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    <title>Possibly too level-headed</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 01:28:49 -0400</lastBuildDate>
    
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      <title>Networking &gt; poker</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>Last couple of days</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>Anatomy of a donkament: the 5K 6 max</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>The Scotty Nguyen story</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>On the plus side, I'm up money from not playing Sundays</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2722]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Long story short:

I have 70K at 1500/3K and make it 8500 with kings in EP. The next guy to act, with a 60K-ish stack, makes it 20K. I flat because he's folding everything to a 4 bet, pot odds be damned etc.

flop JT3, I check, he bets 15K of an (it turns out) 36K stack, I shove, he calls with AQ, I lose to trip aces, gg lol donkaments.

112'th for $4K or so is definitely not what I was hoping for when seeing his hand. Someday, I'm really gonna have to relearn how to win those 77-23's...
]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 22 Jun 08 20:33:14 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Ship the mincash/freeroll/OMGWTfold</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2720]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Played 2 tourneys in the last 3 days - the Bellagio 1080 (uneventful, busto, etc.) and today's $1500 at the Rio.

Long story short, I finally have a WSOP cash in '08 and am heading into tomorrow with an average stack. The reason is a reasonably nice call followed by, literally, the biggest fold I have ever made in my life.

The call:

I arrive at my table about 10 minutes late and head off to the bathroom after a few minutes believing it's extremely weak/tight, with lots of folding around. As I get back into my seat (10) a few minutes later, the guy to my left, Seat 1, is busy showing off his K8-high bluff on a 775x board. I make a note of that - not that it matters, because he raises 7-8 of the next 10 hands and no one plays back at him.

At the end of that orbit, it's folded to me in the small blind and I complete A[h] T[h] planning to reraise his (very expected) raise. Instead, he asks me how much I have behind - around 2800 chips at 25/50 - and says "all in". [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 22 Jun 08 05:06:32 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>This space for rent</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2696]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Long story short, 0 for the last 2 as well, but there was a third break and a legitimate bad beat or two in there so things were, theoretically, moving forward.

...until Bond busted at a WSOP FT in the way that he did and sent me into more tilt than I would have been in had I simply bubbled some random donkament. How do you make it to the final 8 at the WSOP, bust on a 4:1 bad beat and still owe 50K in makeup afterwards? That's actually almost the grossest thing I've ever heard of.

Another gross fact: We have six people playing the WSOP in this house. Three of them have final tabled an event. Two of those people still owe 50K in makeup each (that'd be more than I have, and I'm now 0 for 10 with no particular rungood in sight) and the third will probably keep about 70K for finishing second. Why do I play donkaments again? [Trick question: I actually put in a bunch of hands of PLO and razz recently. I might even be a winning player at low to midstakes PLO now. Whee! [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 17 Jun 08 19:51:38 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>No longer backsto (but still busto)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2688]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[As expected, I was mostly fine the next day, but wound up skipping the 5K event (which a friend of mine won - congrats) to hang out at home and watch a movie. I definitely recommend Kung Fu Panda; it's a nice brainless way to spend a couple of hours not thinking about poker.

I did play an event yesterday, where I continued my tradition of second breaklessness. This time, it was on a pretty generic hand - a shortstack raises to 525 of his 2600 stack in MP at 100/200, I make it 1650 of my 4400 stack with AKs next to act, and the SB pretty quickly shoves. Although I make some G-bucks on the shove, I still lose to his jacks. Starting at 80 BB in a 2K event (which goes down to 20 BB in 2 hours) and having no room to play leads to a lot of hands like this, which is really annoying when you don't win any.

That led me to the razz event today. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 14 Jun 08 04:45:47 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Backsto</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2678]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Another short update...and I mean that pretty much literally. As I was getting out of a chair to go sign up for an event this morning, my back decided that it was better off where it was and told me to take a day or two off. Since I suddenly couldn't walk, much less sit down in a lousy chair comfortably anymore, I decided to listen to it. So, poker's temporarily on hold, although I did get some razz hands in today online prepping for Friday's razzament.  

Time to get some exercise, I guess. I've been eating surprisingly well out here and am probably losing some weight, but the second part of the 'diet and ...' phrase is another story. It's one of the hidden pitfalls of the poker lifestyle - not one person I've known for over 2 years on the circuit is less than ten pounds heavier than they used to be when I met them, and nobody lifts weights or runs much, either. In everything but the poker (and often that, too), laziness is really endemic out here.  

Okay, enough depression. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 11 Jun 08 04:41:08 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Oh hey, a dinner break</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2658]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Still not an actual Day 2, though. Quick update because it's late: today's event went better than the ones before it and I'll post some hands later, but I wound up shortstacking it up for about four hours and busting the first time I actually pushed a 10xBB stack. Nonetheless, I played well and made some good reads/got into one or two pretty interesting spots. 

While I was doing that, though, my roommate was busy getting 2'nd in the S8/O8 event (grats Tom, you've earned it) and my friend Leo (Unamuno on 2+2) was busy final tabling the shootout (ditto). 

My turn next :p]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 08 Jun 08 06:27:25 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Make that 2 for 5 on first breaks</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2648]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Last entry, we left off with me accidentally turning top two pair into a bluff. Yesterday, I followed up on that with this hand about 45 minutes into the 6 max:

LAGgy Asian guy who's already 4 bet once preflop open limps on the button. I make it 200 with AKo in the SB with about 2600 behind. BB folds, he calls.

Flop 665r. I bet 275 into 450, he calls (standard).

Turn A. I check, he bets 525, I call planning to lead the river, since he's going to check behind a bunch of hands and I'd rather he hero call stuff.

River 7. There's about 2400 in the pot/effective stacks 1800, so I bet tiny - 750 - to encourage said hero calls or maybe induce a shove. He takes 15 seconds, fiddles with his chips, then flats the...86. 

Sigh. *Really?* I think I'm overly good at making villains think I have the nuts. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 06 Jun 08 17:28:16 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>1 for 3 on making the first break!</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2646]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[...but 0 for 2 on making the second break. I'm working on that, though!

The major interesting hand was, once again, the fifth of the day. With 4K chips and 25/50 blinds, UTG, a middle aged guy with a lot of tattoos on his arms (read: probably a nice guy, probably not very good) makes it 175. A random MP flats, and then the button, a 20-something obvious online pro whom I've seen around and almost has to be good, overcalls. (I later found out the button is Moorman1, who recently won the 5K winner take all freezeout on Stars and is definitely solid.) I look down at AQo in the big blind and make it 4 ways to the flop.

Flop: A[c] Q[c] 8[h] (I may be confusing the exact card/suits, but definitely two clubs, one heart). I check intending to CR, but it checks around.

Turn: 5[h]. I thought the pot was 650 (actually 700) so I only bet 400 instead of the 500 I should've, but no matter. At any rate, the PFR and the caller fold, but Moorman calls.

River: 2[c]. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 04 Jun 08 21:48:51 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>WSOP 4: Quicker and painlesser</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2629]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[So, I broke my own record and bustoed the 1500 pot limit event (that I decided to play at the last minute) on the...fifth hand or so. 

The hand: With 3K chips and 25/50 blinds, someone limps in EP and I make it 200 with A[s]K[s] in MP. The big blind, who's an old guy (at least 60) who just got to the table, instantly makes it 350 total chips. If you've ever played poker, you'll know this is a really bad sign, but, obviously, it's impossible to just fold here. 

Flop: K[c]6[s]3[d]. BB instapots it for 800 or so. When I'm playing my A+ game, I think I can honestly fold here*, but nobody ever actually does. I call, leaving just about a PSB behind both of our stacks.

Turn: spade. Oh well!

Still not feeling bad about it, I just laughed it off and went to grind some sats (which didn't go particularly well, either - but the play was very soft as usual.) I won't be playing tomorrow, but will definitely be putting some time in later this week. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 03 Jun 08 01:51:08 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>WSOP 2: Quick and painless</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2623]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[For the last day or so, the rumor was that day 1 of the $1500 event (Saturday) would be sold out, as every online pro picked it over playing live on Sunday. That turned out not to be true, as I was able to register 90 minutes before the start (props to the Rio - this year, everything seems to be well organized for a change.) Unfortunately, I lasted all of 90 minutes or so in the event, but I actually feel like every bustout should be like this one - very quick, with every hand basically completely standard. I played a couple of pots where I overlimp/called and open raised about 5-6 other hands, but only won 1 total pot the entire time; every hand I played wound up 3 handed to the flop and I simply only ever paired up once.

The bustout hand was the only remotely interesting decision; with about 1700 behind at 50/100, I raised K[s]K[h] in EP and got called by a pretty loose/bad middle aged Asian player on the button. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 31 May 08 22:53:16 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>In Vegas</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2621]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[After an uneventful trip, I got to Vegas the night before last and have been chilling with SirWatts and grafyx ever since. Aside from fixing a bad router, listening to Watts recount his busto hand and winning a few hundred bucks at midstakes limit (lol), not much has happened so far, but for some reason, I'm really looking forward to the 2 day 1500 (whether I play it tomorrow or Sunday is gonna depend on whether tomorrow stays sold out.) Actually, scratch 'for some reason'; we all know a 4000 person live event can't possibly be tough to play :)

Nothing else to report so far other than sweating various wafflecrushers on pokernews, but I've also been sweating [url=http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php?t=208939]this thread[/url]. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 31 May 08 03:45:13 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Didn't feel like winning anything, anyway</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2596]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Last week was pretty gruesome, culminating with today, when, in addition to playing my B or C game most of the time, I managed to take my first 3%'er beat of the month and had about 5 sets/overpairs cracked in big pots. To be honest, I didn't even really care and was mostly playing on autopilot - leaving in 3 days has me thinking about other stuff too much. There are 2 videos I want to make for CR before Wednesday, and I still need to get some cash from the bank, check in with my backers, etc. etc. etc. In fact, I haven't even started packing. Yeah, standard.

To psych myself up, I've been looking at other people's blogs. It's surprising how much I can forget about running well until it happens, how bad other people's streaks can be and for how long, and, for that matter, that I'm still playing tourneys. I've said it about a dozen times by now, but this might be it; after the WSOP is over, I want to switch to MSNL full time. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Mon, 26 May 08 01:57:11 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>A pretty decent ending to FTOPS</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2572]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[After my last entry, I wound up only playing a handful more events - the razzament (made it deep, but to no avail), a few other midstakes NL tourneys, and the ME, which I just busted in an hour or so ago. It wasn't one of the best tourneys I've ever played, but for how card dead I was, clawing as deep ITM as I did (300-something after not seeing a PP for the last 2 hours and restealing every hand I played) seems pretty reasonable/made my FTOPS profitable. I also took fifth in the Cake 75K for 3700 while I was at it [running like the sun to get there], which makes today an actually profitable Sunday, too/includes my second Sunday major FT in a month. 

More impressively, congrats to cking on what I'm pretty sure is his first 100K score (6'th in the $2500 FTOPS) and another chip in the WC unbusto fund. They've run so bad at staking for so long that this isn't gonna get them *that* far, but at least it's a good start and a nice lead up to the ME. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Mon, 19 May 08 00:28:07 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Skipped a few days</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2554]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Rather than slog through FTOPS, most of which wasn't stuff I really wanted to play anyway, I just caught up with some friends on Monday and otherwise relaxed this weekend. The only day I played was Sunday, when I put up some nice volume but didn't get anything to show for it other than a couple of deep runs.

I *am* playing a bunch today, though, probably from the afternoon shift on. In addition, FTP came through and sent me the entire hand history from FTOPS 1, which features me playing in a totally different style that's going to make some awesome videos. 

Oh, and I also finally bought the plane tickets for Vegas...meaning I officially leave in 15 days. wheeeee. ]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 13 May 08 12:13:51 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>FTOPS 2-5</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2510]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Unfortunately, I only had time to play one event in the last two days, FTOPS4 (the 200 PLHE event), which went nowhere after a promising start. Who knew that the triple shootout would sell out 40 minutes ahead of time? I'd have tried the Stud 8 tourney tonight, as well, but some allergy or other that's making my nose itch like crazy also made me cut the day's session short after 5 PM or so (and just as importantly, I'm not nearly as good at S8 as at razz). 

Tomorrow's tourneys are a 535 PLO (no way) and a 100r (maybe, if I feel better and find enough other stuff to fill up a screen with.) Sunday is a 530 HU (probably not; I think I'm +EV in a field like that, but not by a huge amount, and its too early for my other tourneys) and a 300 freezeout (definitely); Monday has a 200 PLO8 tourney (maybe, since I don't horribly suck in those) and a 1K (meh, pass.)

While I'm at it, those of you that want to take a close look at variance should check out [url=http://forumserver.twoplustwo. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 09 May 08 21:12:02 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>FTOPS1 - a good start</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2504]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[It's not a great one because I always hate finishing in this area for a little while after I bust, but 40/4100-odd runners for ~2K isn't bad. (Add up another few hundred in CR fees because this has at least 1 vid in it and probably 2...if FT emails me the HH's. Who knew this laptop didn't save those by default?)

I'm incompetent at PLO and will pass on it, but the shootout tonight looks cool.]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 08 May 08 11:14:29 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Intrade</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2496]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Now that the primaries are essentially over, I think I can safely post my Intrade experience. I just made a long post on 2+2 that I'll copy here.

[...]I estimate my final primary election wager results at around +10K (on an initial 10K roll on Intrade and another 2K or so in Paul bets). On the one hand, this does represent a nice 250% or so yearly ROI. On the other, I actually thought I could do better.

[...]

Postmortem:

In addition to being very profitable, the first phase of this experiment has definitely taught me some valuable lessons. In fact, the reason I'm writing this post out is to gather my thoughts; although the market between now and November only contains a handful of good opportunities, I want to get some of the more useful information down on paper in order to remind myself of these concepts down the line.

These lessons didn't come cheap. Although, as I said, my yearly ROI is ridiculous, had I done everything right, I think I would have broken twice that.  [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 07 May 08 12:55:39 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>FTOPS/WSOP</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2494]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Last night, I finalized my WSOP living arrangements - all I need to do now is finally buy flight tickets and I'm set. As some people can tell you, the last time I took a flight to attend a tournament, I managed to sleep through a gate change, so as insurance, I promise to blog about anything similar happening this time in the most embarrassing way possible. 

In online news, after a week...well, not really 'off' (playing 1-2 tourneys a night for fun > not playing anything, but not actually work, either), it's once again time to spend a few K and a bunch of time on FTOPS events. The bad news is that 1)for whatever reason, I run so awfully at FTOPS that my best finish was in an LO8 event of all things, and 2)since I have little cash online, I'm gonna have to actually do well if I don't want to shift money around. The good news is that...well, it's FTOPS. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 07 May 08 09:30:35 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Right, yeah, that hope thing</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2441]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Since my last entry, I've played 2 full tournament days (by "full", I mean "very little", because I suck at volume) and a half day on Sunday. The Sunday was a complete bust, but last Wednesday included an FT bubble on UB and tonight had a 9'th place finish in the Cake 30r. That's the good news; the bad is that I think I played the UB tourney mediocre and probably did something wrong in the Cake tourney, too - I had a 270K (1st) to 110K (2nd) CL with 15 left, lost it on a pretty mediocre PF call, got most of it back with 12 left and then proceeded to bluff a good chunk of it off/not win another pot for half an hour. It doesn't help when people decide to defend their blind with 92s and get there, but that wasn't the entire story; once I got that lead, I just should have done more with it than I did. 

It's been a long time since I've been final tabling this consistently, but now that I'm doing it, I need to top 3 and/or win these things, and that's just not happening so far. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 29 Apr 08 01:55:09 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>It's definitely getting better but I can't decide how much</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2416]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Played only two tourneys today. #1 was a weird, tiny Cake gold card freeroll rebuy where, on the first hand post-rebuy period, I got AA in vs. KT for a top 3 stack (with 18 left/3 2K WSOP packages) on a Kxx board and lost.

#2 was the UB bountyment. I came to the FT with the #2 stack, misplayed a really weird hand, possibly misplayed another (but doubt it), came back, and eventually got someone to call off 40% of effective stacks PF holding A[s] T[s] vs. my JJ 4 handed. The rest went in on the flop, which was 8 high with, of course, 3 spades. 

Since I didn't play Monday, that makes 2 FT's in 6 tourneys, plus a very good day on Intrade today when Obama predictably lost Pennsylvania/dragged the political prediction season out another two months. But I still have to complain - I'm just not getting the good breaks late in tourneys that make up so godawfully much of your ROI.

Oh well. Now to go figure out how badly I messed that first hand up.]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 23 Apr 08 01:32:22 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Finally got something worth posting</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2402]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[After a really frustrating month and a half, I finally have a major FT to show for it, the UB 200K. That tournament's been very good to me over the years, and today was no exception. Unfortunately, I ran just like I've run since March once I actually made the final table and took 6'th for 9K after two back to back unavoidable coolers, but I did play really good poker to get there (answer to how long it takes for enough bad beats to make me a little sloppy: right around a month and a half. In fact, I was starting to worry at how long it was taking to get a tournament worth making a video about this month...) 

Now to keep doing that and build on the nice after tax season bounce.  

Also, bonus hand for those of you who think I'm nitty (nobody post this on 2+2 for a day or two please):

MaximusBets is at seat 0 with 3010.
lowhanginset is at seat 1 with 7250.
PocketOwnage is at seat 2 with 1810.
-BENTLEY- is at seat 3 with 2660.
jas0042 is at seat 4 with 2600. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Mon, 21 Apr 08 00:00:12 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>EPassporte suspending US poker site service</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2356]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[No details other than what I'm reading on 2+2, but I thought I'd pass it on. It looks like they're still processing withdrawals if you have money actually in the e-wallet, but are pulling out of the poker deposit/withdrawal business.

Looking at PS, FTP and Cake, it seems they all have alternate ewallets and bank account transfers set up (for anyone that cares, after about a six month gap, Cake has finally had check service for the last couple of weeks), so the effects, if any, should be minimal. Nevertheless, it sure would be nice to get a friendlier, non-Republican controlled DOJ right about now.]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 11 Apr 08 22:38:17 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Yay...tax season</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2346]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Stuff that everyone reading this should do if they haven't already:

-Get an extension. Anybody know a gambling CPA in the NYC area? :(

In case that doesn't work, though...

-Do your taxes. That is, don't not do your taxes. A surprising amount of people I know are in this category :p

-Finalize your records. I keep good ones to start with, but even if you don't, the least you should do is take all those random withdrawal slips and make an Excel file that you can point at a couple of years from now when you've long since forgotten everything.

-Fill out a Treasury form and get it in before 6/30 if you've got 10K in overseas accounts. Poker sites are a gray area.

-If you're a pro, include a check for Q1 estimated taxes when you do your return.

-Make a resolution to actually get receipts for everything you do this year and not just rely on credit card statements...oops. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 09 Apr 08 21:50:04 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>A short list of phrases that immediately make me laugh </title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2311]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[In no particular order, but maybe I'll make a top 10 list out of this someday!

1)"AK is a drawing hand". I've never met anyone that took this phrase seriously who has won any money at poker and I'm pretty sure I never will.

2)"I raise to find out where I am". Could you possibly find out where you are without (usually) lighting a PSB on fire? Probably. Are you guaranteed to use that information properly once you get it? Nope. Can you strategically use this phrase in a liveament to greatly alter your image as seen by the guy to your left? Definitely!

3)"I put him on AK." 
3a)"I put him on two overs."
3b)"I put him on AA."

Fortunately, I found a great way to always put myself on AA, too. All I had to do was go to the PokerStars directory on my hard drive and replace every card graphic with an ace. Now I get aces every hand! [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 04 Apr 08 22:38:51 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Yay, April</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2275]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[The good thing about April from my POV is that it's not March. I think last month was my worst month ever tournament-wise, largely due to being down something like 15K to 20K in EV (which is itself related to a whole lot of "final 2 tabling".) The less said about it, the better, which brings us to my April goal: either stop running bad or put in some hands of HU cash and join the rest of my friends at putting up psychotically high winrates. HU is the last untapped frontier about which nothing is written down, and the PT graphs show it...but I've always liked tournaments, to the point where I've probably given up some EV by playing them. I'm sure I'll resolve that conflict eventually; thus far, whenever I'm almost fed up enough to go play cash for a couple of months, I wind up winning something big and stop caring, but I guess I'm due for a really extended downswing eventually. 

60 Minutes = probably happening (at least, my segment is definitely getting shot). [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 01 Apr 08 19:25:31 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Like sand through the hourglass, these are the 60 Minutes of our lives</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2212]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[[d][d][d][d] Poker content here [d][d][d][d]

The lack of entries in the blog this week is largely because, for the first time all year, I'm playing a ton, including a very belated attempt at learning to 8 table MTT's. It's been a mixed bag - I think I'm still running bad when it comes to important pots - but although I don't have much to show for it, I've gone deep a few times and have a bunch of lost late flips for chipleads to point to, in addition to improved hand reading over more tables. I also have hands worth posting on 2+2 for the first time in a very long time; usually, I put in little enough volume that I very rarely have a hand with more than 1 tough choice in it, but lately, there've been some fun ones. 

[d][d][d][d] Actual important stuff here [d][d][d][d]

But hey, none of you guys care. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Mon, 24 Mar 08 23:33:03 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Running bad, playing better</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2169]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I've finally returned to playing a full (for me - bond and shaundeeb leave me in the dust four times over) schedule; it feels good, even if I don't have much to show for it so far. Last night, I only played 3 tourneys (so much for a full schedule, right?), but took 19'th in the UB 200K after a big blind vs. blind hand went bad late; last week, it was a 10'th place in an FTP 65K in another ugly blind vs. blind spot I couldn't get away from. If either of those goes anywhere, I have a really nice month, but that plus a whole lotta overpairs getting cracked = poker. A successful tourney graph basically looks like an insane artist's rendition of an inverted Egyptian pyramid, so this isn't anything out of the ordinary...besides, judging from the news this week, anything I win is quite likely to be worthless after the apocalypse forces us all to scrounge for gas while fighting off Australian biker gangs near the world's last remaining fuel refinery. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Mon, 17 Mar 08 19:13:19 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>60 Minutes</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2112]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I wasn't going to post about [url=http://www.natarem.com/2008/03/10/60-minutes-considering-absolute-poker-story/]this[/url] until after the taping and/or when we had an air time, but since the story apparently already broke, Nat's blog pretty much covers it: we're likely (assuming they don't kill the story now!) going to be on 60 Minutes in a few weeks. 

Some of you might think this is bad for online poker. I disagree. In the short term, yes, this could be a little ugly (although if the scandal itself and having people chat about it on every single table didn't drive down those AP numbers, this story, released to an audience that largely has no interest in playing poker in the first place, certainly isn't going to.) In the long run, however, stories like this, packaged properly and with an undertone of "regulation would be great for the industry", have the potential to keep the game vibrant. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 11 Mar 08 01:16:29 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>3 betting early on or the lack thereof</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2086]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[In the last few days, I've returned to playing more or less full time (and running terrible - I think I'm ~25% with overpairs since Sunday - but that's generally how Murphy's Law works). Aside from the runbad, life has been pretty good; whenever I'm not distracted by video games, movies, books or some other shiny thing that comes along, I've been occupied by some business idea or other, and a lot of these seem like they're going to pay off within the next year to two years. Of course, given my attention span, there are far too many shiny things in the world to keep that going for long, but hey, I try.

So, right, hey look a bike...umm...yeah, this blog. I feel like I've been writing a lot of shorter entries instead of a few big ones. There's a reason for that; when I started this project, I had half-coherent plans to use some of the strategy entries in a future book or article series. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 06 Mar 08 18:13:42 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>This is what a bad tournament day looks like</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2052]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[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. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 02 Mar 08 21:15:51 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Day 2 (short, not that sweet)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2011]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[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. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Mon, 25 Feb 08 09:14:40 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Mid-tourney blogging</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2001]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[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.]]></description>
      <guid isPermaLink="true"><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2001]]></guid>
      <pubDate>Sun, 24 Feb 08 15:10:51 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Two for two in the LAPC*</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1976]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[*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. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 21 Feb 08 20:02:43 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Sitting and going in LA</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1968]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[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. [[ 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=1968]]></guid>
      <pubDate>Wed, 20 Feb 08 17:45:02 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>The last week or so</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1938]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Sort of a good news/bad news type thing. Good news: I got a NY Times interview (see last entry) that apparently got reprinted in a few places that friends of mine actually saw, and I started playing poker again. Bad news: none of the poker playing led anywhere, obv. After some initial rust wore off, I found myself making a couple of good reads for stacks at 5/10 FR NL (did I mention I'm a nit?), but I did dust off a little more than I got from the reads during the rusty phase. In addition, I seem to be on quite a decent streak of getting everything in the TPGK to set range cracked or coolered by stuff, both in FR and in tournaments. It hasn't really concerned me much, but I hope it works out better at LAPC (leaving tomorrow in the very early morning - if the flights hold up one time, getting there in time to play a cool televised SNG. More on that later.) 

I'm doing quite well in a few things, though. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 17 Feb 08 23:15:00 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Bad news: 0 for Sunday</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1892]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[In fact, I don't think I broke the 2 hour mark anywhere.

Good news: I made the NY Times! 

[url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/business/13leonhardt.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin]NY Times article[/url]

It's not about poker, but hey, I'll take it.  ]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 12 Feb 08 21:21:40 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Yeah I definitely need to play more</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1846]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Good news: I made my first '08 final table last night. (That sounded really bad until I realized I'd played 30 donkaments all year, lol. Which leads me to:) 

Bad news: I took 7'th because I actually made an impatient reshove. Yeah, it was 7 BB to a minraise and probably didn't even cost me much in equity, but it's still very dumb and not something I should ever do. And, after some thought, I'm pretty sure the reason I did it was because I didn't play enough recently.

So, a short term fix = me playing most of the FTOPS events and enough other donkaments to fill my screen before I leave for LA. That ought to be enough to get me un-rusty.

Oh well, at least I made moneys/got the Bodog runbad streak out of the way. 

(Bodog runbad streak: a 2000% ROI over the course of a year and a half/70 tournaments, followed by an 0 for 48 streak that brought it down to 500%)]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 07 Feb 08 14:29:08 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Hey, I made money on Sunday</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1833]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Only $200 or so, but hey, money's nice. I only played about four tourneys, bubbled the UB 200K, but went very deep in the Stars 1M again before busting out 200-something. It's also got enough plays in it to be a CR vid or two, so I'm set for this month.

If you're in the appropriate states, don't forget to vote today :)]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 05 Feb 08 16:03:12 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Day 2 recap</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1821]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[For whatever reason, Day 2 is easier to remember than Day 1...

My first table had several decent players, including WacoKidd with an identical stack to my right, but the main factor was the guy immediately to my left, a middle aged, very obese guy who had about 100K. On the very first hand, the action went, IIRC: old, nitty looking short stacked guy raises in EP for 1/4 of his stack, two callers including Waco in LP, the obese guy in the BB 3 bets pretty big, nitty old guy snap shoves. The first caller folds nines, Waco folds jacks, the old guy has tens and loses to the fat guy's...Q8 sooted. He then goes on to play every hand that can make a straight or flush while the rest of us are all salivating. Sample hand from the rest of the hour and a half I spent there: Waco raises on the button to 3200 at 600/1200, I flat call jacks because I want the guy in, the guy obviously overcalls. Flop Q[h]9[h]2[s]. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 03 Feb 08 12:57:38 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Day 1 recap</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1813]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Enough being lazy...time to post hands!

At this point, the details of Day 1 are sort of blurry. Most of the action early on was focused on John Hennigan to my left. What would usually happen is that he'd small ball, raise + cbet his way into pots from other people, I'd somehow wind up in the pot with him, flop a set and win half of what he got from them, ie, the minimum. I flopped at least 6 sets in the first 4 levels and didn't win more than 1 barrel from him on any of them (probably as infuriating for him as me, because none of the hands went to showdown and he must've been thinking I was crushing him somehow. Nope, just catching cards.) BTW, John plays incredibly fast (warning bells should go off whenever someone competent takes < 15 secs to make big decisions, IMO) and incredibly well in general; the fact that I couldn't get paid off is a big sign of that. 

As I said, early on, I'd just do something, John to my left would do something, I'd flop a set and win money. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 02 Feb 08 19:07:52 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Borgatasto</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1803]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[This is a couple of days late largely thanks to lack of laptop, but I busto'ed on Day 2 in an impressive fashion, first getting to 157K (2x average) largely off a pot I won at showdown with T high and then calling two thirds of it off on 2 hands (one okay, one lousy) before busting several hours later.

This entry's a placeholder for a full recap later on.]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 30 Jan 08 11:59:15 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Day 1 results</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1793]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I've got 69K heading into Day 2 (~45K average, 360 of 500-odd left, 54 paid.) It was a tough table/seat draw, with John Hennigan (last year's winner and, I think, one of the best poker players I've ever sat with) directly to my left, but I got the best of him all day - it helps to flop lots of sets. In addition, Rhett Butler was to my right, Rizen spent all day in Seat 8 (I was Seat 4), and a shortstacked Tmay420 showed up for the last couple of levels in Seat 9, but there were a few soft spots and I chipped up off all of them. I never ended a level with fewer chips than I started with, which is always a good sign, and will have > 100 BB going into Day 2, another good sign. As I've usually been saying on here, I'm getting more and more comfortable with the way live play flows and all of my moves are working/I'm picking off small bluffs with third pair repeatedly. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 27 Jan 08 23:51:54 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Busto (and busto)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1785]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Got here last night and just played the $5200 event ("just" as in "busted an hour ago".) It was another non-starter where I never got over my starting stack, although I played moderately well before running KK into AA with an effective 22 BB. Doh. 

More (okay, not more) importantly, after struggling for a day or so, my laptop hard drive looks to have totally died. In fact, I'm typing this from the hotel lobby's free Internet PC's. This means no updating the blog until I'm back home on Monday or Tuesday (or maybe Thursday if I run hot in the ME, heh) - I already ordered a replacement off Ebay, but not having a working PC is really going to suck till then.  

The good news is I always make sure to copy all the data over to my desktop/vice versa, so I think the only thing I've permanently lost is a few photos I was too lazy to transfer the last time. The bad news is the amount of time it's gonna take to install Windows/Office/Pokertracker/all the other stuff on the new drive... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 25 Jan 08 19:16:17 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>AC/weekend</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1755]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Quick update:

-Played one big AC tourney, a 1K sat (too busy the next day to play the other one.) Won 0 hands in 3 hours. Highlight (also the only light): calling a 10x UTG shove with 9x and TT to see the other guy turn over Q5s. I river a boat, except I was drawing to quads on the flop. lols. 

Sunday went okay, not great. Made two deep runs in both Stars and FTP. I wound up bubbling @ FTP on a reshove gone bad when someone behind me had kings, but making it to the top 300 on Stars. It's not a good result or anything, but I had built up deep stacks on both tourneys, and that's how you final table them eventually.

Making the second half of my CR vid before I go back out to AC for the 10K ME (and a couple of more prelims) on Wednesday or Thursday.]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 18 Jan 08 19:37:57 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Yay, new site design</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1747]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Very nice IMO :)

My poker vacation's stretched to an unprecedented 2 weeks (granted some of that was involuntary and Wednesday was the first day I could really talk and walk around), but it's time for it to end. I'm heading down to the Borgata tomorrow morning and will be playing the $1500 the day after that (theoretically I could play the 1K tomorrow as well but something tells me I'm not gonna get there on time. doh.) Assuming I don't FT that, I'm heading back after I busto, then playing a full Sunday (if you have a Cardrunners subscription and see my latest video...there's a reason I play these things, OMFG was that FT awful) and resuming a full schedule after that. 

For whatever reason, I've been strangely hesitant about starting to play again, but it's time to let go and enjoy it. 

]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 18 Jan 08 00:22:34 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Feeling like death</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1704]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Pretty much out of it since Friday. This is gonna be the first Sunday I've voluntarily missed in at least a year. Dumb flu :(

Totally wrecks my schedule, though I should be alive and moving again within the next couple of days.

]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 13 Jan 08 16:37:14 -0500</pubDate>
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