Changing gears for a little while

So I am going to be training for an ironman now, first race is this sprint triathlon is this weekend and first Ironman is the lake stevens 70.3 in August.

On a break

I am sorry that I have not updated the blog in quite sometime. I have a little girl on the way. Due in July, so I am off the poker road probably through the end of this year and hope to hit it hard again in 2009.

Excited for 2008 Player of the Year Race!!!

Want to start off by saying happy holidays to all who read my blog... I finished the year with 6 final tables during the last tournament. It was a smaller tournament but allowed me to play a lot of tourneys and get my game back up to the level it needs to be to start the new year.

I am really hopeful and confident in the upcoming year and will be starting the year off in Tunica, Mississippi where there are both WPT and WSOP events going on at two separate Casinos 2 minutes apart from each other. It allows a great opportunity to determine which event will have the best value (highest prize pool and turn out) each day between the 2 tourneys. There are so many events, such large prize pools, and a great way to start off the New Year for the player of the year points. The Card Player player of the year opens many doors for sponsorship, Invitational tournaments, and other opportunities to help with the poker career.

This is one of the largest achievements for a poker player so I want to make sure that I start 2008 off with the bang. I have had success at this tournament in the past (played in 2 tourneys) and took 2nd place for just under 40k in a $500 event. I will be in Tunica from January 3rd or so through the 23rd.

I then will be heading back to Vegas for the Venetian Double Stack tournament. They added this event because of the great success during June in their first double stack tourney. It will be competing with the LA Poker Classic but based on past participation this should be a great event. These events have such large starting chip counts that it allows the best players to be given time to outplay the bad players and not have to make moves early given great tournament structure.

I look forward to many future final tables and great news provided in my blog.

Here is to 2008 and a run at Millions and the player of the year race.

Until the NEW YEAR!!!!!

Reno Tourney complete....6 Final Tables

Sunday wrapped up the last tournament for the Fall Pot of Gold Tourney in Reno, NV. The turn out was definitely not as good as projected based on their Spring event. But my results were good and I feel as though I am playing excellent poker; 6 final tables was the best in the tournament. The next runner up was 3. It would have been great if they would have had a best all-around as I would have taken that down.

The recap was:
1 first place finish
1 fifth place finish
1 sixth place finish
1 ninth place finishe
2 tenth place finishes

I was also on the bubble from making the money in 6 out of the other 10 events within 1-5 places. The fifth and sixth place finishes I took horrible beats getting in with the best hand with one guy hitting a 4% card and the other hitting a 14% card. Otherwise I would have at least 1 more first place finish and possibly 2.

For of the those of you that have not heard, another Portland poker player friend of mine Jordan Rich was playing in Las Vegas at the Bellagio in the 15K event and today is at the final table of 6 players if he goes out 6th he wins 180K but if he wins it he will take down the 2.5 Million dollar first prize. It would be great to see if he did. I believe both of us will be playing out in Tunica, Mississippi in January to start the new year.

Card Player Magazine player of the year starts out in Mississippi for the 2008 season and we want to get off to a good start there to be top of the leader board. The recognition and sponsor opportunities if you get out to an early start are great. And with my play being so good right now I feel we have a great shot to be up there early and carry it out through the year.

For those of you who are part of the Professional poker LLC I will be sending out the year end results from July - December in the next few days.

Until January...

Another final table

Tomorrow is the main event here. Since these are all small buy-in tournaments the main event tomorrow is only $500 but should have a first prize of over 20k and then tomorrow night is the $5000 free-roll tournament for just bringing a toy for toys-for-tots.

Yesterday we had about 118 players and I made it to the final table. They paid 10 spots and when were down to 9 I had lost a hand with AK vs KQ and the other player hit the Queen for me to get very short stacked and then we went to dinner break. A very weird thing happened during dinner break. I left for break with 6500 in chips and when I got back after the hour break only had 3500. I asked the tournament director what happened and they said there was nothing they could do. Tell you one thing from now on; since this has never happened before I will get a piece of paper and write it down with a count out to the dealer before leaving. Anyway 2 hands into the next level I was under the gun with KQ suited and very few chips and moved all in I was called by 2 players the flop came 10, J, 6 with 2 spades and I had the KQ of spades. one player bet and the other folded. The player turned over pocket 10s. He had 3 of a kind but I had 3 Aces, 9 spades and 3 9s so 15 outs which actually makes me a favorite on the flop 60/40 even though at the time he had the best hand. A 7 of clubs hit the turn so now I only had 14 outs since the 7 of spades would give him a full house or a 29% chance still. Two of hearts came on the river and I was sent on my way.

5 Final Tables so far but only 3 cashes, as 2 of them were 10ths and did not pay.

but doing well...

I will update again tomorrow or late late tonight... Next stop is Tunica Mississippi on January 3rd and then February is Venetian in Vegas (best value of the year)