Campfire Stories

My last post here..

2008-04-11T21:26:00.000-06:00

I've soft launched my new site, devopoker.net. It's still severely under construction, but it's def a step up from here :).

Cheers,

Devo

WPT Reno, TV Final Table

2008-03-30T23:00:00.000-06:00

So blessed... Man, it's hard to put into words what I'm feeling. The last blog was a pretty good stream of consciousness in my opinion... this journey has been so incredible and amazing that it's very difficult to put into words what I'm really feeling.

Grateful. Lucky. Blessed. Stoked. Those are the first ones that come into mind.

So, after that barf blog, here's what happened.

I went to bed Thursday night expecting to wake up to a message knowing who was sponsoring me at the final table. I needed to get that taken care of before I went to make-up at 2pm. Maria called me at 11:15 and asked me about the deal, said she was on the phone with Vanessa Russo talking deals at the moment. I said see what you can find out and went to get a hold of Matt.

Turns out he got stonewalled and couldn't make anything happen. Crap.

OK, I'll try the guy that tried to chase me down the night before. He was way too aggressive and abrasive and it really turned me off. I didn't want to do business with him, but was out of options.

He says, "PokerStars decided they only wanted to take Jason."

Wow. Last night they said they'll take me and Jason and to let them know in the morning.

So, I start calling people, and got a hold of Katie. I met her in the Ultimate Bet suite during the 2006 WSOP. I'm proud to say she was my first friend in Vegas (even though she lives in LA). I got a hold her 35 minutes before make-up, and she said "I'll make some calls."

At 2:05, Shaun Rice walks in. Ultimate Bet will take me. Sweet. We negotiate a deal, shake hands, and I put on a patch.

Thank you Ultimate Bet so much. I hope I gave you a good show.

So, makeup, interview, lunch with JP, find out my mom just got in, and at the set by 4:30 pm. I am still pretty wound up and am hitting writer's block. I would like to write a blog about the poker, but it's all documented pretty well so I don't want to go into specifics.

Lee definitely deserved the win. I made two decent mistakes, both of which I am sure will make the show. The last hand I severely overplayed my hand. I was just convinced that he was going to try and outplay me early and I thought I had the best hand enough of the time. Wrong. I realized it while driving across the desert when I realized his tell. Basically if I knew that 12 hours earlier I would have saved like 1.3 million in chips. Lee is also a total class act. Excellent card player and total gentleman. It was a priveladge to play with him.

I'm bummed that Jason didn't do better.

I'm bummed that Jeff DeWitt didn't win a hand on the TV table.

I'm stoked that my Mom and brother flew up. I'm stoked that Mike and Vince both told me I did great on set. I'm stoked that I could buy a new car today! And I'm stoked that I am still in the FTP $65k and already up on the day.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

WPT Reno End of Days Two and Three

2008-03-28T05:34:00.000-06:00

:-) This sure has been fun.

This is all going to explode into some sweet blog someday.

But probably not right now. But who knows. I'm sitting here listening to my friend Ryan Ahern play the piano through my Bose sound dock.

See? I'm practicing talking about sponsors.

So, tomorrow I'm gonna get paid a minimum or $10k for wearing a fucking logo.

I gave up on being famous like six months ago. And y'all bitched to me about depressing blogs and what not... but damnit, I was a selfish cocky asshole about twelve months ago.

I'm glad it's taken this long.

Not that one TV table is going to qualify me as "famous" or anything, and really far from it. But this is the break that I have been waiting so long to catch. 2nd in employees event? Nice, but, obv meh. 2nd in O8? Sweet, you know how to play games other than unlimited hold'em, but nobody cares. All of my 2007 WSOP TV time is me being pissed after being two outed in Omaha 8 . Sorry for being mildly annoyed.

Thank God for that eight ball.

Y'all know it better than most how horribly I have been running Aug07-Mar08 minus one week in February, but today I felt like things were finally turning around.

If you haven't read the hand, here's the cliff notes. I open btn with T T , SB w/170k flats, BB w/100k flats. Flop T97 rainbow, 50k in pot, SB bets 15k, BB's turn. My immediate read? He's gonna ship and be really embarassed. Now I need to figure out how to get the SB's piece of crap into the pot also.

BB says, "I'm all-"
Devo says, "I'm all in."
BB finishes, "In?"

I want to look like one pair.

BB thinks for about twelve seconds before he shrugs his shoulders and says, "OK I call."

SB: 67o, bout 14% equity
BB: 55, bout, mmm... 0.1% equity.

Turn eight ball.

Fuck me. I mean seriously. How can this shit happen every freaking time? I seriously quit poker on that spot.

"And the river is... AN EIGHT! DEVO MAKES THE FULL HOUSE TO WIN THE HUGE POT, ELIMINATING DONK AND FISH IN 18th and 17th PLACE!"

Thank you. One time. Seriously. One time don't tack my balls to the wall with lag bolts. And this one time came, propelled me into the chip lead that I carried until we were eight handed, where I lost it getting 3 outed by my friend Jason Potter (although I did pay off turn and river after he made aces up... coulda folded river, but whatevs... cost me 420k) and losing a race do David Pham. Worst beat of that is now Full Tilt has to take the dragon, where they were going to take Lee and I otherwise. I'm going to sign with either the dog or stars in the morning. My friend and aparently new agent is flying up in the morning.

And seriously holy fuck. What a trip this is and I'm loving every moment of it. I feel so blessed to be in this spot, and I hope that the things I have learned over the past couple of years here will pay off, not just on the poker table, but in who I am. Millions of people are going to see me, and I hope that I will be seen as the kind, goofy, good ol' boy that I am rather than the arrogant prick that I used to be.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

WPT Reno End of Day One

2008-03-26T05:54:00.000-06:00

17/75 remaining "World Poker Challenge WPT Event
Reno, Nevada
March 25-28, 2008

9 4 4 8 A
Flop Turn River

T 8 A Q
Barry Greenstein Bryan Devonshire

signed, Barry Greenstein"

Photobucket

It's late.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

This Will Only Be Funny...

2008-03-25T04:31:00.000-06:00

... To Those Who Know Reno/Poker So I really feel like blogging, but it's 8:45 from the start of the main, plus I don't feel like writing, so here goes.

This is the list of random crap that I have noticed while in Reno.

In order of them coming off my head...

1) In Reno, there is this fetish with faucet knobs going the wrong way, particularly the cold knob. In this entire hotel and every random bar/casino restroom without automatic faucets that I have been in here in my entire 9 day stay thus far, I haven't found a cold water faucet in a bathroom that turns on to the left. You know the saying, lefty loosy righty tighty? Works on bolts and everything that twists in this world? Yah, not in Reno. The hot water faucet turns on by twisting left, while the cold water turns on by twisting right. It's especially tilty in the shower when you go to turn if off, which usually ends up in cold water hitting your back as you yell some colorful metaphor.

2) Driveways. Poker players don't drive much, but I'm an anomoly. Probably ruined that spelling. Anyways, I like driving places, and I like driving around while at places. Twice, I've been on the road four times in this trip, I have run into a one way driveway. Man they're tilty. I try to pull into a 7-11 for gas, but the only driveway that I have to pull into peels off into the direction that I am traveling and I cannot possibly make the turn. It happened again today on the way to the bank. I try to pull in to Wells Fargo or 7-11, and I end up parking at a car dealership or waiting at a light to turn right and then right into the gas station. Incredibly frustrating.

3) Reno is the best stop on the circuit. Why? Cause there's things to do here. At this hotel itself, there is all the casino/food ammentities that go with a fantastic resort, but there's also bowling, an outdoor driving range that hits into a man made lake where geese hang out on man made islands with man made grass (astroturf) on them where the geese make such inviting targets for golf balls (done this twice), a golf simulator that's awesome (see Daniel's blog), shuffleboard and pool in the same place, go karts, some crazy bungee jumping swing thing, a locals bar in the parking lot with Golden Tee, put all that within an hour of Virginia City, Lake Tahoe, and my Grandpa, and nestle it in the foothills of the Sierras, and you have a place that I really like.

4) Poker sucks in Reno. Aparrently the WPT in Reno has been the bitch of the WPT forever. Last two years? 600 entrants into a 5k WPT two years, 440ish last year, and this year they kicked it to 7500 and 300 is a fair over under line. Sad. Plus, every random side game that I have played has just been LOL in poker content, and combine that with the draws for these events, it's pretty brutal.

5) I really like the aspect of community on these tour stops. Everybody here is mostly on their own, so when we all get here we want to be around cool people, and it creates a pretty sweet atmosphere of good groups of people everywhere. I have been blessed to be a part of many of these groups and it has made my stay here thoroughly enjoyable.

K... that's all I got. I really wish this was Vegas, becasue I love the proximity to the mountains. I could really see myself living in this neck of the woods at some point, cause I like the mountain climate so much better than the desert, but Reno's just way brutal in so many other ways. I wish I had the Colorado Springs of Reno with everything else of Vegas, but obviously there isn't a place like it in the world.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Reno: Days 1-5

2008-03-20T19:28:00.000-06:00

Good blog, long read Alrighty...

First things first. We need USC to beat Kansas State. And, while we're at it... how bout Duke, Washington State, and Texas A&M. That would push us to a perfect 12 and 12 thus far in my $100 bracket pool. Gogogogo...

I figure that I have some run good in something due to come soon. Since my fantastic week in the middle of February I've lost like 30k straight or something gross like that. Maybe even 40k. Sunday was the worst Sunday I've had in a looooong time, cashing in nothing and going off in the 100r's. I was done so early that I decided to head to downtown Reno, a place that I have not been since I was 16.

My family and I used to travel up here every August to spend time with my grandpa, who lives in Carson City. Ten years later I returned as an adult, and lemme tell you - the nostalgia just poured over me. I started at Fitzgeralds, drank a green beer, and played poker at this table in the pit. It was pretty hilarious really. Only reason that I sat in the game is that I collect chips from places that I've played poker - but my rule to myself is that I must play at least one orbit to add the chip to my collection. So, that was my mission this evening. Wander around downtown, play poker at every place possible, and drink my way into forgetfulness of the brutal day. It turend out to be an extremely pleasant night. I made it back and got 8 hours of sleep before the 11am 100r.

Monday started off just how Sunday ended. I just got brutalized. I was planning on playing through all day, but at 3pm when I was busted out of everything, I decided I needed a break to aboid tilting my brains out. I went downstairs to the arcade level of the Grand Sierra Resort to whack some balls at the driving range. Well, this is by far the coolest driving range I've ever been to. Hitting off mats into a huge lake. I don't know why it's so much more fun to hit golf balls into water than it is onto grass, but it holds true for me at the river and ends up being true on the golf course (for me anyways). So, an hour and a Port of Subs sandwich later, I'm back in the room and ready to go.

Final table 100r, 5th place, $7400. Sweet. Even for Sunday and Monday. Obv won zero key races, didn't suck out, and lost a race to bust. Whatevs can't complain.

Tuesday I sleep in. Shaun Deeb shows up and we grind from 4pm through midnight. I play super high volume. One cash. Min cash in $10r. Sigh. Fuller shows up also and begins to own my soul at everything, specifically Chinese that night after griding. Devo loses $500 at a game that started $1/point, and only had a dozen $5 hands and 1 $10 hand. Deeb, Evan, and Fuller win, Devo donates.

Wednesday I decide to play the $500 PLO rebuy live here. The field size was ridic, but I knew the field and liked the spot a lot. So, in for $550, insta-re-buy for $500 more, lose all pots first hour, rebuy $500 more to get back to 10k, Build to 15k, get it in with a set vs. a naked (just, no other outs) flush draw coughcoughshaundeebcough, lose obv, ship another $1k to get back to 10k, win no more pots, ship another $1k to add-on 10k in chips, and I have 400 chips less and am in for $1500 more than if I would have walked up 1:59 into the tourney and bought in. Sigh.

So, I go about crushing, get unlucky, and then get Fullered with 12 left. Oh yeah, the total prize pool is $33k. I could min cash (5th) and lose $250. Lovely. Rick opens, I re-pot KK2 5 for about 40% of my stack, rick calls with the fabulous K Q89 , knowing that he's getting the whole pile shoved in on any flop, it comes A 4 X, I jam, he laughs, and I miss my one outer. GG me.

In time to play online, but I'm tilting pretty good. I get a text message from my mother nagging me to get in contact with my grandfather.

It's been on the back of my mind ever since I considered coming to reno. I had not seen him since my father's funeral, and in the last ten years I've had one awkward phone conversation and one awkward e-mail of communication. My contact has been more than either of my siblings or my mother. It has always been a sore subject for me, and I have held some resentment against my grandfather for excommunicating himself from the family that reminded him of his son's suicide. I felt like he should have manned up, stepped in, and been there for me in the years of young adulthood where I really needed the guidance and wisdom of a father figure. Instead the only message I got, from my father and grandfather, was "We don't care about you." As a teenage boy that is so brutal.

However, as I have grown up I have been able to understand why he hasn't wanted to talk to us, and I cannot blame him for how he has responded. I cannot imagine how painful it must be for a parent to have one of their children die before them, and then to have it happen in the manner that it did. Ouch. It's a natural human defense mechanism to flee from pain, and this is a pretty painful memory. Just like I don't want to be around anything that reminds me of my father, because it hurts, I am sure that he feels the same. It's scary. It hurts. It sucks. It's not fun. It's not fair.

I have been afraid to contact my grandfather for fear of being rejected. But, with my mothers urging, I realized that at least making an attempt was what I needed to be doing, as I may never have an opportunity like this again. So, I found the phone number, made a phone call, and was walking to my truck to drive to Carson City five minutes later.

Wow. That went way better than I expected.

So I drive down, wondering what I'm going to say, what we're going to talk about, and before I know it I'm pulling up to the curb in front of his house.

He looks the same, ten years older, but good as ever. Betty (his wife) looks great also, and I sit down on the couch. We talk the past, catching up on ten years of estrangement. He wastes no time asking what happened to my marriage, and is impressed with my answer of "I made mistakes." We chat family, what everybody's up to and all that good stuff. I tell him about poker, about my successes, the fluctuation, the ups and downs, and he receives it much better than I thought. "As long as you're making living," Betty interjects, "And you like it," "Then I have no problem with it."

Cool.

So we head down to their locals casino to have some breakfast/lunch/dinner, I pick up the tab, and we hit the slots for a little while. Betty plays Keno and wins a few bucks, Grandpa and I chase down a few slots and just chat. It was fantastic, and everything I could have hoped for. I said to him at one point something like this. "I can remember years ago when I would come in these things with you and everybody else, and you adults would go gamble while us kids had to do kid things, and I dreamt of the day that I would be able to join you. This is really cool for me."

And it was. A dream come true really. People have asked me the classic question of if I could have five minutes of my life back, besides the 37 seconds that I was on the phone with my stock broker on March 10, 2000 when I decided not to sell $197,000 worth of stock that I had earned 7000% on in the last year, I would spend the time with my father. I don't know what four minutes and twenty-three seconds I would re-live, but it probably would have something to do with baseball, or shooting, or something that Dad and I did together often. Spending that half an hour with my grandfather, just the two of us, was the closest that I can come to that dream in this lifetime and was a moment that I will cherish for the rest of my life.

Oh yeah, I broke even. Running good vs. the slots IMO :-).

So, we went home, and we continued our converstation from the casino about ghost towns and rockhounding and all that stuff that a 11 year old boy just soaks in from his grandfather. This 26 year old boy soaked it in with even more fervor than that 11 year old boy. On his bookshelf he had two display cases of indian arrowheads. It came up in conversation that he had found every single one of then in the past dozen years or so.

Our last year or so of heading up to Grandpa's in August was his first year in his retirement home. He bought a few acres outside of Dayton, NV on this hill overlooking the Carson river. Absolutely fantastic place. I can remember driving stakes with my father and grandfather, defining his property line way back in the day. Turns out that his property has been an migratory camp for American Indians for millenia. Recently, like the last few thousand years, it was the perfect place for a camp in that valley, so naturally the Indian's chose it. However, thousands of years ago the area was a lake, and the Dayton area was the beach for this huge lake, and thus had artificts around that dated back as long as Indians have been in the area. He said after a good rain or wind storm, he would go out and just find em everywhere. Seriously, his collection of artifacts was so impressive that it was difficult for me to believe that he found them all. Very cool. It was also fun chatting because I gathered sufficient information to begin searching for arrowheads down by Vegas. It has always been a dream of Jared's to pick up a real arrowhead in the boonies somewhere, and we're going to be able to make that happen.

So, from there we talked about WWII. This hour of conversation was fantastic. I got all the stories of my grandfather's time serving in the war that I had never heard before (or been old enough to understand/remember). That got us talking politics, vietnam, the gulf war, the war on terror, etc, and I found it quite errie how much I agreed with every one of my grandfather's stances. I came across my.

Hold on. WTF Duke. Losing with two minutes?

I came across my libertarian views while in Colorado, mostly through my roommate Travis. I wonder if the seeds for my beliefs were planted by my father and grandfather and thus why I took so strongly to them when I discovered them? I wonder.

So, the part of the night that meant the most to me is when Grandpa looked at me and said, "Bryan, you've grown up. And I'm proud of how you've grown up."

Wow. Something I've needed to hear for twelve years.

That afternoon was worth all the money in the world, and I will take losing every tournament for the rest of my life to have that afternoon in my memories.

So, I came back around 10:30, grabbed Rick Fuller, and had an opportunity to kick his butt at something. Naturally there was no money on this ass kicking, but it was a great time nonetheless. We went downstairs to the same arcade level with my same golf clubs, this time with the intention of playing Pebble Beach.

They have this bar called "Bunkers" with all the standard stuff, pool, darts, shuffleboard, ground shuffleboard, and the coolest golf simulator machines ever. Take an indoor golf hitting cage, add a computer with the software, and an intricate array of sensors that detect ball speed, vector, ball spin, slices and hooks, and does it with 90-95% accuracy (see Daniel's blog... he has one in his house). So, computer feeds a signal to a projection unit over our heads, projects an image of the first hole at Pebble beach onto the wall in front of us, and it looks exactly like you're standing in the tee box of the first hole at pebble beach. The work that went into this program is ridiculous. They have hundreds to thousands of video and images from every hole from every angle they could possibly think of. They have audio recordings from different spots on the hole and it plays in the sound system above your head. That sick famous par three there? Hole 6 or 7 or something? You can hear seagulls, the crashing of waves, and the occassional passing helicopter in perfect stereo sound overhead. It was sick.

The place closed at midnight. We had so much fun that Rick bribed the guy to stay open another hour so we could finish and play a couple of more holes. I ended up hitting a 26 over par I believe, which is an excellent 98 for me, and really excellent for pebble beach. I was helped a little by having the wind turned off and the putting, as the system can only record putts outside of six feet, therefore anything within six feet is a gimmie. Six footers are not even close to gimme's for me. However, the chipping and putting took some time getting used to so that cost me some strokes also.

Oh yeah, Rick scored +44.

Sadly though, Rick would get me again today. Busting me out of two live tournaments in two days. Now, not only does he have the lead (2-1), but he has that to hold over my head for the rest of forever. Siiiiigh. I played really well today but ran really poorly in all-in pre-flop situations. I got it in 7 times, winning once. I was ahead twice lost, racing twice lost, and behind three times, winning one.

TY for coming back Duke.

The bustout hand was fine I think. Rick had a stack and was active, and I restole with A5o for his late position raise. He said, "Uh oh, I've only looked at one, an ace." I'm liking this though, and even though he knows I resteal light, I don't think he thought I was re-stealing light here. Finds a Q and I whiff the suck-out. 35th or something, 18 pay. Ugggh... win just my expectation of all-in situations and I don't even find myself in this spot (cause I would have had chips) and would have been able to play the game that I want to play, not the shove/fold game that I had to play.

Oh well. GL Rick - I'm rooting for you 100% now.

1500 tomorrow, 2k saturday, online sunday, online monday, and 7700 main on tuesday.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Reno... The Gettin There

2008-03-16T13:11:00.000-06:00

Snow sucks I have had plenty of content to write about all week, but for whatever reason I have been pretty dang lazy and unmotivated to write. But after yesterday's adventure through the snow across Nevada, most of the time spent with a hippie named Kevin, I decided it was time to come out of hibernation once again.

So, Friday night after I couldn't get away from my 9 4 on the A A 2 , 5 , Q board (I check/raised/4-bet flop, shoved the river), I was feeling pretty ancy. I came home, wanted to write, couldn't ended up playing in a frequent player point satellite to a $200 main event satellite, and that sure was fun. It was a rebuy-and add-on structure, so since these infinity frequent player points are worthless to me, I jammed every hand trying to get a stack and putting chips onto the table. I kid you not I went twenty minutes straight shoving EVERY hand pre and lost every time. Then, I finally sucked out, and then I was able to take advantage of my image, getting it in waaaay good with the hands I got later and they held. I ended the rebuy period with the chip lead, regained it with 3 tables left, and carried that all the way into the money which was top seven. It really was quite fun at the end since I had all the chips and basically raised/4-bet every single hand. Ruined this poor guy's day... raise with the ol' 57o, get shipped on, call since I'm getting 5-2 for like 1/15th of my stack, he has 88, flop XX6, 3, 4 with 9 left. So, I win my seat and decide that I'm officially playing online Sunday, not the Wynn $10k. I had been wrestling with the issue for a while since it's obviously going to be a small/tough field. After talking with some dudes I was leaning toward online, and hey, the seat just kinda sealed the deal :-).

Also, I was planning on heading up to Reno on Wednesday, but yesterday (Saturday) I had nothing to do and didn't want to play online or live, so poof. It became travel day. I was going to go to Reno early. I called up, booked rooms on the poker rate for 10 days, and after shaking off the hangover that I blame entirely on AMAK316 from Saturday night, I started the drive north on 95 out of Vegas.

I had taken this road as far as Beatty before, but that was back in December of 02. I really enjoyed the drive. There is a lot of cool stuff out there in the desert. I'm gonna have to take my time coming back and check everything out. Anyways, about 10 miles outside of Beatty I picked up a hitchhiker named Kevin. I'll admit... he was pretty weird, but in the I'm scared or the I need to draw my weapon kind of scared. I asked if he had any music requests, picked Led Zepplin, and freestyle sang to all 10 songs I had on my iPod. But not in a creepy way, but definately weird. The dude had been on the road for 23 months, originaly from San Francisco. We really didn't chat much (as he wasn't very good at chatting...), and I dropped him off in front of the Atlantis or something like that around 11:30pm.

I then drove over to the Grand Sierra and went through one of the most frustrating check-in processes ever. I don't have a credit card. I just don't. Sorry. Never been a problem before.

"Sir, there is a $50 deposit that will be held against your card for incidentals if you wish to have those available."

"Yeah, yeah.. no problem."

She's already told me that she's charging my card now rather than at the end of the stay, which kinda pissed me off, but whatever - it doesn't really matter right?

She whacked my card for $1200. $650 for the room, $550 for 11 days of $50 in incidental deposits.

K this is just ridic.

"No, take it off, you told me $50, not PER DAY." She got really confused. Left the desk. Left me with a line for about 5 min. Comes back, says she's gonna call my credit card company, there is still nobody else at the desk, I say just give me my card I want to leave, she does, and now I need to find the Bell Desk. Why? Beats me. when I gave my bags to the bellhop, he gave me a ticket like normal, then said to take it to the Bell Desk inside. I'm like, why? No reason. Just do it.

*Sigh*

"Hi, they told me to come to you." I hand him the ticket.

"Yup, this is why. Are you going to your room right now?"

"No."

"Ok then, take this ticket, and when you get to your room give this number a call and we'll bring your bag up."

POGAIERMGOPAIRJFPOAIENPOFOAIDSNHFPOIJQOEWPIFHOIJGAIONDOIGVNAPOIEFAO.

I mean, seriously?

So, I get everything squared away, and I decide to go do some exploring. I discover the poker area, see my friends Crystal and Jeremy who live in Tahoe (not surprised to see them here), and end up taking an empty seat in a 15-30 LHE game. They looked at me and licked their chops, thinking "Yum Yum! NLHE Tourney donk trying to play a limit cash game!" No... and I can't really come up with what they were thinking to be honest. This was the best LHE cash game that I have sat in since... at least July 07 in Arizona, but prob way farther back than that.... Canterbury 05? Bellagio 04? Not sure really. Seriously - I played 45 mins, we ranged from 6-9 handed, and one other player raised pre-flop. He did it twice, and once was BvB. I prob did it like 10 times. Nobody else raised. Here's one sweet example. Limp, Limp, Limp, I raise ATo, SB calls, BB calls, all three limpers call. Flop 865, SB bets, lots of things happen, and SB rolls over KK at showdown, which miracleously ends up being good. If you know anything about limit hold'em you know how especially awful this is.

Another example of money hating that they did last night, this one directly benefitting me. UTG limps 6 handed, I raise UTG+1 w/A 8 , we see the flop heads up. It comes Q 8 4 . UTG checks, I bet, he literally hmmmm's and bob's his head, shrugs his shoulders, and thows three red $5 chips into the pot (hypothesis: since these chips were synthetic and since chips in general are hard to light on fire, he decides to throw them into a pot

Time out: My 55 just lost to A2, A3, and A9 aipf in the 100r. LOL. It's a rough Sunday already. Busto in Brawl, in for $700 in 100r, have min chips.

K game on.

So the dude decides to call with XX. Turn 3. Now he fires. I make the easiest raise ever since it's so obv what he has at this point, and he calls. River a 3, he fires again, I call obv, thinking I'm gonna be pissed if he has something worse than I put him on and just hit a 2 or 5 outer, and he says, "I missed."

Damn right. Ship the money. But he won't fold. He says, "What do you have?"

I say, "I called you sir."

"I missed. I have nothing." Drops his cards. I drop my cards, put a $1 chip on them, and hold on to them until the pot is pushed to me.

The dealer says, "Are you folding sir?"

"Well, no... not if he's going to be like that." He retrieves his cards and finally tables the five and the six of different suits. Exactly what i put him on. I have to respond to this though...

"Sir, don't get mad at me for not showing my cards when I don't have to. Don't insuniate that I am being impolite by not tabling my hand when I called you. You, sir, are the one trying to avoid showing your cards when it is your turn to, not me."

Anyways, I was amused to say the least. The hand was fun in all aspects.

I walked with $230 after about 40 minutes, came upstairs, passed out, woke up before my alarm this morning, and am gonna be playing online all day for next four of em...

Peace and good luck!

Devo

Close on Sunday and Catching Up...

2008-03-10T05:22:00.000-06:00

Win $3k on the river and I'm bummed. Tonight I was the most disappointed 3k winner on the day to ever set foot in the Avi casino.

Ever I bet. But that's what the Sunday tourneys do to you really. I decided this afternoon at the river house that I was going to be working, and while obviously a good decision (considering that I made 3k in 7.5 hours of "labor"), I was still very disappointed.

I have had a fantastic week. Poker has been terrible, but life has been great and I really have no room to complain. But, since this is a poker blog and poker has sucked every day except for today for the past eight, I haven't really been motivated to write a "I run so bad" blog esp since y'all hate reading them almost as much as I hate writing them, but it is what it is right? Have I set a record for usage of the word 'but' in the last several sentences?

So, we'll work backwards. Today, Monday, but really Sunday, I became really robusto in Sklansky bucks, or Sue bucks if you will (If you don't know the Sklansky/Sue story, do a google search and find it...). I decided to play and enjoyed the greatest office anywhere (as seen in previous blog). From immediately out of the gate i was running good and playing excellently. First level of the Sunday Million I ran a bluff with AK where I raised a limper pre, saw a T9x flop hu, he bet, I raised 4x, he called, turn 9, he bets, I raise 4x, he calls, river J, he checks, I shove for the pot, he folds. I was just seeing everything, executing on everying, and everything was working. The schedule was pushed back an hour for most of the day, and I played the standard afternoon Sunday schedule without going over my 6max rule. I played the Sunday Million at 230, FTP 750k at 3pm, site I won't tell you about big one 4pm, Mulligan at 405, 100r and 2nd chance at 430, and the 65k, formerly 55k, formerly "Devo wins" at 5pm. Seven donkaments. At six pm, when the 200r was starting, I still had six going. I was crushing. I was double stack in all of them at some point. Anyways, I make it really deep in the FTP 750k, being 3/like 70 at one point playing for 140k, and I also make it deep in the unnamed site major, 38k for first, and the FTP 65k. Long story short, I finish 7th in the unnamed site for 3200, losing races in back to back hands to go bust. I had enough chips that the first race cost me half my stack, and if I won the second race I would have been chip leader again. Gross. In the 750k, I decided that bigegypt is my total nemesis. He has screwed/busted/owned me deep before, but this time I got it in good vs. him both times yet still lost both times. First one, steal/resteal situation, I have 88, shove on his steal, he calls getting about 1.6-1 with AJo, and hits a J on the river. Sigh. Bout five hands later I shove A3 on the button, say to Danny, "Watch this, he's gonna call with K high," he does with KTcc, flop AJ3, and I lose. gg me like 53rd place for 1200. I bustoed like 80th in the 65k, don't remember the spot but remember knowing that I couldn't have done anything better, and all the others fizzled in standard procedure.

Damn. Good day, but I really thought something big was coming today. I played honestly one of the top ten sessions of my life today and for that I'm proud, but I still feel let down. My expected value seriously when deep before bad things happening had to be at least 20k. 3/60 or 70 or whatever in the 750k and 4/20 in one for 38k? Anyways... I run bad blah blah blah whatevs I'll just store up all those winning races in critical situations which I have to be like -20 on for the main event and just win 20 races straight and say I raise to five millions on TV.

Blah. Good ramble. So, while still on the topic of Sunday, i want to respond to the e-mail in Mike Paulie's blog that referenced sending the question to myself or Shaun. It'll just be quick and brief but I feel like I should respond because I could easily be one of the players that the e-mailer could be complaining about. I'm too lazy to get into the details here but it can't be that hard for you to find the blog :-). For me (and I know many like me), live poker is a social experience. We see people that we haven't seen in forever and we meet cool people that we've never heard of before. But, most of us who are local/intheclub/"cool" or whatever, we don't get to chat with those of like mind live very often. So, we naturally become acquaintences due to the obvious similarities in our personalities and in my opinon it has nothing to do with our games. For example, in the $1k LHE Wynn Classic event on Wednesday (that I took 15th in after 11.5 hrs of play without making the money), I found myself sitting across a 23-28 year old dude in sandals, pajama bottoms, a hoodie, a hat, and a beard. We chatted, connected, and began bull shitting. Just goofy ol' good times. Mind you this is limit, easily less stressful than NLHE in tournaments. I open raise a hand (which I do like a third of the time...), and just after raising hand my iPod video to my new hippie young pro poker player friend with the gymnast running into the vault video playing saying "Check this out." Tangent: that video is like my most favorite bad beat therapy ever. I take a beat, watch that, and am reminded that it really could be worse. If you have never seen the video, find it on youtube. Gymnast runs into vault/bloopers/lol etc etc.

K, so... This old dude on the button in this hand throws a fit. He literally calls the floor after raising hell with the dealer saying that we're excanging "communication devices" (he literally said that to the dealer) during the play of the hand, and he strongly implied that my hand should be killed. Now, the head floor guy at the Wynn tourneys is a friend of mine (and really deserves a blog of his own... young, super class act, I have heard many Wynn tourney and cash game players say how impressed they are with him, specifically the level of maturity he handles himself with in the high stress environment of high stakes poker, and an excellent poker player himself, recently taking down a 2k live event for over 140k). He hears the situation, is obviously never going to kill my hand, but handles it perfectly and says, "Bryan, not while in a hand, please." Perfect. He made the guy with the beef happy by correcting me, but he also made me happy by not making it a beef. The point? I wasn't bull shitting with Joe to establish some sort of pecking order, intimidation on other players, etc, etc... I am a very social outgoing person, and Joe was the closest to me (both in proximity and personality) that I ended up chatting with him a lot, and poker was bound to be a little part of that converstaion since it's what we both do for a living. Hope that helps, but if it don't at least you got a little insight as to why pro's will chat it up at a table, sometimes too much and to the point that it significantly annoys other players.

Soooo.. poker last week, I played something live on Saturday, whiffed Sunday, played live Omaha 8 1k on Monday and got the best 4 hour run of starting cards ever just to bust in 4 hours. Tuesday I played a full online schedule starting at 4pm, 11 tourneys including both 50/50's at 6:30 and both the doubles at 7pm, and I was bust out of all of them at 7:59pm. Gross. Wednesday was a 1k LHE that I put the 11.5 hours w/o cash into, Thursday was a 1500 NLHE at the Wynn that I busted in the 30th minute in. I had 33 in the BB limped 4 ways (including me), 200 in the pot. Flop K92 two diamonds check around, turn 3, I bet, get raised, re-raise, and call a shove to lose to 99 (siiiiiigh....). Friday and Saturday I took off.

The other cool thing that happened was that I went to two professional sporting events between Monday and Tuesday. Monday just before I busted I saw Travis (who just won the Wynn $1k rebuy for over 100k!) who said that his friend from high school was a professional Tennis player and had full access to the Tennis Channel Open in Summerlin and he was going to see the Leyton Hewitt match that evening. I had like six chips, asked if I could go, I could, and it was a good time. Sick how good those guys are. It was cool chatting with Eric (the tennis pro) about his journey in being a professional tennis player and the similarities between tennis and poker. There were way more than I thought there would be!

Tuesday night right after I busted one of my friends who deals on the circuit and who is in town for the Wynn Classic invited me to a Wranglers game. Kinda funny that the person from out of town invites me to the local semi-pro hockey team home game, but Jared and I went and had a great time. $28 got us seats three rows behind the opposing team's bench and they could hear us =). The Wranglers won 5-1 and really looked doing it. Jared and I want to get season tickets after that game. Great times.

So... yeah. I played literally one of the ten best sessions of my life today. I was killing it. If I had just a little bit more run good big things would have happened, but whatevs... I did what I need to do to get myself in that spot and the deck just didn't work out in my favor today. There's always another tournament tomorrow, and with the way I have been playing lately it's just a matter of time til I win one of these suckers, especially one of these Sundays.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Wynn Classic Events 1-3

2008-03-01T23:08:00.000-07:00

LOL Blogaments Been a while, but haven't really had anything to write about. All the randomness floating around my head hasn't quite materialized itself into word yet, although I think if I write a spew blog a bunch of that will come out. So, that's what I'm gonna do, write what's been up lately, try and to find something interesting to write about in poker, and maybe a sweet tanget will come along.

Soooooo. Saturday I believe was the last day I wrote a blog. I was supposed to play the Venetian $500 event, but when the bike shop called and said my motorcycle was ready I knew I was going to call in sick. I had just dropped off my bike the Wednesday before to partake in my ritualistic lighting of fire to money on something silly afterwards (it was the motorcycle once). I bought pipes, bags, a windshield, tires, and a hypercharger . You know on those 50's hot rods how that sick supercharger intake pops out of the hood and has those flaps that open more when you gas it thingies? I got one for my bike. Not sure why (fuel economy and performance according to the salesman). But, all those toys with the routine servicing and installation of everything I was $3500 in the hole... so I had to play with my toy.

Ended up going to this local casino like a mile from my house called Club Fortune with Danny to play some drunken poker. I was actually really jonesin for some live poker cash style. Long story short, we get 4 handed playing 3-6 nl, I ask for a break in the rake and they say no beause they're on overtime. Fair nuff, game over. Then this bad player says, "Wanna play NL?"

I was stuck $100. Couple hours and atm trips later I'm up $600. Ty. Got home at like 7am, said, "Nope. Not playing a $2500 in 5 hours." So I slept the Venetain main, and made it up by three to play the afternoon schedule. That didn't go well quickly, Jared said lets go to Laughlin, I unregister from all the rest and we're out. Jared, Danny, and myself were there til Tuesday. Good times, but no really good stories.

Rest of the week I've been plaing online and at the Wynn (Th-Sat), playing a $500, 1k, and 1500 respectively. I love these structures because they start with 4k in chips and 25-50 blinds (the 1500 was 5k which is a perfect everything imo). It goes up quickly, but then slows waaaaaaaay down deep. The way it should be. So, Thursday I played great, lost most of my stack in a dumb situation (called a raise on the button pre w/TT to induce a squeeze from the perfect shoving stacks in the blinds, get it and they have QQ obv), and couldn't get going otherwise.

Friday was fantastic, busto by the 2:30 mark, just general nothing you can do tourneys that I love.

Today I had 12k by the 30th minute after...

Ah!

Lets play, "Put the (insert slang word for bad poker player) on a hand!"

25-50 blinds like 10 mins in, 4 way limped pot, we're in the big blind with A 8 . Flop 8 7 2 . I bet 125, the dude calls, Matt Brady, friend of mine who is an excellent player and has a lot of playing history with me, makes it 325. I re-raise to 1025, the dude calls , and Matt folds. Turn 9 ty, I bet 1425, the dude calls. River a napkin, I shove for 2500, he thinks, thinks, thinks, shrugs his shoulders and calls, mhig and he mucks before anybody can see. Any guesses? I give up. Only read is that it didn't look like he hated the turn, like if he had a set or a small flush or something.

Anyways, from there somebody pulled the plug. Actually after the first break. I was in fifth gear halfway through level 1 and kept the pedal to the metal for the rest of the first round. Then just couldn't get a damn thing going. Like, I was getting max-value one outed. Dude raises, I call button with KQss, flop AAx, x, Q, check check flop and turn and he bets like half pot on river I obv call and he has QQ. Know what I mean? No money goes into that I don't get back any other card. Whatevs... I shortstackninja'd for as long as possible, turning 4k into 12k twice at 300-600/50 WITHOUT A SHOWDOWN... :-). That's tough to do you know. In that period I made the greatest speech of my poker career. I shove over a guy for like 12 big blinds with QJo. He's getting a great price to call and I hate my hand, but I thought with his stack it had enough fold equity to make it profitabale with 400-800/100 fifteen minutes away. He tanks, cuts out the checks, knows he should call but hates it and I have him right in the AJ range. Shit. Then, I see an out.

"Cocktails?" asks the the beautiful ty for walking up at this moment woman.

"Yes!" She walks over. "I'll have a bud light please!"

Dude obv noticed. Mucked within six seconds of speech. :-).

Anyways, like three hands later I get my first real hand in the second round of going from 4k to 12k (I only had one the first time). I have like 10k at this point, pick up 88, open, get re-raised, I'm never raise/folding 88 w/17 bb's and a blind increase five minutes away, so I call the re-raise and stop-n-go the Axx flop and get called by kings. Oh well - 31st ain't bad when I never had a double up hand or otherwise big pot after that first one.

I never did get that bud light.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Venetian Deep Stack III Events 27 & 28

2008-02-22T23:39:00.001-07:00

(insert witty "Intro Text (Required)" here. WTF why is it required? Sometimes I don't want a subtitle. Bad news: I didn't do anything.

Good news: I busted before dinner break both times.

Last two days were a tale of two different tournaments. Thursday was the $500+50 NLHE. 40 min levels, blinds 25-50 with all the normal levels (and reduced ante... going 100-200/25 to 200-400/25 instead of 50) and 10k in starting chips. Really fun structure actually. I played so freaking good. Like sick scary good actually. I was making moves that I didn't even know I was capable of, and I was really surprised at the accurate reads I was picking up after being off the live horse for so long. I even almost limp-re-raised the small blind once, but I thought it may be too fancy... we'll get to that hand in a sec.

I came out of the gates guns blazin. By the first break I had 22k and had only seen one showdown - and that was for a small pot. Very proud. In that period I 3 bet Q4o (won on flop), check-raised the flop or turn vs. pre-flop aggressors three times (all check-raises uncalled), and picked up almost every pot I opened with a c-bet. It was some sweet steamrolling.

They move me tables, and I continue cruising, but this time I get screwed in a couple of spots that were pretty silly. One, I bet the flop for 975 (like , and this dude puts in 525. Flop is Q 5 4 , I have 5 4. Dealer informs him that it was 975, he makes a stink saying that he wouldn't have called and that the dealer should call the action better (cause we all know that 1 purple, 4 blacks, and 3 greens looks very similar to 1 purple or 5 blacks and one green). Anyways, turn 8x, I bet 1800, he says, "Well now you have me in this far," I think please don't give this dude with the 9 or whatever another diamond. X on the river, I check, he checks. He says, "Two pair?" I say, "Two pair?!? What the crap two pair! I flopped bottom two and it has remained bottom two. Lemme see."

He shows me 8 4 . He was not in the blinds. I was in the big blind. Sigh.

Next hand goes out to Fruitkin. I open UTG+1 w/AQ or whatever. I get called from the big blind. Flop 422r. He checks, I c-bet like 60% pot, he calls. Turn x, check, check. River x, check, check. He rolls over 72o. No joke. I LOL. Literally. I can't help myself, and chuckling I ask, "Two questions. One, if you call that, what do you fold? Cause I've seen you fold your big blind before. And second, why?"

He says, "Implied odds, obviously."

Mind you he's like 25 bb's deep with 15k. I LOLed again.

So, shortly after that hand, this really interesting spot came up. Woman, good looking, early thirties, blonde, white chick, sits down to my left in the 6 seat. I say, "Hi!" She says, "Ohh, don't get to know me too well! I only have this many!" She has 1875, it's her big blind at 300/600/50. She makes it clear that she's going all-in this hand. This is how great live poker is. Seriously, I didn't realize until this last week after playing 4 mos online how bad people are live compared to online. It really is astounding. First three peeps under the gun limp. First thought through my mind: "OMG... it would be so sweet to get a hand here so I can limp re-raise the field from the small blind." As I think this, one more guy limps, it's my turn in the small blind, and I look down to find: A K .

Ha.

Now what creative bastard?

I really believe that AK is the best hand to do this with too, for the simple reason that seeing a limped flop 6 ways with AK is exponentially less criminal than with any decent pair. I suppose that 55-88 would be decent hands to do it with also though... anyways, after about fifteen seconds of deliberation I decided to just make it 4k myself and take the dead limper money now, rather than take a whack at an extra 1200 per caller. My first thought was the mid 30's white chick stereotype, that if she can check she's gonna in this spot. I decided that there was too much risk in losing the 5k or so in dead money already out there (counting her 1825) to risk trying to get the extra 2bb's outta the limpers. My standard play in this spot is to stop-n-go anything that I don't mind juicing the pot with so that hopefully I get a little fold equity rather than just wanting to get it in. But then I thought and... with 5 limpers, none of whom are folding, is it better to get 5-1 on your last 1200 with any two cards or is it better to have some fold equity/escape the worst flops?

Beats me. What do you think?

Anyways, I raised, the guy who never folds but hits everything like 84o on Q54 monotone flops, called, and we checked it down board reading 543, 9, 2, my wheel beating her 94o and whatever the hell that guy had.

OK. Next level, 400-800/75... move me to a new table. Bryan, meet Kent. I didn't learn that his name was Kent until today, when I found him sitting on the same table in the same seat with a ginormous stack and played several hours with him. Super nice gentleman and I truly had a pleasure conversing with him throughout the past two days. He certaintly enjoyed it more on this day though after this hand. Young guy with chips opens under the gun to 2100. I call on the button with 30k. Kent calls out of the big blind. Both have me covered, all are above average in chips. Flop 7 6 3 . Kent leads for 4k. I count his stack, estimate about 22k total, and make it 15k+cheese. Kent goes all-in, I'm obv calling, and he has the top end of his range, J J , and that's just fine. The pokerstove numbers have me at a 47/53 disadvantage, which I'm plenty fine with. I think the rest of his calling range is 88-TT and maybe an A7, and maaaybe 76. I knew that he wasn't betting a set or a draw cause that's not his style, confirmed today. My mistake on the hand, which I gave you a hint on in here, is his stack size. He had me covered pre-flop, and I was just shy of 30k, and then on the flop I estimate him at 22k total, thus making getting it in the obvious play (shoving v raise/calling like i did, doesn't matter, I just raised like I did because I wanted it to look stronger). Anyways, the board bricked out, I asked how much, and when I heard "30+K" I said, "What?!?!?" Oops... gg me. I felt pretty silly actually, but on the walk out I was fine with it even if I knew stack sizes by the time I got to the car, and then a couple of phone calls later I confirmed that also.

Got in the truck, fought traffic down koval, through the tunnel, onto the 215, and then all the way to this new joint called "Gyro Express". It's the nuts. They had flyers for a beer pong tournament tonight, $20/team, all money goes to prize-pool, and free beer to players . Wow. They'd be in trouble if they were closer to UNLV. Take it to go, love the food, and pretty much don't leave the couch. I was planning on writing this blog last night but then "Mass Effect" happened (I love/hate you Dutchie)(not a pun)(Mass Effect is a sci-fi RPG).

Pass out, wake up before 1045am alarm (wtf?!?), head to the bank, withdrawl $4500 which takes an eternity because they're trying to figure out what the heck the $5k check without any identification is from (any of y'all get checks from internet poker sites know exactly what I'm talking about... :-), I'm like what's taking so long it's a Wells Fargo check, and... yeah. My bank has to wonder about me. I mean seriously, I have used my atm card like once in the last two years, every cash withdrawl I make is for at least 4 digits, I have mysterious wire transfers coming in from backers that I usually withdrawl into cash within a couple days. Mysterious checks. In demoninations like $9500. Never over $10k. One time I walked in there with a metal bucket full of one dollar bills. It broke both cash counters. They had to do it by hand. $1046 worth. Dude asked me what I do, I said bartender (it was Jared's money, I don't remember why I was cashing it... think I needed to borrow some money or something so I had to do the legwork), but now they think I'm a bartender and keep making these huge transactions. Obv drug dealer.

My favorite story from the bank is when I discovered that banks don't have a lot of money at them. I see casino cage drawers with like $50k in em, I guess I have always assumed with all the bank robberies/movies + my casino cash experiences that banks have bank. So, when I waltz into Wells Fargo and ask for $23k cash before the 07 WSOP, they do the usual "Oh shit, $5k+ cash transaction" dance like they do almost every time I walk into the bank, and after about five minutes the manager tells me that they don't have the money. I laugh out loud, and say, kid you not, "Man, that's hilarious! Could you imagine if I was a bank robber? What a crappy day that would be! I'd be getting pissed thinking you were lying, shooting up the place, but you really don't have money!" The poor girl teller didn't realize that I was quite amused really and just heard "bank robber, crappy day, shooting up the place" and froze. The manager laughed though and all was fine. She informed me that she'd find a branch that had the funds.

Ten minutes later, she comes back and says the fourth branch has the money, and it's in downtown Henderson (not nice neighborhood). There they didn't want to give me the cash either. Teller says, "Ok, so I'll go get this $23k cashier's check."

"No, cash please."

"Why do you want that much cash? Lemme go get you this check."

"Lady, you're my bank. I need cash. If I take that check, I would just hand it back to you and ask for you to cash it."

"OK..................... ummmmmmmmm.......... are you sure?"

I just looked at her. She got me the cash after about 20 minutes.

And that has to be one of the most successful post hijacks via tangenting in the history of this blog.

So now you get the cliff notes from the 1k.

level 1-2 - nothing exciting, 11k
level 3-4, same, 7400
level 5-6, lotsa action, shoving, restealing, double through Kent three times, and the highlight. 3 limpers to me in BB, blinds 300-600, I have 36k and AKo, I make it 3600 total, first limper calls, both others fold. I'm new to table and say, "May I see your stack please?" Kid you not less than 7k. Thats correct, the ol "Limp-call 1/3 of your stack play from UTG+2." I laugh, go all-in in the dark, flop T9x, he taaaanks. I'm like, wtf.. What possible hand can you be tanking with here? He finally calls with KQo and rivers a Q. I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLED.
level 7, check-raised the flop with ten high, won, bled down to 19k at end of level, raised the last hand before dinner, had KTo but that didn't matter cause I always win the last hand before dinner, get called by the big blind flop T 7 6 , BB checks, I bet 3k, he makes it 9k, I put my last 15k total into the pot, he calls with 8 7 , turns an 8, and I obv brick gg me.

Had dinner with pbdrunks and TheNew, both awesome dudes. Got home, and here I am.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Crushing.

2008-02-14T14:33:00.000-07:00

Happy Valentines Day y'all!

I'm currently laying on a king sized bed looking out over the Colorado River valley from the Avi Indian Casino about as far south into Nevada as geographically possible. Tiff and I decided to pop down here for Valentines Day. Not exactly the most romantic spot, but when you live in Vegas your non-casino destinations are rather limited. This place has a beach and a golf course and it's right on the river, so it'll do.

Actually, we're having a great time. We absolutely killed em at everything we touched except video poker last night. I talked her into playing a $25 tournament that started at 7pm. We were 2nd and 3rd alternates in a field of 40 and were in within the first eight minutes (LOL). I busted a guy on my second hand with 99>AJ on an J9x flop, when the betting went raise/call preflop, bet/all-in/call post-flop (stacks were reeeal deep... pause... NOT). Then a couple of minutes later, I hear the floorman teasing Tiff as she was stacking chips about, "Hustlin these guys? First time? Riiight... :-). Tiff simply won every pot she played which was pretty funny to watch. She played one hand where she limped UTG for like 1600 with blinds of 800-1600 and an average stack of 9k, small blind goes all-in for like 2400, BB calls, she calls, flop Axx, check-check, turn x, check, Tiff goes all-in, BB mucks, tiff has two red kings and they're good obv, and I just kind of laugh to myself. I think I was the only person at the table that noticed how awful a play it was, but at that point I reached a point of nirvana. It didn't matter if she played good or not - she was having a great time, and that made me happy - and a girlfriend that enjoys poker *has* to be better than one that doesn't with my profession. At seven handed our stacks were all pretty even, average stack was like 4 bb's, and in 5 minutes we were doubling the blinds again. We chopped it 7 ways for $137 each, and Tiffany is one of the few people in the world who has entered a poker tournament, won the maximum, and never busted lifetime. Good job girl!

I also saw something at that final table that I haven't seen ever before and I've been playing live poker since 1999. One guy goes all-in, both blinds call. All three hands make it to showdown, and they are the A{moscardsuit:ss} J{moscardsuit:ss} , A{moscardsuit:ds} 9{moscardsuit:ds} , and A{moscardsuit:ss} 4{moscardsuit:cs} . The guy with the AJ wins the main and is stoked. Then I say, "Woahhhhh... Those players have the same card!"

The dealer quickly tells me that he knows what he's doing. "No, I'm not talking about that, they have the same card! Look!"

"Listen, I'm going to chop this pot, and I don't need your help."

"No no no... I'm not talking about anything about that... (I stand up and physically grab both aces of spades, put them obv next to each other) LOOK!"

There was a good 3 seconds of silence. I was pretty amused with it all. They handled it well, gave everybody their money back, put time back on the clock, and play resumed. Sure woulda been funny to look down and see the A{moscardsuit:ss} A{moscardsuit:ss} .

In other poker news, I absolutely killed em last week. The sick thing is that I really did not run well on my final tables otherwise I would won like double what I did. I made six final tables last week netting a little over $75k on the week. 3rd in the FTP $1k for $47,400, 3rd in the Stars $50 + 1 rebuy and add-on, got it in on flop of 678 with 89 and was against K5, stacks about equal, score $3k. 7th in the LHE LAPC #15, y'all read about that already. 6th in the FTP Sunday Mulligan for $10k, losing KK to AK with 12ish left, then two races, then chopping A9 to A4, got it in bad vs two shorties and lost, and then got it in with a bad ace and lost that one too. That was pretty frustrating cause I was just crushing the entire tournament and then had the wheels fall off with two to go. Meanwhile during that one I was busy making the final table in the FTP 55k, taking 4th for $9k, getting it in with 98 on a 973 flop vs KJ, he immediately turns a J, stacks even again. I took 21st or something in the 200r at the same time also for $2k. I feel like there's something else in there but I forgot. Anyways, stoked, good run, I also got out of makeup in my cash games, and poker's so sick how one week can erase 5 months of BLAH.

Off to breakfast..

Peace and good luck,

Devo

LAPC $1k+65 LHE Event #15 Final Table

2008-02-10T05:02:00.000-07:00

Meh. Took 7th for $5400. Nice spontaneous payday, but pretty disappointing. When we hit 8 handed I was 2nd in chips. I then played a pot with the K6 guy from yesterday where he limped my big blind, I raised 66, he called. Flop 953. He checked, I bet, he raised, I called. Turn K. He bets, I raise, he calls. River 8. He checks, I check, he takes it down with 97. Whatevs, standard hand of limit holdem.

BUT I LOST 40% OF MY STACK IN THIS HAND.

I was a strong 2nd in chips and only had 10 big bets. The structure was kinda silly and we were playing super shallow.

Anyways, I win and lose chips in small incriments but eventually building back up to 3rd in chips, then I play a strange hand with the never folds to me guy from yesterday that was pretty annoying.

I open playing 4k-8k with the average stack at 60k with AKo, guy that never folds 3 bets, and I just call (normally a 4 ball, but with stacks this shallow it's not worth the variance IMO). Flop KQJr, good news/bad news, I check, he bets, I just call, again normally a raise for same reasons but def not in this spot. Turn J, I check/call, river A, I check/call, he wins with AJo, a 70k pot. So, got short, doubled with AQ > K9, made a thin mistake against Max that prob cost me about 4k on average occourance, and then got it in when the limits went to 6k-12k with AQo v AKo and couldn't get there. It was a pretty annoying day to say the least, I had the cards to get there but a couple of key suckouts really ruined my day, and that's pretty frustrating that a key suckout like that will kill you with structures this shallow, but... now that I think about it I guess it's the same in no-limit, but instead of 2/3 of your stack it costs you the whole stack. Tournament poker is just gross really. It was also unfortunate that every time the shorties went in 8 and 7 handed, they doubled like 9/10 times, and I feel like I should have at least been able to make another pay jump or two. Oh well. Nothing I could do really.

It was fun though, I enjoyed all of my tables and had a pleasant time playing with Max and Randy. And really, you can't ever complain about making 4k in two days and 50k in a week :-).

Peace and good luck,

Devo

LAPC $1k+65 LHE Event #15, end of day one.

2008-02-09T07:06:00.000-07:00

Yep... read that right. Love it when things like this happen. So, Friday Pickett and Jon Eaton make the final table of the Rincon main event. We're all planning on heading up and sweating, but then Pickett decides that he wants to head to LA immediately after and Jay decides to go with him, but the rest of us don't want to go. So, we decide to stay back and watch the 1 hour delay webcast ad home. We play online, they all make like 10k and I take 3rd in the stars 50 + one rebuy and addon while we watch Pickett win the whole tournament for $225k. Now, it's party atmosphere in LA, and Dave, Billy, and myself head up to LA. I take the bike as I am planning on heading straight to Vegas after here. We actually wake up somewhat early (11:30am) and get on the road in time to make it to LA by 2:30 before traffic. We talk about how the games are going to be, I wonder about the stakes of the tourney buyins (not planning on playing today), see $1k limit hold'em (yum yum my favorite) donkament, immediately want to play, call the backers and get approval, and I'm in. For the record, I only have cash to cover the buyin on me because of the debt I was paid back.

Anyways, there's 13 left at the end of day one and we have 52k good for 3rd in chips :-). Leader has like 75 and 2nd has like 53k. Average is in the neighborhood of 40k. 42k for first.... Devo FTW!

I got really lucky early when I got most of my chips in pre and on the flop (4 bets each street) with JJ in a spot that I clearly needed to be in and spiked a J for our last chips on the turn to beat his AA... oh and some goofball hung around calling 2 bets cold four times with A8 on the 987 flop and J turn. LOL. So, I got a healthy stack, ran it up good, and then lost four pots in a row with JJ, AA, 99, KQ. I shouldn't have even bothered raising the KQ it was that gross. Got crippled to 2500 at like 600-1200, floated a few orbits, and then went on a siiiick heater (TY Scott Diamond for the sweat!) eventually having 25k in front of me like an hour later. So, now we're down to three tables, and I'm opening like every other pot, winning the maximum when ahead, bluffing 8 high on the river and showing it, all kinds of sick crap. This hand cracks me up. With 21 left I open UTG with AJo playing 1k-2k, called by the guy who would rather eat his socks than fold a hand to me, and called by the big blind who started this hand with 5500, posted the 1k big blind, and decides to smooth call m y open. Flop J62 rainbow, BB tanks and checks (lol), I fire, call station raises, BB tanks for I almost called the clock on him long enough, finally calls 2k off of his 3500 stack, I three ball, station calls, and this guy "random cap guy's" all in. LOOOOOOOOOL. Turn A, I bet, guy folds (ZOMG!!!), and I'm like I bet my bankroll have the guy drawing dead cause how does he ever get in this pot without exactly a single J, but he rolls over the mighty K6o and nails it on the river. Siiiiiiigh. So I'm tilty, have like 9k left of what was once a 25k almost chip lead stack, and I'm watching this money hater stack a 19k pot.

Anyways, I double somehow, pick up some chips somewhere, and spend a couple of hours at 20k. It was pretty frustrating... almost every time I saw a spot to do something creative and accumulate chips they woke up with a hand and I bled a lot of chips that way. So, every time I had value from a hand I would lose it back trying to outplay people and doing a good job of it but running into bummer crappy spots. Oh well.

We finally crack the money and have like 25 more minutes to play for the night. I get up to 30 quickly, blow a few pots, float for a while, and then with 14 left and five minutes to play for the day, a new guy to me with 50k opens in the cutoff (playing 2k-4k), I three bet the big blind to 6k with the A Q , and the guy calls. I have about 20k to start this hand. Flop T62ish rainbow with one spade. I bet 2k, he raises to 4k, I call. Turn J completing the rainbow. I check, he bets 4k, and with 21k in the pot and figuring to have 10 outs at best 7 outs at worst plus the 10% chance he's spewing and I have the best hand, I call the turn. River K. Nice. The ol "runner runner I have the nuts" trick. I bet, and HE RAISES! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhahahahhah. Based on his reaction he had at least a set. I obv three balled and he paid it off. Devo has 40k. Then I win one more "I 3 bet and am betting until you fold" pot and end the day with 52k, good for 3rd in chips with 13 left. Max Pescatori is the only other known player in the field and I don't know anybody else in the field. 42k for first, and we resume tomorrow at 7pm PST.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Rincon WSOP-C $5k Main, FTP $1k monday

2008-02-05T19:36:00.000-07:00

Devo's not busto anymore! Gotta give it to the money factory. I'm officially unbusto and actually at 5 digits again for the ol roll. More to come on that later, first lets go over the Rincon main event that I just bustoed out of.

First off, I get a great table draw with fish like Theo Tran, Brandon Cantu, and Gavin Smith who were 2, 3, and 4 ro my right respectively. Anna Wroblewski was in the three seat, Gavin knew the guy in the 4 seat, seat two was meh, and the guys to my right and left were horrible. Naturally these two are the ones that I lost all my chips to :-). First big/weird hand, I open to 200 UTG at 25-50 (we started with 20k in chips) and was called in the BB by the bad player who had already spewed/loose called his stack down to 7k. Flop KJ9r, he checks, I bet 275, me makes it 1k quickly with 5400 behind. Weird spot, I decided to just call with my position. Turn a brick, and the guy quickly jams all-in for like 5400 in to the 2500 in the pot. LOL. I tank and fold. I had him on J9 and he later confirmed it in the restroom.

Go into break with 17k. Come back we're playing 100-200/25 (why do we play 25-50, 50-100, then 100-200/25? WTF?!? Start with 50-100 and go to 100-200. Oh yeah, they skipped 150-300 also, straight to 200-400/50). Gavin opens from mid pos for 525, I call in the SB with 3 3 , donkey in the big blind calls. Flop A 2 3 , I bet 1100, donkey calls, Gavin calls. Turn T . Checking's horrible, but I obv don't like that card, but I have like 13k at this point, there's 5k in the middle, I'm getting it in. I bet 2800, donkey thinks, is deciding between calling and raising but doesn't feel too strong and calls, Gavin mucks. River I bet 3275 or my 10k remaining and donkey insta jams, and now he looks like he has the nuts. I tank, muck, and he shows me the A 7 . So, I nurse a short stack, shove on Anna's big blind with 57o and pick up the blinds, then get it in with Gavin AQo v AKo and I lose. Oh well. No worries at all, not a damn thing I could have done. It's not easy to do well in tourneys with winning 3 small pots in 4 hours and running into two bigger hands than my big hands.

So, last night I reg'd for the 100r, 55k, 100k, and tilt 1k monday. After about 90 minutes I was out of three of em and not happy at all with my play or how things were going. But, I built a stack in the 1k, blinded off to short around 50, and then basically short stack ninja'd my way into 3rd place. I had one brutal beat and one gross suckout, but other than that nothing too exciting. I was really proud of my play as there is not a single way that I could have finished better than I did, but there were many spots that I avoided that would have busted me sooner. The final table was very tough, but I never once had a good hand or opportunity to pick up chips more significant than the blinds. I had KK once and got the blinds, everything else was absolute rags, and my table position sucked with three shorties to my right and four big stacks to my left with me right in the middle. At one point there were 4 of us with less than 10bb's, and without cards I navigated my way into 3rd for $47k. Clear 25k in make-up, advance ship $5k to Devo, still up 10k on backers. I also got paid back $2k that was owed to me, plus $100 from Gavin in a prop bet, plus $1250 from Theo (not paid) and oh, by the way, he took 4th last night. Life is so much better notching Theo. I re-raised him 4 times, he folded every time like the little nit. So, that plus $2500 from cash games and we're back in the black baby!

I'm pretty proud to have gone busto one month ago and have a bankroll higher than I have had since October now. And I bet y'all are happy to read a winning blog for once too, eh?

Anyways, FTOPS starts tomorrow, so I'll be playing online for the next couple of weeks, and then I launch a pretty intensive live+online schedule. I'm playing almost every Sun-Wed online and almost every Th-Sat live between the Venetian Deep Stacks, Wynn Classic, Reno World Poker Something, and Bellagio 5 star in April. I'm feelin good and glad to be finally winning again.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Motorcycles to the Money Factory

2008-02-02T22:00:00.000-07:00

..... I had a pretty surreal experience today as I rode Ol Blue (my motorcycle) south on the 15 Freeway through Escondito and into San Diego. In August of 2005 I rode my old bike down here from Kernville for a couple of days off from the river and never made it back. I crashed on the on-ramp to the 15 on my way back to my friends house (with her on the back) as we were headed home from an evening at Harrah's, Rincon. You can read the blog I wrote about that experience here... it's a deep/controversial one LOL. It's some weird triumphant symbolism to ride past that place, esp when I rode past the hospital, but I think it will be a nice victory when I am actually able to ride a motorcycle out of San Diego for the first time.

I decided to ride this time since it's February and that lets me pretend that it's almost springtime, and I just finished Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman's book, "The Long Way Round." It's a story about their 4 month motorcycle ride from London to New York City, headed East. All the way across Europe, Mongolia, Siberia, fly to Anchorage, across Canada to Montana and over to NYC. Epic trip and I have always been itchin to do something like it. Fuller and I are talking about riding the Pan-American Highway (Anchorage to Patagonia, Argentina). So, why not ride 400 miles rather than drive?

Yeah. I'm still sitting in most of my cold weather gear as I am thawing from that ride. But it was awesome.

I'm down here under the excuse of the Harrah's Rincon WSOP-C main event. I start a pretty intensive live schedule on Tuesday taking me all the way through the end of April hitting here, the Venetain Deep Stacks in Feb, the Wynn Classic and Reno events in March, and the 5 star in April. I didn't realize until this week how long it's been since I've played a live tournament (not counting the Viejas thing in Dec, but that was the official last time I played live). I'm pretty dang excited to play some live donkaments.

I thought I would have more to write. I don't. I will soon I'm sure :-).

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Quick Update

2008-01-29T21:23:00.000-07:00

confirm run bad Sorry it's been a while, it hasn't' been too much fun lately pokerwise. I've still been getting deep, made final two tables in the 100r last two days, but am running very bad in all my all-in situations and I'm getting coolered a lot more than usual. I cashed in the Sunday Million and I lost every single all-in pre-flop situations, and I was ahead in every single one of them until the last one where I was short. But, when people tell me "No, I'm playing really good, I'm just running really bad," I kinda laugh and am like, whatever, esp after many months of losing.

So, here's my tallies for aipf situations:
theoretical pct actual pct
Races: 7-11 (wins/losses) .500 .375
Favorites: 17-10 .750 .588
Dogs: 3-24 .250 .125

I also took a gross one 3rd in chips w/44 left vs the chip leader where I flopped top set we get it in and he immed turns his 2 outer. So, it's tough to overcome being a 2-1 underdog every time I get it in, but I'm still cashing - just hate writing about this as i'm sure that you hate reading about it.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

The Great 2008 Road Trip, Days 9-11

2008-01-21T00:40:00.000-07:00

Whadda weekend... So, I took Thursday off, Tiff and I had dinner in what has become one of my favorite places anywhere here in Leavenworth, and really nothing else to report.

Friday we went into town and had breakfast as some awesome hippie breakfast joint (I love these places!). She took me back to work and went exploring. I started out hot, up $1500 in cash games and doing well in tourneys. Then the wheels fell off the bus and I lost the $1500 back and cashed in zero tourneys.

Saturday Tiff went up to Mission Ridge and I played the day schedule. I took 6th in the 100r on stars which was pretty disappointing as I was crushing the whole tournament with a huge chip lead. I made a mistake/got in a bummer spot on the final table and doubled up bigegypt. I opened pre w/KT 7 handed from the cutoff. bigegypt called on the button with a stack that should be shoving not flat calling. It was like 1/8 of his stack pre. The big blind called also and the flop came Kxx. BB checked, and I was in a weird spot. bigegypt had 100k, I had like 280k, and there was 40k in the pot. Normally it's getting in with top pair and these stacks, but his pre-flop call was so odd. I gave him 99-AA in his range which may be off. I reasoned that I'm not getting value from 99-QQ by betting, but the chips needed to get in, so check-raise all-in was my best line trying to get him to bluff with those hands. KK is pretty unlikely, and if he has AA so be it. I think though that he's not always betting here with 99-QQ, I have a T so TT's less likely, and losing 100k is a pretty good ding to my stack with the relative chip stacks on the table. I think better lines would have been bet/fold or check/fold. So, I got crippled (to just below average) and couldn't win a hand after that. GG me in 6th. for like 4400, I win 4k on the day after cashing in the ftp 100r also.

Saturday night was awesome. We went into town for thier Ice Festival. We had beer brats at an outdoor beer garden, I bought a stein with discounted refils (and uuuuuuuuuusssssed them), and then we ran into like 15 frat dudes from UW and one girl (her parents owned the cabin LOL). We ended up kicking it with them for about 5 hours and we had a blast. I felt like I was in college again... so much fun!

Sunday started out the grossest ever. I never had a chance in any tournament til the 4:30pm 100r. I had an avegage stack with 12k, got some info that a certain player was extremely LAG opening like every UTG with garbage, so when this villain with 20k opened to 2k and another 20k stack flatted, I thought it was a good spot to squeeze with 64s. He has AA obv.

Fast forward a couple hours, and all I have left going is the 200r. I'm in to the day for like $4600. Fortunately I'm chip leader in the 200r, but there's still 100+ players with 36 getting paid and me needing to take 8th to make money on the day. Fast forward a couple more hours, and I'm 3rd in chips with 12 left. I ran hot hot hot hot hot. I never lost a race, but I never sucked out either. Every chip I won was accumulated or won as a coinflip or better. I was very proud of that. Then I played a hand 6 handed vs. the 3rd in chips on my table. I had like 215k and he had like 125k with average at 150k. I have 88 on the button blinds 4k-8k, I open for 10k and he ships. Weird spot... I think I'm ahead slightly more than I'm behind, but I think he has AK/AQ a huge percentage of the time and ICM wise I shouldn't be racing there. Questionable, but I like it.

Little did I know though that I wouldn't see a better hand the rest of the tournament. With 10 left I played a race for half my stack w/AT<88, and that was the best hand I would see. I stole the blinds a few times, but busted w/K4 v KT when I open shoved the cutoff with 3.5 m's and 7 left. Sigh.

On one hand, I'm very proud that I'm cashing in these rebuyaments so consistently and getting in them for much less than I used to. These fields are the toughest online and that makes me feel good. That point however, plus the ol not running good on final two tables part, is largely the reason that I haven't finished better than 6th in one in 6 final tables last 6 weeks. People really just aren't giving it away deep in these things.

Anyways, we're headed back Tuesday. Tiff's sister's birthday is on Friday so we're gonna get back for that.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

The Great 2008 Road Trip, Days 5-8

2008-01-17T18:24:00.000-07:00

1867.4 Miles Into the Trip... Wow this has been a fun journey. I am finally at the point in a long road trip, or long anything really, where the days melt into each other and the distractions of daily life fade into forgetfulness. We are on a journey, much like life, that never has a fixed destination. We're not going somewhere on this trip, the trip is where we're going. It's a beautiful feeling and the state of mind that I wish to live the rest of my life like. Living for the moment, living for now, and thus thoroughly enjoying the beautiful details of every moment of these nameless days I am living.

Besides that, I've been grinding. A lot. I averaged about 10 hours a day for the last four days while Tiffany has been riding, but really I shoulda stuck to writing these last four days. I was super psyched for Sunday and even brought my laptop to breakfast to make sure I was in time for the 100r and Brawl at 11am Western time. Well, before I even made it out of breakfast I busted with JJ on an AJx flop vs. the big blind that check/called a 3/4 pot bet on the flop and then did the same on the 9 turn and then check-jammed the K river which I obviously fist-pump snap-called only to be shocked that the chips were going that way to his QTo. Whatever. I had the worst Sunday I have ever head until about 5pm when I started rolling in the FTP 750k, Mulligan, Stars 2nd Chance, and the 100r. I had huge chip stacks in all of those tourneys but ended up getting effed in all three losing pots as 3-1 favorites for top 5 chipstacks. I only made the money in the 750k taking like 106th, but the day still cost me $2500 plus $1500 cash where I got horribly unlucky also.

Monday... Sweet! FTP 1k! Nope. 10 mins in playing 10-20 a dude opens for 70, I flat right behind him with JJ, heads up flop of QJx and we go bust to QQ. Oh, but to not despair. In three other tourneys I busted getting it in with the nuts of top set vs flush draws, and then I got it in with an open-ended straight flush draw with two overs vs top pair (QJcc on Tc9cX vs AT) and couldn't hit. Whatevs... I know there's nothing I can do about it, but it is very very very frustrating and as y'all know it's been this way for a long time.

That night we went to a local bar and I had a couple of interesting conversations. Tiffany asked, "Why don't you talk about what you do in places like this?" Cause I really don't unless there's a reason to. I was trying to explain to her how often it's a general pain in the ass as 80% of the people are going to hear the words coming out of my mouth and immediately do something to piss me off. It might be the judgemental type that believes that gambling is wrong, the skeptical type that says it's all luck, the know it all who plays poker and immediately thinks they're better than you, or just the quiet person that instantly puts some stereotype label on your forehead. It's just not worth it really. I make up something about what I do when I'm talking to some random person that I'm probably never going to see again, and then only if they really press and want to know what I do. I often go with the wilderness guide since I have done that, sometimes I'll make up something wacky like Eel Farmer, and I've even signed Danny Masterson autographs. The other 20% of the people are either people like most of you who understand the game of poker and the theory of it being a profession or just plain cool non-judgemental pepole. I suppose I could use talking about poker as a correlation to personalities for friendship, but meh. I've just argued "long run" and "skill game" too much and every time I get in that discussion I feel like I would be more fulfulled talking to potatoes.

Enter Laura. She meets Tiffany outside smoking, Tiffany talks about us and what we're doing and Laura brings up poker somehow and Tiff says I'm a pro and blah blah blah. So, I shake hands with Laura, and she says, "So, you're a pro, huh?" I do my best to dodge questions cause I really don't want to talk to this random drunk chick that is obviously already skeptical about me. Eventually the conversation gets to the point where she says, "So, have you found any games in town?" This is after she challenged me to heads up for $3 and then talked crap when I politely declined. I mentioned that I play online mostly, she said online's a joke and went into this tirade about reading people and looking into their eyes and all this hollywood crap, and apparently this sent Tiffany into defensive girlfriend mode, and Tiff says, "So have YOU found any games in town??"

Nope.

I am going to become an accountant to make my bar going experiences easier.

The bartender, however, was right up my alley. His name is Dave Fish (seriously). He is married with a kid, spends his winters in Bend, Oregon bartending at this lodge, and spends his summers in Alaska running a Fishing Guide service that he owns. So sweet. We had good ol talks about many things and I thoroughly enjoyed his conversation.

So the next morning we left to head north into Washington. We settled in Naches, WA, which is somewhere in the middle. LOL. This town was hilarious. It felt like something out of the 50's movies. Like, seriously. Everything down to the traffic lights looked like they had not been altered in 50 years. I loved it.

Tuesday poker: same flavor. Don't wanna talk about this.

Wednesday was a good day however. I went back and watched a few PXF videos, read deeper into some threads, did some thinking, and reviewed some of my hand histories and found a couple leaks that I thought might help. I also brought some of my live tricks into the online game, and the results showed. I played 16 tournaments yesterday, took 4th/800 and change in one, 11th/1600+ in another, and 18/270 in a third. Furthermore I got screwed deep in three that I really should have cashed in. I don't think there was anything I could have done to get further in the one I finished 4th, I made a marginal mistake in the 11th, and I got effed in the 18th. I played very well making only a couple of marginal mistakes all day. I also won $1k in the cash games.

That reminds me. I finally had a couple of revenge suckouts yesterday. Twice I got it in with aces, once vs KK and once vs. QQ. The queens flopped top set and we went running clubs for the nut flush, and the kings flopped KQQ and we rivered an A. Those made me feel much better about life.

Last night after working we walked across the street to the bar. This place was the perfect downtown locals bar in a small town. There was a lady who looked 65 hanging out knowing everybody with a kitten walking around her shoulders and nooooobody cared. Then I met her mother. She looked 40. I still can't figure it out. So, apparently this cat was very friendly, I know this because the cat lady told me so as she insisted that this cat goes walking around my shoulders. I watched this dude shoot a sick game of pool - with a kitten on his shoulders that was not owned by him. Add that to the list of random shit I've seen in my lifetime...

So, today's Thursday and we just arrived in Leavenworth, Washington. Apparently this is some Bavarian town and this weekend is the ice festival so everything was booked up. I called the Chamber of Commerce, they gave me three hotel names, the first one didn't have any availability Saturday, and the second is where I am at right now. I got on the phone with this lady named Helen. She gave me the usual greeting, I responded, "Hi Helen, how are you?!?"

Pause. "Well, to tell ya the truth I have a damn cold."

I like this lady already. We chat about rooms, rates, and she's trying to figure out a way to give us a discount. Nice. "Well, what the hell ya do? AAA? AARP? Senior Citizen? Student? Military? Ride a Harley? What?"

"Uhhhhh... well, I work for myself. Ahem.. I'm self employed."

"C'mon, what the hell ya do?"

"Well......... I'm a professional poker player actually."

"REALLY?!?!? Ya know last week I went up der to dat Casino and I done won myself darn near four hunned dollas." She just could not stop talking about gambling, getting married in Vegas, not being able to get a room so sleeping in their car on their honeymoon in Vegas, her brother in law who is a professional gambler, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on............ She was absolutely hilarious. Racist as all hell, sweet as sugar, quick wit and humor, and after chatting on the phone and in person, she gives us this sick room for $55 a night through the holiday weekend. The rate she quoted first was $55, $99, $149, $99 for the next four nights. NICE! So, I'm done writing, and I am going to go check out this Bavarian town.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

The Great 2008 Road Trip

2008-01-12T21:31:00.000-07:00

Days 1-4. Bend, Oregon, by way of Los Angeles, Pismo Beach, and Half Moon Bay

Sorry about the lapse between blogs. I came back from Christmas/San Diego with a sore throat. This was magnified by the UFC fight the night of Dec 28th, not helped by New Years Eve, and I thought I was home free New Years Day, when Tiffany didn’t feel well. I felt like I was still on the tail end of things and not completely recovered. By this point I had decided to go with Tiffany up north and we made the call to wait til the 3rd to leave for Washington.

Long story short, she got really sick, then I got really really really really sick, and we weren’t all the way fixed until Monday the 7th. We finally left for our road trip Wednesday afternoon. Destination: Washington ski areas. All of em. Schedule? None. So, Tiff wanted to hit Mtn. High in So Cal since she tried to on Monday but the roads were closed. We drove down to my Mom’s place, kidnapped her for dinner, met up with a bunch of the homies (Nick, Shawn [Danny’s brother], and Tommy plus 3 girls), and ended up crashing at Shawn’s pad.

Next morning Tiff woke up early, I woke up later and started working. My mission on this trip is to grind my ass off and get back somewhat of a reasonable bankroll. She’s been planning on doing this for a long time so I’m kind of tagging along. I figured with all the drive time I’ll get a bunch of reading and writing done and with all the down time/her boarding time I’ll get a bunch of work done. I started out winning both in cash and tournaments on Thursday, but just marginally in both and I’m in make-up in both so it didn’t really matter… plus I felt kicked in the nuts the way things went down and really should have gotten out of make up in cash and won about 5k in tournaments. Damn river I swear. In that cash session I only played one big pot, got it in on the flop w/KK v 75 on a 97x flop and he promptly turned a 5. Course I brick. But two nights before I had an especially gross session where I got it in five times, all $800+ pots, four times I got it in on the turn with the best hand and lost all four. One time I got it in with an open-ended straight flush draw with an over vs.. top two (I’m a favorite) and I lost that one too.

Anyways, so we decided we were going to San Francisco, then Bend, stop, ride Mt. Bachelor, maybe Hood, and then keep on keeping on. That didn’t work, and I’m stoked that it didn’t. We stopped in Santa Barbara and had dinner with Kristin, and then continued north to Pismo Beach. We decided along the way that we were taking the coast up and found this sweet room for $109 right on the sand with a 24 hour beach front Jacuzzi. Rough life really.

Friday I spent the whole day driving. Just meandering our way north on PCH, stopping to check out what we wanted to, enjoying the scenery of the Big Sur area otherwise. One of the highlights was an elephant seal colony that we came across. There were literally hundreds of elephant seals on this small stretch of beach and it looked like something off of the Discovery channel. Freakin cool. We saw a birth right after it happened, and it was crazy. The seagulls were hell bent on eating the protein rich afterbirth, the mama was intent on deafening the seagulls (she made a BAHHHWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!! noise in their ears showing her teeth. I was hoping for her to rip some heads off really, or maybe I would provide her with some alka-seltzer, but there was no more blood to be seen). The newborn pup just kinda wiggled around the sand thinking about what I suppose newborns think about, which is a lot of, “What the F&#!“ and whatever their instincts are telling them, “Booooobs.“ When I’m not in the middle of nowhere I’ll post some pics, probably toward the end of the trip.

We ended up staying at Half Moon Bay in this old Victorian right on PCH since the hostel at the lighthouse was sold out of private rooms. Sad. It was cool, but not worth the money really.

Today we finished the drive up the coast, through San Fran, across the bay bridge, breakfast at Tom’s Cabin in Berkley (this awesome little hippie organic breakfast joint), and have continued driving all day. We’re staying at the Mt. Bachelor Village Resort the next couple of days, and I’m psyched to get in a good day of tourneys tomorrow. I’m back on a somewhat normal schedule and am actually gonna try and make it up by the warm-up and play all the way through the 200r.

“And it didn’t matter exactly where we were headed. We’d get there. We’d find somewhere to stay. Something or somebody would turn up. And if they didn’t, we’d camp. It was that simple. At last I was living for each day, free as the eagles that lined the roadside…” - Charley Boorman, Long Way Round

Peace and good luck,

Devo

My New Favorite Hand of All Time

2008-01-06T21:25:00.000-07:00

What do you put him on? Sorry I've been absent as of late, but I got sicker than I have been in my adult life since the new year. And no, it had nothing to do with the NYE festivities. Kinda disappointing really!

I wanted to show y'all this hand I just played. It brought a roomie downstairs saying, "What are you laughing at?!?"

2-4 nl. Over my dead body (or sweet information of your own that you'd like to swap) am I telling y'all where these fishies hang out. 6 max table, I open to $14 w/QTo from the cutoff, the big blind calls. I have zero history with the big blind. Flop 233o. BB min bets $4, I jack it to $34, he calls. Turn an ace putting a heart draw out there. BB bets $4 again, I jack it to $90, he calls. Damn. River a 6, he checks, I'm like, "Damn. I know he's got nothing, but I give up." I check, and they ship me the pot. AHHHHHHHHHHHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Guy types into the chat box, "Nice value." I think it's my new favorite hand of all time.

Time to suck on a Sucrets.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Being Real and Bustin Nooooobs

2007-12-28T23:14:00.000-07:00

Life, Poker, Life. Ha! Poker content! Christmas was one of the best ones that I can remember. Traditionally my family does things at my house with Mom's side of the fam on Christmas eve, and then we go to Orange County on Christmas afternoon to spend time with my Dad's side. Over the years Christmas eve has dwindled to just my nuclear fam and my Mom's grandparents, and they always bickered like grumpy old people. Never too enjoyable really. However, in the past year they have both had significant medical issues, and I think it kinda woke em up. They were happier than I have ever seen them. My grandfather, who didn't even remember where I lived or what I did, was singing Irish jigs and reciting two hundred year old verses of poetry. He told us stories about WWII and Alaska. It was awesome.

Christmas morning was great. My mother responded to my protests last year when for the first year of my entire life I didn't get a toy. She hooked it up with a remote controlled helicopter. It's sick and is airborne in the house quite often. Furthermore, she didn't guess what I got her. I'm like 2/20 lifetime now or something silly sneaking something past the "gift identification radar." She's good.

Anyways, headed down to OC to be with that side of the fam (cousin's wedding side) and had another excellent day. The "kids" table is still the kids table, but instead of sippy cups we were doing tequila shooters last year. Cousin Dave busted out some funky Tennessee whiskey this year and it tasted like gasoline and kicked like a mule.

We have a $10 white elephant-ish gift exchange that is always a good time, but this year was the best by far. I've never heard our entire family having so much fun together before. It was wonderful. Thanks y'all (That means you Jeff, Chris, Caryn, and any other secret readers :-)!

Christmas eve I wrote that rant blog and it felt good to get all those things out. Thanks to whoever left that youtube comment - that really meant a lot to me. The following morning Kristin and I grabbed some coffee and headed to Puddingstone lake where I spent much of my youth. We sat on a picnic bench and talked, and invariably we got on the subject of the church.

She helped me to look back at the things that have frustrated me so much about the church and why they have driven me away. I realized something that I hadn't before and kinda the moment that I gave up. In the spring of 06, Shay (ex-wife) applied for a job as an assistant at a church in Colorado. She flew out there, things were great, and then when they asked what I did things weren't great. Now remember, I used to work at a church, I strongly support the ministry, they had good references for me in Colorado and California, yet it wasn't good enough. They interviewed me over the phone, and since I wouldn't quit playing poker when I moved to Colorado, they denied Shay the position. It pissed me off like nobody's business, but I guess I didn't realize until this week the signifigance of that moment.

The thing is that the church is an instutition founded by God but run by people and therefore it is going to be inherently flawed. I cannot justapose the actions of the church onto the character of God. True, I have been hurt, and I have every right to be angry, but I am wrong in the grudges that I have held. I need to let them go and re-learn what it is like to forgive - not only the church, but those that have hurt me along the way.

The thing is that much of my strife with the church was due to my going against the grain. Anybody who's read like one of my blogs that isn't about poker knows this. I have always been a maverick, and while working in the church I was no different. I saw things that were not right and I wanted to change them. I was very "successful" if you can define success within the context of ministry, yet that was often overshadowed by the conflicts that I created. For example, at the last church I worked at, I was brought on in a part time role to basically start a student ministry. They gave me a roster of about 20 kids, 5 of em showed up every once in a while, and the programming was minimal. Within 9 months there was a program in place with 20 regular attenders and over 60 kids on the roster, and this is excellent for a tiny church with an average Sunday attendance of about a hundred. The problem? Now that I had kids coming for youth program, the elders wanted kids to come for the morning church service. But, there was a reason that kids didn't come to the church service in the first place. It was boring. The only reason I went was because I had to, and I wasn't about to force teenagers to come to a church service with an average age of 60 and about as traditional as it gets. I offered ideas to change the service to make it more accomadating to teenagers, but instead they got upset at me for saying it like it was.

In the entire history of the Christian church anybody who has said anything prophetic has been met with resistance. Kristin mentioned the old testament prophet Jeremiah. He led people out of Israel and into Egypt with much strife. When they got to Egypt, even though everybody knew he was right, they still chastized him at every opportunity, yet he still wrote "'I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'Plans to help you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'"

That's where I fell short years ago. Instead of embracing the visions that I had and letting the crap run off my back like water off a duck, I let it discourage me and drive me away. In that battle I lost. I let my pride get the best of me and it has caused me a lot of heartache in the past few years.

Now what? Beats me. But knowing is half the battle, right?

OK fine...................... poker.

So after going busto I have been torturing the cash games. I got staked to play online cash games and in the past week I'm up almost 5k. Thats good for me as I will be shipping half that to my bank account on the first.

I have been playing primarily the 2-4 NL games. I feel like I have finally gotten a grasp of the style that just crushes the game. I had played so weak-tight for so long. When I first started playing NL cash, I played much like tourneys and got screwed with many top-pair top-kicker type hands and it gave me a very scared perspective of the game. Now I'm playing a very F YOU style and it's working great. I've learned a ton about pushing people to their breaking point, and then when they finally decide to stop folding I show up with the goods. Plus, it's given me a ton of control over the pots as opponents have responded to my play. Here's a couple of examples, both 2-4 NL 6 max.

First hand a couple of days ago, I open raise in MP with 7 8 . I get called by both blinds. flop 356 with one . SB bets $4 into the $40 pot, BB calls, I jack it to $44, SB calls, BB folds. Turn 3 , BB checks, I check. River 9, he ships it all-in for like $200, I snap, and he has QQ.

If I was playing my old style, I probably would've never seen the flop. The SB woulda re-raised enough where I wouldn't have been able to see the flop. Instead, the SB thought, "Let's trap this LAGtard," and he ended up trapping himself. Here's another example.

I open 55 in MP to $14, get called by the BB. Flop Kxx rainbow. He checks, I fire pot for $30, he calls. Turn 5. I fire pot for $90, he calls. River a blank, I ship it for $275, he calls with AK. GG. Again, same thing. Since I had tortured both opponents on previous hands, they decide to let me do the betting and end up losing a huge pot instead of winning a small one. Obvious it was convienent for me to hit on both hands, but I don't put another dollar into either pot unless I hit.

I've also imported many of my accumulating chips tricks from tournament poker to cash games. It has allowed me to pick up a ton of small pots that I wouldn't have otherwise and it gives me an image that helps hands like the above happen. It's really a fun adventure and I'm finally appreciating NL more than LHE.

I've also been playing a bunch of the PLO games online. They're so juicy but the variance is so high. It's pretty incredible how bad people get it in, but with 4 cards instead of two, it's always tough to have a huge lock on a hand like you can in hold'em. I like it though. Much gamboooool.

As far as donkaments go, I've continued to get reallllllly close and get screwed often. Last week I took 4th in the stars 109 25k, losing QQ to Ax early on the final table that crippled me. I had a ton of chips right by the money in the million and ub $500 this sunday, played huge pots as 3-1 favorites and lost em both. Tonight I bubbled the final table of the FTP $129 bounty, getting screwed earlier near the bubble and running QQ into KK in that one. I'm stuck something like $16k in makeup this month, which I guess isn't too bad considering that I've played like $40k worth of tourneys this month, but with how many times I've gotten so close, it's frustrating. Now a win of any of the standard tourneys doesn't even get me unstuck!

I'm looking for the next new site that is going to be filled with noooooobs like the one that I'm playing on right now. If any of y'all have any insights I'll let ya know where I've found :-).

I'm pretty excited actually to be a little grinder in January to get my bankroll back under me. It's nice having hands hold up every once in a while now, and it sure is satisfying stacking peeps. Today when I woke up I was actually excited to play some cards. I haven't experienced that in a while.

Several of y'all commented about how my writing changes with how I'm running. Thanks for pointing that out, I really didn't realize it. I think it's a good thing though. When we're running good, life is good and we're full of confidence. When we're running bad though our confidence is shaken and often our game is shaken. I'm a big believer in the human element of poker and when I'm running bad i naturally look at myself first. I believe that our personal lives are connected to our poker lives and often the outcomes on the table. I've written a couple of articles about it and recommend that everybody takes a look at themselves when running bad, because there isn't a damn thing we can do about the cards, but we can improve ourselves and the way we play.

Also, I've been chewing on this personal stuff a lot since July. Back then I realized I had some serious issues that I had to work on, and this blog has often been the words that have been floating around my head. Back when I first started blogging in 04 I wanted to make my blog different, and I decided to do that by writing what I was thinking, not some candy coated version of what I was thinking or what I thought I should write about. I wanted my blog to be two things. I wanted it to be for me first and foremost. Writing is one of the greatest tools that I personally have to work through things in my own life. I believe that through writing I can learn about myself, improve myself, and create a history of who I have been allowing me to learn from my successes and mistakes alike. Secondly, I wanted to create someting real . Not scripted, not "reality tv" real, but just pure, raw, me. One of the biggest things I spoke out against in the church was how people put on their happy face every sunday morning. I often felt like the people I talked to in church sanctuaries on Sunday mornings weren't really the pepole I was talking to. I hated how the church encouraged this. I felt like the church had become a place like a hospital that didn't allow bleeding people in. It wasn't ok to be vulnerable, open, honest, wounded, real. I responded to that by writing the most real aspects of myself in the public light of a blog. I would not allow myself to become a thespian of life, hiding behind whatever happy or sad mask I dug out of my closet that morning. As a result I feel like many of y'all that read this blog, yet have never met me, feel like you know me. I think that's a good thing. Perhaps I say things that I shouldn't say. Perhaps I shouldn't be so open about certain aspects of my life. But, I think it's a good blend, and something you cannot ever accuse me of being is fake. I would much rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I am not.

Tomorrow I'm going to the UFC fight. I'm psyched. Jared got tipped two $750 face value (going for like 2k each now) tickets by a woman that works for UFC and we're going. They're sick seats, and we're headed down early to catch every bout. Sunday tourneys, Monday is NYE and we're going to be on the strip again this year, Tuesday the Trojans are going to kick the crap outta the Illini, and Wednesday Tiffany leaves for more snowboarding adventues.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

I Am Me.

2007-12-26T01:40:00.000-07:00

Caution: Passionate blog including a couple of f bombs. Read at own discretion. Why do we as a society embrace the ideals presented in movies such as Braveheart or Dead Poet's Society yet continue to live in our conformity?

What is it that we are trying to not conform to, yet fail daily at being mavericks?

Where did we go wrong in our culture that work and money and power and popularity are of greater importance than family and friends and love and adventure?

I mean seriously. Think of how many times we have put off people in our lives because we had to work. We had to work because we had to have money. We had to have money because we had to pay our bills and because we wanted things. We wanted money so we can have power and adventure.

My life was far more exciting when I was penniless.

We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?" Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play *goes on* and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?

What will my verse be? My entire life I have tried to figure out what that verse is. People have told me what my verse should be, but if I wrote those words then it would be plagarism. I must find the lyric myself.

We grow up in a defined world. Go to school once you're five years old. Graduate high school. Unless you want to be a loser, go to college. Graduate college. If you want to do something great, go to grad school. Become a doctor. If not, get a good job, marry a good girl, settle down, and start a family.

Noble pursuits.

How boring would this world be if everybody followed that basic outline for what life should look like? Yet, when any of us deviate from the plotted course of our American lives, even people that we do not know are made uncomfortable by this.

I play poker to pay my rent. I wrestle with ideas of ideology, philosophy, theology, and love.

Yet I am a gambler. I am counter-culture. I am against the grain. I make people uncomfortable. Just take a look at my comments on my private blog here.

Now, I'm not trying to defend myself or anything, but I am the only person that I really truly know anything about, so I might as well use what I really know as an example for something that I am trying to learn about.

Not one member of my family is really comfortable with the idea of my playing poker for a living. I'm pretty sure that my girlfriend isn't completely comfortable with it. My ex wife was not. Many of you think that I need to go to gambler's anonymous and get my life back on track.

What the fuck is back on track?

Something is missing here. Why do I get over seven thousand hits per blog that I write? Why are we as a culture so fascinated with the mavericks of the world yet so afraid of them at the same time? Why do we feel such a need to herd those who have left the fold back into a nice, neat, line? Why do we love heroes such as John Wayne, Wyatt Earp, or Bret Maverick? Why do we love Tom Brady or Peyton Manning so much? Why do we embrace so many actors and actresses whom have become famous because of television?

Because really it's all the same ol song and dance. We have a cultural paradigm that you need to connect the dots in this order to be successful. There are a few people like those mentioned above, fictional or not, who are extraordinary examples of those who have succeed outside the system - and we are envious.

Yet, if that person is not a superstar, then we are still wary of them. Curious enough that we often know the details of their lives better than we know the deatils of some of our friends and family, yet critical simply because they make us uncomfortable.

What is success? Why do we even want to be successful in the first place? Where did we go wrong as a society that we ever began to put things like family behind things like work? What made us conclude that there really is a set value system within this world that we are all held accountable to? Why is the businessman on Wall Street more successful than Bill who runs the Range at Slab City? Why is the kid who graduated college more successful than the kid that didn't?

I'm trying to think of what is my point in this whole ramble and I really don't know. I'm exploring this in my own head, heart, and soul as you are reading these words on your computer screen. I don't know. But what I do know is that I was never designed for college. I was never created to sit in a cubicle. I am blessed with a personality that naturally rebels against authority and I believe that to be a good thing.

Why cannot we explore who we are without encountering the scrutiny of those who claim to care about us?

Now, don't get me wrong (remember, this is a free flow of thought, not an essay on a topic). I am all for accountability. But I want to be held accountable to what is right like my friend Kristin did to me this summer, not to what somebody else thinks is right for me.

And deep down we all know what is right. We all know that happiness, romance, adventure, love, and family is what is right in this world. Whether or not you believe in God or not, I would conject that most people would agree with that statement.

I don't know shit when it really comes down to it. What I do know is that something isn't right with the way things are going... and that's what I want to fix. Every moment of our lives is a line in the verse that we are writing in the great performance that is this life. It is not in the future, it is not something that we are to prepare for, it is something that we are to live .

And it is different for every one of us. Right now I am a writer. Tomorrow I will be a traveler and a boyfriend. Wednesday I'll be a poker player. No single thing defines us or who we are. I also don't believe that the entire collection of things we do, believe, feel, think, see, hear, smell, taste, touch, or want can define who we are. We as human beings are so beautifully complex that we cannot be defined by terms that can be put into words. We come close with poetry, music, art, romance - but we can never fully capture that which we are lacking. Definition, direction, who we are.

I am me. Plain, simple, me.

On bended knee is no way to be free
Lifting up an empty cup I ask silently
That all my destinations will accept the one that's me
So I can breathe

Circles they grow and they swallow people whole
Half their lives they say goodnight to wives they'll never know
Got a mind full of questions and a teacher in my soul
And so it goes

Don't come closer or I'll have to go
Owning me like gravity are places that pull
If ever there was someone to keep me at home
It would be you

Everyone I come across in cages they bought
They think of me and my wandering but I'm never what they thought
Got my indignation but I'm pure in all my thoughts
I'm alive

Wind in my hair I feel part of everywhere
Underneath my being is a road that disappeared
Late at night I hear the trees they're singing with the dead
Overhead

Leave it to me as I find a way to be
Consider me a satellite forever orbiting
I knew all the rules but the rules did not know me
Guaranteed.

- Eddie Vedder

I'm not in control

2007-12-23T22:43:00.000-07:00

Make the best of a bad spot The only sounds I can hear is the crashing of Pacific waves and the clikity-clack of my skaboard wheels rolling over cracks in the boardwalk. It that moment of serenity I realized once again that I am not in control, and if we take what life brings us we can find ourselves in some pretty sweet spots.

You see, about an hour before I found myself here I was busting out of the UB $500 $75k guarantee in 26th place. I had just gotten crippled playing for a top 5 stack with top 20 getting paid opening with my ace king offsuit and getting jammed on by 78 sooooooted (for like 9k over my 1k open). It had already been a pretty gross Sunday, getting busted out of the Sunday million in similar fashion right before the money (that time the guy limp called my 25bb shove with A8o), so I was not too happy with things in general. I was about to drive to LA to see my fam for Christmas. I grabbed all my things, made sure everything was locked up since everybody had already left town for Christmas, and closed the door behind me without my car keys.

Now, I thought about these keys, but knew they were in my backpack. I was wrong.

So, two of the guys that live in the money factory were on a plane to Minneapolis, one was already there, and the other was in Poway, about thirty minutes away, but I don't have his number yet.

Even though this is supposed to be a bummer situation, it ended up being pretty cool now as I was rolling down the boardwalk at a beautiful moment in time. I had just eaten a gyro and drank a bud light at the world's best gyro place. My friend Emma who I haven't seen in a long time is on her way down, and it will be nice to see her also. So, embrace the good and realize that there is nothing more that I can do about my current sitiation.

We all need to be thinking this way about poker, me especially. I have been on the worst downswing of my life, consistently getting tortured in sick spots. We need to embrace that we got it in good, not that we got sucked out on, because over the long term everything balances out. There is nothing more that I can do about getting sucked out on except how I handle it. If I let it tilt me and affect my confidence, then I am not realizing that I am not in control of the bad beats. I am in control of the spots that I get myself into and how I react to the consequences of that spot, whether they be good or bad.

Merry Christmas! I'm off to go on an adventure.

Oh yeah... I found my cell phone. It was under the couch LOL.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Christmas on the Beach

2007-12-22T17:30:00.000-07:00

Good week in the money factory Well, I realized my greatest fear this week. I went broke. Not like I can't buy myself lunch broke, but I ain't got no stake broke. I no longer have a bankroll that can support any sort of game that I can make any sort of living at. It's been a long work in progress really. Y'all know how badly I have been running since June overall. I went on something like an $80k downswing. November was my first winning month since July with the online tournaments, but the check that I got from Full Tilt last week got instantly spent on bills and paying back debt. Sooooooooo... I knew money was gonna be tight, but with being backed online I wasn't too worried about it. Then, while playing cash games on my own money online monday through wednesday, I ran uber poorly and lost $3k playing 1-2 NL and PLO. Wednesday night I took fourth in the stars 109 25k guarantee, but it was only for $4k or so, so not nearly enough to catch me up on the week.

Broke. Busto. It's really not as bad as I thought it was gonna be. For the longest time I swore that if I ever went broke that I was quitting poker for good. I foresaw going broke like the first time I went broke in Jan 04. Back then I had to raid couch cusions to come up with enough change to walk to burger king and buy something off the 99 cent menu.

But this time it's not even close to that. I have so much stupid shit that I've bought over the last four years of being a professional that I could sell just the things I don't really use and have a healthy 30-60 bankroll (I should get around to selling some of those things really, so if anybody's interested motorcycles, jet skis, tv's, or firearms, lemme know. LOL.).

Plus, I look back at the accomplishments that I've had in poker, and I know I'll be fine. I just have to work harder in the next few months and get that bankroll back.

So, Thursday we were all out at the club, and Billy and Dave offer to stake me in cash games. I accept, we work out an agreement, and Friday afternoon Billy and I sit down to our first session. I'm playing 2-4 NL online for em. First hand? AKo in the BB, we flop broadway, we stack some dude. I ended up making $2k on the day yesterday, so that's very very very helpful.

Anyways, speaking of Thrusday night, I lost my cell phone (again). Sorry if you've been trying to get a hold of me...

What else. Kart racing. Wednesday night four of us from the house met up with sponger at this indoor go-kart track to do some racing. We were expecting Bullwinkles, we got Daytona. It was SICK! It cost us $25 (which included a head sock LOL). We got out on the track and found that these were not amusement park bumper cars, but like those crazy fast KARTs. We wore our head socks with racing helmets and were assigned our go-karts. These were linked to our names which they got from the waivers and then put up on the scoreboard.

Time out. Dave is playing sixteen 1-2 NL games on stars right now. I've never seen that and it's just sick.

OK. So, after all the customary rules and the warnings to not bump, we were off for a five minute qualifying period. There were ten of us in this race and our goal was to put up the fastest lap time in those five minutes. I got second in that endeavor, losing to sponger, the only dude that had done this before. That was good because it pretty much guaranteed my victory in our four way side bet. We then had ten minutes to race, and it was sick. My arms are still sore and it's Saturday.

I'm tired of writing.

Wait, I just thought of something. I know that there's gonna be people who are going to read this and be like, what a busto idiot he sucks blah blah blah. Yep, I'm busto, yep, I made some money management mistakes, but frankly I don't want to hear about it from anybody. I wrote about it here because it's my blog and writing helps me process things. Learn from my mistakes. Don't tell me I'm an idiot, because that's information I already have :-).

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Vegas -> Slabs -> Money Factory.

2007-12-17T15:57:00.000-07:00

hate having to write something in this box. Friday morning I kissed my girlfriend goodbye. She was about to leave on her Great Adventure that she had planned for a long, long time. Her destination was Mammoth Mountain, Tahoe, and the rest of the Western United States. She just launched a womens snowboarding apparel company and is using the next four months to travel around to the different mountains, everywhere from Whistler to Breckenridge. She is going to ride and to promote her product.

Yeah, so news there. After 16 months of whatevs, Tiffany and I are officially together, finally having that talk somewhere around 3am Saturday the 8th at the Spearamint Rhino while celebrating Kevin Saul's 2nd place at the Bellagio Friday the 7th.

So, with her leaving town, I knew it was time for me to get back on the road. I've been ancy since about Nov 1 and have been going especially nuts in the past two weeks with it being so cold in Las Vegas. I needed to go somewhere warmer, and I was missing the money factory. So, Saturday afternoon at 1:30 I left and drove south.
I wasn't too sure where I was headed when I left. I was planning on driving south on the 95 rather than the 15 mostly because I wanted to go somewhere that I hadn't been before. Also, I had been itching to go to Slab City and I knew that it was somewhere by the Salton Sea.

Sometime in the late 1960s people moved into an abandoned military base east of Niland, California. All that remained of the military base were a few guard shacks and the concrete foundations where there used to be buildings. The place was called "The Slabs", and after some time of people consistently living around The Slabs, it became known as Slab City.

I had first heard of the Slabs when I first read Into the Wild and had been planning on heading there for a long time but never really had the opportunity to until now (course I had never gone out of my way to make an opportunity, but I will be doing that in the future for sure).

Every Saturday night at Slab City they fire up what they call "The Range." It is basically their weekly hangout gathering open-mic night where everybody hangs out and some people/bands play sets. I figured if I was driving to San Diego on a Saturday night, I might as well stop by the range!

I found Slab City about five hours later after a sweet solo drive across the desert. I found the Range, parked in some secluded spot, and walked up to the gathering of people around the fire barrel. The first guy I met was named Mike. He asked me if I had a warrant out for my arrest. LOL. Aparrently less than 15 minutes before my arrival the police were snooping around (who never bother anybody at slab city) looking for a guy named Brian from Niland who had a class C trailer. I convinced them that I was from Vegas and all was well on the hippie front once again.

We stood around the rusted out oil drum that held our campfire and talked about whatever. I met good person after good person. Many of these people I would not have acknowledged if I passed them on the street or if they asked me for a quarter, but here I was drinking and smoking with them and having a great time. After about 20 minutes, Mike asked me, "Do you play?"

Ten minutes later I was walking onto stage with my djembe drum. I played an eight song set and had an absolutely incredible experience. At the end of the night I played another set with just a couple of the guys. They asked me to lead a song, and then I lead another one, and then they asked me to do my own stuff, and before I knew it I was putting on a regular concert, leading with my voice and acoustic guitar, the drums were driving the music and the electric guitar was giving it life. It was awesome.

Everybody ended up going to sleep around 11pm. I was like, now what? I'm still wide awake and definately not drunk. I decided to finish my drive down to San Diego, made it halfway, and unrolled my sleeping bag in the bed of my truck somewhere between the Salton Sea and San Diego.

The following morning I was waken up by the Border Patrol. You can imagine my state of disorientation with this one. I was in the mountains off the 8 freeway and aparrently pretty dang close to Mexico. Anyways, the officer was just checking on me as he saw a body in a bag in the back of a truck. After confirming that I had a pulse he left, and with the sun rising I wasn't going to be able to make it back to sleep.

7am. I'm in the mountains near Mexico. I'm not going to go wake the fellas up. What do I do? My questions were answered as I was driving west on the 8. I saw the Viejas casino, one of the few in Southern California that I had not been to. I wandered into the poker room wearing the clothes that I had worn yesterday (and slept in), slippers, and a bandana. Their biggest game was 1-3NL, and I beat it for $170 in the 90 minutes that I was able to play. The game broke for their 10am $27 bounty tournament. They told me it would not last longer than three hours, so I was in.

13 bounties and two hours later we had gone from 113 players to 9. LOL doubletheblindseveryfifteenminutesaments. I had a lot of chips (like 13 bb's... good for the chip lead) and really didn't feel like making a deal anyways. Second hand I get it all in vs 3rd, 8th, and 9th in chips. I had 77 and was against A4o of the 3rd in chips guy (who limped and then called my shove), K2s of the BB, and something goofy of the other player that was way behind my hand, so maybe like 63 or so. Anyways, I lost that pot, never recovered, and then with 6 left we chopped evenly. I had seven chips. The four players ahead of me had 9, 10, 19, and 24 chips. The A4o guy had like 75 chips. Thanks bro. We all took $325 each.

By the time we chopped it was 12:45 and i was on my way to the money factory to manufacture more money. Alas, it was not to be though as I ran like dog shit, the most painful one being two outed 20 off the money in the UBOC $1k main event.

I grinded a ton of cash games last night too. I was up about $500 playing 1-2 NL and PLO, but then the wheels on the bus fell off and I lost $1k straight, putting me about even for the day. The most painful was with about $350 behind in PLO I had the AAJT with diamonds and opened for pot, got re-raised pot, I re-raised pot, and we saw a flop for $62 each. It came Q72. I bet pot, he called. Turn a 9 of diamonds, I bet all-in (about 80% pot) and my opponenet showed me QJT8 with one suit. So, I had him all-in at 60% to win and 15% to chop. OBV i lost, but these are the most painful beats ever when you look at their hand and are just like, what the?!?!? That hand had no business playing a pot that big ever, but because he played so bad he stacked me. Sigh.

So, I'm in San Diego for a while. I love it here.

Oh, and I'm playing Cantu in the semi-finals of my fantasy league right now. He's ahead of me by 4 points and has the Bears defense tonight while I have Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor. So, MN rushing has to beat Bears defense by 5 points tonight for tha moniez. Also in fantasy news I won my $1k side bet with Theo, so that's nice.

Aight. Peace. Good Luck.

Devo

Busted and Beaten Badly

2007-12-14T16:18:00.000-07:00

Black Belt Jared So a couple of days ago I wrote a blog with a story in it about how Jared went into a police station to take care of a ticket from a boat trailer with broken taillights and almost got arrested.

Well, Jared took care of everything Tuesday afternoon, and it was a very good thing because by the time the next business day happened he was in the presence of police once again.

We were at the Sunset Station playing poker after bowling. The game was 1-2 NL hold'em. I busted Danny when I snap called his limp re-raise all-in with KJ off and it held against his 54 off. I wasn't too fond of the game as there was this guy that I simply just didn't like. We left around 3:30 am, and Jared decided to stay around because the guy was most certaintly going to be giving away the $400 he had in front of him and Jared had Christmas shopping to do.

I remember doing that. I remember being in games like that with guys like that and swearing that I'm not leaving until they leave, and always quitting ahead.

So we went home. The next morning I woke up and was greeted by the announcement that Jared had been arrested last night. I thought it was for the trailer thing. Nope. He beat some ass.

So, the guy , Canadian as Shawn would refer to him as or Savage as Scott would refer to him as, ended up playing heads up with Jared. Jared won. The guy didn't want to rebuy. Jared walked to valet to catch a cab. The guy followed him.

"Hey man, lemme get dat money back from you. I got a morgage and kids and shit, man..."

Long story short, the guy begged the whole way from the poker room to the valet and kept jibber-jabberin while Jared was waiting for a cab. He started getting aggressive sticking his hands into his pants and pockets like he was reaching for a weapon, got close to Jared, and Jared popped him in the nose. The guy went down, popped back up, charged Jared, and Jared hip tossed him.

Notice, that Jared popped him and didn't jump on him. Jared was really trying to defend himself without trying to get into a fight. The guy got back up and re-engaged with Jared.

After the guy got tossed, he charged Jared again, and this time it went to the ground. Jared had him in a kimora, that transitioned into an arm bar (that dislocated the guy's elbow), and Jared finally put the guy to sleep with a triangle as security and the police showed up.

Long story short - the cops are like, whatever - you attacked him, you lost, stfu and go home, but this guy was going off about how he wanted to press charges and all the bull crap. Jared beat this guy's ass and got a taxi cab home paid for by the Henderson Police Department. God bless video surveilence, eh?

So, Thursday night (bout 36 hours after the fight), Jared gets a call from the Henderson PD. They want to know if he has any martial arts training. Lawl. "You looked like you were trained professionally in the video, and you hurt the guy pretty bad." The guy suffered a dislocated elbow, a broken nose, and was still in the hospital.

For the record, Jared has zero martial arts training. We watch a lot of UFC together, but no training. He wrestled in high school.

One, people like that piss me off so much. Don't sit in the game if you can't afford to be there. Then, don't beg for your money back when you lose it. Then, don't threaten violence. Jared was genuinely concerned that this guy was about to pull out a weapon with how he's been acting and decided to pop him in the nose before he was facing a knife or a gun. Obviously the video shows that Jared was acting in self defense otherwise he would've been taken to jail, not be given a free cab ride home.

GG sir.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Stripped Poker

2007-12-11T19:24:00.000-07:00

I felt the hard edge of the red cube pressed between my thumb and index finger as I lifted it off the green felt. I was convinced that if I handled the dice in just the proper manner and made sure they read a certain number before I threw them it would somehow be favorable for myself.

I was in the middle of my first hot run on the dice table, a moment that I have dreamt about for the past ten years. It was four am on a warm spring morning (well, really it was still nighttime, because morning does not start until you have woken up from at least 90 minutes sleep). My friend and I were up a couple of hundred dollars each which was a lot of money to a couple of college students from downtown Los Angeles. I was the expert, teaching my friend how to play craps. I calmly explained what it means to “come out” with a tobacco pipe precariously dangling from my lip, wisps of fragrant smoke sweetly drifted skywards, briefly distracting somebody in some security booth somewhere.

I picked up the dice, and with one swift forward motion I fired the cubes downrange, hoping for the perfect shot. At the moment a pair of treys would drive the crowd wild. I was working on my fifth consecutive point and the parlayed bets were growing in height and value. Redbirds were pressed into quarters and then bumped to blacks. Every roll of the dice meant the winning or losing of thousands of dollars for the community which was this table. Nothing else in the world mattered except the eventual report from these transparent cubes.

This roll would be different. My first die was thrown very hard and hit squarely on the bottom of the tower of green ($25) checks in front of the far dealer. The chips exploded with a beautifully unique noise and made an utter mess. The second die missed higher and righter and bounced off the top of the dealer’s beer belly and off the table.

“What the hell was that kid!?! Asked the pit boss with a snarl.

“That’s it Devo. This guy’s gonna card you, they’re gonna take you in a back room, take all your money, and kick your ass.” Thanks for the support friend.

I fortunately did not have to show the gentleman my ID because if he asked for one I wouldn’t show it to him. I was only twenty years old at the time, and this was my first adult memory of a town that I had been coming to for all of my life already.

You see, Las Vegas was basically a vacation home for my family for, well, infinity. My earliest tragic memory of my young childhood was when I left my favorite stuffed animal in a hotel room. To this day I still think about Kanga (who happened to be a kangaroo in case you didn’t guess from my four old creativity with phonics), especially when I walk into the Circus Circus, where I left him in 1985.

Back in those days they (obviously referring to the powers that be that we have zero influence over in any context where they are referred) were making a strong effort to make Las Vegas more of a family friendly town. Las Vegas was just emerging from the mafia prominence and dominance of this worldwide tourist destination. The Circus Circus was the perfect family spot and the poster resort for the town‘s family friendliness. . Everything they offered catered to the entertainment of the family. Above the gaming pit was a complete circus trapeze act that performed every ninety minutes or so. The building was oval in shape much like a circus tent. The first floor was the casino, the second floor was the circus. Circling the trapeze are were midway games just like you find at the fair. My dad and I would spend hours shooting squirt guns at clowns’ mouths, throwing softballs at milk jugs, and shooting BB machine guns. Our family would meet for dinner every night. I would tell of my adventures, my mom would tell of hours of playing blackjack for two dollars a hand and how one time she bet ten dollars… you get the idea. After dinner my mom would take me and eventually the other kids as they came along upstairs to bed time.

Mornings were always the most exciting time. More often than not I remember my dad making it rain chips all over my mother. I would bounce in my one piece pajamas with feet on my bed a few times before launching across the canyon that separated our beds and coming to a rest leaning against my mother. I picked up the chips and let them slowly fall out of my little fingers like adventurers standing on piles of gold that I had seen on TV. I was in wonderment with the colors, all the blues, reds, greens, blacks, and the occasional purple.

Even on the times that my Dad did not come home with chips, he would still tell me tales of adventure the previous night as we enjoyed some all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet. He would tell me about how at one time he had over two hundred dollars at risk every roll of the dice and woulda won huge with a couple more rolls. But he always had fun in his stories, and thus I grew up seeing the glamour in high stakes gambling and dreamt of the day that I could too partake in the game.

Little did I know that by the time I experienced my quarter life crisis I would be a professional gambler living in Las Vegas.

-----------------------------

This is hopefully the start to my first book. I am obviously writing it from my own perspective, but I am going to market it as a fictional book with a fictional character. I want to focus on the struggles of a twenty-something living in Las Vegas wrestling with issues of life. I want to explore the issues that so many people my age have with abandonment from their fathers. I want to explore the issues that so many of us have with the clash between religious parents with a modern mindset vs. postmodern kids like us who just don't agree all the time. I want to tell a fun story about a quarter of life that has managed to center around las vegas, and I want to learn something about myself in the process.

What do you think? Gimme compliments and criticism both, but any hating bitter comments are gonna result in a ban.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Friday Evening Ramblings

2007-12-07T20:34:00.001-07:00

Remember the Arizona. I suppose that tonight I once again sucked at winning while ahead I can scribble down a blog while I sit on my last table going.

Today is Pearl Harbor day. I have been criticized before for "not supporting the troops," but that is so far from the truth. Simply because I often don't agree with the political decisions involving the general running of this country, including most of our recent wars, does not mean that I do not support our troops. The brave young men and women of our armed services give us in this great counrty the freedoms that we still do have.

I have always been a closet WWII history buff, and every year on this day I remember what my grandfather did for my life here right now in the Pacific Theatre. I take a moment and appreciate what so many of the fathers that came before that fought for their country and it's future. I hope you take a moment as well.

Chip Reese died this week. The mood around town has been pretty solemn in the poker community. I did not know chip very well at all. I played with him once and had a drink with him once at Light, but he was somebody that had my respect, as well as the respect of many others in the poker community. RIP Chip.

My truck's registration has been expired for quite some time now. The Ford dealership was supposed to fix everything but they tried to rape me like bubba in Alcatraz. Then Thanksgiving happened, and I finally got it to another shop. So the little stupid speedometer servo gear that is causing all these problems? Ford don't sell em. They only sell the entire output shaft that is about five times more expensive all the ways around (labor too...). So, the guy at my shop found a used one, and that lasted... twelve miles. I'm like WTF, I just shipped you $1600 cash to do a bunch of shit but most importantly this little detail SO I CAN PASS SMOG AND REGISTER MY DAMN TRUCK?!? He then explains about the used piece, etc (information that would have been useful to me before) and tells me that it won't affect smog and as soon as we find a new part he'll re-install for free. K, cool.

Weekend happens, I go to smog truck, fail. WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?OJERIOAFJEOIJAFIOEJAWFOIJEPAFOIAEWJ.

One of the mechanics left a hose off. OMG are you kidding me. "Here's a free oil change for your trouble." What about the smog check that I just had to pay for?

I just shoved all-in with T6s over 5 limpers. I win.

So, hose back on, computer cleared, back to the smog guy.

"Have you driven thirty miles yet?"

"No."

"You have to because the computer has to run tests on itself before it passes smog otherwise you automatically fail so you have to drive so the computer can test itself."

Sigh............................................................................................................

Today I wake up, Jared needs to go to Boulder City, and I'm like, "Can I drive?"

He's in an excellent mood because he has to pay a ticket that he got on the Piece of Ship trailer for the taillights not working and lack of a license plate (both guilty). We get to the courthouse, and it's closed. LOL. We try the police station, Jared just want's to pay the thing and get out of Dodge, and a police officer overhears and decides to help.

"Is the trailer here? I can sign off on it if so." Obviously we're never fixing anything on the Piece of Ship so obviously the trailer's not here.

"OK... lemme see the ticket. Ummm... wow. You had a court date for this. You missed it."

"WTF?!?"

"Yeah, hold on. Lemme go see if you have a warrant."

*wtf...........*

"Don't worry. I'm not going to hook you up if you do."

Guy was actually really cool. I kinda wanted Jared to get arrested cause then I could make fun of him for life for walking into a police station with a warrant for his arrest for not having taillights on a trailer for the biggest piece of crap boat in southern Nevada and getting arrested. Seriously that would have to trump me sucking off his fingers cause you know I'd be shooting pictures with my camera phone.

So I suck at dodging three outers on the river and am busto yet again.

"I love you for who you are." The greatest words I have ever heard in my life.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Allen Kessler's blog and my Response

2007-12-06T05:03:00.000-07:00

Thought this would be good material...

How badly did I play vs Barry Greenstein today?

Here is the scenario. We are playing the $2500 no limit tourney at Bellagio. I started with $5,000 chips and by the end of level 3 had accumulated over $25,000 in chips without ever risking a large portion of my stack, We get to the 300 600 level and I am moved to a new table. This table is very agressive with raising and often reraising nearly every hand preflop. My cards go totally cold and I barely get to play a hand. When we get to 400 800, I still have about 20k but every time I enter a pot I get raised or reraised and I don't collect 1 chip that level. When we start the 600 1200 level I am down to about 11k. Each orbit costs about 3000, so I dont have much time left. I push all in once for about 10k which gets me another orbit when no one calls. I fold one round of hands and now I am getting desperate with about 9000 left after I post my Big Blind. Barry Greenstein had just lost a huge pot hen he raised on the button and defended an all in with Q 10 suited and had about 12k left. I knew he would be pushing all in soon as well. As I expected, he looks down under the gun, and counts out a raise; he hesitates when he realizes that if he raises he won't leave enough behind to post his Big Blind and still have any fold equity, so he pushes all in for his remaining 12K. Everyone folds around to me in the Small Blind. I don't think Barry is too strong, because a strong hand he would probably raise about 1/4 of his chips and try to trap someone for the rest of his chips after the flop. I look down at AJ suited (the best hand ive seen since the 300 600 level) and decide this may be my last chance to get money into a pot with any equity at all. I reluctantly push all my chips forward and hope the Big Blind doesnt pick up a monster so that I can go against Barry heads up. The Big Blind folds and Barry turns over 99 and wins the race and I am out of the tournament.

Barry insulted my play during the dinner break, stating that against his early push, I am a 2-1 dog at best and that I had 4 or 5 free hands coming where I would have fold equity with a 10 Big Blind push. The problem was that in the last 2 levels, I was only in a spot to push an unraised pot once or twice; and the way the table was playing, I may not have had the chance to get my money in a pot with any fold equity at all. By the time I would post my next blinds I would be down to just over 5000 in chips with literally no fold equity and praying for a race opportunity.

I reasoned that the AJ suited may be my best opportunity to get some chips in this tourney and took my chances there. How bad was this play?
- Allen Kessler

my response:

excellent play.

you are hereby banned from ever again criticizing my play with AT busting you out of the 25k.

in your spot I snap call fist pump am thrilled to get it in against barry's range.

His shove range should really be top 30%, as I thought yours should have been in the 25k and thus snap called with ATo. Thus, your call is +ev regardless.

Barry has 10BB's and 4m's, and after two hands will be down to 8bb's and 3.3 m's His range is huge here and AJs is so far ahead.

Even if you give Barry as slim a range at top 20%, here's how the numbers work out:

1,527,375,168 games 0.035 secs 43,639,290,514 games/sec

Board:
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 42.737% 39.77% 02.97% 607421024 45335254.00
{ 66+, A4s+, K8s+, Q9s+, J9s+, T9s, A9o+, KTo+, QTo+, JTo }
Hand 1: 57.263% 54.29% 02.97% 829283636 45335254.00
{ AJs }

at top 30%:

2,315,035,008 games 0.001 secs 2,315,035,008,000 games/sec

Board:
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 39.486% 37.08% 02.40% 858436068 55673164.00
{ 55+, A2s+, K5s+, Q7s+, J8s+, T8s+, 98s, A7o+, A5o, K9o+, Q9o+, J9o+, T9o }
Hand 1: 60.514% 58.11% 02.40% 1345252612 55673164.00
{ AJs }

And, just for fun, lets give barry a top 10% range, which is obv waaaaay too tight, but just for argument's sake.

Your stack: 9k after BB, now you're in SB, thus stack = 8300 (assuming 600-1200/100), and you have to call off that 8300 for a shot at 8900+8900+1200(BB)+900(antes) 19900. Thus, with your 8300 you only need a 42% equity to make calling correct there, 40% if it's 6-12/2.

Therefore, you're correct to call even if barry's shoving range there is only top 7.5%:

547,937,280 games 0.005 secs 109,587,456,000 games/sec

Board:
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 58.067% 55.37% 02.69% 303413168 14755124.00 { 88+, ATs+, KTs+, QJs, AQo+ }
Hand 1: 41.933% 39.24% 02.69% 215013864 14755124.00 { AJs }

---

760,262,976 games 0.005 secs 152,052,595,200 games/sec

Can't believe did all that. I am now going to post this in a blog.

Devo

Quickie update and a neat hand

2007-12-05T17:59:00.001-07:00

enjoy It's been a while since I've updated... So, I'll try and give it a shot here in the next fifteen minutes before the 5pm tourneys get fired up.

The five diamond started this week. I was supposed to be playing in all of them but my live backer went AWOL. It's been okay though as I've been able to hang around the house with the fellas and grind it online. I got pretty screwed in lots of spots online this week, but I've been very proud of my play. Here's a hand I played in the $1k on stars last night.

We were playing 150-300. The villian in this hand open limped in MP1. It folded to me in the BB and I checked my option with 5 5 . The flop came out K K 6 . I checked, he bet 300, I raised to 987, he re-raised to 2400, and I jammed it to 10,275 all-in. My opponent had me covered pre-flop with 12250 to my 10575.

Sick, eh?

Here's what I wrote in the forums about this hand:

I shoved. He turbo mucked.

My line of thinking: I figured that since I was an unknown to him, most players are not three betting Kx or 66 in position here. Furthermore, I don't think he's open limping Kx here based on his numbers. However, most unknowns will not c/r here with Kx or 66, I know that he knew that, and thought it was very likely that he was either re-moving on me or had a hand somewhere in the range of 6x or 22-88, but either way since unknowns don't 4 bet bluff, it just felt right in the spot. Perhaps going too many levels deep for the situation, nor is this a standard play of mine. In fact I have never made it before. It just felt right at the situation and this was my reasoning.

I have just been chewing a lot on chip accumulation lately and how it's so dynamic in the HSMTT internet world. It seems like everybody knows pre-flop strategy pretty well these days as far as accumulation goes. I wonder often if there's more value in seeing flops and getting ourselves into these spots every once in a while. If the villian in this hand really was on the level that I gave him credit for, being that he put me on not having a K or anything that could stand a 3 bet and thus 3 bet rather than actually 3 betting for value... I really think that we need to figure out what the next level of new school chip accumulation looks like if we are to continue to stay ahead of the game like we have for the past several years. I feel like this may be a spot where we can pick up chips in rare instances if we learn to identify those spots and then have the balls to execute when we see those spots, and thus we will remain ahead of the ever steepening learning curve of online HSMTT's.

So, I had some small cashes this week including cashing in the 1k, but I ran pretty bad overall. I think in one day I lost 13/14 races. Hard to win tournaments when that's going on. Yesterday I played three pots for top ten in chips in the 1k and the fuper, and lost with QQ<52dd, AA<78cc, and AKcc<89hh. Gross.

Life's been good. I've been hanging out with Tiffany again and things are better than ever. I bought Rock Band for the 360, and that is quite possibly the most fun video game ever. We've played that A LOT (probably why I haven't scribbled out a blog in a while!).

I'm getting ancy though and will be heading somewhere soon. Probably Monday at the latest I'm headed somewhere.

K. Tables are popping up.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Got em again... EZ game.

2007-11-24T17:04:00.001-07:00

This feels so good. Quickie blurb blog here. Yesterday I played the Stars 109, 100r, and fuper, the FTP 25k and 55k, and UB $129 bounty. I finished somewhere in the last three tables of the FTP $25k to a super silly beat. Guy on the button who's 10th in chips makes his standard open to like 2.7BB's, I ship it on him with AKo, and he calls off the 20 BB's left in his stack with 54 and the speech, "I'm going to sleep." Unfortunately for me he jinxed his sleep and obv 54s > AKo. Whatevs. I'll take the call every time there.

Then I took 6th in the PS 100r. I was pretty happy with that one as I got really card dead at the end and got pretty unlucky in a hand that we played to showdown. I am proud of back to back ft's in the 100r though as that field is notoriously tough and yesterday's final two tables were stacked.

OK... it's almost four so I'm gonna fire em up. Playing on all three major sites as badbeatninja.

Also, I've put my hand histories from my ftp 55k win up on pokerxfactor. If you're interested in seeing that shoot me an e-mail at maverickusc@gmail.com and i'll send you the link.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.........

2007-11-23T03:26:00.001-07:00

Man, this is great. What a world of difference confidence makes. I get picked up, I get a great boost of confidence, I get a 1st, 3rd, and 9th in nine tournaments.

Today I played the 100r and fuper on stars, the 55k and 30r on tilt, and the 129 on UB. I took 9th in the 100r after running bad early for 3 unnecessary rebuys. I sucked out greeeeeat a couple of times deep (although I belonged in both pots) and thought for sure the tourney was mine when I got in a race on the final table and busted 9th. It felt good though... that was the first time I have cashed in the 100r.

Meanwhile, I was down to two tables in the FTP $55k (same one I've won and seconded in). I did an excellent job of accumulating chips and sizing bets tonight. By the time we reached the bubble, I had established my standard open to 2.1x bb and was getting zero resistance about 75% of the time. It was sick. On the final table I had a nice little lucksack moment when I got it all in 3rd in chips from the SB vs. the BTN who was 2nd in chips with A K v A K . I calmly said, "Clubs?" Flop 3 of em, river the fourth. EZ game.

The guy I got heads up with was soooooo passive. If he played even a bit of normal he would've lasted about ten minutes, but he was so passive that he didn't stack off with an overpair on an 832 limped pot when I flopped top and bottom (he open limped btn with KK... thanks buddy.). He also didn't stack off when I had an overpair vs. his top pair, just calling all 4 streets.

I digress. Great night. I'm feeling great. I'm so stoked for the five diamond coming up. Estoy en fuego ahora. Ten cuidado!

Thanksgiving was surprisingly good. I hate spending holidays away from family but that's how it worked out this time around. I ended up hanging at a friends house, coming home by five and playing the online tourneys, went over to Jon Eaton's house to meet Platts who was staying there, FTing the 100r, winning the $55k, and then going to Jared's bar to chill. It was a fantastic night.

I love playing in a living room with stud poker players. It's so good to bounce ideas and thoughts and hands and bad beat and good beat stories and just general support off of players that are in your caliber and especially when they're better than you. Everybody improves, the guy deep in a tournament will play better, and work is suddenly more fun. I really need to make a more concentrated effort to play my online tourneys with other fellas and thus help both our results.

OK... night y'all.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Huge chip lead FTP 20r 9 left and the rest of day WTF?!?

2007-11-20T22:54:00.000-07:00

badbeatninja ftw sweeeeeeat

I ended up taking third in this tourney which was pretty disappointing, but there wasn't a dang thing I could do otherwise. I played one weird hand with 77 out of the small blind that I hate but I can't figure out what to do that's better. I hate all options. Maybe donk the flop? Anyways, check it out here.

So after dropping off the hitchhiker yesterday Jared and I headed to Nick and Ian's house, some old friends that I've kept in touch with ever since high school. Casey was there also. We loaded five mountain bikes and helmets into Jared truck and drove up to the top of a mountian. We saw a doe mule deer on our hike up, and that was pretty cool for 11am in southern california. I was psyched for this ride. I used to guide mountain biking trips in Colorado and this was my first real opportunity since then to ride. So, in one of the first sections, I came into a corner hard (not out of control...) and lost the front wheel traction and then the bike. I suppose I shouldn't have tried to ride as hard as I used to after four years and on a bike that I don't know. OOPS! I got a sweet abrasion on my forearm, one of those annoying ones that are so shallow that they don't scab but they always sting. I got an ok one on my right knee, and sweet ones on the heel of my palms from breaking my fall. I still haven't picked out all the pieces of dirt.

We rode the bikes all the way back to Nick's house, prob a 12 mile total distance trip. We chilled for a bit, and then the five of us headed to the local pitch and putt par 3 course. I played barefoot and bad but had a great time while losing $10 in total bets. Back home, shower, and then again pile into Jared's truck to head down to Temecula where a bunch of other buddies were. I was pretty tired from the day and elected to be the DD. Man, that was the drunkest I've ever seen my group of friends as a whole. It was half hilarious and half annoying. I got everybody back home safe somewhere around 3:30 am.

Today was an excellent day. I got picked up for all my online action with a really sweet deal. It's a great relief in the finance department and has instantly allowed me to play better and with more confidence. I was super stoked with my play in the four tournaments I played and really should have booked a bigger win, but as it is with tournaments, luck plays a huge factor in the short run.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Tripod

2007-11-19T10:53:00.000-07:00

I've declared today WTF?!? day I've been awake for 40 minutes before ten am already.

Weird, I know.

While pouring coffee a cat named Tripod rubbed against my leg in the way that cats do.

"I woke the rooster up this morning. Moms and I walked out back, turned out the light, and the rooster comes walking out of the doghouse looking at us like, "WTF!?!" - Jared on what happened while I was sleeping.

I'm driving through burn areas right now, listening to Eddie Vedder, and Jared just picked up a guy with a beard and dredlocks who is now in the back of the truck on our way down the hill.

It's going to be a weird day.

Devo

Hippie Paradigms

2007-11-19T04:59:00.000-07:00

Non Poker I've found myself content at 3:30 in the morning in Lytle Creek, California. It's a small mountain town outside of Los Angeles. Jared and I left from Vegas at 8:45pm Sunday night to head to his Mom's house. He's coming down now since he has to work on Thanksgiving, so I figured I'd join him. My Mom isn't doing the big family thing this Thanksgiving. I really wanted to do the big family thing, but this way I'll get to spend time, roll with Jared, and not stress being back in town for my friend coming into town this weekend or to get Travis a ride to the airport on Friday. So, yeah, Mom - there's my plan :-).

I've been thinking about this paradigm of "being a hippie" if you will for a long time. In July I realized that this pursuit of fame and fortune had made me a real pain in the ass to be around and in general not so much of a pleasant person. I missed the person that I was several years ago and have been working on incorporating the lessons that I learned years ago but had forgotten during this summer. I re-learned that I had always hated money and what it often does to people. I remembered how much I like people, and how much I enjoy being in a community of people who are good.

Recently I have been re-learning what it means to be happy. What really makes me happy. People have often asked me if I am happy, or if I like what I am doing. Others have criticized me in my career path saying that I am doing nothing for the world, that my previous directions were "better". I have learned that this world does not need any more doctors, or lawyers, or teachers, or athletes, or whatever. What this world needs is happy people, because happy people make people happy more than any of the other professions listed before. If I am a happy poker player, I am going to make the lives and the worlds of the people that I encounter better by simply being a happy person. Imagine if the number of truly happy people you ran into every day increased ten fold. Man! What a more awesome society we would live in!

And the paradigms of society. The things that we have made important and not. The fact that my friend who used to be a teacher made $35k last year while I can play a stupid game of cards and be up over $100k this year. Or that Alex Rodriguez is getting ten year contracts for $275m while our soldiers get shot at for $20k/year.

I believe that our society needs to change in many, many ways. As much as I would like to up and vanish on the road, chase rivers and snow around the country, and just live, I know it is not the right thing. I love the community of hippies, and wanderers, and guides, and anybody else who loves people and freedom, but it is wrong to isolate ourselves from the rest of the world simply because we do not agree with the world. Just as it is wrong for the church to isolate themselves from the world, for Christian communities to isolate themselves from others. I have made a very intentional moment to change my paradigms yet still live my life in the place that I have found myself.

I spend more time around campfires. I play my guitar more. I talk with people more, rather than watch TV. I have remembered to live for right now, because tomorrow is not guaranteed to us. I've learned to re-focus on poker, and to balance it as an element of work rather than a dominant force in my life. I have re-kindled old friendships and remembered who I was.

I'm going to spend a few days here in So. Cal and be back in Vegas on Wednesday. Venetian starts next week and the Five Diamond is immediately after!

It's a mystery to me
We have a Greed
With which we have agreed

And you think you have to
Want more than you need
Until you have it all
You won't be Free

Society
You're a crazy breed
I Hope you're not lonely
Without me

When you want more than you have
You think you need
And when you think more than you want
Your thoughts begin to bleed

I think I need to find a bigger place
Cause when you have
More than you think
You need more space

Society
Crazy indeed
I hope you're not lonely
Without me

There's those thinking more less
Less is more
But if less is more,
How you keepin score?

Means for every point you make
Your level drops
Kinda like you're startin from the top
And you can't do that

Society
You're a crazy breed
Hope you're not lonely
Without me

Society
Crazy indeed
Hope you're not lonely
Without me

Society
Have mercy on me
Hope you're not angry
I disagree

Society
You're a crazy breed
Hope you're not lonely
Without me

Society, Written by Jerry Hannan, Performed by Eddie Vedder

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Devo's Back

2007-11-18T05:31:00.000-07:00

But I Still Want to be a Hippie... Today I put in the best session I have had since July, and the best in terms of big bets I think I may have ever had... but it's close. I got em for $2183 playing 15-30 and $152 playing one 10-20 game and 3 5-10 games online, so somewhere in the neighborhood of the low 80 big bets. I got two pieces of advice from good buddies of mine and inplemented half of each of em. Tonight was the first time I've actually wanted to be sitting at a poker table for a long time.

Money hater of the night award goes to a player that played every street post flop as bad as possible. The great part about how badly he played it was based on how he played it I would have mucked the river for one bet, but instead he gave me a free showdown and a several hundred dollar pot. He was in the small blind, I was in the big blind with 8 8 , and we saw a flop six ways. It came J 4 8 . He checked, I bet, two players called, he check-raised, I three bet, randoms folded, and he four bet. I called. Turn QQ , he bet, I raised, he three-bet, and I called. River Tx, he checked, I gladly took the free showdown and beat his QJo. Thaaaaanks.

I was really proud of both my sessions today though. Online I got stuck $500 within 15 minutes in juiceball games. I got pissed, said screw this I'm booking a winner, and quit an hour later up $152. Then in the 15-30 game I got stuck a rack again in the first ten minutes, and within 20 minutes I was back to even. I was proud that even in the midst of a 3 month losing streak and a losing month I was able to find the drive and determination to battle back in good games and book winnners.

Friday I took my 97 F-150 into the Ford dealership to see about a check-engine light that wasn't affecting performance, a cruise control issue, a flashing O/D light, and to have my oil changed. I signed off on the diagnostics charge, went home, and was called with an estimate at 3:30pm. They wanted $1300 for the diag, oil change, plugs, wires, and a "servo" on the speedo cable. For the record, a new speedo cable itself is not an expensive operation... maybe a couple hundo or so. $500 for the speedo servo, $700 for plugs and wires, and the change for the rest. I literally laughed out loud and said, nooooooooooooooo. Spark plugs go for 0.99 each on sale!!! I say I'm gonna pick it up in about an hour.

I show up in an hour, ask for my truck, and the receipt isn't printed. Long story short, 25 minutes later I'm asking the cashier "What's taking so long?!?" She says, well, the first mechanic has to take it off the rack and do a write up on it, then it goes to a supervisior who does a write up and then passes it onto the service manager who has to do a write up, and then he sends it here where we settle up, then you'll have to take your receipt to valet and they'll get your car for you.

You have got to be kidding me.

Ten minutes later I get my recipt printed up and they overcharged me by over a hundred bucks. I said this is wrong, she "checked" on it, three minutes later said, "Oh, you're right. Take this to the manager and he'll take care of you."

I patiently waited outside the manager's office for five minutes, the other customer walked out, he followed her, looked me dead in the eye and said, "What's up?" And then proceeded to walk out the door. I'm like, "Sir! Excuse me! Wait!" He kept walking. I lost it.

Anyways, I'm not going back there anytime soon.

yep. 4:30 am and I'm tired, so cheers.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

The Frontier Implosion Party

2007-11-13T23:40:00.000-07:00

Perks of Living In Vegas Man, last night was AWESOME. Here's how my day went: I woke up, played Guitar Hero 3 for a while, then left the house at 7:30pm with Travis my old roommate from Colorado. We went to the Bellagio and picked up Maria Ho, parked my truck on the roof of one of the Fashion Show parking structures as our plan B (we had heard that they weren't letting people on the roof of the Wynn) and walked over to the Wynn. We scout the roof, find out that we're cool, and start the party in the poker room. We started a $4-8 mix game playing 2-7 Triple Draw, Omaha 8, Badugi, and Crazy Pinapple just the three of us on table 1 in the top section and ordered cocktails. Within half an hour the game had filled up with Jared, Danny, Joe Tehan, Adam Spiegelberg, and Justin Sellers. Every time we ordered a round of drinks we would play a "cocktail pot", and whoever won that one had to do the tipping. It was great times, but I could not win a hand to save my life and was even playing decently good losing $361. By the time we quit at one there was a must move game going with Gank and Micon in it and eight people on the list. LOL.

From there we wandered upstairs and began tailgating on the back of Jared's truck. We had 4 18 packs of beer which should have been enough, but shortly before implosion Danny pushed the cooler around on a skateboard and sold "a lot of it". He made enough to pay for the beer and a full tank of gas and as the tower fell we all finished our last beers. There was probably thirty of us at implosion time. Others there that you know were Jon Friedberg and Shannon Shorr.

The tower was a "small" one, only 16 stories tall, but it was nonetheless incredible. They had an awesome fireworks display and then BOOM. Our spot was awesome because we were so close and the small 3 story building in the front blocked most of the dust and debris from hitting us. Check out the videos out there. They're awesome.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

I Still Want to Be a Hippie

2007-11-05T17:59:00.000-07:00

It's been a good week. It has been an excellent last several days. First off, I want to thank all of you that sent me e-mails of encouragement. They really have meant a lot to me and have been a strong source of strength for me.

Last night Jared and I went to see "Into the Wild" at the only theatre showing it in town. I had been fixing to see this movie for quite a while. The book rocked my world and I was sure that the movie would do the same, especially at this crux in my life. Into the Wild is a story about a 21 year old man who is as counter culture as they come. He is a trust fund baby from a "perfect" family but he is embittered by the lies and pursuit of wealth that have jaded his family for his entire life. After he graduates college he drives west in his Datsun, not sure where he's going, but knowing that he wanted to disappear. It's a story about his adventure that takes him from Atlanta to Lake Mead up the Pacific Crest Trail to South Dakota to the Grand Canyon down the river in a kayak into the gulf of Mexico, back north to Los Angeles, to the Slabs, and to Anzo Borreago (sp?) before leaving on his "Great Alaskan Adventure." It's a story of an intelligent kid losing himself to find himself. At the end of the movie he writes that "happiness is only real when shared." The movie ended, credits rolled, the lights came on, and nobody had moved. When was the last time you had ever seen that? I haven't ever. Everybody in the theatre (granted not many people) had not moved and were engrossed in conversation about the movie. It definately hit Jared and I in a big way.

I'm definately doing it. I got into the poker world in the first place because of that counter-culture personality that most of us have. We hate the idea of the corporate ladder, the pursuit of money, working 9-5, 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year, never living because of being too wrapped up with working. For a couple of years poker was a the perfect combination with my love for the woods and the wild because it allowed me the freedom to be as transient as I wanted to. I would guide for about four months every year, living in a sleeping bag somewhere and loving it. But then the series of 06 happened, I started writing here at pokerpages, I got asked for autographs, and suddenly I was consumed with the pursuit of fame and fortune. It's made me less happy of a person.

I definately feel that there's a balance here in the city that I can find as a compromise as last night was an awesome hippie moment as was last Sunday that inspired my previous blog. Jared and I saw the flick, hung out at my friend's bar, went to the market and bought wine, went home and drank it around a bonfire in our backyard. We chilled and watched the sun rise and had a peaceful moment with peaceful people.

What am I going to do? Beats me. Perhaps I'll return to the river. Perhaps I'll go back to Forest Home. Perhaps I'll just embrace the hippie spirit more consistently here. Perhaps I'll sell everything except for my truck and some gear and really get back into the hippie spirit.

I do know that I have been so much more stoked this week than I have been in a while. I re-invoked my policy of treating work like work. Back before 06 I kept my bankfoll and personal finances separate and paid myself hourly. I've dropped back down in limits again and am paying myself $20/hr in an effort to rebuild my bankroll and teach myself some life discipline with spending. I went 7 for 9 this week in sessions and won 1700. I worked on somewhat of Jared's schedule.

It's been a good week. I'm way more stoked right now than I was seven days ago that's for sure.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

I'm not dead... (loooooong.)

2007-10-30T23:31:00.000-06:00

.. but I sure feel like it right now. Being sick sucks. Thank god that it's a head thing though and not a stomach thing because I can still eat. Isn't that the worst when you feel like crap and are starving at the same time? On the other hand though it's made me pretty irritable and prone to tilt easily, so combine my perpetual run bad since my 2nd this summer, a congested head, and a rebuy tournament made me a little spewey today.

Anyways, I'm rambling. I suppose I'm trying to avoid the meat of what's on my mind and that is I am scared. I am depressed. My bankroll is at it's lowest point since January of 2006 (I'm about to go on a selling spree of many of the toys I've bought since then and I still have money and I'm not broke, so I cannot complain OBV...). But, I really feel like I cannot do a damn thing right in poker any more. Yesterday I was 8th in chips in an online tourney with 42 remaining, money at 40, and the very next hand I busted 41st. It was a cooler and it was against the only person at the table that could bust me. Just so sick. I am sure there are some leaks in my game, but historically I have been very good at identifying my leaks/doing damage control in these downswings. I was on one at the beginning of this year, dropped to 15-30/2-5, and rebuilt. I made things happen in the tourneys, scored big in the series, and have been on an overall downswing since.

It's interesting that before my last two big downswings I scored big. I think that tournament poker has made me lazy. When you score in tournament poker you feel like the king of the world and that turning a small sum into a large sum is the easiest thing in the world. But damn, I was fortunate in the start of my career in the big leagues of tournament poker in that when I got deep I ran good in the right spots. I mean, there are so many times that you end up all-in in a coin flip situation and there wasn't a damn thing you could do to avoid the situation and then it's all up to the cards. Then there are times like two weeks ago when you make it deep and just get screwed and it's about a BUNCH of money. I get it in AA v AQ flop 962 and it goes QQ, and I bust 10th instead of being 2nd in chips and get $1200 instead of whatever else I would have earned up to $24k.

I haven't consistently played live cash games since April of this year. I miss it. I miss the people, I miss the interaction, I miss the feeling of actually going to work. Call me crazy, I know, but I am not happy where I am at right now. I am constantly worried about going broke to the point that it has consumed me and made me pretty irritable at times. I chewed on the topic of being too wrapped up with becoming famous a couple of months abo, but I didn't exactly reach this point of realizing that I have been too consumed with poker until the past couple of weeks.

I'm not saying that I've been a degenerate or addict or anything like that. I'm saying that if I'm so wrapped up wiht poker that I am unhappy with life and depressed in general that something isn't healthy.

This weekend I went to Vegoose. It was the nuts. Check out the pics.

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I seriously think I should be a photographer. If any of y'all have any connections lemme know.

Anyways, Vegoose is a two day music festival out here in the corner of Las Vegas with 12 bands playing each day. We went on Sunday and it was headlined by Rage Against the Machine. It was a ton of fun.

I kept thinking during the festival how much I missed being a hippie. Now, this place was a straight up hippie festival, so I'm sure that had something to do with it, but really. The happiest times of my life have come being a hippie. My favorite time of my life was when I was guiding on the Kings river in central California outside of Fresno. I lived in a tent on the bank of a river ninety minutes from a traffic light. I would wake up with the sun, do whatever I wanted until about 11am on most days, and on most days this included something along the lines of fishing, playing my guitar, or just chillin with other hippie peeps. At 11 we would load boats and get gear ready, at noon the custies would show up and we'd take care of all the bidness. Up the river in a bus on a dirt road, and we were paddling by two. Done by six, unpack gear, kick it by the river playing harmonicas and guitars and bongos and djembes and mandolins, smoke, figure out some dinner around dark (which would be a 2-3 hour endeavor and nobody cared), and hang around the campfire with good people.

That community that I was a part of was the most loving and caring community I have ever experienced. When I first showed up on the river in 2001... Actually it's pretty funny how I ended up there in the first place. I was mowing my lawn in Los Angeles wondering what I was going to do now that school was out, decided that I was going to the river, and then six hours later I was walking down a trail to a campfire on the Kings river five hours away. That night at the campfire one of the guides said to me, "So do you love the river brah? Sweet man, me too. Me too. Cheers."

And that was it. That was the conditions of being a part of a community where people loved you unconditionally. Those were the sweetest of times.

The poker community has actually come the closest to that for me. I have met some of the best, most trustworthy people I have ever met in my life in the poker world, but it has been tainted by some of the most dishonest people also.

This blog has turned into quite the ramble, eh?

I wonder how much of my unhappiness is connected to my fissure from the church. I was very cynical to the church for a while after I started to guide because I saw one community of "unbelievers" that loved each other more than any group I have ever seen, yet every Sunday morning I saw a false community of people pretending to be happy. I was judged by the church for being a hippie. I was judged by the church for playing poker. I was judged by the church for drinking beer. But nobody I have ever guided with, smoked with, drank with, or played cards have ever judged me for being a Christian. Or going to church. Or being a missionary. Or any of the other faith based things I have done or want to do. People in the poker world think it's awesome that I want to start a camp - but there are way too many in the church world that do not think it's awesome that I'm a card player.

I have never wanted to be exclusively a poker player and I bet that is the source of my disdain lately. You REALLY REALLY REALLY gotta love this game to make it in the long term. Will I play poker all my life? You betcha. Do I want it to be everything I do? No shot.

I think I'm going to turn poker into something of more regularity here soon. Maybe I'll get onto a similar schedule as Jared. Head to work at 4pm, quit at midnight, five days a week. Play 2-5. 15-30 limit. Pay myself hourly again. If the roll rebuilds, then move up as allowed, and give myself a raise.

I'll never forget how sweet it was watching and working with my good friend Doc in Minnesota. Doc is a card player that doesn't play higher than 15-30 limit simply because he doesn't need to and he doesn't like the swings. He's not happy when he plays 30-60 and thus doesn't play it. Three nights a week he works as a bartender in a downtown Minneapolis bar. He doesn't need the money. He does it because he loves it and has done it for years. But you know what's awesome about Doc? Is that he makes Canterbury a better place. I have never met a single person that doesn't like him. He genuinely cares for people and genuinely loves people. He regularly has a handbag full of goodies. About once an hour somebody comes by asking for something . The employee with a headache? He has several pain-killing options. Need a piece of gum? He always has at least two flavors. He's a stud card-player. He is as rock-solid as they come and thus ends up taking more than his fair share of bad beats because he's almost always in the lead. I have never seen him get frazzled, and his usual speech is something like this with a cheery voice. "What's he got? Nines and fours? Yep! That'll do it! Very nice." He smiles, throws his cards in the muck, and moves on.

I think that's the point of being twenty-something. We gotta figure out how to make ourselves happy in this context of life, because happy people make other people happy and generally the world a better place. I believe that good things, things that are productive to the world, can happen on the green felt. Doc changed my life for the better and I am sure that he has changed others too. I want to be that guy that people are happy to see, that is happy to see people, and is happy to wake up in the morning. I am not that guy right now and need to do some work on that.

For the record, I 86ed my contact info from pokerpages since I was getting too much spam mail, but my e-mail is still maverickusc@gmail.com and you can always leave comments on my private blog at campfires.blogspot.com.

For all the haters out there, I know y'all get off telling other people how much they suck, but this blog was about how much I suck, so you don't need to tell me about it. K?

And for the record, as always with my blog, this was zero editing, zero thinking, just writing, just talking, just honesty. I believe that it what a blog should be - a free flow of thought.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

GG Absolute Poker

2007-10-19T03:04:00.001-06:00

(completely unrelated to Justin's post this time!) I got an e-mail asking why I hadn't chimed in on the AP stuff since all the new evidence has come out.

If you're behind on the new stories, here's the uber laymans version as picked up by the Inquirer.

Reason number one? I've been lazy. I missed an article deadline this week and still haven't blogged about any caesars events including the one that broke my 0 for 26 live tournament cashless streak.

Number two but the real reason: This is bad. It is bad for poker, bad for online poker, and bad for my bankroll. People have claimed for years that they don't trust online poker for whatever reason, and the extreme ones have claimed that online poker is rigged. Now they have a place to show that online poker was rigged.

Here's the point. People do stupid things all the time. The whole bad apple ruins the bunch saying. One guy cheats on the highest games on one site and people's confidence in all sites is shaken even though the site really still is secure.

Obviously this type of cheating was detected, and even less obvious cheating will eventually be detected. It's really hard to pull something like this off as the level of corruption ran through many people and all the way up on this one that the probability of anything like this happening again is slim. Will it again eventually? Yep. Does it shake my confidence in online poker? Nope. I'm still making money!

Also, I'm playing smaller games. If somebody had this ability, they're only going to play the biggest games (as they did). Us small, medium, and mid-high stakes fish really don't have to worry. It's not possible to train bots to do this sort of thing.

So, if you're gonna tell people about this story, tell them that some AP exec went postal and took it out on the highest stakes games for a couple of weeks, not that online poker is rigged.

FWIW, I still have a significant percentage of my bankroll online and I'm not worried at all, but I am never going to play at Absolute Poker, mostly because of the way they have handled this situation, not that they got cracked in the first place.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Post a comment!

Money Factory Open for Business

2007-10-08T15:44:00.000-06:00

Man this place is sweet.
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It's been an awesome day so far. We all woke up somewhere around 10:30 and all put in a short session. I made a few hundred and the fellas made several thousand. Pickett is deep in the stars 100r with a ton of chips on a great table and playing on the Samsung big screen. Dave has been crushing as usual, and Bill took like $6k off of one guy playing 25-50 NL. Jay is playing "rebuild the computer". After a short session I hopped on the beach cruiser and rode down to the roller coaster to pick up some gyros. These guys should be affiliates for the Mediterranean food industry as these gyro things are fantastic. Pita bread, funky white sauce, and grilled lamb. Came back, put in some more time in my office seen above, went a little tilty after getting called heads up by a guy that had two unders and a back door flush draw on a Q87 flop (he had 53cc) and losing, and here I am writing this blog.

So, I'm gonna go grind some more, Pickett is going to win the 100r (they're ITM and he's 2nd in chips), Dave's gonna stack somebody a couple of times, Jay's gonna eventually fix his computer and then probably play Guitar Hero, and we'll all continue enjoying this rough life.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Life awesome, poker not so awesome.

2007-10-07T20:57:00.001-06:00

Insert witty sentence here
Friday afternoon I headed up to Newport Beach for my cousin's wedding which I was incredibly excited about. I have the greatest family and extended family ever and don't have the opportunity to see them very often. Everybody that has a significant other ends up bringing them to our side of the family, and it's a ton of fun. So, party on a yacht with this awesome family? I'm stoked!

The ceremony was short, simple, and beautiful. Shortly thereafter we headed downstairs and straight to the open bar. Now, if you've ever read this blog, you know that I have been known to throw a few back, and my family is on par. Last Christmas at the "kids" table we were doing tequila shooters. This day we were doing vodka and cranberry. I made sure my younger cousins always had a drink in hand and at one point actually did a shot with my sister - first time ever doing that.

After the wedding and reception and dinner and dance party we headed to Joe's Crab Shack for the after-party. I was planning on only having a beer before heading down to San Diego for my buddy's 21st birthday at midnight, but I met a bridesmaid and those plans got waylaid. I finally got out of Joes two hours later at midnight and hauled ass down to Mission Beach. I made it in an hour, hitting 100 twice on the way. When I got there it was the sweetest welcoming ever as everybody was trashed and didn't think I was going to make it. Before I could shake more than two hands I had two shots in my hands followed by two Miller Lites. From there we had philisophical conversations about the AIDS epidemic in Africa all the way home at 4am.

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My sister

My fam

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Married cuz!

Dave, Devo, Pickett, Jay Rockets

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Sweetest thing ever the following morning. The construction workers had the day off or something! I actually got to sleep until noon which was awesome. We woke up and went on a mission for breakfast. Jay, Pickett and I all jumped on beach cruisers to go acquire gyros. On the way we ran into our buddies on the beach, drank a quick beer, and then got our pitas full of lamb. We ate, played some guitar hero, and then the six of us headed over to the beach. It was a long walk across the street to the ocean side. Cooler full of beer, the bose jambox, chairs, a football, a whiffle ball with a bat forgotten at the pad, and horseshoes. Good times. We headed back around 5pm, ate Round Table pizza, and basically chilled for three hours until people started showing up for the 21st birthday, part two.

At 9:30 twenty of us piled into a limo followed by another SUV full of people and we headed to Confidential in downtown San Diego. Booth, bottles, the whole nine yards as usual. We were there forever. We took cabs back and fell asleep at some time before sunrise. Telling stories today has been quite the blast. We've decided that we need to make friends with some 20 year olds so we can do this again soon.

It was neat seeing all these 21 year olds that were friends of our buddy having the night of their lives. The five of us poker players bankrolled the night, and it felt good to hook up our friend and his friends with a night that they could never make happen otherwise.

Today, I was psyched to play some cards, but I shoulda just kept drinking. I blew almost $1400 in the usual fashion. I was chip leader in the 750k and played a HUGE pot with a guy that really overplayed AQ and he naturally hit his 3 outer on the flop. No problem. Oh, later I flop top two on an A92 flop, and he manages to get it all in for a 10x CRAI (lingo: 10 times bigger than my flop bet Check-Raise-All-In. Analysis: really bad.) with AT and it goes JJ, so I lose getting counterfitted. I got it good in every tourney except the million where I bluffed off my whole stack against a very well disguised hand. Well played.

Still though, frustrating. My roll's officially hurting and I'm going to have to go back to some serious grinding. I have been lazy and haven't been playing as much as I should be, but that is going to change soon. I discovered a new website with play that is incredibly soft with 33% rakeback, so I'm gonna grind a bunch of hands there until I win a million for my backer in one of the 10k's coming up :-).

I'm probably going to head back to Vegas Wednesday night, watch Poff get married on Friday, and start the Caesars classic on Sunday.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Saan Deeyago... I Believe it's Spanish...

2007-10-05T14:52:00.000-06:00

I love this place. I love how life just leads us into random places in random ways. My cousin is getting married tonight and I had planned on coming down for a while now. Then, about a week ago I caught up with my good buddy Jay from Minnesota who I knew was living in San Diego and he invited me to come and stay. I have heard wonderful things about this house and was like, "I'm in." Then, on the same day, I found myself at some random bar/casino/lounge called Lake Mead Lounge that I had never been to before with the roomies and a bunch of peeps from Half Shell. I was not drinking more than a beer here and there (unusual) so I was actually coherent enough to ask out the bartender and have at least a one percent chance of getting a positive response rather than my standard zero percent. Furthermore, I haven't randomly asked somebody out in, like, as long as I can remember really. She naturally said, "Well, why don't you leave me your number," and I thought to myself, "Good game Devo." Drawing dead really.

So, fast forward to Monday night and we're back to the usual nonsense at the local bar and I get a call from a random 702 number. I had given up all hope so answered the phone wondering who it was and it was Summer the bartender. Sweet! Chatted for a bit, and she asked if I wanted to go to San Diego with her. Any chick that is nuts/spontaneous enough to take a random road trip with a random guy is right up my alley. I was already planning on going to San Diego anyways so we drove down together, kicked it at her friends house for a couple of days, and then I took her to the airport to take a one way back last night. Best part was that she took the plane back cause she had to work, not because she hated me! Good times.

So, after that I headed up to Jay and Dave's pad (last night). I had recently discovered that Mike Pickett was also hanging at the house, so I was stoked to see my three buddies. I literally laughed out loud when I saw their place. It's right on the boardwalk on Mission Bay on the ocean side in Mission Beach. The entire east wall is sliding glass doors with a wonderful view. It's a sick bachelor pad.

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Pretty sick, eh? I was chatting with Mike about how long he had been here. He said he came here for a week about three weeks ago. After the week he flew back to Minnesota, stayed for three days, and flew straight back. He talked about how awesome it is with the community and location in general. "We're up early every day, play poker online, work out, eat healthy, and then go out every night." Jay has dubbed the room "The Money Factory." Today in the Money Factory, Paul played a guy 25-50 NL heads-up while cooking hamburgers on the barbecue outside for everybody. Paul won.

I must say that I'm pretty envious. It's awesome that a group of guys can live in community and encourage each other in everything from their poker games to their diets. They invited me to hang out as long as I want, so I think I'm going to stick around for a bit. I hope that I can work on my game some. Perhaps these guys can help me find some of my leaks that I have right now. Plus, I've been here for one day and had a great time.

Tonight one of their roomies turns 21 at midnight. That sealed the deal for me. I'm coming back down after the wedding. I'm stoked.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

The Absolute Poker Blog War, Part Two

2007-09-25T16:48:00.000-06:00

YOU are not getting scammed at Absolute Poker, but others have and the site is not secute or trustworthy.

Guess I have to go into a long blog at why I and many other high stakes professional players are convinced that several users (most likely controlled by the same individual) have the ability to see their opponents hole cards. Sorry Justin, but I know many of the parties involved and have been involved first hand in the discovery and data processing, not just as a lurker in some message boards. But - I still love you, and you are still my favorite hippie journalist :-).

From an internet message board cause I'm lazy and don't want to write.

"Here is the backstory for the issue. Many have contributed to it.

SECURITY FLAW AT ABSOLUTE POKER?

Shortly after a recent software upgrade at Absolute Poker, several accounts with suspicious names and identical maniacal playing styles sat down at the highest-stakes games offered there, where tens of thousands of dollars change hands every hour.

Established high-stakes online players quickly noticed these "maniac" players at the tables, and lined up to get a chance to take their money.

Amazingly, the top online pros all lost money to these players, at an incredibly fast rate.

Since these pros understand poker and statistics better than you or I, they used various software tools to analyze how they could have fared better against these maniacs. They came to the same conclusion: the only possible way these maniacs could have won money is if they could see their opponent's cards.

There have been many, many people claiming "online poker is rigged" ever since it started. And these claims have always been dismissed easily and quickly by the statistics experts. This time was different. The high-stakes players posted their findings on various online poker forums, and other experts who were not directly involved quickly validated their findings. One thing stood out above all others. On the last round of betting (after all the cards had been dealt out), the suspicious accounts always raised or folded - they never simply called a bet. While some players with aggressive playing styles will often raise or fold, it is unheard of
to *never* call. "The only time it makes any sense to never call in these spots is if you know if you are ahead or behind-- in other words, if you know your opponent's hole cards," said OnlinePro1. "These maniacs made the right decision in these spots dozens of times in a row."

Others investigated these mystery players and found even more evidence:

- The maniacs had been "chip dumping", intentionally losing to other accounts. After the posts about the suspicious activity were made on the internet - all the accounts we had flagged dumped to never before heard of accounts. - Bryan
- They had finished either dead last or in first place in a series of large online tournaments, another highly improbable statistical anomaly, perhaps in an attempt to cover their tracks
- Before the software upgrade, these maniacs had been huge money losers at the low-stakes games, perhaps in another apparent attempt to cover their tracks.

To an overwhelming majority of thinking players who have reviewed this evidence, the conclusion is clear and inescapable: Some form of cheating was taking place at Absolute Poker. Now, this isn't a reason for anyone to conclude that "online poker is rigged" in general. This appears to be an isolated incident at a single online site (although highly unfortunate for the honest players involved who lost money). Absolute Poker has already suspended the accounts of these maniacs, and claims to be conducting an investigation.

In the name of fairness, and to reassure the poker community about the safety of play at Absolute Poker and at other online poker sites, we ask Absolute Poker to remiburse the players who lost money to these scam artists, to publish a full analysis of the security leaks and how they have been sealed, and to commission a third-party audit of their internal security systems."

Anyways, I personally stumbled onto this story in the beginning while watching my friends Marco and Dave play in the Absolute Poker Wednesday $1k guarantee tournament. I'm only going to bore you with one hand history:

Stage #896976330 Tourney ID 1883389 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit $4500 - 2007-09-13 01:43:49 (ET)
Table: 14 (Real Money) Seat #3 is the dealer
Seat 3 - POTRIPPER ($765740 in chips)
Seat 8 - CRAZYMARCO ($214260 in chips)
POTRIPPER - Ante $450
CRAZYMARCO - Ante $450
POTRIPPER - Posts small blind $2250
CRAZYMARCO - Posts big blind $4500
*** POCKET CARDS ***
POTRIPPER - Calls $2250
CRAZYMARCO - Checks
*** FLOP *** [4h Kd Kh]
CRAZYMARCO - Checks
POTRIPPER - Bets $9000
CRAZYMARCO - Calls $9000
*** TURN *** [4h Kd Kh] [7s]
CRAZYMARCO - Checks
POTRIPPER - Bets $13500
CRAZYMARCO - All-In(Raise) $200310 to $200310
POTRIPPER - Calls $186810
*** RIVER *** [4h Kd Kh 7s] [5s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
POTRIPPER - Shows [10c 9c] (One pair, kings)
CRAZYMARCO - Shows [9h 2h] (One pair, kings)
POTRIPPER Collects $428520 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot($428520)
Board [4h Kd Kh 7s 5s]
Seat 3: POTRIPPER (dealer) (small blind) won Total ($428520) HI:($428520) with One pair, kings(ten kicker) [10c 9c - B:Kh,B:Kd,P:10c,P:9c,B:7s]
Seat 8: CRAZYMARCO (big blind) HI:lost with One pair, kings [9h 2h - B:Kh,B:Kd,P:9h,B:7s,B:5s]

Now, I'm sorry, but there is absolutely zero effing chance in any universe ever that anybody makes this call. POTRIPPER's history before this tournament was a few small stakes things during the summer with zero success. So you mean to tell me that all of a sudden, just after a software update, POTRIPPER enters the 100k guaranteed 1k buyin tournament, crushes the whole way (I have personally seen all the hand histories, not just the ones posted on message boards), never pays off with a losing hand, never calls on the river, NEVER SEES A FLOP WHEN AN OPPONENT HAS QQ+, UNLESS HE HAS BETTER, and it was all just a statistical anomoly? No effing way. No. Period.

Does this happen statistically where you can go a short period without ever being behind at the river? Yes. Where you never have a hand to see a flop when an opponent has QQ or better, even when you are seeing more than 75% of the flops yourself? Sure. But will a human being play in the manner that the suspect accounts played without the ability to see their opponents hole cards? NEVER. Think about it. No human being will ever play >75% of their hands and never call a bet on the end unless it is an all-in bet into them and they have the hand beat, ESPECIALLY in limit hold'em! No human being ever will call with ten high no draw on the turn heads up of a major tournament. No human being ever will cold-cap from the small blind and then check-fold on a 522 flop. Now, to put the icing on the cake, in that specific instance an opponent had 55! Coincidence? Statistical anomoly? That defense seems pretty weak to me.

So, you have POTRIPPER making sick ten high calls in the tournaments, you have GREYCAT making sick plays in the 150-300 and 200-400 LHE games, and you have DOUBLEDRAG making sick plays in the NLHE games, all at the same time, all for less than a week, all immediately after a software update, and then shortly after the forums went up those three accounts lose ridiculous amounts of money to accounts we've never seen or heard of doing such things as calling all-in bets on the river with four high, and we're supposed to believe that it was all just a random statistical fluke?

It just doesn't make sense. There are too many variables here for the argument of statistical fluctuation to hold any water at all that rest outside of the cards themselves. The three most significant in my humble opinion are these:

1) The timing of everything. Software update happens, immediately three separate accounts we've never heard of show up and rape the biggest limit, NL, and tournament games available. Then when discovered, those same three accounts lose large amounts of money in absurd ways to three other accounts we've never heard of, and since discovery, zero of the accounts have been back. If it was all statistical fluction and really just a fishy player, then why did that player quit instantly after discovery? Wouldn't that player be oblivious and think online poker is the easiest and just keep on playing? Why would they OBVIOUSLY chip dump their entire rolls to accounts never heard of before?

2) The human element. Nobody never calls the river. Especially if you see over 75% of the flops in limit hold'em. Anybody with any fundamental knowledge of the game knows this. Whether you're fish or shark or lucky or unlucky or on a heater or cooler, you will always call the river sometimes. For a player to have played that many hands and never had just called the river is the greatest smoking gun to me, because it makes much more sense that "Oh, that player can see holecards and thus never calls the river," than, "Oh, mr. fish has miracleously had such a string of cards that he has naturally been in situations where he never had to call on the river and the distribution led him to always raise or fold the river." O RLY. Then why on the hands where the villian here has lost the most is where he's raising the river with like six high and the opponent has something like bottom pair or ace high and calls him down light? Huh? How come the villian never raises six high when the opponent has a strong hand? HOW COME THE VILLIAN NEVER RAISES ON THE RIVER WHEN THE OPPONENT HAS A STRONG HAND, BUT IS RAISING A SIGNIFIGANT PORTION OF RIVERS? Think about that for a second if you really want to talk statistics! A player who sees >75% of the flops: Never calls on the river with a winner or loser, never raises when opponent has a strong or even medium hand on river, never makes it to the river when an opponent flops or turns a big hand, and is able to raise with bottom pair vs. ace high MULTIPLE times. Seriously? What is more statistically likely? That this just happened like magic or that the player had some outside influence?

3) Statistics themselves. You know the hypothesis that says if you take enough monkeys and teach them all how to write letters but nothing else, EVENTUALLY due to statistical fluctuation they will write works of shakespeare. Eventually a monkey will come up with "Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't." As a small exercise, lets give you a number of the odds of a monkey writing random letters coming up with that sentence, and I'm not even going to include punctuation or spaces or caps in the numbers. Each letter is a random one in 26, and the monkey must precicely pick 'T' first (1/26) followed by 'h' (1/26.. we're already at a 1/676 chance that monkey writing random letters will write 'Th'), followed by 'o'... etc. Final numbers? 1/308,915,776 just for the monkey to come up with the word "Though". That is one in three hundred million that the monkey comes up with "Though." We're not even getting into well known works like "Oh Romeo", which bring that number up to 1/8,031,810,176, or one in eight billion. For a monkey writing random letters to randomly write "Oh Romeo." Now, Poker Stars just completed their billionth hand, and I'm not sure the number of hands played on the internet in history, but on Absolute Poker in one week three separate monkeys wrote the book on how to play poker perfectly in three separate games: Limit Hold'em, No-Limit Hold'em, and Tournament Hold'em. So if you want to tell me that it was all a statistical fluke, your arguement goes right out the window, because it is statistically much more likely for these players to have been cheating rather than monkeys writing Shakespeare.

Put all these together and it is the opionion of myself and many other well respected high stakes professionals, both live and online, that without a doubt player(s) were cheating on Absolute Poker.

Well, now what? Number one, don't play at absolute poker. It is obvious that the site got cracked in one way or another. Perhaps it was internally, perhaps it was externally. Number two, most of us, myself included, don't need to worry about this too much. Anybody who has the ability to see other's hole cards are going to use it at the highest level, not the games that most of us play. Number three, educate yourself. Check out the forums that have ALL the data. Evaluate the data for yourself. This is not some "internet poker is rigged" conspiricy theory. There is hard data and evidence backing this up and the people bringing the accusations forward are very well respected individuals.

I have continued to play at Full Tilt and Stars with complete confidence.

Lastly, I can understand why Absolute hasn't done anything about this. They are truly in a crappy spot. They can deny, deny, deny, and let these blogs and forums go up with only public opinion going against them. Meanwhile, they can freeze the accounts in question (done), and try and sweep everything under the rug. It would be nice if they returned the money won by the cheaters, but I could see them not doing that simply to avoid admission of guilt. This is the best case for them because the general poker public is never going to know about this story and won't really care. They'll continue playing online at Absolute Poker like nothing happened. If it becomes public that Absolute has in fact been cracked, then the site is going down and they're going to lose a lot of revenue because nobody is ever going to trust their security.

Ok... that is all.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Can't a guy get a delivery?

2007-09-24T19:46:00.000-06:00

Online tournaments require delivery drivers. Attention all members of the delivery industry: check out sites such as mapquest.com or google maps. They're helpful for getting your product to your customers' house.

Twice today Jon Eaton and I tried to order delivery. Once quiznos, once papa johns. Twice we gave very specific directions (Jon lives just off the south strip). Twice drivers called us lost. Twice said drivers didn't even know where they were. One said he was on the blvd but didn't know if he was heading north or south. I mean seriously. If you are on the south strip by the South Pointe, it's not too difficult to spot the big hotels to the north and say, oh, that's north. I mean seriously.

So, we finally went out and got some fast food and are currently in grindin online tourneys mode. I was 4th in chips in the WCOOP stud event today after the first level, and have since leveled out a bit.

Yesterday we came really close in a couple. I took 9th in a $69+6 FTP freezeout and cashed in the $215 second chance. I had a ton of chips in both at times and just fizzled at the end. My personal favorite was 4 betting all-in pre-flop w/J3o on the bubble in the second chance and getting called by aces. The guy was really loose aggressive and his timing worked perfectly as he had already re-raised me twice.

Ok.. hopefully i'll have something to write about tonight, and i'm gonna go back to crushing stud.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Monday, 24th of September 2007 06:42 PM

Wow. I'm on life tilt right now. Today I played 8 tournaments. Today I was chip leader in 3 of them, twice deep. Today I was in the top ten in three others. In one other I got 2 outed for a top ten stack, and the last one I tilted off my stack right after bustoing from the WCOOP stud event.

I cashed in zero of them.

I got it in good every time but one.

I'm going to the lake tomorrow.

Devo

The Lock-In

2007-09-21T21:45:00.000-06:00

Online tournamentsssssssss So, with the WCOOP going on at stars, I have been playing a ton of online tournaments the last sevaral days.

And generally getting my nuts kicked in.

I've finished in the 10% just outside of the money in many of these yet only cashed once since my 2nd on saturday. Pretty much every conceivable bad beat for big stacks have happened. My personal favorite was in the razz tourney today with an average stack but playing high we cap it on 3rd three ways with my (A2)3 vs an 8 and a 5. I go K, K and have to muck on 5th for 1500 with 15k in the pot and about 200 left, money at 117ish. Thats kinda like getting AA and having 3 way action on a 89TJ with a 3 card flush board. I finished 163rd having not made a hand in three hours straight.

I played a really weird hand vs. Danny Wong yesterday in the 200r misclickament. He opened in the hi-jack (2 off the button) to 2400 in the 400-800/75 level. I had 36k to start the hand and he had me covered. I called with A J . Flop A K J . He bet 4666 and I called behind. I'm not raising here because i'm not going to get value from something I'm beating except maybe KJ and will put myself in a tough spot if he 3 bets AI. He could have some sort of KQ type hand, but again, I'm actually a dog to that hand on the flop. Much more value in just calling because it disguises the strength of my hand and I feel is the best mix of value/defense. The turn was a 9 . He checked, I had 25k in stack, and had to decide between checking or betting 8kish. I decided to check here because Danny is capable of CRAI here with anything and if that happens then I hate my hand and once again am in a crappy spot. Against this opponent who is both thinking and creative you have to mix it up a bit, and I felt that checking was right here with bet/call being a close second. The river was the 5 , he checked again, and now it was time to go to value town/induce a bluff. I bet 4420. This looks like a thin value bet or a busted draw bet based on the way that I played my hand. Plan A was to simply get paid off by Ax which made a bunch of sense for Danny's range, and possibly get him to interpret my bet as weak and then try and take the pot off me. He put me all in, 21k to call with about 46k in the pot. I time-banked the max and finally called simply because nothing really made sense there except something like A5, air, or QT. He had AK, and I was busted 360thish just outside of the money at 270th. Frustrating, annoying, whatever. There really is no way to avoid going broke in that hand unless I bet/fold the turn, but that's pretty weak against an aggressive opponent.

So, meh. AYA. Tired of losing 2k a day.

Tomorrows WCOOP is a $200 HORSE and a $500 PLHE. Donkaments, USC football, and throwing of wireless mice... all in a good Saturday.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Borgata Poker Open WTP $9800+200 NLHE Day Two My Demise

2007-09-17T15:40:00.000-06:00

Frustrated. Well, I'm pretty frustrated, mostly because I just had such a rough go at EVERYTHING today. I knew I needed to do some work as average was over 50k and I only had 18k. That help came on the second hand however when I got it all in pf with AKo and won a race against Eric Cajelas' QQ. Unfortunately, I couldn't get any momentum going at all. I had to pull out some creative tricks to even keep afloat, my personal favorite being a sick all-in go and go with the ol J3off.

So, at the start of the 600-1200/100 level I had 24,500 just hating life. Fourth hand? AA. Open to 3k, player to my left makes it 15k, Bryan Sumner tanks and I'm pretty sure he's re-raising, and then he suddenly shakes his head and mucks. I obv shove my last 9k in or whatever, he calls, and AA good over 33. Jxx flop, Sumner had JJ.

I pick up some blinds, pick up a small pot, and am around 58k when I start this hand. I open KK from the hijack to 4500 for two reasons. One, I didn't want to screw around with the hand. I wanted to get it in and get it in now. I had been very active and my bigger than standard raise would look weak increasing my chances that I get re-raised (2nd reason). Sumner is in the BB and thinks for a bit, thinks about what I'm up to, and calls. Flop J 7 6 . He checks, I bet 8k, he thinks for a bit and is clearly thinking about raising or calling. Period. He finally just calls. Turn the ever lovely jack of something. Obv I hate that card, but his range is wide and doesn't necessairly include a jack. He checks, I bet 16k, leaving myself with 26k.

Some people think I should have checked turn, others think my bet is perfect. By checking, I'm keeping the pot small, avoiding getting put all in and to a decision, and giving a free card.

By betting 16k, I am basically committing myself to the pot. There's 26.5+16k in the pot on the turn. If he shoves, he's putting in 42k, so it's costing me 26k for a shot at 84k, just over the 3-1 that I estiamted. It's highly unlikely anybody that bets 16 of 42k on the turn with that scary of a board is ever folding to a shove.

Sumner shoved.

Now I really hated life. His timing was perfect on all streets, he had a tight image, the bet sizes made sense, and everything pointed to the fact that he is really never bluffing there. But, he realized all this too, and furthermore realized that I realized all this, and probably even went to the level that I was thinking on when I bet the 16k the likelihood of me holding an overpair and vomiting when getting shoved on. Then, to cap it all off, he had to deduce that i was good enough to lay down AA, KK, or QQ with such a short stack getting 3:1.

The sick part is that Jx, 77, 88, and JJ are also in my range there.

So, all those things to happen. Materially he had to hit a J or 8 to win the pot, cause a 7 or 6 is not scaring me off the pot. Then, after all that, he has to execute in such an impossible spot, and then I had to make a monster laydown. I finally mucked deducing that there was absolutely no way he's bluffing more than 10% of the time, and since that's all I'm beating at this point, I can't call for 3:1 even with tournament value considered cause I can still play with 26k.

He pretty much owned my face.

So, puke. I got the rest of it in bad with AQ vs. a shorty awho's range was AT-AK and QQ or less, and he properly had AK. No good for me, all in on the BB T9 v AQ no good.

Frustrated. 24 straight no cashes right now.

I'm playing so well right now. I'm seeing spots and making plays that I've never seen before. I've learned a ton from playing a ton online and hanging with these online studs about accumulating chips and I truly believe it's what even got me this far.

Course, one of those spots yesterday cost me the maximum, but that was pretty unlucky, and the JJ v QQ in the 5k was pretty unlucky with the read a little off - but QQ didn't make sense.

Anyways, last fall I had a crappy streak too, and knew I was on my game, and predicted a win within two months, and that happened. Long dead steak, predicted big cash, happened. Long dead streak, here I am once again, I'm on my game... something big's coming by the end of the year.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Borgata Poker Open WTP $9800+200 NLHE Day One

2007-09-16T22:27:00.000-06:00

Ugggggh... So, ended the day with 18,150 from the 30k starting stack, and about 40k off what I really should have. I was card dead for most of the day which was quite depressing considering that I had an excellent table draw.

I won zero pots until the third level, but was so card dead that I only lost 2k off my starting stack at 25-50 and 50-100 for 75mins each. Sick, eh? Won a decent pot there to end level 3 at 33,500. I had an excellent level 4 as I found some good spots to pick up pots and made a couple of value hands. I ended at 42k. Level 5 wasn't very exciting and I ended at 45k.

We went on dinner and I came back with a plan to continue nitting it up. On the second hand called the button's shove for 6100 from the SB with AJ and lost to A5s. Then two hands later we played an odd hand and I'm very proud of how I played it. Ted Forrest's blind, but he's not there, 200-400/50. MP2 limps (LOL), I limp T 7 in the cutoff, tight old nice guy limps button, tight old grumpy guy completes SB and we see a flop of Q T 9 . Check, check, I probe for 1300, TNOG calls button, SB folds, MP2 calls. Done, right?

Until the MP2 donked the turn for 1500! Like a tunnel in front of me I saw the light and realized that I was going to win this spot.

For the record, these are the spots that separate the best tournament playrs from the good ones. It's all about seeing and executing at these crux spots where you can earn and manufacture chips with little risk to your stack.

In this hand, it was impossible for me to play risk free, but I set myself up to win the pot in the most efficient way possible. I knew MP2 didn't have anything on the 6 turn. I was 80% TNOG on a draw and 20% on a pair. I wanted to charge the combo draw to draw, fold the single draw (naked FD or SD), and fold the pairs. Furthermore I didn't want to commit myself too much because I was going to have to fire another barrel on the river and wanted to make sure it was cheap. I raised it to 5k, and the TNOG tanked. I really thought he was folding at this point. There's about 12k in the pot and it's costing the guy 5k (about 1/5th of stack) plus he had a guy acting behind.

Well, the guy mucked out of turn! Thanks buddy. I already knew you were folding but you didn't have to let the TNOG know that!

TNOG asks the dealer to spread the pot, thinks a while, and finally calls.

Now, this tells me that he hs some combo draw. Flush/pair, flush/straight, straight/pair. I'm hoping for a brick, 9. Sweet. Good card for my hand. I bet 6125 just in case I'm wrong or he has a QJ/TJ type hand, but I'm really expecting a fold, and then he says, call. A 9 . That draw.

It was really an unfortunate card because not only did I lose the 17k pot but I lost an additional 6500 on top of it because of the "safe" river. I obv fire all aces and nines on river, but obv check-fold any scare card.

After that I couldn't get anything going. I dwindled down to where I am at now with 18,500. The good news is the day is gonna be new and we're playing 300-600/75 so I got some room.

Quote of the Day comes to you today curtosey of Maria Ho who was commentating on older woman. "I saw this lady once that was like 48 and the had like, a better body than me! I'm like, what a bitch, ya know?"

Well done M. Thank you for bringing back QOTD.

In other news, my cell phone has been charging all day in Joe Cassidy's room right now so if you've been trying to get a hold of me or expecting contact from me... sorry!

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Borgata Poker Open $5k+200

2007-09-14T15:23:00.000-06:00

I'm out, and thoroughly confused. ARRRRRRRRRRRRGH. I'm so frustrated right now.

I started today feeling fresh and fired up and found myself at the sweetest table draw ever for a $5k event. There was only one trouble spot on the table, two weak tighties to my left, two donkeys to my right, one to the left, and two average players across the table. In the first two levels (25-50 and 50-100, 15k starting stack) I chipped up easily to 21k, and then found myself at 24k after the 75-150 and 100-200 level.

Come back from break expecting to play 100-200/25, and much to my surprise we're playing 200-400/25. What the ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? Are you kidding me? I've heard nothing but good things about the structures here, but that is just ridiculous. So, instead of having a huge stack with all the time in the world, I instead only have 25m's, good for a medium-large stack.

First hand back I found KK and lost 7k to JT on a J8x flop vs. a shorty. About one orbit later the player who had the JT opens UTG+2 for 1200. Straight-forward donkey (this has been established as fact. Means he plays straight forward with big hands, calls off way too lightly in weird spots, and makes pointless bluffs.) calls next in, one fold, weak tight donkey calls, fold, and it's on me on the button, I have JJ. Calling here sucks, shipping it sucks, so I make it 4k, enough to get the job done without exposing myself too much.

Initial raiser folds, donkey #1 TANKS. And TAAAAANKS. He's not thinking about raising whatsoever. I'm giving him 88-TT, AQ/AJ. For the record, we've already seen him numerous times calling raises with Ax and other crappy hands, and even calling some re-raises with those crappy hands. I am not worried about this player or the next one in any way at all. I would still prefer to take down the 4450 without a fight, but I am extremely confident in my hand. He finally calls and the other donkey folds.

Flop 9 6 6 . Perfect, hope he doesn't have 99, but at this point I have committed myself to this hand. There's 11,250 in the pot, I have 11,800 in my stack. He checks, and clearly is still in the same demeanor. If he has 99 or 66 so be it, but I'm not getting off this hand ever.

Bet small or ship it in? Well, since I'm never folding this hand, I might as well try and get some value and give him a chance to do something stupid. I bet 6k, and he TAAAAANKS again. Seriously tanks. Is not thinking of putting me in. Hates his spot. I can now rule out all the Ax hands, even the A x cause he would visibly like the flop much more and would have probably put me in already. I'm giving him TT, 88, 77 in that order. Possible JJ, but that's pretty unlikely, AA, KK, or QQ he's already shipped it on me (he had a little more than 30k at the start of the hand), but this guy is goofy enough that I can't totally rule out A9 or some small pair or complete air. The point is that I am begging for a call now. I know I have the best hand. I am shipping it on any turn period unless I pick up some visible tell on a "scare" card in his range, but it's going to have to be pretty serious for me to ever fold this hand. It seriously took him 90 seconds to call the flop. Nobody hollywoods that long, and I know that he wasn't even thinking about raising ever.

Turn is a K , and he checks again. I know he doesn't like that card. I don't like that card at all and it's not because I think I'm beat now - I would have bet my bankroll that he didn't have A K or any other Kx hand. I think it might scare him off of his medium pair. I ship it, and he really tanks. It's 6850 to call and there's 23250 in the middle already - so he's getting fantastic pot odds, and it's exactly how I wanted it. He called after about two minutes, I was sure my jacks were the nuts and tabled them quickly.

He had queens.

Queens? Huh? WTF? Oh, my, God. He had the only even remotely possible hand that beat me and I had the only even remotely possible hand that he could beat. There is a huge gap here between JJ and TT for my holdings. I'm only playing AA-JJ that way, period. I'm calling in position with TT>, AK, etc. Plus, while I thought he'd never play QQ that way, it's clearly the absolute top of his range - he's never playing AA, KK, or AK like that ever. Ever. And I'm thoroughly shocked that he played QQ that way.

Think about it for a second - when have you ever seen a loose donkey cold call a raise with QQ and they're not trying to be funky? I've never seen it! They usually make a sizeable re-raise to "protect" their queens from letting in Ax or Kx. It's so standard that it didn't even cross my mind the remote possibility that he had queens.
Looking back on the hand, I can understand what's going on in his mind. He's gotta hate his life vs. my range too. My play on all streets was super strong, and he's really only beating JJ. Furthermore, my image was super-nit tight, and this was the most action I had put into a pot in 4.5 hours.

Arrrrrgh.

There wasn't a dang thing I could do there.

This hand fits nicely in the category of Wednesday's 2500 hands. I recieved some e-mails questioning why I lost so many chips with one and two pair hands, and in this hand I busted with a one pair hand. The point of poker is not the rank of your hand but the rank of your hand vs. their hand. In the hands on Wednesday I had the effective 3rd nuts with AA and the effective 2nd nuts with the AT. In this particular hand I felt like I had the effective nuts and am always willing to play a big pot when I feel that I have the effective nuts. You establish the effective nuts based on their range, which narrows with each action taken. If their range doesn't include any hand that beats you, then you have the effective nuts. One hand that beats you and several others that don't? Second nuts. Follow?

So, in this hand I felt that I had the effective nuts, but was obviously wrong. I had the effective second nuts, and it really doesn't matter if I even put QQ into his possible range, because the hand still plays out the same. I can't quit on the turn with so much invested and his range sitting at QQ or less w/o 99 or 66. I have to ship it there.

Oh well. I am very happy with my play today in all aspects and am super excited for the 10k on Sunday. I'm playing well and expect big things to happen very soon.

I saw a ruling today that drove me nuts. Rule # 15 of the Borgata's official rules talks about a player calling a bet when unsure of the bet amount being able to forfeit the amount put into the pot and fold or call the rest. For example, guy opens in the 10 seat for 200, guy in the one seat throws out 50 at the 25-50 level. Seat one can either fold and leave the 50 or throw out 150 more and call.

So, come river in this particular hand, player A in 8 seat bets two purples and two blacks, 1200. Player B in 1 seat throws out 700. Dealer does not announce bet sizes, doesn't confirm pot correctness, and just says "call." Player A tables his hand and it's good, player B asks if he has to call the additional 500. I LOLed - totally thought he was kidding. He finally puts the 500 in before a floor can be called, but when the floor got there he said that the player did not have to call the additional 500.

Yes, I understand that this is how the rule reads, but there has to be some sort of ammendment to the rule and the dealers need to be more attentive to making sure the pot is correct. Think about all the ways this can be exploited! Make a thin call for a few big chips less than what he bet. When ever does a player with a weak hand question whether the call is complete or not? NEVER! I accidentally called a guy today for 750 when the actual bet was 1250 (I was calling 1250 or any other number also FWIW) and his cards instantly hit the muck when I threw chips into the pot. After his cards were in the muck, THEN the dealer told me that it was 1250 and I owed 500 more! LOLOL!

So, if you're the bettor, make sure PERIOD before you table your hand or say anything. I can see this angle getting super blatantly abused.

The point is that there should not be rules that protect people from their own mistakes (ie putting chips in the pot when they don't even know the bet size), enables huge angles to be shot, and forces players to go out of their way to protect themselves from a stupid rule.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Borgata Poker Open $2500+150 NLHE

2007-09-12T11:10:00.000-06:00

75 minutes of "fun" Tired of reading about lions, tigers, and bears? Ready for some poker content?

Too bad! I only got 75 minutes of play today so you only get to hear about the two big hands that I played.

I had heard about the legendary structures at the Borgata, and from what I actually got to see I was impressed. 12k in starting chips blinds 25-50 with hour levels. About 45 minutes in my stack had dwindled to 11,100. My image had to be in the loose/passive neighborhood because I had been seeing a ton of flops but not putting in much action post flop. Furthermore, twice I had made bets post flop, and twice I had folded to a raise. So.

Young active player that I've never seen before limps UTG. I find AA in MP and make it 175, all fold except UTG. Flop T 4 2. Now, this is one of those boards that you're usually miles ahead but you're in serious trouble if you're behind. Furthermore, if you're ahead, it's not too likely that you're gonna get action from something that you're crushing unless your opponent is doing something goofy UTG (ie big pair). My opponent leads for 300 on the flop. Normally it's a raise here, but since we're playing so deep, the only way I'm going to win the maximum is by letting my opponent bang away with one pair. Furthermore, by just calling I am protecting myself from a big hand. I call, and at this point I still have no read on my opponent.

Turn: 8. He checks. OK, good - he has something in the JT range. Can't let him have a freebie, I bet 700. He makes it 2100.

Now, let me comment on the turn check-raise. This play has caught on a lot lately, and it's been working, but I think that it is not a very good play, because it just screams strength - much like the limp-re-raise UTG pre-flop. My cards were on their way to the muck, esp since we were so deep, but... arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrghh. This board is so freakin dry and his range is so wide, ugh. He doesn't have TT. 22, 44, 88, possible. T8? Ehh, maybe, but highly unlikely. T4, T2, 42, no way. Air? Possible. JJ-AA, 99, 77-33? Also very possible. So, his CR was to 2100, I wanted to muck so bad, but everything was there that kept my cards from instantly hitting the muck - super dry board, young/aggressive kid, and the simple lack of a read vs. an unknown opponent. I called, planning on re-evaluating on the river.

River Qx, and he bet 2600. Now I really wanted to puke, cause that's either the perfect value bet or an obvious blocking bet. I have 8700 in my stack at this point, and he's leaving himself enough room to get away from his hand if I shove, or is it a sick value bet? Maybe it's a bluff induction bet? I DON'T KNOW! As much as I wanted to throw my cards into the muck, I decided there were just too many other hands that I beat as I was only really afraid of 22 and 44. I called, he showed me 44, and I wasn't sure how to feel about the hand. I don't know if I lost the maximum or the minimum. I don't ever see myself going bust there, but I think laying it down at any point is really weak also, especially since my range in his eyes is so wide also. I could just as easily have JT in the spot, and he could honestly think that he's going to value town with some goofiyly played KK. For the record, that's been another hip trend lately, the ol slow-play big pairs early, and I think that's terrible, but enough people have been doing it lately that it's always gotta be taken into consideration, especially early when so many unknowns are still in.

Anyways, fast forward 30 minutes, we're now playing 50-100, and I won a small pot to bring my stack back to 7k. This hand was also much of the same lines of thought, but I had a little bit more history on my opponent. I limp ATo in position and we see a flop four ways - both blinds and the guy to my right. Flop A Q T . BB bets 300, guy to my right makes it 1100, and I'm stumped once again. I can't really shove for 7k, I can't really raise to 3k and then fold to a push, I hate just calling, and I hate folding. OK... range thinking time. This guy has been playing pretty straight forward, very classic amateur player style. Underbet weak hands, overbet weak hands on drawy boards, and slow play monsters. I saw all three of these go to showdown in three different hands. Underbet AA on flop and turn and checked river hu on KTx, 8, x board. Called flop with a gutterball, caught it on turn, just called again on turn instead of raising, and then I saw him bet a top pair hard on a sd/fd flop. So, I decided to just call and evaluate on the turn cause he could easily have KJ and be protecting himself from the clubs, but he also could just as easily have AJ or less, QT, or KQ/QJ . Hell, you also get to throw in the 10% goofball factor. Again, I know he doesn't have AQ, AA, QQ, TT, cause he's the type of player that will raise those hands pre-flop. Knowing that, I've basically got the second nuts. I want to see a turn and see what he does with it.

Turns a total brick and he FIRES 3k. Now I'm almost positive that he's got QT and is putting me on Ax or a drawy type hand. I pause long enough to make sure that he'll call my additional 3k shove, stick it in, and I think I'm a genius after he doesn't instantly call. Then he finally does call after about four seconds and shows me K J , I feel slowrolled, and wander back up here to write. I'll have to chew on these hands a bit. The sick part is that my instinct was to toss it both times but couldn't find the laydown. Anyways, tomorrow is the $500+60.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Fantastic First Few in Washington!

2007-09-01T20:24:00.001-06:00

Parlor Games and Epic Rides

Whoo, wheeee! What a sweet couple days it’s been already as I’ve hung out in the staging area that is Casa de Fuller north of Seattle by about an hour. I arrived Thursday night and we just chilled at the house. Friday I got to experience firsthand Rick’s flying lesson progress as I sat in the back seat of a Cessna 172 as we did touch and go’s at Payne Field (just south of the Boeing Plant, the biggest building in the world) and short and soft field takeoffs and landings at Harvey field. I’ve been fixin to take some flying lessons for a long time and was planning on starting this fall. I’m even more excited about it now! From there we went to dinner and then to a saloon. Angie met us there and Rick and I had the parlor games world series to decide who was paying for dinner. We decided on a game of pool, foosball, and original golden tee.

Pool: I break and sink + 1, Rick’s turn. I’m solid’s, he just saw me break a solid and sink a solid. He says, “I’m gonna try a combo.” I’m looking at his setup and say, “What to what?!?” He says, “The one to the roeifjo!” I was like, okay… He decided for some reason to try a combo on his first shot into my solid balls. Unfortunately he missed, but I still had ball in hand. He only got to stand at the table once more.

AHHHHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAH. I’m riding with Rick right now down to Angie’s place and just said out loud, “Wow. I didn’t realize how fast that game was last night. You only got two shots.” He responds, “No, I only got two real shots. I sank two balls on my first shot, and then gave you ball in hand on the second.”

“Wait, so you actually sunk two stripes BEFORE you went for my solids?!?” Hehehehe.

From there it was on to foosball, where he handed my ass to me on a plate. I got one lucky fluke goal and he smoked me 10-1.

Then, Golden Tee. If any of you have ever played with me you know I am a huge favorite in the best of three bet, and I even told Rick that I’m really good at Golden Tee, but this was the classic original I’ve never played it version. I beat him by something like eighteen strokes. He went on Golden Tee tilt at the end and screwed up some of my strokes and a bunch of his. It was amusing.

From there we went to see Superbad (again for me… first time since high school I saw a movie twice in the theatre, first time since Jurassic Park in the same week). So effing hilarious. Go. Now. Don’t bring anybody under 18.

Then we went to Rick’s uncle’s bar, and there should have been a sign on the door that said, “If this is your first time here you are most likely going to be the best looking person in the joint.” But, they had shuffleboard, and WOW this board looked pretty. Shiny black top on the wood buffed to a high gloss, very clean board, no warping, damage, or whatever.

But, I felt like I was being punk’d. The pucks just did things that they’re not supposed to do. Flying down the board they’d stop right in the middle when they should have went off the back. No patterns, no consistency, nothing. Frustrating. He got me back for the money lost on who was paying for dinner.

Back home, sleep, and I wake up to “Shh, I’m gonna put my nuts on Devo’s forehead.” If I was smarter I would have waited to acknowledge my consciousness until he was closer and naked and made sure he was conditioned to never think such thoughts again as I suddenly stretched with a clenched fist, but in stead I just opened my eyes to figure out what was going on. He was caught, I was confused. He said, “Wake up Devo. We have a big day ahead of us.”

We went on the sweetest bike ride I have ever been on. We went up the 5, west on some highway onto some island with some island on it (one of three in the world I heard… pretty cool!). An island on an island. Ocean, Island, Lake, Island. Cool. Past that that through Deception Pass, absolutely gorgeous, and all the way across Whidby Island where my good friend Lars grew up. From there to some ferry across the sound and back to Fuller’s house. Absolutely fantastic day.

Tonight a bunch of us are going out somewhere in Seattle and then hopping on a plane early in the morning to go hunt some bear!
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Peace and good luck,

Devo

How Much to Staple Your Arm?

2007-08-31T03:05:00.000-06:00

Blogging from 30,000 feet
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As I write this I am flying north to Seattle. I’m super excited for the next twelve days. Rick Fuller is hosting me there this weekend and next weekend, before and after our hunting trip to Alaska for all of next week. I’m sure there will be much fun on the weekends, but the purpose of the trip is definitely the hunting.
There is a bear, right now, foraging around Prince of Wales Island, trying desperately to catch him self a fish. In two weeks that bear is going to be my rug, and in four weeks that same bear is going to be the main course of a party at my house: bear burgers.

We also have tags for blacktail deer and will be doing a bunch of fishing for the big Alaskan freshwater species.

So, in preparation for that, I’ve had the pleasure of spending mad monies at Bass Pro Shops and my local automatic weapons (legal in NV) depot.

Weatherby Mark V 7mm magnum: $2k

Ruger Super Redhawk 44 magnum revolver: $700

Leupold Scope: $900

Nikon Binoculars: $300

Gore-tex camoflague: $300

Ammunition: $300

Guide and lodging: $800

Flights: $750

And a ton of other miscellaneous stuff. If women get as much pleasure out of shopping for shoes as I got shopping at those two stores in the past few months, then I finally understand (but still - they’re shoes).

I’m going to do my best to blog while I’m up there, but there’s a big part of me that wants to leave all electronic devices in Seattle. I probably will end up doing just that and keep it with pen and paper and transcribe when I get back next weekend. I guarantee pics and posts eventually!

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So, I won a poker tournament this week. That was fun. First time I’ve won one outright since November. Sounds about right with how many (or few comparing to some of these guys) I play. I made a significant change in my tournament game between all the tourneys on Sunday and the ones I played on Monday. I had to go back to the old school selective aggression rather than playing like a LAGtard like I like to in live tournaments. I believe that the specific reason that my lagginess has not worked online is that I do not know the online environment well, am not known (thus can’t get as much respect as I can live), am not able to use my physical reading abilities, and I do not know the players as well. I think in the tournament I won I only played like 18% of my hands going into the final table with a pre-flop raise percentage of something like 12% overall. These numbers were obviously much higher as I got deeper, but you get the idea.

I want to point out the key mistake that my opponents made at the end that were the key to my victory. Read that again, it was not my brilliant play deep that won me the tournament, it was the mistakes that they made and the ones that I did not make.

First one: five left, I’m third in chips w/360k, 1.4mil in play. UTG is the chip leader with a little over 500k. Blinds are 5k-10k/2k. UTG opens for 120,000!!!! ?!?!?!?!?!?!? Yeah, I was confused too. I had AKo in the small blind though and shipped my 360k in the middle gleefully. HE FOLDED! I literally laughed out loud, cracking up. Five players left of a major tournament and the guy plays that bad. For the record, when blinds are that big of a percentage relative to the average stack, you should never, ever, ever, ever, ever open raise for more than 3x the big blind. If my opponent didn’t do this it is exponentially more difficult for me to win the tournament.

Second hand, same flavor. Heads up, previous 2nd in chips is now the leader and I’ve lost some back (why it would’ve been much more difficult to win. He has 1.1mil I have 300k. Blinds are 10k-20k/4k. The guy open shoves the button! So retarded! I have TT, gladly call, and he has J8. Why? Why?!? Why??????? Any hand that I’m shoving on him I’m also calling his shove with, and ALL of those hands have J8 crushed to very crushed. I’m not calling there with 77. Ever. Super dumb play, I got doubled up, and the rest was history.

So, learn from my opponents, and don’t make stupid pre-flop raises (amounts, not cards. You’re allowed to have any two cards when raising pre-flop in a tournament!).

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Sunday Jared let me do the stupidest thing ever to him for $200: staple his arm twice, anywhere between the wrist and the shoulder in any place that’s not obvious bone or joint as hard as I can with a standard Swingline. How the heck could I pass up this offer? Fifty years from now we’re going to be sitting on a 2007 pontoon boat on some lake drinking a PBR, and I’m going to make fun of him for the time that he let me slam two staples into his arm. Neither of us were drunk either, which was the most retarded thing. So, I nailed his tricep for the first one, and then right into the top of his forearm for the second one. I would have felt bad on the soft part of the fore arm. These things went straight in, rested flush against his skin, and when he finally peeled them out of his skin the tabs were both bent in (like staples do) about 60 degrees (almost the whole way - definitely curved though!) I would have had to pay a fortune ($5k+) to do something like that to one of the poker fellas that I hang out with, but Jared let me have this lifelong gem of a story for three tanks of gasoline.

Unfortunately, Jared got his gem earlier this summer on me for free. 4am, at the same bar, and this time we’re all very much under the influence (as if you couldn’t gather that from the beginning of the story - “So, we’re at a bar at 4am…”). I’m playing video poker and a pretty little friend of mine starts scratching my back. Nails. Woman’s touch. Back scratch. Me likey. Ughhhhh… it feels soooooooo good. I stop gambling and put my head down resting on my hands but still sitting up. She moves up to my neck (sensitive…) and starts playing with my ear (not fair) and I say, “ohhhhhhh, that’s not fair…. That’s my spot.” She then moves all the way down my face and at this point funny things are going to phase two and I’m putty. She puts her fingers on my lips and I start kissin em and suckin on em and getting all into it. After about 10-15 seconds I feel my head get jerked, pulled by the hand in my mouth, AWAY from the side that the pretty little girlie was sitting and right into the bosom of my brother Jared, at which point he asks me, with his hand still in my mouth, “What are you doing?!?” Worst part: it was at the gaming bar that they all work at, and they have access to the surveillance tapes.

Cheers! If you’re in Seattle and will be at the Bumper Shoot Saturday, gimme a holler!

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Legends of Poker Main Event: My End of Day One

2007-08-26T15:09:00.000-06:00

I felt like I was playing while treading water with cement shoes. So, yeah. I played the 10k WPT Legends of Poker main event, day 1a yesterday. After the first level (and even during the first level), there simply wasn't a damn thing I could do. I had somewhere in the neighborhood of fifteen pocket pairs, all 77 or lower except one pair of tens that I had to push all-in on the turn as a bluff to win the pot. Know what I mean? Everything was super pain in the ass.

The biggest pot I played was in the first level, blinds 50-100, starting stack of $20k. I started in the 8 seat on a nine handed table, and the player in the one seat was literally the worst player I had ever seen in any major event. I limp UTG with Q J, really bad player min raises, and we see a flop five ways. Flop 8 9 T . Uhhh... Ok. SB donks for 150, I make it 1k, really bad player calls, SB folds, turn is heads up, 6 . Best card ever, cause this is the type of guy to call with a naked 7 drawing for the straight. I bet 1500, actually hoping to get raised, cause I know this guy doesn't have two hearts in his hand. He just calls after making some speech about me having two hearts and blah, blah, blah, and now I'm sure this guy has at least two pair, and most likely a naked seven. LOL. I really hope the river bricks out so I can overbet the pot and let him incinerate his dollars on behalf of me (thanks Poker Bob for that beautiful imagery). River, 2 . AYA. I check, hoping he'll make some desperate bluff, and REALLY hoping that whatever he bets isn't with the 3 T cause then I think I'll incinerate myself. He fires out 3k and I instantly call. He says, "I don't have a heart." I say, "That's good. Whatcha got?" I must see this guy's hand, and he shows me A7o. Drawing dead on the flop. Sweet.

After that though I flopped trips once in a limped pot out of the SB and won the pot with my initial bet and top pair once and lost a big pot. Every single other chip I won after that pot was by outplaying people, and even that didn't work one time whe a guy called me on the river with 33 on a T94T5 three heart board on the river. Naturally I had one of two possible hands he could beat.

The hand I finally went bust with I got all my money in the worst possible (normal) spot, the ol AK vs. AA but again, by that point I was short enough that I had to put it all into the middle. Oh well.

I'm happy with the way I played. I'm especially happy with how patient I was even though my cards sucked and my flops sucked. I didn't try and outplay people when the opportunity was not there, I didn't try and push the action when I shouldn't, and did as well as I could have with the spots I found myself in.

Speaking of outplaying people, I just bluffed off all my chips in the $500 Sunday Million with 55 vs. KK, knowing that I was against either AA or KK. The pre-flop action went like this - 50/100, he opens for 300 in the cutoff, I make it 1k from the SB, and he re-raises to 2k. I instantly know he has AA or KK. Flop, QJ8, I hope the guy is good enough to realize that I flopped a set and lay down his hand, and he wasn't.

I've been thinking about that a lot lately. The true art of poker comes into play when you are thinking about what they have, they're thinking about what you have, and y'all are thinking about what each other thinks each other has. When you're able to put your opponent on a hand and figure out what they think you have, if what they think you might have beats them and then you represent that, you can often get them to lay down big hands.

The problem often though is that with so many unknowns running around you can't know if they are thinkers or stinkers without some history of play. I need to stop trying to outplay people unless I know that they can lay down a hand.

I'll be playing online tourneys all day on stars and tilt. Badbeatninja is the name.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Chaos Theory: Life and Poker

2007-08-21T20:19:00.000-06:00

Laundry by the pound baby! Today I have been experiencing first hand the Chaos Theory. It states that, "The universe moves from a state of order to a state of disorder unless outside energy is put in." My house, bedroom, and truck are in states of disorder.

However, a little nugget of beauty has been discovered through this bit of craziness called my house. My friend Travis told me that I can take my laundry to the cleaners and pay them to do it. He said, "It's great man! They charge you by the pound and it comes back to you all folded like Mama did it!" So, I rolled into the cleaners with five full size black trash bags full of un-sorted, un-insided-outed, and all sorts of smelliness going on. Eighty pounds, $112, I pick it up on Friday evening. It don't get much sweeter than that!

As far as the world of poker goes, I'm really trying to get back to a place of grinding a lot more and putting in a lot more hours than I have, well... this summer I guess. This summer during the series I pretty much worked five or six days a week, but would be done after I busted out of an event. Then I took a bunch of time off after the series which I had planned on doing for a while, and officially got back on the horse in the beginning of August. Then I got my nuts kicked in while in LA and had to play whiffle ball instead of hard ball back here in Vegas.

Damnit, I'm bored playing whiffle ball unless I'm playing with my buddies, and then I don't take it seriously.

I really gotta get my iPod fixed or something, cause this is how I went broke for the first and only time back in Feb of 04. I had run good early in my career, kept a short bankroll, and didn't put in the hours thinking that I'd be able to make $100 playing poker for one hour every day and then that it'd be enough to live on. I was completely unmotivated to put in the hours that I should have put in. I enjoyed the freedoms of this job way more liberally than I should have. Looking back, bummer for me too - because that was the golden age for internet poker when money was being given away by the tens of thousands by horrible play.

At the same time though, I don't regret not working as much, as I thoroughly enjoyed all the time I played in the wilderness and traveling and hanging out with friends, just the same as I thoroughly am enjoying the ability to travel right now and goof off as much as I am. My bankroll is still plenty healthy, but I have to be a little more responsible with work and life.

Thinking of all those things lead me down to the strip by 11am yesterday where I headed to the Apple store determined to fix my melted iPod, and that didn't happen. I was pretty disappointed by the customer service to say the least. The guy I was dealing with was dumb as a stump, finally took down the information for my order and said I'd get a call by 5pm. Well, its 26 hours after that time and I haven't even gotten a phone call yet. Grr.

I made it into the Bellagio by 1pm, tortured a 20-40 stud game while waiting for a seat, and ended up sitting in the 40-80 mix game. I've been playing that game exclusively lately and it's been sick hella good. I'm guessing that all the local studs are in LA. Actually, I know that's where most of em are. I ended up winning $1k in the 3 hours that the game survived.

Sooooooooo... Speaking of traveling, I have a bunch of that coming up. Lake day tomorrow, head to LA sometime by the weekend, and then fly to Seattle on the 30th. I leave Seattle on the 2nd heading norther to Kechikan (or however you spell it), Alaska to spend a week on Prince of Wales Island hunting, hiking, and fishing. I've never gone hunting for anything bigger than squirrel before so it should be an interesting experience. Following that I'm planning on heading to Atlantic City for the Open, Minnesota for the Fall Classic mid October, and then to Dublin, Ireland for the EPT event there and general gallivanting across the Gaelic countryside. Halloween with a bunch of Irishmen? I can't wait. I'm super excited for that trip.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Back to the Practice Field...

2007-08-13T22:58:00.000-06:00

Man, these guys suck at poker So after getting owned all day online yesterday, Travis and I drove back to Vegas nast night after he took 8th in the Sunday million. Today I woke up, had breakfast/lunch/whatever you call first meal at 2pm at the Miracle Mile shops at Planet Hollywood. I felt like I earned five metrosexual points with my meal consisting of a caesar salad and water with lemon.

After that I headed across the street to the Bellagio, AKA the practice field. The plan: play some 30-60 limit whiffle-ball and get a little bit of confidence back while hopefully trying to make some monies.

I sit down at a table with only one person that I recognize and immediately witness these two hands.

First one: final board reads 567J9r. Dude bets, woman calls, dude turns over K9, woman looks intently at the hand, then tables T8 and says, "I have the nuts."

I LOLed.

Next hand: Flop Q33 7 ways with a raise. Same guy donks into the next woman to his left who was the pfr. She calls as does one other player. Turn A, guy bets, woman raises, guy 3 bets, she calls. River x, bet/call. She says, "A3?" He says, "No, do you have A3?" as he tables 43o. She says, ahhhhh... and tables QQ.

This time I really laughed out loud. Man, those girls play like girls!

I ran pretty bad, but still managed to win a monster pot when they (KK and QQ) let my 88 in cheap and I proceeded to flop a set and then they went ape shit on the flop and turn because they played so sneakily pre-flop.

Note: KK and QQ are only one pair! Never slow-play em pre-flop (or anytime for that matter...)

Today was really good for me though because I realized that no matter what happens with my adventure to make it to the top top levels and stay there full time, I will always be able to make 150k/year at 30-60, cause the games are just that good.

So, it feels good to be back in the land of Vegas, and I'm ready to get onto the lake!

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Man, am I discouraged.

2007-08-12T19:03:00.000-06:00

Just getting tortured. In another one of those funks. I've officially posted a new longest streak w/o cashing in a tournament at 20 live ones since my wsop cash. I'm catching up with that number online, just getting tortured in every single way. I'm seriously something in the neighborhood of 15% on races and 40% on 3-1's. I haven't won a single 1-3 dog. It's been a rough week as far as poker goes, that's for sure. Usually I'd be fixin to get the hell out of dodge by now as I can only take LA in short spurts, but I'm actually really enjoying my trip.

Oops. Just busted out of another online tourney. 11 outer all in on flop three ways.

But, yeah. Poker's killing me. Yesterday I played a hand with Mike (O'Malley I believe) in a 10-20 NL cash game where he check-called the flop and turn against me with Q9o on an A K J , 8 board. Of course, this time I was bluffing, but it's the first time I've ever bluffed on a board like that. WTF. I knew he had QT at best too, but after he called the turn (big bets here too... I raised pf, bet flop, bet turn in a straddled pot) I gave up and decided my read was off. Nope. Pair of queens good.

Okay. Rant over. I hate poker. Now it's over.

I've spent a lot of time on this trip hanging out with people that have always been good friends of mine, but now they're way gooder friends of mine. I love people, and I love spending quality time with quality people in this poker world. Somehow if I get a hold of a car and a sofa to crash on I may stick around, but I'm running out of cash rapidly (obv) and need to get some more in Vegas. I'm stuck somewhere in the neighborhood of $6k live and $4k online. Gross.

Not really sure what I should do. I probably should drop back down to 40 and book some winners and work on my menta state. I think something's broken with my reads as they've been off way more than they should have been lately.

Oops. Just decided to play a hand. Made the 2nd nuts on turn, same on river, no good.

Maybe I'll just take some time off and go surfing.

Peace and more better luck,

Devo

Intersting dialogue in my comments

2007-08-10T06:20:00.000-06:00

This all started back around the end of the series when I was getting deeper with these blogs and realizing that I need to adjust some attitude of mine...

Anon: Yes loser you need to make a lot of life changes. 1) Get a job; 2) Stop being such an arrogant ...

07.22.07 - 12:50 pm

Bryan Devonshire »LOLOLOLOL. Thank you for that insight.

07.22.07 - 3:08 pm

Anon: your welcome i am sure your dad would be proud of your productive lifestyle, hanging around other po ker junkies.

07.24.07 - 7:21 am

Anon: Bryan, That comment was low so my apologies. I feel slightly ashamed of myself I know how persona l tragedy feels, my mother died in an accident. I am going to put my thoughts more eloquantly. You are clearly an intellegent person, you writing shows that. Poker really isnt meant to be someones life work, the only people who will say otherwise are fellow poker players. The poker players have an interest in encouraging each other to play since it gives reassuarance to themselves their path must be correct. Poker is a very fun game, but it would be a very sad existence if it takes over you life (as it seems to have done). Ultimately you will find much more satisfaction from other things in life. You clearly have a talent at poker but this isnt the only thing in life you could be good at. I dont believe anyone will really find happiness constantly sweating the turn of a card.

07.24.07 - 8:26 am

Bryan Devonshire »First two comments deserve some F You's, but since you've already apologized for the really bad one in the middle I wasn't able to get pissed at you. I think there's a good life lesson for both of us here because I completely agree with you one hundred percent. The problem is that you think you know what I'm thinking and intend and that bias has influenced your attitude towards me. First off, poker is a way to make money. What difference is there really between working in poker to make some monies and working in any other pointless job to make monies? Second, poker is not only a game, but it is a community around the felt, around town, and around the country. I have met some incredible people in my several years of poker involvement. I have also met some not good people. But if you as a person can affect good in the lives of those you are around, then you are doing something good for the world, even if it's sitting around a poker table. Is this what I want to do forever? No. Is it he best thing for me right now? I think so.

07.24.07 - 5:54 pm

Anon: Bryan, I agree with you when you say "What difference is there really between working in poker to make some monies and working in any other pointless job to make monies?" The point has to be not to find a pointless a job. Sure playing poker for a living beats working at Burger King, but it far less fulfilling than many occupations. I love my job earn over 200k US a year (with excellent prospects of a salary increase) and work for myself all at the age of 29. Would I swap this for a life on the green felt? No way. It took me a lot of hard work and studying to get where I am, dont let time slip you by. I do play poker and am quite good at it (won a major tourn), but there is no way I would ever consider making it my life work. I once went to Vegas for a couple of weeks and finished up 10k, it was unhealthy towards the end of it that I was showing disdain for money.

07.25.07 - 5:43 am

(Personal edit: I didn't respond to this. Absolutely us poker players have a disdain for money. Is that a bad thing?)

New Anon: I guess we all have dreams. I wonder what Jesus would say about you wanting to make a career out of encouraging people to gamble but I'm not judging you. Still...

08.08.07 - 9:46 pm

Bryan Devonshire »Dear anon: A) If you think this is what I want to make my career, then you obviously haven't rea d any of this blog. I'm assuming you linked from wherever that was that said I am a player with a dream, etc, etc... B) How in the world am I encouraging people to gamble? I mean seriously. The games are going very strong downstairs here at the commerce with or without me. Actually in the long run, the games go longer WITHOUT me because I take (usually) money from the gambling economy! Christ calls us to be all things to all people and to be an example of him no matter where we find ourselves. This is the situation that I have found myself in, and I like it. The battle for me that I am wrestling very much with right now is how to be Christlike in an environment such as this one that I am in. Anon, I do not believe you at all that you are not judging me. It is judgment like this that pushed me and many others like me away from the church in the first place. You challenge me like you actually know my heart and my dreams but you don't care about me enough to learn the whole story, and you challenge me from behind a veil of anonymity. Please, please, please - stop believing that you are better than other people that you know nothing about simply because you feel that you lead a more Christian lifestyle than that person. That is the worst, most counter-productive evangelism that you could possibly perform. Devo

08.09.07 - 2:18 pm

Anyways, off to play the $500 LHE tourney at the bike today.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Legends of Poker Events 2 & 3, $545 NLHE & $335r NLHE

2007-08-05T08:01:00.001-06:00

Sorry it's been a while... ... but I wrote a long blog on the way here that disappeared into cyberspace and I went on blog tilt and decided I wasn't going to write about what I was writing about anymore.

6:47 am in bed at the Commerce Casino. Let's work backwards:

Played shorthanded 100-200 LHE from 3:30 am to 5:30 am, made $1700, was never up until last twenty minutes. Sick hand here:

Aggressive button raises, I 3 bet 3 3 , weak-tight BTN caps, we both call.

Flop A 6 3 . i check, BB checks, BTN bets, I raise, BB 3 bets, BTN caps, both call.

Turn: 7 . I bet, BB raises, BTN 3 bets, I call (pair the board one damn time!), BB folds (told you weak-tight).

River 3 . Zing! I bet, he calls. $4400 pot.

Before that I went to dinner at C&O Trattoria (best Italian joint in LA), partied at the hermosa pier, and waded in the Pacific ocean.

Before that I played some 40-80 at the bike, winning $1760. I played an interesting hand where for the first time ever I felt that my articles could be used against me. My opponent of interest in this hand was a super nice gentleman who I had a great time sitting next to and is a reader of this blog. Big pot, i had nut straight on turn, and had him on the heart draw. Heart on river, I bet anyways, and thought for a moment, "Boy, I sure hope he hasn't read the Scare Card article." So, I asked him if he's read my articles before he had a chance to do anything and he said no. Phew. Othewise I would have been forced to call his raise!

Before that I went off in the rebuy tourney. Eight of em, good for $2735 down the tubes in a $300 tourney. I had such a great table and got it in so good almost every time, got snapped a bunch, missed 3 12+ out draws all-in, set cracked, top pair cracked, trips cracked, ace high cracked (yes, shoved with A high post and got called by K high)... got felted on last hand of rebuys, did the double/double (rebuy/add-on) for $1200, and never won another pot. I hate poker.

Friday was our first full day in town and Travis took 5th in the $500 event. Atta boy! I naturally blew my brains again in a disappointing fashion, tripleing up in the first level only to slowly dwindle into nothingness. From there I decided to make my first donation in five years to the cash games at the Bike and blew $3k.

So, stuck $2500ish after two days, planning on being here through next weekend.

Peace and good luck y'all and sorry for the crappy content.

Devo

Bored in Vegas? Go Somewhere Else!

2007-08-01T16:19:00.001-06:00

Detroit, Monroe, Adrian, Jackson, Lake Mead, and Laughlin Sorry I haven't written in a while, but I've simply been pretty busy traveling around goofing off. Last Thursday I flew to Detroit for a random and spontaneous trip to visit a friend of mine that is a professional pool player. Now, pool is something that is played in bars and my buddies and I gamble on it for way too much money. I was exposed to the underworld of pool this weekend, and I got hooked. My friend and I chased around the tournament circuit in Michigan and I was exposed to some professional pool players, I played in my first two pool tournaments, I bought a stick, and just want to play pool these days. I played one guy named Adam Smith who is one of the top male players in the midwest, and some would even call him the best. He destroyed me. Watching him play was truly like watching an artist. I actually got him in two games in a race to seven, but one was because he made a mistake on the 8 scratching and giving me ball in hand for an easy run-out on the eight-nine. The other game was when I had a one-nine combo off the break that was definately a makeable shot. It was still a very challenging shot and I was very proud to pull it off, but the point is that I didn't exactly "beat" Adam in two games, I just happened to win two of them. Those two games are like a bad player winning a couple of hands against a better player - it doesn't mean that the bad player beat the good player, it means that they won a couple of hands. Big deal. There are so many similarities between the pool world and the poker world. I had a blast hanging with those guys.

So I came back Sunday night, and us roomies went to play pool!

Monday, I woke up and was planning on getting some good work done. Then, I got tortured in every effing screen open on my desktop for the first half an hour. In the one tourney I played ($162 FTP) I got it all in pre with KK and ended up being against AA... and KK! Grrrrr... It was an interesting spot actually because I definately could have laid those kings down pre. I've been in the school of thought that says never lay kings down unless you absolutely know your opponent or it's on the bubble of a super satellite, etc, etc..., but in this case it went UTG raise to 90, BTN raise to 300, I raise to 900 BB, UTG call, BTN shove, I cover both but it's like twelve minutes into the tourney and they're both around the starting stack. But, people do stupid things too much and I just can't do it against unknowns and esp. online. That was when I decided I had enough and I was off to do something.

I ended up at the pool hall.

Tuesday was a lake day all day. We finally got the trailer bearings fixed and got the Piece of Ship back on the water. A little piece of me is actually disappointed that we don't have a crappy looking blue pontoon boat with a 3x5 foot pirate flag on mast sitting on a crappy trailer sitting on cinder blocks in front of our house anymore. Now it's on tires again. Disappointing.

Anyways, on the way back from the lake we were discussing what we were going to eat when Jared said, "Lets go to Laughlin." Two hours later we were checking into a free room at the Edgewater. We then went to Loser's Lounge and honestly thought that everybody there was playing some joke on us. It's really hard to describe the sceen in the club without offending 90% of society in some way or another. I'll just leave it at that - it was a very eclectic, diverse, and odd crowd. The "we gotta get out of here moment" was when the lead singer chick for the cover band pulled out a cowbell and played it like it was going out of style for the final song of the night. Not as a joke, not as a small addidition, but as a "hey, this song is better with cowbell, so I'm gonna bang away on it with a drumstick for most of the entire song so the crowd will like us more." From there we went to the poker room and played drunken 2-6 spread limit poker. The game got turned upside down on hand one where I sit down, raise blind (over two limpers - 80 and 60 year old ladies... :-), say, "Y'all should call. I probably don't have anything." Everybody folds and I table my 92o. Good times. Once the table realized that we were just three kids there for good times and gambooooling everybody got along and it was a very fun table.

From there we headed back on the boardwalk, stopped into our favorite little bar in Laughlin, the Regency. Danny and I played a death match of pool for $50 a rack, and I edged him 2-1. Back to the Edgewater, to McDonalds for breakfast, and Jared did one of the silliest drunken things ever. He asks the lady behind the counter, who happenes to be the same one who denied my $100 bribe for 20 chicken nuggets last March when they were serving breakfast at a similar moment in the day, for "The biggest and best breakfast you have." Then, for some weird reason the guy orders FIVE large orange juices. Total bill: $21.56. Just for him! McDonalds breakfast! LOL! The best part though that is when we got to the room and the three of us were preparing to eat, Danny and Jared got into a wrestling match, Jared laid down in bed post wrestling, and FORGOT to eat his breakfast that he was so excited about! We are still laughing about that as I write this.

After I finished breakfast I decided to play some 5-10 NL online cause the 15-30 games weren't going (bad idea). I managed to get a guy all-in on the flop when he started the hand with $1100 pre holding the A K on a 9 5 3 flop. He was drawing stone dead vs. my A K , and I nailed my freeroll on the river. Sweet :-).

Then watcing the hand histories this morning, I saw this one and it was evidence of reasons to not play drunken high stakes poker. Button opens for $35, I make it $110 on BB with A8o, he calls. Flop T7x two spades, I bet $120, he makes it $330, I shove for all the monies about $700 more, he folds. Lucky me, retarded play all around!

Anyways, off to breakfast.

Peace and good luck!

Devo

Bored in Vegas? Go Somewhere Else!

2007-08-01T16:19:00.000-06:00

This Week's Edition of "I'm Bored in Las Vegas"

2007-07-22T21:40:00.000-06:00

Jerry Yang, Eff the river, and Handicapped Games So after crushing my local high stakes pro home game, I promptly played I can't win for the rest of the week. I played the $1k Monday on FTP, got super unlucky deep as usual. I then made my way into the Bellagio to play some 10-20 and we started a must move game short-handed. I bought in for $3k, lost two, bought in for another two, won one, and then played this pot.

UTG goofball limps UTG five handed, CO limps, BTN limps, I complete SB with 88, BB knuckles. Flop AJ8 rainbow. I lead for $100, BB folds, UTG who has me covered says, "I really should raise you, but I'm just gonna call." He's straight-forward pre-flop but has a tendency to overplay hands post-flop, esp shorthanded. Everybody else folds. On the K turn completing the rainbow I bet $300 leaving myself with $3500 in my stack. Villian bumps it to $1300 and I insta shove. Naturally he has the QT, I can't pair the board, and gg me. From there I went to meet Justin West playing in a 2-5 game so I could give him a ride home. He's playing to his big blind (4 hands) and has an open seat to his left. I sit and say I'm going to do my best to blow the max buy-in in four hands ($500). I post, have the table convinced that I'm a fish, raise the ol KTo to $25 pre and get 4 callers. The flop comes KT9, it goes check, check, check, I bet $100, fold, SB makes it $300, fold, fold, I shove $475 total, he insta calls and tables KQ and says something like "I think I gotcha." LOL. In the words of my good friend Bob, silly money haters. Then the guy to my left says, "I folded QJ pre-flop." But, no waiting, Q on the turn, and I stand up laughing.

So that was Monday. Tuesday I did something completely un-interesting - or I at least have no clue exactly what it was. Wednesday was lake day and the usual shenanigans that go along with that. I hung out with my friend Jon Friedberg to watch his PLHE episode from the series this year. Good times.

Thursday I played some online and actually won a few bucks. That was cool. Then Jared and I went out to meet my buddy Kyle who was in town for his bachelor party this weekend. We picked up Kyle at the Stratosphere and headed to money plays to drink a few cold ones and play some shuffleboard. Kyle, Jared and I grew up together and I've known him since 5th grade, so it was good to see him. From there we headed to the airport to pick up his buddy that was arriving.

When we parked in the garage I saw an airport wheelchair and offered Jared 2-1 to ride a wheelie from where it was resting to a mini-van about 100 feet away. The conditions were no practice, and once forward motion happened he had to maintain the wheelie the entire way. He had to go the length of the truck that it was next to, left around the bed of the truck, and then 80 feet to the minivan, and then had to touch the mini-van with his feet before the front wheels on the wheelchair hit the ground. Traffic? Sucks for him. Mini-van moves? Bummer. Bet on. Oh yeah - it was a double-wide wheelchair. Not big enough for two, but significantly wider than your stock wheelchair. He smoked me for $20.

I then hopped in the wheelchair and we were discussing what I would have to do for an opportunity to get even. Wheelie across the crosswalk at passenger pick up, wheelie down the moving walkway, etc, etc. Then, since I had not met the guy that we were meeting, we decided that we were gonna screw with him and thus I became handicapped. Jared drives a super-lifted Chevy truck, so lifting a handicapped 200 lb guy into the truck was gonna be a pain - and we were gonna get the new guy to take the brunt of it.

I'm not sure what sick and twisted sort of senses of humor we all have, but it turned into "lets screw with the handicapped guy and make new guy think we're sick and twisted." Jared grabs new guy's luggage and throws it on my lap. This hurt by the way. New guy's like, uhhh... Jared says, "It's ok. He can't even feel his legs!" So we get me into the truck, and then the one liners just start coming. Jared: "Devo, wanna run to the store and pick up some beer? Oh wait, you can't! Ahhh hahahaha!" Me: "Nah, I'll just roll with you guys instead." Finally when we get back to the Stratosphere the gig was up and after I got carried out of the truck I said to the new guy, "I'll take it from here," and walked away.

Speaking of the stratosphere, I saw something that was the most absurd thing I've ever seen. Normal hotel hallway. Just before the elevator foyer was a nook about the size of a non-bathtub shower with nothing else on the walls other than a black box with a red plunger button that read "Area of Rescue." On the bottom left of the box had lights - red said "connected to help" green said "help on way". We laughed hard and then took pictures of crumpled piles of dude with beer in hand.

We played some drunken 1-2 NL (Jared owned me), played some craps, and then played lots of "Cash for Life", cause getting $1k/week for 20 years would be cool.

Friday we ended up heading to the desert to do some shooting. It was a good group of guys and we had a blast. That night we all went to Tryst and had very good times. Saturday was recovery, I played a ton online, and took two super sicko beats within five minutes of each other. JJ v 33 on a J73 flop (lotsa bets in that pot) and then 54 vs 58 on a 543,5 board with many bets going into that pot as well. Stupid poker. And here is Sunday. I played a bunch of the Sunday tourneys, got screwed in every one, and poker is stupid. Hehehe.

Couple of thoughts on the main event final table. First, Alex (dude that beat me heads up this years WSOP) took 4th. I'm pretty sure that's gonna be a real good thing for me as I'm sure they're going to be showing much of the footage from our heads up match.

Second, Jerry Yang. This guy's gotten flamed a bunch on the forums for being a "religious nutjob", but I think he's gonna be good for poker. His story's pretty sweet and he seems like a good guy. I know he made many comments like, "Lord, if you let this hold up I'll blah blah blah..." I think it's really going to come down to how ESPN portrays him and the comments that he was making as to whether it's a good thing for the Christian faith or not. I hate it when people speak Christianese all the time, and I hate it when people think that they're better than others because they're Christian. It could be disasterous if it comes off as "God doesn't like other poker players," but I think it can be a very good thing if it creates some good discussion on Christianity in general.

So, some tentative plans: 26th birthday is on Tuesday, I fly to Detroit on Thursday, and head to LA for the start of Legends Aug 1.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

High Stakes 5 Card No-Peeky...

2007-07-16T17:56:00.000-06:00

... with allllllll the rules. Hilarious night last night. After busting out of the Full Tilt Sunday Million 130ish (aoiewnfrapomf aowpeifaopmwefopai), I headed over to John D'Agostino and his girlfriend Mariealena's house for a dinner party that I was late to. The food, even though re-heated, was fantastic! Having a home cooked meal isn't something that I have the pleasure of enjoying very often, so I was thrilled to be able to attend. Also in attendance were Bryan Micon, Dan Druff, and several other internet kids, so invaritably a game of poker was due to break out.

John and I headed out the door with beer in hand on a great midnight redneck adventure to find some poker chips.

I can see the two plus two thread now: "J Dags and Devo Busto! Buying $10 Set of Poker Chips at Wal Mart!"

That's where we ended up after checking out CVS and Walgreens. Sigh: poker isn't as cool as it used to be. I can remember seeing WPT sets of poker chips in seven freaking eleven.

I actually had a moment while John and I were in line. The guy in front of us who looked like a early 50's asian male that should own a liquor store had a bill for $4.64. He handed the cashier a gift card. She swiped it. It only had $2.66 on it. He then handed her a plastic baggie of change - mostly pennies - and she counted out the dollar ninety-eight. She returned the baggie of change to man and he went on his way.

John and I discussed how humbling that is. How gross is it how little we care about money when a hundred bucks would mean the world to that guy? What is the best balance between charity and protecting your own assets? What is the best answer for chartiy?

So, back to the house to partake in not caring about money, everybody buys in for $200, and game on. The first game we played was a completely mindless seven card no-peeky game. Three board cards were placed out (like a flop) that indicated wild cards. For example - there's a 3, 6, and J on the board - this means all threes, sixes, and jacks are now wild - nothing else. Then, we go around the table, turning over cards until you can beat the current high hand. Money goes into the pot before the hand with a $5 ante, whenever you get a wild-card for progressive fees: $5, $10, $20, $40... This is the only time you can fold. If you get a wild card and do not want to pay then you can fold your hand. Otherwise, you eventually turn over all your cards and if you can't beat the high hand you're cards are dead. The third way for money to go into the pot is if you pre-maturely turn cards in any way, shape, or form, and I was a huge fish when it came to this.

Either way I was bored with this game, John wanted to kick it up, so I suggested Baseball, five card no-peeky, with all the rules. Same format for the game: $5 ante, five down cards to each person that you can't look at, and players turn over cards one at a time to beat the starter card, penalty for pre-matures, but those are much more rare in this game. Here's the goofy rules:

* Threes and nines are wild
* Fours are buy cards - for $10 you get an additional card off the top of the deck - and the fours still play.
* If you turn up the K , you get to throw somebody out of the game. LOL.
* If you turn up the J , you get to steal somebody's up card. Sucks when you get that card early!
* If the Q turns up in any hand, it's a rain-out, game over, start over later. Re-ante to the same pot and all players that anted in the rain-out are dealt in.

That's when the things start getting really silly. We were playing $5-20 spread limit and ended up having several pots in the neighborhood of $1k.

Micon got there late, took Druff's seat, and promptly got stuck $2k. So sick! Even sicker is that he quit about 90 minutes later up $630.

I ended up winning somewhere around $1700 playing this silly game on my buddy's dining room table. Good times.

Poker wise I've been crushing lately, both online and live. I got pretty unlucky yesterday in a couple of spots playing the sunday tournaments deep, but those things happen. Saturday I whacked em good, $2500 online and $2500 live in the 10-20 NL game at the Wynn. I had a couple of encounters with money haters, otherwise I wouldn't have made so much moniez. I love it when they do that!

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Adventures on the Run

2007-07-10T20:19:00.001-06:00

I cannot disclose my location due to fear of being shot by the mob or a mob of angry poker players. After a crazy week in Las Vegas I decided to take it on the lam instead of going to the mattresses. I bought a one-way ticket out of Vegas Friday afternoon with $14,500 in my pocket, a suitcase full of dirty laundry, and my laptop. A friend of mine has put me up at his mother's place, and my days have pretty much looked like this: get woken up at 7am, move to another room, sleep on an air mattress, wake (or get woken) up around 1:30, dabble online for several hours, and then head into the local casino and play cards all night.

The first night was good times. I sat down in a 60-120 mix game and instantly heard, "Holy shit, it's Bryan Devonshire!" It was a friend of mine who I hadn't seen in a while. I instantly lost $500 in my first hand. Excellent. The game broke within an hour and I sat in a 40-80 LHE game. That game quickly broke, and it was me, a good player named Brian, and some guy I've never seen before that was a good player.... NOT. We quickly cleaned him out, and then the heads-up death match started. It was bumped up to 60-120, and then to 75-150. I couldn't really get anything going though, and when all the dust had settled, I was stuck $410 from when the mix game broke. As far as heads up went though, Brian definately kicked my nuts in. From there I went to a full 60 game, blew some more, and quit the night stuck $1900 exactly.

The following day I woke up, played cribbage and euchre online with an old friend of mine for a super long time, and then sat down to a family dinner for the first time in a long time. It was nice. I ended up baby-sitting the kids for a while, and I found myself wondering what to do with kids five and under. I've worked with 3rd-5th graders, junior highers, and high schoolers extensively, but I didn't know what to do with kids that young! It was fun though seeing their innocence and curiousity of the world. I did a good job of keeping them from falling into the pool, and after the kiddos went to bed, I was off to the casino. I put on a bit of a clinic and won $3200.

The next day I got money online for the first time in a long time. I played the $200 rebuy on stars, instantly rebought, added-on (in for $600), was 4th in chips with 23 left, and busted 19th for $1350. 18th paid $2350 and first was $54k. Oh well. I then headed into the casino and ended up winning $1600.

On Monday I ended up going to the casino earlier than usual having no idea that I was about to have my biggest (in terms of bets) winning session ever. We played some 40-80 for a while, I won $1900, and then we finally got the 60 game fired up. Now, the gross thing about this casino, home to the greatest limit hold'em games in the world, is that the 60 game is usually better than the 40 game. This one was no different. After about an hour I introduced the "rock" into the game, which is basically a mandatory straddle that bounces around the table. If you win a pot with the "rock" in it, when you are UTG next, you put the rock back into play. Somebody else wins it, and then they put it back out. So much fun, and so good for action! I put two rubber-bands around $120 in chips, put them in for my straddle to start the rock, and we were off. I won it back the first two times it was in play, and six times in total the entire night.

I played one interesting hand that I was very proud of. UTG (Brian from the first night) limped, I raised the Q{moscardsuit:ss} Q{moscardsuit:cs} , the button called, and the BB called. Four ways we saw a flop of 9{moscardsuit:ds} 3{moscardsuit:ss} 3{moscardsuit:cs} . Check, check, I bet, BTN called, BB called, UTG called. Turn T{moscardsuit:cs} . Check, Brian bet, I raised, BTN and BB folded, and Brian 3 bet.

Huh? WTF is he three betting here? I've played with him enough to know his tendencies, and as I was thinking about it, I knew that there was zero way that he could have me beat at that point. Here's why: He's raising TT or 99 pf, probably 33. He's not limping with any hand that contains a 3 except for 33, and that's obv pretty rare. I had him on one of these hands: A{moscardsuit:cs} T{moscardsuit:cs} , J{moscardsuit:cs} 8{moscardsuit:cs} , 7{moscardsuit:cs} 8{moscardsuit:cs} , possibly QJ, possibly AT, possibly T9, and a small chance of something really spewey.

I four-bet, $480 each going in on the turn after he called. The river came the A{moscardsuit:ds} , and thank God he visibly didn't like that card. He checked, I bet, and he folded. He claimed to have QJ.

I just kept on crushing the game until it finally broke around 2:30am, and I was up $8390, good for a little over 74 big bets in eight hours of full ring game action. I got lucky on one huge pot (having the right pot odds to draw to my gutterball the whole way, of course...), and got un-lucky on two big pots and one medium pots. Pretty sweet!

Today, my friend and I went on a two hour adventure to a middle of nowhere casino where we heard that a 75-150 mix game goes every Tuesday night. Long story short: I'm writing this on the way back. The game never went. The usual suspects must be in Vegas for the main event. Sigh...

Anyways, I'm up over $10k for this trip which is a great feeling.

I want to thank y'all for your positive comments and e-mails regarding my last blog post. It makes me very happy to see that there are others in the poker world who agree that there is so much more to life than fame, fortune, and poker, and I pray that y'all would continue to walk with me on this journey of re-discovering what that means. For the record, I am not broke, depressed, or in a bad life situation - I simply had an "ah ha!" moment and realized that I need to make some life changes.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

2007 WSOPoker, My End

2007-07-05T23:29:00.001-06:00

.. It's been quite the past several days. I kinda got burned out on tournaments about a week ago after busting out of my 13th straight event, again in a somewhat dirty way. So, I took some time off, and then some life changing things happened and I took some more time off.

I'm chewing on a lot of things right now and don't really know what what to write about, but i've been thinking about some things regarding my life and poker, and I'm pretty disappointed actually. I think that in my quest to become one of the world's best poker players that I have been consumed by a quest to become famous. I think that I've felt that who I was wasn't somebody that wasn't supposed to be famous, and thus I've warped some of who I was. I used to be somebody who genuinely cared about people and did not care about money. I would hate to see myself end up like a player I know who since his successes has become too cool for the people that he knew. He is still super nice to his fans and loves to give autographs and all of that fun stuff, but he treats those of us that are not "fan" and not "friend" very poorly. I have noticed that I myself am very nice and friendly to my "fans", and of course cool with the friends that I do have, but I have managed to treat some old friends of mine very poorly along the way. I would hate for myself to ever end up at that point, and I have seen myself headed in that direction.

I need an attitude adjustment. I need to forget about myself and start thinking about others more. I think this will ultimately end up helping my poker game as well.

I need to get back involved with a Christian community. I have almost completely lost that aspect of myself.

Yeah. Been chewing on a bunch.

My backer is not putting me in the main-event or any other events in the forseeable future. I'm pretty annoyed by that as I found out about it a couple of days ago. I don't have a big enough bankroll to buy myself in (and still have it be a wise decision), so if any of y'all want to put me in, i'll play for 20% unless we work out some long term agreement.

I'm really itchin to get out and do some playing. I've played a few short sessions recently but have been interrupted in all of them.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

WSOPoker Day 25, Event #40, $1500 Mixed HE

2007-06-25T16:54:00.001-06:00

And a WTF?!? by Harrah's I was super excited for this event. I got there at 4:45 to register and the lines were long. I didn't get to take my seat in the hot, scary ass (wind) pavilion until 5:10. I first saw Shannon Elizabeth at my table, and we had a good laugh about how we're dead money blah blah blah. Then as I was sitting down I noticed James Van Alstyne to my immediate right. "Hi James!" We caught up a little. Then I noticed Eric Froelich to his immediate right. Nice table draw. NOT. I counted my chips, 2975, as I had just missed my big blind and was currently being dealt into my small blind. That was the most chips I would ever see. We saw a free flop, I held the Q7, it came Queen high, I bet, got popped, and I folded. Next hand I saw a flop with the A4, and I lost that hand too. Next hand James opened to 75, I made it 250 in the cutoff with AJ, and he called after some thought. The flop came AKx all rainbow. He checked, I bet 350, he made it 1k, and I insta-called. I made a mistake here by not being aware of his stack. This c/r left him with 850. I should have either moved him in or mucked it IMHO, probably mucking. Anyways, the turn was a T, and James checked. Weird. I'll take the freebie to the nuts. River a 9, and he put the rest of his chips in. I can't beat anything at this point except Ax or a bluff, and decided to throw the hand away. Always feels good playing a hand bad pre-flop, on the flop, and on the turn. At least did something right on one street! LOL. I then managed to never get my stack back above 2k and was busto 15 minutes before the first break.

From there I met Kenna, Lupo, Lara, Angie, and Joy at "Money Plays" to play some more shuffleboard and other shenanigans. Towards the end of the night my friend Thomas wandered in by himself. He has been a dealer at the Wynn for as long as I can remember, and has been working the WSOP full time this summer to raise some additional money for his wife and child. Thomas has always been a fantastic dealer, and is THE best dealer that I have had this year at the series. He's dealt to me two downs and the table was always impressed.

So last night he says to me, "I just got fired." The reason: He couldn't work overtime. His shift had just ended and the D/C asked him to stay on longer and work overtime. He said he can't becuase he works at the Wynn in 90 minutes and wants to get some food. They then say, "You're fired." He said that they have been needing a ton of dealers to work doubles because many dealers have been calling in for whatever reason. He was upset because he himself could have called in and not been fired, but since he wouldn't work overtime he got fired. This was about an hour before he had to be at the Wynn to deal all night.

I'm not sure what to say about that. I specifically asked him what the rest of the story is, because that just sounds too out there to be all the truth. I asked him if there was any history between him and the D/C, etc, etc... He said that the only thing was that he called in one time himself.

Today is cash games day, tomorrow is the $2k LHE, and wed is the $2k O8. Wheeee!

Peace and good luck,

Devo

WSOPoker Day 23, 24, Event 37 $2k PLHE & 38 $1500 NLHE

2007-06-24T17:14:00.001-06:00

Spinning the tires in the mud I never had a chance in the tournaments and there really isn't anything I could have done with either of them.

The $2k PLHE started off with me being very active and actually getting some very good hands, but this got players to call me down with marginal holdings and then caught on me every one of em. I was busto by the first break. I then went to play some cash at the Bellagio and ended up winning $1100 playing 10-20 NL. From there Jason, Jen, Lara, and myself went to this mediterranean joint to have dinner and smoke some hookah, and that degenerated to shuffleboard and pool at the bar, then everybody left and I found myself drinking a beer with Maria Ho, Nick Shulman, Joe Cassidy, Jen Harmon, and several other people at the Bellagio sports book bar. Maria and I headed to the Rio to buy in for the 1500 event, and I needed to spend some time to sober up, so we did that by playing 50-100 Stud 8/Omaha 8. Maria and I lost $1100 each.

I made it in time to get the cards in the air for the $1500 event, and pretty much the same thing happened. At one point somebody asked me, "Why do you bluff so much?!?" I then explained to them that "It's not my fault I never get any good hands. I have to be creative to win my chips!" I had the greatest image ever, but they broke the game before I could actually make a hand. From there I busted two short stacks in the 100-200 level, lost a pot, and pushed over a bettor with QJ on a JTx flop, got called by the bettor with KQ, and gg me.

I then left there to play some cash at the Wynn. I played 5-10 NL, flopped quads twice, had action on the flop and turn both times, and still ended up losing $275 without ever playing a big pot. I then left to meet Kenna for some shuffleboard, met some buddies in from LA, then headed to Capo's for some grub. We were joined by Lara, Dutch, and Lupo for dinner. Had great times, headed home, and then me and my LA buddies went out on the lake for a while. Woke up today, bout to eat, and playing the $1500 Mixed Hold'em event at 5pm.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

WSOPoker Day 22 - Event #34 $3k LHE, My end of day 2.

2007-06-21T22:18:00.000-06:00

falojopeijnaefoankmdoaifjaopfmeaokfnaofmnasodkfmaoe What a day.

I learned something in the first twenty seconds I was awake today. When you set your alarm clock, make sure that you set it for the correct half of the day. For example, if you set your alarm for 2:30 for a tournament that starts at 4pm, make sure that you set the alarm for 230pm, not am. I realized this at 4:09 pm as my already short stack was probably being blinded off. AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHH!

On the way in I decided that this was a good thing. I was missing all the hands that were supposed to bust me. I arrived in my chair at 4:38pm, good for the fastest time ever completing the following tasks:

1) Wake up, realize you're an idiot.
2) Put on clothes, unsure if they're clean or not.
3) Uninate.
4) Find all things that belong in pockets.
5) Get in car, drive 20 miles to strip, make it through traffic due to accident, traffic due to too many people on the freeway, and traffic due to too many people on the streets.
6) Run across Rio parking lot and break massive sweat.
7) Run down unnecessairly long hallways to WSOP room.
8) Sit in seat and make fun of self.

I folded several hands, and then played my BB, winning it on the turn. My 10,700 had dwindled to 8300 upon arrival, and now I was back to 11k. OK.

Then, Crazy Mike and I flipped some coins. I won both. Devo = +$100 net.

Then, I doubled with AA vs. Richard Brodie's KK. 26k.

Then, I busted a guy when I flopped a set. 35k.

Then, I won some small pots. 40k.

Then, Crazy Mike and I flipped some more coins. I won both. Devo = +$300.

Then, I flopped the nuts with A 3 on a 2 4 6 flop in a battle of the blinds against Brodie once again. We capped the flop and he called me down. 55k.

I went into the first break with 52,500, good for 5th in chips, 63 players remaining.

Last week I went into the 1500-3000 level in the 5k LHE event fourth in chips, 60 remaining. I took 40th that day.

Today I took 42nd.

How in the hell do the wheels on the bus fall off that badly twice in ten days?

Nothing I could have done either.

The two hands that irked me the most were these:

Folded to me in the SB, I raise Brodie's BB, he calls. I have 8 5 . Flop 9 5 2 . Bet, call. Turn 8 . Bet, call. River 7 . Check, check. I table my cards. "Oh, you have two pair? Wow. Nice hand. . . . . Oh.... I'm not trying to slowroll you, but I have a straight." He tables 5 6 . I know he wasn't trying to slowroll me obviously... he would've bet the river. But I still wanted to puke.

Very next hand I get AA on the button, I'm visibly upset from the previous hand, everybody folds, I raise, and the blinds fold.

Poker's so stupid.

Those were the last chips I was awarded in event 34. :Sigh:. Ship the $200 last longer to Crazy Mike, and I profit $200 in prop-betting for the tourney (I won another $100 in flips shortly before I busted).

In other news, I may be looking for a backer for the rest of the series. If you're interested, please let me know.

Tomorrow is the $2k PLHE at noon. I [heart] pot-limit.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

WSOPoker Day 19, 20, & 21 - Event #34, $3k LHE - End of Day One

2007-06-21T05:52:00.000-06:00

nother Day Two... ... have made I.

Other than that, meh. 10,700 in chips, 16k is the average, coming back tomorrow at the 8-16 level, and pretty much, I'm gonna have to get some hands. Unfortunately I will be unable to play the kind of LHE that I like to play, but such is the structure of limit tournaments that Harrah's has devised.

Lemme go on a rant about that for a moment. In all the limit events the blinds are starting at 25-50, and then 50-75 for level two. NL events go 25-50 then 50-100. If you know anything about poker, this makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Furthermore, playing 50-100 with a 6k or 10k stack really doesn't matter at all. Why not start at 50-100 and add in the key levels that they take out down the road like 500-1000, 1200-2400, 2500-5000, 5k-10k, etc, etc. These structures are really retarded because we have a ton of play that doesn't matter at all in limit in the beginning and then zero play when the play actually matters.

OK. Rant over.

Fun things today: I found myself sitting with "CrazyMike", AKA MrGatorade on 2+2. Guy's hilarious, but annoyed plenty of people. Course, I'm nuts too, and thought it was great.

We made plenty of prop best throughout the night.

Coinflips for $100:

Round 1: Devo
2: Mike
3: Devo
4: Devo
5: Mike
6: Mike
7: Mike
8: Devo
9: Mike
10: Mike
11: Mike

Mike = +$300

Over/Under on runners after day one: I set line at 100, he took under, Devo wins $100.

Mike = +$200

Devo proposes that he can ride a wheelchair in a full wheelie across the entire pavilion without coming out of wheelie position once without practice. I had to wear a helmet. Devo wins $100.

Mike =+$100

Outstanding bet: Devo/Mike $200 last-longer. I've got him edged in chips going into tomorrow, so...... it still doesn't matter. It's an effing crapshoot anyways.

In other news, I've taken up wakeboarding. I went out on the lake Tuesday and got up on a wakeboard for my 4th and 5th times of my life... and took the worst wipeout of my wakeboarding career. With the board perpendicular to the boat (oops) I was still holding onto the rope as I caught my front edge on the water. For those of you playing at home, my feet completely stopped while the rest of my body continued at 30 mph as I landed flat on the water. Ouch.

I'm getting old. My body still hurts after 24 hours.

Anyways, here's to running good tomorrow.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

WSOPoker Day 17 & 18, events 27 & 28 NLHE

2007-06-17T19:46:00.000-06:00

I suck at no-limit. Well, yesterday I wasn't in the mood to write about my pathetic sojurn through the massive field of the WSOP 1500 NLHE events. I got donkey effed twice and could never recover. I lost the rest of my chips in the 150-300/25 level when I tried to squeeze the loosest guy on the table who opened for 875 and was called in two spots. I shoved all-in for 4850 total and was called in two spots... 77, and then A9s over-shove-all-in. I had J4. I can't believe that didn't hold up! What a bad beat! LOL...

Then today I found myself playing in the 3k NLHE event at a super juicy table. One guy was trying very hard to give his chips away and ended up building a huge stack. I ended level 2 with 6500, up 500 from our starting stack. Then on the second hand back I played a 7k pot with a guy holding top pair and a gutshot and me holding the nut straight. He turned trips and river double paired the board. Arg. I drifted all the way down to 1900 in the 100-200 level when I doubled up with AT on a Txx flop. I then picked up a couple of small pots. Then, holding JJ in the BB, blinds 100-200/25, it was limped three ways to me and I raised it an additional 1k. The guy giving his chips away called me. Flop J9x two clubs, I bet 1300, he shoves, I insta call, he has KQ no clubs. Up to 12k. Then, last hand before the break, I flop bottom set and bust another guy. Now we're cruisin. Into the second break with 16k.

I bluffed a guy off a huge pot early on to bring my stack to 19,975, and I was feeling very good. The guy giving his chips away busted, and was replaced with a super large stack who had me covered. The first hand he was dealt he opened to 750 on the 150-300/25 level. Folded to me in the SB and I look down at AQo. I really don't think he's that strong at this point so I decide to take the pot down right there. I re-raise to 2500. He thinks for a long while and finally makes the call. I still don't think he's that strong, but - it looks like I need to hit a hand now. I have him on AK, maybe AQ, and any pair. Course - he could have anything, cause I have no history on this guy, but he just really didn't look too happy to be calling.

Flop Q 7 5 . Nice. I lead for 3500. He thinks for a bit, counts out 3500, and then says, "All-in."

Excuse me? I've got 13,400 left in my stack. This is normally a marginal fold due to the stack I was up against, but I was just really feeling that I needed to be calling there. So much of NLHE is feel and instinct, and at that point my instinct was telling me to call.

I need an instinct transplant. He had QQ. So, I got my huge stack into the middle as a 97.4% underdog. Nice.

So, oops, I donked off my huge stack, and I totally could have played that hand in so many different ways, but my instincts are usually right and they have taken me to where I am today. Can't be right every time, eh?

Monday and Tuesday I'm off (lake), and then I'm back Wednesday for the $3k LHE event.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

WSOPoker Day 13, 14, 15, and 16 - Event #25 $2000 NLHE

2007-06-15T21:15:00.000-06:00

Ahh, Vacation I returned to Las Vegas this morning from a three day, two night vacation to play the $2k NLHE event, and within two hours I was promptly returned to my vacation. LOL. I won the first hand of the day, opening to 125, getting called by the big blind, and taking down the pot on the flop.

Devo's stack: 4150.

High point of the day. I would lose 40% of said stack with KK vs. an opponent who I'm confident held JT. The action went like this:

He open-limped in mid position, I raised to 200, both blinds folded and he called. Flop J9x, he checked, I bet 275, he called. Turn T - I could tell he hit that card. He bet 700 into me. Hmm, 1725 in the pot, 700 to call, I have 12 outs (2 K, 4 Q, 3 9, 3 x's), I will definately get another bet out of him with half of those outs, plus perhaps I'm not spot on with my read. I called. River T, I could tell he liked that card, he bet 1500, and after much attempted speeching I finally folded.

Devo's stack: 2400.

I bled down to 2000 into the 50-100 level, called a raise in position with Q T for 300, got called by the one player behind, and both blinds called. Flop K 8 9 , check around. Turn a blank, check around. River 7 , check, check, I decide to buy this pot for sale and bet 700, get called by the player behind me who held JxJ . Boy - I sure didn't put him on that hand. Oops.

Now Devo's ancy. A player opens for 300, his standard "I don't have a very good hand" opening raise, I decide to stick my last 1k in the middle with 22 (I know... but I felt like I might have had at least a little fold equity), he calls with 55, flop TT2, turn T, and gg Devo.

Tomorrow is one of those monster fields $1500 NLHE events. I hope to not go bust after 13 hours without cashing like I did in the last one of these.

So vacation. Greatest thing ever. I spontaneously drove down to Laughlin with Lara and we spent 40 hours simply relaxing. I stuck one $20 bill into a machine while I was waiting outside the restroom. We went to the movies twice, got hour long massages, hung out at the pool, ate out several times, and simply relaxed. It was so refreshing and I believe is going to help me tons down the stretch here in the Series. It was the first time in my life that I have ever come back from a vacation not feeling like I need to go on vacation to recover from my previous vacation.

Hasta manana.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

WSOPoker Day 12, Event 18, $5k LHE Championship, My end of day 2.

2007-06-11T23:33:00.000-06:00

Puuuuuuuuuuke. Ugh. I'm so disappointed right now.

I was more excited about this event than anything, and after the second level of day two everything was right on schedule. I had 60k in chips, was 4th in standing out of 61 remaining players, did a video interview, and then the wheels fell off and the Car Ramrod skid to a grinding halt.

First, I held Q J , opened for a raise, got 3 bet by the SB, the BB called, and I called. Flop T 8 7 . SB bet, BB called, I raised, SB called, BB 3 bet, I called, SB called. Turn x , check, bet, raise, fold, call. River 7 , BB bet, and I threw my cards in the muck. He showed TT. Sick. But - excellent laydown i made.

Then, Ian Johns opened for a raise, I 3 bet K J , the BB called, and Ian called. Flop QT6 one heart. BB check, Ian bets, I call, BB calls. Brick turn, check bet call call, brick river check bet fold fold Ian shows a set.

Then, my big blind, dead small, folds to Ian on the button he raises, I 3 ball 99, he 4 bets, and I check-call him down on the J4628 board. He shows JJ.

Then, I was card dead for many minutes. My stack dwindled from the 60k all the way to 25,500.

A player opens, I 3 bet KK, he calls. Flop 888, I bet, he calls. Turn A (sweet.) I bet, he raises, I fold. He shows an ace.

Down to 12.5k.

Missed a 15 outer, down to 500, lost it all with A4o UTG. So disappointing.

So, I'm taking tomorrow off and going to the lake. I just looked at the schedule and nothing really intrigues me until Friday. I may play a Bellagio event or something. Otherwise, back on the horse Friday for the 2k NLHE.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

WSOPoker Day 11, Event 18 $5k LHE World Championship - End of Day 1

2007-06-11T06:27:00.000-06:00

Right about where I wanted to be... I have been more excited to play this event than any other at this year's world series as it is a very tough field and prestegious event, and limit hold'em is my best game. I expected the field to be under 200 and to be very stacked.

Instead, I found my first table to be the best I could have ever hoped for. I didn't recognize anybody besides EF Hutton, and he self-admitedly said he was not a limit player. The seat to my left was open for the first 90 minutes which was fantastic cause I got the button twice every orbit and could play back at my opponents trying to steal the dead blinds hard and force them to release their hands. I hit 15k from the 10k starting chips in those first 90 minutes with the first level of 50-100 and second of 100-200. I was simply running over the table and making some hands at the same time. I was in complete control, getting free cards that I shouldn't have gotten (and thus making hands that I shouldn't have made... that was fun. They all saw that I kept sucking out but couldn't realize that it was because of the play of the hand that I got there in the first place), and I was getting paid off in spots that I should have never been paid off in. In one hand I held the A K , opened for like my fourth straight hand, bet the garbage flop with two diamonds, got called in two spots, bet the K turn and got called in one spot, and then made my flush on the river and got paid off by AJ high.

Shortly before the first break Tony G sat in the seat to my left in front of the previously un-claimed stack. I wasn't too happy about this obviously. I have never played with him but know the reputation he has for being loose and aggressive. I thought this may cramp my style. Fortunately for me Tony never played back at me unless he had a hand and it was pretty easy for me to avoid getting into bad spots. In one hand I opened with the K Q , he 3 balled it, and we saw the flop heads up. It came T9x with one heart and I check called. The turn paired the nine and it went check-check. The river brought a K, I bet, he raised, and I successfully folded to his AK.

We went to dinner with me holding 12500 after a couple of frustrating levels 3 and 4. When we came back the players started to bust, and the table started getting sicker and sicker. The 10 seat was replaced by Minh Ly. He busted and was replaced by Eli Elezra. The 9 seat busted and was replaced by somebody that was good - forgot the name right now. The 8 seat busted and was replaced by Joe Sebok. The 9 seat busted and was replaced by David Plastik. The 5 seat busted and was replaced by an excellent player named Pat. I was in the 6 seat. I busted Joe with a sweet little five outer on the river, and he was replaced by Howard Lederer.

Meanwhile though, I continued to run over the table. I was still only really getting played back at with real hands. I did have to slow down a little bit to maintain some of my credibility though, because the excellent players surrounding me wouldn't let me keep up with my shenenagians for too long. I'm looking forward for my table to break though, because a fresh reputation helps my LHE tournament game a bunch - plus it'll be nice to not have some of the world's best to my left! We were scheduled to be broken next, but I'm curious how'll they'll arrange all that tomorrow.

So I end day 1 with 33,100 in chips, average is 22,500, and there are 115ish players remaining of the 257 original runners. Blinds will be 400-800, so I am feeling good with 21 big bets to dance around with. The money is at 27 and we play to the final table today.

My good friend Rick Fuller is the chip leader heading into Saturday's $1500 NLHE massive field event. The story of the table is the Phil Hellmuth is second in chips playing for his eleventh and record setting bracelet.

ESPN wants to cover the event.

Bluff told them to go screw themselves.

Before the series started, ESPN picked their events, and Bluff picked a bunch of others to be broadcast live on the internet. The problem? The tables are sequestered in a cave behind a black partition. This sucks big time for the players as they lose out on the experience of a WSOP final table. The best part of my final table was the support of my friends and the celebrations of pots won. It's so much fun. With this cave, you don't get any of that.

Furthermore, the players receive zero compensation for this while Bluff charges $50 for a subscription for the webcasts throughout the series.

Now, with ESPN wanting to televise the table, the players are losing out on the tens of thousands of dollars of potential endorsement monies plus the future notariety and endorsements that comes with TV tables.

If I was on that final table, I would try to rally the rest of the players to refuse to play in the cave.

If all else failed, I would refuse to show my holecards to the camera. It's complete bunk that the players are taken advantage of like this.

Thanks to all of you who supported me at my final table. It made it truly a memorable experience for me and has been the highlight of my poker career thus far. Thank you also to those of you who have sent me text messages and e-mails of congragulations. I appreciate it so much!

Peace and good luck,

Devo

WSOPoker Days 8, 9, 10 - $2500 HORSE Event #16

2007-06-10T07:18:00.001-06:00

Boring blog Not too much to report here.

After a few days to process my cash, I don't think there was a damn thing I coulda done to win that bracelet. I coulda saved a bet here and there, but at the end it all just wouldn't have mattered. My bad play on day two was compensated by some run good, and even if I had played perfectly on day two, I still think I finish where I did.

The key hand came on the 40k-80k level heads up. There were just over 2mil in chips in play, meaning that there were only 25 big bets in play - kinda sick when playing for that kind of money and that kind of prize.

I raised the button with the A A Q 9 and was called by my opponent on the BB. We were pretty close to chips at this point and I had all the momentum, recently closing the gap from 2-1 down to even. The flop came K T 3 . He bet, I raised, he called. The turn came the A , and I was pretty sure I liked that card. He checked, I bet, he raised, and I decided to 3-bet - possibly a mistake, but my thinking was that even if I did not have the best hand, I had to have 19 outs to make the winner and probable scooper, and if not I would get a much better read on his hand. QJ was the only hand that beat me and I don't like missing bets. Anyways, he 4 bet me and I quickly called. The river brought a brick low card, he bet, I said, "This is sick," and finally called knowing that I was beat.

I know the call was bad. There was prob a 2% chance that I was good there, but I had to call for life-tilt value. If I mucked there and he showed me a bluff, I probably would have jumped off the stratosphere. He had the KQJ5, and even had the K high draw crushing 9 of my outs... bad beat. I still fought hard from there but couldn't ever recover from that hand that had half the chips in play in the pot.

He caught a hella good run of cards from four handed on and there wasn't anything I could do to overcome it. Because of that, I'm actually quite content in my second place finish, knowing that there isn't anything I could have done to take first. Oh well... two WSOP career cashes, two seconds. Not too bad..

Today I played the $2500 HORSE event, and I was super excited for this. I got an excellent table draw, made it to the first break with a few more chips than starting, and then my vehicle fell off a cliff, and I played $2500 "Devo Can't Win." Nothing I could do.

Tomorrow is the $5k Limit Hold'em World Championship, the event I am most excited for this year.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

WSOPoker Day 7, Event 9 $1500 Omaha 8 Final... and a Wynn Floorperson sucks

2007-06-08T08:12:00.000-06:00

I promise this is complete truth OK... so long story short, I took second in the omaha 8 event final table, and there wasn't a damn thing I could've done to improve that result. Sucks for me. Even if you factor in all the bad play from previous days and give me all the chips I should've had, I still take second. I ran really bad in the final four, and especially bad heads up. I won't bore you with details, but that is how it was.

Unfortunately, the point of this blog has nothing to do with my result or the good times had afterwards. The point is how poorly Katherine Martin, a "poker room shift manager" of the Wynn treated us after our celebration spilled outside of Tryst. I cashed for a little over $140k and we went to celebrate at Tryst. After much partying, several of us ended up playing 1-3 NL in the Wynn poker room.

Yes, we were drunk.

Yes, we were loud.

Yes, we were having a good time.

Yes, she asked us to "tone it down."

Yes, she said to us after we asked who was complaining, "There are many people playing for much higher stakes than you guys, and you all need to settle down."

No having fun at the Wynn poker room.

I had over $10k on the table. Apparently not high enough stakes for her.

Honestly... I pulled her aside and calmly asked her to speak with me for a moment. She said no. WTF?!? I finally got my way and had her in private conversation. I expalined to her that I am in fact a high roller. I explained that we were all at the table having a great time. We were playing Indian (put your cards on your forehead) NL Hold'em. The two tables that were near us had no complaints and actually thought we were all hilarious. After about four minutes of reasonable conversation with her not listening to a word I said, I finally lost it and yelled to the room, "Does anybody have a problem with how loud or how much fun we are having?" Several people laughed and nobody objected. There weren't even annoyed looks given in my direction. Anyways, that apparently was enough for her, and she called security and had them escort me out. I gave the ol' "I am a blogger and plenty of people will read about what happened tonight speech" and all that lead her to do was ask me for a card. I'm a professional gambler for Pete's sake... we don't have cards. I think I should look into that. She threatened me with "reporting to pokerpages how I behaved tonight" and I laughed in her face when I countered with the thousands of y'all who will read about how she treated us tonight.

The worst part about all this is that I conisder the Wynn my home turf. I play the cash games there more than any other joint in Vegas. The floorpeople and dealers know me very well and they know my reputation. Yes, I can be loud. Duh. Yes, I can be a drunken idiot. But tonight for one time I actually acted in a reasonable manner when told not to be a drunken idiot and she did not listen to any reason whatsoever.

Instead, when I got booted, the game broke immediately and ten people left the joint very frustrated.

Yes, I was the fish in the game.

So, up until this point I have supported the Wynn poker room at 100%, but now I doubt that I will ever play there again. It is complete bunk to threaten a 1-3 NL game with being kicked out because they are being loud and they are not the highest rollers in the joint, even though a few of the highest rollers in the joint are sitting at the table.

Food for thought. Go Venetian.

So, perhaps someday y'all will get a full report of what the hell happened in the past three days, but I am way too exhausted to write about it now. I took second, good for a little over $140k, haha to everybody that didn't back me, and especially to the guys that were going to but bailed at the last moment. I mean that in complete needling context, cause I understand the risk involved with backing people and how hard it is to make a cash ot that size. But I handed my sole backer $97k tonight. :-).

There wasn't a single thing I could've done to place higher than second. I feel very fortunate to have placed where I did considering that I came into days 2 and 3 shorter than I would have liked to be but was blessed with the run of cards that I needed to end up where I ended up. Plus, the bracelets are super ugly this year. They look like a cheesy bracelet/watch made by Corum POS with a World Series of Poker face instead of a time telling face.

Yeah, I still would've worn it proudly.

But I think the 1987 Binions gold stamped gaudy bracelets look way better and capture the WSOP vibe way better than this year's bracelets. Yes, the 2006 bracelets are way better too.

Speaking of things that Harrah's has screwed up, check this out. In day two as we were on the bubble, the TD made an announcement that we were in the money, everybody cheered, and hand for hand was over. There were two very short stacks at my table that were thrilled to make the money and one in particular started going nuts trying to get a bunch of chips. He did, quadrupling his stack from 2500 to 10k in four hands, when the TD made an announcement that said, 'Just kidding... we're still one out from the money.' Could you imagine if the guy busted when he thought he was in the money?!? Obv he would've played way differently. Thank God he didn't bust, otherwise that would've been another huge PR mess for Harrah's.

Anyways, I'm taking tomorrow off, and I'm back to the tournament scene Saturday for the $1500 NLHE event that should be a ginormous field.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

WSOPoker Day 6, $1500 Omaha 8, end of day 2.

2007-06-07T06:13:00.001-06:00

Final Table Time Baby! Don't have too much time to write, but after a roller coaster ride for most of the day, I come into today's 8 handed final table sixth in chips but a few hands to manuver with. One guy has lots of chips, Jordan Morgan has some chips, third through seven have normal chips, and last guy has no chips. We're playing for a bunch of money and a bracelet!

It was quite an emotional day, and I'm pretty disappointed with my play actually today. If I had played well I would have been somewhere around the 300-400k range instead of the 186k I have now. It's very frustrating for me when I know that I have not played my best and my stack has suffered because of it. It's also funny how in these things you can play perfectly and go nowhere, but then make several big mistakes and be down to the final 8.

Too tired to write more, but be sure to sweat and ship all the run-good juju I need!

Peace and good luck,

Devo

WSOPoker Day 5, Event 9 $1500 Omaha 8, End of day one

2007-06-06T05:20:00.000-06:00

Meh... Well, the good news is that I made it to day two, earning $2000 in saved entry fees for tomorrows event.

Today was the Omaha event and there really isn't anything interesting to write about. All the hands were pretty standard, I made a couple of dumb mistakes, and I finished the day with slightly below average chips, 180 left, and the money at 63. So, meh. Gonna really suck if I make it to a day two only to bubble-ish again. Unless I fnal table though I get Thursday off and I will be able to recover from a possible extremely disappointing week but definately long week.

Updates online, and you'll get the full report here tomorrow.

Speaking of online updates, pokerpages has been doing an excellent job of capturing the feel and the atmosphere here at the Series and have been publishing very entertaining reports. Check it out.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

WSOPoker Day 4, Event #6, $1500 LHE

2007-06-04T20:14:00.000-06:00

I got Madsened Another frustrating day. I arrived twenty minutes late because I had to have a smoothie on the way in. Within the first thirty minutes I had managed to lose 1800 of my 3k starting stack at the 25-50 level in limit . That isn't too hard for me though if you've ever played a limit event... I play LOTS of hands, but I also managed to run into two sets in that period.

Then, I finally started making hands and the jedi mind tricks started working when I had jack crap and my stack vaulted to 5425 by the first break. Coming back I climbed to 7625 just before level four and was reported as being fourth in chips. I was fired up, ready to finally bring everything together. I lost two pots with medium pairs on bad flops, won one small pot, and then didn't win a hand for the last 45 minutes of level 4. I went into the break with 5225 - still fine, still able to play my game.

Level 5 I dropped quickly losing a bunch of small to medium pots simply running into unfortunate situations. I lost two big pots to Rafe Furst, one which I opened with 67o, got six way action, flopped 754, went four bets with Rafe in position, called his turn bet and folded to his river bet on overcards. Then I opened with AQ, got 3 bet by Rafe, check raised the Q high flop, bet the x turn, got raised, I called, river went check-check and he won with AA. Down to 3k.

Then I went on the tear chipping back up and got all the way back to 6500. Twice I 3 bet an over aggressive player with 99 and TT and twice flopped AJx, and both times he had Ax. Arrgh. Then Jeff Madsen got moved to my table, and that was the end of the road for me.

He made flushes in close to 5k pots that we were heads up in, once on the river, once on the turn, and I was crippled to 1300. He was sneaky on the one he made on the turn and just called my bet when I was holding top pair. I might have been able to get away from the hand if he popped it there, but I rivered two pair and simply could not lay down when he popped my river bet. NH. I couldn't ever recover and was sent packing just in time for dinner.

Tomorrow is the $1500 Omaha 8 or better event at 5pm. ONE TIME... that's all I'm asking.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

WSOPoker Day 3, Event #4, $1500 PLHE

2007-06-03T19:00:00.001-06:00

Trying to figure this one out... I started out simply cruising in this event. I had built my stack up to 7500 shortly before the first break and then played a huge pot with a open ender and an over-card when I put my opponent who was short had top pair. I went into the first break with 4925, still plenty excellent.

Coming into level three I was flying. I busted a guy's aces on the flop with 89 on an 884 flop, busted a guy with 99 on a 653 flop with 66, and busted a short stack with AJ vs. AK pre-flop with a lucky jack on the river. I was chip leader on my table and probably pretty up there for the whole event when I played this monster hand. I either played this hand just fine in accordances with my playing to win mentality or really butchered a nice stack.

A predictable player opened for the pot in the 100-200 level for 700. I asked how much he had left and he said about 5k. I called in position with the K Q , and the BB called as well, 2300 in the pot. The flop came T 9 3 . The BB checked, and the initial raiser potted it. I spent some time thinking about what the best play was and looking to pick up a read on the opponent. I really didn't feel like he wanted any more action. I had him on hands in this order: JJ, AA w/o the A , KK, QQ, Tx, or any set. It really looked like he wanted to take the hand down right there. Furthermore, I was pretty confident that the BB was done with the hand unless he happened to flop a flush, but my reads were that he wasn't too interested in the hand any longer.

So, I didn't think that the initial raiser was going to fold although there was that small chance, I just had to decide if I should put him all-in or not. I did some quick mental calculations and figured that I was about 50-50 vs. his range, plus some fold equity, plus the added value of 2300 in the pot, I decided that it was a good play to put him-all in.

I actually just crunched the numbers with tthat range of hands including AA with the A and the A Tx and it came back at 47-53, my hand being the slight dog.

So, I took the gamble and raised it to 6k enough to put him all-in. Then, much to my shock, the BB went-all in for 6725!!! What the?!? I hated that cause the only hand that really makes sense there is the nuts! Then, the initial raiser quickly went all-in as well. Holy crap! From trying to pick off an average stack I found myself playing a 22k pot with two average stacks all in, and all I had was king high! I was just hoping that the BB didn't have the nuts, and I was releived when he rolled over the J J . Sweet. I have 16 outs to beat that hand. Then I saw the last hand I wanted to see in the initial raiser's hand, the A T . So, instead of having the neighborhood of 12 outs like I thought I had seven outs but was drawing to a 21k pot! Unfortunately it went brick-brick and the Jacks somehow held up to win the huge pot.

Shortly thereafter I re-raised all-in to 2300 over an opponent that I felt was weak with KQ, and he finally made the call with A9, no help and gg Devo.

AYA... One time I'll run good.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

WSOPoker Day 2, Event #3, $1500 NLHE

2007-06-03T02:53:00.001-06:00

ARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH.

I did a live blog today with another media site and I will cut and paste what happened throughout the day. Here ya go...

Devonshire-90-90 BY: BRYAN DEVONSHIRE FROM THE: Event 3 - No-Limit Hold'em

PUBLISHED: Saturday Jun 02, 2007 04:13 PM

Here I am two hours in to the second biggest no limit hold'em event of all time. This place is an absolute zoo.

You have to listen to me now because Cantu and Tran are out.

I have like no chips. Well I do have chips, about $2,500. I've been pretty card dead so far. Something I've noticed on my table is that players are folding to a lot of my raises. I don't think anyone knows who I am, but I've been the only one at the table that the media is taking pictures of.

They've been muttering - "Who are you?"

It's kind of funny. They've been giving me too much respect. Players so far have been easy to read. I just need to start making some hands and hopefully get some chips.

This event is going to be NUTS! It's going to be a long road ahead. I hear they have over 3000 players.

That's about it. Just hanging out.

-Devo

PUBLISHED: Saturday Jun 02, 2007 06:31 PM

It's been an entertaining couple of levels. The first hand back I lost half my chips and was left with $1,300. Then I pushed all-in on the button behind two limpers at the $100/$200 level. I got called in three different spots. I had 109. The flop was K 9 x. I get a guy to bet at a dry side pot with an ace high flush draw, which gets one guy with A 9 to fold. And the board goes brick, brick, and I take down the big ol'pot.

From there I just started running the table over. Ended level three with about $13,000. Most of the stacks on my table got really short, so I couldn't run it over anymore. Now, I kind of had to gamble with people. Lost a few of those with a couple of coin-flip situations.

Here I am with $8,000. BUT love my table.

Looking forward to about 14 hours more of madness. PUBLISHED: Saturday Jun 02, 2007 08:27 PM I spent most of the past few levels playing my typical Devo style of poker. Pretty much taking people off their hands on the turn with nothing when I sense weakness, and losing every pot I play when I flop top pair.

I got called down twice, once by an 85 year old grandmother that flopped top two. I have however, been able to pick on this one internet player a few chairs down to boost my stack a few times.

So I've been able to stay pretty stable at $12,300 going into the dinner break. Although, it's not much of a dinner break for me since all I'm eating is a can of Milwaukee's Best Light. The liquid diet in the Amazon room.

-Devo

PUBLISHED: Saturday Jun 02, 2007 11:54 PM

I came back from the dinner break with about $12,000 and change and quickly lost $4,000 of it. Standard 8 8 vs. A Q and I lost the race.

I chipped that back up to about $10,000 and won an all-in with A 10 vs. A 9 to double me up to about $20,000.

I lost about half of that back when my 9 9 failed against A K in a blind vs. blind confrontation.

Then the rollercoaster continued when I doubled back up to $20,000 with K K vs. Q Q.

The very next hand I look down at K K again! I make it $2,100 after a limper and somehow got called in three spots, which I hated. The flop brings K Q X with two hearts. Check, Check and I make it $6,000 to go. Everybody mucks and I'm up to about $30,000.

Stole some blinds and hung around for abit. Then I picked off a small river bluff with 5 5. I peaked out at about $43,000.

I made a mistake on another hand trying to resteal preflop with A J against "NutsRealBig" with a monster stack. So, I ended the level with $34,300.

The mistake I made on this hand was my pre-flop bet amount. I felt that he was weak with his pre-flop raise and that I actually had the best hand but didn't want to screw around post flop OOP vs. a big stack and just wanted to take it down there. I should have made it 7500-8k instead of the 6k that I re-raised his 2200 opener to. I gave him the right pot odds to see a flop in position and left myself in a crappy situation if I missed the flop. If I hade made it that bigger amount I could accurately deduce that I was beat pre-flop if he called my re-raise. Furthermore, I could have realized all this in the heat of the moment that he did not in fact have to have me beat pre-flop to call my re-raise and could have fired 8k at the flop, but I just hated putting a quarter or my stack into the pot with a continuation bet against a very talented player that is capable of holding anything there.

I'm in good shape with about 410 players remaining, top 270 make the money.

-Devo

PUBLISHED: Sunday Jun 03, 2007 01:16 AM

Boy that sucked.

I came back from break with $31,000 and quickly built it up to $36,000. I lost $12,000 when I put a shortstack all-in with pocket Tens. He had Kings and I was down to $24,000.

I bled off chips most of the $600/$1,200 level. Then I got moved to a new table with $19,600. I'm in the small blind when a guy open shoves UTG +1 and has me covered. I look down at J J and make the call, he shows Q Q and my day is done.

It's pretty frustrating to play all day long for 13 hours and bust 30 spots before the money. But I was playing for first anyway and I'm not about to limp into the money.

-Devo
So tomorrow is event #4, $1500 PLHE. I'm playing great but am simply not getting the cards necessary to close the deal on one of these things. I made one pretty big mistake though today that I'm annoyed by, but I did learn much from that hand.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

2007 WSOPoker Day 1

2007-06-02T03:22:00.000-06:00

What a fiasco The signifigance of the tournament area not being open last night didn't hit me until today. Harrah's attempted to sign up everybody for the noon $5k mixed limit event, the 5pm $500 Employee event, the 9pm 1k super satellite, a second chance event, and everybody for tomorrow's $1500 NLHE madhouse of an event through fourteen windows. Several of these windows were dedicated to cash game transactions as well.

Last night when I went down to register for some events they directed me to the main cage where five cashiers were standing around doing nothing and one cashier was handling all the early signups. The line was three hours long.

Don't forget that the first time you register for a WSOP event each year they make a photocopy of your ID and players card in addition to making you sign the TV release. These aren't your normal 30-45 second tournament registrations. The average one took 3-5 minutes.

When I arrived today at 6pm I saw a line that stretched for about a hundred yards. Apparently earlier in the day the line was triple that size.

Lara snuck me into the Diamond and 7 Star registration line. It took me twenty minutes to move five feet forward in this single file line. By the time I had gotten to the front I was joined by Sebok, Cantu, Fuller, and Zach, the token Mexican exchange student that nobody remembers. We got to the front and Lara said, "I have a bunch of pro players here that need to get to a radio interview. Please register them."

Total time elapsed in the "special" line: 90 minutes. 6:45pm-8:15pm.

During this wait I was informed of the other fun that Harrah's had come up with this year in some other make them more money exclusive deal. They signed a deal with Bicycle to provide "official" WSOP playing cards. Jeffrey Pollack, the comissioner of the Series, even had his signature on the backs of the cards. They must be official, right? You can see pictures at the bottom of the day one write-up here.

The cards were removed from play before the dinner break and replaced by standard, classic, kem cards. Can you imagine the poor kid that had to run to the gambler's supply store and say, "I need all of your kem cards, now! And Harrah's demands that you give them to me at below wholesale price."

Other fun things of note: This year on the buy-in cards, the vig is blatantly printed. It used to be just a plan "$1500" buy-in. Now it's: "Buy in: $1365. Entry fee: $135."

To give you a comparison, the WSOP Circuit event was $1500+80. The Bellagio events are $1500+90. So, for 50% more juice you get to wait in line forever and play with crappy cards! Sweet!

On a good note, the chips are new and all top-hat and cane, very excellent.

But, it is the Series. I just can't forget the days when we were treated well back at the horseshoe under Jack Binion.

Back in the days when everybody in the tournament knew what the hell they were doing. Back in the days when 20% of the field was dead money, not 50% like now. So I cannot complain too much, and I will still keep coming back even though it kills me. Kinda like the Bellagio. I hate the place, but they do have the best games in town.

I wandered through the employee event that was taking place this evening. It was very nice to see many of my good friends and to needle Chris (the guy who beat me heads up last year). He already had a gazallion chips when I saw him around 9:30. I hope he wins it back to back. That would be sick.

It also brought back many memories when just eleven months ago I set foot in that same room with a little over $10k cash in my pocket wide eyed and in wonderment. Up until that point I had been a no-name cash game grinder and felt like I was finally stepping barefoot onto a big league infield. The lights burned warm on my eyes as I gazed up at the sheer size of the room, and then I squinted as I looked across a sea of felt, the sounds of chip crickets and conversation invading my ears. I had little idea that in less than 24 hours I would be learning how to handle the media and having my picture taken as the dominating chip leader of the first event of the 2006 World Series of Poker. Little did I know that in 48 hours I would be walking out of that same room with some of my closest friends in the world in tow and two pounds of $100 bills in a brown paper lunch bag cradled in my left arm.

It's incredible how much my life has changed from that moment. The money was not life changing, only $67k which I only got 20% of, but the moment was life changing as opportunities and connections took me in places that I never thought I could go.

And here I am again, blogging ten hours before my first event of the 2007 World Series of Poker, wondering where this adventure will take me in life. Will I finally make the jump from a B list player to an A list player? Will I win my first bracelet? Will I have a stellar tournament and win more than one bracelet? Will I bust out of every event and never cash? Will I barely break even, wondering how I missed my shot?

I don't know. But I am sure looking forward to the ride.

I sure have a good feeling.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

2007 WSOPoker, Day 0

2007-06-01T03:56:00.000-06:00

Electricity is in the air! Well today I made my way down to the Rio to the convention area where they hold the World Series of Poker for the first time since early August last year. So many memories flowed over me like magic water and my excitement for this year's Series finally matured. They weren't even open yet, which was quite disappointing since I was planning on pre-registering for a few events, but everything was set and ready to go.

After much negotiations I have finally settled on my schedule this year. I am playing 20 events all $2500 or less and most likely the main event. If I do well I am sure that I will be playing some other events, and in the meantime I will be playing some of the Venetian and Bellagio events as well. Tomorrow I am playing the first Venetian event, $500+40 NLHE, and then Saturday I am playing the WSOP event #3, $1500 NLHE.

Meanwhile, since I returned from the river, I have been running around pretty good taking care of things and hanging with people that have been coming into town. Tuesday when I got back I immediately went in for the radio show with holdemradio.com and hit it out of the park. It was my first time ever doing anything like that, and I felt like and all the feedback I have received indicates that I did very well. It was a ton of fun and they gave me an open invitation to return. Then on Wednesday I headed in to meet some good friends that were in from out of town. I hung out with Dutch Boyd, Justin West, Andrew Chapman, and his roommate Joel. The night consisted of a $125 tourney at the Mirage, dinner at Capo's, mud wrestling at Gilley's, and 1-3 NL at the Wynn. Good times were had by all.

Thursday I continued on my new online qwest. About two weeks ago I came across a little more than $500 in affiliate money that I had on Full Tilt. I was like, sweet! Something to do while bored. I played a ton of hands at .50/$1 NL, got bored, and played 15-30. Long story short, I have a little over $3100 on there now. I now have a new goal for laziness at home and that is to run that account up to $10k and freeroll the main event. If I can't get to 10k I'll play a bunch of the satellites and go from there. Should be fun!

So, this is what the entire tournament season comes down to... the World Series. I'm pumped, I am very confident, I have a great feeling, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the next seven weeks have in store for me.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Lazy Days on the Water

2007-05-28T18:48:00.000-06:00

I'm so glad I don't have a job. I'm currently sitting in my board shorts with my shirt off on a deck twenty feet from the Colorado River. I just finished playing a short session online. I got it all-in on the flop with AJ on a 742 board vs. 56 and won all the monies with ace high when the board bricked out. There is a cold beer to my left, hot wings on the BBQ behind me, and tan women in bikinis in front of me laying out.

God my life sucks.

And that's pretty much how it's been for the last nine days. After my session last Saturday when I won $3k I immediately left to the lake and stayed there til monday evening, went back tuesday evening til wednesday evening, and then left Thrusday as soon as we woke up to come to the river house in Needles, CA.

Memorial weekend has been an annual trip with many of my friends from high school and many friends that we've made along the way. Names you'd recognize are the three roomies Jared, Danny, and Gil, Shawn (Danny's brother), Nick, and about a dozen others from various places.

When we arrived thrusday we had nine 36 packs of Coors Light.

We had to buy more beer on Saturday. Sick.

Most amusing moment thus far: while floating home drunk on the boat Sunday morning we were lighting fireworks off the boat. An errant spark went through Danny's board shorts and melted directly to his weiner. He seriously has a burn blister on his unit.

It's been an awesome trip doing some R&R getting ready for the series. I'm pretty fired up to play some cards. I've been sneaking off to squeeze in online sessions here and there and playing before going to bed. I haven't experienced that feeling in quite a long time.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Life Changes and a Session of Cards

2007-05-22T13:55:00.000-06:00

[Insert Required Intro Text Here] Sorry about going AWOL in the past week, but circumstances have come up in my life that have forced me to take some time off from work. It's very strange how those crazy moments in life completely unsettle everything and alter your paradigms. But when the dust settles after these seasons in life we always end up more grounded and strong.

So, I spent the last several days on the lake with Jared for a party with his work. We left Saturday night to party on the houseboat that Jared's work had rented for the few days. Before we knew it the sun was up and everybody was starting to move about. Jared and I decided to motor out toward the beach to get some sleep on. We were waken up by the sun around nine thirty, and all the boats that we were supposed to meet were not there. We then left to find them, and that adventure took us right back to the dock that we had left four hours earlier. Oops. They were getting ready to launch the houseboat, and I saw an opportunity to squeeze in a cat nap. I snuck into the houseboat and crawled into a bed on the lower deck. Devo out.

I regained consciousness when there was a rythymic knocking on the window above my head. I looked up out the window and saw a pontoon boat tied alongside the houseboat and assumed it was Jared. Then I heard the cackle of a radio from within the houseboat, and realized that it was not my pontoon boat outside but a Callville Bay boat. As I emerged from the bedroom I began to see more and more people that I did not recognize, some in uniform, some not. I deduced that the boat had broken down and we were floating outside of the marina, but who were all these people?!? It was a super confusing moment. Finally I recognized the fifteenth person I saw and they filled me in on what was going on. The rest of Sunday and Monday went off without a hitch, and I came home Monday night tired and tanned.

Oh yeah... I did play some poker in the past week. Saturday I woke up with the itch to go play some cards, and I ended up at the Wynn playing 5-10 NL about an hour later. My friend Justin Sellers (dude who won best all around at Canterbury Fall Classic 06) and I were sitting at a table chatting when they called down a new game. Justin and I took the 2 and 3 seats respectively, and the seats slowly filled up. I had a strong feeling that this was going to be a very good game. I did not recognize anybody and they all sat there like tourists fresh off the plane. I was not to be disappointed. I bought in for $2k, about the most on the table.

Within thirty minutes the line-up looked like this:

1 Really bad player, short stack
2 Justin - solid luckbox
3 Me - No-Limit Fish
4 Really bad player, short stack
5 Really bad player, medium stack
6 Decent young player, big stack
7 Really bad young player, big stack
8 Really bad old foreign guy, big stack
9 Solid, tight player I know

This is a great lineup for a 1-2 NL game, but we're playing 5-10 with no cap on the buy-in. After the first half hour of the game things degenerate very quickly. Seat 8 loses a pot to Justin when his obvious bluff was picked off by the luckbox on the river. For some reason this induces the 8 seat to pull four yellow chips out of his pocket, making his stack about $5500. This then gets the 6 and 7 seat to pull out more money. I pull out my box keys and head to the cage. I return with $10k in cash and one $500 chip and drop it on the table. The 8 seat then removes the $4k that he had put on the table. I ask the floorman to talk to the 8 seat about the money, the 8 seat realizes that I'm talking about him as the floorman talks to him, and he says something in garbled english along the lines of, "You wanna play beeeeg? I sho yoo how play beeeeeg. I either cover you or take off table." He takes the 4k back out of his pocket and then pulls out a $10k nug and puts it on the table.

OMG I'm buying a new mustang on the way home.

About five hands after all this fun I won a sweet hand off Justin when I turned a flush and got value out of the five seat. The very next hand I was in the SB and limped into a straddle pot with J T . We saw a flop six ways that came down pretty nice in the form of 9 8 7 . I lead for $80, seat 5 called, and seat 7 made it $400. So sweet. Folded around, I say, "How much you got left?" He replies somewhere around $1400. I know the 5 seat is done with the hand. I re-raise the minimum, total of $720. He somewhat quickly goes all-in. I obviously call figuring that we're chopping or I have to dodge a bunch of outs to full houses. Nope. He had A 9 . WHAT?!? Sweet! Moments like that make me so much happier with no-limit over limit. About twenty minutes after that I won another big pot with JT suited, up almost $3k.

Shortly thereafter though the worst thing ever happened. I got moved to the main game. Arrrrrrggghh! They made me leave the best non-Lamont game ever for the most boring usual game. I can fix this.

Upon arrival I say, "Anybody who leaves this game right now will be paid $50 by me."

$100 later, two guys had left, and we had imported the 6 and 7 seat, and the game got good again. They weren't my first choices for imports, but the 3 primary suspects were next up on the list. Within an hour I had won another $2k pot off the former 7 seat, $850 directly from him. Good investment.

The next four hours were pretty boring as the game never got super juicy again. It felt good to book a nice $3k cash though and head out for the weekend.

OK. I'm tired of writing.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

WSOP Schecule and Mirage Event #6, $2500+100 NLHE

2007-05-14T03:42:00.001-06:00

I am taking investors right now The world series is just around the corner and I am pretty excited! I just finalized my intended schedule, and here it is:

Day
Date
Event
Entry Fee
Fri
6/1
#1 Mixed Limit/NLHE Championships
5000
Sat

#3 NLHE
1500
Sun

#4 Pot Limit HE
1500
Mon

#6 Limit HE
1500
Tue

#9 Omaha 8
1500
Wed

#10 NLHE
2000
Fri
6/8
#14 Stud Hi
1500
Sat

#15 NLHE
1500
Sun

#18 Limit HE Championships
5000
Mon

#20 Stud 8
2000
Th
6/14
#24 Stud 8 Championships
3000
Fri

#25 NLHE
2000
Sat

#27 NLHE
1500
Sun

#28 NLHE
3000
Wed
6/20
#34 Limit HE
3000
Th

#35 NLHE
1500
Fri

#37 Pot Limit HE
2000
Sat

#38 NLHE
1500
Sun

#40 Mixed HE
1500
Mon

#42 Omaha 8
1500
Tue

#43 Limit HE
2000
Th
6/28
#46 Stud 8
1000
Fri

#48 Deuce-Seven Limit/Rebuys
1000
Sat

#49 NLHE
1500
Sun
7/1
#51 SHOE
1000
Sat
7/6
#55 NLHE Main Event Day 1B
10000

Total cost of all tournaments is going to be $60k plus any rebuys I may make in event #48.

I am taking investors for all of these events as an entire pool together. Furthermore, since there will be a group of investors, there will be no make up at the end of the WSOP. All profits will only be taken at the end of the series to eliminate any make-up.

For example, say I win event #9 for $200k. Standard arrangements in backing with make-up is to pay back the make-up and then chop up the profits. This would mean that 11k would go back to the backer, and then the player and backer would chop up 189k.

Instead to be fair no profits will be chopped up until the end of the series. Take the above scenario. Win event 9 for a net profit of 189k, bust out of all the other events for a cost of $49k, the total profit would be 140k that would then be chopped up with the original 60k returned to the investors.

I will play for 50% of myself after all-make up. Thus, every $6k of investments is worth 5% of me for the entire series after make-up. In the above scenario a $6k investment would return $13k total.

I am planning on playing all 26 of these events and thus the risk of ruin is decently low. If you are interested, please shoot me an e-mail. Also, if you would like to talk to those currently backing me or those who have backed me in the past, please also feel free to contact me.

Speaking of tournaments I played in the $2500+100 NLHE event at the Mirage today. The good news is that I took 36th. The worst news is that Kenna James busted me. Literally about 15 minutes before I said, "It would really suck if Kevin [Song] or Kenna busted me, because I would never hear the end of it." I was short at this point, lost half my chips in one hand, and then opened with AKo and called Kenna when he shoved all-in. His 55 held up and I was sent trying to get people to go to the lake with me :-).

Today was pretty frustrating in the sense that I once again could not get over the hump. I had a huge stack early on in level three and was chip leader for a while, winning several unnecessairly large pots with one pair. The table was pretty stacked so I was gambling it up a little more than I usually do and things were working out. I then lost a big race with TT vs. AQ and couldn't ever get anything going again even though I was left with an average stack. I still never saw any big hands (no QQ-AA). I'm starting to get quite curious as to when I'm going to see AA in a tournament again as it's been 9 of 10 days now. I even played two tourneys online tonight and didn't see em!

Tomorrow is the $1k Limit event. You bet I'm gonna be in that one!

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Mirage Poker Showdown Event #5, $2000+100 NLHE

2007-05-13T02:26:00.000-06:00

18th is better than 19th! I had a ton of fun tonight considering the circumstances. I came into today feeling very good. I didn't have anything interesting happen until about 75 minutes in. I had 4600 left when I open-raised to 325 with the blinds 50-100 with 99. I was called by the button and the SB made it 925 to go. I called as did the button. Flop K7x. SB checks, I check, BTN checks. Turn 9. Nice. Board is rainbow. SB bets 1500, I call, BTN folds. River 7, he bets 2k, I go all-in for 2800, he insta-calls and shows AA. Thanks for the freebie buddy.

After that I flopped top two with AK and got some action. Then, with about 16k (good for tournament chip lead at this point) going into the last hand before break, I opened to 350 UTG+1 with J J . The SB called only who had played litereally less than six hands the entire two hours thus far. Flop 2 3 5. He checked, I bet 550, and he made it 1725. He had 4400 left in his stack. My read was that he was strong, but not sure how strong, and he had an ultra-tight image, but he was a young guy with versace sunglasses, whatever that means.

Fold, call, or put him all-in? If I call, what's my plan then?

I decided to just call because it was a strong enough play and I had position, but I was alson thinking strongly about putting him in. The turn came Q and he put the rest of his 4400 in the pot. At this point it was a pretty easy fold. We talked later and he told me that he had 4x4 . Thoughts on this hand?

I didn't do much level three playing a bunch of small pots or most of level four. Last hand before the break, blinds 100-200/25, I raised one limper from the cutoff with QQ to 850 and got calls from the BB and the limper. Flop KQx rainbow. BB checked, limper bet 800, I knew BB was folding, and i decided to just call because this player had a tendency to hang himself.

Turn a blank, he checked, and I bet 2200. He called.

River 9, he checked, and I could tell that he wasn't super excited about that card (ie didn't have JT). I had him squarely on KJ or KT and wanted to get some value. I bet 3100 and he insta called with K9. Devo chip-leader again.

Come back from break, blinds 200-400/25. First hand a guy raises to 1200, I flat call from the hi-jack with 88, SB (Darrel "Gigabet" Dicken") calls. Flop A 8 2. Check, check, I bet 2200, both fold. Bummer.

Next hand: Villian from earlier JJ hand opens to 1100, I flat call with 99, SB/shorty goes almost all-in, first raiser folds, and I insta re-raise knowing he's weak. He had 85o and my nines held up.

Devo huge chip leader with 38k. And I never got past that point. This was level five with about 55 players left. I did not play another interesting hand until there were 20 players left, top 18 getting paid and I had 22k in chips. I went so sickly card dead and was unable to manufacture chips in most ways. Anyways, I opened UTG with JJ, short stack shoved for 10k and I called. He had AQ and I won a race one time. Another player busted at the same time on another table and we were in the money. Sweet! I still had a ton of work to do with 31k in chips and the average at 43k and the leader, some guy named Michael Mizrachi with some stupid number of chips like 150k. He had a hand with 21 left vs the second chip leader, he had 66 vs. AK on a KK6 flop and 7 turn when all the money went in and his hand held up. I cannot remember the last time I had some sweet cooler set-up hand like that. It's been a LONG time. I have to win my chips with ace high and crap like that.

Speaking of which, I made a sick AK high river call on a JT862 board that was good vs. A9 in the 100-200/25 level.

Meanwhile, we re-draw for seats. First hand, blinds 600-1200/100, I raise to 3500 with QQ UTG. The next player makes it something like 12k. This was the sixth time he had re-raised me in the past 75 minutes. Everybody folded, our stacks were very close, and I said, "All-in."

"Come again?" he said.

"Sorry, I need a break before I can do that again."

Laughter.

"You're all-in?"

"Yes."

"I call."

"Really? Whatcha got?"

"Aces."

Flop A22, turn A, river x.

I get 800 chips in return, it's my big blind. I win. I get 3k in chips.

I then fold my SB vs. a bunch of action. 2300.

There's six seconds on the clock before an hour long dinner break, my button. I'm playing almost any hand.

I get 72o.

AYA! At least the buffet is free and tasty!

Return from dinner, blinds 800-1600/200. I have 2200 before the hand. I get to open shove from the cutoff with Q 8 , make a boat, and almost quadruple up to 8400. Next hand, open shove blind, steal the blinds and antes. 12400. Fold the next hand. 4th hand: open shove JTo, get called by the button. He had jacks. AYA.

Flop: KQ first two cards off the deck. Best non TT flop ever! The last three cards came bricks however, and I went home with my $2927 as a consolation prize.

Oh well. Tomorrow: $2500+100 NLHE. I'm really feeling a big hit coming on soon here. I just need to start running good one freaking time rather than having to actually play good to make my chips. It's impossible to win a tournament through good play alone unfortunately and that's all I have been able to do lately. I honestly haven't seen AA in 8 of the last 9 tournament days, and the one time I saw them I lost a huge pot (5k circuit event). Just an indicator, ya know?

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Mirage Poker Showdown Event #4, $1500+80 NLHE

2007-05-11T23:48:00.000-06:00

At least I was out quick enough to go to the lake! Not too much to talk about here.

1st hand: Limp w/22 for 50, next player makes it 325, I folded. 4k in starting stack.
2nd hand: Limp with K Q . Later player raises to 125, we see flop heads up. It comes all rags. I check, he checks, and I decide that I am check-raising any non-threatening turn. It comes 9 putting two spades on board. I check, he bets 200, I raise to 500, he calls. OK fine, he's on a flush draw. River Jx, I bet 700, he calls with J9. Oops... good read on flop though!

About four hands later UTG raises to 175, Men the Master calls in UTG+1, and I make it 700 with AKo in the next position. The original raiser pondered for a long time, asked me if I was bluffing again, and re-raised the minimum-ish. Men put all his chips in the middle. This was the first hand he was dealt period. I put my last 1500 into the pot and see myself up against AA and JJ. Flop TJQ and it held up :-). Nice. Up to 7100.

Two hands later: Men opens to 175, I re-raise to 575, he goes all-in for 3275, and I call with my kings. He had AK, and an A hit immediately on the flop.

Then, I didn't do anything for an hour, got short, doubled up with QJ on a J high flop, lost some chips, and went into the first break with 4200.

First 10 minutes back I see a flop from the SB for 500 with A Q . Flop 762 one spade. I check, he bet 700, and I called. I read him for ace high at best. Turn 7 , I bet 1100 (probably should have just went all-in at this spot... I only had 2900 in my stack going into the turn), and my opponent put me all-in. I still really didn't think he had anything so it was a pretty easy call for me. He had AK! Wow! Not sure if he had a read or was just spewing, but it sure looks like he had a read! River bricked out and I was sent packing. Oh well.

Tomorrow is the $2k+100 NLHE event. Hopefully things will go a little better this time!

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Mirage Poker Showdown Event #2, $500+40 Limit, MY End of Day 2

2007-05-11T06:26:00.001-06:00

Yep... I took as bad as I possibly could have expected Long story short, I took fiftth.

Good news: We made a percentage adjustment at five handed that gave an extra two percent of the prize pool to firth and fourth, and an extra one percent to second and third while taking six percent off of first. Thus, for the second time in my career, I got the best of a deal/save.

Bad news: I took fifth.

Honestly, not a damn thing I could have done. Here's the key hand: I open raise from the cutoff six handed with the J T , and get called by the button and BB. Flop K 9 2 . Check, I continue, button raises, BB folds, and I peel a card. At the start of this hand I had about 75k and was right up there in top three and we kept trading off the "chip leader" title.

Turn gin: Q .

Check, he bets 4k, I raise to 8k, he calls.

River: Worst card in the deck. J . I still bet because I had him squarely on a Kx, and so what if he had KT, cause then we chop it up.

He raises.

I say, "Really?" But, I cannot fold at this point. I call, and he show me K T and scoops the 80k pot, the biggest one I saw the entire tournament.

Classic suck/re-suck, but still... No possible way it goes more expensive for me, even if it flops KTT, although I suppose it could have come that flop and turned a J... but... arrgh.

From there I could never recover. I re-built to 60k, and then went downhill from there, losing with an overpair to trip tens on a TT8 flop (I had JJ) and I finally busted with the A 3 when I saw the ATT flop vs. T 8 and got all-in on the turn. Oh well...

Today: 1500+80 NLHE event #4, and I need to go to sleep for that!

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Mirage Poker Showdown Event #2, $500+40 Limit, End of Day One

2007-05-10T05:10:00.000-06:00

Final Table Time Baby! After a great day on the lake Tuesday I strolled into the Mirage Wednesday to play in the $500+40 limit hold'em event. 199 players entered the event, and after 12.5 hours of play we are down to the final nine. We are playing for a $38k first prize and I like my chances. I have 54.5k in chips good for fourth in chips and the leader has 66k. The structure is very good and there is enough room for play.

Getting there was a ton of fun. I ran very well throughout the day making a ton of hands without having too many big hands pre-flop. I never had aces, KK once and lost, QQ twice both good... but I made a ton of hands with the random hands that I found myself in pots in. In limit tournaments I play a lot of hands and my success often depends on making hands with those random cards.

I did something that I've never seen or heard of before. I open-raised with KJ in back to back hands and flopped the nuts both hands and got paid off to the river on both hands. First flop KKJ, turn K, river x, called down the whole way, second hand flop 9TQ, I got check-raised, I 3 bet, and got paid off the whole way by QT. The second was the nuts by the river as well. Ever heard of that?!? Me neither.

So, I need to go to bed as the final table starts in less than 11 hours, but you will get a full report here tomorrow! If you're around the Mirage tomorrow afternoon, stop by, say hello, and give me some sweat!

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Poker, Day Off, 2.5 Months of AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

2007-05-08T04:33:00.000-06:00

blah blah, blah blah blah, blah. I just completed four days of work good for a net loss of about $400, winning three days of 30-60 and having one huge losing day of 5-10. Here are some of the highlights:

Friday: 6 hous of 30-60. Up 1500 in first two hours, up $115 four hours later when I quit. That was annoying. After that a bunch of us went bowling like the high rollers we are at the Orleans, and I was definately the bowling fish that night. Friedberg hustled me out of five bucks, Sebok won my five bucks, and Ships bowled terribly and still earned my five bucks.

Saturday: 6 hours of 30-60. Down $500, up $500, down $1k, quit up $1k. After that I headed ot Half Shell to kick it with Jared and one of the more amusing series of events I have ever experienced in a bar occured. I was sitting next to Jared playing video poker just laying low. Karaeoke was playing upstairs and it was packed. Pretty lookin female sits in the chair next to me, pulls her walled out of her purse, and fishes out a $20. I acknowledge her with a smile and return to my game. She's buying a drink. Nary a word is spoken. By the time I glance in her direction again she stands up, looks me dead in the eye, flips me off, walks away, SMACKING me in the back good and stiff, and heads towards the door.

"What the hell was that all about?!?" I "ask" her as I stand up out of my chair.

No response. She's out the front door.

That was weird. Jared and I get a good kick out of it.

Two minutes later a cabbie comes up next to us and asks the bartender that he's there for "Julie". No Julie nearby. Nick checks upstairs, comes downstairs, talks to a guy, runs up to Jared and I, says, "Jared! Watch my bar!" and runs out the front door.

I have to follow. By the time I get there I see the same girl across the street having a slap fight with a guy. Aparrently she played frogger and stood in front of traffic and that guy pulled her out of the way. Nick called 911, he split, I wandered across the street to make sure that she didn't play any more "Frogger: The Home Game," and hung out until the police showed up. They asked me some questions, asked her some questions, made sure that I wasn't beating her up or trying to rape her, and then arranged for her to get a ride home. Weird.

Sunday: I made it into the Bellagio and decided that I today I was going to play 5-10 Unlimited Hold-Them. Oops. I lost my first $500 slow, the second $500 in one hand that I got rivered on, and the third and fourth $500 in one hand that played out really weird but it would have been tough to not go broke in any way that I played it. I saw a flop with A5o from the big blind seven ways. It came 553 rainbow. Checked all the way around to the button who decided to bet twenty dollars. That was werid. SB called, and I decided to just call. Five of us saw the turn card, $170 in the pot. It was a T, completing the rainbow. SB bets $80. Getting weirder. I decided to just call again feeling that I was significantly ahead still. Call, call, and the button made it $180. What the heck does that mean? SB calls. $770 in the pot, my turn, $100 to call, I have a little over $900 in my stack having all players covered, but it's all within a hundred dollars. I've got the best hand, enough screwing around, I'm all-in.

UTG+1 calls. Sweet! This is his fifth hand played, he's already stuck $1k when he stacked off in his first hand with top pair very small kicker on a dangerous board.

Next guy folds.

Button, who I'm pretty sure is the one with the other five, thinks for a while. Sweet! He's not boated! He finally gets the clock called on him and then calls.

SB, who I thought had checked out of the hand, says, "I call too." He tables 33. Ouch!

Then the guy to my left tabled TT. Where the heck did that come from? Pre-flop? Flop? Turn? Huh?!?

Button tables K5. Well, at least I wasn't in last place. But for the love of all the Seboks in a tree, I was drawing dead!

Oh well. I went home, rallied the boys, and we played shuffleboard for the night.

Monday: 30-60. I got buried for $1600 pretty quickly, went on a bit of a rush and quit up $550. I took some pretty "what the?!?" beats, but felt that I played really well. These beats were a big part my playing well as my opponents were having a tough time playing against me and I frustrated several of them pretty good. They were just super confused.

Tomorrow: Lake day. Whooo!

Wednesday through a midsummer night's eve: tourneys, tourneys, tourneys! Mirage Poker Showdown, Mandalay Bay WPT event, the things called the World Series of Poker, the Bellagio Cup III, and the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza II. Goal: Win one major event. It's gonna be busy busy busy!

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Search and Rescue on the Lake, Part Two

2007-05-02T17:26:00.000-06:00

Is it bad breaking down next to a shipwreck? Two nights ago I was peeing in my front yard (it's closer to my recliner than the bathroom. Yes, I know that I am lazy) and I noticed that something was missing off the back of my boat. The boat. The tooner. The Piece of Ship. We recently installed a new 13 gallon gas tank to work in tandem with our old 6 gallon tank, and it was gone. What in the world? Who steals gas tanks off of boats? What's worse is that the fuel line is a quick disconnect. You can take it off of the gas tank with two fingers, and a five year old could figure it out within 60 seconds without any instructions. They decided to cut the line instead.

I had no idea how much this would impact my life within 24 hours.

Fuller, Angie, Danny, Gil (new roomie), and myself headed out onto the lake with plenty of beer, snacks, and 4.5 gallons of gas instead of the 14.5 gallons of gas that we had 12 hours before. Plenty of gas to make it to Sandy Beach, our destination.

We then decided to proceed to Swiss Cove, farther from harbor, but we were just fine on everything. It was just around the corner. By the time we left Sandy the wind had kicked up and we had some good 2-3 foot swells rolling across the lake.

When we arrived at Swiss Cove we did some exploring, and then things started getting fun. While exploring the beach, which was very small in a steep canyon, Fuller, Angie, Xena, and I walked past a rattlesnake. Then, we all walked back past the rattlesnake. Angie, the second to last one out, said, "Oh my God! A snake!" It was tight quarters and the snake was about a foot from her leg. I identified the snake as a Western Diamondback and we both quickly walked forward. The snake did not experience life much longer, and the beach was named "Rattlesnake Beach."

Shortly thereafter we left, and decided to head deeper into the narrows to check out the scenery.

That was about the time we realized that we were dangerously low on gas.

Priority number one was to get back to cell phone coverage. Then we had to get gas.

We made it well into cell coverage, well into the cove where the harbor is, but just not all the way. By this time the sun was all the way down and there was little light left, and suddenly nobody wanted to happen to be going to or from harbor. We were stranded. But we still had beer!

I called Lake Mead dispach and they said that they would have a boat to us within two hours. Good news. Bad news was the wind was blowing us toward shore rapidly and the waves were getting bigger.

We ran aground right on the rocky point of a peninsula. No good. I tied a rope to the boat and started walking it around the point trying to find a better mooring point. Here's what we came up with:

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Yes. We ended up at our final resting place right next to an old shipwreck.

So, we wait for another 90 minutes and finally I see a boat coming around the point. I flag the boat down with my flashlight and some morse code, and the boat happens to be the park ranger boat. Long story short, they would not give us gas or a tow, but only a ride back to the dock. I'm like, "C'mon! We need like a third of a gallon of gas!" They wouldn't have it. So, we put on some lifejackets, I go into former guide/search and rescue mode, make sure everybody is off the boat safely. I give the ranger boat a quick shove and step across to the starboard bow of the rescue boat.

Somewhere in my drunken calculations of how much umph I needed to give off my rear leg to bridge the gap to my front leg I forgot to carry a digit or a decimal point or something. This failure was further compounded by the fact that I had also pushed the boat further away with my lead leg.

Shit.

I end up going feet over ass over head straight into the drink, and nobody but Fuller noticed. The SAR guys weren't worried about me. I was the Search and Rescue guy myself complete with a rescue harness complete with knife, whistle, and quick-release retaining belt on. All that comes out of ricks mouth, in a complete normal tone of voice while standing next to one of the rangers is, "Uhh... man overboard?." I did it all without a sound other than "Sploooosh!" I popped back up, pulled myself back in the boat, and prepared myself for the laughter that was going to be directed at me.

Oh yeah. My cell phone, wallet, and car keys were in the pocket of my boardies. Cell phone still doesn't work as of this moment. LOL.

Today I hitched a ride with a Cuban dude on this boat as he was leaving harbor to my Piece of Ship. Gas and oil in the tank, get engine running, shove off rocks, back to harbor. All good.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

WSOP Circuit at Caesar's Palace, $5000+150 NLHE Main Event

2007-05-01T01:51:00.000-06:00

MY end of day one, and controversy from the mansion.
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I saw more hands in four 75 minute levels today than I did in 14 90 minute levels at the Bellagio last week - not only pre-flop, but post flop too.

Again, that's the good news. The bad news is that most of them got shoved right up my ass.

First hand I played: I flat called a raise to 250 in the first level, blinds 25-50, with A K on the button, opponent unknown, he's already been very active. Heads up flop: A Q 5 . He checks, I bet 350 (575 in pot), he raises to 1k, I call. Turn x , he checks, I decide to check behind. River a blank, he checks again, I decide to go to value town and bet 1k, he calls and shows 55. Werid. Oh well - thanks for charging the minimum.

Then I saw a flop with 77 that came 743 two diamonds, bet big, got called by Hollywood Dave. He said, "If I call, do you promise to bet more on the turn?" I said, "Sure!"

Before we saw the turn card heads up I bet 2k dark. I was trying to goad him into playing back at me with what I sense to be a really big hand. He just called - it was a T turn. River came 9, I bet 2500, and he folded A K face up. Oooh... that could have been a bad dark shot, but I'm pretty sure I'm firing that turn regardless of the card. I read him for a big hand, and was right - he flopped huge - I just thought his hand contained a pair of ones or thirteens or something like that.

Then, I played another semi-large pot against Dave with KK and took it down on the flop.

Then, I opened with aces (I do get those!) and got action from both blinds. This was in level one still. I had opened to 200. Flop A J 7 . Check, check, I bet 375, and get called in both spots (sweet!). Turn looked sweet: J . Check, check, and I decided to check behind as there was a good chance of busting somebody if they hit one of the million draws out there, and if somebody had a J I would be able to get much more chips than if I kept banging... just my opinion. River came a blank, SB checked, BB bet 1500, I made it 4500 and he insta-called, flashing a jack. Thoughts?

Then, I re-raised the set of fives guy on the button to 1k pre-flop with QQ and got called. Flop ATx, he fired 2k and I mucked.

First break.

Are you freakin kidding me? What a roller coaster! I was up to 15k from my 10k starting stack, but I really felt like I should have had 90k (all the chips that started on my table). OK... so 25k is a more realistic number.

Level two: five minutes in a tight old guy who tends to over-play his top pair/over-pair hands opens to 400, blinds 50-100. I see aces in position and decide to just flat call. He's the other one that's gotten a decent amount of chips and I want them all. Idea is for him to flop a pair or an overpair, bang away way too hard, and give me a bunch of chips. Both blinds call (oops), and we see the flop (t1600) four ways of Q95 rainbow. Looks pretty alright. Check, check, he bets 1300, and I decide that it's best to just call again for the above stated reasons, and plus if he happened to flop a set of queens or nines I will lose the minimum and still win the maximum. He was good enough to get away from those one pair hands when played back at. Turn came 6 completing the rainbow. Heads up he bet 2500, and once again I decided to flat call. River T, he checked.

Ah ha! Got him! He has precicely AQ, KK, maybe KQ, or some goofy bluff hand. Time to go to value town... he has about 6k left, not enough to be committed, so I bet 2500.

He called instantly. OK, still no problem. Then I saw his hand. Pocket queens.

POCKET QUEENS?!?!? For the love of all panty-waist poker players in paradise, he had a set?!?

Once again, I was pretty thrilled to lose the minimum. That hand knocked me down to 8300. I went into the second break with 9300.

Level three, 100-200, was a roller coaster with no particularly interesting hands. I dropped to 8k, doubled up with 66 on a 457 flop that I shoved, got called by QQ, and hit one of my ten outs on the turn with the 8. Dropped to 13, back to 16, down to 10, and went on break with 12250.

Level four. Steve Dannenman replaced one of our bustouts, and the cosmic tumblers would fall into place to teleport my chips in front of him.

I limp with 9 T UTG, blinds 100-200/25. Steve raised to 700 middle position, and we see a flop heads up. 1925 in the pot. It came Q7 6 . I check, he checked. Turn, J . I check (thought about betting, but wanted to play the hand carefully and not get priced out of my draw). Steve bets 700 and I quickly call. The river comes beautifully, K . I lead for 2k just in-case Steve has some AK/KT type hand or maybe a weak 2 pair. He raises to 5k. Sweet! He was screwing around with a set! I move all-in for about 11k total, and he instantly calls. I'm still thrilled as I table my second nut straight, and then say, "Wow. That's sick. What a cooler!" when I see Steve's A T . Left with 950 I bust two hands later when I shoved with 55 and lost to T 6 on a 346, T, 8 board.

Oh well...

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In other news there has been some controversy brewing over the end of the poker tournament at the Playboy mansion. I had left shortly before this, but I saw all the set-up. We had to be off the mansion grounds by a set time, and to accomodate this the tournament directors were forced to end the tournament by chip count rather than playing it out. I heard that they did not get a lot of time, but again do not know the details for sure. The player who took third basically could not win by picking up the blinds and antes, so Steve and Shannon simply folded their hands to lock up first and second.

He's not happy about this at all, and is taking aim at everything, including the charity, not just the parties involved - the two other players and the tournament directors. I am not sure when they went to number of hands, but the player who took third is livid. First point: no reason for him to have conflict with anybody other than who was responsible for that final table period.

But wait, here's some more gasoline on the fire! Steve was drunk as a skunk (as were 99% of the people in attendance... but that's besides the point). Annie Duke was sweating him in at the end. I have a great picture of them both in my previous blog, and that is basically what it looked like. Two drunken idiots having a great time while this drunken idiot laughed along and took pictures. The bad news is that Annie was telling Steve that he really should not be playing a hand While drunk Steve protested and said he wanted to at least look at his cards, and she said no way. This is a pretty blatant violation of the "one player to a hand rule".

Maybe Steve was serious about looking at his cards, maybe he was joking because it would sound funny, or maybe he was just there having a great time at the playboy mansion. I still think that it would have been pretty impossible for it to slip beyond his conscious realization that if he folded every hand he would lock up a seat in the main event. The place was a zoo - just look at the pictures! There were at least 50 people within five feet of the felt on that final table. Further, if the guy had a problem with Annie sweating Steve, or suspected foul play, why didn't he say anything Saturday night?!? This just came up recently.

Nothing obviously can be done now as the event has concluded, but lots of damage to many reputations of individuals and orginazations can be done if this is made public without all the facts and circumstances out there.

Just my two cents.

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Shortly after writing this, I received this e-mail and thought I should pass it along.

"We are obviously so sorry that Terrence feels he was slighted in any way. I obviously would have prefered that everyone was happy, as we raised even more money this year than last, which was our goal. The kids in inner cities that benefit from this program and the hundreds of lives being saved in Africa as a direct result of people donating and attending this event I'm sure are more than thankful for everyone's support. I am more than happy to refund Terrence's monies that he paid to attend the event if he feel he was wronged in any way by winning a $15,000 prize. I cannot in good conscience split up a prize after the event when Steve and Shannon won, and I believe one of them is going to re-donate the prize back in order to benefit the Urban Health Institute." - Joy Miller, Urban Health Institute Tournament Consultant

Any questions, concerns, or interest in where the monies raised for the 501C3 non-profit organization go can be directed to Joy Miller at joyjoy712003@yahoo.com

Peace and good luck,

Devo