God. This one just went painfully bad. Early on I was around the starting stack and entered my first pot for a raise to 175 with red tens. A really bad player in his 70s called the 175 behind me and then a player who seemed competent but had no fold button called as well. The flop was 942 with two spades. I bet 400, the 70-something called and then the third guy raised to 1650. It felt a lot like a flush draw, but you can't just blast it to 5000 in level one with an overpair, really. I settled on call and then the 70-something overcalled. The turn was the interesting Ts giving me top set. I checked, old guy checked, and then the third party bet a tiny 2250 into 5550. So, I quickly crunched some numbers and even if the guy shows me a flush faceup I'm getting like exact odds to call with top set, even if there are no implied odds at all. Not to mention, there was a good chance the old guy would call behind, too. It's just a shitty tournament spot. The river was the 3h. I checked the old guy checked and the third guy shoved. I tossed top set and then the old guy found a call with red Kings behind me. The third guy showed 65ss. It's really unfortunate that he didn't reraise me preflop because instead of losing 5000 I win 10000 chips.

I took a 5300 stack to the break. Things continued to go poorly in level 2. I raised AQo in the cutoff and a guy who had 2000 chips and was just itching to bust out moved in in the BB. I had a pretty easy call, and he showed me the A8dd. The board came 867xx. Sigh. So now I was down to 3500 instead of back up to around 7600. I ended level 2 with 2500 chips.

In level 3 there were 5 limpers for 200 into my BB, and I found KJhh and had a trivial shove for my 2500 total. The first guy folded and then the second limper, a great online tournament player named "USCPhildo", moved in over the top. He showed up with black AKo, but I got lucky on a board of Th 4h 3s Js x. I think Phil must've had an idea that I'd be moving in hence his AK limp. I ran hot for a couple of hands and was actually all the way back to 7200ish before losing a ton of small pots and taking 5000 to the third break.

Fourth level nothing good happened. I was down to 3100 at 1/200 (25) in the BB when the bust hand came up. A guy limped, Justin Bonomo limped, a guy completed and I decided to check T8o in the BB. The flop came JJ9. Checked to Justin who bet 700. SB folded and I decided to go with my OESD for 2200 more. Justin quickly called with J8dd, and I missed.

It sucks because there isn't another live tournament that I'm going to play until the WSOP prelims.

I'm going to just chill tomorrow and Thursday, and then I fly to Alabama on Wednesday. I'm going to go to the Schafer Eye Center Crawfish Boil in Birmingham, so if anyone's going let me know. I'll be in Alabama for a week and then I'm going on a one week vacation (no poker) with my roommates Mike and Adam. We're going to London for a few days and then we're going to head over to Amsterdam which should be a blast. We're going to a soccer game in London, so we can't wait for that. After Europe I'm coming back to Vegas on the 17th to entertain my sister Heather who will be in town on business. Just before the start of the WSOP all of us roomies are going on a 4 day houseboat trip on Lake Meade.

It's going to be a busy month, but I'm obviously really excited about it. There probably will be very little time for poker, but that really doesn't matter to me at all to be honest.

I'm going to the gym. I'm going to try to get in the best shape physically and mentally as I can before the WSOP as it will be a long, grueling summer. I'll be playing an event just about every single day.

SS

It's about 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning. Later today we'll all play the WSOPC event at Caesar's. I finished 21st in this event last year, so I wouldn't mind improving on that finish. Yesterday I played a pretty big slate of online MTTs. I had four tiny cashes which weren't good enough to get me to break even, but I did make a couple of buy ins playing cash to make it a winning day. Roommates Eric Baldwin and Adam Geyer both made the final table of the Caesar's 2000 which was sick. They finished 9th and 5th respectively for decent lil paydays. Congrats to them. Also congrats to Jon Little who was able to fade all of the other players in the WPT Championship to lock up the WPT Player of the Year. This is a remarkable accomplishment. Jon had three final tables (two of them televised) on the season which makes me incredibly jealous. I am just 3 for 23 cashing in WPT events in my career with 13th place at WPT Mirage in 2007 being my highest finish :( It's allllllll good though. I'll knock one off soon.

In other news I purchased a new watch today. After a few hours of searching online I decided to play it safe and go with a Breitling. I settled on the Breitling Aeromarine Super Avenger with diamond bezel. The face is pretty damn big, and that is what I really wanted most out of this watch, so I'm very happy. It feels good to finally buy myself something. I think I could get used to it. I just don't know what to buy.

SS

Out of the Caesar's 2000 in like 43rd place of the 191 entrants. 18 will get paid. I overslept until noon and was half an hour late arriving. I drew a starting table that looked delicious. I recognized only my roommate Cody Slaubaugh. Early on I ran my stack up to about 9500 from the 6000 starting stack. Then in level three a funny one came up. A really bad Euro raised from MP and I decided to call with KcTd to try to play a pot with him, because I knew if I flopped well I'd double through him. The flop came KT2 with two clubs. He bet 500, I raised to 1450 and he called. The turn was the 8c. He checked, and I decided to bet 3100. He looked back at his hand and decided to insta just call and save my last 4500. The river was the 3c. He bet out 2000 into the pot of 10000, and I have to press call with the second nut, I think. He showed me black Aces. In the third level I lost another big pot to the same guy. I raised 96dd in MP, Gene Todd called and said guy defended in the BB as well. The flop was J94 with two diamonds. The Euro led out all-in for 3850 into 2000, and I moved in over the top. Gene folded, and I was in pretty good shape against Euro's Q7dd. He rivered a diamond to cripple me to 300 chips. I ran super hot though and ran my stack all the way from 1.5bb's to 6000 over the next few hands. I then just grinded and grinded to stay afloat for like the next 6 hours. I'm very happy with how I played the short stack all day.

The last two days were great. The 51s game was great and so was the Kanye West concert. I'm not a hip hop fan at all, but the atmosphere was sick. Tomorrow we'll play online. Our water heater broke in our house, so we're tilted. Hopefully they fix it tomorrow. Gonna relax for the rest of the night because the last two days were hectic with very lil sleep.

SS