Great Weekend

I love to title blog posts so positively because I haven't been able to say this about an entire weekend. I won every day from Friday to Sunday. Friday it was all from 1/2 NL heads up as I had planned. On Saturday, I took 3rd in the 55 Rebuy on Stars. This tournament I played well and was extremely patient and was rewarded with crucial races at times. I entered the final table in 6th place, so when you can come out with third you can't be too bad even though I really felt I had a strong skill advantage on the guy who came in second. The winner was a guy I have played before and respect. Essentially, he had a monster chip lead when we got 3 handed with 1.2 mill to my 200,000 and the other guys 400,000. I doubled up once, but failed to improve when we got it all in shortly after, I had A10 vs his AQ. I played 5 tournaments on Saturday and cashed in every single tournament which hasn't happened in a while for me. That tells me that I'm doing something right. On Sunday, I almost reached a goal of mine that I set a few days ago to win the H.O.R.S.E. tournament on Full Tilt. I took 3rd out of the 180+ to save a Sunday that had 0 cashes up to that point. I really felt like I carried the tournament momentum forward from Saturday, but I can't get going in the Sunday Million on Stars. Every week, I feel like I get my chips in way ahead and come out behind in that tournament. That being said, I was extremely lucky to survive to as far as I did as I was short early on. There are 7,000 people in that tournament and tons of people that really have very little internet tournament poker experience. The other Sunday tournaments, I ran into tough spots early when I would have big pairs run into sets twice. I almost feel like I should start going into complete defense mode with the big hands early because they usually just lead to big trouble. Either way it was a great weekend.

The one tournament I was really looking forward to was the heads up matches on Pokerstars. This is a 256 bracket style tournament where if you win you go on, but you play 1 on 1. I love the format and felt that all the heads up NL I had been playing this week would really help me. Well it did when my first opponent failed to show up for the tournament he had registered for and he blinded out. Obviously, he had been watching me play all week and was just too scared to click the mouse. (I'm kidding, but I'm well aware there is no sarcasm detector online, so I just want to make sure people know I'm actually pretty humble). I won my second match when I got trapped by a guy with K 10 on a K 9 5 x board. I shoved the turn when he checked to me with A 5 and hit the Pokerstars river card A that always finds a way to come. So in two matches, one guy was just too tired to play and fell asleep on the keyboard and the other guy got the money in pretty good. Don't worry, in the money match (what I call the 3rd match because if you win you are guaranteed to be in the money and then you are just playing heads up tournaments for big pay jumps), I got completely steamrolled by GB2005, a very well known good online player. The funny thing about this match was I made a very tough fold early on with A 7 on a Q 7 3 two diamond board. I had put about 400 of my 1500 chips in the middle and almost just went with it hoping he had a draw. I essentially ruled him out of having a medium hand. I didn't believe he would jam me in with just any Q. I thought he either had me crushed with a set or two pair already or had a diamond draw. The hard part was knowing that if I folded I was down 2 to 1 in chips against a very good player. It actually seems like an easy fold in retrospect. The funny thing about this match was that I had to have had a super wild image to him, yet when I picked up AA twice and 10 10 once in a short span when I was first to act preflop, he just folded. It seemed like every other time he could see I had garbage. Sometimes in heads up matches whether it be at the end of a tournament or in these things, you just have no clue what happened. That's how I felt after this match. I just felt steamrolled. Give credit to him and he's a class act, so I can't say much else about that.


I was planning on playing at Caesar's on Saturday for my last blog, but then I remembered that my gender is male and the NFL playoffs are on. This is the entire reason I didn't go skiing with my Cousin. I seriously love NFL football. It doesn't matter who is playing or when they are playing, but I love it. I'm not sure why since I never played a down of a real game of football in my life. It's just one of those things I won't ever be able to explain. If I had to venture an explanation, I would have to say that in football you can almost feel the intensity and emotion from watching. It's the same feeling I get when I watch an event like the World Cup. It's very tough to describe in that way because I don't think people really care that much about the World Cup in the US. There just seems to be so much at stake in the NFL playoffs. If you think about it though, most players never get a chance to play in the big game. There is only one per year out of the 30+ NFL teams. I'm not sure the exact number but 55 players apprx. and 15 coaches apprx. 70 people across 30 teams, 2100 people and only 140 get to go to game each year. That's not even counting the tens of thousands that never even made it in the NFL.

Anyway, my picks this week, SD was good even though I thought the Colts would still win. They decided to show up as the least deserving team ever. They lost to a SD team with the biggest weapon in the NFL out of the game, a QB that is still so immature that he taunts fans, and a tight end playing on one good foot because a toe injury limits a player big time. I broke my toe my senior year in soccer and was never the same for the rest of the year. While I played a lot of games still, ever collision and step I had to gut through and that was a PINKY toe. This was the guys big toe. I can't believe SD won this game. Too many commercials Peyton.

Green Bay looked too good to be true. At that rate, they should steamroll the Giants, so that pick is also good. Anyone else catch Brett Favre tearing up in his post game interview? You have to love this guy for how he competes.

New England won, but did not cover. I think you can hand them the Super Bowl at this point. SD will not beat this team full strength.

New York Giants continued their rampage and proved that if you have a tough front 7 in the NFL, you are going to wear on a team. Romo couldn't do anything in the second half because those guys just keep coming at you. If I want a front 7 for the Browns like any other team, let it be the Giants. T.O. crying? This weekend might be a dream the way I've been playing.......

I went 2-2, which is why I don't bet sports.

I kind of feel like this kid right now even though I'm kind of crushed about now winning the H.O.R.S.E. tournament.