Jackpot!

I finally won two tourneys in the same night again and this time it was good for a jackpot. I won the 2 Big daily doubles on Full Tilt that start at 10:00 and 10:01 pm est. These are usually 15k guarantees and get around 250 players or so but the $30k jackpot was hit just in June after not cleared out for a while and they were only 10k guaranteeds this night with just 190 players each. They are $75 buyins btw, $60 going to the tourney pool, $9 to the jackpot, and $6 for the fees. Each win was worth $3k, and the final jackpot figures were...

mattster24 $9,351.32 Double Win
mattster24 $831.23 Double Final Table
mattster24 $249.37 Best Double Finish
mattster24 $93.51 Double Cash

so around $10.5k, pretty solid.

I went down and played some blackjack afterwards and got down to $180 and put it all out there, and got some sort of hand I needed to double on, I pulled $140 out of my wallet and doubled for less, that gave me $500 to work with, I left it all out there and doubled that. I now had $1000 which was the table max so I figured may as well table max it one time, her up card was a 6 and I squeezed(it was a doubledeck pitch game) out my cards and the first was a 3 and the second was an 8, the pit boss watched as I squeezed and he was laughing as he knew I was going to have to find some way to double this down. So Karec ran up to the room to get another $1000 so I could double down. He got back I put the $1000 out there for the double down and she gave me my double card(face down) and she turned over a ten for 16 then an 8 or something and bustoed. shew...

$10k Limit Day 2

The day started out pretty well as I picked up AK and got a 3 bet in and was called on a 234 flop and turn and checked down the river to beat AJ. My high point was 95k about 15 minutes into the day putting me probably top 5 in chips and that was as high as I would get. I was pretty card dead the entire day and when I would pick up hands they were no good. I picked up AK in the sb and Steve Sung(aggressive young Asian) raises, I 3 bet, he calls. Flop AAT, he has TT, so there goes quite a few chips. I couldn't pick up anything after that for about an hour when I picked up AQ on the button and run into AA in the sb. That took me to around 35k in chips when avg was 90 or so with 45 players left. Hoyt Corkins had just came to our table with a ton of chips and he raises utg +1, I 3 bet with TT, he 4 bets, I just call. I only had enough chips left for flop/turn/river bets basically so he bets the Qxx flop and I call, turn x he bets I call, river K, he bets, I call and he has AK of course. There was no point to me raising at any point because he was never folding, at least I don't think, I'm pretty sure he doesn't fold the turn if I raise. That left me with 3k chips which I got in with AQ vs AK. bleh

I believe that it is for me at the WSOP, played 9 events cashed 3 and barely made any money. Had my chances once again this year just like last year but once again no day 2 luck. oh well. Time to go home and play some golf and get that single digit handicap.

$10k Limit

I finally got a bunch of sleep last night since I busted early in the $1500, woke up around 2 pm Vegas time and turned on the US Open just in time to see Tiger already lost the lead. I had to leave right after he donked his second shot on the par 5 14th I think into some nasty stuff. I get over to the Rio and I'm watching it before the tourney starts but then the tourney starts and I have no tv view from where I'm sitting. There is a big tv real close but it has the tourney clock on it, but there is a hanging tv with the same thing on it so I go over to a floorman and see if he could change it to the Open, he says he wishes he could but can't since it has the clock on it and that tv is tied into the same system as the hanging tv. I go back to my seat and Bill Edler sits down across from me and he goes over to the floorman and asks the same thing and still no dice. So I'm getting up between every hand and trying to get a view of a tv that is so far away that I can't really tell what is going on. Phil Ivey then sits on my left which is not too great but sort of cool since I've never played with him and I'm sure it will be somewhat interesting. I ask him if he could get the open on for us since I know he'll be wanting to watch the Lakers/Celtics game anyway later since he has a million dollar bet on the series. He textes someone and a couple minutes later I see a Rio suit walking through the tourney area, a guy I saw doing something for Phil the other day, this guy goes to the tv and puts it on the Open, Phil looks over to me and says "you happy?" ha

Phil and Bill were doing a few prop bets on golf, like if this guy would get up and down, if the putt would make it to the hole or not, I wanted to get in on it, but couldn't find anytihng I really liked and didn't really want to take the worst of it on any bets. Doyle joined our table a bit later, Ivey won $185k off of Doyle before Ivey finally busted on flop props. 185 thousand on frickin props in a couple hours, pretty sick.

Onto the tourney I hung around 20k for a while until I picked up Aces and got into a 4 way 3 bet pot and managed to not get it to hold, that and a couple other random hands got me down to around 13k when I picked up AK twice in about 5 hands and won big pots off of Phil Ivey, the second one basically busting him. I got up to about 30k when I picked up Aces again and once again had some action preflop as it went 3 ways for 3 bets. I then managed to lose with Aces again, not the way to win limit tourneys or any tourney for that matter. I went on a terror after that though winning about every pot I was involved in including flopping a boat with 22 vs Bill Edler on a KK2 flop and flopping a double gutter plus flush draw with JTs vs Brandon Adams and getting there on the turn for a big pot. So besides those 2 aces hands I ran pretty well. I finished the day with 74k in chips which is good for top 10 with 98 left. 218 started, $500k to win. GL to me tomorrow.

WSOP $2000 Day 2

Built up early winning QQ vs AK but then lost AK all in preflop to KQ which would have put me over double average. I never got much going after that and just kept grinding away until I finally picked up AKs with 13 bigs in early position, I shoved and someone wakes up with Aces behind me, gg me. I went out 48th for $7500, my third WSOP cash, but once again nothing big. I played the $1500 today and was out early losing almost half my stack when I got Aces cracked then lost AQ to AJ all in preflop, bleh. Tomorrow I have the $10k Limit World Championship at 5 pm.

$2000 Day 1

Have $53k going into day 2, avg is 40k, 134 left, 99th pays $4700. I built up quickly today and had 13k by the first break, got most of it with a set of Tens vs top pair. I was card dead most of the day and didn't really do much til a few hours later when I sucked out with sixes all in preflop vs Joe Sebok's sevens to get me to 25k. A few hands later I picked up aces in the cutoff, I raised bb called. Flop A52, he checkraises me, I call. Turn 6 he bets, I shove he calls and has 57 of hearts which he turned a flush draw which was pretty sick but I dodged the heart river and doubled. Run good time tomorrow.

WSOP $2500 Day 2

Lost around half my stack on random stuff, money bubble bursts, 2 hands later pick up TT in the big blind... Aaronbeen raises in the cut to 5k, I shove 40k from the big blind, he calls. Flop Ace and I am out in 99th for $5700. So standard.

WSOP $2500 Day 1

Made it through day 1 with $70k in chips, average stack is $50k. 140 left, 99 pay... 1st is 666k.

Another Bubble

Got Headsup in the $5k shootout only to bust 2nd after playing 11.5 hours. Our table was the final table to finish, one table was done at 330 pm, by 7 there were only a few tables remaining of the original 36th. If I would have won I would have been guaranteed $17,000 and advanced to the final 36 tomorrow. Back to back bubbles.... not much fun at all, I've already logged 35 hours or so of live poker in 3 tourneys. It's much funner to bust out in 2 hours and have your whole day to do something. Sort of frustrated, but I'm playing pretty well I think so that's all that really matters. I'm too lazy and tired to post about any hands really, I actually did run well today besides the whole playing 11.5 hours and bubbling thing. Got the $2500 NL tomorrow, I'll be texting updates Here

Text Updates

I can now text updates to so you can follow along there, probably text at least every 2 hours or so while I play. Playing $5k shootout(sit n go) today.

WSOP $2k

1592 players, 153 paid, I busted 160th. That seems like enough to say about that.

WSOP $5k Mixed Holdem Day 2

Came into the day in pretty good shape somewhere around 25/91 with $47k. I got to my seat and immediately wasn't thrilled with Noah Boeken and David Williams on my left, Lindgren on Williams left and there was actually an open seat on my left for a while until Gavin Griffin filled it. I'm not even sure if I played a hand in the first hour, I know I didn't play a single hand in the first 30 minutes during the limit portion. I really didn't have any big hands, I maintained my stack by 3 betting in the no limit portion and can't remember dragging any decent pots in the limit portion.

The first notable hand that I remember well was when I picked up AQs in the small blind and Robert Williamson raised in the cutoff to 4500, I made it 12k to go and he tanked and finally put his 16k total in with A8s. He flops the nut flush so that was real cute, instead of being over 60k, I'm down to 30k. I think I chipped that back up a bit then lost with TT in the limit portion. I 3 bet a lp raiser, continued an all rags flop, King turned and I checked and he checked, river A, i check and call to his obv A4. That put me in bad shape, but then I finally got a suckout winning A5 to David Williams Jacks to get me back to around 40k. From then on it was a grind, I did pick up Aces and Queens in a single orbit only to get no action. I then picked up QQ in the bb a bit later and flatted Newhizzle's utg raise. Flop KTx, I checkcall, turn A, I checkfold.

When we got to the total bubble we were in the limit portion and I had 28k at the start of the bubble which was 2k/4k blinds 4k/8k limit, which put me basically in last. I think there was one stack shorter than mine and he doubled up twice while we were on the total bubble. I did get all in vs Lindgren AKo vs AKo and he flops a frickin flush draw but doesn't get there. Then all of a sudden the bubble burst and I was in the money. I busted 2 hands later shoving 18k with A6s with 1k/2k blinds, Lindgren picked up AK in the big blind. My cash was good for $10,922, which isn't horrible to start the series. Tomorrow is the $2k.

WSOP $5k Mixed Holdem Day 1

Yesterday was the Mixed holdem event which is 30 minutes limit, then 30 minutes no limit. My opening table was pretty interesting. Barry Greenstein, Amak316, unknown live regular, Devilfish Ulliot, Phil Hellmuth, Lee Markholt, Hoyt Corkins, SCTrojans, unknown foreigner. Pretty sick table. I picked up ATo in the no limit portion in mp and made it 250 to go, Devilfish is the only caller. Flop A Q Q, we both check. Turn A of clubs putting a flush draw out, I bet 500, Devilfish calls. River Jclubs, I bet 1000, Devilfish makes it 6k, I think for about a minute and call really thinking I'm only hoping not to see QQ here and maybe he is just trying a bluff. Instead he has KT of clubs for the ole Royal Flush. The neat 1 outer. That was sick, but what was even sicker is what he said afterwards, he said he called the turn and was going to raise any river as he didnt think I had an ace... bleh. That knocked me down to about 4k. I got moved from that table a bit after to a table where shockingly I only recoginzed two players and that is a female foreign team PokerStars Pro and the other was a younger kid who plays some in Indiana.


I chipped up pretty quickly at this new table, I picked up JJ in the sb with a raise and 2 callers in front at the 75/150 level and put 1500 out there and everyone snapfolded. Called a raise from the sb wiht AJs flopped flush draw got there on turn but didn't get that much out of it. In the limit portion I had been playing very aggressive and it continued when I raised a limper with JTo and got paid on all 3 streets on a T high board which put me back to 10k and in pretty good shape. My only real big hand of the day came up next in the no limit portion. I raised KTs in mp and was called by the player to my left and the bb. The flop came T84 with 2 hearts and I bet about half the pot and was called by both. The turn was another Ten and I bet 60% of the pot and the bb checkraised and I moved in and he tanked and called with JT and I held for a 25k pot. I was moved shortly thereafter.

My new table would appear to be a bit tougher as I had Nenad Medic and David Williams on my left since both are so aggressive. I really didn't play that many interesting hands at this new table as I chipped up pretty much only in the limit portion with constant 3 bets which usually didn't get to showdown. I went from 20k-40k in one 30 minute portion. Antonio Esfindari was on my right and he didn't play very well, at least in the limit portion to which he admitted he didn't really know what he was doing, it seems most of the players don't really know how to correctly play limit, which is why I am definately playing the $10k limit event coming up. I stayed around 35-40k for 2.5 hours or so until the last 15 minutes of the night when I picked up QQ on the button. David Williams raised utg to 1800, young kid makes it 4800, and I make it 16k to go and they both fold. The younge kid said he had TT. The very next hand 2 limpers limped in and I limped with T9s. Flop 766, checked around, turn K checked around, river 8, checked to me I bet 2k and get 2 callers and that was the last hand of the night ending me with 47,000 putting me in 25th with 91 players left. 36 pay which is like $10k and first is almost $400k.

Play starts here in a couple hours, updates can be found at http://www.pokernews.com. Also in a few days I am going to start using
Final Table Sweat which will allow me to text updates to that page as I play. Currently it is only set up to post online and to post from a browser on your phone which my ancient phone isn't capable of doing but supposebly I will be able to normal text in the next couple of days.

WSOP Schedule

The WSOP started yesterday with a $10k PLH event, my first event won't be til Monday though with a $5k Mixed Holdem event. It switches between Limit and No Limit with each level. Here is the schedule I'm playing. I may not end up playing all of these, I'm not even positive I'll fly back out to play the main event.

June 2nd WSOP $5,000 Limit/No Limit
June 3rd WSOP $1,000 Rebuy
June 4th WSOP $2,000
June 5th Thur WSOP $1,500 6max
June 6th 5 pm WSOP $1,500 Limit
June 7th WSOP $2,500
June 9th WSOP $1,500 shootout
June 10th WSOP $1,500 PLO
June 10th Tues WSOP $2,000 Limit
June 11th WSOP $5,000
June 12th WSOP $2,000
June 13th Venetia $2,500
June 14th Sat WSOP $1,500
June 15th WSOP $3,000
June 15th 5 pm WSOP $10,000 Limit
June 16th WSOP $2,500 6max
June 17th WSOP $1,500
July 3rd WSOP $10,000

Updates can be found at the following sites. PokerNews Live Reporting is the official live updater of the WSOP so they are the fastest and therefore the best. I doubt they will be tracking my stack all that often though, but who knows. PocketFives Live will also be doing updates but they are allowed only to do one update per hour or something like that. If I get semi-deep in sommething I may text in updates myself to PokerXfactor LiveUpdates

Finally the Reds called up Jay Bruce the 21 year old who was the #1 ranked prospect by Baseball America. He promptly went 3-3 with 2 walks in his debut and followed that up with a 1-3 night and last night went 4-5. He already has 3 doubles off the wall in 4 games. Corey Patterson is finally in Triple A, I haven't hated a player more than that guy, he is so bad. Going 0-8 in the 18 inning game was real impressive. Dusty kept leading him off as Dusty is a moron as well. He sends Volquez out there last night after throwing 100 pitches through 6 innings with a 2-1 lead after having to go in as a reliever Sunday. What a moron. Volquez lets up a double on the first or 2nd pitch then comes out, which Bray lets that run in costing Volquez the shot at the win. At least the Reds won in 11 though. Still 8 games back though as the Cubs keep winning which is getting annoying. They were down 9-1 yesterday and come back and win 10-9.

New Orleans Recap

I should be nearly arriving back home right now but instead I'm stuck in the New Orleans airport as my flight out got canceled, the earliest flight I could get was at 620 am, pretty awesome. I actually called NWA while we were all in line waiting to talk to someone here in new orleans about getting a new flight and I was one of the lucky ones apparently as some people are going to be stuck much longer. The first person I was on the phone with actually said she couldn't get me out til Thursday night, then I called back and they got me out early Wednesday morning. So I still have to wait in this line so I can get setup for a hotel, I'm the last one and she has me all setup tells me where to go gives me some food vouchers and I ask her if this is everything and she says yes, I actually asked her twice as I had nothing about the hotel, so I assumed she called over there and put my name down as she was on the phone for part of it. I go over to the hotel and find out they were supposed to give me a voucher or I'd have to pay $140 for the night, so the guy doing the shuttles had just arrived with someone else who had their shuttle and he said he'd take me back over there and get it. We go inside and everyone is gone, no NWA people in the kiosks anywhere. This guy gets on a phone and gets in contact with someone and they say everyone has left as there is no flights out and there is no way for me to get a voucher tonight, so here I am in the terminal waiting for my flight that is 11 hours away. This airport is the total suck, all the bars/restaurants close down at 6 pm while one stays open til 8, there are no outgoing flights in the evening, place is dead.

So back to last week, got in on Wednesday and just walked around the french quarter and ate at a place called Cajun Cabin which was pretty good. I wasn't expecting to see so many strip clubs along bourbon street and a few sex shops too. The next day I had to play the $1k which I got some bad news right when I sat down and got my ipod out as the state of Louisiana doesn't allow ipods or any electronic devices in the tourney area since its a temp gaming area, so now this was going to be pretty boring. We started with 2500 in chips and I was down to around 2k when I ran AK into AA preflop. We headed to the aquarium and IMAX which was just a minute away from the hotel, we were going to watch "Hurricane on the Bayou" and managed to see everything the aquarium had to offer right in time to make it to the movie. I went to the concessions and to my surprise they were selling beer and mixed drinks. The movie was pretty interesting as it told about the hurricane and a past major hurrican as well and why this one was so much worse. It was interesting to find out later as I went to the trustworthy Wikipedia to get some more info on the movie and it said that it was originally a "What If" scenario if the big hurricane hit and then later was turned into a before and after since Katrina did hit. Lindsay actually got sick at the aquarium and even threw up so we just stayed in that night.

The next day we ate at Oceana Grill for lunch and then walked down bourbon st where we ran into the bar selling "Hand Grenades" advertised as the strongest drink in new orleans. The exact recipe is a trade secret but it is said to contain 1 part grain alcohol, 1 part rum, one part melon liquor, one part vodka, and one part gin. You could get it frozen or on the rocks and it was surprisingly very good.

One managed to knock Lindsay on her ass and we were back in the room by 6 pm that night and she was passed out, I started watching the reds game and fell asleep in the 2nd inning and didnt wake back up til the 9th and we didn't get back out that night. We are pretty lazy I guess. Saturday I once again played a $1k and never really got much going, I did suck out on Sabyl Cohen who was the woman who knocked me out in the 2006 main event where I basically bubbled. I won KT vs her AK all in preflop and the board came AKxQJ making it even sicker. That allowed me to waste another 2 hours and then bust out right before dinner. We headed to Acme Oyster bar that night we got there pretty early right around 6 and we had no wait. By the time we left there was a 40 person line, we then headed to PatOBriens which has a piano bar and went right in there and got a good seat. They also sell a famous drink called a hurricane which is pretty strong but pretty good just like the hand grenade. We stayed there for a few hours to which at that time there was a huge line to get in. It actually started out as 2 women players as they had dueling pianos, I think every hour it was 2 new ones came in, had a total of 4 rotating I think. We requested Sweet Caroline which was a very good rendition, though it seemed like lindsay and I were the only ones singing along, she spun that right into Piano Man and even broke out the harmonica so that was pretty awesome as that is my favorite song. Fun times.

Sunday we were lazy all night then went down to a different part of the french quarter which we hadn't been yet and looked around and ate. Alligator sucks, it is too chewy.

Monday was the $5k and things started out pretty good for me. I flopped a set out of the bb with 66 on a TT6 board with flush draw against a raise and a caller and led out and got 2 callers. I bet the turn again and got 2 callers, then bet the river and got a caller and went from 10k to 16k on that hand. I built up nicely without much trouble but then lost a small flip AK to TT to take me back around 16. I built that up to mid 20s and got it in with nut flush draw vs top pair and got there vs a short stack to get to 32 or so and I was feeling good at that point as avg was only around 16. Not too much happened after that until I switched tables a couple times and picked up A9o in mp at the 200/400 level, I made it 1025 and an old man who didn't see my raise puts in 1500 and announces 1500, so now he has to raise to which he raises the min to 1650, I then put in 4500 and he eventually folds. A few hands later I pick up QQ and make it 1400(300/600), I get 2 callers. Flop 442 with 2 clubs which looks about perfect to me, I bet 3000 and get 2 callers. Turn 7, I bet 7000 and the 2nd guy puts his whole stack in which was just 8700 and he had 22 for just quads. That put me back to around 16k. I didn't get much going after that for a while just stealing chips when I could as I got moved to a pretty good table. Near the end of the 300/600 level I picked up AQs in the bb with a 15k stack, utg made it 2k to go and I just called. Flop Q77, I checkcall a 2k bet, turn Q, I check, he checks. River 2 and I instashove, he tanks and calls with A7, so that put me back over 30k. I once again get moved and go sick card dead and earned one pot where I raised a limper with 86o, then with about 10 mins left in the night I pick up TT in the bb. A somewhat tight guy raises in mp with a 17k stack and I decide to rrse and put in 8k, he shoves and I call and he has AK. Flop J62 Turn King, bleh, that dropped me down to 11k or so instead of being close to 50k which would have been top 20 with 75 left. I ended the day with 11k making me 65/69 with the avg stack being close to 40k.

Day 2, I picked up a couple pots in the first orbit by shoving to get me to 17k when a guy in mp raised to 3500(600/1200), and I shoved my 17k in with 88, he tanked for a bit and I thought he was going to fold and was hoping he had a small pair but eventually called with KJo and the J ball came right on the flop ending my second day run. That flip would have put me right back to average, bla. Maybe I can run better in Vegas next month.

Some Random Stuff

I’m sitting on a plane(which was delayed an hour due to too much weight, they finally took a bunch of fuel off, hope we don’t need that) heading to New Orleans so I figured I’d write a blog about some stuff that I didn’t get around to since I didn’t post in forever. Basically I didn’t play much poker at all during the month of April as I would usually find something else to do that would be more fun as poker really isn’t that much fun most of the time. I tried to play a lot of golf as one of my goals this year was to get down to a single-digit handicap, currently I’m a 14.3. I really haven’t improved much at all this year and haven’t got to play as much as I wanted to as it has rained a ton it seems or been colder than usual. My best round all year is an 81 which was eleven over. I’ve been trying to work on my short game as I used to have a pretty good one, I’m still a pretty good putter but the rest of the short game isn’t up to what it was a few years ago. I’m awful on the tee most of the time so that puts me in a lot of trouble situations, so a usual round can look something like bogey, par, bogey, double bogey, par, par, par, bogey, double bogey, a bit all over the place. I’ll get back on the golf hardcore after I get back from the first Vegas WSOP stint. I’m currently experiencing the worst turbulence I’ve ever had the joy of riding in.

I don’t really have much to say on poker stuff as I sort of recapped the big stuff in my last blog…. Random sidenote…. We saw Gene Keady at the airport today, Lindsay wanted to get a picture with him but ended up not. His combover looked good. I am playing some big live tourneys coming up as WSOP is just next month and I’m on my way to New Orleans currently where I’ll be playing a $1k on Thursday, $1k on Saturday, and then $5k WSOP-Circuit Main Event on Monday(www.pokernews.com (live reporting) ). After that Karec and I are heading to Vegas where I’ll be playing a WSOP event almost every day from June 2nd-June 17th, Karec will be playing the Venetian events most likely.

Getting back to Gene Keady and Lindsay not going up to get a picture, I would have definitely went up and talked with Tom Crean if he was the one standing there, He’s obv very receptive to fans currently. So far so good with him at the helm, he is doing a pretty good job recruiting as he got some players to actually put a team on the court next year and could have 4 or 5 top 100 guys coming in 09. Oh great, now we can’t land in Memphis(connecting to New Orleans) and we have to fly around for a while until we can land, bleh. I’m pretty excited for the future of IU basketball.

My 2nd favorite Red tore his knee up last night, SS Jeff Keppinger, he was batting around .330 on the year and really the only productive Red with runners in scoring position as he was leading the league in that category as of about a week ago. Looks like he will be out a couple months at least, I haven’t gotten to see the MRI results yet. The 2 rookie pitchers have been pretty good, Edinson Volquez has been unreal 6-1 with a 1.06 era, but Johnny Cueto has struggled with giving up the longball and his era has ballooned to Eric Milton like numbers. He is just 22 though. I still haven’t been to the new ballpark but plan to make it to a few games this year.

Oh Kentucky Derby this year, I actually had a pretty good day betting. I just bet $10 to win on one horse races 2-10 and I had 4 winners including back to back with a 14-1 and a 13-1, apparently thats where I run good. Big Brown looks like a triple crown winner.

I'll try to update this with some New Orleans stuff.

Poker is So Sick

I haven't really played that much online all year, but when I have played some bigger events, I seem to put myself in some good spots to make bunches of money. I don't really play $1ks or $109rebuys any more, opting for cheaper tourneys since you can play so much volume these days when one actually sits down to play all day. I decided to play the Tilt $1k Monday a few weeks ago, have chiplead during first 2 hours and end up going out 37th losing AA to TT which was the bubble, such a joke. That tourney was 100k to win. This Saturday I decided to play the FTOPS(Full Tilt Online Poker Series) $109 Rebuy since it would be such a huge tourney with lots of chips. I didn't have a great first hour and came out of the rebuy period with min chips, but still enough chips since the structure was so good. I built my stack up quickly during the 2nd hour with a pretty sick bluff and was top 20 most of the way (started with 1500), I'm a bit under average with 37 left when I pick up QQ in the big blind, sb raises, I shove, he calls with AT and he gets there for a top 10 stack.... it was 100k to win, that donk goes on to get 2nd for $70k. Such fun, and then what happened last night...


FTOPS $1000 1.5 mil guaranteed, around 1600 players and it was $363k to win. I build up in the 2nd hour but lose TT to KT for a decent amount but still in pretty good shape. I manage to go from 18k in chips to 110k in chips without a showdown! I never won a flip, never hit a 3 outer never got my hand to hold, I just kept building at no risk basically. Then this unreal hand comes up against an obv awful player who doesn't even know what he is doing

Full Tilt Poker Game #6396079356: FTOPS Event #11 (45240880), Table 136 - 2000/4000 Ante 500 - No Limit Hold'em - 2:27:10 ET - 2008/05/13
Seat 1: Amoney13 (93,890)
Seat 2: cool0813 (76,258)
Seat 3: mattster24 (110,325)
Seat 4: metph (272,289)
Seat 5: Hpydty (165,700)
Seat 6: blocktrader9 (52,530)
Seat 8: Kenny Rap (234,900)
Seat 9: TheProtege3 (100,068)
Amoney13 antes 500
cool0813 antes 500
mattster24 antes 500
metph antes 500
Hpydty antes 500
blocktrader9 antes 500
Kenny Rap antes 500
TheProtege3 antes 500
mattster24 posts the small blind of 2,000
metph posts the big blind of 4,000
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mattster24 [Td Ac]
Hpydty folds
blocktrader9 folds
Kenny Rap folds
TheProtege3 has 15 seconds left to act
Kenny Rap: ty
TheProtege3 folds
Amoney13 folds
cool0813 raises to 12,000
mattster24 raises to 38,888
metph folds
cool0813 has 15 seconds left to act
cool0813 has requested TIME
cool0813 raises to 75,758, and is all in
mattster24 calls 36,870
cool0813 shows [Jc Tc]
mattster24 shows [Td Ac]
*** FLOP *** [Js 2s 9h]
mattster24: omg
*** TURN *** [Js 2s 9h] [Ks]
*** RIVER *** [Js 2s 9h Ks] [4c]
mattster24: wtf
cool0813 shows a pair of Jacks
mattster24: al;sdkjf;al
mattster24 shows Ace King high
cool0813 wins the pot (159,516) with a pair of Jacks

Real cute..... Instead of being top 10 with 65 or so left in a tourney Three Hundred and Frickin Sixty Three Thousand Dollars to win, I'm short, I actually suck out very next hand KQ vs AK to double up and then pick up Aces to which I get no action for the 3rd time in the last 2 hours, then I pick up Kings....

Full Tilt Poker Game #6396182910: FTOPS Event #11 (45240880), Table 136 - 2500/5000 Ante 600 - No Limit Hold'em - 2:41:05 ET - 2008/05/13
Seat 1: Amoney13 (78,890)
Seat 2: cool0813 (184,316)
Seat 3: mattster24 (72,034)
Seat 4: metph (265,089)
Seat 5: Hpydty (140,333)
Seat 6: blocktrader9 (65,930)
Seat 7: A G WIJK (159,504)
Seat 9: TheProtege3 (94,868)
Amoney13 antes 600
cool0813 antes 600
mattster24 antes 600
metph antes 600
Hpydty antes 600
blocktrader9 antes 600
A G WIJK antes 600
TheProtege3 antes 600
TheProtege3 posts the small blind of 2,500
Amoney13 posts the big blind of 5,000
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mattster24 [Kh Kd]
cool0813 has 15 seconds left to act
cool0813 folds
mattster24 raises to 12,222
metph folds
Hpydty has 15 seconds left to act
Hpydty calls 12,222
blocktrader9 raises to 65,000
A G WIJK folds
TheProtege3 folds
Amoney13 folds
mattster24 raises to 71,434, and is all in
Hpydty calls 59,212
blocktrader9 calls 330, and is all in
mattster24 shows [Kh Kd]
Hpydty shows [Js Jd]
blocktrader9 shows [Ac Ks]
*** FLOP *** [As 8s 4s]
*** TURN *** [As 8s 4s] [Qs]
*** RIVER *** [As 8s 4s Qs] [5h]
mattster24 shows a pair of Kings
Hpydty shows a flush, Ace high
Hpydty wins the side pot (12,208) with a flush, Ace high
blocktrader9 shows a flush, Ace high
blocktrader9 wins the main pot (208,290) with a flush, Ace high
mattster24 stands up


I wanted to cry, instead of being 10th with 57 left... busto. About like the $1k at Caesars I lose JJ to A2 for half the chips in play with 6 left or I cruise to at least 2nd which was 40k, first was 70, I end up running 99 into KK and getting 11k, bleh.

*************end bad beat rant*************

Did get 2nd couple weeks ago in Tilt $163 for $13k, that helped, been doing real well grinding 60/45s, those are so easy and relaxing, don't have to think whatsoever.

Welcome Tom Crean!

A Look Back at the Opening Weekend

Another great opening weekend, already looking forward to next year, soooooooo far away. My upset picks did not come in, that was ugly. Three games that I thought could be really fun to watch at the end just ended up being total blowouts. Thursday afternoon was a bit slow with good games, but Friday afternoon turned it on, similar to last year.



Best Game

The obvious choice here is Western Kentucky/Drake on Friday afternoon but there was another game going at the same time that I thought was just a bit better, Davidson vs Gonzaga. Stephen Curry put on an amazing show.




Worst Game

This has to be a game that I expected to be good or at least interesting and that award goes to Stanford/Cornell. Cornell coming in as one of the best 3 point shooting teams in the nation couldn't make a shot, their 7 footer got 3 early fouls and they had no answer for anything Stanford did on the offensive end.


Coaching Blunder

Tie between Trent Johnson and then the assistant who took over after Johnson got tossed midway through the first half. Stanford got it going in the 2nd half dumping the ball inside and dominating the paint with the Lopez twins, but around the thirteen minute mark and with a 6 point lead, both exited the game. They didn't return ti the 7:30 mark with a six point deficit. I would think Johnson was texting someone on the bench with a "Wtf wtf, get them back in!" Brook Lopez bailed them both out at the buzzer though.


IU managed to look about as bad as possible in their first round matchup with Arkansas, now I have the coaching search to look forward to. Hoping for Pitino, but I doubt that works out. A season that started out with final four aspirations sure went to hell.


The game I'm most looking forward to this week is Michigan St/Memphis. I'd love to see Memphis get drilled, also looking forward to Wiscy/Davidson as I really like Wiscy plus I'd like to see Curry play again, Flowers will probably do a decent job on him, hold him to under 30 at least, ha. Would love to see a Big Ten team get to the final four.

Breaking Down the NCAA Tourney

The first weekend of the NCAA tourney is by far my favorite time of the year. There is nothing better than the opening Thursday/Friday and last year was even better with my tv setup. Last year I had 4 HDTVs all with seperate receivers so we(have a 4day party basically) could watch all 4 games. This year it ets slightly better as I have added a 5th tv, so now we'll have all 4 games going on the upper 32 inch tvs, then the "feature game" will be on the big screen below those 4.


I'm going to talk a bit about almost every first round game, give my picks, show the spread to show some people how a 12 beating a 5 and a 13 beating a 4 isn't much of an upset at all and finally give my final 4 and champion.

I got my 2008 Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook "Tournament Update" today, for all you bigtime fans out there who buy preview magazines, this is the magazine you should be getting. It does cost like $50 or so, but the book is huge and you get the tourney update which is 140 pages


Going to start in the South Region with seedings in paranthesis and the line being by the favored team, if I put something in red it means I would likely bet the game.

(1) Memphis 24.5 vs (16) UT-Arlington


Not too much to say about this specific game, if I had to bet, I'd probably lean towards Memphis and lay the 24.5. UTA did lose by only 5 at Oklahoma St earlier in the year. Memphis is a team that I will not have in my final 4 due to free throw shooting and a few other reasons.


(8) Mississippi St 2.5 vs (9) Oregon


Mississippi St was not a very impressive team looking at their precon stuff, sort of makes me wonder how this Miss St team who is 21-9 can be the same seed as a 25-7 IU team who didn't have all these ugly losses Miss St has. Miss St lost at home to Clemson, crushed on a nuetral site by Southern Illinois and lost on a nuetral site to Miami Ohio, also lost at home to Miami Fl and lost at South Alabama. They did go 12-4 in the SEC though, but that is a bit misleading as they only played Tennessee once and lost at home and they played Vandy once and lost, but that was at Vandy and in OT. They only played Kentucky once as well and that was at home which they won, so the 12-4 SEC record, you may as well throw that out the window. Oregon lost tons of games this year, 13 in fact, which is a ton for a 9 seed. They went 9-9 in the Pac 10 which is a balanced conference schedule(playing every team twice) but they were swept by UCLA, USC, and Washington St. I really hate both of these teams resumes, but I lean towards Oregon slightly here with the 2.5 points. Malik Hairston is a stud shooting 53% from the floor and 44% from 3, then Leunen is a 50% 3 point shooter which is as good as it gets, Taylor shoots 40% as well from 3. Maybe if these guys get hot they are a team who can beat Memphis. Oregon is also a very good free throw shooting team while Miss St shoots 64%. Miss St turns the ball over nearly 3x more than their opponent which I believe is worst in the tourney. Oregon +2.5 is the play


(5) Michigan St 6.5 vs (12) Temple



Michigan St is always a dangerous tourney team, a team that can get out and run and a team who actually plays defense. Mich St started out the season as Big Ten favs and ranked top 10 in the nation, a close loss to UCLA in a game they were up with 3 minutes to go and a win vs Texas in December both are pretty impressive. Michigan St struggled on the road at times in conference play but they can be a very dangerous team who is very talented. Temple went 11-5 in the A-10 but had a pretty ugly preseason though I guess most of the losses were close. They lsot at Tenn by 17, lost to Providence and Charleston on neutral sites by 2 and 3 and beat Marist in OT, also lost at Akron by 2 and lost at home to Nova by 8, lost to Florida by 17 and home to Duke by 10. So Temple has played a pretty decent schedule. They are winners of seven strait as well beating St Joes twice by 1 and 5. I def like Michigan St to win but the 6.5 is a tough call, not much lean either way here.


(4) Pittsburgh 9 vs (13) Oral Roberts

Very very interesting game here as Pittsburgh is a bit of a media darling right now after their Big East tourney championship run. Bob Knight picked Pitt as his national champion and I've heard a lot of talk of Pitt being the team that can take down Memphis. I'm not that sold on them and think they are sort of ripe for upset and I don't expect them to get out of the first weekend. Pittsburgh is one of those Big East teams who play noone during the precon schedule a la Syracuse, Georgetown, and a few others. This year Pitt's first 7 games were at home with the toughest game being Saint Louis. They they traveled to Duquense and Washington winning both, beat Duke in OT on a neutral site and lost by 25 at Dayton. Oral Roberts went 16-2 in the MidCon and won the conference tourney. Oral Roberts played a pretty tough non-con schedule losing at Texas AM, at Arkansas, at Texas and beating Oklahoma St, they also lost to Creighton in the "Bracket Buster" . Oral Roberts doesn't have the scoring frontcourt of years past, but they do have a good defender in Yemi Ogunoye who shut down James Anderson... scoreless. This guy should be able to do a good job on Sam Young. Oral Roberts 2 leading scorers are both good 3 point shooters, both having hit over 80 and shooting over 40%. Pitt is a 65% free throw shooting team. I haven't decided if I'll take Oral Roberts to win outright in my brackets but Oral Roberts +9 is the play.



(6) Marquette 6 vs (11) Kentucky



Kentucky is a real hard to team to get a good handle on since Patterson is out, if he was around I'd probably like them plus 6, but without him, this team isn't very good. Marquette doesn't really have a good big man so that helps out Kentucky a bit. Marquette is actually a pretty decent matchup for Kentucky. Kentucky has played alright in the 5 games without Patterson and I'd probably take the 6 if I had to take someone, but Marquette will be advancing in my bracket.


(3) Stanford 14.5 vs (14) Cornell


Stanford is a team anchored by the Lopez twins, mbn to have twin 7 footers. Stanford doesn't have much shooting from the perimiter but you really don't need that when you have a pair of 7 footers. Stanford didn't really play anyone in the precon schedule, they did travel to Northwestern and win by 12, lost at Siena by 12, and won at Texas Tech by 1. They lost to UCLA 3 times though the 2nd game was basically a win as they got robbed by the refs. Stanford is a team I'm not overly impressed with, the pair of 7 footers is nice, but they still didn't dominate losing 7 games on the year. They also turn the ball over more than their opponents which is a pretty ugly stat. Cornell went 22-5 on the year and 14-0 in the Ivy. They lost at Ohio, vs Colgate, at Bucknell, and at Syracuse in the precon, they also lost at Duke in a game that was close late. They haven't lost since Jan 6th. Cornell is led by Randy Wittman's son Ryan who averages 15.4 a game shooting 47% from 3 point range, he also shoots 86% from the line. The 2nd leading scorer shoots 91% from the line, 3rd leading scorer shoots 93% from the line. That is some sick sick stuff. Cornell does have a 7 footer who plays 21 mpg and brings down 6.4 rebounds in those 21 minutes... highly impressive. Cornell shoots 41.4% as a team from 3 point range. I really like Cornell getting 14.5 here, not sure if I will pick them outright or not. I like the winner of this game advancing to the Sweet 16 though. Cornell +14.5 is the play.









(7) Miami(Fl) 1 vs (10) Saint Marys


Miami reeled off 12 strait wins to open the year winning at Miss St and beating VCU on a neutral site, they lost to Winthrop. Miami was just 8-8 in the ACC,they beat Duke by 1 at home. They won 2 road games in conference both by a possession or less. Saint Marys beat Drake and Seton Hall in the noncon, they lost by 1 at home To Kent State. They went 12-2 in conference splitting with Gonzaga and losing at San Diego. I don't think I have seen either of these teams play a minute all year and don't have much of an opinion either way. I'll probably choose St Marys in my bracket though. St Marys does have a big 6-11 260 guy that can bang with the Miami guys.


(2) Texas 16 vs (15) Austin Peay

Not too much to say here, Texas should roll and I would lean towards a Texas cover. Texas is my final four pick out of the South Region.


West Regional



(1) UCLA 32 vs (16) Miss Valley St


Once again not going to break this down much. UCLA is my final four pick out of this regional. 32 points is a lot of points for a team who plays the UCLA style to cover. I would lean Miss St with the 32 here and if it moved up at all, I'd probably have to make it a play.


(8) BYU vs (9) Texas A&M 2





Here is our first game where the lower seed is the favorite, this is usually a trend you would want to follow. BYU lost by 10 vs UNC and 7 vs Michigan St on neutral sites, so that is decent there. BYU is only a 65% free throw shoooting team due to Trent Plaisted's 54.5% shooting on 253 fros on the year. He averages 16 and 8. Texas A&M is also a poor free throw shooting team at 64%. Texas AM only going 8-8 in the Big 12 is a bit ugly, what is odd about it is they went 4-4 away from home winning at Iowa St, Mizzou, Baylor and Oklahoma St. Texas A&M will be my bracket choice.



(5) Drake 4 vs (12) Western Kentucky



Drake is 28-4 beating Iowa St by 35, winning at Iowa and Butler in the noncon. They lost at Saint Marys by 6 back in November. Drake shoots 76% from the line and turns the ball over at a much lower rate than opponents. 3 seniors start for this club, while the other 2 is a jr and a soph. Western Kentucky boasts a senior point guard and a very good senior in 6'5 Courtney Lee. Western Kentucky does not have much scoring punch from the frontcourt which would be Drake's weakness. I like Drake here to move on.



(4) UConn 11 vs (13) San Diego





San Diego is in due to winning the conference tourney beating Saint Marys and Gonzaga on their homecourt to advance. SD's lone noncon bright spot was winning at Kentucky, besides that they lost to about everyone as they have racked up 13 losses. San Diego turns the ball over a lot which will not be a good thing vs a team who can pressure like UConn. I have UConn moving on but not much of an opinion on the 11






(6) Purdue 3 vs (11) Baylor




Interesting game here as Purdue is a very defensive minded team while Baylor really isn't a big fan of defense. Purdue has 3 great 3 pt shooters in Moore(44%), Grant(47%), and Hummel(44%), I think all 3 are going to find a lot of open shots and in contrast Purdue guards the perimeter very very well as Kramer is a defensive stud and Grant and Moore can defend as well. Baylor will look to make 3s and score with their guards so this is a very good matchup for Purdue imo. Baylor does hold an impressive win over Notre Dame in mid November. Purdue -3 is the play.











(3) Xavier 8.5 vs (14) Georgia



Georgia being a 14 seed is a bit low imo, I think Georgia is pretty much done though now and expect Xavier to move on. Not an opinion on the 8.5 though. Xavier is very big and can throw a lot of big bodies into the game, Xaviers 2 leading scorers come from the frontcourt. Georgia is one of the poorest shooting teams in the country and going against a team who can defend like Xavier is not going to help that.



(7) West Virginia 2 vs (10) Arizona







The first thing that jumps out to me when looking at West Virginia is the way they turn their opponents over, very impressive as you know a Huggins' team is going to play high pressure defense. West Virginia went 11-7 in the Big East, 8 of those teams made the tourney. Only 2 of West Virginia's conference wins are vs tourney teams which is slightly alarming. Arizona is an interesting case only going 8-10 in the Pac 10 but playing one of the most difficult schedules in the country. They lost an overtime game at Kansas in late November. They beat Illinois and won at UNLV and Houston. Arizona's starting point guard Nic Wise missed 7 games this year which coincides with Arizona's ugliest run of the season (2-5). Leading scorer Jarryd Bayless also missed 4 games this year. The Cats were 1-3 without Bayless. The Cats were 16-6 with all players. Arizona has 2 super talents in Bayless and Budinger and I will be taking Zona over West Virginia here and maybe even over Duke. Arizona +2


(2) Duke 20 vs (15) Belmont


Not going to look at this game much, I feel Duke is overseeded at 2, feel Wiscy is more deserving of a 2 as Duke lost 4 of their last 10 and didn't do that much out of conference. I see Arizona giving Duke a good game in the 2nd round. Belmont did win at Cincinnati and at Alabama. They lost by 41 at Xavier.


Midwest Region




(1) Kansas 22.5 vs (16) Portland St



Not much to say here besides that Kansas will be my Midwest Regional winner and probably my national champion.


(8) UNLV vs (9) Kent St 2.5

Once again the lower seeded team is the favorite here. UNLV has a home win over Minnesota but besides that didn't do too much in the noncon, Kent St had the road win at St Marys. Kent St has struggled vs size this season, lucky for them UNLV doesn't have huge size and actually gets outrebounded by opponents. Kent St does turn the ball over 14.6 times per game which is 4 more than UNLV, UNLV takes very good care of the ball. Slightly lean UNLV getting 2.5 even though I would usually like to take the lower seeded favorite.

(5) Clemson 6 vs (12) Villanova

Clemson is another one of the media darlings like Pitt. The funny thing about Clemson is they managed to do it without beating anyone. They played UNC close three times losing all 3 and only played Duke once during the ACC losing that, they did beat Duke in the tourney though. The 4th place team in the ACC was Virginia Tech, Clemson played them once and won by 1 at home. This unbalanced schedule stuff can be interesting as once again this 10-6 ACC record doesn't look quite as good. The UNC losses in overtime were great but they also just won in overtime at home vs Florida St and Wake Forest. They won at Miss St by 2 in early November and beat Purdue by 3 at home while Purdue was awful. This is a team that will pressure and force turnovers and want to run. Villanova has a very good point guard who can handle that pressure in Scottie Reynolds. Clemson shoots 62% from the line. I like Nova getting 6 here but don't think I'll make it a play at this time.



(4) Vanderbilt 7 vs (13) Siena



Vanderbilt went 10-6 in the SEC while teams like Kentucky and Miss St were able to go 12-4. Vandy's RPI is the 40s or 50s and somehow they are a 4 seed. I don't get it, they lost 7 games, they played noone in the precon besides beating South Alabama in double overtime. Vandy can shoot the 3 though that much is for sure. Siena did have a big win earlier in the year vs Stanford and played Cuse tough but I think they are a year away from doing damage in the tourney. Only one of the top six players is a senior. Siena does take very good care of the ball though and can make some 3s. Siena really has no answer for Ogilvy or Neltner. Vanderbilt will move on and as for the 7, its a toss up, though I'd lean Vandy.



(6) USC 2.5 vs (11) Kansas St



2 of the best frosh square off in this 6/11 matchup. The real matchup will be Gibson/Jefferson vs Beasley. If Beasley is slowed down at all, then Kansas St is in trouble. Mayo has so much more firepower around him with Jefferson, Lewis and Gibson, while it is the Beasley/Walker show for Kansas State. Kansas St may be the worst 3 point shooting team in the entire tourney, amazing that these guys can't shoot with Beasley being doubled down upon. I don't have much of an opinion either way in this game but look for USC to move on, Mayo will need to stay under control and not get too crazy under the bright lights of the NCAA tourney.



(3) Wisconsin 11.5 vs (14) Cal St Fullerton



Wisconsin ho-hummed their way to a 29-4 season without much love at all, they even won at Texas, but still can't get higher than a 3 seed. Their 4 losses are to Duke, Marquette, and Purdue. Cal St Fullerton likes to run so they will be out of their realm in a half court game. Fullerton isn't too tall either and Wiscy has a big frontcourt wtih Butch, Landry, Steimsma, and Krahbbenoft. Michael Flowers is a bigtime defender and him vs Mayo in the 2nd round could be an interesting matchup. I like Wiscy to move on here and to advance to the Elite 8.



(7) Gonzaga vs (10) Davidson 2



Another lower seeded fav here as Davidson is a 2 point favorite. This game is being played in Davidson's home state which has Mark Few a bit upset. Davidson lost by 4 to North Carolina and by 6 to Duke, pretty impressive there. They also only lost by 12 to UCLA. Gonzaga has a win over UConn and lossses to Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Tennessee. Gonzaga also has an impressive 4 point loss to Memphis. Gonzaga does a good job in the turnover department, Davidson does as well so thats pretty much a wash. Davidson does have Stephen Curry and that could be enough, 44% 3 pt shooter while shooting 90% from the line. I haven't seen him play since last tourney. I like Davidson to move on.



(2) Georgetown 16 vs (15) Maryland Balt Co



Maryland Balt is really lacking in size in this matchup and I don't see an upset opportunity here. UMBC only averages 9.6 turnovers per game though so there is hope. They have a couple decent shooters as well. Georgetown's noncon schedule was the normal joke for a Big East school though they did play Memphis and lost by 14.



East Region



(1) North Carolina vs (16) Coppin St/Mount St Marys



Obv North Carolina will advance here, North Carolina is my final four pick losing to Kansas in the semis. North Carolina doesn't love to play defense but that probably won't stop them from advancing to SA. A matchup vs IU in the 2nd round could be interesting, DJ/Hansbourough.



(8) Indiana vs (9) Arkansas (No Line due to Weems injury)



IU was favored by 1 but Arkansas's leading scorer went down with an injury today and he is now questionable. Indiana is another team who I feel is very underseeded after going 25-7 in the regular season. They beat Kentucky, Ill St, Southern Ill, and Georgia Tech in the preseason and lost Xavier and Uconn. The Indiana team from earlier in the season is capable of a final four run but that team was before Eric Gordon's broken wrist and the depature of Kelvin Samspon. Gordon was shooting around 45% from 3 before his wrist and is under 20% since. If Gordon could get his shot back they could beat about anyone, Bassett has also struggled from 3 of late. Arkansas has some big bodies to throw at White, 6'8 and 6'10 and a seven footer off the bench who plays 17 mpg. Arkansas shoots only 67% from the line and turns the ball over slightly more than opponents just as IU does. Indiana is one of the best free throw shooting teams in the country at over 76%. IU hasn't lost a first round game since 01 but they are a popular pick to go down in the 1st round this year. If Weems is indeed injured and out, IU should move on, if not the game is a toss up. Who knows what IU team will show up?


(5) Notre Dame 6.5 vs (12) George Mason

Notre Dame is a team I really like and a team I will have moving on to the Sweet 16. Harangody is such a beast and should be in an IU uniform. Mcalarney and Ayres are lights out 3 point shooters. ND crushes teams on the glass. George Mason looked very impressive at times this season beating a fully loaded Dayton team and Kansas St while losing a cloes game to Villanova. Kent St did blow them out and they just went 13-5 in the Colonial league. I really don't see anyone who can guard Harangody so I expect to see a lot of help on him and Harangody is either going to score or find some wide open shooters. Mike Brey is a very underrated coach imo.


(4) Washington St 8.5 vs (13) Winthrop

IU's next coach could be Tony Bennett who has turned Wash St into a pretty decent program playing the slow pace style. Washington St is a fundamentally sound team who only turns it over 10 times a game and shoots free throws very well at 74%. Washington St didn't play too many teams in the noncon but did win at Baylor and at Gonzaga. They were swept by UCLA and Stanford but did sweep USC. They lost 8 games, not sure how they are a 4 seed really. Winthrop starts 4 seniors who all played in the NCAA tourney last year and the year before. They defeated Notre Dame last year before falling to Oregon and they were the 15 seed the year Tennessee's Lofton hit the buzzer beater to win by 2. Gregg Marshall was the head coach those years though and this is his first year gone from the program. Winthrop beat Georgia Tech but lost to Baylor, West Virginia, Ole Miss, and Mt St Marys in hte noncon. They went just 10-4 in conference. Still with such a senior lineup and this game being played at a slowed down pace, I like the 8.5 points here. Winthrops under 60% free throw shooting is very ugly though and odd from a senior laden team. Winthrop allows less than 60 ppg so I think they can hang close. Winthrop +8.5


(6) Oklahoma 1.5 vs (11) St. Joes

A very close line for a 6/11 matchup and for good reason, Oklahoma isn't a 6, nowhere near a 6. Oklahoma went 22-11 and 9-7 in the Big 12. They lost to Texas 3 times by 10,17, and 28 in the last game of the year. They lost to Kansas by 30. They lost to Kansas St at home, so they have ZERO wins over the top 3 Big 12 teams. They did sweep Baylor. They lost to Memphis, USC, and Stephen F Austin in the preseason, they beat Gonzga and West Virginia. A 6 seed, ha, and Butler is a 7 and IU an 8, come on. St Joes did not have much success outside of conference or really in conference for that matter going just 9-7, they had close losses to Cuse and Gonzaga(OT) in preseason and lost at Creighton in OT. They did beat Nova. St Joes starts 2 seniors, 2 juniors and a soph. St Joes has the bodies to deal with Griffin and I look for St Joes to move on here.


(3) Louisville 13 vs (14) Boise St

Louisville is a team that can play with anyone especially when they are healthy like now. They had a rough spot in December losing to BYU, Dayton, and Purdue but they weren't healthy at the time. Palacios missed 9 games and Padgett missed 10 on the year, I believe Caracter missed that Purdue game as well. Boise St turns the ball over a lot which is a big concern facing Louisville The point guard is just a freshman. Boise St did not face too much competition this year, they did lose to Washington St and did beat San Diego. Both teams are poor free throw shooting teams. I see Louisville moving on to the Sweet 16 at least.


(7) Butler 4 vs (10) South Alabama

Here is my final beef with the selection committee, Butler being a 7 seed, joke. Here is a team who went 29-3 and is ranked 19th in the RPI. They went on the road and won at Ball st and Eville, beat Michigan, Texas Tech, and Virginia Tech in Alaska, beat Ohio st by 19, won at Detroit, and beat Florida St by 11 on a neutral site. They also went on the road and beat Southern Illinois, they did lose to Drake at home. Pretty impressive noncon slate there. This team starts 4 seniors and the first guy off the bench is a senior as well. Butler commits just 10 turnovers per game. South Alabama turns it over 13 times a game. South Alabama lost to Ole Miss, Iami, Vanderbilt in noncon, they did beat Mississippi St. South Alabama is a junior/senior laden team. This Butler team advanced to the Sweet 16 last year giving Florida an absolute battle. I like Butler giving only 4 here as they are a good free throw shooting team and if its close at the end they can close it out. This game being in Alabama is just a minor concern for Butler as it is still three hours away and not like South Alabama is some huge traveling school. Butler -4 is the play.


(2) Tennessee 20 vs (15) American

Not going to say much about this game, I have Tennessee moving on obv.


In the final 4

Kansas beats North Carolina and Texas beats UCLA, Kansas beats Texas again to win it all. I've only won one pool in my life which was the year UNC beat Illinois, I actually had the whole final 4 right, which was pretty good considering Louisville was a 4 seed and Michigan St was a 5 seed. This year is a lot more chalky for me with 3 #1 seeds, but I see a big dropoff in talent on paper at least.


On the poker front, I've just been 8 tabling 1-2 NL taking it easy. I played one tourney on Sunday which was a Freeroll for Supernovas giving away 16 WSOP Main Event packages. I won which is basically $13,500 in my pocket. weeeeeeee

catching up

Been a while since I got around to this, really nothing noteworthy on the poker front has really come up. Karec and I both played in the San Diego main event, both busting after dinner break on day 1. From there it was onto the Venetian where they were having the Deepstack events. I built up a nice stack in the first one, then donked it all off somehow, I think I made a hero call with 33 and was shown KK for a large portion of chips. The next day I once again built a stack but ended up busting 12th for $2400 losing a flip that would have put me in 4th or so. That one was $55k to win. The Venetian hotel rooms were so nice, all suites, pretty decent priced room service off the kids menu too.

Online wise lately, haven't had too many great results, one night while still back in Vegas, I got 50th or so in the $1k FTOPs which paid 380k to win or so, my cash was good for $4k, it was pretty sick as I had a top 10 stack with 100 left and lost a flip to go out. Erick Lindgren went onto win it, like he needed the money. Same night I got 2nd in a Stars $109 for $7k I think, got 4th last night in the 22r, 13th the night before in the $320, that was $56k to win, bleh... besides that, not too much going on. I've started playing more nl cash and also some plo cash and so far the results have been great.

GG to Kelvin Sampson... hopefully Dakich can keep things together and at least make a run to the Sweet 16, winning the big ten tourney in Indy would be key as IU would have to be a lock 3 seed in that scenario imo. I think Sean Miller(Xavier) is my #1 choice for the next head coach right now, but sounds more like a two horse race between Brad Brownell(Wright St/formerly UNC-W) and Tony Bennett(Wash St/Dick Bennett's son of Wiscy fame)... of course that whole two horse race thing is sort of like the Kentucky Derby, the frontrunners at the beginning sometimes don't even end up in the race when it rolls around.

Free agency started today in the NFL and the Bengals traded a 3rd and 5th round pick for DT Shaun Rogers and are saying GG to Kevin Smith and Madieu Williams(signed with the Vikes for 5 yrs/33 mil). *edit: frickin the trade didnt go through league office, and now the Browns trade for Rogers, what a frickin joke*

And to round out the sports talk, the Reds are still in the hunt for the central, ha.

Back on the poker front, I'm going to be doing some coaching and my rates will beat most of all the personal coaches I know who are comparable talent. PM me on 2p2 or pocket5s for details or email me at mattsterling AT hotmail DOT com

Finally the hardware is here

I won the WSOP Circuit $1k today for $30k and a circuit ring. I managed to win JJ vs KK heads up to give me a 5-1 lead and then got KQ all in vs T7 of spades on a Q97 flop. The turn was a 8 giving him more outs but I somehow faded the river to give me the win. I also got AA all in vs QJ of spades on a T774 board with 3 spades, river came 7 to give me the boat, that was with 7 left, wasn't for all my chips though but will an important pot. Heads up, I played pretty passive preflop limping most buttons with hands like KQ, KJ and the sort. The key hand was raising A3o pf on the button and I got called. Flop comes 25T, the guy leads into me and I just call, turn is a 7 and he leads again for 40k, I have 160k left and shove and he snap folds QT face up. So I could have been done right there but got away with my one bluff of the week. Karec played one $550 sng and won that for a $5k seat tomorrow so we are both playing that, hopefully the running good in San Diego continues.

still luckboxing San Diego

chipleader of the $1k heading into tomorrow, I won 2 flips today while losing zero so still running pretty good, I also won a nice pot with a boat. Hopefully some hardware tomorrow so I can be like Karec.

luckboxing san diego part 2

The final table today started out pretty well, I busted the first 2 players with AQ holding against KJ and KK holding against 66 to give me around 280k with 7 left and the chip lead. I really wasn't involved much of all the rest of the way til we were down to 4, but Karec sucked out in a huge pot with 6 left. Blinds were 5k/10k I believe and the utg player shoved in his 120k, the player next over shoved in his 120k, and Karec called with QQ out of the bb. The utg player had ATo, but the next guy had KK and Karec was in bad shape. Flop came A high, turn was a King, but it was the King of spades putting 3 spades on the board and giving Karec the flush draw, the river was the Jack of spades giving Karec the pot in one of the more dramatic final table hands I've ever seen. It also gave him a big chip lead with over 400k. Shortly after that I was down to 10 big blinds and shoved Q2 in the sb, bb called with AJ but flop came 522 and I doubled up. Very next hand I raise 66, and the same player shoves, and I tank and call with 66, he had KK and I couldnt suck out. That left me with 3 big blinds and Q8 couldnt catch up to A9 and I was out in 4th for $6160. They decided to chop after I busted and Karec got the biggest piece of it getting $19k. They played it out for the circuit ring and Karec ended up winning. They went all in blind once they got headsup and Karec won with him holding 64off on the final hand, the hand known as the "k-rock", how fitting.

Played the late night tourneys tonight after we had a few drinks, cashed the $109 3am tilt turbo but lost a flip for the chiplead with 24 left. I got 6th in the Stars 1 am $109, losing AQ to 88 with 6 left and then AA to frickin 66 to the same guy, 6 on the river for me to go out 6th for $1500. First was $9k too... bla. And I'm currently still in the 2 am $75 on Tilt which is $6k to win, 3 are left... and I'm out 3rd for $2700, run KQ into AQ with 15 bigs. Could have been a big night, ah well. Have to get the luckbox ready for tomorrows circuit $1k.

luckboxing San Diego

It's so nice to run good, but I still need to run good tomorrow to make any real money. I'm 4/9 heading into tomorrow's final table of the Wsop-Circuit SD $550, Karec is 5/9. Only 158 players showed up though, so its only $25k to win, but they are giving rings out again for circuit prelims, so I could get me some hardware.

We started today with $8k in chips, and I quickly was down to $6k or so losing AK on a AK6 flop and KK on a J66 flop, where I called this aggro guy's checkraise and then a J turned and I just gave it up. I built that up to 13k after 3 bet shoving AQ on a Q74 board against the same aggro guy's checkraise on the flop. Lost a 26k flip a bit after that while average stack was probably around 12 or so. That left me with 2k or so, got that up to 5k then ran AT into KK at 300/600, to put me down to just 900chips.

That's where the hardcore luckboxing started, as I had just 1.5 big blinds. I got A5 all in vs Q2 and held, then I shoved 2500 at 300/600 with J7o, guy calls, another guy calls, then a guy shoves, first guy calls, other guy folds, so I'm getting over 4-1 on my money. They turn over A6 and JJ, so I'm dead, like 6% to win. Flop comes 976, so I have some sweat, turn is the beautiful 7 ball and I've quadrupled up to 10k or so. I build that up to 20k or so, don't really recall how. Then I pick up KK and run into AA but again I suck out huge and now have 40k or so, get QQ to hold vs AJ, have 60k or so. With about 25 left I win AQs vs 88 to put me up to 100k, I win K6 vs QT for 30k, and then with 10 left win TT vs AJ for about 80k to put me up to 147k going into tomorrow. Run like that tomorrow and I may just go ahead and win.

onto San Diego

Got into San Diego yesterday to play a few events at Harrahs Rincon which is about an hour North of SD. $150 cab ride from the airport, that was fun. The place is right near an indian reservation and there are trailers and bad housing just across the street, odd place for a casino, but I guess the tribe owns part of it or something. The room is actually real nice though, I got a step up from the standard room and we are in the Garden part which is just 3 floors overlooking the pool with a small step out balcony. 42 inch flatscreen, really modern decorating , not bad at all. The pool is real nice with hottubs all around it, too bad its 60 degrees. Better than Tunica though, which I'm still sick from.

Karec and I both played the $440 today, we signed up together last night and of course they put us the same table, LOL to random seating. The structure is interesting, they give you a lot of chips, but it goes 25-50, 50-100, 100-200/25, 200-400, so its real fast, just 40 minute levels for the $440, $550, and $770. The $1k does have hour levels, and the $5k on tuesday has a pretty decent structure. So anyway back to today, I busted in the first 40 minutes when I reraised Karec and 2 other players up to 700 with AA, the player who initially called Karec's raise makes it 2200 to go, so I just call. Flop 962, I check, he shoves all in, I snap call, he has QQ, Q river... good game me. I went back to the room got my camera and decided to take a walk around the outside of the casino since its all mountians around it. Took some pictures, and came back and fired up online tourneys. Karec was up soon after, he got AQ all in vs Q9 on a Q78 flop, turn 5, river 6, good game Karec. Pretty dumb, we run good.

Online stuff so far today has been a debacle, I cashed the $200 turbo on Tilt but no cards at the end and out 20th or so, I was top 5 entire way of the Tilt $120 bounty, with 60 left I was 3rd and I raise AQ up to 999 at 200/400. BB calls and he has 22k in front, I had 25k, avg was only 12k at the time. Flop J89, he bets 2400, I Call. Turn is a 3 and he just shoves 19k into the pot, I tank and call, he has AT and gets there on the river for a huge chip lead, such fun. 40 left in the $55 singlerebuy on Stars get a walk with KK in the bb when I Have 10 bigs, very next hand I shove QQ in the sb, bb has AT, gg me, then QQ is no good against TT all in preflop a bit later in the Stars $109, such fun. I did win the $100 3 am turbo the night before we left for SD, that was good for $6k, I ran good there, sucked out 3x late.

Oh yeah, didn't post about the Tunica $10k, I busted day 2 in a $55k flip vs Hoyt Corkins, I got sick after so never got a chance to post about it. I didn't play that many interesting hands anyhow.

First few days in Tunica

Tunica isn't quite as beautiful as the Bahamas, its actually not even as beautiful as Brownstown, but it isn't quite as depressing as last year. Last year I said I would never come back here and would surely not drive back down here, but Karec and I drove down here this year and it wasn't too bad at all. I think staying at the Gold Strike where we never have to go outside is a big help, last year we were at the Microtel and had to get out and see how ugly and cold it was everyday to go to the casinos.

The first tourney I played was a $1k on Tuesday. We started with 3k chips, 25/25, and hour levels... I lasted 80 minutes. I ran into cooler after cooler it seemed, I reraise with AK, first limper ships, I tank and fold, this was actually at the 25/50 level. Another hand I limped 52s behind 3 limpers, flop A43 all clubs, I lead get almost minraised and call. Turn is a brick, I check, he checks, river 4, i check, he bets small and i call and he has 44 for quads. I lost AQ to KJ basically all in pre to a shortstack. I had another dumb hand but can't remember it right now, I finally busted raising AK, bb calls, flop KQs, I bet he raises, which he had done vs me before when I had AA and I 3 bet all in and he folded, this time I did the same thing and he called with AA. good game.

Funny thing about the tournament, in the very first two minutes I heard a dealer shout "seat open", I laughed to myself thinking this is why I'm in Tunica, then I get a text and its from Karec saying he already doubled. ha. He hit the nuts on the river and 3x shoved the pot and got called. He built up a huge stack having $40k at dinner break for over triple average/chiplead but ran into no luck after dinner and went out 22nd and it just paid 18.

The next day was another $1k this time with 280 or so players. I had a surprisingly tough table for a Tunica tourney, 3 of us ended up cashing, and another was the bubble boy in 28th. I actually ran good in this tourney. I won a big pot early at the 100/200 level. I raised to 525 with AK and was called by a solid lp player and called out out of the bb by a laggy player. Flop A53 with 2 spades, bb checks, I lead 850, lp calls, bb shoves in his 6k stack. I tank and finally move my stack in fearing a snap call from lp with 55 or 33. I thought the bb most likely had spades. LP finally folded and the bb turned over A5, a K ball hit the river though and I was sitting with a big stack. My stack really didn't do anything for literally the next five hours, I just stayed between 12 and 18k. I lost one all in
A7 vs K9 vs a shortie and that was the only showdown I was really in. 27 paid and with out 45 or so left I raised QJcc in ep and was called by the bb. Flop T87 with two clubs and it was checked me, I bet, the bb checkraised all in and I snap called with my flush draw plus gutter plus overs. He turned over T9, turn brick, river Q and I doubled up to around 24k or so. Ah I forgot one thing that happened a bit earlier. I ate dinner with Karec, Soggy, and Stamm, we were talking about how Men Master was a huge cheater and all the ways he has cheated in the past. Soggy happened to be at his table. He is at the table behind me and I notice him stand up so I look over and he says "You play so bad" to Men, and then Men says "yeah, thats why I win tournaments baby", Soggy says "yeah cuz you cheat" the floorwoman who was close by says to him "leave and don't come back". Men didn't really say much to him, it was pretty great really. Soggy was saying he plays so bad cuz Men sucked out on him in a huge pot.

With about 33 left, I was sitting on about 24k, I raised KQs in lp and was called by the player next over. Flop Kxx, and I check, he bet and I moved in and he called with AA. oops. The turn brought me a flush draw and I hit it on the river. oops again. This brought me up to 36k which gave me a pretty big stack, prob in something like 6th or 7th at this point, but that didn't last long. I raised 88 a few hands later and was reraised by a guy who had reraised me just a few minutes earlier, I had raised to 1800 at the 400/800 level and he made it 4300. Then a guy in lp started to put in 1800 but then saw it was 4300 and started to pull it back, but once its in it stays in, so instead he calls the entire 4300. So then I decide to call the extra 2500. Flop 642, I check, the raiser bets 7k, misclick guy folds and I think and finally shove, he thinks for a few seconds adn calls with KK. oops. If that guy doesnt call, I just fold my hand, so sick. That dropped me down to $6k putting me in near last. I grinded that without a showdown to get into the money, then won a flip KJ vs 66 in the money, but nothing much after that. Shoved 10 bigs with QJs and got called by QQ right after we combined to 2 tables. 18th for $1960 or so.

Played a mega satellite the next day and won that, was a grind, but won my seat to the main event, so thats good. I play the main on Sunday. I don't believe pocketfives will have anyone here, cardplayer will be here I assume, but probably won't pay much attention to me until I get a huge stack at least. ha

PCA

The PCA was an $8k event which had a record field this year of around 1150 players paying 2 mil to first. I satellited into it in a $2000 9 man sng, which got you a $12 package($1150 food credit/7 nights($2k value)/$1k expenses on top of the $8k buyin. I also chopped another package so in all had $18k winnings and probably played in $12k worth of events since those sngs added up quite fast. So I was probably in for near $6k, not horrible I guess.





I liked what I saw as a first sat down as I recognized no one at my table and there were a few older players which is usually going to be a good thing and one middle aged woman who one would think would be easy to play against. We started with $20k in chips with blinds at 50/100. I can't really remember too many of the hands from teh first couple hours, but I chipped up to around $30k. Only hand I really recall was limping ATs in ep, probably went 5-6 ways to the flop of T43. I check called a loose awful player who loved to spew his chips. Turn was a blank and it went check check. River was a Q and I snap called a pot sized bet and he mucked. I had a sick tight image a few hours in. I had coldcalled raises with AKs and JJ and they got shown down each time. I also made a big fold in a limped pot. Two limpers to me in the big blind at the 200/400 level and I just check with AJs. Flop J82 I lead 1k and I get minraised to 2k by the woman, I instafold faceup, and she shows me 88. I actually think this was a very easy fold as she only has AJ,88, or 22 here ever and possibly AA. It completed my table image as a huge nit though, so it was time to start changing gears.



I loosened up a bit and was doing a lot of open raising in position. Really just two hands I recall before I moved tables. I raise 88 in mp and the bb calls who had been active and I assumed was a pretty good player. Flop JTT, he checks and I check behind. Turn is a blank and it once again goes check check, river is another blank and it checks to me and I decide to throw out a half pot value bet, he has QJ though, but I still think the river bet is fine. A few hands later I was down to 26k at the 400/800 level I believe and the hijack(same guy from prev hand who was very active raised to 2k, he was repopped by the cutoff to 6k, it folded to me in the big blind and i had A3 of clubs. Sure easy fold, basically junk, but I felt with my image I could get the repopper to fold JJ and lower for sure, and maybe even QQ and I think he is mucking AK too. So while he is still doing his reraise and getting his chips out there I'm thinking I'm going to put 18k of my 26k stack out there and make it look very strong. So it gets to me and I snap fold, ha. I'm such a nit, I really think 4 betting that is a very very good play there with the table dynamics, oh well. Our table broke up soon after.



The new table seemed like a pretty good table as the tourney chipleader was there with a ton of chips basically raising every pot and calling all ins if he was priced in at all. I mostly maintained during this level til there was 3 minutes left in the night. I had raised the two previous hands and once again raised wtih ATs in mp. I started the hand with 35k btw. I had raised to I think 2400 at the 500/100 level and the small blind who was older but was talking about playing in the 50/100 no limit game so I was thinking maybe he wasn't a standard terrible older player. He reraised to like 7500 or so and I decided to 4 bet all in, well I got snap called with the obv AA. Flop 234, turn T, but no help and I'm down to $2k with 2 minutes left in the night. Avg stack at this point over $40k. I'm utg next hand and fold then pick up 98s in the bb and get it all in vs AQ who isolated giving me over 3-1 on my money and I flop the flush and hold against his nut draw to give me 8k going into day 2. I was like 510/520 going into day 2, pretty sick.



Blinds are 500/1k starting day 2, very first hand I look at my first hand and see an Ace so without looking at my other card I ship in my 8k, the small blind calls me and I turn my cards over and am happy to see AJ, ,he has AT and I double and then some to about 18k. I then just keep chipping up with raises and cbets and maybe a couple 3 bets and have about 25k when this hand comes up. I had a pretty loose image at this table at the time and the villian had repopped me and coldcalled my raises previously. I open limp the small blind with A6o at the 600/1200 level, the big blind throws in 3k more and I decide to ship in my $25k or so and he basically snap calls me with A9. bla, but the flop has a six and I hold to give me a decent stack of about 54k or so. Next big hand utg good cash player who was drinking and ready to go to the beach ships his 11 bigs or so($20k), I ship my 50k stack with TT, someone else ships 17k, and the card are turned over and the utg player has JJ, so I'm in bad shape. No luck and I'm down to 30k, I somehow get down to about 20k when this hand comes up. Blinds 1200/2400 and ep player moves all in for 20k, I have about 21k and I reship with AJ, thinking I could be way ahead, way behind, flipping, really who knew, the guy could have a super wide range. He turns over AT, so I'm pretty happy, I'm even happier when 2 guys say they folded tens. Sweet, too bad he just decides to flop the nut flush and I'm out in around 250th place. bleh, oh well, it was time to play with lindsay in the water.



The water rides were pretty fun down there and we had a good time with those. The water rides all had really warm water in them. The pools were fricking freezing though. All in all the place is pretty neat with all the wildlife they have down there, so dumb expensive to eat though, we had $1150 in my package to use towards food/drinks and we spent like $900 of it in those 8 days without going to the most expensive places. A PB&J was $8 on the room service menu, your standard turkey sandwhich, $17. A miller lite was $6 in the mini bar. That's about it from the PCA, plan to go back next year I'd say, though maybe I'd want to go to Australia....

2008 Schedule

Jan 4th-Jan 12th: Bahamas(PCA)
Playing just the $8k main event, relaxing the rest of the time

Jan 14th-Jan 20th: Tunica
Playing some prelims and possibly both the $7500 WSOP-C main and the $10k WPT main

Jan 30th-Feb 5th: San Diego
Going to SD even though LA will be going on, substituted SD/Venetian instead of going LA,
playing smaller events instead, and our airfare is less than half of what it would be as would
room costs, plus Karec will be playing more events this way. $5k wsop-c main on the 5th

Feb 6th-Feb 12th: Las Vegas(Venetian)
Both Karec and I will be playing smaller tourneys here, couple 1ks and a couple 550s

Feb 21st-Feb 25th: Council Bluffs, Iowa
Not positive we will be making this trip,but would be playing a 1k,1.5k, and the $5k main

Feb 26th-March 8th: Las Vegas(Wynn)
Good week and a half playing mostly 1k-2ks

Rest of March:Watch Basketball

April 2nd-April 8th: Las Vegas(Bellagio)
Five Star Classic playing 2ks-5ks, and probably coming home and playing in Indiana instead
of playing the $25k WPT Championship which will be like 4.5 million to win.

April 11th-April 14th:Caesars Indiana
Playing a 1k and the $5k wsop-c main

April 20th-July 3rd: Las Vegas
Lots of stuff going on during this time, Caesars WSOP-C followed by the WPT and Mandalay
Bay WPTs and ending with the World Series of Poker.

That's all I got figured out for now, all this is pending change obv, I'll probably get burned out real quick, but I'm pretty committed to play a ton of events for 7 months and see how I do. Hopefully sitting top 10 in the Cardplayer rankings.

2007 recap

copying this post here from the old blog since it was the last one I posted.

2007 review/highlights

Jan: new years day 3rd in the 109r for 12k to start the year right. won 109r for 20k as well. Live final table in Tunica but just a 7th.

Feb: Won the 109r for 35k which was the biggest 109r ever at the time, won 22r for 12k. Final tabled 2 small live tourneys.

March: Watched March Madness on my sick setup obv. Can't wait for the 2008 march madness weekend at the house. Near miss in the 1k million gtd 24th for $7k, obv got sucked out AQ
April: Had a sick week 1st in 163 for 15k and 1st in 22r same night for 12k, won the 109r for 32k as well as well as 2nd in the 163 for 9k. Sister got married.

May: Met a beautiful girl at my friend's divorce party, thanks for sucking at marriage ryan. Started the move to Vegas for part of the summer. Vistited Chad in Florida as well and saw his sick car and assorted toys. Derby Day was fun, sadly I will not be hosting a derby party this year as I believe I will be out of town.

June: Teased a bunch in the WSOP in the form of the $1k rebuy where I got 43rd losing AK<88 for a ton of chips and then 29th in the $5k losing AK
July: Another big tease busting 238th in the main event, 99
August: got back on track online a bit with a 2nd/3rd same night and then 2nd again the next night in one of those tourneys. Lexus!

September: went with Lindsay to the Outer Banks where we rented a house just off the beach. awesome place. win 10 grand one night in the 25/50 cap game on Full Tilt.

October: Start my sick run in sngs. Degen it up one night at Caesars with Lilholdem, Stamm, bigboybunk, play slot machines for first time in my life cuz we couldnt get into a BJ table in the high limit room. Hit wheel of fortune for $2500 on 4th pull, end up taking $3400 profit out of the machine.

November: IU beats Purdue in the bucket game 27-24 to send IU to a bowl game for the first time in a while. IU bball starts. Nephew Talon Matthew born

December: seeing everyone at xmas. Winning the 55r for 13k. Karec chopping the 162 for 15k. hopefully my new years eve party and an IU bowl victory....


2008:Plan to play a ton live and post a ton too, will post a message with teh schedule and everything in a few days.

Blog Move

I decided to move the blog to blogger where I have had this account forever but never used it. For old stuff, you can visit http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=mattster24.