Monday +$660

Enjoyed the day. I woke up at about 8:45 in order to get to my interview with WZZK in Birmingham. It went really well. I interviewed with Don Dailey, and he's a really smart guy so it made for a good interview. That's supposed to air on his show the weekend of March 11. I came back and did an interview at my apartment with a girl named Tricia for Alabama Public Radio. That also went very well. My Crimson White article made the paper today, so that was pretty cool. I leave for Vienna at 2:30 p.m. tomorrow. I meet up with Jonathan in ATL and we fly Delta to Stuttgart, Germany. That is about a 10 hour flight. From there we have an 80 minute flight and should arrive just before 1 p.m. local time in Vienna. Vienna is 7 hours ahead of Central time, so update your clocks accordingly :) I am feeling really good about how I'm playing right now. Let's hope I can go back to back to back final tables :)

Poker:
24 $530s at 3/0/4/17 for -$1220

I also played 8 $215s because I accidentally clicked on the wrong buy-in. I beat those for +$1880 though.

212 $530s played now at 30/22/18/142.
ROI = 14% overall

Monday +$660

Enjoyed the day. I woke up at about 8:45 in order to get to my interview with WZZK in Birmingham. It went really well. I interviewed with Don Dailey, and he's a really smart guy so it made for a good interview. That's supposed to air on his show the weekend of March 11. I came back and did an interview at my apartment with a girl named Tricia for Alabama Public Radio. That also went very well. My Crimson White article made the paper today, so that was pretty cool. I fly out of Birmingham at 2:30 Central tomorrow. I meet up with Jonathan in Atlanta and we fly Delta to Stuttgart, Germany. That's about a 10 hour flight :( From there we have an 80 minute flight to Vienna and should arrive there at about 1 pm local time Wednesday. Vienna is 7 hours ahead of Central time, so update your house clocks accordingly :) I'm feeling very good about my game right now. Let's hope I can make it back to back to back final tables.

Poker:
24 $530s at 3/0/4/17 for -$1220

I also played 8 $215s because I accidentally clicked on the wrong buy-in. I beat those for +$1880 though.

212 $530s played now at 30/22/18/142.
ROI = 14% overall

Fun Weekend + Ship the cash

This weekend was lots of fun. A ton of us went out to The Filling Station again last night and had a blast. Today Katherine and I went and watched Bama beat Florida in basketball so that was fun :)

After the game I grinded 24 speed $530s at 5/2/3/14 for another sick day. +$5280. I am really liking the speed SnGs right now. They are basically the same thing as the regular $530s but the blind levels are only 5 minutes instead of 10. Overall I've played 188 of these now for +$16,893 over the course of 55 hours in 10 days. Good for 17% ROI.

Editor's note:
I've had some requests from some people to elaborate on the numbers that I post in the blog. First, I'll explain about the format that I express my SnG results in. It is important to note that all of the SnG tournaments have 10 players and the top 3 get paid. 1st place receives $2500, 2nd $1500 and 3rd $1000. When I give a list of numbers like a/b/c/d .....

a) Represents the number of first place finishes
b) Represents the number of second place finishes
c) Represents the number of third place finishes
d) Represents the number of finishes outside of the $

I guess the only other confusing lingo was ROI. ROI stands for return on investment. Poker players (and businessmen in general) like to track ROI numbers to see what kind of numbers they can produce compared to what kind of return they could get on their money from the bank, stock market, etc.

Here is how I derived the 17% ROI from the $530s...

I've played 188 $530s for a total investment of just short of $99,640. I have returned a profit of $16,893. $16893 is 17% of $99,640.

That is my math lesson for the day :) I just remembered I have a media interview with WZZK tomorrow morning in Birmingham at 10 am :( It's 1 am now, and I'm in Tuscaloosa. I'm going to have to get in bed soon. I have to come back to Tuscaloosa to do an interview with a girl from Alabama Public Radio at 2 pm. I fly out to Vienna Tuesday afternoon.

Friday

Yesterday was nice. I got in 2 $530s and finished 1st and 2nd for +$2960 more :) Katherine arrived at about 4 pm and we just hungout, went to eat Chinese food with Anthony and Heather, and then went to Matt and Chad's keg party. It was a blast seeing a lot of faces I hadn't seen in a while.

Running Gooooooot

Ok, I only got 16 tournaments in today, but that's ok I because I don't have a boss and can't get scolded. 2/3/1/10 over 16 for another $2020. Overall, I've beat these games for $9365 for 11% ROI over 160 games, which is yummy. Show that to your accountant. A group of us went over to Em Douglas's and Amy Bice's house and had lots of fun. We also went to The Filling Station. I'm basically done gambooooling until Sunday evening. I'm pretty excited about these $530s. I hope they don't dry up. Also found a radio interview I did with a station out of Santa Barbara, California. You can listen to it here. http://2005.ktyd.com/pages/timewasters.html. It is about halfway down the page and entitled "Drop out of school to play poker"

Some odds and ends:
I made some adjustments on this website. You don't have to be a member to post comments, so if you were too lazy to create an account now one would be a good time to comment on my blog. I'm always excited about seeing posts :) I also posted some of my friends' blogs on the "links" list to the right, so please check those out bc they are fascinating. One more thing, Troy Otto if you read this post your email address. I got your comment, but would like to stay in touch and don't have contact info.

It's like 5 AM. I'm going to beddddddddddd.

Ship the dough, $8280

Wowowowow! What a day! I didn't wake up until 2 p.m. because I got in bed late the night before. Did an interview with The Crimson White over the phone and then began working. I played 3 rounds and then went to eat some Chinese food with Ant. After we ate we went by Circuit City because he had to pick up something. While I was there I picked up my first digital camera. It is a black Panasonic and should be sweeeeet. We also went by the pet store, and I got a bunch of stuff that I needed for my aquarium. We came back, I played another round, and then Ant and I spent about 90 minutes setting up the aquarium. It was actually ALOT of work. We had to mix like 50 gallons of water with salt and make sure its salinity was correct. I went over to Chris Balzli's and had a few drinks and played pool. That was fun stuff.

Now on to what was one of my best statistical online poker days ever...

I played my 24 $530s at a delicious 7/1/2/14 for $8280. Mannnn did I need that after yesterday's disaster. 144 $530s played now at +$7202 overall. Not a bad week :) Good for 9% ROI. I'm happy. It's 3:30 am. Goodnight.

Tuesday

Shitty day. Played the $530s at 2/1/2/19 for -$4220. Ooook so now I am down in this experiment over 120 games which is kind of cause for concern. -$1318 over $63,600 investment for -2% ROI. Oh well.

Outside of poker was fun today though. Did some media stuff with Bham News and Tuscaloosa News. Also went to Dreamland with my Dad. Tomorrow I'm doing an interview with The University of Alabama's newspaper, The Crimson White. It will be in the CW on Thursday. Katherine is coming in town Friday, so I'm very excited!!

Sad note...Bama lost heartbreaker to Arkansas tonight :(

Monday

Very good day again today. 24 $530s at +$2480 (19% ROI). I'm about one-third of the way done with my $530 experiment of 300 games. Overall +$2642 over 96 games. That's good for 5% ROI, which I can handle.

Not much new outside of poker. Finally got my flight to Fort Lauderdale booked tonight. That took about 2 hours of frustration. I leave for Vienna in one week and can't wait!

Weekend

New Orleans was amazzzzzzzzzing. We had a lot of fun and brought back a lot of really random stories.

Grinded out 20 more $530s today. I've played 72 now at 8/8/5/51 for a net loss of $660. After rakeback though I am +$31. Insane. Over 4 days I gamble with almost $40,000 and I'm up $31. Hopefully these games will run with the frequency that they have been, and I can get 140-150 of them in this week for + $8 grand or so. Other than that, not much on the schedule this week. I'll try to go to the gym each day and get my 6 hours of work in each day. That's all. Goodnight.

SS

Solid Friday

Spent the last 6 hours playing $535s in sets of 4. Played 23 of them at 4/2/1/16 and agreed to make a deal in one other with THE__D__RY when we were heads up for another $1520. Grand total of +$3315 on the day. I've played 48 of these now for a net loss of $424 which means I am extremely even. I've crunched some numbers, and I can pretty easily make $26-$28k a month if I play 150 of these a week. This won't be hard at all. I'm starting to like these things a lot.

:(

Ok I made a run at the new $530 SnG's on party last night from 10 pm to 4 am. Things didn't go well. I only played 24 of them and obviously that is an extremely small sample. The structure has been changed, so it's going to take some getting used to. I played it at 1/2/3/18 :( I'm going to get 300-500 of these games in before I determine whether it is +EV or not. I think it goes without saying that it will be over the long term.

As for the rest of the day, I have to go get a license plate for the Tahoe. Other than that I'll probably just relax before we leave for New Orleans tomorrow morning.

Auburn

Valentine's Day was a lotta fun. Katherine and I went to a nice Italian restaurant and it was amazing! It's Thursday now, and I'm leaving for Birmingham tonight. I've gotta get a license plate for the tahoe, so that's what I'll be doing tomorrow. I've just been hangin' out with people in Aub. the last few days, so I haven't gotten much work done. I played twelve 215s yesterday at 1/1/3/7 for +$220, so that was nice. Some friends and I are going to New Orleans on Saturday to spend the day and night there. I'm looking forward to that...

Kicking back

It's Monday. 7 pm. I didn't do much yesterday. Watched a lot of the Olympics again and then watched Anchorman with Anthony last night. I went to the gym today, but have basically been kicking back otherwise. It took about 2 hours to organize, but Jonathan "XxTabiasxX" Little and I finally organized a flight to Vienna. He is flying from Pensacola to ATL and I'm flying from Birmingham to ATL. We'll meet in ATL and be on the same flight to Stuttgart, Germany. From there we fly direct to Vienna. It's really nice to get away from the stress of high stakes gaming. I'm headed down to Auburn tomorrow to go to dinner with my friend, Katherine. That should be a lotta fun. I'm looking forward to it. Time to watch epic sports betting movie, Two for the Money...

Blah day

Very uneventful Saturday. Watched a lot of the Olympics and played lots of poker and again had a bad day. I finished 17th out of 436 in a 100-9 MTT on party and got royally screwed when JJ went down to 44. Pretty much a $17k swing. Airballed a WSOP main event and Ultimatebet Aruba Classic satellite. I am going to take 3 days off, and will resume working on Wednesday, February 15. I'm done gambooooling with $10/20 NL and the big SnG's. I'm going back to my bread and butter of $200+15. I will probably play 30 200-15s per day (5 hours) starting Wednesday. I'll occasionally play MTT as well, but I need to get back into some kind of schedule and pattern before I go insane.

Cruising

Strange day. I had a horrible day for 8 hours and then won a cruise step 5 to win the seat on the cruise. I'm very pumped about winning the cruise, but pretty disappointed about what's happening online outside of that. I'm not worried though. I'm going to take a few days off because a lot of stress has been lifted off of my shoulders. The cruise is going to be a blast. It's 10:00 and time to go hang out with some friends.

Online struggles continue...

this is pretty sick...$2685 invested in satellites tonight with no seat. Alsodidn't cash in super or the stars $150. Dumb stuff keeps happening. People always wake up with monsters when I shove AQ and AJ. Sunday is last day to win cruise seat, so I better win one out of the next 3 tries.

OT Thriller

I made it back in time for the second half of the Vandy @ Bama game and it was a good thing I did. Bama won in overtime after tying the game in regulation by traveling the length of the court and dunking the ball as the 2nd half clock expired. Played a cruise step 4 and cruise step 3 last night, and I continue to get screwed. Apparently it is common practice to limp call off all of your chips with QTcc for these donks. Tonight (Thursday) I'm going to try to satellite into the EWSOP in Vienna and continue to try cruise steps.

Saved by Randali

So I was in for $4677 with still no cruise seat and proposed to chop a cruise step 5 with Randall "Randali" McCowan. He won it for $13,500 so I get $6750, thank God. So now I am +2000 in qualifying for the cruise, so I could virtually get paid to go on the cruise if i qualify quickly. I will update my status later. I'm going to play a few more tonight.

Sidenote: I think I'm gonna go buy a 2005 Chevy Tahoe tomorrow. Cheers.

Elusive Cruise

Still no luck with this cruise. $4677 invested and only a step 4 freeroll remaining. Still lots of potential left though. I'm going to win the step 4 tomorrow and then take the step 5 down. Also, I have a pending business deal that could be profitable.

Super Bowl XL

Super Bowl Sunday was fun. Anthony and I had about 5 friends over to watch the game on the big screen. I really wanted Seattle to win because Shaun Alexander is from The University of Alabama, but oh well. I spent about 4-5 hours today trying to qualify for the cruise via steps on partypoker with no luck. I'm in for $2242 and have a freeroll to step 3 and 3 freerolls to step 1 :( The package is worth $13,500 though so if I get in for $6000 or less I'm happy. I've got some business stuff I've gotta do today, and I'm gonna get a haircut, finally. Looking forward to kicking back and relaxing this week.

Heads up story...

Ok. The website that was following the tournament did a horrible job, so I'm going to make some corrections about what really happened. We got heads up and Chris had 760,000 to my 260,000. About 3:1. Before we even started playing I asked him if he wanted to talk. You have to talk about deals off of the mic and the camera, so they held up the game while we went outside. The rule is you have to leave $10,000 on the table. Chris, a 38 year old logger from Clarksville, TN, proposed the following deal to me: He wanted to start with base numbers of him taking $128,000 and me taking $95,000. Since we have to leave $10,000 on the table though...if I lost the heads up match then he would get $133,000 and I'd get $90,000. Keep in mind second prize is $75,000. With a 3:1 chip disadvantage I'm supposed to lose, so I could basically take $90,000 and gain $15,000 or play him straight up, no deal, for $73,000 more. That is almost 5:1 to play for and I was only a 3:1 chip disadvantage so it makes sense to just play him. I proposed that we start with a base of $100,000/$123,000 and if I won then I'd get $105 and if I lost I'd get $95,000. His wife talked him out of the deal though after we'd almost agreed to it :( I was 10 times better than him, without question, and I knew if I could double once then I could easily outplay him when we had identical chip stacks. Unfortunately he caught me on a big bluff about 15 hands into heads up. I was down to 93,000. He limped for 6,000 total and I shoved all 93,000 in with JJ. The guy calls me with Q7o somehow, lol. I double through. A few hands later I doubled through again. I made it 18k from the button with AQo and he made it 50k. I shoved in 180,000 and he calls me so quick my head spins and I think he has AK or better. Again, I'm stunned when he shows down A4dd. I double through again and I'm up to about 400,000. We traded a few blind steals until the final hand went down. I picked up QcJs on the button and made it 18k. He calls. The guy didn't lay down a hand to one of my button raises the entire heads up. The flop is a less than stellar AdTd9d. He checks and I bet 20,000. He calls. That put the pot at 78,000. The turn was my miracle card, the 8 of hearts. I've got top straight now and only trail him if he flopped a flush. He checks and I ponder for about 90 seconds and then bet 75,000. He ponders and finally pushes in 200,000. I say all-in instantly for 337,000. The website incorrectly said that we had the money in on the flop. We got the money in on the turn. The guy thinks for almost 5 minutes and finally calls me with 9s5d. This guy is so bad that I'm pretty sure he doesn't even understand pot odds, but he was getting 4.5:1 to make the call. If he is 100% sure that any diamond is good than he is a 4:1 underdog to win the hand and needs to be getting atleast that much on his call for it to be worth it. Obviously he could be drawing dead, too. Of course he calls though and I let out an F bomb that you could have heard in Birmingham when he spikes a miracle 6 of diamonds on the river. If I win that pot I'd've been at 750k in chips and I have the title. I can't complain though. You can only make the correct decision and if you get outdrawn you get outdrawn. I could tell he was spent and just wanted to gamble to try to take me out.

Sidenote: I got a really, really sweet Silver runner-up ring that is currently getting resized and FedEx'd to me. The Bahamas was absolutely amazing. I wish I could've spent more time outside, but I'll take the $75,000 for a tradeoff. We struck up another contingency of about 6-8 guys and just had a blast. I'm pretty sure that I'm the first kid in history to make 2 final tables in Main Events before the age of 21. Next on the agenda is Vienna, Austria and the PPM V cruise of the Caribbean. Both of those start in March and I'm going to try to qualify for both. I get to kick back for a month, which is going to be nice. I'll continue blogging at this sites with online updates and Int'l tournaments that I've qualified for if anyone is interested in reading. Also...I'm looking for a sponsor if anyone is interested :)

Why?

I got heads up at a 3.5:1 chip disadvantage and fell down to a 10:1 disadvantage before I started rallying. I get all my chips in as a 4:1 favorite on the turn and a chance to take a 3:1 chip advantage, but of course the clown pulls a miracle diamond river after making a horrible call. I'll have more details later. I'm going to abuse alcohol until I leave at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow.

Dinner break

Just picked up a couple huge pots. We're 4 handed and I'm second in chips with $332,000. The small stack has just about 65,000. We have about 50 minutes and then we'll resume at 5:50 eastern.

Second break

Just got to second break. I slipped a little bit, but I'm still very strong at $200,100. The chip leader has an unbelievable $500k stack, and there is a very short stack. Six players remain.

Forgot

7 players left.

Chip leader

I'd fallen down to 110,000 and an amazing hand came up 15 min ago. I had AA and made it 6500 UTG. BB made it 20, i make it 55, he says all-in for 90k and i call instantly. He has KK. Flop all blanks. Turn is the fucking king! I river the Ace though! Unbelievable.

adsklfjdalkf

I copied the third place payout down wrong. I'm not sure what it is. Something like $56,000 I think. I don't plan on finishing third though :)

Payout structure

It's 10:30 a.m. eastern right now. We start in about 90 minutes. Here is the payout structure:

1st...$148,614
2nd...$75,265
3rd...$34,997
4th...$43,146
5th...$34,997
6th...$28,764
7th...$23,970
8th...$19,176
9th...$14,383

Anything less than first is going to be a huge disappointment. I will update my status after the first 90 minute level, at about 1:30 eastern/12:30 central

Payout structure

It's 10:30 a.m. eastern right now. We start in about 90 minutes. Here is the payout structure:

1st...$148,614
2nd...$75,265
3rd...$34,997
4th...$43,146
5th...$34,997
6th...$28,764
7th...$23,970
8th...$19,176
9th...$14,383

Anything less than first is going to be a huge disappointment. I will update my status after the first 90 minute level, at about 1:30 eastern/12:30 central

Back to Back Final Tables!

Yessssssss! I did it. I finished the day at $190,000 exactly and we start the final table of 9 at 12:00 eastern tomorrow. I am second overall in chips. First place is 140,000 and I think I have a really, really good chance of taking it. I left the payout structure in my room. I will post all 9 spot payouts in the morning. It's hard to put my excitement into words. I really, really want the title.

Sidenote: Some of my final table opponents include my good friend Will "Luvmyaceking" Erickson, Raymi Sanchez (Just won $100,000 in the speed NL tournament in Australia), Partypoker multi-table great Eric "Basebaldy" Baldwin, and a tricky 26 year old law student from Michigan State. It's going to be a fun ride. Also, I've thought about it, and I'm not going to be interested in making any deals at the final table unless I'm trailing 65/35 or worse and we're heads up. I feel like I am the best player left in the field. Raymi Sanchez is very, very good, but he is fairly shortstacked.

11 remaining

Just got back from dinner. 3rd overall with 165k and 11 players remaining. We play down to final table of 9.

15 players remain

I'm looking very good with 85,000 and 15 players to go. Average is 68,000 but there are probably only 4 or 5 players to with more chips than me. We are one away from the bubble and we've been at it for 30 minutes. 10th-14th make like $5400, I think. Again, we're playing down to 9 today.

Slipped a bit

Down to 46,400 after the first 90 minutes. 21 players left. We play down to 9 today and the top 14 get paid.

Chalk it up

We got down to 27 about two hours ago, and I finished the day at $59,900 in chips. That is good for probably 4th or 5th overall. 14 places pay. I can't remember the structure, but I think 10th-14th pays something like $5800. I'm playing to win the thing for $140,000 though, of course. On the 5th hand of the day I picked up about 17,000 in chips with AA vs 45 on a final, scary board of 667TJ so that was great momentum. Later I won a $20,000 pot with AQ vs 88 when a short-stack was all-in preflop. We only played 2 levels on the day and I really didn't get involved much in level 2. There was a maniac at our table who is now the overall chipleader at $114,000. He was doing lots of raising, so I was just trying to trap him. I never could pick up a hand though.

We just got done eating at a very nice Italian restaurant. I think we're gonna go hang out in the spa for a bit and then have some drinks at a bar/club in the casino. I'm feeling very, very good about how I'm playing and think I have a great shot at final tabling it.

Rolling

More than doubled up in first 90 minutes today. I'm at 56,925. I'll be able to update every 90 minutes because I brought my laptop downstairs with me. 40 players left we're playing down to 27 today. I'm probably 3rd or 4th overall.

Solid day 1

I finished the day at $26,050 in chips. We had 102 players start the tournament and are now down to 54. The average is $18,888. I built the $10,000 up to about $15,000 and lost KK vs AKdd. All the money was in preflop and the chick sucked out a flush on the river :( I was down to about 8,000 and stayed there for about 20 minutes until I doubled through with the nuts (QT) on a final board of J94A8 against 99. That put me at about 17,000 and I stayed right about there until I donked off about 8,000 chips with 44 vs AK all in preflop and the guy flopped me into trouble, Kxx. A few rounds later there was a limper for 200 and I made it 1000 straight with AKhh. I flopped the mortal nuts with 923 all hearts. I could hardly contain myself. The limp/caller led at me for 3000 and I just flat called. He led for 3000 of my last 7500 on a black blank turn card and again I just called. On the river he pushes me all-in for my last 4500 and I instacall and double through. I grinded out a bit more and got as high as about 31,000 but ended up at $26,050. We start at 2 p.m. eastern tomorrow. I'm feeling really, really good about how I'm playing and think I'm gonna final table it again :)

Sidenote: There is some updated info available at bahamaspokerblog.com if anyone is interested in following it.