Mission WSOP

It’s been a long weekend if you count the weekend starting on Thanksgiving.  I did the Black Friday thing… and then worked that day.  Not a very bright move there.  The line in Kohl’s was so long that it took over an hour to navigate through it.  I can’t wait to make fried pickles with my deep fryer.

I have been messing with SharkScope all weekend and I really think it is improving my success rate in Sit & Gos… I still don’t know if it worth $15/month.  We’ll see!

I had the new Double Deep pizza from Pizza Hut… tasty, tasty!  It is not very neat and tidy though.  I’m a sucker for advertising.

The Eagles almost pulled off the upset of the decade but the Patriots were just too much.  Even better is that the Eagles ALMOST did it without Donovan McNabb.  I lifted my anti-Eagles ban with AJ Feely at the helm and McNabb out… it almost happened and the Eagles were fun to watch again.  The Eagles look a whole lot better without McNabb leading the charge.

I got a new phone on Friday.  My old phone was acting up and I went into the AT&T store to find out about how my insurance works.  The next thing I know we’re talking about an upgrade and I’m shopping phones.  The saleswoman shows me a Blackberry Curve 8310… a $500 piece of technology that was very impressive.  Better still the Curve was on sale for a mere $100.  After about 30 minutes of pondering while I visited one of my stores, I returned to the store and made the purchase.  Since getting it, I have been floored by the phone… sure, it should be just a phone but it’s not.  So far, I’m very happy with my purchase and would recommend getting one if you are shopping for a phone.

I was over $1600 but have took a few steps backward and am now sitting around $1575.  Speaking of my online poker escapades… on Saturday, there was a Surfers Poker event on Poker Stars that I participated in.  After I was knocked out, I hung around and there was a lot of chatting going on… at one point, one of the players was all-in and I decided to call for the card he needed, a 7, by typing it over and over again.  Wouldn’t you know that someone reported me and now I’m on the watch list for poor chat behavior.  It’s pretty sad that someone felt the need to report such behavior on a site where we are supposed to be friendly.

As promised in the title… here is a picture of the coolest Christmas decoration EVER!!!

My blogging has been slowed recently by other distractions like that four-letter ‘W’ word and my poker has been limited as well.  I have, however, had some minor success and been able to slightly increase my bankroll but still have not eclipsed the $1600 benchmark.

What I can’t figure out is why am I so much more successful on Full Tilt than I am on Poker Stars.  I made another final table in my favorite tournament last night… the $1 Razz Tournament (called The Ferguson) on Full Tilt.  I finished 4th for the 2nd week in a row and this time it was out of 509 players.  I won $38 which is a 3800% ROI.

Over the weekend, I struggled in the Razz tournament for the Team Event despite being the early chip leader.  However, Poker Stars extremely slow structure allowed some players to dig out of their holes and I slowly fell back to the pack and finished 6th.  My last chance in the Team Event I was able to finish 3rd in the Hold’em event and score 7 points for my team.  My other team member, lapchong, finished 2nd and we were able to finish 2nd overall in the team event.  It was where I saw us finishing as we had some holes but if I would have played better in the Stud and Razz, we might have had a real shot at taking it down.

What was Cam Cameron thinking on Sunday?  My +10 Dolphins bet looked like a lock at halftime but than a series of unfortunate events (including the ineffective Donovan McNabb going down) led the Eagles to a resurgence in the second half and the Dolphins found themselves down 10.  On 4th & Goal with about 5 minutes to go, Cameron not only goes for it on 4th down instead of taking the 3 points and getting within one score but also runs a horrible sweep play where no one blocks and the Eagles put up a great goal line stand.  The game ended as a push so I didn’t lose anything but it was frustrating.  I got a push in the Browns game too after that goofy end of regulation play… quite a bizarre weekend.  At least I was able to pick up one win with the Vikings over the Raiders and I stayed away from the Titans on Monday night for a small profit.  Sports betting is not good for the heart.

Jimmy Rollins was announced as the National League MVP today… a well deserved reward for the greatest short stop in Phillies history and a fun player to watch.  I’m really looking forward to baseball season to see if this team can improve.

I was promoted today on the Surfers Poker Forum to Green Room access granted.  There’s only 10 of us and I’ve only been on there since August.  I guess I’m adding to the value of the forum.  I’ve only been on there since August and I think I’ve posted 1100+ times… that’s pretty disturbing when you think about it.  I think I average about 10 posts a day.  I really find it to be more of a credit to the forum and not me because the people on there are fun to interact with.  I am on many forums and rarely post on others… this one just always catches my attention.

This holiday season is going to be rough… I have no idea what anyone wants and I always wait until the last minute. 

Y2J, Chris Jericho, is back on WWE.  I can’t believe I still watch wrestling every week and was slowly starting to lose interest with John Cena gone.  Jericho returning should be enough to keep me entertained until the Royal Rumble and then I’m hooked until Wrestlemania.

Heroes is getting really good again… it’s about time!  The hero/villain who bleeds black from her eyes was not on last week… that’s good for me.  George Takaei was back on as Hiro’s dad but I think he is really killed off this time.  It’s tough to say with there always being an opportunity to do some time travel. 

Since I haven’t done this in a while:

GoogleTrends Hot List - 11/20/07 @ 8 PM

• Lakers trade
  It didn’t take moving Kobe for a Lakers move to register on GoogleTrends.  Brian Cook and Maurice Evans to Orlando for Trevor Ariza.  Ariza is a former UCLA product and is probably going to be a popular move with the fans. 
• Johnny Estrada
  Estrada was traded to the Mets for pitcher Guillermo Mota today by the Brewers.  (Is everyone on Google while they watch SportsCenter?)  It looks like Estrada will join the ranks of the many in baseball who play for a number of teams.  Estrada, originally a Phillies product, will be suiting up for his 5th team in 8 seasons come opening day.  This gives me an opportunity to say that I don’t like the Mets and I hope they get off to a great start in ‘08 only to crumble and finish a game out like they did this year.
• Trevor Ariza
  The key player in the Lakers-Magic trade today. 
• Monique Idlett
  Have a baby, die or get engaged and you are almost a lock for the GoogleTrends list.  Idlett gpt engaged to uber-producer Timbaland AND they had a baby.  It’s a ‘two-for-one’ Hot Lister. 
• Oprah’s favorite things
  Oprah makes Christmas come early for whomever she decides to grant most favoritest product status.  This year it is the LG HDTV Refrigerator, the Clarisonic (a skin care device), the Scrabble Premiere edition, The Pillars Of The Earth by Ken Follett, a $100 panini press and a whole bunch of other crap no one needs… but you’ll click on Oprah’s Favorite Things anyway… sucker!
• Scott McClellan
  In his memoirs, former White House press secretary admits he was a mere pawn of the public deception machine that was the Bush Presidency.  I have no respect for these people who do such a thing and then wait on the information until they can profit from their inability to do the right thing at the right time.  Thanks, Scott for becoming this week’s Captain Obvious!
• Clarisonic
  One of Oprah’s Favorite Things!  Can someone write Oprah and tell her about my blog and see if she’ll declare it one of her favorite things… I really didn’t mean the sucker comment, I swear!!!
• toy watch
  Another day, another dangerous toy!  It reminds me of that SNL skit with Dan Akroyd with the dangerous toys… Bag O’ Glass… good stuff!
• Planet Earth DVD
  On behalf of the Discovery Channel store, I would like to thank Oprah for her designation of this product as one of her favorite things.  I can see the mass-manufacturing of that sticker now to be thrown on a box.
• Sweet Caroline lyrics
  Neil Diamond revealed that his muse for this song was Caroline Kennedy.  I also learned that the BOMP, BOMP, BAH is not actually in the lyrics at all.  Who knew?

Somehow, I’ve managed to keep the bankroll right at $1500 despite bad beat after bad beat after bad beat after bad beat.  I have exited on the first hand of a few tournaments and even in my one big cash of the weekend AJ couldn’t beat KJ. 

Despite the frustrations and the failure to live up to being #2 pick in the Surfers Team Event so far, I still have a shot to salvage the weekend on Sunday.

I watched ‘Live Free Or Die Hard’… it was very average.  I was nowhere near the edge of my seat.  I took the Saltine Challenge and failed… despite my best efforts, I could not eat 6 Saltines in 60 seconds.  I think the best I did was 4 1/2. 

Later today, I’ll be playing in the Razz Team Event while watching the Eagles game.  I have a funny feeling that the Eagles will give Miami their first win of the year.  I am loving the Dolphins +10 and have a weird feeling it could be a loss for the Eagles.  To be safe, though, I’ll take the points.

Saturday and Sunday were fairly heavy poker days but not for buy-in tournaments and after a disappointing Saturday it was nice to recover on Sunday with a tournament win in the Surfers Poker After Dark Freeroll.  The win was worth $20 and an early lead in the PAD competition on Surfers.  Unfortunately, my Saturday results were tough to swallow falling short in the Silver $15k Freeroll and The Full Tilt Forum Freeroll.  I finished abruptly in the Silver Freeroll when AK walked into Aces and barely missed the "money" in the Full Tilt Forum Freeroll.  Then, my home game cash streak was snapped uneventfully when I was knocked out in 11th place out of 12 players… my worst finish in over a year.

Since then, work has consumed my time and I’ve only been able to play sparingly but with excellent results.  On Monday, I finished 4th in the $1 Ferguson Razz Tournament on Full Tilt for $28.37 and last night I was able to win two Sit & Gos (one PL Omaha Hi and one Razz) for a total of $20 profit.

Finally, this upcoming weekend, the 2nd Surfers Poker Team Event is taking place.  I was not part of the first Team Event and was a little surprised to see that I was the second overall pick in the Draft.  I was drafted to Ouchbadbeat’s team and I think that we have a pretty decent team going into the event this weekend.  There are 5 tournaments played with us being allowed to enter two players into each of the first 4 events and the 5th event being able to be played by everyone.  It looks like I might be playing the Razz and the Stud events but we’ll see.

GoogleTrends Hot List 11/14/07 @ 7:15 AM

• AnnaLynne McCord
  A new show that is airing on the MyNetworkTV network called "American Heiress" features this new starlet.  She’s pretty hot… I expect to see her more often.
• Justin Chatwin
  The "Dragonball" movie is coming!  It looks like Chatwin will play Goku… and I can’t feign interest anymore… didn’t the interest in this die yet???
• iamonmtv.com
  The "Shot At Love With Tila Tequila" home page.  Her next web site might be my15minutesarealmostup.com
• Brandi Ryan
  One of the more popular contestants on the "Shot At Love With Tila Tequila" show.  I’d tell you what that means but I would have to then pretend that I give a crap.
• Anna Lynne McCord
  A variation on the first search on the Hot List for the new hot girl in town.
• Fergie sex tape
  Big girls don’t cry but they do make sex tapes.  I guess we are going to get to see what it looks like when Fergie’s london bridge goes falling down… not just hear it!
• auctioneer
  A new add-on for the World Of Warcraft game has caused a searching frenzy.  I’m surprised I didn’t hear about it at my most recent home game.
• wow patch 2.3 download
  Talk about a specific search to hit the radar!  More evidence of how popular that goofy game is.
• John Ziegler
  The host of a Los Angeles radio show is popular these days on Google.  Too bad it took his show airing for the last time to make that dubious distinction.
• blacksite area 51
  The new First Person Shooter in video game land.  The graphics look pretty impressive.  I’d rather play Smackdown vs. Raw 2008 though… just a personal preference.

The bankroll is at $1500 which puts me at 75% of my bare minimum goal.  I had a few Sit & Go cashes mixed in with a few bad beats.

I have a full slate this weekend:

2:45 PM Saturday -> Full Tilt 100k Full Tilt Poker Points Freeroll (Qualified during the week)

3:00 PM Saturday -> Full Tilt $15,000 Silver Iron Man Freeroll (Qualified in October)

9:00 PM Saturday -> LAPT Hold’em Eliminator Tournament - Check out the website for more details: LAPT Home Page

2:00 PM Sunday -> Surfers Poker Poker After Dark Freeroll

Only the home game costs any $$$ and I have a shot to win up to $2k.  Plus, I could really pull away on the leaderboard at my home game.

I attached a picture of my SharkScope Sit & Go graph.  I am close to my highest point… since July I went from -$325 to +$65.  I have done most of my damage playing PL Omaha Hi Sit & Gos and sometimes don’t even have to play very many hands to get into the money.

GoogleTrends Hot List - 11/10/2007 @ 4:15 AM

• Natavia Lowery
  Natavia Lowery confessed to 2nd degree murder of her boss, Linda Stein, realtor to the stars.  Lowery beat Stein to death with a yoga stick after Stein shoved the yoga stick in her face.
• Lee Haney
  He has 4 steps to safe weight loss.  (1) Cleanse and detox for 7 days.  (2) Use supplements to enhance body’s metabolism.  (3) Increase activity. (4) Cut calorie intake by 250/day.  Sounds good to me.
• My Life lyrics
  The theme to Bossom Buddies made Google Trends HotList… I’m looking for the marathon now.  Billy Joel must be proud!
• Steve Barry s
  Most likely a search for the new clothing store: Steve & Barry’s.  Extremely cheap clothing store specializing in university-wear but expanding to low cost options that are definately in style.  This is probably one of my favorite stores around.  I look forward to them expanding across the country… and hopefully getting closer to where I live than Franklin Mills Mall.
• Kyle Dunnigan
  Stand-up comedian who recently appeared on Comedy Central.  Haven’t seen ‘em… probably not funny (it’s a safe bet anymore).
• Wizard Of Us hanging
  The urban legend still rages on and has now hit Google Trends.
• Ray Mancini
  ESPN will be showing a documentary on Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini.  That’s about all I got on this one.
• pupeteer tony
  The only thing referred to that ties into this search is that there is a musical comedy featuring "full puppet nudity".
• Billy Joel my life lyrics
  This week on "The Next Great American Band" is all Billy Joel covers… up until this point, I had no interest in watching the show but now I want to watch it.
• Judy Garland
  A play about her called "End Of The Rainbow" is playing in New Zealand.  A three-night trip to Auckland is ONLY $2033… maybe I’ll go!

I had a solid performance tonight… here were my results:

• Finished 21st in the $4,000 Guaranteed HORSE tournament on Full Tilt - $56.16 cash & $30.16 PROFIT
• Finished 18th in the $1 Ferguson RAZZ tournament on Full Tilt - $3.18 & $2.18 PROFIT
• Finished 2nd in a $1.20 45-Player SnG on Poker Stars - $10 & $8.80 PROFIT
• Played 30 minutes of $0.25/$0.50 NLHE on Full Tilt - Cashed out for a $51.30 PROFIT

The only setback of the night was in the MBJWDOP Limit Omaha Hi/Lo where I went out quickly. ($5.50 Buy-In)

The bankroll is now at $1470 and I was seriously in the zone tonight.  If I weren’t so tired and didn’t have work in 4 hours, I would be playing into the afternoon at this point.  Alas though, there is some responsibility in my life.

I didn’t win any of the major prizes in the Full Tilt Sit & Go Madness Raffle but I’m really rooting for them to run it again.  I think that was one of the best events they have ever run on Full Tilt.  I hope that it becomes a monthly event on FT.

GoogleTrends Hot List - 11/06/07 @ 5:00 AM

• avant gaudy
  Vintage clothing store in Chicago which got its owner named as one of the brightest young entrepeneurs in the US.
• dancing with the stars tour
  I’ve been waiting for the death of this reality show.  Alas, this search shows that the public is still all over this washed-up celeb-fest.
• asr clothing
  I think it has something to do with the first search but I have no idea.
• Carol Burnett
  Some show called American Masters honored Carol Burnett earlier tonight.  I missed it.  I’m devasated (hint: that was sarcasm!).
• Tyler Zeller
  Big news for Tar Heel fans (Bob… are you reading this???).  The brother of Luke Zeller and 7′ center from Indiana has been stolen away from his home state by Roy Williams & Co.  Despite Purdue, Indiana and Notre Dame all being in the running, Tyler chose Carolina.  Zeller marks the third big man from Indiana to head to North Carolina.  The others?  Eric Montross and Sean May… he’s in good company.
• Giada
  The Food Network’s Giada de Laurentiis has announced that she is expecting a baby.  I’m starting to notice a trend here with GoogleTrends… life and death hit the trends pretty hard.
• Victoria Schattauer
  If you haven’t heard the story, Victoria Schattauer is the Cheerleading coach from Ohio that was recently fired for taking nude pictures with a 15-year-old student at a party.  Here’s the pic (you must be 18 to view - nudity inside the link!)
• Carrie Hamilton
  The oldest daughter of Carol Burnett, Hamilton died of lung cancer. 
• Goshen High School
  A proud moment for the Ohio high school.  See Victoria Schattauer above.
• Colts crowd noise
  More cheating in the NFL?  This time, the Colts might have pumped in crowd noise to make it seem louder!  At least basketball and baseball are clean or I would think there were shenanigans taking place in all sports.

This weekend, Full Tilt kicked off a new event that was of particular interest to me:  The Sit & Go Madness Competition.

I tried to participate in the Group B league on Saturday from 00:00 to 04:00 and 08:00 to 12:00 and my trepidation with putting too much into play combined with my inexperience and lack of confidence in multi-tabling sit & gos, I was profitable but only made it to 35th and 31st on the Leaderboard.  After playing roughly 48 Sit & Gos in 8 hours and having 6 going at once most of the time, I passed out right around noon on Saturday.  I woke up at around 8 PM that night.

On Saturday, I thought about the strategy of the event and looked at the leaderboard scores.  While I wasn’t confident that I could do enough damage to make the leaderboard at the Group B level ($5-$11 Sit & Gos), I knew that I could put up a quality performance at the Group A level ($1-$2 Sit & Gos).

At around midnight Lisa went to get a shower, so I decided to give the Group A competition a shot.  In my first attempt, I was able to get 6th place on the leaderboard and turn a profit in the 70 Sit & Gos I played in the 4-hour block.  In addition, I added 17 wins to my 5 wins on Saturday to give me 22 entries into the Raffle Drawing that should be taking place soon for some cool prizes.  (LINK HERE FOR MORE DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT MY PERFORMANCE)

After an hour break for Daylight Savings Time and a four hour rest, I decided to give it another shot on Sunday from 08:00AM-12:00PM.  This time I was only able to enter 67 tournaments but the lesser calibre of competition that time of day led me to a 4th place finish on the leaderboard, good for an additional $10.  I also tacked on at least 8 wins.

Afterward, I was in actual pain from playing.  My wrists hurt from typing and hitting buttons.  My back hurt from sitting in the same spot.  My bladder was not happy at all, either.

After playing 137 Sit & Gos in 8 hours, I decided to not partake in the last 4 hour block of the day.  I hope I’m able to pull down a prize.

At this point, the bankroll is at $1401.

I’d say more but I’m exhausted after today… hopefully, I can put up a more coherent blog later today or Tuesday.