This is a steam post.....

Full Tilt Poker Game #8216924919: The Fifty-Fifty (61686870), Table 104 - 6000/12000 Ante 1500 - No Limit Hold'em - 3:29:43 ET - 2008/09/25
Seat 1: SHIP_it_toO_ME (146,390)
Seat 2: eb226 (218,027)
Seat 3: Stipe (137,290)
Seat 4: kice32 (148,735)
Seat 5: SAFETY SCHMEET (195,040)
Seat 6: theonewith24 (301,912)
Seat 7: MUMIN (138,022)
Seat 8: eLquA (623,608)
Seat 9: ranji (198,976)
SHIP_it_toO_ME antes 1,500
eb226 antes 1,500
Stipe antes 1,500
kice32 antes 1,500
SAFETY SCHMEET antes 1,500
theonewith24 antes 1,500
MUMIN antes 1,500
eLquA antes 1,500
ranji antes 1,500
Stipe posts the small blind of 6,000
kice32 posts the big blind of 12,000
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to kice32 [Td Ac]

ACE 10 for those of you counting at home

SAFETY SCHMEET folds
theonewith24 folds
MUMIN folds
eLquA folds
ranji folds
SHIP_it_toO_ME folds
eb226 raises to 216,527, and is all in
Stipe folds
kice32 calls 135,235, and is all in
eb226 shows [9c 7c]

NINE SEVEN SUITED, IF YOU REVERSE IT 7 9 THAT'S MY BIRTHDAY, HOW CAN I LOSE TO MY OWN BIRTHDAY?

kice32 shows [Td Ac]
Uncalled bet of 69,292 returned to eb226
*** FLOP *** [5d 6s 4h]
*** TURN *** [5d 6s 4h] [3c]

And I was controlling my emotions so well on the night.
*** RIVER *** [5d 6s 4h 3c] [9d]
eb226 shows a straight, Seven high
kice32 shows Ace Ten high
eb226 wins the pot (313,970) with a straight, Seven high
kice32 stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 313,970 | Rake 0
Board: [5d 6s 4h 3c 9d]
Seat 1: SHIP_it_toO_ME folded before the Flop
Seat 2: eb226 (button) showed [9c 7c] and won (313,970) with a straight, Seven high
Seat 3: Stipe (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: kice32 (big blind) showed [Td Ac] and lost with Ace Ten high
Seat 5: SAFETY SCHMEET folded before the Flop
Seat 6: theonewith24 folded before the Flop
Seat 7: MUMIN folded before the Flop
Seat 8: eLquA folded before the Flop
Seat 9: ranji folded before the Flop

This really sums up the last few months in a nutshell. I get deep in some tournaments where I have to be the favorite. I've played twice as many tournaments as any player. I have a higher ROI than any other player. I come in short fighting my way from some great plays. Granted I got lucky at times with KK vs AA, but seriously, I don't want $800. Knock me out 3 hours earlier so I don't have to deal with this garbage every tournament.

On a more serious note, the hardest part about playing poker as a professional and not one that has already achieved the status of the few out there is having to deal with these types of beats. With $10,000 to first place, I essentially salvage the last few months. With the chip stack I win in this 60/40, I can't ever see myself winning less than $4000 (3rd place). So in essence, I took a $3200 beat. Now I know I deal with these numbers all the time, but $3200 still means something to me. In the life of a player sustaining their bankroll on mostly tournaments, cashes like these build confidence. They also give me a chance to extend my bankroll a little more in tournaments coming up like the Bellagio and Caesar's where the six figure cashes are only 200-300 players away as opposed to 3,000-5,000 as online. Now, I know that I have run above expectation in big tournaments earlier in the year. I outright won a big Sunday tournament and a 100 rebuy and another big Saturday tournament. In fact, the amount of times I placed first was probably a little off. I think I should average around 3rd-4th in any given final table. So by the same token, these last place (9th) finishes in tournaments where I outlast over a thousand people suck.


On a good note, at least I'm not the Cleveland Browns.

Been busy

I've been all over the USA it seems in the past few months with what I would like to call a mediocre focus on poker. I always remember staring at a sign in Mrs. Stuckey's 11th grade English class that had a quote about mediocrity. Whenever I think about doing something not full go, I get nightmares about that sign. It's time to step up again in poker. October is a month where I get to mix in the live play again here in Las Vegas. There are two big events. Caesar's and Bellagio both host a good variety of tournaments. I'll be playing more events at Caesar's because of the variety of games available that I want to play (HORSE, PLO), and the lower buy ins which generally have given a better value in the past in terms of structure. The Bellagio has done a lot of great things with the structure in the recent months.


I've been working on getting my computer updated again. I found myself deep in the World Championship of Online Poker Event #1 when my hard drive crashed. I missed a good 15 minutes while getting my other computer up and trying to figure out what was wrong. I ended up getting 39th out of 7200+ players which was devastating considering the 214,000 first place money. I haven't been this close to this kind of score online in a while. To have the outside factors get shoved in my face was a little unnerving. Since then, I've played a few other events with only one cash in Razz. I really haven't been able to maintain a bankroll on Pokerstars, so I've been limited in playing lots of events in this series. It's really frustrating being in the USA and having what I would like to call an annoyance of trouble in getting money online. It's not hard getting it on, but it's more of an annoyance to a serious player looking to play in the biggest series online in history. A player used to be able to transfer back and forth from sites with ease using Neteller or Firepay, but since some spotty legislation has been passed by 4 members of the government, we are all inconvenienced.

In an ounce of good news today, a bill introduced by Barney Frank was marked up and passed through committee which would limit enforcement of the UIGEA to those sites accepting sports bets. This would be a great compromise if all sites could start doing business with the USA again and free flow of capital from site to site would work again. I ultimately stand with the Poker Players Alliance in hoping for taxation and regulation of online poker because I believe it's best for the long term interest of the industry and for the United States to finally gain their hands into the revenues of these sites. With the impending collapse of our economy, I can only imagine another revenue source would be welcomed.


I want to start putting some more poker stuff here soon, so if I get into some sticky situations in tournaments, I might start posting on the blog more. I'll try to keep updating more often while I'm playing live. Sometimes though when playing multiple tournaments online, it's hard to track all the huge hands.

Seriously Media Stop

I know we made a huge deal when Barack Obama said this because now that an inexperienced, sexy 42 year old woman is running and she tells jokes instead any talking about any real policy matters, it might offend people.

I will give this to Republicans. They are brilliant at running campaigns. They play perfectly to the fears of the ignorant base in the United States. This campaign should be a 70-30 lock by the Democrats after 8 years of failed governing that have led to a recession and economic crisis. They are almost up in some polls because they just flat out lie. How can you win a campaign based on pushing for the "Bridge to Nowhere" then in the next campaign claim you defeated it.


This campaign I'm extremely sick of it, and I wish the media would just report real news listed below.

1. Policy proposals
2. Polls once every month
3. Debate topics
4. Records of those running

Everything else is sludge that is usually just a giant lie. One side lies more than the other because they desperately have to in order to win.

Some Political Wisdom

When I was 5 years old, I had a President book. I studied this book day in and day out. I was simply fascinated by all the white men over the years of history that represented this country in its most important office. I learned about their wives. I learned about their cats. I learned about their big accomplishments and the records they held. I even knew most of their middle names. George Herbert Walker Bush was President at the time although my book only took me to Reagan. I liked knowing their political parties, and when I asked my parents what political party they voted for, I would never get a straight answer. They voted for the candidate that they thought was best. While I'm sure they leaned certain ways on some issues, I thought that was a reasonable response. I remember holding a mock election in 2nd grade where we voted for Perot, Clinton or Bush in the 1992 election. Of course, my friend Mike Z. led one mob chanting "Ross is the Boss" leading Perot to victory in our class. We couldn't tell you the first thing about the issues or Perot's ideas. We just wanted to be a mob. As I watched tonight, I couldn't help but think the same thing about the Republican party. In a convention night that heard several "USA" chants along with "Drill baby drill!" chants, I couldn't help but be embarrassed by a party that understands itself about as much as a 12 year old girl first experiencing her period.
I'll tell you flat out that I'm not going to bash the Republican party in this post anymore than they deserve. In fact, on many issues, I flat out agree with the Republican party. Free trade, limited government, and a balanced budget are among the strong Republican ideals I support. Wait a minute. The Republican party has done nothing of the sort over the last 8-15 years. The idea of a balanced budget and limited government has fled the main party platform for newer and fresher birds. Believe it or not Republicans, the last true patriot of the balanced budget was Bill Clinton. Don't believe me? See what Alan Greenspan says in book "The Age of Turbulence." It doesn't bother me all that much anyway that Republicans use this tenant as part of their fundamental ideology. What bothers me is that the Republican mob doesn't quite realize it. What bothers me is that there is not a single ounce of accountability in the Republican party. When McCain's ads pop up on TV, I think they are Obama ads. They say things like Washington is broke. John McCain knows that. Well if he knows that, where the hell has he been for the last 20 years? I'm so confused by the political process. We can no longer get an honest response from a politician about anything. Anytime a politician tries to give an honest response, we write it off as insecurity. When Obama tries to answer complicated questions with thorough responses that aren't 4 word answers, he's written off as indecisive or inexperienced. The fact that maybe some of his ideas are worth considering is out of the question. How can this Republican party still try to get away with a complete lack of non-partisanship? My main truth here is that Republicans essentially bash Democrats for raising taxes and increasing spending, but they just lower taxes and increase spending. So what is better for the long term health of the economy? I'll take the latter. What needs to happen in Washington is both parties have to agree on balancing the budget (an idea proposed at the beginning of W's term, but flatly rejected for the broad range of tax cuts that spiraled our government from surplus to deficit).

Now, my next qualm relates to the experience issue. I basically laugh the idea of the experience issue off most of the time. If someone has the leadership ability and potential to win a main party Presidential primary, then he or she has the ability to lead the country. You can't win the primaries without thorough support from major players across your party. These major players, superdelegates or major endorsements, don't give you support if you can't come across to them as knowledgeable about an array of topics and as a leader. How can you really prepare someone to be President of the United States anyway? The only real way is to have someone super close to a previous effective President. So by that notion Al Gore should have been super experienced. Was he? Probably not. Experience is just a word thrown around in a slogan. Just because you are old doesn't mean you are experienced either. An effective Senator doesn't necessariliy make them ready to be President. This goes for both Obama and McCain.


Now on to Sarah Palin. Let me first say that I'm excited that both genders are or have been represented in the primaries and now the main ticket. I'm also proud that both parties decided to put someone up other than a white guy. It makes me think that actual progress is taking place in our society. I would also like to say that it's not by mere chance that women or non white males had a chance. It was by knowledge, vision and well-run campaigns that caused both Hillary and Obama to be in the hunt. So let me tell you why Sarah Palin is on the Vice Presidential ticket. She's likeable. She's likeable. She's likeable. Since the Republicans have brought forth nothing of real value or substance over the last 8 years, it only makes sense to win back the masses through likeability. McCain is likeable. I mean I have liked the guy since he ran against George W. Bush in the primaries. I've liked him even when he was a huge proponent of the Iraq War. Who doesn't like a POW war veteran? Palin proved it again tonight when she spoke. She's likeable. The speechwriter made sure of it through everything she said. The GOP knows they are in trouble. They are up against a candidate that people are finally passionate about, Obama. This isn't John Kerry and this isn't Al Gore. It's someone that inspires not only Democrats, but Americans. That's why the GOP needed to announce a shocker after Obama's stellar acceptance speech where he didn't just attack Republicans, he laid out a vision for a greater United States of America. The Republicans don't offer that to people. Instead, they speak to only the people that see the world as a big globe of good vs. evil. They speak to the mob of people that will believe anything they say despite what the last 8 years have truthfully brought forth. You won't balance the budget Republicans. You haven't done it in 8 years. You have dragged our country down by failed policies right after 9/11. You have made it only possible and feasible to lump together support of country, support of war, and support of troops.

I can't remember who said this tonight at the convention, but it stuck with me. He said that the American people know that the Republicans are correct and strong on social values, but they have lost it on economic policy. He was truly correct about his second statement. As for the first statement, I don't think you can argue that abstinence-only education is correct. I don't think a debate will ever be settled in America about a women's right to choose. Despite the continuous scientific findings regarding the fact that the Earth is well over 6000 years old, we may never all agree on that. We probably won't all agree on what should be taught in schools creationism or evolution even though we should teach actual science. We won't agree on the right or wrong of homosexuals (even though I'm certain in 100 years, it will be a far better picture as all civil rights battles need to be fought). I quite frankly don't think that the majority of these "social values" even matter in the long term of political progress. What does matter is that the Republican party wakes up to the reality of its principles. Limited governemt and conservative economic policies can pretty much define what this party means politically. As for the other stuff, it should probably be sorted out on Sunday, or in the privacy of a worship group and family or with one's own personal conversation with God before bed. If we voted simply on what candidate's message is being the most honest, a value that I think everyone admires in a person, this race wouldn't even be close.