Congrats to TheOSU!

No, this is not to congratulate anything Ohio State has done, this is to congratulate THEOSU on winning a seat to the WSOP Main Event through Full Tilt. Now we all look forward to a better finish this year. He's got the game to do well. I'm hoping several more of my poker friends will win seats as well.

Personally I will not be attempting to qualify for a WSOP a lot. While I'd like to win a seat, I don't think my game justifies the possible investment required. I'm going to try a few times but will not be focusing a lot of energy or money on it. If my game continues to improve I will try harder next year to qualify.

Out First Again

Friday was my turn to host the home game. Luckily I won't have to host for another six weeks as we have a three person rotation. Lucky you ask? Why yes. Apparently I am destined to bust out first when I host the game. Twice in a row now I have busted out first in my own home game. Sort of irritating. I'm not overly surprised by it since the competition is pretty darn good for a home game. The hand that hurt me is when my ppT lost to Jordan's ppA when she smooth called my preflop raise and the board was only eight high. Luckily the board had some straigt possibilities so I did notgo broke. I should just fold any hand that Jordan is in with me since she always kicks my butt. She's a heck of a player so I shouldn't be surprised but for some reason, she seems to have my number. Anyway, after losing that hand, I was shortstacked and couldn't double up. At least I didn't have ppQ cracked twice like TheMills did. It was hard not to laugh. Online a person would claim the RNG was rigged! As usual, Friday night was a fun time and I'm looking to do better in two weeks when Terry hosts. I'm going to try and be sober for that one. Last time he hosted I had a few drinks before hand which I normally don't like to do when I play poker.

The dogs got a bath this weekend and now smell clean. It's hard in winter time because it takes so long for them to dry off. I don't want them going outside when its frigid out if they are a little wet. This weekend was warm enough though.

Monday night pool is tonight, hopefully it will get done early enough that I can get a little poker in this evening. I need to make some more coin since I cashed some out to pay for my Korn concert tickets and the darts I ordered. I'm going to try and force the wife to go out every other Wednesday to throw some darts and spend some time together.

Oh, I played in the PSO Scoop 1k freeroll. Made money early on ppA, lost most if the next hand with ppK! (yes, they do suck Jim!) I can't say I was really focused for this event. The only real money is for first or second and then first only pays out 270 or so. It's a lot of time invested so I couldn't give it my undivided attention. I didn't even play in the evening freeroll as I didn't want to spend the time on it.

Full Tilt Double Stack

Ok, less than four hours sleep=suck. Winning $833 for a second place finish does not suck! The double stack tournament is a $10+1 on Full Tilt where you start with 3000 in chips instead of 1500. The only buy-in for this amount that I have seen is the 10+1. That doesn't mean that there aren't more, just that is all I have seen. I like this structure as it gives you more opportunities to play some speculative hands in comparison to the standard starting size. I started this tournament at 8 PM central. 5 hours later it was over sometime after 1 AM. Then between the caffeine and excitement, sleep was out of the question. Of course, I have to get up for work so I don't get to sleep in either. I got lucky early on when my ppQ ran into a flopped set of eights on a J high board. I ended up rivering a straight and that was the only time I had to get lucky. Playing gapped connectors rock btw. I raised from the CO-1 with 79h, the button called and the blinds fold. I flop the nut straight, check call since this guy is fairly aggressive. Turn comes a Q, I check raise all-in and he calls with his AQ. I believe he said something along the lines of "unreal". Although you can't see or hear people's disgust in online chat, I could swear I heard it this time! heh. I played a pretty solid tournament, once again not fantastic but not bad either. It was crazy at the final table. I was pretty card dead the entire time. Two people were busting folks out left and right though, making me more money as I moved up a spot or two every time. I was the short stack with 7 or so left and laughed to myself every time I moved up. Eventually it got down to the two player busters and myself. I was short 3 or 4:1 to the second stack. I was extremely happy when they got into it after a bit and one eventually busted the other, moving me from 3rd place money of 605 to at least second place money of 833. Heads up I was at a huge chip disadvantage. I pretty much pushed everytime, doubled up once, tried to bluff at an Ace high flop that didn't work and eventually busted with Q8 vs. A4 on a AQx flop. He didn't play it like he had an ace but thats ok, it was late and I needed chips. I possibly could have nickel and dimed this guy but with the time already invested and the huge stack discrepancy, I was more than satisfied with the outcome.