It's been a few days......

I haven't really posted anything since Monday's entry except for my World Series Schedule for this summer. I'm looking forward to this year's series for a couple different reasons. This will be my 3rd different WSOP and again I'm taking a new approach. My 1st WSOP in 2005 I went out to Vegas at the last minute with a pretty tiny bankroll when a guy who had backed me in a few tournaments online sold me a dream and led me to believe that I would receive backing if I came out. When I got there, he was no where and I ended up playing a couple events with my own money which was way out of my bankroll. This led to one of the toughest periods of my poker career as the following months after the WSOP I ended up going broke and finding myself back in the real world job hunting and accepting my failures at this game. Thankfully somebody saved me and I have been able to continue to play this game I love.

Last summer I was alot more prepared, and had rented a house in Henderson with 4 other online players. I lined up backing for any event I wanted to play and I was determined to do well. Everyday pretty much was the same thing. I would go to the Rio at noon, bust from the WSOP event, head over to bellagio for the 1k at 2, bust from that and head back to the Rio for the 500 second chance at 5, and when I busted from that go back to the Bellagio for the 1k at 7, heading home after I busted there. Over the entire Summer I managed to rack up about 90k in buy-ins, making a grand total of 2 dinner breaks, 0 day 2's and zero cashes. It wasn't that I played bad, I definitely ran awful but I could have saved alot of money in buy-ins if I didn't play all of those second chances and just focused on the series.

This year I'm taking a different approach, cutting out most of the 2nd chance tournaments and focusing on getting that bracelet. Another difference is I will not be spending 2 months straight in Las Vegas, instead making 2 trips of about 2 weeks with a 2 week break in between where I will be back home. As I type this, I'm suppose to be in Vegas in 10 days and have yet to arrange where I will stay, so I guess I combining the 1st two experiences a little bit. Worst comes to worst I will probably stay at the Gold Coast which is fairly inexpensive and right next to the Rio.
Monday was a very disappointing day of poker for me. I made the final table of the afternoon 100r, with another disappointing finish of 8th. This has been the norm for me lately, if I make a decent final table I've been racking up alot of 7th-9th place finishes. This has been really frustrating considering I'm used to making the top 3 once I make the final table at least 40% of the time, and since I won the TLB on Pokerstars in April I only have 5 final tables with 1 3rd place finish and zero wins. Eventually the frustration has to get to the player, and even the very best are rarely immune to this. This definitely showed in my tournaments Monday night as I lacked focus in every tournament, making ridiculous bluffs in every tournament and only making 1 break out of 8 tournaments I played (not including the 1st break of rebuy tournaments.)

Tuesday was a long over due day off, and I got to spend it with my family. I went over to my Mom's house and had dinner with my Mom, 2 sister's, 3 nephews, niece and my sister's friend John in celebration of my Birthday (which is actually today.) It was a fun time, but I especially enjoyed the 45 minute car ride to my Mom's house getting to sit in between Tyler (4 going on 5) and Madison (3 going on 21). You would be amazed how many different games you can play in the back seat of a mini-van with the imaginations of the youngsters. My Mom and sister helped to cook a great dinner of Steak for the adults, burgers and hot dogs for the little ones along with twice baked potatoes and some vegetable (how would I know? I don't eat veggies). It was good to see the family.

It's almost 2 years old, but Madison, Timmy, Tyler and Kyle(the baby in front) my nephews and neice showing their excellent taste in sports teams =)

The last 2 nights I played a short schedule both nights, and managed to make 2 Final Tables on stars, unfortunately neither was a top 3 finish. Tonight, with 21 left in the 100r which paid 18 my recent brutal luck deep continued. We were both top 5 in chips at the time, this pot was for the chip lead of the tournament......

PokerStars Game #10091713054: Tournament #50597390, $100+$9 Hold'em No Limit - Level XIV (1500/3000) - 2007/05/24 - 23:44:56 (ET)
Table '50597390 6' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 2: Tony_Hibbert (44992 in chips)
Seat 3: t soprano (56722 in chips)
Seat 4: hanstalstad (46280 in chips)
Seat 5: LukeFromB13 (73429 in chips)
Seat 7: SEEK_ONE (36623 in chips)
Seat 8: BeL0WaB0Ve (76500 in chips)
Seat 9: Bjorn_I_Hi (92980 in chips)
Tony_Hibbert: posts the ante 150
t soprano: posts the ante 150
hanstalstad: posts the ante 150
LukeFromB13: posts the ante 150
SEEK_ONE: posts the ante 150
BeL0WaB0Ve: posts the ante 150
Bjorn_I_Hi: posts the ante 150
hanstalstad: posts small blind 1500
LukeFromB13: posts big blind 3000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to BeL0WaB0Ve [As Js]
SEEK_ONE: folds
BeL0WaB0Ve: raises 5750 to 8750
Bjorn_I_Hi: folds
Tony_Hibbert: folds
t soprano: folds
hanstalstad: folds
LukeFromB13: calls 5750
*** FLOP *** [Ts Jh 3s]
LukeFromB13: checks
BeL0WaB0Ve: bets 11100
LukeFromB13: raises 24900 to 36000
BeL0WaB0Ve: raises 31600 to 67600 and is all-in
LukeFromB13: calls 28529 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [Ts Jh 3s] [7d]
*** RIVER *** [Ts Jh 3s 7d] [Qc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
LukeFromB13: shows [Qs Kc] (a pair of Queens)
BeL0WaB0Ve: shows [As Js] (a pair of Jacks)
LukeFromB13 collected 149108 from pot
Bjorn_I_Hi said, "siiiiiiiiiigh"

I'm not a fan of overplaying AJ, but this is the dream flop for my hand. As soon as I start winning these pots I know the great finishes will begin to pile up. The sooner the better ;-).

The last 2 nights I haven't been blogging when done playing as I have been spending time recording videos for www.pokerxfactor.com. With the WSOP coming up, are goal is to "bank" some videos for the next few months as most of us will not have time to record with all the live play. I had 3 projects I wanted to complete and 17 days to do them. With 10 days left I have knocked out 2 of the 3, the pot-limit omaha video and the video of my pokerstars nightly 55k win, leaving just 1 more project which is a video of a $25 freeze out from pokerstars where I managed to go deep. I really enjoy making these videos and being able to give back to the poker community. Very few of us are able to just get better on our own, I couldn't begin to list how many people have helped improve my game over the last 2 years, and a lot of people don't have the benefit of having other players to discuss hands with.

Tonight we have plans to go bar hopping for my birthday. We'll start at my apartment, and more then likely end up there at the end of the night so who knows how much poker I will play on Saturday considering how much alcohol I will likely consume tomorrow night. Ugh, people over means I need to clean my room tomorrow =/.