Sunday:

109r: I didn't have time to rebuy on the first hand, so when I picked up aces, I naturally shoved (I love shoving monsters on the first hand of a rebuy), got called and lost. Later, 2 big suckouts (I admit it!) gave me a top 10 stack with 100 to go...then JJ ran into A9 for half of it. That guy later went on to slowroll someone else with kings and become chip leader. I had JJ run into KK on the exact money bubble with a 1.5x stack in the BB (who folds obv) so I got to be the bubble boy.

240 bounty: QQ ran into AA, sucked out once to get a decent stack again, lost something else, busto. I won a bounty, though!

Bodog 100K: Built up a (very) big stack, took TT vs. 88/AT for the CL with 100 left, and lost half of it. Shoved an 8x stack with 55, got called by A5 for a bunch of it, lost that. Eventually busto 70th (63 paid).

Stars Mil: Built up 35K stack on the best table ever, then lost most of it in 3 consec hands. Not done yet, I built back up to 30K when I shoved over a guy who liked making 4x raises and then folding with AJ for 15x on the bubble. This time, he turbocalled with 53 sooted. Board A2xx4. The good news is, by this point, it was getting so routine that I pretty much shrugged it off.

FTP: Built up a decent stack until running JJ into a bigger pair on a 7 high board that I did actually fold on. That helped get me shortstacked, at which point I shoved 10x with tens. QQ overcalls, and, in turn, is picked off by kings.

This leaves...

200K: Sucked out once (I admit it) to get an 11K stack @ 150/300, pretty big in that tournament. Shoved KT in the SB into SirWatts' 10xBB big blind, he tanked and called with K8; it was good (the call's fine, but it's the principle). With 8K left, I raised QJs in MP and Q4o called in the SB for 1/4 of his chips; the flop was 643 with my FD, he bet/called and won. AK chopped with AQ in here somewhere, too. Eventually, I lost a flip, was at 5 BB during 300/600, (re)stole 80 billion blinds to make the money in decent shape, promptly ran A4 on the button into the 5xBB's A7 to lose a bunch of that, then pushbot the resulting 7-8 bet stack into tens to finish 81'st (extra bonus because 80'th got paid more, obv.)

So yeah, that's what a very bad session looks like. I think I've had about 3 days this bad in the last 3 years. Kinda goes to show poker isn't for people who like breaking things, though.

The good news: some very cool stuff that I can't talk about yet is happening very soon. Keep an eye on this blog closer to the end of the month.

To be honest, there really wasn't even much to say about today. Very early on, I made my once a month customary bluff with total air. Usually, that stuff works. Today, it didn't work, left me with 2K at 200/400 and a shot image. Thanks to the latter, that 2K quickly became 18K, but that turned out to be the high point and I eventually busted an hour or two later. When you don't steal a single blind at a good, aggressive table and improve on the flop once the entire day, that tends to happen. Then I went back to the room, played a $700 EPT Step 5 and promptly ran AK into AA again, followed by a KK < AA in one of the other few tournies I played. I've run really hot this week.

To put that in perspective, though, that's got *nothing* on Shaun today. Shaun busted out of the LAPC with aces when 100 BB worth of chips went in on a Kc9c4x board; he was up against the other aces and got rivered. All right, it's a horrible beat and definitely sucks to take in a 10K event, but, y'know, gotta move on. Shaun therefore goes back to the room, enters the 200r and eventually final tables it. He takes sixth when - you guessed it - KK < KK AI PF for about another 10-15K in equity. That sequence of events managed to untilt me simply by existing, because according to the laws of the space time continuum, it shouldn't really be possible.

And on that note, I'm signing off here and running to the airport to beat the morning rush hour, not really even having seen anything of LA. Perhaps next time, when I final table it because my aces > their aces.

Getting this entry in fast because day 2 starts in 25 mins :)

Played a big sat on Friday, lasted long enough that it was too late for SNG's but didn't get an actual seat, bought in anyway on Saturday.

Saturday was mixed. My table was fantastic, playing something like 40/8 for four levels with no name pros except the first to bust Cam Hua/later arrival fslexicduck (Vanessa Selbst), but I was card dead for most of the day - at a table like that one, isolating limpers was pointless and overlimping just let me miss every single flop. I did chip up over the final level, though, and wound up with ~29K.

Today's first table seems, uhh...

WROBLEWSKI ANNA 116550 21 1
TRANIELLO MARCO 25225 21 2
EDLER WILLIAM 28800 21 3
JAMES KENNA 16750 21 4
RAVITCH SERGE 28850 21 5
WALNUM ANDREAS 26600 21 6
BAUERLEIN EUGENE 41750 21 7
RAMIREZ SENOVIO 25975 21 8
ESFANDIARI ANTONIO 119475 21 9

I hope it breaks early! Wish me luck.

*in busting out before the first break, heh.

The Commerce is a very good cardroom; my impression is that the games are as soft as anything outside of Vegas during the WSOP season. This extends to their tournaments, which feature some incredibly soft play (example today: someone checkraised a 600 chip bet to 1200 with Qx on a Q65r board, bet 500 of his leftover 1050 on a 3 turn, then check/folded a 9 on the river - showing the queen.) Overall, these people are simply atrocious and if I lived here in LA, I'd probably never leave the place. However, the structure features low starting stacks (60-70 BB) with long levels. This is a great structure if you get chips early, because the late game features a lot of play, but it's not good if you're card dead or unlucky in the first few hours; you absolutely need to double or triple up early and cannot pass up any reasonable opportunity to do it. As a result, in both of the last two tourneys, I drifted down a bit due to missing flops, picked up 99, got it all in (on a 765 and T87 board) in big pots, but couldn't win either time and busted. C'est la vie.

On the other hand, I'm nowhere near as big a degen as Nath, who made it to the final 2 tables of the 1500 buyin event (starting in 2 hours), decided to play the 1K today starting 2 hours ago *anyway* and potentially multitable the two, got to my table and busted in < 5 minutes. gg.

Next up: Satellite Friday, the ME on Saturday, and some preview clips from the SNG ;)

Confession: when it comes to travel, I'm pretty incompetent. Oh, I (read: my wife) pack light, don't sweat the small stuff, and haven't ever done anything to get me arrested, but when combining being short on sleep with going somewhere by myself, bad things tend to happen. Nevertheless, one missed connection due largely to my own stupidity later, I did, in fact, get to LA almost on time - just in time for the televised SNG.

Without spoiling it, the event went really well. Unfortunately, I only had one interesting hand the whole time; with the cards I was dealt all being on one extreme or the other, every other decision I had to make was really easy. That hiccup notwithstanding, the event itself was a lot of fun, and, with half a dozen very good online players up against Layne Flack, Todd Brunson and Jose Canseco (who lasted longer than either of those two, BTW), it made for a lot of good poker. I'll blog a lot more about it after the video is released.

After catching up on sleep, yesterday also went well - I put in a semi-grind session with shaundeeb and wound up going 3 for 6, including cashes in both the 1K and the 109r on Stars. I misplayed a hand on the bubble in the latter and lost a shove with 3 tables left in the former, but still have to consider it a pretty good day. I'm also posting a few hands from those later.

Today's the first LAPC event I'm playing, a 1500 which starts in an hour - wish me luck.