even before the action got to him that he would re-raise me with just about any two cards. Another horribly played hand by myself was when I limped UTG with 9,9 (with the intention of "pot"ing it if anyone decided to raise me), one caller on the button, and both blinds check. Flop came Ax, Ah, 3h. I bet 700 (blinds at 150/300) and everyone folds but the BB. Turn came the Td. Check, check. River came a 3x and he quickly fires 2,000. I convince myself that his thought process would be the following: "If he has the A, it is a chop pot anyway (unless, of course he has the T with it), so assumming he doesn't have the A, why not check it and hope he bluffs at it." Also, I thought a 3 would be too scared that I had the A, limping UTG and all, and would probably check/call. Therefore, since I didn't think a T would bet 2k here, I thought he possibly missed his hearts and decided to call. He showed me the flopped nuts, and I felt like a jackass. Shortly after, I decided to limp UTG with QJs and the guy directly behind me moved in with his short stack, and the siphoning continued as I had to fold, not getting nearly the right odds. Then, I made it 800 in the cutoff with AcJd, and was called by the SB. Flop came Qc, 9c, 3c. He checked and I have a 4k stack. I could move in, but if he calls with a Q, which I thought he would call with in a heartbeat, I would be in a lot of trouble, expecially if he had an A with it. I decided to check behind him. The turn came an offsuit 2 and he checks, and I have a bad feeling about getting check-raised and decide to check again. The river brings a J and he quickly fires out 1,500. At this point I think he is putting me on AK and trying to get me to laydown and decide to call. He confidently flips over KTo and I can't help but feel like a jackass yet again, as I let him get there. To end the day, Billy Baxter limps UTG and I look down at KTo and decide it's time to shove to pick up the valuable 750 in chips (as I only had 1,500 in chips). It folds back to him, and he instantly calls with J9s. I was pretty upset with the call, and, though the flop came K high, he turned a flush and I was drawing dead on the river. I'm upset with how I went out, but I'm equally upset with myself for losing my focus and siphoning off way too many chips. I have to get my act together for the $2,500 short hander tomorrow. What I learned? It may sound cliched, but you have to want it. You really do. That is what I believe the Moon has going for him. I can see it in his eyes that he truely wants it, and I envy that desire.

LOL II

2006-07-13T00:22:00.000-06:00

Kwickfish ($2468)
Lorenaknott ($2121)

Dealt to Kwickfish [Kc, Qh]

whoedy raises (70) to 70
Kwickfish raises (200) to 200
oasis94111 folds.
Lorenaknott calls (200)
Biggec folds.
DonkDonkGoose folds.
whoedy folds.
** Dealing Flop ** : [Td, 4h, 2s]
Kwickfish bets (300)
Lorenaknott calls (300)
** Dealing Turn ** : [6c]
Kwickfish checks.
Lorenaknott bets (600)
Kwickfish raises (1968) to 1968
Kwickfish is all-in
Lorenaknott calls (1021)
Lorenaknott is all-in
** Dealing River ** : [Jd]

Lorenaknott shows [7s, 8s] high card jack.
Kwickfish shows [Kc, Qh] high card king.

Call of the day

2006-07-13T00:19:00.000-06:00

Sometimes I'm wrong, sometimes I'm right, but man, does it feel good when I'm right.

oasis94111 ( $2128)
Kwickfish ( $2287)

Dealt to Kwickfish [ Ac, Qh ]
Kwickfish raises (70) to 70
lorenaknott folds.
oasis94111 calls (70)
Biggec folds.
DonkDonkGoose folds.
** Dealing Flop ** :  [ 2c, 5h, Th ]
Kwickfish bets (125)
oasis94111 calls (125)
** Dealing Turn ** :  [ 4c ]
Kwickfish checks.
oasis94111 bets (200)
Kwickfish calls (200)
** Dealing River ** :  [ 2s ]
Kwickfish checks.
oasis94111 bets (455)
Kwickfish calls (455)

oasis94111 [ 9c Ah ]

LOL

2006-07-12T14:24:00.000-06:00

doyamind ( $3759)
Kwickfish ( $2042)

Dealt to Kwickfish [ Qc, Qh ]
whoedy folds.
coiolzz folds.
unknownpp folds.
Kwickfish raises (60) to 70
doyamind raises (210) to 230
Kwickfish calls (160)
** Dealing Flop ** :  [ 6d, 2d, Th ]
Kwickfish checks.
doyamind bets (380)
Kwickfish calls (380)
** Dealing Turn ** :  [ 8h ]
Kwickfish bets (150)
doyamind calls (150)
** Dealing River ** :  [ 2s ]
Kwickfish bets (200)
doyamind raises (2999) to 2999
doyamind is all-In.
Kwickfish calls (1082)
Kwickfish is all-In.

doyamind [ Ah Kd ]

The sad thing is, I beleive he did have KQ

2006-07-12T14:18:00.000-06:00

MsBDiknson ( $3301.36)
Kwickfish ( $6890)

Dealt to Kwickfish [ 8h, 4h ]
coiolzz folds.
ongelukkig folds.
SuperEva raises (60) to 60
Kwickfish raises (200) to 200
midnightxxx folds.
MsBDiknson calls (180)
SuperEva folds.
** Dealing Flop ** : [ Kd, Kc, Ac ]
MsBDiknson checks.
Kwickfish bets (250)
MsBDiknson calls (250)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Qd ]
MsBDiknson checks.
Kwickfish checks.
** Dealing River ** : [ Ah ]
MsBDiknson checks.
Kwickfish bets (600)
MsBDiknson: omg
MsBDiknson: got kq
MsBDiknson folds.

The tripple barreled blizuf

2006-07-12T14:16:00.000-06:00

arty2u ( $3074.08)
Kwickfish ( $2773)

Dealt to Kwickfish [ Ks, Tc ]
grimhogun folds.
IN_MY__CRIB folds.
arty2u raises (40) to 50
Kwickfish raises (130) to 150
arty2u calls (100)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 5c, 2d, 2c ]
arty2u checks.
Kwickfish bets (200)
arty2u calls (200)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 7s ]
arty2u checks.
Kwickfish bets (500)
arty2u calls (500)
** Dealing River ** : [ 8d ]
arty2u checks.
Kwickfish bets (1100)
arty2u did not respond in time.
arty2u folds.

I think this hand speaks for itself

2006-07-12T14:13:00.000-06:00

TacitDamage ( $5616.50)
Johnsson666 ( $4731)

Johnsson666 raises (66) to 66
Kwickfish folds.
SevenPuma folds.
IShipStacks folds.
jl3053 folds.
TacitDamage raises (346) to 366
Johnsson666 calls (300)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 7c, 7d, As ]
TacitDamage checks.
Johnsson666 bets (500)
TacitDamage calls (500)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 6h ]
TacitDamage checks.
Johnsson666 bets (1000)
TacitDamage raises (4750.50) to 4750.50
TacitDamage is all-In.
Johnsson666 calls (2865)
Johnsson666 is all-In.
** Dealing River ** : [ 4d ]

TacitDamage [ Ah Ks ]
Johnsson666 [ Ac Js ]

Como se dice "Complete jackass"?

2006-07-12T14:09:00.000-06:00

grimhogun ( $2951)
IN_MY__CRIB ( $4697.21)

Kwickfish folds.
LaTanyaWilliams folds.
Wonginator folds.
grimhogun raises (60) to 60
IN_MY__CRIB calls (50)
SevenPuma calls (40)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 9c, Qd, Qs ]
IN_MY__CRIB checks.
SevenPuma checks.
grimhogun bets (100)
IN_MY__CRIB calls (100)
SevenPuma folds.
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 3h ]
IN_MY__CRIB checks.
grimhogun checks.
** Dealing River ** : [ 6c ]
IN_MY__CRIB bets (737.02)
grimhogun raises (1974.04) to 1974.04
IN_MY__CRIB raises (2474.04) to 3211.06
grimhogun calls (816.96)
grimhogun is all-In.

grimhogun [ 6d 6s ]
IN_MY__CRIB [ Th Qc ]

e.t.d. on this douche was 90 mins....he only lasted 75

2006-07-10T21:37:00.000-06:00

Kwickfish ( $5458.86)
pizokah ( $4471)

Dealt to Kwickfish [ 3d, Ad ]
pizokah raises (70) to 70
grimhogun folds.
Kwickfish calls (70)
jdbop folds.
NoreasteR_ folds.
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 3s, 2d, Ac ]
pizokah bets (120)
Kwickfish raises (350) to 350
pizokah calls (230)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 3c ]
pizokah checks.
Kwickfish bets (600)
pizokah raises (1400) to 1400
Kwickfish calls (800)
** Dealing River ** : [ 6h ]
pizokah bets (2651)
pizokah is all-In.
Kwickfish calls (2651)

pizokah [ Ah Qc ]

Take a poll

2006-07-10T21:36:00.000-06:00

Fell free to leave your toughts as to why this was a good or bad fold.

juicebird ( $2261)
Kwickfish ( $5609.20)

Dealt to Kwickfish [ 8c, 3c ]
CallingSt_n folds.
stutzmad calls (20)
juicebird calls (20)
Edoiler folds.
Kwickfish calls (10)
Enlightened_1 checks.
** Dealing Flop ** :  [ 3d, As, 4c ]
Kwickfish bets (35)
Enlightened_1 folds.
stutzmad folds.
juicebird raises (70) to 70
Kwickfish calls (35)
** Dealing Turn ** :  [ 5c ]
Kwickfish checks.
juicebird bets (200)
Kwickfish calls (200)
** Dealing River ** :  [ Qc ]
Kwickfish bets (350)
juicebird raises (1971) to 1971
juicebird is all-In.
Kwickfish folds.

7/7/06 $2,500 No limit

2006-07-10T05:59:00.001-06:00

A flawlessly played tournament as far as I’m concerned – my tournament play is really coming around, and I’m very excited about it. I literally played five hands, which were the following: 1) After folding every single hand for the first 40 minutes of play, 3^rd position limps for 25, and I make it 125 with AcQc. After a think from seat 10, he grabs chips to raise, but then decides to call (he was in almost every pot, but not too aggressive, to give a little background information), folds to the limper, who calls. Flop: A,Q,9c. Check, I bet 300, quick call, fold. Turn: 6c. I think for about three minutes, then decide to move all-in for his last 1,200. I figured if he has an ace, he will think I’m bluffing and call me, if he’s drawing, I can’t give him a free card, and if I bet any less it would look too much like I was trying to get paid. I thought an all-in looked the most suspicious on my part, and in retrospect I would have done the same exact thing. Unfortunately, however, he insta-calls with a set of aces, and no flush on the river for me. Now I’m down to 800 or so. I fold a couple rounds, then I pick up Qx,Jh in the BB and there are three limpers including the SB, I check. Flop comes Ah, Qh, 3h. Checks around. Turn: 4h, check, I check, 50 from David Matthews, folds, and I call. River bricks, check check, I take it down with the second nuts. I couldn’t bet, because I know this guy is pretty wild and might take it away from me on a bluff. A couple more rounds pass and then I pick up A3o in the big blind and three limpers, including the SB are with me. I check and the flop comes AQ4 with two diamonds. I pick up my 700 in chips to go all-in, but then decide to only bet 100, to which everyone quickly folds their hands. A couple more rounds pass and then I pick up Q7o in the SB and throw in 25 for the call after three limps (the BB wasn’t that aggressive, so I thought I might get away with seeing a cheap flop here). Flop: Qd,Td,8. Wow, what a tough decision….I have 600 in chips at this point, but I’m likely going to get called my many hands here if I go all-in – a situation I want to avoid at all costs. However, I do have the top pair, which at this point is a monster for me. I immediately picked up my chips to go all-in, but showed some restraint after a little think and decided to check and see what happened. The BB fired out 200 and David Matthews quickly called, folds to me. Man, oh man. I guess I fold. Turn came a 9, 400, called. River came a 4, check, check. BB shows Q,T, David shows 9d6d. NICE!! “Hell yeah! I folded a Queen!!” “Did you really? Wow, nice fold guy”. The very next hand middle position limps and I’m on the button with A7o and immediately decide it’s time. I shove, the SB folds in disgust and the BB quickly folds, however the limper apparently didn’t get the memo that I was playing tighter than his little sister’s….well, tight, and decided to call with 3,3. I was so pissed, and still am! No help and I was eliminated. Even if I won the pot, I think I still would have been upset at that guy. He’s not even playing poker, he’s just there to hopefully flip some coins and sit at a table with a guy he saw on T.V….. so unreal. What I learned? I’m a bad ass at poker, and sometimes it doesn’t matter how you play, only how the cards fall.

7/4/06 $5,000 No limit

2006-07-10T05:59:00.000-06:00

This was a very exciting tournament, even though I wasn’t really expecting much, or pumped up about it to start. Basically had no hands for a really long time, then Allan Goering (sp?) joined the table, and the fireworks began. On more than one occasion I raised preflop and he flat called. I bet the flop and he wrecklessly just went all-in for 3,500 or so into a pot of 1,000. This was getting pretty frustrating, but I told myself to just maintain patience and I would catch him. After taking a beat in an unavoidable situation, he got short stacked, and the following hand came up. A player in middle position with a decent sized stack limps in for 200. I noticed this guy never really limps with a big hand, and immediately knew I was raising on the button with any two cards. However, the guy right after him, another big stack, beat me to the punch and quickly made it 1,100. My read on the situation was that the raiser picked up the same tell I picked up and didn’t have much of a hand himself, he just wanted the dead money out in the pot and knew nobody was going to make a play on a limper and big raiser in mid position on a bluff. Good move on his part. I look down at 6,6 and have a dilemma. On the one hand I really think I have the best hand, but from the previous tournament, I learned that if I go all-in when someone has me covered, I should try to be first in the pot. I ended up flat calling to see how the action was going to go post flop with my 5k stack. Goering called in the BB, as expected with his 3,700 stack. Flop came Kd,Qd,9x. Check, check – ok, now I’m almost certain I have the best hand, because I really don’t think anyone would slowplay a big hand on that flop and decide I have to take a stab at the pot with a bet of 1,500. To my surprise Goering calls, and the preflop raiser folds. The turn came a J and Goering checks. I ask how much more he has, after basically giving up on the pot, as the only thing I beat at this point is a flush draw. However, after hearing he only had 1,100 left, and with the pot that big, I put him all-in hoping he might either have a flush draw or might fold bottom pair for his tournament life. He called fairly quickly, and I admit defeat “nice hand, you having me drawing very thin” “no, just a flush draw here” He turns over the 8d7d and I win the gargantuan pot after the river brings a K. After a couple more steals, I’m moved to a different table with over 10k in chips and looking good. The gentlemen at this table quickly learned that I like to raise when I have chips, as it was brought up on many occasions that I was wearing down the felt. A few notable hands…I brought it in for my typical 5k, blinds at 800/1,600 200 ante with my beloved JhTh. After a moron who wasn’t in the pot continued to talk about how I probably had a 23o, the big blind quickly moves all-in for 15,000 more. I swear I must have taken three or four minutes to decide what to do. “If I muck, do you show?” “maybe”. I reluctantly fold and he proudly flips over T,7o. Wow, everyone told him what a great play it was, considering if I called that he would have had two live outs, and I had to hold back the laughter. I was so close to calling! The very next hand a tight player to my right opens for 5k in mid position and I look down at JJ with the wind still knocked out of me. I decide to flat call, as he had me covered and would probably think I was on tilt if I raised and might put me in with a coin flip type of situation, which I wanted to avoid at all costs. Everyone else folds and the flop comes T,9,4. Check, I think for a few seconds and protect my hand with 6k, to which he immediately goes all-in for 26k more. WOW. Is this really happening? I thought this type of thing only happened in the twilight zone. I think forever, and the table gives me crap for “hollywooding”. I eventually decide this guy isn’t the type of player to do this kind of play on a bluff and brilliantly checked, knowing I had a pocket pair and would bet it, and might make a frustration call with a dominated hand. I ended the day with 24,000 in chips and asked him what he had, and promised him I would tell him what I had. He said QQ, and I’m pretty certain that is what he had, though I have no proof. It makes me feel better, so that is what I will keep telling myself, regardless of whether it was true or not J. The following day I entered the tournament as a very short stack, with only one play: all-in. Luckily after a few rounds of folding I picked up A,A and Marcel Luske committed himself to my all-in by raising in early position. I doubled up and now had a little breathing room with 48k in chips. However, with the blinds as high as they were, this 48k quickly dwindled down to 30k at my new table, and now it came down to just trying to pick up some blinds and antes to keep my head above water. A guy who had shown a wild all-in open with Q3o in mid position now made my BB 13,000. Folds to me, and I have a total of 34,000, including my BB. I think for a while about what the correct play is with my AhTh. Folding is obviously out of the question. The only question is, should I go all-in now and hope he folds so I don’t have to risk my tournament life, or should I stop and go, and hope he folds. The only risk with a stop and go, is if he has a crap hand and hits any pair, he will have to call, and it would really suck to put in the rest of my money to a made hand. However, if I move in now, he is going to call with most hands, and I don’t have many hands dominated, so my tournament life will be at risk in a coin flip type of situation. Both options were available, and I decided to just go all-in preflop and he quickly mucked. Phew! A few rounds later I raise to 15,000 in early position with AKo, and everyone folds to my liking. The very next hand I pick up 77 UTG and go 15,000 again, but this time Hung La looked me up and either picked up a good hand, or – more likely the case – made a great play and went all-in. He had me covered by a lot of chips and there wasn’t much I could do, other than throw my cards away. After being moved to a new table, I had a horrific table draw with Phil Helmuth raising a crap load of pots directly to my right, and Eugene Todd and Vinny Vinh to my left defending their blinds with their monster stacks. The opportunity to be first in the pot was very slim, and when I did have the chance, I didn’t want to end my tournament with hands like 93s and 85o. After a break I look down at JTo in mid position and decide to go with it, as picking up the blinds and antes was much needed, not to mention the absence of the BB. Luckily no one had a hand, and I won a much needed pot. Finally, it folds to Helmuth, who goes all-in in the SB and I look at a beautiful AK. I was very reluctant to call here though, because, as I said earlier, I wanted to be first in the pot so the other people had a chance to fold. I finally called because I thought there was a good chance I had him dominated, and sure enough I did as he turned over KTo. I won the pot, and now Im really looking good with 130k in chips! After folding what must have been 8 consecutive rounds or so the following hand came up. Vinny Vinh and Helmuth had been raising about 85% of pots at this table, but both decided to fold in this hand, to which Moon (two to my right) quickly raised to 25k. We are playing seven handed at this point and I’m getting pretty low with only 80k left. After seeing a KhQh, I quickly and confidently moved all-in. “I’m sorry, Paul, but I have to call” “Oh my god, are you for real?! I’ve folded every single freaking hand for the last hour and I run into Kings?!?!” The flop brought and interesting Q,xh,xh, giving me a flush draw and two queens as outs, but nothing came and I was eliminated in 14^th place, just out of the big money, televised final table, and inevitable sponsorships. Sigh, I’ll get there eventually, I have no doubt. Equally painful, Moon ended up busting 11^th, and the Westminster boys were sent packing. Lesson learned? Be first in the pot damnit! That was the theme of the day, and I broke the cardinal rule!

7/1/06 $2,000 No limit

2006-07-10T05:58:00.000-06:00

Unfortunately Mr. Mike Odeh found himself at my opening table, and we were avoiding each other as much as possible. I left the table with about 3,500 in chips, sat at another table for a round, then was moved again. At my new table, I could immediately tell most of the players were playing tight, and decided to start playing ultra aggressive. The message was loud and clear – if you want to play a pot with me, you are going to be playing for your tournament life, as I had the table covered after picking up QQ and moving in on an early position raiser who called with his 99 and was sent packing. I now had 7k in chips or so and the re-raises were in full effect. A pot came up where there were three limpers, the button made it 400 (blinds at 5/100), and I re-raised to 1,200 with A,9. Everyone folded, and he thinks for a short while and calls. The flop came AQT and I put him in for his last 600 and he reluctantly calls after saying “that wasn’t really the flop I was looking for”. At this point I was doing everything imaginable to look weak, as I wanted a call from his obvious crap hand, however to my shock he turns over AJ and won the pot when no help came. Pretty dumb play on his part if you ask me, but to each his own. A few rounds later UTG raises to 600 (blinds at 100/200) and 2^nd position calls. I look down at 77, and decide I’d had enough of this guy’s raises and make it 2,000. Folds to the button who immediately goes all-in for 4,000. UTG folds, as expected, but the 2^nd position caller immediately goes all-in as well, unexpectedly. At this point it’s 2k more to me, and I’m getting approximately 4.75:1 on my money. I had 13k starting the hand and decided I wanted to gamble to try to flop a set to obtain a monster chip lead over the table. If I lost, no biggie, I’d still be the chip leader with 9k. I call, button shows KK and 2^nd position obviously flips over the rockets. No help and luckily I get a 15 minute break to regather my thoughts after the hand. I came back and within a round that same UTG guy raises my big blind for the thousandth time after it folded to him in the cutoff. I look down at K8s and put him in for just under 3k, and unfortunately he woke up with AK and insta-called. No help, and now the fish is all of the sudden not looking too good. I have 6k and needed to change up the game plan a little bit. After catching a crap load of cold cards, I went to the dinner break with 5,500 and in critical shape. I came back and tried to pick my spots carefully, going all-in was the only move at this point. 2^nd position made it 1,500 and I immediately shove with JJ two spots after him for 5,500 and he folds. Nice take. A few rounds later that same guy limps in 2^nd position and I move with A6o because I’d never seen him limp with big hands all day and sure enough he folded. Then a round or two later the UTG guy I referred to earlier made it 1,500 and I moved with JJ in forth position for 6k and he called with AKs. First card in the door was a K and no help, fish knocked out. Afterwards, Mike, moon and I had a very long conversation and I think the correct play was to just fold the J,J in that spot. I was pretty sure there was no chance of UTG folding, and putting your tournament life at risk is never a wise thing to do, especially in a coin flip type of situation. The only argument against this is the possibility of him having T,T or 9,9, in which case I believe he would have called as well, which would have left me in good shape to double up back to healthy condition. Anyway, long story short, the thing I learned from this tournament was the importance of being first in the pot when you are a short stack. Better to hope nobody wakes up with a hand behind you, rather than enter a pot, knowing that someone has already shown strength.

6/30/06 $2,500 Short handed No limit

2006-07-10T05:57:00.000-06:00

One hell of a roller coaster on this day. I was down to two pink chips at one point (1,000 chips), and should have been broke on a couple occasions before then had I been playing my normal aggressive style. One round into play the guy on my immediate right seemed like a fairly tight player, so I weirdly decided to flat call his open for 100 with TT (blinds at 25/25). Normally this would be an obvious raise on my part, but I told myself I wanted to play tight in the first round and feel things out. The small blind came over the top to 400 and I immediately grabbed my chips to go all-in, as I thought this was an obvious squeeze play, but decided discretion was the better part of valor, or however that saying goes. Anyway, I flat called, and the flop came QQx. Check, check. Turn bricked – check, check. River bricked as well, now he fires out 500, which was insta-called, and flips over K,K….disaster averted, phew. A few hands later, UTG to my right again raises to 100 and now I look down at a beautiful AhJh, however decide to play it passively again for some odd reason and flat call! I swear this is honestly the way the hand went, though many of you probably can’t believe what you are reading – the fish not re-raising with these hands? What has the world come to?! Anyway, head up and the flop comes A,9h,4. Check, check. Turn came a 5h check, I bet 150, raise to 300, call. River 9. Bet 500, call. He turns over A,A! Though still in the tournament, I’m on the respirator. A round or two later folds to the SB and he makes it 100, I make it 300 with AQs and he immediately goes all-in for my remaining 700 and I beat him into the pot. He shows A,K and the board came x,x,x,x,Q! Bad news for the table, muahaha. Though still short compared to the table, I now had chips to maneuver with. The next round the wolf comes over to my table to show his support and informs me that seat 6 is my online whipping boy, Shavlick. This was music to my ears, as I know exactly how this guy plays and now know exactly what to do in each situation. Later Shavlick makes it 600 in 2^nd position and I look down at A,K and go all-in for 3,700 and he calls all-in for 3,400 total. The board comes 9,7,2,2,9 and we devastatingly split it. He is a great player, and not only did I need the chips, I wanted him out of the tournament a.s.a.p. I made my way to 7k after winning a huge toss up with AT all-in against KQ and was sitting nicely. A few orbits later Shavlick makes it 800 (blinds at 150/300), despite my continual re-raises preflop. I’m in the small blind with 8,200, the big blind has 14,000, and Shavlick has 7,400 total. I look down at 87s and immediately grab chips to raise, but I don’t want to raise and get re-raised, and don’t want to run into a hand from the BB, who has me covered, so I weakly decide to flat call. BB calls as well, and we see the J,8,4 flop. Check, check, quick bet of 1,800 and the thought of folding never entered my mind. The question was to call or raise. I decided to play it safe and flat call, just incase the BB liked his hand, but he quickly folds and it’s head up. Turn comes a 7, giving me two pair, and now I decide to bet 1,800 into him. A weak bet, because I want him to do his typical bullying crap and raise me all-in, or weakly call with overcards hoping to hit or bluff me on the river drawing dead. At this point he has 4,800 in chips and makes the call. River came a 6 and I quickly went all-in, reading him for 99, TT, JT, or a similar hand after his call on the turn. He called and showed me a disgusting 95o for a straight. “What the hell did you just call me with?!” “I picked up a gutshot on the turn, haha” “That is foul, that is just plain foul. I can’t believe you, I honestly can’t believe you”. “Hey Mike, come check this out! I just won a huge pot over here, hahaha”. The very next hand it’s folds to me and I look at a 78 and go all-in for 800 and get called by the BB’s Q9o. I pick up an open ender, but no help came and I was out of the tournament I was so sure I was going to win. As I left the table Shavlick said “good playing with you man”. I remained silent, still fuming from what had just happened. However, after thinking more about the hand, I realized two things. One, he had a double belly buster straight draw, not a gutshot, which completely justified his call. I played the hand based on a read that was incorrect, and so I blame the lost pot on myself and not some dumbass call by a maniac. Two, though I was pretty upset about him bragging to his friend about the pot with me right there, I still should have shown some class and reciprocated the polite gesture he offered. In retrospect, the thing I learned was to not be too greedy when the other person in the pot can cripple you. I could have played it safe and gone all-in on the turn when I knew I had the best hand, and he most likely would have folded, but instead I got greedy and went with my read, trying to get the rest of his chips because I was convinced he was drawing dead.

6/28/06 $1,500 Pot limit

2006-07-10T05:55:00.000-06:00

After playing very tight for an hour or so, and not picking up many hands, the fish started getting some solid preflop hands, and let everyone at the table know about it. For about an hour or so the only words out of my mouth were “pot….pot….pot….pot”. I won a big coin flip against Dappo, whom I had recognized from the WPT Championship (also from the Denver area) with my AK against his QQ all-in preflop for 4,000. After which I raised the next 8/10 pots or so. Finally a 2,000 stack in the big blind had enough of my bullying and called my raise preflop. I had A8, and the flop came a picture perfect A,8,x. check, I bet, he called. Turn was a brick, check, I bet, he called. River bricked again, check, I put him in, he quickly called and was shown the top two and exited. Now I was up to 7k or so and on a tear. After taking many blinds (no antes in pot limit unfortunately) and winning a couple more hands I was up to 9k by the first break. However, after the break I lost a couple pots, including AQ losing to KT all-in preflop and being re-raised a couple times when I held garbage, I was down to 7k. I played many big pots with the guys on my immediate left and immediate right, particularly the guy on the right. He was a complete non-believer and we battled it out for a good part of the day. Finally he raises to 900 in the cutoff (blinds at 150/300) and I look down at AA on the button with a 5,500 stack. I greedily make it 2,100 and he happily called. Flop was a dreadful J,T,9 and he checked. I knew there was no way I was folding this hand at any point, and that the board was only going to get scarier, so I thought my only play was to go all-in for my last 3,400 and it would look more like a bluff if he had a mediocre hand and was thinking about calling. However, once he beat me into the pot, he didn’t even need to turn his hand over, as I instantly knew I was drawing near dead. Sure enough he flipped over the K,Q for the flopped nuts and no miracle for the fish. From this event I felt like I played incredibly well. I think I siphoned off a few too many chips by raising a few too many hands when people weren’t backing down to me near the end, but overall I was happy with how I played. I guess the one thing I learned was that picking up the blinds wasn’t nearly as important as in No limit, because there were no antes, so patience reigns over aggression in pot limit tournies.

6/27/06 $1,500 No limit

2006-07-10T05:54:00.000-06:00

Many people played in this event, the opening event. I was alternate 250 or there abouts. Entering a tournament in level three is never much fun, but I tried to make the most of it. No interesting hands, then Chris Ferguson raises to 250 in late position, and I look down at a KTo in the cutoff right behind him. I immediately thought he was weak, as most of his raises were 3x the big blind (blinds at 50/100), but instead of sticking with my game plan of coming over the top of weak hands, I decided to take a flop in position, and called. Flop came A, 8, x. He checks, I bet 300, thinking he probably had nothing or a suited connector that missed and didn’t want to invest any more chips into this pot. After a little think he calls. Turn was a brick and he checks fairly quickly, at this point I need this pot, and he convinced me he didn’t have much, so I move in for 900 or so and he immediately calls with top two pair, and I’m drawing dead and looking like the biggest fool of the tournament. A very humbling experience, nobody has me look that foolish in a very long time, and I had to congratulate him on a hand well played before exiting. Very nice guy, and a pleasure to play with – I wish him luck in the rest of the WSOP. I told myself I would take something away from every tournament this year, and this time it was a little humility. I also learned a lot about how top notch players like to play against people they don’t know and plan on using this knowledge in the future.

Interesting hand of the day

2006-07-10T05:53:00.000-06:00

Kwickfish ( $2258)
grimhogun ( $4620.50)

Dealt to Kwickfish [ Td, Jd ]
Jackal86 folds.
Kwickfish raises (70) to 70
alancheng86 folds.
grimhogun calls (50)
** Dealing Flop ** :  [ Ac, 7c, 7s ]
grimhogun checks.
Kwickfish bets (100)
grimhogun raises (275) to 275
Kwickfish calls (175)
** Dealing Turn ** :  [ Js ]
grimhogun checks.
Kwickfish checks.
** Dealing River ** :  [ 9h ]
grimhogun checks.
Kwickfish checks.

grimhogun [ 8s Qs ]

Nearly there

2006-07-09T13:23:00.000-06:00

$5,000 No limit hold 'em
14th place
$26,311

Poor Bastard....

2006-07-07T19:24:00.000-06:00

BEYONDTHEGAME ( $1990)
Kwickfish ( $5219.68)

Dealt to Kwickfish [ Td, Js ]
Kwickfish raises (70) to 70
Sh00teR folds.
SheCantSayNo folds.
wpFinalTable folds.
whoedy calls (60)
BEYONDTHEGAME calls (50)
** Dealing Flop ** :  [ 6s, 3s, Jh ]
whoedy checks.
BEYONDTHEGAME checks.
Kwickfish bets (150)
whoedy folds.
BEYONDTHEGAME raises (400) to 400
Kwickfish raises (4999.68) to 5149.68
Kwickfish is all-In.
BEYONDTHEGAME calls (1520)
BEYONDTHEGAME is all-In.
** Dealing Turn ** :  [ 7s ]
** Dealing River ** :  [ Qs ]

BEYONDTHEGAME [ Jd Jc ]

Pathetic....

2006-06-29T05:09:00.000-06:00

Someone please tell me how I made $7,400 in four hours after taking the following beats.....

AnBoshi ( $4474)
Kwickfish ( $7637.69)

Dealt to Kwickfish [ As, Ac ]
Kwickfish raises (70) to 70
Facial_Hair folds.
AnBoshi raises (150) to 150
coduresa folds.
godimai_456 folds.
KMTboy folds.
Kwickfish raises (430) to 500
AnBoshi raises (1350) to 1500
Kwickfish raises (7137.69) to 7637.69
Kwickfish is all-In.
AnBoshi calls (2974)
AnBoshi is all-In.
** Dealing Flop ** :  [ 7d, 2s, 8c ]
** Dealing Turn ** :  [ Ks ]
** Dealing River ** :  [ 4s ]
AnBoshi [ Kc Kd ]

godimai_456 ( $4092)
Kwickfish ( $2791)
Dealt to Kwickfish [ Kd, Kh ]
godimai_456 raises (75) to 75
JCUZO343 folds.
Facial_Hair calls (65)
Kwickfish raises (280) to 300
godimai_456 calls (225)
Facial_Hair folds.
** Dealing Flop ** : [ Ks, Ts, 8c ]
Kwickfish bets (500)
godimai_456 raises (3792) to 3792
godimai_456 is all-In.
Kwickfish calls (1991)
Kwickfish is all-In.
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 6c ]
** Dealing River ** : [ 4c ]
godimai_456 [ Qc Ac ]

bluffer926 ( $680)
Kwickfish ( $2123)
Dealt to Kwickfish [ 9d, 9h ]
Elipse23 folds.
JCUZO343 folds.
Kwickfish raises (70) to 70
bluffer926 calls (60)
godimai_456 folds.
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 3c, 8d, 6h ]
bluffer926 checks.
Kwickfish bets (100)
bluffer926 raises (200) to 200
Kwickfish raises (1953) to 2053
Kwickfish is all-In.
bluffer926 calls (410)
bluffer926 is all-In.
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Kh ]
** Dealing River ** : [ 7h ]
bluffer926 [ 6s 7s ]

These three pots were worth just over $18,800 and I was a 82%, 84%, and 81% favorite respectively incase you overlooked that

ARG:CIV

2006-06-10T15:20:00.000-06:00

I just saw the best soccer game I've ever seen. Argentina vs. Ivory Coast. The ball control and speed throughout the game was incredible. The only downside was the D- oscar performance put on by the Argentinian players when they were "fouled". It was pretty lame to see some of the intense action be brought to a hault when a player decided to dive and draw a foul. One time the Ivory Coast player did not even touch the other player at all, the other player pretended like it was a very serious injury, and the dumbass ref gave the Ivory Coast player a yellow card. Usually I'm inclined to think that ref's don't have favorites when they are doing their job, but it sure did look like he was a hired hand. Anyway, the point of this post was to predict that, despite losing to the stalling/cheapshot/drama queens, I think that the Ivory Coast has a real shot at winning the World Cup, after seeing all five games thus far. Given, I have yet to see a few dominant teams perform, namely Brazil and Mexico, but I'm sticking with my prediction. I felt that tonight the Ivory Coast man-handled Argentina, and had a few bad breaks, a couple unlucky situations, and some unfair calls by the refs.

Trip update

2006-06-06T04:45:00.000-06:00

Ok, so I just spent 1hour typing a detailed summary of my whole trip thus far, and the internet crashed right as i was posting it, and it deleted everything I wrote. I'll just have to tell you about it when I get back, cause I'm not going to sit here another hour. Suffice to say that I'm having a good time, and we are currently in Brussels right now.

Man I love battling regulars...

2006-05-19T07:01:00.000-06:00

EStreets ( $3506)
Kwickfish ( $6874.76)

Dealt to Kwickfish [ Jd, Ah ]
ebk1977 folds.
EStreets raises (80) to 80
Kwickfish raises (240) to 250
Kalanj folds.
EStreets calls (170)
** Dealing Flop ** :  [ 2s, 4c, 2h ]
Kwickfish bets (350)
EStreets calls (350)
** Dealing Turn ** :  [ 8c ]
Kwickfish checks.
EStreets bets (750)
Kwickfish raises (1500) to 1500
EStreets folds.

Too painful...

2006-05-02T16:29:00.000-06:00

Kwickfish [$2732]
fazz2 [$3250]

Dealt to Kwickfish [Ks Kc]

BoostedJ calls [$20]
fazz2 calls [$20]
Kwickfish raises [$125]
lizy306 folds.
loloTRICKDu folds.
TheRHODESIAN folds.
BoostedJ folds.
fazz2 calls [$105]
Dealing Flop [Ts 8s 4h]
fazz2 checks.
Kwickfish bets [$225]
fazz2 raises [ $3125] and is all-in
Kwickfish calls [$2382]
Dealing Turn [2s]
Dealing River [6d]
fazz2 shows [Td 6h] two pair, tens and sixes

The fish getting owned, yet again

2006-05-02T12:28:00.000-06:00

Today was a pretty harsh day. I felt like I was playing awesome, and I had -$7,000 to show for it. This was just one of many hands that was painful to take part in.

Kwickfish [$4120]
maximusdaddy [$3529]

Dealt to Kwickfish [9d 7d]

Counterspell folds.
loloTRICKEDu folds.
BooostedJ folds.
maximusdaddy raises [$80]
MyRenovatio folds.
Kwickfish raises [$230]
maximusdaddy calls [$170]
Dealing Flop [9s 9h 2d]
Kwickfish bets [$350]
maximusdaddy calls [$350]
Dealing Turn [As]
Kwickfish bets [$1000]
maximusdaddy calls [$1000]
Dealing River [Ac]
Kwickfish checks.
maximusdaddy bets [$600]
Kwickfish calls [$600]
maximusdaddy shows [Ah Jc] full house, aces full of nines

Mystery Hand

2006-05-01T11:20:00.000-06:00

Ok, so for this hand, I'm not going to tell you what I had, I want people to
e-mail their guesses to me, and I'll reply with the right answer :)

kwickfish@gmail.com

Counterspell [$3751]
Kwickfish [$1985]

Dealt to Kwickfish [?,?]

Kwickfish raises (75) to 75
MERCEDES999 folds.
IJuwedU folds.
BooostedJ folds.
Counterspell calls (55)
** Dealing Flop ** :  [ 9d, 3d, 4h ]
Counterspell checks.
Kwickfish bets (110)
Counterspell raises (270) to 270
Kwickfish calls (160)
** Dealing Turn ** :  [ 9h ]
Counterspell checks.
Kwickfish checks.
** Dealing River ** :  [ 9c ]
Counterspell bets (200)
Kwickfish raises (700) to 700
Counterspell folds.

Hold em or Fold em? 4/28/06

2006-04-28T14:58:00.000-06:00

Hobbes30111 [$2050]
Kwickfish [$2364]

Dealt to Kwickfish [ Qc, As ]

MyRenovatio folds.
lizy306 folds.
Hobbes30111 raises (80) to 80
snappo1 folds.
jl3053 folds.
Kwickfish raises (230) to 250
Hobbes30111 calls (170)
** Dealing Flop ** :  [ Td, 8s, 8h ]
Kwickfish bets (350)
Hobbes30111 calls (350)
** Dealing Turn ** :  [ Th ]
Kwickfish checks.
Hobbes30111 bets (1450)
Hobbes30111 is all-In.

** Hold em or Fold em?

Well, this was a pretty tough decision, he bet $1450 into a pot of $1100.  First
off, what the hell is this guy trying to convice me he has?  99?  JJ?  If he had
the T or the 8, he wouldn't just go all-in like this, and he might if he had 99
or JJ, but i think i would have heard from him more on the flop, like a bet into
me, or a small check raise (that seems to be what many of these players do with
hands like that).  At this point I'm thinkin he made a brave call on the flop
with a hand like 77 or 66, etc. and got counterfeited on the turn.  Now he decides
the only way he can win the pot is with a huge bet.  However, he forgot one
important detail....he was in the pot with the fish, and should not try to represent
something he doesn't have, because the fish will see right through it.

Kwickfish calls (1450)
** Dealing River ** :  [ 6h ]
Hobbes30111 shows [ Js 7s ] two pair, jack high

Turns out I gave him too much credit...

Poor Shavlick...always getting boned by kwicky

2006-04-27T13:41:00.000-06:00

Kwickfish [$1925]
Shavlick [$2605]

Dealt to Kwickfish [ 8h, 8s ]

Kwickfish raises (75) to 75
BLdSWtTRs folds.
schnie23 folds.
Shavlick calls (65)
digbick30 folds.
** Dealing Flop ** :  [ 9d, 3h, 7d ]
Shavlick bets (120)
Kwickfish raises (350) to 350
Shavlick raises (2410) to 2530
Shavlick is all-In.
Kwickfish calls (1500)
Kwickfish is all-In.
** Dealing Turn ** :  [ 4d ]
** Dealing River ** :  [ Ad ]
Shavlick shows [ Ts Jc ] high card ace.

The return of the fish

2006-04-27T13:06:00.000-06:00

Kwickfish [$2944]
Partygirl_no_1 [$1567.86]

Dealt to Kwickfish [ Qd, Kd ]

This_is_4_DV folds.
Kwickfish raises (75) to 75
teacuppoker folds.
TheRHODESIAN folds.
Partygirl_no_1 calls (65)
SassyPants34 folds.
** Dealing Flop ** :  [ 3c, 6h, 5s ]
Partygirl_no_1 checks.
Kwickfish checks.
** Dealing Turn ** :  [ As ]
Partygirl_no_1 checks.
Kwickfish bets (125)
Partygirl_no_1 calls (125)
** Dealing River ** :  [ 7c ]
Partygirl_no_1 bets (160)
Kwickfish raises (500) to 500
Partygirl_no_1 did not respond in time.
Partygirl_no_1 folds.

Day 5 - The nightmare

2006-04-27T12:51:00.000-06:00

I had a tough time sleeping after day 4. In part, because I kept replaying hands that happened throughout the day, in part because I was nervous about the next day, and also in part, because it almost felt as though reality was a dream, and my dreams were more reality. Anyway, now that I've confused all of you, I'll tell you some of the hands from the last day. First hand of the day, I decide to raise UTG because I'm the chip leader, and I want to steal as many blinds and antes as possible before they combine tables. I raise with K6o and folds around to Patrick Antonious, who quickly moves all-in for $450,000. I was getting 2:1 on my money, and really wanted to call, but decided against it, after a very long discussion with a friend who was convinced I should fold if either Men or Patrick shoved in for their short stacks, because they would have to have monsters in order to do so. (He also told me not to raise with K6o, and I did, so I guess I should have either followed his advice from the start, or did my own thing throughout the entire hand). Then the tables broke shortly after and I drew an absolutely god-aweful seat. After about an hour of getting dealt T5o and the like things were getting pretty frustrating. I won two pots at this table. The first - folds to my cutoff, I make it $200,000 with A8o and folds. The second, folds to me on off the cutoff, I make it $130,000 with Q7o (one of my better hands of the day), BB calls. Flop comes Axx, he checks, I bet $150,000, he folds. Every other pot, I either raised preflop and someone re-raised me. Or I raised preflop and someone called and went all-in into me. Considering I didn't flop a single pair or draw all day - with the exception of a gutshot I had one time - I could never call. This is no exaggeration, I didn't flop anything! Not only that, but I was dealt A8o, A6s, 88, and 55 as my best starting hands. The next best was probably my Q7o that I took down with a bet on the flop, and every single other hand wouldn't even be played by Gus Hansen himself. Anyway, in case you couldn't tell, I was a little bitter about the whole day, and by the time AT rolled around, that was lookin a lot like AA to me, so I decided to run with it, but ran into AQ right behind me. Although it didn't affect the outcome of the hand, I was very upset with myself for not pulling a stop and go on any flop. I had enough to get him to fold if he had nothing on the flop, but got it all-in preflop instead. Anway, he would have called, because he flopped a nut flush draw with two overs and my fate was sealed in either scenario. All I can say is that was one hell of an experience, and I can't wait until my next big-buy-in tournament - most likely in Paris.

Day 4...way back when

2006-04-27T12:26:00.000-06:00

Day 4 was really good to me. I started the day with $500,000 and was up to 2.6 million at one point, but ended the day with 2.245 million. Here were a few of the hands

Dealt to the fish [QhTh]
UTG folds.
Fish makes it $40,000
fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold
BB calls [$28,000]
Flop: Ts9s5h
check, fish makes it $60,000, call
Turn: 7c
check, fish quickly moves all-in for $325,000, think forever - fold
Kwickfish: well, you obviously didn't have better than one pair, so good fold
BB: I couldn't beat a pair of Jacks
Kwickfish: so you had AT?
BB: something like that

That pot put me back up to $500,000+ (after losing a couple pots to start the day off). Then, after being moved to another table, the following hand happened. Second position makes it $40,000, then Chip Jett, immediately behind the guy makes it $150,000. I'm in the small blind and fairly quickly move all-in after looking at AsKs. Second position quickly mucks, then Chip Jett thinks for a while and mucks AKo face up. Cha Ching! huge pot for the fish, now I'm up to $700,000.

The very next hand I'm on the button and folds to me, only to look down and see AA. I make it $40,000 and Chad Brown calls in the BB (he is the chip leader of the table). Flop comes Jh4sTh. Check, I bet $70,000 fairly quickly and he calls pretty quickly. Turn: 3d. He checks, and I check. River comes 2s. He fires $90,000, then I think for a really long time and finally decide to make it $200,000 and he quickly calls. Boom, the fish now up to 1 million.

Now I get moved to another table and let the blind stealing begin! I tried to only play small pots, but every now and then a big pot would come up, such as the following two hands. Folds around to Evelyn Ng in the small blind and she makes it $65,000 and I call the $45,000 more in the BB with 6d5d. Flop comes As4d3d. She fires out $100,000 and I make it $300,000, she quickly moves all-in for $1.2 million total and I call. She shows AK, but when the turn comes the Qd, she is drawing dead and the fish now a monster stack with 2.4 million.

Shortly after, I raise to $65,000 in late position with Ad7d and Victor Ramdin calls in the BB. Flop comes 8d2d2c. He checks, and I fire out $100,000, he quickly calls. Turn comes a 7, he checks, I now fire out $200,000 to keep the pressure on his pocket pair, or pair of 8's. He quickly calls again. River comes a complete blank, check, check. He shows pocket tens, and rakes in a big pot from me.

I was then moved to another table, and picked up a lot of pots with a preflop raise. I decided to gamble for a huge pot, but didn't like how I played it - I should have just re-raised the initial raiser, and either the same outcome would have happened, or I might have split the pot with Chan. Chad Brown UTG raises to $60,000, I call in third position, and Johnny Chan immediately makes it$300,000, leaving himself with $15,000. Folds back to Brown, who thinks forever and finally makes the call, leaving himself with $350,000 or so. I think forever about what these two guys have, and just feel certain that neither of them have a huge hand, and want to gamble to pick up this 1 million dollar pot, so I call. Flop comes Ts2s2h. Check, check, check. Turn 3d. Brown bets $20k, I call, Chan calls all-in. River 3s. Brown bets $250,000 and I fold. Brown shows TT and Chan is eliminated.

**Let the back luck begin**
Shortly thereafter I was moved to a table two to the left of Patrick Antonious, who was the chip leader with about 4.5 million. Almost every single pot was raised by him, forcing me to fold many hands that otherwise would have most likely won me the blinds. When he did fold, and I raised, some amateur at the table would shove all-in, and I could never call the million more or whatever they shoved in for. All day I had very few pocket pairs, and other legitimate starting hands, but this day was my best day of the tournament, and I was really happy with how I played, regardless of the lack of cards.

Day 3 Survival

2006-04-22T11:39:00.000-06:00

Ok, so Day 3 was not as good to me as I had hoped, but I made it through, and into the money. I decided to pick up my usual pots when it looked like no one wanted the pot, or when the opportunity presented itself. However, today, I tried to accumulate monster chips additionally by gambling a little. A few big key pots that I played in were the following:

1) Phil Helmuth raised my blind yet again in second position, forth position calls, button calls, I look down at KQo and think forver about coming over the top huge, but decide to just see a flop and call the 10k more in the small blind, and big blind checks. Flop comes JT8 with two diamonds. I check, big blind checks, and forth position makes it 35k, leaving himself with 21k more. Button folds, and now I have a very tough decision. There is already over 110k in the pot and it would cost me 56k to play with forth position, which would mean the pot would ultimately lay me a little over 2.5:1 odds to call, assuming he gets it all-in at some point during the hand. At this point I have no clue what forth position has, so for all I know a King or Queen might be good, if he has say the AdJd. One thing is for sure, though - he has a hand he's going with. I also have the big blind and Helmuth behind me, but decide if they want to put a bunch of money in the pot, that is just fine by me, I have them all covered, and if I lost to the biggest stack of the three opponents, I would be down to 200k, which is still above average. I decide to call. Both the big blind and Helmuth fold, and the turn comes the 9c. Beautiful! I have the stone cold nuts! My opponent pre-emptively goes all-in and I call, he immediately announces that he needs the board to pair and flips over TT for a set. Unfortunately the river quickly comes a Jack, and I didn't even have time to celebrate my hit, haha. That pot was over $222,000, which was devastating, both to my chip count, and to my future play, because now people are going to assume that I'm on tilt if I put big money into a pot, and probably re-raise me with mediocre hands. The very next hand I picked up 99 and had to flat call a preflop raise, rather than re-raise like I normally would have done, because I didn't want to play an all-in pot and hope had just had overcards.

2) It was bubble time, and that meant that the "kwickfish" style was in full force. I had raised and re-raised four or five out of the last eight hands, and now it was folds to my button. I looked down and quickly made it 30k, yet again with QsJs. The small blind thinks forver about drawing the line, but opts to fold, and Helmuth in the big blind immediately announces "ALL-IN" for $152,000. I think for a short while and decide to call, because I think he could be doing this with many marginal hands, given my current table image. He asks me if I have a pair, and then shows his 22. I show him my hand, and off we go to the races. BOOM! AhJ6h on the flop! Turn comes the xh, and river comes the Qh. Devastating! That pot had $318,000 in it.

3) Second to last hand of the day, and the fish is hurting....down to 250k or so. I look down in third position and see AcQc and make it 35k. Folds around to D'Agostino who quickly moves all-in for almost exactly 200k. Folds back to me, and I have a pretty tough decision, because I'm not getting the right price if has AK, but it would be a horrible fold if he has JJ or a smaller pair. I end up reluctantly calling, and he flips over 99 to my relief, and off we go to the races yet again. I flop an A, and luckily no runner runner flushes, and now I have 500k going into day 4. Wish me luck!

Day 2

2006-04-21T00:07:00.000-06:00

Well, Im still in the tournament, and playing very well. Top three hands of the day were:
3) Victor Ramden raises to $5,100 in 4th position with the blinds at $800-$1,600 and $200 ante. Folds around to me in the small blind, and I call with Kh9h. I have around $170,000 and he has around $80,000. Flop comes Tc9c7d. I check quickly, followed by a check from Victor. Turn comes 5c. I quickly reach for chips and bet $6,000, and he thinks for a little while and calls. River is the 2h. I think for a short while and check. He bets $15,000 fairly quickly and I immediately call. He announces "King high" and I show him my call with middle pair for a pretty large pot.

2) Victor Ramden decides to try to steal my big blind yet again in 4th position, followed by a quick call from the guy right behind him in seat 3. Folds around to me, and I think Victor doesnt have that big of a hand, based on the casual way he threw in the chips, and the caller behind him obviously cant have a huge hand either. I decide any two cards are a big raise, and my 9d7s didnt stop me. I make it $15,000 more, for a total of $19,100. Victor quickly folds his garbage hand, as expected, but then the other guy calls to my surprise. He has $130,000 or so starting the hand, and I had $240,000 or so. The flop comes Th8h4s. I think for a really long time about what to do, since I have so many options here. I could check-raise, check-call, bet big, bet small and re-raise all-in if I'm re-raised, or bet small and flat call if I get raised. (If you're thinking folding is an option here, you are sadly, sadly mistaken). I decide to bet $15,000 and I was going to decide what to do next, based on his reaction to my bet. I felt if he raised, and I thought he had nothing, I would go all-in. However, if he raised, and I thought he had a good hand, I was going to flat call. However, he ended up flat calling. The turn came the 6h, bringing the third heart and making my straight. I thought for a really really long time about what the proper play was. I decided there was no way I could put him on a flush, because I thought he would have raised me on the flop, and I thought the chances of him calling my preflop re-raise without a pair were slim to non. I also decided that I couldn't risk betting big and getting flat called again incase another heart came. Therefore, I moved all-in for $110,000 into the pot of $65,000 or so (I also thought he might make a crazy brave call with a pair of Jacks here). He thought for about five minutes, then folded, and the fish raked in yet another monster pot.

1) Ok, so these people didn't know at the beginning to middle of the day, but by the end of the day they realized.... do NOT try to steal the fish's blind! I folded my big blind three times today, and all three times it was raised and re-raised before me. Folds around to seat four (sixth position) and he makes it $4,000 with blinds at $600-$1,200 and a $200 ante. Folds to me, in the big blind, and I look down and see JsTs. Now most of you know that the odds of me folding here are zero and zero - the only question here is whether I'm going to make this guy wish he didn't raise my blind right now, or later in the hand. I decide to flat call and hope to play a monster pot (most likely on a bluff, even though JTs usually flops at least something). He has around $110,000 and I have around $180,000. Flop comes 8s5s3h. I bet into the raiser, hoping he would raise or fold, what I did not want was a flat call. He very quickly makes it $14,000. Now, most of you are thinking "ok, the fish is obviously going to raise here, right?" However, at this point, I have no doubt that the pot is mine, no matter what comes on the turn, so I decide to get greedy and flat call, knowing that this douchebag is going to bet the turn. Turn comes the Ac and I check fairly quickly. The raiser doesn't disappoint, and makes it $15,000. I think for about thirty seconds and make it $45,000, knowing there is no possibly way he can re-raise me unless he has a set of Aces or Asxs, in which case I'm drawing dead anyway, and would love to fold my hand before making a fatal flush. He quickly acknowledges that I most likely flopped a set on him, and threw away his hand.

Anyway, I need some sleep, a big day coming up tomorrow. I'll update you at the end of the day.

Kwick

WPT Championship Event

2006-04-19T14:29:00.000-06:00

I find it kind of ironic that two days ago Moon had to talk the Gambler and I into playing the second satellite into the Championship Event. Gambler ended up with a devastating bubble finish at 54th when 51 got seats. I was lucky enough to get a seat (and I do mean lucky-getting it all-in with 78o against J3o and sucking out, and getting it all-in with A2s against 55 and sucking out). The first day of the event was yesterday, and I felt extremely comfortable, despite all the big names all over the place, and playing without my hat, sunglasses, or IPOD. It was pretty much just like a deep stack NL cash game, which is my specialty. I hope the structure stays this way for as long as possible, because I truely beleive that I have a great shot at winning this tournament. I drew a pretty lucky seat yesterday - to the left of a complete maniac named Amir Nasseri, who plays in the highest NL cash game tables. However, having position on him made my life much easier. Also at the table was Lyle Berman, and for a brief time Gabe Thaylor. I have today off, so tomorrow I'll have to get my game face back on. Wish me luck

DNFWK

2006-04-03T14:27:00.000-06:00

ELtilto44 [$8129.89]
Kwickfish [$3663]

Dealt to Kwickfish [ 3d, 3c ]

Jackal86 folds.
Michelle_18 folds.
loloTRICKEDu folds.
Kwickfish raises (75) to 75
caspis folds.
ELtilto44 calls (55)
** Dealing Flop ** :  [ 2h, 5h, As ]
ELtilto44 checks.
Kwickfish bets (125)
ELtilto44 raises (250) to 250
Kwickfish calls (125)
** Dealing Turn ** :  [ 8h ]
ELtilto44 bets (522.25)
Kwickfish raises (1500) to 1500
ELtilto44 calls (977.75)
** Dealing River ** :  [ Ah ]
ELtilto44 checks.
Kwickfish bets (1838)
Kwickfish is all-In.
ELtilto44 folds.

Hillarious much?

2006-04-03T14:25:00.000-06:00

C_MAN_01 [$1544.50]
Kwickfish [$2513]

Dealt to Kwickfish [ Kd, Qd ]

calleverythn folds.
Fukken_Eh folds.
Kwickfish raises (75) to 75
PokerJokir folds.
happytrees4 calls (65)
C_MAN_01 calls (55)
** Dealing Flop ** :  [ 2c, 7d, 8d ]
happytrees4 checks.
C_MAN_01 bets (60)
Kwickfish raises (250) to 250
happytrees4 folds.
C_MAN_01 calls (190)
** Dealing Turn ** :  [ Td ]
C_MAN_01 bets (210.40)
Kwickfish raises (2188) to 2188
Kwickfish is all-In.
C_MAN_01 calls (1009.10)
C_MAN_01 is all-In.
** Dealing River ** :  [ Ts ]

C_MAN_01 shows [ As 9c ]

The power of the fish...

2006-04-03T14:22:00.000-06:00

Causes decent players to do some pretty horrible plays, haha

Kwickfish [$6469.98]
BLdSWtTRs [$2063]

Dealt to Kwickfish [ Ts, Td ]

BLdSWtTRs raises (89) to 89
Kwickfish raises (300) to 300
ReMMy3 folds.
drmanic folds.
calleverythn folds.
Dardumbyu folds.
BLdSWtTRs raises (1974) to 2063
BLdSWtTRs is all-In.
Kwickfish calls (1763)
** Dealing Flop ** :  [ Qh, 4s, Jd ]
** Dealing Turn ** :  [ 4h ]
** Dealing River ** :  [ 5d ]

BLdSWtTRs shows[ Th 8h ]

Hold em or Fold em? 3/20/06

2006-03-20T16:12:00.000-07:00

ebolivia [$2174]
Kwickfish [$2397]

Dealt to ebolivia [Kh 8h]
DNiggreanu folds.
ebolivia raises (70) to 70
Kwickfish calls (60)
GCINADO folds.
** Dealing Flop ** [ Kd, 4d, 3d ]
Kwickfish bets (100)
ebolivia calls (100)
** Dealing Turn ** [ Js ]
Kwickfish checks.
ebolivia bets (300)
Kwickfish raises (2227) to 2227
Kwickfish is all-In.

** Hold em or Fold em?

ebolivia calls (1704)
ebolivia is all-In.
** Dealing River ** [ 3c ]
Kwickfish shows [3h 3s] four of a kind, three's

Sad, but true...

2006-02-28T05:29:00.000-07:00

Dealt to Kwickfish [ 6c 5d ]
RCL13 folds.
snuffy7 folds.
TreLorenz folds.
Kwickfish calls [$10].
boo__zer raises [$50].
Kwickfish calls [$50].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8d, 6s, 5c ]
Kwickfish checks.
boo__zer bets [$100].
Kwickfish raises [$300].
boo__zer calls [$200].
** Dealing Turn ** [ Ac ]
Kwickfish bets [$600].
boo__zer is all-In [$1704]
Kwickfish calls [$1104].
** Dealing River ** [ Js ]
Kwickfish shows [ 6c, 5d ] two pairs, sixes and fives.
boo__zer doesn't show [ Th, 9c ] high card ace.

Hold em or Fold em? 2/27/06

2006-02-28T05:25:00.001-07:00

Dealt to Kwickfish [ Jc 8c ]
Kwickfish raises [$60].
babciboogie calls [$60].
snuffy7 folds.
dagr8tbluff folds.
Premier18 raises [$130].
Kwickfish calls [$90].
babciboogie calls [$90].
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qd, 6h, Ad ]
Premier18 checks.
Kwickfish checks.
babciboogie checks.
** Dealing Turn ** [ Ah ]
Premier18 bets [$225].

** Hold em or Fold em?

Well, most sane people would probably say fold em. But, then there are those crazy folk, like myself that put people on hands, and follow through with their instinct, be it right or wrong...

Kwickfish raises [$450].
babciboogie folds.
Premier18 calls [$225].
** Dealing River ** [ 7h ]
Premier18 bets [$375].
Kwickfish is all-In [$1378]
Premier18 folds.
Kwickfish shows [ Jc, 8c ] a pair of aces.

Hold em or Fold em? 2/27/06

2006-02-28T05:25:00.000-07:00

Back to short handed??

2006-02-26T10:28:00.000-07:00

Ok, I was playing my usual sesh last night, and then all the ring games broke up, but I was still fiending to play. I noticed some 6 handed tables were still hanging on, so I decided to try out some new strategies there, and kind of just explore a little. Here are some of the hands that took place.

Dealt to Kwickfish [ 3c 2c ]
tramster folds.
Kwickfish raises [$60].
tigliger calls [$60].
BillisMyName calls [$50].
beck72111 raises [$80].
Kwickfish calls [$40].
tigliger calls [$40].
BillisMyName calls [$40].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 3s, 3h, 9s ]
BillisMyName checks.
beck72111 bets [$20].
Kwickfish raises [$200].
tigliger folds.
BillisMyName folds.
beck72111 calls [$180].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9d ]
beck72111 bets [$20].
Kwickfish raises [$150].
beck72111 raises [$260].
Kwickfish is all-In [$3482.92]
beck72111 is all-In [$170]
** Dealing River ** [ 5d ]
beck72111 shows [ 4s, Jd ] two pairs, nines and threes.
Kwickfish shows [ 3c, 2c ] a full house, Threes full of nines.

Dealt to Kwickfish [ 5h 3c ]
BillisMyName raises [$55].
Kwickfish calls [$45].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4d, 2s, 7c ]
BillisMyName bets [$100].
Kwickfish calls [$100].
** Dealing Turn ** [ Jc ]
BillisMyName checks.
ChAcE_ has left the table.
Kwickfish checks.
** Dealing River ** [ 4h ]
BillisMyName checks.
Kwickfish bets [$200].
BillisMyName raises [$800].
Kwickfish is all-In [$3275.22]
BillisMyName folds.
Kwickfish shows [ 5h, 3c ] a pair of fours.

Dealt to Kwickfish [ Ad Kd ]
Kwickfish calls [$20].
ChAcE_ folds.
NoxirE folds.
BillisMyName raises [$85].
sfcarmy folds.
madphly folds.
Simon15 folds.
ShavedBlonde folds.
tigliger folds.
Kwickfish calls [$65].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4s, As, 9c ]
Kwickfish checks.
BillisMyName bets [$150].
Kwickfish raises [$400].
BillisMyName is all-In [$1745]
Kwickfish calls [$1495].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 6c ]
** Dealing River ** [ Qc ]
Kwickfish shows [ Ad, Kd ] a pair of aces.
BillisMyName doesn't show [ Th, Ts ] a pair of tens.
Kwickfish wins $3987 from the main pot with a pair of aces.

Dealt to Kwickfish [ 3h 3s ]
DieseLxAce calls [$20].
Hillcatz10 folds.
pescatore222 calls [$20].
thecheese01 folds.
Kwickfish calls [$20].
coronagrl raises [$93.16].
gkerby folds.
pooliegod calls [$93.16].
madphly folds.
Counterspell folds.
DieseLxAce folds.
pescatore222 calls [$73.16].
Kwickfish calls [$73.16].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 2h, 3c, 2s ]
pescatore222 checks.
Kwickfish checks.
coronagrl bets [$426.67].
pooliegod folds.
pescatore222 folds.
Kwickfish raises [$853.34].
coronagrl calls [$426.67].
** Dealing Turn ** [ Jh ]
Kwickfish bets [$500].
coronagrl is all-In [$767.94]
Kwickfish calls [$267.94].
** Dealing River ** [ 5d ]
Kwickfish shows [ 3h, 3s ] a full house, Threes full of twos.
coronagrl doesn't show [ Ah, Js ] two pairs, jacks and twos.

Hold em or Fold em? 2/19/06

2006-02-20T13:44:00.000-07:00

Goink ($2050)
Kwickfish ($2578)
tonkarock1 ($1790.50)

Dealt to Kwickfish [ Tc, Td ]
greengreedo folds.
PhyckME folds.
Phallusy folds.
Conesus folds.
MATPAT folds.
Goink raises (70) to 70
LitleBastrd folds.
Kwickfish calls (70)
neutron_ folds.
tonkarock1 calls (50)
** Dealing Flop ** :  [ 9c, Ad, 5h ]
tonkarock1 checks.
Goink checks.
Kwickfish checks.
** Dealing Turn ** :  [ Ts ]
tonkarock1 checks.
Goink bets (130)
Kwickfish calls (130)
tonkarock1 raises (260) to 260
Goink raises (385) to 515

** Here I'm feeling pretty sick about my hand, I even call Tom over to tell him
I'm thinking about folding the second nuts.  But at this point, how could I fold?
He could have AK, AT, A9, A5, 9T.

Kwickfish calls (385)
tonkarock1 raises (1460.50) to 1720.50
tonkarock1 is all-In.
Goink raises (1465) to 1980
Goink is all-In.

** Hold em or Fold em? **
 Ok, so at this point it is pretty clear that tonkarock1 has a set of 5's or 9's.
I didn't think he was the type of player to flat call a raise preflop with AA.  It
Also seems pretty clear to me that Goink is rockin a set as well.  The question is,
is it T's or A's?  With so much money in the pot, this would be an absolute heart
breaker if I make a bad fold, but I still have $1500 to save if he has the rockets.

Kwickfish folds.
** Dealing River ** :  [ Qc ]

Goink shows [ Ac Ah ]
tonkarock1 shows [ 5s 5c ]

Not many players will make this laydown...

2006-02-11T17:21:00.000-07:00

christopher8 [$3203.14]
Kwickfish [$2541]

Dealt to Kwickfish [ 8d, 7s ]

cherrypatch calls (20)
smurffla folds.
bastet200470 folds.
ThisStoneAge calls (20)
greengreedo folds.
GREGnizzle calls (20)
christopher8 calls (10)
Kwickfish checks.

** Dealing Flop ** :  [ 5h, 4s, 6d ]

christopher8 checks.
Kwickfish checks.
cherrypatch checks.
ThisStoneAge checks.
GREGnizzle checks.

** Dealing Turn ** :  [ 8c ]

christopher8 bets (175)
Kwickfish folds.
cherrypatch folds.
ThisStoneAge folds.
GREGnizzle folds.

** The logic behind this fold, was this - He obviously has at least a 7 betting
$175 into a pot of $90 with four people to act behind him.  If I'm right, and
he just has a 7, then we split the $90 pot, thus giving me $45.  However, if I'm
wrong, and he has the nuts (7,9), then I'm drawing to a four outer split pot for
a crap load of money.  In any case, what an unfortunate turn card for me :(

One of Party Poker's finest

2006-02-10T15:36:00.000-07:00

Where is the answer to the age old question - Where are these people getting their money from? I used to say they probably have real jobs, and they just mess around on the tables as a hobby/addiction. But I've come to realize, there is no way these people have real jobs outside of poker, because no employer would hire someone this moronic... I maintain the ultimate winners from this poker boom have to be the online poker sites and credit card companies...These players must be getting their money by going way into debt.

Kwickfish [$4261]
amex2005 [$1506.50]

Dealt to Kwickfish [5d, 6h]

amex2005 calls [$20]
nestegg1 folds.
snake8484 calls [$20]
Traelen folds.
Hillcatz10 folds.
pokerisivut folds.
BadVoodoo folds.
jsmooth888 calls [$10]
Kwickfish checks.

** Dealing Flop ** [Kh, 5c, 2d]
jsmooth888 checks.
Kwickfish checks.
amex2005 checks.
snake8484 checks.

** Dealing Turn ** [5s]
jsmooth888 checks.
Kwickfish bets [$50]
amex2005 calls [$50]
snake8484 folds.
jsmooth888 folds.

** Dealing River ** [Ks]
Kwickfish bets [$100]
amex2005 calls [$100]

Kwickfish shows [5d, 6h] full house, fives full of kings
amex2005 shows [4d, 4h] high card four

Well played bud...

2006-02-10T15:28:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it's been a while, and I know you've all been eagerly awaiting my next post, so here it is. I took a week or so off, just because I didn't really feel like playing, and I didn't want to sit down if my focus wasn't going to be on poker.

Kwickfish [$2899]
Shavlick [$5472]

Dealt to Kwickfish [Ah, Jh]
snake8484 folds.
Shavlick raises [$80]
kerpoooski folds.
Kwickfish calls [$70]
pit540540 folds.

** Dealing Flop ** [Jd, 8h, 3h]

Kwickfish checks.
Shavlick bets [$200]
Kwickfish raises [$600]
Shavlick calls [$400]

** Dealing Turn ** [Kd]

Kwickfish checks.
Shavlick checks.

**Dealing River ** [Qd]

Kwickfish checks.
Shavlick checks.

Shavlick shows [Qc, Ts]
Shavlick wins main pot with a pair of Q's

Let this be a warning

2006-01-21T11:20:00.000-07:00

To all you 2k players out there, I'm sick and tired of you betting after every single flop if you raise preflop. I am going to start taking you off every single pot if you keep doing this shit against me. I had decided not to get involved with the good players, and just take money off the noobs, but since I'm not shown the same respect, it's on. I've officially declared war on all the good players on Party Poker.

Dealt to GnightMoon [ Ad Td ]
Concatenate calls [$20].
KINEEKEEYS folds.
wpFinalTable folds.
Lucky168la folds.
GnightMoon calls [$20].
Senora folds.
playpoker432 folds.
reefaaddict raises [$90].
MATPAT folds.
Concatenate calls [$80].
GnightMoon calls [$80].
** Dealing Flop ** [ Tc, Kc, 9h ]
reefaaddict bets [$275].
Concatenate folds.
GnightMoon raises [$650].
reefaaddict folds.
GnightMoon shows [ Ad, Td ] a pair of tens.

reefaaddict: wtf?
GnightMoon: lol

Worst Hand of the Week 1/19/06?

2006-01-20T11:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry to steal your thunder Moon, but I think this hand just had to be shown. You need to add colonel70 to your worst player in the crappy player section in your blog.

GnightMoon [$2010]
colonel70 [$7532]

GnightMoon [QsQh]

twylla folds
hotmark777 folds
StuDaKid folds
sacar calls [$20]
ShavedBlonde folds
smallstakes folds
Lucky168la folds
GnightMoon raises [$100]
colonel70 raises [$290]
JackWould folds
sacar folds
GnightMoon raises [$1910] and is all-In
colonel70 calls [$1710]
** Dealing Flop ** [9s, 9c, 6h]
** Dealing Turn ** [Jh]
** Dealing River ** [As]

GnightMoon shows [Qs Qh] two pairs, Queens and nines
colonel70 shows [Jc 8d] pair of Jacks
GnightMoon wins main pot [$4060]