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    <title>TwoRags.com - Poker Blogs</title>
    <link>http://www.tworags.com</link>
    <description>Tworags.com - poker guide for serious poker players who play Texas Holdem and Other Poker Games</description>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <lastBuildDate>Sat, 05 Jul 08 17:45:01 -0400</lastBuildDate>
    
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      <title>the $1500 and the Main Event (nath)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2795]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (nath)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I busted 82nd in the $1500.  The hands have been reported, but basically, I doubled up in a huge pot when I called a shove with an overpair on the turn, and then I gave some away steadily until I punted 2/3 to Matt Matros with the 22 < 77.  I'm still debating my shove; there were a lot of factors that made it very close, and mostly I'm upset that I didn't take more time to think about them.

Since them, I've been resting some and preparing for the Main Event.  I'm trying to keep my mind fresh; I was playing some stud hi/lo earlier in the week to try to grind out some money, but I gave some back in the last couple of days and realized that I had let myself get complacent with my play.  It's funny what a continuous struggle that is.

I'm planning to play the Main Event on Sunday.  So meantime I've been trying to keep my head clear... I've been mixing it up with rest, physical exercise, and trying to play other games to keep my poker mind sound (but to not burn out on tournaments). [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 08 17:47:51 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>WSOP ME - Day 1B  Voice Blog Updates (SirWatts)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2797]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[ [url=http://www.tworags.com/files/voice-message.wav]Day 1b First Break Update[/url] 

 [url=http://www.tworags.com/files/voice-message_secondbreak.wav]Day 1b Second Break Update[/url] 

 [url=http://tworags.com/files/voice-message_dinner.wav]Day 1b Dinner Break Update[/url] 

 [url=http://tworags.com/files/sirwatts_late_day1b_voice-message.wav]Day 1b Late Break[/url]



]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 08 17:44:11 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Main Event Time! (SirWatts)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2791]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[So I busted in the 2nd round of the limit shootout. The key hand was when I lost a big pot to mattg1983 with AJ vs QT on a QJ9JQ board after I 3-bet him preflop. I probably should have lost one less bet on the river but my play wasn't that bad in retrospect. Matt went on to win the event and his first bracelet though! I was lucky enough to have made a swap with him before round 2 so I got a little % of the win. Today I am playing the main event at Blue 11, seat 9. Excited as always! I'll be phoning or texting in updates to TwoRags so check in over there to see how I'm doing.

Mike]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 08 14:32:20 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Ahoy! (Hagbard_Celine)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2787]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Hagbard_Celine)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Howdy folks!

So, I’ve been on something of a heater the past several weeks, having gotten deep in a bunch of stuff, shipping several tourneys and getting top three in several more. This success has made me thirst more than ever for what I have yet to accomplish—a five-figure score

I’ve been close twice in the past couple of weeks, final tabling the FTP 65K twice, but going out early in both (as I reported in my last blog entry).

The point is that I feel that in the past couple of days I’ve been playing concentrating too much on the goal of the five figure score, and not as much on what has, imo, lead to my success lately: playing a good volume, and playing solid poker.

If you put in good volume, play solid, and put in hours away from the table reviewing hands and such; you should be able to get deep in donkaments. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Jul 08 15:24:21 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Around the World in 90 Days Days 51-54 (Bond18)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2785]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[[b]Day 51[/b] 

Yet another $1,500 No-Limit tournament… how thrilling. Even though I made an effort to get to bed early, I couldn’t fall asleep until 4AM. Most nights, a little under seven hours of sleep has carried me through beautifully, but today my head is aching and I’m feeling the stomach sickness I normally get when I don’t have enough sleep. Noon is too early for a poker tournament. 

[url=http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/poker-from-the-rail/article/276/Bond18---Around-the-World-in-90-Days:-Day-51]Read more...[/url] 


[b]Day 52[/b] 

The difference between a $1,500 NLH event and a $2,000 PLH event at the WSOP is massive. The $1,500 event got 2,720 entries yesterday. Today’s tournament, with only a $500 higher buy-in and a slightly different variant of poker, only got 605 players.

My starting table is not exactly my first pick in line ups. It has David Pham, Rizen and Zeejustin, as well as a familiar looking Asian guy in the 10 seat. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Jul 08 14:10:46 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Slowly But Surely. (A_Junglen)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2783]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (A_Junglen)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I guess if you take a look at some of the links on my sidebar, there’s a variety of sites. Well, they used to just links to my friends and some of my favorite sites. Well, since I’m so involved at PokerVT, instead of having a link, they’ve given me a bonus code for the lucky readers of my blog.

——Plug——–

If you type “Junglen” (not case sensitive) while registering for PokerVT in the “Promo Code” box (no direct link yet, just the code), you’ll receive 10% off of the initial sign up fee. We’re also currently running a promotion where you receive an additional 60 days free when you sign up. Not too shabby, eh?

——End Plug——–

I’ve been keeping busy outside of poker lately, with it being summer and all. Trying to spend time with friends home from school and such. I still plan on heading to Vegas in a couple weeks to do some work on VT, but besides that I don’t have anything exciting planned for August yet (which may change). [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Jul 08 13:04:26 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Ventetian 8pm Deepstack - final table (Podiman)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2781]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Podiman)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[went to bed at 4:30am and up at 7am. Body thinks its 10am, havent adjusted yet, so time to catch you up on my first day in vegas.

Got in today around 3pm and staying at a friends condo, sweet hookup, no hotel bill! I headed over the the Venetian to play the 8pm $180 deep stack tourny. $5K in starting chips and 30min levels (177 players). Let me just say this was the craziest tourny I have ever played, I was down, then up, then down, then up....

Right off the bat, I am down to $2,000 within the first hour, lovely. But.. the blinds are only 100/200, so not desperate, but not in great shape. I grind that level to about $4k, and when it goes to 100/200 with a 25 ante, I run up from $4K to $20K in 30min. The big hand was..
Got JJ in middle position, raised to $800, and the button goes all in for about $8k, huge overbet and I read him for weak/middle pair, called and he had 99, and im up to about $20K. I lose that hand and i am crippled. phew. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Jul 08 11:18:18 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>The 2008 Central Valley Poker Championships (EdmondDantes)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2779]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (EdmondDantes)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Every good cardroom should have its own tournament series, yes?  Hence the First Annual Central Valley Poker Championships held Aug 3 through Aug 9.  This week-long series will offer deep stacks, generous level times, relentless attention from the best player relations staff in the surrounding 200-mile area, good food, strong drink, shelter from the hot August sun and the insightful companionship of yours truly.  If someone's willing to pay [url=http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/29/business/lunch.php]$2.1 million for lunch with Warren Buffet[/url], why wouldn't you put this on the calendar?  With buy-ins from $100 to $500, we're practically giving these tournaments away!

[img]http://www.tworags.com/files/cvpc640.jpg[/img]

Edmond
[url=http://www.clubonecasino.com]Club One Casino[/url]  ]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 02 Jul 08 20:04:22 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Quick Update (Doylestown)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2776]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Doylestown)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Had a few minutes this morning so I decided to throw in a quick update. I wish there was more time to keep up with my blog but lately it’s been tough to find that free time. 

 [b]Taking a month off from live[/b] 

I’ve decided not to make a visit to Borgata this month for a couple of reasons. For one I really want to stick to the 4 session per week schedule thru the end of July that I made up for myself and going to Borgata would throw that off course. In addition, I’ll be taking a trip there in August and will probably spend too much time there in September as the WPT rolls into town.

 [b]Online Cash[/b] 

Haven’t discussed online cash much lately because I haven’t been playing much and it’s certainly been showing in my results. Save for a good start to the month of July (it’s double FPP week) 3 of the last 4 months have been overall losers, though thankfully none of them were horrible. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 02 Jul 08 11:01:30 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>lol min-bet (SirWatts)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2774]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[ Today was the final preliminary event of the 2008 WSOP, the $1500 limit shootout. It got 823 runners. I was actually pretty excited for this event because while limit holdem is certainly not my best game I do play it pretty competently, and most people in these limit tournaments tend to be really awful. I also have a history of running pretty good in limit tournaments and that always makes you feel more optimistic. My first table was pretty much what I expected. 3 guys were just terribad. 4 people were just super ABC tight passive, if they ever raise you you are probably screwed. That left me and one other guy who seemed to play really solid with some aggression and little moves mixed in. I ran really good throughout the first 2 levels of my first heat and had already worked my stack up to 8K from the 3K start bank by the first break. I cooled off for the next 2 levels but I think I played well and lost the minimum, and I still had 5400 at the 2nd break. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 02 Jul 08 07:31:37 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Networking &gt; poker (Adanthar)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2772]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[My final 2 prelims turned out to be a standard 0 for 2 - I won 1 hand in one of them and 0 for'd the other. (When you 3 bet ~5 times in limit and wind up flopping/turning 2 pairs (1 top, 1 middle), neither of which are good at showdown, you're not gonna get anywhere in a donkament.)

On the other hand, in the last 2 days, I *did* meet about a thousand people I badly needed to meet, and a couple of those are going to result in what I feel is a solid opportunity down the road. Poker is such a small world that almost everybody who's anybody is in the middle of the Strip right now, so there are a lot of different parties, constant networking, and everyone's collaborating on something or other. With the amount of money behind the scenes of this game, it shouldn't be a surprise, but I do feel extremely lucky to be in the position I am right now.

With that said, it's not all a total loss poker-wise, either. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 02 Jul 08 00:19:57 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Around the World in 90 Days Day 46 - 50 (Bond18)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2768]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[[b]Day 46[/b]

By far, the least enjoyable tournaments during the WSOP are the $1,500 No-Limit Hold 'em ones, of which there are an infinite amount. If the word donkament was created to describe a single type of tournament, these are the ones. The fields are enormous and the Rio is crammed with people that, during the break, make the hallways so packed you can barely move. The tournaments only start you with 60 BBs and if you don't increase that by the third level, you're sitting with just 15. Although it's encouraging to see so many new and bad players in the field, sitting there while they Hollywood with the nuts or legitimately think about folding with 90% of their stack in pre-flop does reach a point where incompetence becomes bothersome. Navigating another one of these tournaments is my task for the day, except this time I don't show up 90 minutes late. I'm early in fact.

[url=http://www.fulltiltpoker. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 01 Jul 08 13:54:46 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Made day 2 of the $1500 (nath)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2766]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (nath)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[First day 2 and first cash of the series.  I have 65k going into day 2 at 800/1600/200.  I'm exhausted so no full writeup but more will come when it's all over and I'm rested.]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 01 Jul 08 07:17:34 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Great Fun at Club One -- NOT! (lakong)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2761]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (lakong)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Actually, the title was just me having fun.  Club One, Edmond's card room up in Fresno is very impressive.  Ed invited me up this weekend for his WSOP sat.  I really didn't need to spend 4 hours on a train and bus to venture into Fresno for a deep stack tournament when there are so many in Vegas (there last week) and in LA close to my house.  But I had been wanting to visit the casino and see what's been keeping Ed busy for the past few months and the foreseeable future.  I also wanted to visit with LakeofFire and his wife.

The room is very impressive.  Ed manages about 400 employees which is a task in and of itself.  The room has tons of tables, a nice bar restaurant, a horse betting room and a large banquet room.  The operation runs very smoothly and Ed has done a great job of filling his staff with hot ladies whom aim to please.  Great job, Ed!

So I loved the room.  What about the games?  I played a little $2/5 NL on Friday night and found the action to be fairly typical. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Mon, 30 Jun 08 13:05:57 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Checking in (Hagbard_Celine)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2758]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Hagbard_Celine)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Been a while since my last post.

I've been putting in some good volume, but am consistently getting disappointed in big tournaments.

Since my last post I've final tabled the FTP 65K ($150+13) twice, but ended up 7th and 8th respectively. My 8th place finish last night did make for a profitable Sunday (Joy!), but was still really disappointing as I ended up busting 44<KQo for a pretty big pot that would have allowed me some room to maneuver to the top 3. Oh well, lol donkaments, etc.

A couple of days ago I shipped the FTP $20r--the one in the afternoon. It feels nice to ship tournaments, and it seems that shipping these soft, small-field tournaments that run in the afternoon or late at night are key to good, solid profitability in MTTs. However, I'm just so thirsty for a 5-figure score. I'm getting close, but I just need to close one of these muthas out.

Anyhow, I'm going to grind this afternoon in an attempt to make FTP's top 200 monthly TLB. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Mon, 30 Jun 08 09:52:19 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Sunday Different game, same result (SirWatts)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2756]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Instead of playing the usual online tournaments yesterday I was playing the $10K PLO tournament at the WSOP. I was pretty excited for this one being a big buy-in in a game I feel confident I am picking up very quickly. There's an awful lot of gamble in PLO though and I ended up on the wrong side of one I probably would have done better to avoid. I had built my stack up to around 29K mostly by winning a big pot with double suited aces against a wrap hand when this hand came up:

A weak player opened to 1500 UTG at 250/500. He had just won a huge pot off of Toto Leonidas when he made a really terrible flop call, and Toto was now pretty short. Next to act, Toto re-potted to 5250 with very little behind, maybe somewhere in the 4-7K range I'm not really sure. The way he/everyone was playing this is almost certainly AAxx, though having just lost a big pot he could be steaming a little and possibly doing this with worse, though I certinaly feel it's some kind of big hand. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Mon, 30 Jun 08 05:32:34 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Time Flies (A_Junglen)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2754]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (A_Junglen)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Well, there was no repeat TV appearance for me. I busted in the 3rd level of the HPT $1.5k with Kings against my opponents turned set of 8s. It was a spot I'd go broke in if I found myself there again, so no prob. Congratulations to Danny "KingDan" Smith on winning it for about $100k.

Now, I'm not going to say that this is going to be my last TS trip. However, it's certainly possible it'll be my last time here in awhile. I've got to fly to Vegas and work on PokerVT next month, so I won't be able to attend the July series. August is up in the air, it'll depend on who else is going and how I'm feeling. I honestly can't stand to live at TS for more than 4-5 days though, and the August series was about 10 days last year. Not to mention EPT Barcelona is right around the corner in September. The HPT they announced they were holding a $5k event at Turning Stone on October 18th, my 21st birthday. Which of course is when Bellagio is holding their Fiesta Al Lago series. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Mon, 30 Jun 08 04:32:01 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Not setting the live poker world on fire (nath)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2752]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (nath)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Brief review of my last three live tournaments:

-I start at a very tough table in the 5k six-handed and bleed chips until the table breaks.  I double up AQ > 55 the last hand before that table breaks.  I take my 11k to 22k at my new table and then slowly hover and bleed away until I inevitably bust shoving the T6o with 9100 chips at 600/1200/100.
-I ran my stack up to 9k early in the 2k, then gave away a bunch of it check-shoving 77 on a 468 flop in a reraised pot.  AA good.  Oops.  I short stacked the rest of the day until that table broke; the third hand at my new table I open shove 99 from the SB with 2200 chips at 100/200/25.  A young-ish Euro calls with A2 and flops 345.
-The $1500 actually had a lot of interesting hands.  I couldn't find my wallet this morning, so I showed up an hour and a half late, but I more or less short stacked until I caught a huge rush at 100/200/25 and ran it up to 17. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 29 Jun 08 05:48:34 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Last couple of days (Adanthar)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2750]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Not much to report. I very uneventfully busted from the 2K (there was some hilarious stuff at the table, but not much of it involved me), then felt a little under the weather today and skipped the 1500 - not that it made any difference, because it was apparently sold out long before I would've gotten there. I'm also skipping online tomorrow (Sunday) to go meet a few people I've been planning to talk to for a while, although, if the stars align and I get out of there early, I might get to enter the 1500 HORSE event at 5 PM only an hour or two late.

In other, only tangentially related news, it turns out there are actually some HU razz SNG's going off on FTP at fairly high stakes. My record so far is a nice 14-6 and only about 3 people I played against haven't been terrible/I felt like I had a small edge vs. the #2 guy on the leaderboard for the year, so it seems like I'm gonna be doing a bunch of that along with a bunch of PLO. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 29 Jun 08 05:32:26 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Club One hosts a WSOP satellite (EdmondDantes)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2748]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (EdmondDantes)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I'm happy to report that we held our WSOP satellite tournament at Club One today, and it drew enough entrants where we didn't have to cough up too much extra dough to satisfy the seat guarantee that I agreed to months ago in a bourbon-fueled burst of confidence.

I was bracing myself for the worst since I've been running bad lately.  For an owner, "running bad" is defined as paying out back-to-back bad beat jackpots and dealing with an HVAC system that, like many folks in the region, doesn't want to work when it's hot out.  Fortunately, through a last minute blitz of fliers, posters and begging, we pulled just enough entrants to cover the guarantee.

Unlike many other WSOP satellites, we gave players pretty good stacks to play with (10,000 chips with 25/25 start blinds) and 30-minute levels.  [b]LakeofFire[/b] capitalized on our largesse by burning up 9 hours of the one day off I give him, finishing 12th out of 99 entrants.  Unfortunately, we're only giving away 3 seats. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
      <guid isPermaLink="true"><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2748]]></guid>
      <pubDate>Sun, 29 Jun 08 00:08:23 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Oh, Youre That Guy (A_Junglen)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2745]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (A_Junglen)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Well, for some reason or another, I find myself back here at Turning Stone for the HPT. Not really sure why, which usually means it's a bunch of small reasons. I guess I don't have anything better to do, and haven't played live poker in a month. I'm also going to be driving back with my friend Adam Shuman, who's tagging along back to Ohio again. 

I busted out of the $550 in 33rd yesterday, when 20 paid. At 500/1k/100 I was in the BB holding A4o and had 16.5k or so. The CO opened for 3,000 and I shoved. When it got back to him, he hemmed and hawwed, and eventually made the call. He started the hand with a couple hundred more chips than me, which is also one of the reason's why I jammed A4o there. Regardless, he called off (basically) his entire stack and showed J9s. 

I lost the 57/43 or w/e it is and hung out with Randal the rest of the night. During the early-middle stages I built up a stack to around 30k, but could never get much going once we were deep. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
      <guid isPermaLink="true"><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2745]]></guid>
      <pubDate>Fri, 27 Jun 08 17:25:48 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>First Cash! (SirWatts)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2743]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Well I finally cashed a WSOP tournament today. Things got off to a very good start when I won a whole bunch of smallish pots to get up to over 90K. Then I played this hand really bad which killed my chances.

I raise to 5500 in MP with TT and the BB Ben Fineman calls with around a 53K stack. I'm already super scared because I think he is trapping a big pair a whole lot but there's other stuff in his range as well. The BB who is a big donk also calls. Flop 443 two clubs, BB checks and I decide to check and see what happens since I'm not crazy about my hand. He bets 8K, BB folds and I'm not sure what to do. I was sort of planning to just call and play the hand passive but then I decided we were short enough that making a goofy sized checkraise and stacking off might induce him to get it in with worse hands so I did that and he obviously just had AA as I suspected all along. As much as I hate bet/folding overpairs this is the perfect time for it. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 27 Jun 08 03:20:10 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Anatomy of a donkament the 5K 6 max (Adanthar)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2741]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Out of this one in about 6 hours, but did play a bunch of interesting hands. I'm going to post pretty much everything I remember from memory without much comment and see if anybody feels like replying. So, here we go:

First table: Random T6 sponsored Swede/Rizen (seat 1), Joe Hachem (seat 2), Jeff Madsen/Gabe Kostner (3), me (4), a decent LAGgy internet pro whose name I forgot but finished 2'nd to shaundeeb in the yearly TLB (5), Victor Ramdin (6)

1)25/50 - Early on, I have a very tight image (Seat 5 is playing ~60/40 behind me) but just raised the last hand when Seat 1 raises. I 3 bet red AA from the small blind to 500. He calls. Flop 9[h] 8[h] 3[c], I bet 725, he calls. Turn 2[c], check/check. River 2[h], I value bet 1400 (possibly better off betting more), he calls and mucks. 12K.

2)50/100 - I bust Jeff Madsen with a standard AKs > TT hand when he's short. 16K.

Interlude: Joe Hachem open limps the button. SB (Gabe Kostner) completes and I check some random cards. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 26 Jun 08 22:51:15 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Borgata 1K Recap + Back to the Online Grind (Doylestown)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2739]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Doylestown)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Got back from Borgata on Sunday and can report that I completely stuck to the game plan I had set for myself. I had the family along and on the first night we added to the riches of Guy LaLiberte by taking in the Le Grand Cirque show at Harrahs. The show was great but the venue is rather antiquated. The sight lines are poor and the sound system is terrible. Unless somebody we have to see is in town it’s likely we’ll stick to the Borgata for future shows. 

I played a limited amount of $5/$10 NL cash over my 3-day stay and had another good trip. The Borgata 1K had a start time of 10AM on Friday. I wish all of their events would have the same start time but it isn’t likely to happen. Got settled in for what I hoped would be a long day. I wound up getting what I hoped for without the financial reward at the end. It was a 399 player field paying 36 spots. About 11 hours after the tournament began I was sent to the rail with approximately 52 players remaining, sigh. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 26 Jun 08 11:07:38 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>$1K Rebuy Day 2 (SirWatts)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2737]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I'm through to Day 2 of the $1K rebuy with 61K in chips which is about average. I'm now 4/4 in making Day of these tournaments at the WSOP, and I'll be looking to make it 2/4 arriving on time for Day 2 and 3/3 in cashing when I actually do eventually show up on Day 2. Today was a typical day when nothing went my way but I outplayed my opponents so badly that I was able to get by. Some quick examples:

Hand 1: Down to 3500 at 200/400 a50 I move in with J6o in MP. Button calls with TT and I make jacks up on the turn to double.

Hand 2: Raise KTcc and a shortstack shoves a small amount such that I have an automatic call. He has KJo and the board runs out 5 diamonds for the chop.

Hand 3: Raise AQo in EP to 1650 at 300/600 a75. Button instahoves for 7K more. Through a combination of pot odds and the fact that I showed down the ol J6o not too long ago and my image probably isn't stellar I take myself into calling. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 26 Jun 08 07:07:22 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>The Scotty Nguyen story (Adanthar)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2735]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Taking a couple of days off between NL events (I think my next one will be the 5K 6 max on Thursday.) In the meantime, here's the Scotty story I promised earlier:

My first table of the 1500 had an empty seat on it for over 2 hours. If you've played any WSOP events, you know that an empty seat at your first table is *always* a pro running late, but usually, they tend to show up within an hour. This time, the stack was being blinded off all the way to the 100/200 level, so by the time the pro - who turned out to be Scotty - showed up, he was already down to 1800 chips. 

Naturally, Scotty was unhappy about that and asked the dealer why he didn't have 3K. But at the WSOP, only late registrations get their full 3K chips (and get seated in Seat 10); everyone else gets a regular seat and then gets blinded off if they're late, which is normal. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 25 Jun 08 02:02:24 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Back on the Grind (SirWatts)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2730]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Now up to 0/15, -51.5K. I had relatively quick and painless exits in the $1500 NL and $2000 PL events last week. I skipped the $1500 NL event on Saturday and $1500 mixed holdem on Sunday to play online those days, and there was no event on Monday so I had a nice little 3 day vacation from losing real money. On Friday night we went to Treasure Island and did the drunken mixed games thing. Hilarity ensued when one usually more reserved 2+2er went a bit overboard on the Jagerbombs (see the thread on 2+2), but good times were had in general before and after we had to worry about taking care of him. On Saturday I slept in a bit and only played a few tournaments and more cash. I finished 2nd in the $50 rebuy on Stars after losing a 10:1 chip lead because I run good like that. It was only $6500 though, I forgot how small the prize pool was in that tournament since I don't usually play it. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 24 Jun 08 21:53:32 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Ordered a new laptop today (nath)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2728]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (nath)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[After some hassles with a bank that has a dim view on shipping to a different address than the billing address, the order should go through today and I'll have a new one in time to start updating when stuff goes down again.

Conveniently enough, I had a vacation scheduled these few days already.  I've been utterly refusing to play poker, and it feels good.  My brain needed a rest, and I clearly needed to stop pressuring myself so much to win.

Sunday's results were nothing special (651st in the million, 8th in the 215 HU), but overall a profitable day, and more importantly, I had mentally reminded myself to keep attacking, to not shy away from big pots, to not fear busting out, and I feel my play, at least initially, was much better as a result.  I wasn't able to maintain the same level of play throughout the day, but getting off on the right foot felt good.

Anyway, it's more rest until the $5k shorthanded at the WSOP on Thursday.  I pretty much [i]have[/i] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 24 Jun 08 21:40:44 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>BPS and HPT (A_Junglen)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2726]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (A_Junglen)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Haven’t been doing much of anything lately. Things are going to start picking up this week though. I did an interview for PokerRoad on one of their shows, [url=http://www.pokerroad.com/big_poker_sundays/6-22-08/]Big Poker Sundays[/url]. There ended up being an audio issue, so there’s some static, but still some good content in there. Shaniac, Deeb and Shronk hosted.

Besides that, I’ll be driving up for the HPT $1,500 event at TS in a couple days. Might be sort of a weird trip since most of my > 21 friends are obviously at the WSOP. Whatever though, nothing better to do, may as well go.

-Adam]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Mon, 23 Jun 08 15:00:18 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Deja Vu at the Beau Rivage  (brad2002tj)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2724]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (brad2002tj)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[It was my girlfriend and my third anniversary so we spent last weekend at the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, MS.  We flew into New Orleans and drove a rental car (~1.5 hour drive) to Biloxi.  Checking in was a bit of a mess.  At the front desk the clerk said they don't have any ocean view rooms (even though we booked one) and verified we want a non-smoking room.  We make the trek up to the room and walk into what is clearly a smoking room.  We go back down to the front desk and the manager gets us into a non-smoking room, and guess what now there is an ocean view available.  So they set us up again and we go up to a really nice non-smoking ocean view room on the 15th floor.  As I am going through the check-in documents I notice they have someone else's name on it.  Back to the front desk for them to straighten it out, which only takes a few minutes. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Mon, 23 Jun 08 11:18:06 -0400</pubDate>
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