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  <channel>
    <title>The Watts Blog</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, 19 Jul 08 13:24:18 -0400</lastBuildDate>
    
    <item>
      <title>Holy crap I won</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2893]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Wow I run good. Wow. Wow. Wow. I'll write more about the final table later after I've slept or something. I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for all the kind wishes and support. I'll try to thank everyone personally later but I have flight back to Toronto in 5 hours and I haven't slept yet. Just so sick it played out like it was scripted or something. It's like how you dream it would play out but that's never supposed to be how it actually happens. So crazy.]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 18 Jul 08 09:28:27 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Bellagio Cup Day 4</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2891]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Hey, it was another long day and I'm pretty tired so I'm just going to write something here quickly. I'm the chip leader heading into the final table of 6 tomorrow with 5.06 million. It was a pretty sick day, I tried to monkey off my stack at one point but I failed by sucking out on Choron pretty bad with TT vs AA preflop. Right after that csimmsux monkeyed off a million to me with AQ vs my AK preflop and I was chip leader again. With 9 left everything slowed to a crawl and I went up and down a little playing pretty much only small pots. I started to pick up some hands as the night wore on though and built my stack up over 4 million. Then I won a fairly big pot against John Phan where I reraised him preflop and he called, the flop came K-hi and after 10+ minutes of thinking he folded QQ face up to my 1 million chip bet. The day ended shortly after that. The final table is fairly tough, with myself, my friend Luke "IWEARGOGGLES", John Phan, Ralph Perry, David Benyamine, and Gabe Thaler. All the hands from the final table today appear to be posted on worldpokertour.com.

Tomorrow is the "televised" final table (in quotations because sadly WPT does not have a TV deal yet for this season :-(). I have to do the whole deal with makeup, interviews, etc etc.... The final table starts at 5PM PST, but I have to be at Bellagio around 1 for all that stuff beforehand. There should be more interviews of me up on worldpokertour.com and cardplayer.com if you want to see me look goofy in front of a camera some more. I need to get some sleep, one more day of run good please for 1.67 million!

Mike]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 17 Jul 08 15:51:19 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>WPT Bellagio Cup - TV Table Chip Leader!!!</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2889]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[[b]Day 4 - First Break[/b]
[url=http://tworags.com/files/sirwatts_day4_1.mp3]Day 4, First Break[/url]

[b]Day 4 - Second Break[/b]
[url=http://tworags.com/files/sirwatts_day4_2.mp3]Day 4, Second Break[/url]

[b]Day 4 - 10 to go Chip Leader: Sucked out TT vs. AA[/b]
[url=http://tworags.com/files/sirwatts_day4_3.mp3]Day 4, Down to 10[/url]


[b]Day 4 - 9 to go - Dinner Break[/b]
[url=http://tworags.com/files/sirwatts_day4_5.mp3]Day 4, 9 left[/url]

[b]Day 4 - 9 to go - Still leading[/b]
[url=http://tworags.com/files/sirwatts_day4_7.mp3]Day 4, still 9 left[/url]


[b]Day 4 - 7 to go - Still leading[/b]
[url=http://tworags.com/files/sirwatts_day4_8.mp3]Day 4, still 9 left[/url]

Editor's Note: Mike must have been a bit too tired to call in after the end of the day, but we're happy to report that he is the chip leader entering the WPT TV table today with $5,060,000.  Below are the seat assignments and chip stacks. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 16 Jul 08 19:09:15 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Bellagio Cup Day 3</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2882]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Well, I had another super sick day at the Bellagio Cup. I was chip leader for most of the day and finished with 2.272 million chips to take a solid chip lead into Day 4 tomorrow. There are 32 players left and we'll play down to the final TV table of 6 players. We played 7 levels today so play went pretty late, so this is going to have to be a quick blog so I can get some sleep. I ran my stack up early in the day by making the toppest pair against Thayer a few times in some medium sized pots and abusing the bubble a little bit to get to 625K after the first 2 levels. After that I basically just played very solid for the rest of the day and was lucky to make a lot of hands. Here are the 2 key pots I played where I got most of my chips:

Hand 1: 4k/8k a1k I have around 700K and open 99 to 22k in EP. A player who seems kind of weak flat calls on the button with around 600-700K and a french player Philippe calls in the BB with around 500K as best I can recall. Flop A93 with two hearts. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 16 Jul 08 06:39:21 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>WPT Bellagio Cup - Day 3 Voice Blogs (Chip Leader at End of Day)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2878]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[[b]Day 3 - First Break, all good so far -- chip leader with less than 100 left and in the money[/b]
[url=http://tworags.com/files/sirwatts_day3_1.mp3]Day 3, First Break[/url]

[b]Day 3 - Third Break - Chip Leader[/b]
[url=http://tworags.com/files/sirwatts_bellagio_2.mp3]Day 3, Third Break[/url]

[b]Day 3 - Fourth Break - nothing bad, nothing special[/b]
[url=http://tworags.com/files/sirwatts_day3_3.mp3]Day 3, Fourth Break[/url]

[b]Day 3 - Last Break - chip leader[/b]
[url=http://tworags.com/files/sirwatts_day3_5.mp3]Day 3, Last Break[/url]


[b]Day 3 - End of Day Report - still on top![/b]
[url=http://tworags.com/files/sirwatts_day3_6.mp3]Day 3, End of Day[/url]


Editor's Note: SirWatts ended the day as the Chip leader with $2.272 million, almost 4x the average stack.

]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 08 19:17:54 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Bellagio Cup Day 2</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2876]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Out of nowhere I ended up having a sick day 2. I won two key huge pots in the last level to vault my stack over 400K. I finished with 427K which must be top 5 in chips with 125 left. The payout structure for this tournament is weird, as it pays 100 spots but there were only 445 runners, so over 22% of the field makes the money which seems really excessive. I have no problem with paying more spots in such a big buy-in tournament but wow. Anyways, here's a rundown of how I got my chips. My table draw was excellent as I recognized almost no one at my table. In level 1 I didn't do too much though and lost a few chips from my 36K starting count. In level 2 I was able to double up without showdown when I kept picking up hands like TT or JJ after a whole bunch of people limped and throwing in a big raise. People either folded preflop or called then folded to my flop bet every time. Level 3 I chipped down slightly again without too much happening. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 08 04:28:54 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Bellagio Cup Day 1</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2866]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Today was a really fun day at Bellagio Cup, but I finished with a sour taste in my mouth when I lost a bunch of chips in the last orbit, which is really unfortunate because it was probably the most fun I've had at a poker table in a long time before that. Devo was on my right (MaverickUSC), shaniac on my left and Raymond Davis 2 to my right and we cracking jokes the entire day, I've never laughed so hard at a poker table. We started with 45K in chips and the structure is obviously very good. I didn't do much in level 1 before I played a couple really weird hands in level 2.

Hand 1: 100/200 John Pham raises to 625 UTG, one call, and I make it 2625 in the SB with AA. Shaniac cold calls in the BB and both others call. Flop JT5 two diamonds and I decide to check because betting out and getting raised would make me cry a lot, though I'm not sure this is any better. It's definitely the type of board I have to be a bit worried about a set on though. Shaniac bets 5500 and Phan calls. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 13 Jul 08 04:06:19 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Sigh Day 3</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2860]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Well as I'm sure most of y'all know by now I busted early in Day 3 well short of the monies. Here's how that went down.

Level 1: Noting happened and I chipped down to 100K. No one calls my raises and the few times I called raises I missed the flop and gave up.

Level 2: I've been pretty tight so far so I decide to pick it up a notch. I open several pots with marginal holdings winning the blinds and even mix in a resteal against a semi-active asian player who opened in MP. I've already chipped back up to 115K when this hand happens.

Hand 1: 1k/2k a300 I open KQo in MP to 6k. Old guy who seemed kind of tight but I've seen do some weird stuff as well calls in the CO. Flop KT9 two hearts. I check and he bets 10K, which I call. Turn 2c, I check and he bets 20K. I kind of think he has AK or a set or something here a lot but I've seen him do some weird stuff like I said so I decide I should call one more time, especially as I have some outs when I'm beat. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 08 17:06:14 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>WSOP - Day 3: Voice Blog BUSTED</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2854]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[First Report:
[url=http://www.tworags.com/files/sirwatts_day3_1.mp3]First Report[/url]

Busted:
[url=http://www.tworags.com/files/sirwatts_day3_2.mp3]Busted[/url]]]></description>
      <guid isPermaLink="true"><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2854]]></guid>
      <pubDate>Thu, 10 Jul 08 20:55:32 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>A Rocky Day 2</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2840]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[My basic game plan on Day 1 of "Flop set, bust donk" turns out to not work as well when you don't flop 6 sets in one day. I basically was miserably card dead almost the entire day and watching my chip stack slowly but consistently decrease. Fortunately, Brandon Adams doubled me up in the last level of the night and I finished with 112,900 which leaves me in fine shape for Thursday. Here are the few interesting hands I can recall:

Hand 1: 250/500 a50. Folds to me on the button and I make it 1500 with K7o. Both blinds defend. Flop K62r I check behind. Turn Q they check and I bet 3000. SB calls, BB folds. Turn K, check I bet 6500 he calls and mucks.

300/600 a75: I'm fairly certain nothing actually happened.

Hand 2: 400/800 a100 I open to 2400 in MP with 99. Young Scandi on my left who likes to call and then fold when I bet the flop calls and mman_status makes it 9200 on the button with only ~15K more behind. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 09 Jul 08 16:41:44 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>WSOP Main Event - Day 2a Voice Blogs</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2838]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[[b]Day2a: Report 1:[/b] [url=http://tworags.com/files/sirwatts_day2a_1.mp3]Day 2a: Report 1[/url]

[b]Day2a: Report 2:[/b] [url=http://tworags.com/files/sirwatts_day2a_2.mp3]Day 2a: Report 2[/url]

[b]Day2a: Report 3:[/b] [url=http://tworags.com/files/sirwatts_day2a_3.mp3]Day 2a: Report 3[/url]

[b]Day2a: Report 4:[/b] [url=http://tworags.com/files/sirwatts_day2a_4.mp3]Day 2a: Report 4[/url]

[b]Day2a: Report 5 (end of day):[/b] [url=http://tworags.com/files/sirwatts_day2a_5.mp3]Day 2a: Report 5  (end of day)[/url]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 08 Jul 08 19:45:21 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Day 2 tomorrow, finally</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2822]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Alright, I finally get to play Day 2a tomorrow. The UFC was awesome to go to live. We saw 2 really just sick fights. We arrived a little late and the first fight we saw was the war between Cole Miller and Jorge Gurgel which ended by submission with only 18 seconds left. Just crazy. And of course the main event was insane. The atmosphere during that fight was just electric from start to finish, it was awesome. I really didn't have huge expectations for the card coming in, and while the fights in the middle were pretty boring overall it was a great night. On Sunday I decided to stay home and grind online tournaments. The day was going catastrophically as I had not managed a single cash and I was down to only the last tournament of the night, the always tough Stars $200 rebuy. Things started going right in that tournament though and I kept picking up hands when short stacks pushed and holding against them. Before I knew it I had a lot of chips at the final table. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 08 Jul 08 03:29:28 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Day 1 in the books, 104K</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2799]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Day 1 went really well for me in the main event. I won several big pots mostly by flopping sets and finished the day with 104,425 chips. Early on I was trying to get involved a lot and I was fooling around with limping in a lot of pots. It's not something I've ever really done before but I knew my table was never going to break and because of the structure I'd probably be playing a lot of the same people all day. I wanted to establish a bit more of a passive image so that my raises would get more respect in the later ante levels as well as encouraging the rest of the table to limp a lot as well. I guess the idea is to just outplay people postflop since most players in the main event obviously play pretty bad, especially with deep stacks. I also ended up picking up a lot of smal-mid pairs which I will just limp with as a standard play a lot of the time anyways to make sure I get to see the flop and try to hit a set (when I'm not in late position). [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 05 Jul 08 18:21:07 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>WSOP ME - Day 1B  Voice Blog Updates</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!</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>lol min-bet</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>Sunday: Different game, same result</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>First Cash!</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>
      <guid isPermaLink="true"><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2743]]></guid>
      <pubDate>Fri, 27 Jun 08 03:20:10 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>$1K Rebuy Day 2</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>
      <guid isPermaLink="true"><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2737]]></guid>
      <pubDate>Thu, 26 Jun 08 07:07:22 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Back on the Grind</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>Still an idiot</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2712]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[ 0 for 12 -46.5K now. Gave all my chips to JC Tran in the 1500 PLO rebuy today like a true holdem donk after luckboxing a stack early. Played meh in the 2500 6-max on Monday and didn't last long. Gotta go lose another 1500 now. How can I be this bad?

Mike]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 19 Jun 08 14:24:04 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>I am an idiot</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2682]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Scott Freeman Eliminates Michael Watson

Michael Watson raised to 4,440 and Scott Freeman called from the cutoff. Both players checked the {A-Diamonds} {8-Diamonds} {5-Diamonds} flop, and when the {7-Hearts} turned Watson bet 7,200 and Freeman called. When the {6-Diamonds} fell on the river Watson checked, Freeman bet 10,500, and Watson moved all in for his last 22,800. Freeman turned over {A-Hearts} {Q-Diamonds} to Watson's {K-Spades} {K-Hearts}, and Watson was eliminated. Freeman now has 142,000.

There is actually a small amount of logic to the river bluff. I'm almost certain he never has a king in his hand when he flat calls preflop, or at least extremely unlikely (KdQd or KdKc are about the only possibilities). And it would clearly be suicide for me to ever be bluffing here. Checkraising all-in for a minraise is completely retarded as a bluff. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 12 Jun 08 21:40:39 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>On to Day 2</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2680]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Today was an up and down day. I ran really good off the start but then messed up some hands at the end to lose a lot of my chips. Early on I flopped the nut flush against a set after chipping up in a bunch of small pots to get to 22K. Then I got some guy on my right to spaz out and put 21K in the pot at 100/200 a25 with TT vs my KK. I had not reraised preflop once in 3 and a half levels but he obv still never believes me. I used to try to use that image to 3-bet light. Now I just nit it up because people from the internet never believe other people from the internet in live poker. So I had 44K or something, got as high as 50K when 88>AQ vs a short stack. Then I misplayed a couple hands where I restole with K-hi and forgot to bluff him off A-hi postflop when he called. I also defended 55 against an LP raise and put in way too much postflop before finally folding and obv getting shown AA from the guy who kept instapotting very street. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 12 Jun 08 04:31:54 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Fast Structures Quick Bustos</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2676]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Well Monday was a $1500 Shootout event. The $1500 events only give you 3K starting chips (all events have twice the buy-in starting chip bank) so if you don't run good early your day is over pretty quickly. I lost most of my chips on the first hand I played.

25/50 I open KQcc UTG 9-handed. MP calls, button calls, BB calls. Flop Ac7h2c. I bet 300, button calls. Turn 6d. I think I can represent AK pretty easily by firing a decent sized bet. The button is young kid who looks like a live player though so I think I can probably get him off stuff that can't beat AK. I fire 750 and he minraises. Fuck. I'm getting odds to call and try to hit my flush, though it's a weird spot if the 7c or 6c hits. I think I can check/fold the 7c but I might have to shove the 6c. Anyways I brick and am left with 1050 chips.

I later double with an A on the river AKs vs QQ but shove AQ over a raise and get called behind by QQ to bust. [[ 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 00:52:48 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>A Big Sunday Final Table!</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2670]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I finally made my first final table in one of the biggest Sunday tournaments! I final tabled the $750K Guaranteed on Full Tilt. It was a bit of a strange tournament where every time I started getting chips I would lose the next pots I played and become short, but once I was short I would always win the next big pot and get back in contention. Unfortunately I couldn't get anything going at the final table and busted 6th for $23K. Between that and my 5th in the Stars 320 on Wednesday night for $10K I almost made up for the $40K I lost playing 200/400 PLO trying to get back my equity for missing Day 2 of the $1K rebuy. It was good to finally make one of these big final tables beating almost 3500 players, but obviously still a little disappointed not to win. But with JCarver at the final table in a Full Tilt tournament I clearly never had a real chance. I gotta give another shoutout, this time to my friend Leo Wolpert who finished 3rd in the $5K NL Shootout event. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Mon, 09 Jun 08 05:37:40 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Another Quick Day</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2660]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Today was a $2500 NL event and I busted before the first break again. One interesting hand:

25/50 5K starting chips. I have a little under that CO covers. Folds to CO who is a youngish guy who seems to have some idea what hes doing who raises to 175. I call in the BB with ATo. Flop T82r. I lead 250. I've started leading a bit in situations like this and I think it's a really good way to play the hand against aggressive players. They don't expect a thinking player to lead this type of hand into them here and you will often get called down light or induce bluffs. Checkraising makes the pot too big and I'm just not getting called down by worse with my image, so leading allows me to try to get one bet in on all streets which I think is basically the ideal situation with my hand. It does lead to some really messy situations but I think it's worth the higher risk to go for extra value. He calls and the turn is an 8. I bet 525 and he raises to 1500. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 08 Jun 08 06:41:59 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Such bustoness</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2656]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[No luck in the $5K shootout. My table wasn't that bad though it was certainly tougher than most. I was the first eliminated. I got off to a good start but then lost every pot I played after that. I then played some 5/10 PLO with a $25 straddle on the button most hands but just never made much in the way of hands there either. It was around 2 hours before I won a single pot. I ended up losing another $2K there so that sucked. Today is a $2500 NL event which figures to be pretty huge being on a Saturday and all. Maybe I'll run good or something. Also, today is my housemate here Tom's birthday. To celebrate he has made the final table of the $2500 Stud 8/Omaha 8 mixed tournament. He's 4/8 coming in and play starts up again at 4pm so good luck to him! Good to see someone in our house not sucking at least, winning a bracelet on your birthday wouldn't be a bad feat.

Mike]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 07 Jun 08 13:43:02 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Didn't make day 2</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2640]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[12:45pm: Call cab since everyone else drove in for 12pm event. 10mins to an hour wait time. OK could potentially be cutting it close but no worries.

1:15pm: Call back cab company. No one in the area wait another 10-15.

1:30pm: Call again. No one making any attempt to get here still.

1:45pm: Call again. Lady says she's going to try to get me a cab gets on phone. 10 mins pass she has no luck. Tells me to keep waiting.

2:05pm: Bond comes through the door busto before the first break as usual. I run out into the street chasing his cab waving my arms. Sprint for a block but I'm not closing distance.

210pm: Call back cab company offer $100 tip for a ride.

2:30pm: Have basically given up since I can't think of anyone that can come get me and I will probably be blinded off.

2:35pm: Kicking empty router box around the house on life tilt.

2:40pm: Call from Deeb wondering where the fuck I am. Explain situation he says he can find me a ride. [[ 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 18:48:10 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Made a day 2</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2636]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Today was the $1K+rebuys. I ended up in for the "minimum" of $4K and never really had a ton of chips. I had one mini-rush where I picked up AK on back-to-back hands and reraised to win a nice pot on the first, and then basebaldy decided to shove 66 over my reraise on the next hand for some reason and I actually won the flip to get to around 35K. I quickly lost those chips raising good hands, continuation betting, and then getting checkraised out of my seat. I grinded the shortstack for the rest of the day and finished with 16.5k with blinds starting at 800/1600 a200 tomorrow. So I'm very short but hanging on. It looks like there are around 106 players left and 72 will get paid so I'll have some work to do right away tomorrow. Also, huge congratulations to Aaron "Pacmann" Coulthard for finishing 6th in Event #2, the $1500 NL event with almost 4000 runners. He won just over $200K for the finish. [[ 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=2636]]></guid>
      <pubDate>Wed, 04 Jun 08 07:41:54 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Another Miss</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2631]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[So I skipped event 2 and played online this weekend with little success. The only thing I seem to be winning at online lately is PLO strangely enough. Today I decided to play the $1500 pot-limit holdem event at noon. Here's a report of how I lost that buy-in:

Hand 1: 25/50 3K starting chips. I've basically played exactly one pot in the first 45 mins or so. Folds to guy in MP who raises to 150, CO calls, I decide to squeeze it up to 600 with T7s in the BB. Raiser flat calls, damn. Flop 532r I check but he checks back. Turn 6d giving me a flush draw and gutshot. It turns out the raiser only has 1250 left. I should probably have shoved but I decided to check. He checks back again so I'm pretty sure he has AK. River T. I bet 600 and he calls and mucks.

Hand 2: This one was reported online but they butchered the details pretty bad. 75/150 4 limps I complete KJdd in SB. Flop Td9d5d, I check for some reason and it checks around (I normally just bet out here and I think that's better). [[ 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 04:07:26 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>One Down</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2619]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Well I busted the 10K PLHE pretty quickly. I screwed up this hand:

I have 19.3K of 20K starting stack at 200/400. Eric Assadourian (I think?) raises UTG+1 8-handed to 1100, Will Durkee pots it next to act to 3900. I find QQ in the CO. My first thought is just to fold, but then I ask Will how much he has behind and it's only 7K more, which makes me think his range can be slightly wider. Something about the way he raised made me think he didn't have KK/AA but Im obviously a live poker fish so I shouldn't put much faith in that. Anyways I talk myself into reraising, Eric reshoves, Will folds and I call. Eric has AA and Will had to fold AK after putting in over a 3rd of his stack. I don't win and am crippled. Definitely a fold is right there, and coldcalling is probably also better than reraising. I manage to run my stack up to 2800 then find QQ UTG at a new table. I pot it and get it in on the 987 flop and lose to TT. Oops. [[ 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=2619]]></guid>
      <pubDate>Sat, 31 May 08 01:21:45 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>WSOP 2008 Preview</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2607]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Hey gang, welcome back. I arrived in Vegas today and got to our house for the summer with no problems. I'm living with a bunch of different people this year: Serge (Adanthar), Tony (Bond), Celina (Bondgirl), Tom (LearnedFromTV), Nath, and Kyle (grafyx). We have a pretty nice house rented off the strip. Whoever designed the layout for this thing really butchered it, the main area of the house is one huge open room which is kind of weird. I usually like a nice open space but they took it too far. Also, the big TV kind of sucks it's a bit flickery. Nonetheless there is lots of space and it should have everything we really need including an outdoor pool. Yes, the pool really is a necessity.

I went down to the Rio today to check out the new set up and see if my money had arrived. I had read a few reports that they had made a lot of improvements this year and it looks like that's definitely the case. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 29 May 08 23:57:20 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Last Week before WSOP!</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2592]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Well let's see where was I last time I posted. Oh yes FTOPS was running. I ended up staying home last weekend and losing lots of money playing in those events. I did however finish 4th in the Party 300 on Saturday for ~$4800 to get me even for that day, but I had no luck on Sunday either. This week I played a bit as well. My only tournament success was finishing 7th in the AP $1K for $3500 when I came into the final table with a big stack then did nothing for a while before losing a big flip since everyone had absurdly short stacks. Today I finished 5th in the FTP $100r for $5K when I took the chiplead into the final table but lost JJ vs 69s aipf to Zpaceman. It was pretty awesome. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 25 May 08 03:26:07 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>There might be hope for me yet...</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2556]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Hey hey! I've rebounded pretty nicely the last couple days. Let's take a look at the list of things that were going wrong in my last entry. First, I finally won a step 6 to the WSOP. I ended up playing my friend ch0ppy HU and of course the first time I play a good player I manage to luckbox the win. So I got my first WSOP seat at last. Next, I had a nice tournament score. I just finished 2nd in the Stars 100+rebuys for $24K. I got heads-up behind 3:1 in chips and started to mount a comeback before blowing up. I made two really stupid spazzy plays heads-up trying some new things at bad times. Once again on my bustout hand I ignored obvious bet sizing tells and made a stupid bluff when the guy hadn't played back at me in any way for probably 20 minutes. If I just folded like I always used to and kept grinding away at him there's a decent chance I may have made the comeback. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 14 May 08 04:38:57 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Brutal week...</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2516]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Well I haven't posted in a while, I guess i didn't really have much to write about because I've basically just been getting my ass kicked all week. I've started playing some 2/4-5/10 PLO full stacked to try to learn the game, and while I feel like I'm playing reasonably well the results just haven't been there so far. I might be running bad, but I don't really have the experience playing PLO to really be able to tell. I've even been taking a bit of a hit at Holdem cash games lately, though for the most part I'm pretty happy with my play in those and I think I've just been running bad. Here is an example in which I get "Matusowned" (when he made his little speech I thought he had AA for sure hence my chat).

[url=http://www.pokerhand.org/?2592084]http://www.pokerhand.org/?2592084[/url]

Even tournaments haven't been going that well. I've been playing a lot of the step 5 and step 6 WSOP satellites. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 11 May 08 00:17:35 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Epic Fail</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2454]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[The PLO heater came to a crashing halt the last couple nights, as expected really. At my peak I was up around 100K but I lost most of that back. The thing is that PLO is such a sick high variance game and shortstacking it in particular is even swingier that winning/losing 12 buyins or whaetver is really not statistically significant in any way. It's a whole lot of money at these stakes though obviously. Anyways seems only fair I post some of the hands that led to my demise if I'm going to brag when I win. This time I will include some strategic musings for my benefit as much as yours.

 [url=http://www.pokerhand.org/?2551339]http://www.pokerhand.org/?2551339[/url]  - The flop is weird. I will often run into the straight, but I have a ton of equity against the straight and there is a lot of value in protecting my hand when it's best. I will also get called by worse hands sometimes (smaller sets especially) so there is definitely a lot of value in betting. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 02 May 08 01:50:08 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title> How to Tilt</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2435]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Well I had an interesting weekend from a poker perspective to say the least. There were some really big special tournaments this weekend so I played a fair bit. On Saturday there was the sickest tournament ever, the Pacific $1000 buy-in $3 Million guaranteed. It got 2200ish runners meaning around $800K was donated to the prize pool by the site. The payout structure was really top heavy to try to attract players: 1st = $1 million, 2nd = $400K, and then more gradual from there. Also, basically everyone on Pacific is terribad so it's really awesome. Sadly it wasn't my time as I held on for a while on the short stack before losing AA to JJ around 5 hours in but still short of the money. I also busted everything else I played including the PokerRoom/Mansion grand which is also awesome, and I was even down slightly at my 10/20 and 25/50 cash games after a decent number of hands. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Mon, 28 Apr 08 02:57:50 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title> Back Home!</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2413]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Update!: Checkout my poker commentating debut. TwoRags has posted a couple clips from the live $1000 sit and go we played in LA back in January. Check out the links at the top of the TwoRags main page.

Well I'm back home in St. John's for the next week. Saturday was my 24th birthday so between that and the fact I'd been on the road for 3 weeks already in Europe I decided to skip the WPT Championship 25K event. I'm actually not planning to play any more live events until the end of May when I'm making the move to Vegas for a month and a half again for the World Series of Poker. Last year I was extremely burnt out from poker by the end of the series so this year I'm going to try to do a few things different to avoid that including taking the next month off from live poker.

I haven't played much poker in the last week or so. I busted out of the 2K euro event in Monte Carlo pretty quickly and then spent most of the rest of the trip drinking in the player's lounge. [[ 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=2413]]></guid>
      <pubDate>Tue, 22 Apr 08 11:47:52 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Busto (Updated with Details)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2376]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[OK let's do a quick recap of Day 2. I quickly chipped up to about 27K winning small pots and picking up the blinds, unfortunately most of the hands I picked up the blinds with were monsters that I definitely would have preferred to get action with. Then this hand happens to set me back where I started.

Hand 1: 300/600 a75 Folds to this Russian guy on my right in a PokerStars Supernova Elite shirt who shoves 7Kish. I reshove AQ and lose to 44. Back to 17K. From there I manage to chip back up to around 22K when this absurd hand happens.

Hand 2: This LAGgy French guy raises to 1500 in MP, and he basically does this a lot with likely all sorts of stupid hands, but raises bigger with legitimiate hands. He seemed but bad but I didn't realize what a complete nutcase he was until after this hand. I decide to just reraise and pick up the pot. I find A3o and make it 5K. He insta-calls. OK I still definitely think he has a weak hand. Flop T94r, I bet 7K, he instacalls. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 15 Apr 08 06:57:58 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>16.7K on to Day 2</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2368]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[It was a pretty frustrating day. I more than doubled my stack at my first table to 32K but then got moved to a new table that was pretty tough and didn't make any more hands. I bled down to 16.7K without losing any real substantial pot which was even less fun than it sounds. However blinds are still only 200/400 a50 when we return tomorrow so I have lots of time to pick up some hands. Hopefully I get a better table draw, there are so many bad players I definitely got extremely unlucky with table draws today. I don't feel like recounting all my hands, here's one that describes the 2nd half of my day:

150/300 a25 I raise AQs to 900 in EMP, one of the decent aggro players across the table calls. Flop JT5r, I bet 1600 he calls. Turn 7 chk/chk. River A. omg I finally made the top pair!!!! [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 13 Apr 08 21:10:33 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>EPT Monte Carlo Day 1B</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2362]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[So I play tomorrow (Sunday). Looks like there's going to be around 800 players so probably over 2 million euros for first. I'm not ready to tell you all about Monte Carlo yet because I didn't leave my room today. Last night was the PokerStars cocktail party which was a lot of fun. It seems like everyone is here, this tournament is just big. Anyways I ended up having a bit too much fun trying to take advantage of free drinks as opposed to $10+ drinks like anywhere else here. So today I just lied around and did nothing all afternoon. In the evening I played the Saturday afternoon EST tournaments to get my mind back on poker for tomorrow but had little luck. I also mixed in some cash games though and ran really well at those. I was up $22K at one point ($20K on one 25/50 table) but I lost a few big pots at the end to finish up only $13K. I haven't posted any cash hands in a while so here are some of the big pots from today:

[url=http://www.pokerhand.org/?2425185]http://www.pokerhand. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 12 Apr 08 20:21:31 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title> Pisa, Florence, and Monte Carlo!</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2352]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Hello, bonjour! I am now settled in the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel and Resort, and it is pretty much the best place ever. I'll have lots of time to rave about it in the coming week though once I've seen and done more here, for now I want to talk about the last few days doing the tourist thing in Italy. So timex, [url=http://www.cardplayer.com/online-poker/players/4?showbio=1]ch0ppy[/url]  (Matt), and I stayed in San Remo Sunday night and played online tournaments until 7am or whatever because of the time difference. Our plan was then to check out Pisa and Florence before heading to Monte Carlo for the EPT grand final, but at the last minute while we were looking for hotel/finalizing our plans before leaving timex dropped out and decided to just stay in San Remo and be a degenerate, so only ch0ppy and I ended up going. We decided to try to keep the trip cheap so we ended up booking a cheap hotel in Pisa for 3 nights. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 11 Apr 08 06:21:34 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Damn you Shaun Deeb</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2301]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Could have saved me 5K Euros by not getting sick but instead I had to play the EPT. It was a pretty short day, I doubled up with AKo 4-flushing AKs in a very skillful hand. Then I called a 4xBB shove with K7o and beat his A9o. Now at 36K blinds 600/1200 a100 I get moved to Schaefer's table. He raises UTG 7-handed to 3200, I call with JJ on the button and the BB makes it 11.2K. Schaefer folds, I'm not thrilled about it but shove and BB has QQ. I'd probably fold TT but I think JJ is just good enough I shouldn't be folding. Anyways the 2K Euro event is tomorrow so I'll get in that now I guess.

I haven't talked about San Remo at all, basically the whole area is gorgeous. When I flew into Nice the runway is right next to the sea so it's a pretty sick view of the Mediterranean as you land. The water is that beautiful bright blue rippling calmly. From Nice timex and I got a cab to San Remo, and the entire trip is winding through hills by the coast. [[ 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 03:21:41 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>I got into the EPT!</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2285]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I was a last minute entry into EPT San Remo today when Shaun effing Deeb had to withdraw because he was really sick. I was able to buy-in and take his spot which was pretty awesome, though obviously I feel bad for Shaun and hope he's feeling better soon. I did my best to make the most of the opportunity though. I didn't run especially good today and it was an up and down session. I probably made some small mistakes but all-in-all I'm happy enough with how I played. I was pretty exhasusted all day because I woke up really early this morning and didn't bother trying to get back to sleep since I wasn't supposed to have to do anything today. I ended the day with 17K which is a bit short with blinds starting at 500/1000 tomorrow but it'll do. I was going to write a quick summary of key hands but I'm really just too tired. My stack basically went 10K ---->15K ----> 3K ----> 14K -----> 6K ----->17K throughout the day is the short version. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 02 Apr 08 21:04:45 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>I won a donkament!!!....</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2258]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[...and it was so much fun I went ahead and won another one. With no $100K sponsorship package and still a little pissed about the whole ordeal it was clear I had to take matters into my own hands and go get paid. Of course seeing as it was Sunday that meant trying to luckbox some donkaments. Unfortunately all the US-based sites tournaments start super late here and I have a flight at 8am so I didn't really want to bother playing all the late ones and risk having to miss my flight if I was at a final table or something (unless it was a really big final table). Fortunately there are a lot of Euro-donkaments that start at more Euro-friendly times so I just played everything that started from 12pm EST to 5pm EST (6pm-11pm here). Timex told me about a $550 tournament on Betfair that had a $100K guarantee so I made an account there and gave that a shot as well. Lucky he did, because that was where I finally broke my ~9 month slump. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 30 Mar 08 22:42:43 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Sigh.....</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2246]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Well I'm out of the Everest contest. I don't imagine I ever actually had a chance. The day went pretty well, we played a few sit n gos and I finished 4th and 2nd which is reasonably solid. The interview was two questions, one about Everest and one about poker in general. You get 5 minutes to prepare your thoughts then go in and do a 5 min interview. I got a couple tricky questions but I think I actually handled them pretty well. Anyways then they narrow it down to 20 people at the end of the day. I wasn't selected, but I kind of wasn't surprised. It seemed pretty obvious that their objective point system they claimed would be used was complete bs. Choose one/all of these reasons: I'm Canadian and they're concentrating on the European market. I only recently joined the site mainly for this contest and they wanted to reward their regulars more. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 29 Mar 08 20:08:08 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Everest Contest Preview </title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2216]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I didn't play at all this weekend hence the absence of blog updates. I spent Thursday-Sunday visiting family and friends in the area and enjoying that special holy weekend that comes but once a year: the first weekend of March Madness, when anything can and invariably does happen. Today I played a nice long session to make up for it a little bit though, and made two final tables. I finished 5th in Party Super Monday for ~$1700 and 2nd (siiiiiiiiiiiiiigh) in the iPoker (Titan) network $50 rebuy for ~$8K. So I finished up about $6K at tournaments but lost the same amount playing cash so the day was more or less a wash. I'm leaving for Europe on Thursday, with the first stop being Vienna for the Everest Poker live casting (March 28-31). I haven't really gone through what this involves on here yet so I'll take the time to do so now. The 200 players invited compete for 10 sponsorship packages. We are judged in 7 categories:

 [b]Blogging Skills: 10[/b] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 25 Mar 08 01:45:32 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>I'm Back!</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2167]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[So the Everest competition ends this Friday and my position in the online popularity contest part is unlikely to change so I've decided to start cross-posting back here again. I'm sorry I was away for so long but the Everest competition is obviously a pretty big deal for me and even though I like my chances I have to take it seriously and do everything I can to try to win. On to the blog.

It might seem like this a copy/paste of last weekend's blog but I assure you that's not the case. I slept really poorly this weekend for some reason even though I was exhausted. Still, being the hard worker/addict that I am I just grabbed some caffeine and played the usual schedule. On Saturday I busted out of everything super fast except for the Absolute $500 tourney. Again this week I managed some key suckouts and survived pushbotting my shortstack for quite a while as we neared the final table (the structure gets really bad towards the end in this tournament). [[ 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 17:57:21 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>LAPC Day 5</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2027]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Hey I'm 6th/18 in LAPC Main Event heading into Day 5 with 987K chips. Just a spot for you to post your comments here since you can't on Everest's site afaik. Day by day recaps still over there at 
[url=http://www.everestpoker.com/video/user/?d=799]http://www.everestpoker.com/video/user/?d=799[/url] 

Mike]]></description>
      <guid isPermaLink="true"><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2027]]></guid>
      <pubDate>Wed, 27 Feb 08 12:37:59 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Help me win a $100K Sponsorship!</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1990]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Sorry to do this but a part of the competition for the Everest Poker sponsorship is getting a lot of hits over on my blogs and any videos I might post over on their website. So please go check out my profile and read my blogs over there for a while! (and tell all your friends!)

 [url=http://www.everestpoker.com/video/user/?d=799]http://www.everestpoker.com/video/user/?d=799[/url] ]]></description>
      <guid isPermaLink="true"><![CDATA[http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1990]]></guid>
      <pubDate>Fri, 22 Feb 08 22:20:55 -0500</pubDate>
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