Bay 101 Tourney

by Phil

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Finished Day 1b earlier tonight.  It was an amazingly interesting day of poker.  I had a lot of fun.  At one point I made a cool stack with my chips.  

http://www.bay101live.com/

Matt Savage does a great job with the info stuff.  The link will most likely be useless to any readers very shortly after the event is over.. but if you happen to be reading this
as it is happening, this is the info link for sure.

We went to "City Restaurant" here in town and I had a Mixed Seafood Salad.  It was a 9 on the 10 scale.  I will be eating there manana for sure.

Today I did something I don't believe I have ever done in my life before.  What's that, you ask.  Well you came to the right place.  I will tell you.

I bought a hard boiled egg to go.  I did it at 7-11.  And I did it with joy.  I am very keen to have that egg sometime in the future.  It sure is handy to be able to curve the future
to match your anticipated future hankerings.  As in, "I suspect I will have a hankering for a hard boiled egg a bit later.  I think I will pick one up at 7-11."

For what its worth (fwiw) (Not to change the topic, but as an aside I must admit..... I am a bit curious as to the percent of people that might read my 'fwiws' and not know that it is an
acronym for the saying"for what it's worth".)  But whatever, I diverge.  What I was leading up to was this.  I actually bought three packs of them (hard boiled egss, that is) (2 to a pack).  So
I actually have access to 6 of them in total, which is especially nice, as I suspect the hankering will be running deep.

Anyway, hope that was not too much.  Just thought I would put you in the loop.

Phil Hellmuth will be at my table manana, along with Faraz Jaka.  Also BoostedJ will be there.  I like playing with BoostedJ and Hellmuth.  They are fun.  I have never played with Faraz.  Should be fun.  So nothing much more going on. 

Later!

Wolfman, Shutter Island, and Alice in Wonderland.

by Phil

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The last three days I saw each of these three movies.  Here is what I thought.

Wolfman.  78.  The transformations were cool, but the final wolfman faces were sort of lame.  Also, I didn't like the continuity errors in the fight scene at the end.  On the plus side, Hopkins was great, and it was fun to see Mr Smith from the Matrix appear as the detective guy.

Shutter Island.  77.  It was cool enough.  Though the ending needed a bit of tidying up for me to give it a higher grade.  It was decently eerie where it was supposed to be.

Alice in Wonderland.  76.  How could they not stay true to the original story?  Did the screen writers even bother to read the original?  And where was the daring stuff.  Seemed all too easy to digest.  Come on man!  This is Tim Burton, I want more... The guy is a genius after all... I just expected more.  Ho hum.

Sleep Roll

by Phil

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Forgot to mention this.  But during the LAPC I was in a game I just could not quit.  During this 60 hour session there were moments where I began to dooze off.

Anyway, one hand came up where I fell asleep for part of it and also for the showdown part.  This was my first ever sleep roll.  I was so out of it that I almost forgot to turn over the winning hand!  Someone commented that I had accidently slow rolled the guy, but I hadn't.  It was merely a sleep roll.  My first ever. Somehow I found my way out of that haze to have a moment of clarity.  I corrected him with the newly coined term and then promptly went back to my sleep deprived self.  Everyone had a good laugh. 

And so a new term was forged that day.  However, it is a term that most likely will never go mainstream as one of the players has to be asleep for part of the hand to qualify.  But thought I would mention it for what its worth.

Phil

25k Venetian... LAPC... Flood stuff... NBC heads up stuff

by Phil

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25k Venetian... I was the first one out on my table.  A very fast downtick.  My last hand was Kc 10c vs 5c 6c on a 2c 3c 4s board.  I bricked out and Super Josiah Cassidy not only won the hand, but won the heat.  The fellow who won both heats and therefore the whole event... Ashton Griffon.  I would later meet him at the LAPC and liked him out of the gate.  He is a smart guy, in his own world, and had a funny hat.  What's not to like?  (As a random aside I did some radio thing last week where I was told we would be the guests.  We were, but instead of being on at the same time, we were spaced one after another.)     : (            BTW, if you want to kill and hour of your life here is a link to that interview...   http://pokercast.twoplustwo.com/listen_and_browse.php

LAPC...  The LAPC was intricately woven into my flood fiasco... (The running tab on the damage from that is so nasty gross I nearly don't feel like putting it to print.  Whatever.... Ok, so I mega spaced donked and have now loast countless hours dealing with insurance people that are trying to underpay and contractors trying to get overpaid.  It is the biggest blunder I have managed in ... well....  maybe ever... not sure.)  The LAPC was woven into the flood mishap as I have not had such a demon desire to crush games in a long time.  The way I saw it was that I needed lots of money to soften the pain from the flood damage.  At times I refused to sleep.  There was one game that I was determined to never quit.  I gave up after 60 hrs as I had a flight, and missing it would have been bad.  It was a 100 100 plo / 100 200 nlh game that eventually morphed into a 100 100 plo game with loads of straddles and restraddles, super mega deep stacks and lots of testosterone.  I smashhed it.  It felt good.  (The 10k event became a tiny speck of a memory compared to all the sloshing about I did in the cash games.)  I can only thank the poker gods for those games.

Flood Stuff....  I don't want to get into it.  It is the only thing that has tilted me in years.  When I move back into the apt and the last bill is paid I will give you an overview of the whole thing from a hindsight perspective... This hopefully wont be as tilting as me trying to talk about it during the pain.

NBC heads up stuff.... First round pick.  John Juanda.  Won it.  Played good 'cept for one donk play... (Calling with A2 os where I should have folded... but other than that... liked how I played it.)   Second round was Phil Gordon.  That one went my way as well.  The really sick thing was how it all ended.  With a chip lead I made a speculative call to his all in with Qs9s.  He had K5os and by the turn I was down to needing a 10 or he was doubling up.  I binked it.  No problem.  10 ball.  10 of clubs to be exact.  Wow.  It fell on to the table like it was meant to be.  It was a huge card as now I was in the money.  But his reaction to it was super visceral.  It had been a while since I have seen a player have a mega twitch cringe reaction to a bad card.  But now I can say I saw it close up and very recent.  It is a massive favorite to make the cut as his whole body recoiled in pain.  Sorry Phil.  I can be decently sypathetic/empathetic on those moments... and for sure I could feel his pain.

In my third heat I was grinding Jason Mercier down for a bit, and it was looking rosy... but then, as it sometimes happens in poker...  things slipped away.  I had a few mega crowbar hands and failed to get max value as I played them (I think) too fast.  Also I am not a big fan of a big (preflop) call I made towards the end with only King high, but in hindsight I see that I was influenced by his multiple previous all in moves.  None the less, I think more caution was called for.  All in all I showed a profit (Entry 20k, won 25k, net win = 5k) and had some fun, though it would have been nice to penetrate deeper where the phat money was.  Ho hum.

I have been in a poker blur... which is nice... I like poker blurs.  This current blur is going to wind down with the BAY 101 10k event that starts in 3 days.  After that event I will be in chill mode from March 15th to about April 7th.  Not much poker (I predict) for those 3 weeks.  One thing for sure is that I will be finally racking out the surf board - stoked! 

I can be in mega poker mode for weeks on end (and have been) so it will be nice to get this 3 week break.  I love taking breaks as I always return hungry and sharp.  The music is sometimes in the space between the notes.  April holds great promise for turning into a poker blur as the Bellagio will be hosting the 25k event that month.  

More later....

Phil