Overdue Blog Update, THE PHILLIES (!!!), Charity Event Update, Recent Home Game Update & More…
Where to begin? I decided to not update my blog until after the Charity tournament on Full Tilt on Sunday but a lot has happened. I’ve attached a picture here of the donation thanks to the tournament as $54 was raised and I matched it for a total of $108 donation. Thanks to all who participated including Tramp1579 from Surfers Poker who won it all and Lynette Chan, a Full Tilt pro, who also participated. Tramp also eliminated Lynette in 4th on his way to the win. I was too busy celebrating the Phillies playoff-clinching win to concentrate and went out 12 of 12.
THE PHILLIES ARE IN THE PLAYOFFS! I didn’t realize my emotional investment until it finally happened. The Brett Myers pitch to win it was close to an emotional moment for me… thankfully I didn’t have to talk to anyone at the time. This team is really likable and a lot of guys on there you want to see win. If Jimmy Rollins isn’t MVP then I don’t know what the criteria is for such an award. His historic 20th triple was amazing and I’m glad to find out my brother’s heart is strong as he might still be screaming.
The live home game drought continues… kinda. I cashed for the 4th consecutive tournament but failed to win for the 23rd consecutive time. I got really unlucky at the end but my opponent was getting nearly 2 to 1 to call. I had 99 and he held 74 which made me about an 80-20 favorite. The flop brought a 7 and the turn a 4 which made me a disappointing 3rd place finish. I collected 3 bounties during the tournament so I netted $25 for the tourney and became the first player to ever cash in 4 consecutive tournaments.
Now, a rant about live games and psychology. Whatever I say during a poker game is completely to affect my opponent. I love to get inside another player’s head and make them think about something other than the game when we play. I obviously got inside the eventual winner’s head, my friend, Chris. Although he crossed the line that I try to never cross which is taking the verbal jousting to beyond the game itself. Once I was eliminated, Chris decided to tell me how he really felt about my constant commentary on the way he was playing. So, either he is completely oblivious to my attempts to shake him or he didn’t care but he was very unhappy about my comments about his tight passive play with the big stack coming down the stretch.
Now, in my defense, the only reason I was especially verbal about his play was due to his undying need to tell the remaining 2 players how aggressive he was going to be on the next hand and how frustrated he was that he was playing so late. For nearly two hours, Chris said over and over again how he was going to go all-in and he was ready to give up… over and over again. I would have chalked it up to psychology on his part but he also made the same comments during the week during a 45 minute call we had about how he was going to play different this tournament because he just didn’t care.
This "new" style for Chris really chalked up to it being his old style minus an early ultra-aggressive move on the flop with AK and called all-in by Kings by Danny Doops who was sick to see a 3 outer on the river for Chris. Then Chris returned to his completely invisible style and waited out the rest of the players as Drew and I did the leg work eliminating 8 of the 10 players getting down to the final three. Then Chris outplayed Drew and took it down.
I’m not questioning Chris’ play at all. The only reason I said anything during the tournament because of his constant BS about how he was going to play differently when he really wasn’t. And then to take it beyond the game was completely uncalled for, in my opinion. The worst was that you could see he was waiting for that moment to sink his teeth in because as soon as I was eliminated, Chris was all of a sudden the most chatty player in the world.
Just a reminder, it took a 4-to-1 underdog suck-out to get rid of me and I didn’t need a 13% suck-out to get that deep. I’ll continue to say that as long as I don’t get unlucky, I will always be there at the end. I have 4 consecutive cashes to prove it, too. And if you want to take a shot at me, do it while we are in the game because as soon as the game is over, I figure we are friendly again but I guess sometimes the truth might hurt! 
Finally, I’m 0 for 2 in WSOSP events but am looking forward to the Shorthanded Freeroll and 5-Card Draw tourney this weekend. Also, I am officially qualified for the Bronze Iron Man Freeroll in two weeks on Full Tilt. It’s my second Iron Man event and I hope to cash in this one. Top prize is $1500 and a chance to get to the heads up vs. the pros round. I’m feeling like I’m running OK so I got a real shot at it. We’ll see!
