Project Phaser - Phase 1.2 (Lucky Chances $380)

While Sunday's tournament had Lucky Chances bursting at the seams, Monday's $380 buy in tournament had it looking like an average Friday afternoon, but on a Monday morning. We started with the same 20,000 chip starting stack, 30 minute levels, 100/100 blinds to start and eventually 227 entries.

Here is the big board with the prizes and such.

I had a couple of real hot shot big talkers at my first table. The Young Hot Shot talked about how he was happy he busted out early the day before because he went home and played a big tournament online, finished second and won however many thousands of dollars while the Old Hot Shot evidently made the final table in the $630 the day before. It didn't stop there as both continued popping off at the mouth about some other final tables they'd made and how soft some of these games are. These guys weren't friends or anything like that, the just shared the common ground of being big mouth hot shots. If you just listened to poker players talk you'd think that everyone was a winning player.

Poker is a game of information and before I'd seen these guys play a hand they'd given me huge head start on categorizing them and anticipating the types of plays they'd be capable of. I kept my mouth shut about my accomplishments and silently rooted against both of them.

To my delight both of them made asinine plays and went broke in the first hour that show a good counterpoint to how I play.

The Young Hot Shot limped in in early position for 100 with 64 suited, got raised by a guy who was very straightforward to 500, two other players called and they took the flop 4 ways. The flop came down 8 4 3 rainbow and Young Hot Shot bet out 2,000 (almost a full pot sized bet) with second pair into 3 opponents. The preflop raiser raised to 6,000 and another guy cold called. If you know how to hand read at all, major alarm bells will go off with that cold call. There are no draws on this board and the raiser has basically announced that he has a big pocket pair so what is that cold caller calling with? It has to be a huge hand. The turn came out a 6 and Young Hot Shot instantly shoved his two pair for about 14,000. The raiser foolishly called with QQ and so did the cold caller who had 33. The river was a K and Young Hot Shot headed back to the online tables.

I'm sure when he told the story to whoever or played it back to himself he said "I made two pair and ran into a set" instead of "I tried to do WAY too much in the first level calling out of positing with garbage preflop, then I made a hopeless bluff and ran into two big hands. But I didn't let that stop me from foolishly taking one off anyway drawing almost dead. When I got a miracle turn I made a bet that was almost sure to fold out any hands that I beat and get called by every hand that beat me. But seriously bro these games are so soft."

 In Old Hot Shot's hand the dude who had the 33 in the last hand 3 bet from 800 to 2,400 and he called along with 3 others. The flop came down A J J rainbow, everyone else checked and Old Hot Shot bet 2500 into the 12,500 chips pot. Only the raiser called. The turn was a 5 and it went check, check. The river was a J and now the raiser bet 15,000 into the 17,500 pot and Old Hot Shot snap called him with his last 14,000 or so. The raiser showed an A and Old Hot Shot mucked saying "I made a full house, what could I do there." Well, you could not bet an underpair into 4 people and not call off your entire stack with a bluff catcher in a spot where someone is never bluffing?

Anyway I enjoyed seeing their smug asses hit the rail.

I got off to a pretty good start. In levels 2, 3 and 4 over I had one good hand in each level. I flopped top two with AK and again with KQ getting a little action with each and missed a flush draw with JT suited, but hit the J and was good. These weren't big pots but got me up to about 35K going into the first break. No where in there was limping with a garbage hand or trying some random bluff in a multiway pot!

I stayed between 30K and 40K for the next few hours as the field slowly caught and then passed me. I found just enough good spots to tread water, but I didn't put myself needlessly in danger with the marginal cards I was getting.

About 4 hours in I finally got a big pocket pair. With blinds of 500/1000 and one 1000 ante, the under the gun player who was a guy in his 70's with an 80K stack made it 3,500 to go. I was next to act, looked down at QQ and made it 9,000 to go leaving me with about 30K left in my stack. The dude to my left who looked like he was barely 21 and had about 22K in his stack went into a 45 second round of theatrics saying stuff like "This is so sick" and "I really just have one move here" and "I'm stuck." I was pretty sure this wasn't an act, but not 100% sure. It felt kind of like AK or JJ to me. Eventually he just called, which was a really odd move, but as soon as he did the other guy quickly moved all in!

I have with 99.9% certainty never intentionally folded KK (or AA) preflop and I almost never fold QQ preflop. I only specifically remember doing it a few times and I'm sure it's been less than 1% of the time over my career and is probably more like 1 time in 250. But this was a pretty clear fold. Ask anyone who has played poker at all what the old guy is raising under the gun and then 4 bet shoving over two people and they'll tell you it's AA or maybe KK and that's it.

So after 30 seconds to make sure I was really sure I folded, the young guy called, the old guy rolled over KK and the young guy had QQ also! I kept quiet and didn't tell him he was drawing totally dead! Meanwhile I patted myself on the back for getting away from a hand where most players would go broke and felt like I was playing with house money from that point on.

A couple of hands later I got a nice break. With blinds of 500/1000/1000 everyone folded to me in the small blind. The big blind only had about 9,000 and I put him all in with T7. This is questionable, but he's probably folding preflop 2/3 to 3/4 of the time and the rest of the time I'll usually be like a 65/35 or 60/40 underdog. Anyway, he snap called me with A4, but the flop came out J98! Zing!

At this point there were 82 players left with 21 spots paying and I had 38K which was about 2/3 of average.

I had some snacks with me but I was starting to get hungry for some real food. Lucky Chances has a full menu that you can order at the table, but I hate ordering food in tournaments. I'm not superstitious, but you can go broke at any time in a tournament and the idea of sitting there after busting waiting for  food and then hastily gobbling it down sitting at an empty table sounds like the 7th circle of hell to me. Despite that I had to eat something so I ordered some Mongolian Beef and sure enough I put the hex on myself!

With blinds of 800/1600 and a 1600 ante, the under the gun player just called. This is highly unusual as usually at this point it's raise or fold first in preflop. The small blind called and I got a free look with 63 off suit. The flop came down K 4 3. And it checked around.

Right at this time my food arrived. I handed the waitress a $20 bill and my $5 food coupon and asked for some change. She responded like I'd handed her a cactus wearing a small sombrero. The turn came out a 6 making me two pair and without thinking too much about it I bet out 5,000. The under the gun player quickly called and the waitress and I tried to find some common ground. To me it looked like maybe this guy had limped in with AA and was putting on the big slow play or maybe checked back a king looking to squeeze out some action as it was a rainbow board without any reasonable draws. The river was a 9 which looked like a total blank and my opponent only had about 12K left so I moved all in. He snap called me and rolled over 99! ACK! Now that the hand was over the waitress understood perfectly what I wanted and easily made me change on the spot. Stupid cursed Mongolian Beef!

This had me down to 20K but then I won five small to medium hands in less than 30 minutes all at the 1K/2K blinds level 1) I made it 7K to go over a 2K limp with KK, got one caller, bet the flop and won 2) I moved all in for 30K over a 5K raise from the small blind with 66 and took it down 3) I just called in the small blind 4 ways with 97 suited, called a 4K bet on the turn and won at show down on a 5 J J 7 3 run out 4) I raised a 2K limper to 9K with TT and took it down 5) I picked up 12K vs a short stack who had A2 and ran into my JJ. Numbered lists!

After being stuck around 35K all day and down to 10 big blinds a little earlier I was up to 69K with 60 players left. I was feeling so good that I took a picture of my chips!

Then I got into a tight spot. With blinds up to 1200/2400 with a 2400 ante I made it 7K to go from the cutoff with AT and the big blind moved all in for 29K. AT was almost certainly not the best hand here, but I was getting a good price. Specifically I had to call 22K to win 39.6K. I'd be about a 70/30 underdog against a hand like AK or QQ, but I'd only be a 55/45 dog against hands like 88 or 99 and a favorite against something like A9 suited or KQ suited. Probably I was in bad shape, but if there was a chance he was shoving small pairs I was getting the right price against his entire range of hands.

In the moment I took my time to count all the chips, figure out the exact pot odds I was getting and counted down my own stack to see I'd be left with 47K even if I called and lost. Usually if you're getting 2 to 1 pot odds preflop it's hard to fold and I decided the 1.9 to 1 I was getting was close enough. I called and my opponent proudly rolled over AQ. Uh oh. The flop came down 9 4 4 and I was thinking a chop would be nice. The turn was a 6 of spades putting 3 spades out there and I saw that my T was the only spade in play, but sadly the river was a red 3.

After 6 hours of play we took our third break and I came back to a 40K stack on the button with blinds of 2K/4K and a 4K ante. 49 players were left and average was 92K. I had 10 big blinds and it was going to cost me 10K a round in blinds and antes so I'd need to find something quick.

I folded 15 hands in a row none of which were even close and then I looked down at A2 in the hijack. This is close, but I think with 7.5 big blinds in the hijack any ace is good enough. I moved in and to my shock and horror the cutoff and then the button both instantly moved all in! It turned out I was up against AQ and AK. Oddly it's actually better for me to be up against two bigger aces than just one. In this case I was 20.0% to win an 4.4 % to tie but getting a little more than 3 to 1 on my money compared to 23.8% to win and 4.9% to tie getting a little more than 2 to 1 if I'd been just up against AK. Still a shitty spot though!

If I'd won, I would have had 100K exactly, but I bricked out and was eliminated in 44th place.

My $10,000 starting bankroll is at $10,920. Phase 1.3 is Wednesday and is another $380 event at Lucky Chances.

Project Phaser: Phase 1.1 (Lucky Chances $630)

I rolled into Lucky Chances at about 9 am for the 9:30 start and the place was packed. Instead of the two lazy tables I found last time, there were 25 tables set for action and two lines each a dozen people deep waiting to sign up.

I handed over $630 of which $550 went to the prize pool, $50 went to the house and $30 went to the dreaded "Staff Appreciation." I did get a free hat which I am in favor of and a $5 off food coupon which I think makes no sense. $5 off of food, only good on that day, not including alcohol, gratuity not included? Why all the buzz kill on the $5 comp? I don't know why they bother with this.

We started with 20,000 chips, blinds of 100/100, 30 minute levels and eventually 377 entries. Here is my sad looking starting stack. Poker looks so much cooler on TV (or in cash games).

In this snapshot you can see the board all the players see with the tournament status and the prizes.  $56,680 for first is legit! 

Also of note, like at the Phase Zero tournament the big blind posted the ante rather than have every player ante once antes became part of the structure. In fact there were no 25 chips in play in this tournament. After 2 tournaments of this structure I am a fan of it. It's a pain in the ass to get everyone's attention so they can ante and every now and then there is confusion about who anted and who didn't. This eliminates both of those problems and reduces the need for smaller denomination chips which some shitfaces insist on using to bet something like 2,375 when 2,400 would be just fine. Shitfaces!

My first big hand came in the second level with 100/100 blinds and a 100 ante. Two players limped for 100 and I made it 500 to go with KK. After my raise the first limper made it 1,200 to go.

"Mother fucker!" I said to myself. This was a weird spot as maybe half the time someone limp re-raises it's AA (it might be more than half the time), but sometimes it's QQ or AK and every now and then it's something else. So I kind of had to put him on AA, but I didn't know this guy so I wasn't sure enough to make an Ultra Epic Mega Legendary Fold (UEMLF!).

Later in a tournament or if your in a cash game, almost always you should and will just get it all in preflop if you have KK and someone else has a big hand, but in this spot I decided to just call him down. I threw in 700 more to call and the flop came down Q93. The villain bet 1,500 and I called. The turn was a 7 and I called 3,500 more. The river was a 3 and I called 7,500 more. Sure enough he had AA. Drat! After that hand I was down to 7,500 chips, but happy I didn't go broke with KK on a fairly innocuous board. 

Then I had three medium size hands go my way: 1) I got dealt A7, the board ran out Q73A6 and I got action from a Q 2) I got AA and stacked a shot stack who had T8, shoved on a JT9 flop and bricked out 3) I got KK again against the same dude who had AA previously - this time he had QQ, but he just called my 3 bet preflop and a A high flop killed the action. I like numbered lists when it's a list of shit I won! 

At this point the blinds were up to 300/500 with one 500 ante, I had it all the way up to 35,000 and was feeling really good. 

In the next big hand I called an under the gun raise to 1,500 with 44, the button called as well and the flop came down 223. The preflop raiser checked and I bet out 2,500 thinking if no one else had a pair I'd probably take it down, but I'd have some showdown value if I got called by something like AK or AQ. The button quickly folded, the raiser called and I put him on...wait for it...AK or AQ. To my horror the turn was an A! My opponent checked and I checked behind thinking maybe in some universe he'd have KQ, but in my heart of hearts knowing that I'd be toast without a 4 or a 5 on the river.

To my delight my the river was a 5 making me a very unlikely and well hidden straight and my opponent bet out 3,000. I glanced sideways at his stack and it looked like he had about 15,000. After a little thought I decided to make it 11,000 figuring I'd give up a few thousand in potential value for a better chance of being called. He quickly shoved all his chips in, and I quickly called. While I was starting to think how weird it was that he'd snap shove AK there and not just call he said "Quads" and rolled over 22! WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUDGE!? HOW THE?! WHY THE?! DEUCES!? This was highly disappointing. To make matters worse he actually had 18,000 in his stack when he shoved the river.

After that hand I was down to 4,500, but bounced back with 3 little pots: 1) I open shoved 99 and everyone folded 2) The small blind in an act of total foolishness limped in with QJ after everyone else folded, I shoved with A6, he called and the board ran out garbage 3) I shoved for 9,200 with 77 over a raise to 2,200 and he folded. Numbered lists of victories! 

This little flurry put me up to 13,400 with 190 players left (average was about 40K at that point). 

Finally, with blinds of 500/1000 this dude who was a total wild card (he did a full standing multi-pump fist pump whenever he won a big pot) made it 4,500 and I looked down at TT. I don't think I'm ever folding TT with 13 big blinds so I shoved, he had QQ and I bricked out.

Looking back, getting KK against AA, running a wheel into quads and finding myself with a short stacked TT against QQ was totally insurmountable. All three of those are death sentences and I'm happy I squeezed two extra lives out before getting the final blow.

Next up $380 NL Hold'em at Lucky Chances.

Project Phaser - Phase Zero

I came up with a really bitchin' preparation plan for the 2018 WSOP last weekend. It has phases. Phase 8 is when it all comes together and I crush it at the WSOP. Technically, I haven't even gotten to Phase One yet, but Phase Zero went down Tuesday at Lucky Chances and that's the topic of today's post.

But even before I got to Phase Zero, I did play cash games on Monday at Bay 101 and if you were so inclined, you could call that Phase Negative One. I Love Phase Negative One. Phase Negative One involved me making every draw and generally running hot for 8 hours in a $2/$3/$5, $500 max buy in no limit game, eventually rolling out the door with $2,080 in profit. So any pressure I might have felt about my first in person tournament in a while was fully quelled by Phase Negative One.

Now Pictures! Here is what Lucky Chances looks like and what I looked like just before rolling in there.

I brought my lucky beard with me.

Asian motifs coming out the wazoo!

Pictured here - people playing various games of chance on a Tuesday morning.

This thing will bite off your finger if you don't pay your bookie.

I got there at 9:40 for a 9:30 start tournament and found only two tournament tables going. This was odd in the sense that the tournament had a $210 buy in and guaranteed $4,000 for 1st place.  They'd need some more players or this sucker was going to be winner take all! 

Of that $210, $175 goes to the prize pool, $25 to the house and $10 for "Staff Appreciation." The last $10 is technically optional, but you get 12,000 in chips if you pay it and 10,000 if you don't so it's actually mandatory. I think this is stupid. 

By 9:55 they started a third table which included yours truly. Eventually we got 45 buy ins and 8 re-entries for 53 total entries. If you look on the lower right here you can see the prizes for the top 6 places. 

You can also see that Lucky Chances in their infinite generosity has added $10 to the prize pool to meet the $4,000 1st place guarantee and has noted such on the fucking board. Wow Lucky Chances you guys are REALLY doing us a solid. I'm not great at math, but I can use a calculator to tell you that 53 people putting up $200 (neglecting our deepest $10 appreciation for the staff) is $10,600 and there seems to be $9,285 in the prize pool but that 19 cents per entry that you gave us deserves to be called out above the first place prize. 

On to actual poker and not me just blither blathering! Here is what my sad looking chip stack started out looking like. Green = 25, Blue = 100, Black and White = 500 and Brown and White = 1,000. 12,000 chips to start! Go time!

I played no hands in the first hour. Cancel go time and replace with sit and do nothing time!

The main highlight of this time was listening to the dude to my right who was a small 60ish Asian guy with a huge gap in his teeth. He was telling stories about his youth where I understood every 4th word, and laughing like a hyena every time he won a pot or when anything interesting happened. It was like he was on a cell phone with a really bad connection in terms of what I was getting. But on one hand he got his last 5,000 in the pot with A9, the board ran out 9 high, he beat KQ and the instant the river hit he said a perfectly clear, high pitched, but quiet "Oooooooh, thank you for the double up!" followed by a standing, loud as hell  "HE HE HE HA HA HA HA HA HA HE HE HE HE HA HA HA HA HE HA HE HA HE HA!" I wish I could make this my ring tone.

After the 4th level (they were 20 minute levels) we had a break and I came back to a stack of 9,475 with blinds of 200/400. A fairly wild player raised to 1.050 and I looked down at AA in the big blind. I made it 3,000 to go and he instantly shoved all in. I snap called, he rolled over AK of diamonds and the flop came down 9 7 5 with two diamonds.

At this point I thought "I guess it's good I took some pictures, because sitting here for an hour, playing no hands, and going broke with AA to AK isn't going to make for much of a blog post."

The turn was a K and I was even more sure of my impending doom, but amazingly the river was a black 3 and I was up to 18,350 chips.

After dribbling back some chips, about 45 minutes later in level 7, I got QQ in the small blind with 12,000 in my stack. Under the gun made it 2,500, I shipped it, he called with AJ, the board ran out garbage and I was up to about 25,000 with 28 players left.

I got moved to a new table and with blind of 500/1000 and 1000 in antes (they ran a new school structure where rather than have everyone put up antes, they have the big blind ante - I think this is smart) I made it 2,500 to go in the small blind with QJ off. The big blind called and the came down QQ2. Bingo! My plan was to bet the flop small and hope that he's take one off. Next I'd check the turn to make it look like I was giving up on a bluff and then check raise all in. I bet 2,500 and into the 6,000 pot and he called. So far so good. The turn was a 5, I checked and he checked behind. Ack! The river was a K and I considered betting, but felt like he probably had air and I should give him a chance to try to steal it. I checked again and he fired out 2,500 into the 11,000 pot which looked like either a K or a bluff. I had 13,000 left and decided to make it 8,000 to go hoping to get called by a K. He quickly called and I was good. Later he said he had Q9 so I may have missed some value there, but I'm fine with how I played it.

I had 37K with 20 players left rolling into level 10, and I shoved it all in with AK vs a raise to 4,500 and a call, but they both folded.

My next big hand was the key hand of the tournament. With blinds of 800/1600 and 1600 in antes I called a middle position raise to 4,000 with JT off in the big blind. This is a borderline call, but most tournament players are uncomfortable playing post flop while I am very comfortable with it these days so I'm making it a goal to see flops in close spots. The flop came down 983 rainbow giving me an open ended straight draw and two overs. I checked, my opponent bet 8,000 with about 60,000 behind and it was back to me.

 This was a great semi-bluff spot as I expected him to bet the flop with his entire range, this board hits a big blind calling range harder than a preflop raising range, I had good equity no matter what he had, and I had a good table image. 

I grabbed some chips to make it 22,000 but then realized that would leave me with 14,000 which really wasn't enough for a good push on the turn, so I just shoved all in. My opponent thought for about 5 seconds and made the call with K9 of clubs (there was one club on board). The turn was a Q and the river was a 7. Thank you for the double up. HE HE HA HA HE HA HA HE HA!

The villain in that hand would not shut up about this hand. It started with "I can't believe you called me with jack ten there." Then a couple of hands later the board came out with a J and a T and he said something else. Then 5 minutes later he showed me his phone where he'd checked the odds and showed that he was a 54/46 favorite when the money went in on the flop. 30 minutes later he was still talking about it. And another guy asked me about it later too like he just couldn't understand what I was thinking when I moved all in. To him it was a simple as I did not have a good hand, why would I put it all of my chips? 

Anyway, it put me up to 83K chips and in the chip lead when average was 37K. Here is my stack! OK it doesn't look all that impressive, but I was in first damn it!

A little later I raised Q9 of spades to 6,000 on the button with 1000/2000 blinds and the big blind shoved for 20,000. I was certain to be behind here, but risking 14,000 to win 29,000 I was getting the right price to call. He rolled over A3 off, I hit a Q, and I was up to 112K with 13 players left.

Oooh a pretty pink one on top!

For the next hour I mostly folded. People were playing pretty loose and I was getting no cards so I just waited. 

We quickly moved to the final table and seemed to quickly get to the money bubble as well. Everyone voted to take $400 off of first place to pay 7th. I was in the middle of the pack and opted to not object even though it was not really in my best interest.

I only played 2 hands of any note at the final table. On the first one I made it 11K to go with 2K/4K blinds from the button with KQ of hearts. The villain from the JT hand, who was still out for blood, called in the small blind and the flop came out 964 with one heart. He checked and I checked it back. The turn was a beauty - the T of hearts giving me a gut shot straight and a flush draw. My opponent bet out 20K with 30K behind. I figured he would probably call if I put him all in, but even if he folded one time in five, raising would be much better than calling or folding. I shoved and he quickly folded. Whoop Whoop!

In the second hand of note we were playing 5 handed and I made it 18K to go under the gun with Q9 of hearts with 3K/6K blinds. The big blind who had no clue and was seeing a ton of flops called and then checked in the dark. The flop came down 653, I shoved for about 60K and he quickly folded. 

I stole the blinds a few times made a three bet or two that no one called and before I knew it we were down to 3 players. The other players suggested a chop and I agreed to a chip count based chop. I had 136K and the other players had 72K and 428K and I agreed to take what amounted to about 2nd place money. Specifically I got $2,140 after tipping an additional $10 for my even deeper staff appreciation when the listed places were $1,110 for 3rd, $2,235 for 2nd and $3,600 for 1st. Not bad right? 

This isn't exactly a high drama finish, but I think I can say that I went Phase Negative Zero on those mother fuckers! That's what I call it these days when I make all my draws and win about $2,000. 

In fact this was an amazingly low drama tournament. I was only all in an at risk 3 times - with AA vs AK, with QQ vs AJ and with JT vs K9 on the 983 flop where plan A was really to win by bluffing - and I only busted one player but managed to effectively finish in 2nd. This is highly unusual, but totally optimal as far as the only being at risk when way ahead and really only needing to win one race. 

6 hours of play, $1,930 in profit, time for chicken and beer! HE HA HE HE HA HE HA HE HA!

My $10,000 bankroll for Project Phaser is now at $11,930. Next action is the start of the Battle of the Bay at Lucky Chances on Sunday with a $630 buy in (including even more staff appreciation) event that has a $40,000 first place guarantee.

Project Phaser: My Plan for Preparing for the 2018 World Series of Poker

About a month ago I started looking at the 2018 WSOP schedule. The first time I gave it a 3 minute scan to see how many events and what was new this year. The next time I spent 10 minutes thinking about when I'd want to go and what events I'd want to play if I could make it work. The next 20 times I stared at it endlessly wearing a comatose face while running through every conceivable scenario wistfully dreaming of some way I could make it happen.

Happily between having a great March playing cash games and a larger than average tax refund I feel ready to take my shot once again. I'm going back!

This will be my 8th year at the WSOP. I played at least 3 events every year from 2005-2010, but other than taking 2 shots at the $565 buy in Colossus in 2015 I have not been back since.

I've put together a $10,000 bankroll that includes selling off a piece of my action to the usual friends and family who backed me in the past. I have 3 WSOP events I'm absolutely going to play: $1,500 HORSE on June 6th, $565 PLO on June 8th, and the $1,500 Millionaire Maker on June 9th (I'll fire a second bullet on June 10th in the Millionaire Maker if needed so mentally I kind of have this as 4 separate events).

But I also have a multiphase preparation plan! Don't try to stop me at a single phase! I need more phases than that! One phase preparation plans are for losers!

Phase 0 - Prepare for Preparation

I'm going to play a tournament at Lucky Chances this week! They have a tournament every day at 9:30 am and I figured before I get into Phase 1 I should at least get over there and get reacquainted with how they do shit over there. I haven't been there for 5 years and it's been 8 or 9 years since I played a tournament there. A $200 buy in tournament with a $4,000 first place guarantee on Tuesday is the likely candidate.

Phase 1 - Battle of the Bay

Lucky Chances is running their annual "Battle of the Bay" from April 21st to the 30th with six main tournaments and some satellites. I'll be playing a $550, two $380's and a $200. If I final table one of those or cash in two I might play the $1,100 main event as well.

Phase 2 - Battle of the Bitcoin

I recently jumped through the hoops to get myself some bitcoin and have been playing a little bit on Bovada.com which I think in the 2nd or 3rd largest online poker site that will take US players. I put $150 on there and have played maybe 30-40 $5-$20 multi-table tournaments with somewhere between 75-200 entrants. I've made 4 final tables and finished in 1st in 3 of those instances which is encouraging. I have about $600 on there now after my small victories, but I also just bought some more bitcoin and put $135 on America's Card Room which seems to have some larger field tournaments.

Playing online is risky these days in the sense that you never know when a site is going to shut down either because they just go out of business, pull the plug for fraudulent reasons or have the government seize their domain so I'm treading lightly. I'm not thinking about this as a source of long term significant profit, but rather a way to get a lot of reps. This is going to be like spending time on the driving range for me. It's also going to give me a chance to work on my PLO and Limit Omaha. Sadly, the stud variants are no where to be found so for the S, R and E in the HORSE I'm just going to have to rely on my past experience.

Phase 3 - Bay 101 Open

Bay 101 has a similar set of tournament to Lucky Chances running May 14-21. There are three $350 NL Hold'em events, a limit Omaha, and a $550 NL Hold'em to go along with the $1,100 2 day main event (that I will probably not play).

Phase 4 - Healthy Living

During the 6 years I hit the WSOP hard I was fat! Not really fat, but certainly overweight. I was 260-270 pounds during that stretch of my life which even at 6'5" is too heavy. I've been in the 215-230 range the past 4 years since I started running half marathons and Spartan Races and happen to be 215 right now. With that said I am far from my peak endurance level and will be putting in some time to make sure I have the energy to play from 11 am until 1 or 2 in the morning. I'm also hoping at 38 I'll have the discipline that I did not have at all at 25 and was limited at 30, to eat right, sleep right and not drink too much while in Vegas for a week.

Phase 5 - Long Sessions

I'm used to being at the Casino for 8-9 hours at a stretch and playing for 7-8. I need to put in a few sessions where I push it and play for 12 hours so I can get used to how that feels. I've tried and failed to do this once, but I think if I make a firm commitment on this blog and report back on success or failure that will be help me push through. I'm hoping to hit 12 hours at least twice before I head to Vegas.

Phase 6 - Early Arrival

I'm flying in the day before I play the HORSE. I flew in the day of my first event a few times and it's a mistake. Usually it was to save $100 on one night of hotel which is stupid. I'm sure getting into town the night before, registering the night before, and otherwise being settled so I'll be 100% fresh and all I have to do is walk from my room to the table on the day of will add way more than $100 to my expected value.

Phase 7 - HORSEing around

I've had some of my best success playing HORSE. I finished 4th in a $1,000 online Pokerstars HORSE event with about 450 entrants which paid $37,500 and I also finished 28th in a $3,000 HORSE WSOP event that had about 500 entrants and was maybe the toughest field I'd ever seen in terms of big name pros. But in this case I really wanted to play because I know during the first hour or two I'm going to be nervous and since it's limit I won't have to make any big decisions until I feel settled in. That's comfortable, settled in feeling should carryover to the other events or at least reduce the amount of time that I feel a little edgy at the start.

Phase 8 - Going Phase 8!

By this time I'll be fully prepared give it my best shot and win some money. I hope to be able to use the expression "I went Phase 8 on those mother fuckers" because that sounds really bad ass and most people will not know what it means, but will clearly be able to tell that it is bad ass, but we'll all know that it means that all of my preparation came together, which does not even sound the slightest bit bad ass, but the winning in major poker tournaments is without a doubt bad ass, so there you go.

I will report back on Phase 0 when it is complete.

2016, 2017 and That Time I Owned the State of Arizona

I'm headed back to the WSOP this year and have an elaborate prep plan that I'll be executing and chronicling on this blog, but for the sake of continuity I figured I'd very briefly recap the past two years. 

Before I get to that I have to share an anecdote and an image that are two sources of confidence going in to the summer.

First, The Image! It's a line! Specifically it's a graph of my cumulative win/loss for the last 50 sessions of cash games which represents 335 hours of play. I would invite the people who think poker is a luck game to draw a best fit line through this mother fucker and have a look at the trend. 

Second, The Anecdote! In 2009 I started working with this guy who lives in Arizona as a poker coach. He's a doctor, an actor (he's done a few indie films, some commercials, and other such things), dates astonishingly beautiful women and is generally an awesome dude who is somehow extremely humble despite all of those things. He's also a poker fanatic and was an excellent student. After talking about once a month for at least 5 years we became friends and met up in person a few times in Vegas and Tahoe for poker related stuff.

At some point in the not too distant past I went to visit him in Arizona and we played a couple of poker tournaments at Talking Stick in the Phoenix area. The first one was a $200 buy in tournament where $100 went to the price pool and $100 went to bounties (i.e. if you knock someone out you get $100) with about 250 entrants. I made it to the final table collecting 7 bounties along the way and we chopped up the prize pool with 6 players left. It was awesome.

The next day we came back for a smaller tournament that had about 70 entrants and something like a $100 buy in. My doctor friend, his girlfriend (at the time) and I all made the final table which was excellent. I'd been at the same table as the girlfriend all tournament long and had been giving her the kid gloves to some extent, but there was one hand where I shoved with AK over her raise, she folded QQ and was pissed about it. So at the final table I was trying to win, but also to not piss her off. This was something I had never attempted! 

When we get down to 5, my friend has gone broke, but the girlfriend is the chip leader. I am in a close second and suggest we do a chip count chop so I don't have to tangle with her. We do the math and her share would have been something like $1,850 which was maybe a shade over second place money with 1st place being $2,300. Everyone else is ready to go for the deal and she says...wait for it..."I need to get at least two thousand." (Face palm)

I was shocked. She knew I was a former pro player, but clearly she did not know who she was dealing with. I was playing my A game against a table of total clowns and since my hand was forced I had to start fucking people up. If it was a kung fu movie I would have causally walked up, rolled my neck around, given my shoulders a little shake and then...BOOM, knee/elbow/fist combo to one bad guy sending him down a well and then CRACK roundhouse kick another in the face blasting him into a swiftly moving river.

Now I was the chip leader and I asked the girlfriend if she really wanted to keep playing against me. She reluctantly (RELUCTANTLY!) agreed to a 3 way chop. 

So I've played 2 poker tournaments in Arizona and have never been eliminated!

And now to a little life recap for those of you who may care.

My poker play has really been a function of my job status. Might need money? Better play poker!

In March of 2016 the company I'd worked for the past 5+ years got acquired by Uproxx Media. I wasn't sure if I was going to survive the acquisition with my job intact so I started playing cash games. That was the impetus for Project Manhattan which was the last series of posts (I ended up pulling the plug after Session 18 which was a small loser because I did end up working at Uproxx and I'd just had enough). I was at Uproxx for 6 months and then spent 3 months on semi vacation playing a couple of days a week. 

During all of those sessions I did not play all that great or with a ton of confidence. I still knew how to play and I won regularly, but I did not dominate and it was kind of a grind.

At the start of 2017 I had a really well paying job as VP of Business Development for Joyus.com. I spent 7 months there and saved about 25% of my salary so when Joyus sold off all the assets of the company, but the team was not part of the deal I had my nuts stored away for winter. I played zero poker during this time. 

I interviewed for a few jobs, but nothing stuck and I decided to try to coast though the holidays cobbling together an income from my wife's new part time job, unemployment and poker. My unemployment benefits have since run out, we're paying for health insurance out of pocket for 4 people which sucks, but poker has gone well and I've basically been coasting for the past 10 months or so. 

And now I'm finding myself in a spot where my new dream is my old dream - crush it at the World Series of Poker!!

Project Manhattan Session #17 - That's Not a Bad Beat, THIS Is a Bad Beat

Poker players love to tell you how unlucky they were after a loss. We've all told our share of bad beat stories. When I was cranking away full time playing online poker I'd usually play about 3,000 hands a day. That meant that 3 times a day I'd have some 1 in 1,000 bad shit happen to me. Most days that was OK. I always said that one of my big strengths was having good bounce back. And of course I had 1 in 1,000 good shit happen to me at the same rate.


I've been sitting here trying to think of my worst bad beat ever. I feel like there has to be a worse one somewhere, but one that sticks out was in a $2,500 event at the WSOP. This was in the days when you got $2 in tournament chips for every $1 in buy in. If I'm remembering this correctly (and I think I am) the blinds were 100/200 with a 25 ante and I was in the big blind. The under the gun player who I'd been playing with for close to 4 hours and seemed like a reasonable, fairly solid player, moved all in for 10,000. I looked down at AA and quickly called. He had K9 off suite, flopped a pair and rivered two pair. It wasn't the K9 beating AA. That happens about 14% of the time. It was that a guy just lost his mind for no reason and moved all in for 50 big blinds and I lost a pot that was worth over $10,000 in real dollars as a result.

Anyway, back to the present! Or the recent past rather!

I was in a fantastic game on a recent Friday night. There were no good players and a few players who were if not total novices, pretty close to it. I played for about 4 hours, but my session was really defined by two hands that happened back to back about 2 hours in.

On the first I got dealt JJ and made it $20 to go under the gun. I was losing about $200 at that point, but had around $700 in front of me and had been playing pretty tight in a loose game. The player just to my left was a guy I'd never seen before who was a total lunatic. There were a couple of hands where he got it in with weak top pair or middle pair by 3 or 4 betting when it could not have been more obvious he was crushed.  He looked like he was in his early 30's, had maybe Greek or Italian heritage and was wearing a gray sport coat with jeans. He had his headphones in, never said a word and barely reacted when he won or lost big pots.

So after my $20 raise Mr. Lunatic called as did 6 others (SIX others!) and we took the flop 8 way. It was about the best flop I could imagine that did not have a J in it - 8 5 2 rainbow. It's really uncomfortable betting into 7 people without the nuts (close to 1/3 of the unknown cards are in play), but betting was the only option. I slid $100 out there and only Mr. Lunatic called with $375 more left behind in his stack. At this point I knew if he made a better hand than me I was in deep shit. I just couldn't possibly fold against this guy given his play up to that point. As the turn came out, if it couldn't be a J, I was hoping it would be a 2. Sure enough the turn was a 2! Even though he had about one pot sized bet left in his stack I figured I'd have better luck getting it all in vs a 5 or an 8 or whatever else he had by getting him in two chunks. For chunk #1 I bet out $150. And he made it $300. Oh God. Facepalm. Seeing a minimum raise when a player only has a little bit left behind that is surely the sign certain doom...unless he's a total lunatic. I didn't love it, but I couldn't let it go. I put him all in for $375 total, he quickly called and the river came out a K. I showed my hand and he rolled over...wait for it...you know it's going to be bad right...7 2 off. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

The real majesty of this bad beat is that I was under the gun, was probably the tightest player in the game, he was right after me, and it is literally the worst possible starting hand. It wasn't even suited. You can't find any more questionable circumstances to play a hand. It wasn't like he was fully committed to seeing every flop either. He was folding maybe 30% of hands preflop in the field. He just figured he'd go with that one. Every time he folded preflop after that I wanted to ask him "Found one worse than 72 off that time huh?"

At that point I was committed to staying until he left.

On the very next hand I was in the big blind and got dealt 95 of diamonds. There was no raise and I got a free look. The flop came out 8 7 2 with two diamonds which looked pretty fantastic. I bet out $15 into the $20 pot and got 3 callers! That many callers had me thinking that my flush draw might not be good and I was hoping to see a 6 roll off. The turn came out the Q of diamonds and I wasn't sure what to do, but I figured checking was probably best. It checked around to the button who bet out $65. This was mildly promising. If one of the other players had a flush they'd very likely to bet out and the button could easily have a hand with a Q in it or even a hand like A7 or A8 with the A of diamonds. I called as did a fairly tight player. I was all but certain another diamond would be the end of me and a board pair might be bad as well. Happily the river was a black 4. If the button had a flush I didn't want to bet and if he had something else I wanted to give him a chance to bet again with whatever it might be. I checked, Mr Fairly Tight checked it along, and the button bet big putting $205 out there. Again I didn't love it, but couldn't fold. I called, and then to my shock and horror Mr. Fairly Tight moved all in for $550! NOOOOOOOOOOO! This had to be without a doubt the absolute nuts. The button surmised as much and folded and I mucked as well. Mr. Fairly Tight showed us both AK of diamonds as he scooped in the pot.

Eventually Mr. Lunatic got a phone call and within 30 seconds had his chips in racks and was walking away from the table. Astoundingly he walked off with $1,400. Another of the softies racked up $2,500 and left and I knew it was time for me to follow them out the door.

I lost $1,038 on the night. After 64.5 hours I'm ahead $1,263. I've pushed my target completion date back to July 4th, I should be in action Friday night and I'm hoping to get in at least one long session over Memorial Day weekend.

Project Manhattan Session #16 - The Siren Song Of $1/$1/$2

The Oaks has two stakes for no limit - $2/$3/$5 blinds with a max $500 buy in and $1/$1/$2 with a max $200 buy in. The way they house makes money in these games is to take $5 from every pot for the big game and $4 from the small game. They also take $1 for the jackpot which in theory you'll get back if they're honest about how much is being collected and you play long enough to hit a piece of the jackpot.

What you'll notice about the rake for the $1/$1/$2 is it's almost as big as the $2/$3/$5 rake in absolute terms, but in proportional terms, they're taking 2.5 big blinds every hand instead of 1.2, which makes it twice as impactful.

More importantly it makes the game totally unplayable under common circumstances. Let me explain with an example. Let's say 4 people call before the flop including both blinds. On the flop you make top pair and bet 2/3 of the pot and get one caller. On the turn you bet half the pot, get called again and on the river it goes check, check and you win.

In a $2/$3/$5 game  You're looking at $14 in the pot after the rake as you go to the flop. Headed to the turn there's $34 in there and headed to the river there's $68 in the pot. You've ended up with about 14 big blinds in the pot. Not a huge pot, but not nothing.

In a $1/$1/$2 when you go to the flop $5 goes to the rake and ONLY $3 goes to the pot! Your 2/3 pot bet is $2. There's $7 in the pot going to the turn and $15 going to the river. 7.5 big blinds in the pot at the end. Who the eff wants to play a game where there's $3 in the pot? Most people just say the hell with it and check it down and the lucky person who wins the pot nets $1 or someone bets $5 at it and wins.

One way to help mitigate this is to never just call before the flop. If your hand is good enough to play make it $4 or $6 if you would have just called.

In my last project where I crushed skulls for 100 hours mainly at $2/$3/$5 I was actually a healthy loser in the small number of hours I played at $1/$1/$2 all played while waiting for the bigger game. Not being a dummy I've been steering clear during this project...but I'm not just going to sit there and do nothing if there's a long $2/$3/$5 wait. Maybe I am a dummy!

So I sat down on Friday night with $200 in front of me hoping to not screw it up. On my third hand I was on the button with q7 of clubs and one player just called the $2 in front of me. I could either fold when I had a $1 in the pot already from the button small blind, call and likely be faced with a stupid $3 pot on the flop or put in a small raise. I made it $7 to go and the big blind re-raised it to $20. Ugh. This is the problem with the raising light with calling hands strategy. I thought about folding, but I had position, we were both $200 deep and I was getting better than 2 to 1 on my money. So I called. The flop came down J T 3 all clubs! Flush baby! My opponent came out with a big bet pushing $50 out there. I decided to just call and the turn came out a red 9. My opponent checked and I slid $45 out there. He just about beat me into the pot with his whole stack! I instantly called, the river paired the 9 (which had me a little worried) and he rolled over AJ of diamonds. OK? Thanks for the pot!

Over the next 45 minutes I made three top pairs and pretty much got two streets of value with them all. When they called my name for $2/$3/$5 I left with a $330 profit. Suck it low rollers!

Shortly after I made my way to the bigger game I got dealt 88 and raised to $20. I got one caller and then the big blind moved all in for $143. The caller looked like he was done with it. This is probably a spot to muck and I need to do some more analysis on it, but the quick at the table thinking I did was that I was risking $123 to win $203 and if my opponent has unpaired big cards I'm ahead. I think he has a pair there more often than big cards, but there's always a chance it's 77 or 66 getting out of line. Anyway I called, my opponent rolled over KK, I let out a quiet groan and then promptly flopped an 8! Ha ha!

A couple of hours passed and I was up about $600 with a nice stack in front of me when I got dealt 64 of diamonds on the button. I called $5 and then called a raise from the small blind to $25 along with 3 other players in the field. The flop came down 8 7 2 with two diamonds giving me 12 outs to a straight or a flush. Pretty sweet. The raiser bet out $55, two players called and after giving some brief consideration to dropping the all in bomb I decided to just call and hope for a a diamond or a 5, but really a 5 was what I wanted. The turn was a black 9 giving me 3 more straight outs that might or might not be good. Now the preflop raiser came out betting $200! And another player called all in for $140! This was a really sticky spot. If all of my outs were good, I had a huge overlay, but I could easily be up against a better flush draw or hands that negated some of my straight outs or both. My one remaining opponent with chips had about $150 and I figured he probably had a hand like a pair TT-AA and I thought it would be tough for him to fold for another $150 on the end if I got there with a huge pot in the middle. Speaking of huge pots, there was about $700 out there, it cost me $200 to call and I had a 1 in 3 shot at making a straight or better. So I called. The river was the 2 of diamonds making my flush and to my surprise my opponent bet out his last $150. I quickly called and he said "Flush?" and I said "Yep" ready to drag my pot. Then I realized he didn't say "Flush?" he said "Flush." as in "I have a flush with my T9 or diamonds that is bigger than yours and thus I will gobble up your pot." Shit!

Not too much else of note happened. I ended up winning $51 over 3 hours which puts me at $2,301 after 60.5 hours over the course of the project.

Project Manhattan Session #15 - I SAID SCREW YOU GUYS I'M GOING HOME!

I had reason to be in Emeryville last Monday night and decided to make a rare Monday appearance at the Oaks.

I started with $500 on the table at $2/$3/$5 no limit as per usual. I posted $5 to get a hand and looked down at AA! Aces on the first hand! WHAAAAAT!? Sadly I raised and all of those stupid jerks folded.

A little later I got dealt QT in the big blind and called a raise to $15. We took the flop 4 way and the board came down T 3 2 with two diamonds. The preflop raiser bet $30, the button called and I called along as well with my marginal two pair. I really was not sure where I stood at this point. The preflop raiser could just be continuation betting or could have me crushed. The button could be on a draw or have a better ten or even just overs. There were a lot of possible situations. The turn was the 8 of clubs which didn't change anything. I checked, the preflop raiser checked it along and now the button came out betting for $65. I was really close to just pitching it here, but at the last second I figured that T9 suited and JT suited were hands that made sense here and decided to call. The preflop raiser mucked and the river came out the 5 of spades. I checked planning to fold to any substantial bet as there was no way T9 or JT would fired a third barrel for value in this spot and that's really what I was hoping to see. Happily the button checked it back. I showed my hand, he flashed a T and mucked.

On the next big hand, the under the gun player made it $15 to go, 3 players called, I called with the AJ of diamonds and the big blind came along too. The flop came down 8 4 2 with two diamonds and the raiser bet out $50. Having the nut flush draw I was inclined to push it here, but only if I had some fold equity and I was a little worried about someone putting in a big raise in front of me and making it a complicated spot. But everyone folded to me, so I made it $150 to go. The big blind folded and the preflop raiser went all in for $190 total. I threw in another $40 knowing I'd need to hit. The turn was the 5 of diamonds! Zing! My opponent showed QQ as I dragged the pot.

I won a couple of other small pots and then about an hour after I sat down the game broke (i.e. there were only 5 of us left, and the other players wanted to draw cards for the 3 open seats in the other $2/$3/$5 game). Rather than draw for a seat I oped to split and hustle home to squeeze in a workout.

I won $530 in 1 hour which brings my total to +$2,250 for the project after 57.5 hours.

Project Manhattan Session #14 - Screw You Guys, I'm Going Home

Last Friday my older son had a baseball game that ended around 7:30 so instead of rolling in to the Oaks right after work as per usual, I got there around 8:00 planning to burn the midnight oil.

I slapped five C-notes on the table and took my first hand in the big blind. 4 people called $5 and I looked down at JJ. With what was almost certainly the best hand I made it $30 to go and got 2 callers - both of whom were not players I knew. The flop came down 6 6 7 with two hearts. One of my callers was in the small blind and he checked. I bet out $65 into the $100 pot and the lady across the table called. Then the small blind cut out $210 and pushed it into the pot!

This was a tricky situation. Did this guy have a 6? If so I was totally cooked. And what about the lady? What did I think she was calling with? Could she have a 6? Was she calling with a 7 or a draw or a hand like 88 or bare overs? Luckily she was obviously pissed about the raise and I figured she was done with the hand.

That just left the raiser. Was he the kind of player who would call $30 preflop with A6 or 56 or 67 out of position in the small blind - something probably only a losing player would do. If so I should fold. Or was he the kind of player that would check raise a draw - something probably only a strong player would do. If so I should move all in. I'd literally only played half a hand with this guy and I had to sort this out. But luckily, the way that physically he cut out $210 was indicative of a strong player and also the fact that it was $210 and not $200 (better players are more precise with their bets, weak player bet in round numbers) was a huge indicator.

It might sound like I was fairly sure here that he was a good player and that meant he could not have a 6 and was very likely to push a draw, but it's one thing to think this though and another to put $500 out there and potentially lose $500 on the first hand! Luckily I was right. I moved all in and they both quickly folded with the small blind saying he'd folded a draw.

For the next hour I dribbled away much of my profit from that hand and found myself feeling tired in a shitty game. I decided to bail.

I won $110 over 1 hour and that means I'm $1720 to the good after 56.5 hours of play.

Project Manhattan Session #13B - The Tournament

After playing for 3 hours and booking a $487 win playing $2/$3/$5 on Wednesday I decided to play the weekly $185 Wednesday night tournament.

I'll always have a fondness for the Wednesday night tournament at the Oaks. When I was 22 and my biggest win to date was a $350 win at $6/$12 I played the Wednesday night tournament (which was at that point a $60 buy in with one $50 rebuy limit hold'em tournament) for the first time. I'd come in to play $6/$12 and after a hot hour was up $185 at the time the tournament was about to start. My total tournament experience at the time was 3 or 4 shots at a $10 tournament with 7 minute levels at Cache Creek (Ten dollar buy in! Seven minute levels!) where I never sniffed the money and one $20 with two rebuys piece of garbage at Casino San Pablo where I finished 30th of 30th. After what was probably a miracle run of cards I made it to the top 3 and we made a deal where my end was about $1,000. I'd cashed my paycheck that day and I remember riding home with $2,500 in my pocket and thinking how it was ridiculous to have that much money on me driving in a car that was worth no more than $1,000.

I had 11 times in my poker career where I won $10K+ in one day, 4 of those were $30K+ and one of those was $85K, but I'm not sure I was ever as excited with any of those as the first time I broke $1,000.

Fast forward 14 years and something like 5,000 multi-table tournaments of experience and I sat down as a 36 year old with 10,000 chips in front of me with blinds at 25/50 and 20 minute levels. When the action started only 3 of us where at the table and we spent a shockingly long amount of time (10 or 15 minutes) playing 3 handed before the table gradually filled in. I made two sets of jacks during this stretch and made no money. Grrrr!

My first big hand came in the 2nd level with blinds at 50/100. A few players called 100, I made it 450 to go out of the big blind with AK of diamonds and we took the flop 4 way. The flop came down T 7 3 all diamonds! Holy shit! I checked hoping someone would fire at it. Sure enough a guy who I knew to be a total nut from the cash games bet 3,000 into the 1,800 pot. Then the small blind moved all in for 11,000! I stalled a bit as if I was unsure, but eventually called, Mr. Nut folded and I beat the small blind who had flopped two pair with T3.

I was up to 26,000 at that point and in great shape. After 4 levels I had 23,000 at the first break, registration closed and I saw we ended up with 70 entrants.

With the blinds at 300/600 with a 50 ante I had two interesting hands back to back. On the first I called an all in to 3,750 with 99 and a guy who looked like he was in his 60's called behind me. At this stage of the tournament you'd normally expect either a raise or a fold, but I was quickly getting the sense that a large number of the players in this tournament were a bunch of loose passive soft spots who would just call in some situations where it was just flat wrong to do so. An ace flopped and Mr. 60's won that one.

On the very next hand I got AA and someone moved all in for 4,500. Hoping to get a repeat of the action from the previous hand I just called. Sure enough Mr. 60's called behind me. And then BOTH blinds called too! These guys love to call! We were 5 way going to the flop with more than two starting stacks already in the pot. The flop came down A T 4 with two spades! Top set baby! Send that pot to me man! The small blind moved all in for 5,800, the big blind folded, the all in was still all in, I made it 12,000 to go and Mr. 60's folded. When the hands got turned up the all in had JT of spades and the small blind had TT (flopped a set and was drawing totally dead!). The turn was a red 6 and the river was a red 8 and I took down a huge pot.

At the second break I had 49K chips with 30 players left, needing to make the top 10 to make the money.

The next big hand came with blinds at 500/1,000 with a 100 ante. The under the gun player just called the 1K with about a 30K stack, it folded over to me in the cutoff and I raised it to 4K with AQ of hearts. He called and the flop came down K J 4 with two hearts (and one spade) giving me 12 outs to the nuts. He checked to me and I bet biggish - 7K into the roughly 10K pot. He called without thinking at all. The turn was the 8 of spades, and my opponent checked again. I didn't like how quickly he called the flop, but he had a little less than 20K and there was 24K in the pot so I could put him all in without it being much of an overbet. Even if he called off a substantial stack, and I missed, I'd still have chips left. I decided to go for it. I moved all in, he quickly called and I thought "Well, I guess I have to hit it." But then he showed his hand - the QT of spades! I looked at this hand and the board and back a few times in rapid succession to confirm that he was in fact drawing. I was 70.5% to win and happily the river came out a 3 of hearts.

From there I cruised to the money guaranteeing myself at least a $315 payout. When the final table started an average stack was 70K and I had about 75K.

On the very first hand of the final table, with blinds at 800/1,600 and a 200 ante, the under the gun player made it 6K to go. 4 players called before it got back to me in the small blind. I looked down at 99. What a strange spot! Of the 5 players involved thus far 3 had me covered including the original raiser, but I strongly considered moving all in hoping to scoop up the roughly 34K in the pot without a fight. I decided I should be a little more tactical and just called. The big blind came along and we saw the flop 7 way! WTF! I'm almost positive I've never played a 7 way pot for a raise at a final table.

The flop came down T 8 7 with two diamonds giving me very possibly the best hand and a straight draw as back up. What do I do now? Do I just fire it in against 6 opponents? I decided to check. The big blind who was next to act moved all in for 30K and was quickly followed into the pot by the first caller of the preflop raise who shoved for 40K. If this was a cash game I probably would have called here. Getting a little better than 2.5 to 1 when I'm around 2 to 1 to make a straight with the added small chance that my pair might be good against something like two flush draws or that the two remaining 9's might be clean outs. But I decided to be conservative and pitched it. The big blind had T 4 (Ten four!) and the first caller had JJ. It turns out that if I'd shoved preflop or on the flop I would have smashed face first into those pocket jacks so check folding the flop was optimal.

The 10th place player collected his $315 and the 9th place finisher got the same.

The 8th place player followed him soon after collecting $410 and then 7th place got $510, and 6th got $620.

Meanwhile I was just sitting there getting garbage and getting blinded off. I did put in a raise with AT suited at one point and got 4 callers! These guys love to call! Normally a big part of my final table strategy is running over scared players, but there was no chance of that working with this crowd.

Playing 5 handed I finally got a real hand. With blinds at 2K/4K the under the gun player made it 12K to go and I shoved for 55K with TT. After some thought he made a thin call with KQ. Luckily the board ran out 6 5 4 2 A and I took it down. Mr. KQ was the next to go collecting $730.

I started 4 handed play with 96K of the 700K chips in play and we played 4 handed for close to an hour! Of the last three opponents one was weak tight, one was an inexperienced loose cannon, and the third is an Oaks regular who is a solid player and knows what he's doing.

At this point I was feeling tired. I'd been at the Oaks since around 2:30, the tournament started at 6:15 and we started 4 handed play around 11:20. I don't know if it's that I'm older now (To paraphrase Shaquille O'Neil - 36 ain't 26 bro.) or just that I'm not used to playing for 9 or 10 hours anymore, but I did not feel sharp.

On the first hand of consequence 4 handed, I made it 16K to go with blinds of 3K/6K with black AQ, I got called by Mr. Regular out of the big blind, and the flop came down KK5 with two hearts. He checked and I checked it back (this was questionable). The turn was a really interesting card - the A of hearts. Mr. Regular bet out 20K and I kind of figured he was on an ace, a big heart or total air with the big heart being the most likely. I decided to put on the pressure and went all in for 75K. He looked pained and took a long time before eventually calling. To my shock and horror he turned over K7 for three kings! I stood up to leave, but then an ace came on the end! ZING!

Then nothing I did seemed to work out for about 15-20 minutes and I dribbled back down from a peak of 200K down to 100K. It was very frustrating.

Eventually I ended up with KK on the button and made it 20K to go. Mr. Regular called me out of the big blind and the flop came down K Q 6 with two hearts. Top set baby! He checked to me and I bet an amount that I hoped said "I missed here, but I don't want to just check" - 15K. He hemmed and hawed and then raised to 40K. I quickly shoved and he practically beat me into the pot. I figured I'd be fading a draw, but to my delight he showed 66! He'd flopped a lower set! As the kids say it was so sick.

I had my chance to bust Mr. regular a few hands later. I was back on the button with AJ and made it 20K again. He moved all in for 70K and I quickly called him. This time he had QQ and it held up. Drat!

While all this was happening, Mr. Loose kept doing stupid shit all over the place and the other too dumb shits would never call him! He kept flashing me bluff after bluff while telling the other guys about how he hadn't bluffed all tournament and it was as if they were believing every word. He literally talked them out of calling multiple times after his money was all in the pot. They were folding good hands in spots where I felt like they should have been calling with almost any two. I couldn't believe that with only 58 big blinds in play among the 4 of us at the 6K/12K blind level, that no one went broke.

Eventually with blinds of 8K/16K, Mr. regular raised to 32K, I moved all in for around 80K with 88 and he called me with TT. There were no miracles this time and I was out in 8th.

I got paid $840 for 4th (3rd was $1,250, 2nd was $1,950, and first was $3,200 - SHIT! So close!) which was a net profit of $655.

After 55.5 hours I'm ahead $1,610 for the project.