Updates from last 2 tournaments at Denny Crum Poker Open

I just got back home from busting the 500+50 buyin today. I built my 5k stack up to 9500 when I got J9ss in vs J7 on a J97 flop. Soon after we took a break, and right after break I raise ATcc at 100-200 to 550 and the sb called. The flop rolls out TT7. He check calls my 700 bet and the turn was a 6. He checked to me and I checked behind hoping he would lead into me on the river. The river was a 2. He checked I bet 1625 and he checkraised me all in for another 1675 and I thought for a bit, but the guy had already raised twice on the river and was called both times as he was bluffing. I called and he flipped up 66 for the turned set. That knocked me down to around 4200 in chips. Then I open A2hh in late position and the same player called, and the BB shipped in his 8 BB. I shoved over the top to isolate and the other player snapped. The shortstack had 55 and the caller had AQ. The flop came A52 which I was going to gain chips on the hand even thought the shortstack flopped a set until the Q rivered and knocked me out. I played in the 300+40 on Wednesday and never got awhole lot going in that either as I lost back to back flips to cripple me and I busted out of that fairly early. I'm not sure if I'm going back to down to play the 2k main event on Saturday or not yet. If I do I'll keep ya updated. I'm going to try to play alot of online next week. I got to get going though, as I have golf league soon. I'll talk at ya later.

Quick Update from Denny Crum

I'm having problems with my internet connection here at the Horseshoe in New Albany. This will have to be a quick update. Played the 200+30 today and busted out on the 3rd hand when I get 98hh in vs KK on KT26 with 3 hearts. I couldn't get the flush to hold vs the set when he rivered another K. I just hung out most of the day, and since I was having problems with my laptop I couldn't play online tonight as planned, instead I procede to drop 1k in the 2-5NL game here. Whats funny though is I wouldn't of played in 1k worth of buyins tonight, so my internet connection screws me over. Also, who knows what would of happened online tonight. Well I gotta get, I hope the running bad ends tommorow. I'm not sure if I'll update til I get home Thursday night. I have a 300+40 tommorow and a 500+50 on Thursday. Talk at ya later.

Last minute decision pays off and Mattster24 dominating

I decided to play the 109 turbo at 2:40 on Stars and the 109 turbo at 3 on Tilt late last night as I was bored and railing a couple of friends deep in FTOPS Main Event. I busted out of the Stars within the first hour but caught some good luck in the one at Tilt. I won KQ vs AQ all in preflop early on to get the double up. A couple hands later I 3 bet an aggresive player with J7ss and he mucked. Very next hand he raised I shoved in my 6k at 150-300 on the button with AJ he snap called me with A6 and I got it to hold for a top 5 stack. I kept building my stack up and soon after we were in the money. I won a couple of 60/40's to maintain my stack. Going into the final table I was 7 of 9. The players went flying out and I won A9 vs K7 and JJ vs K3 to bust 2 players. We got down to 3 handed and I ran A6 into AK. 3rd place was good enough for $3500.00. The big news from yesterday though was Mattster getting 4th in the Stars Sunday Warm-Up for 40k. He lost AK vs KQ 4 handed for what would of been a huge chiplead 3 handed. Instead he was the short stack 4 handed and he ended up busting out soon after. Congrats to him though for the big score and hopefully this is a sign to come of a big rush heading into some live events here within the next month or two.

I'm leaving for Gatlinberg, TN on Thursday morning and will be down there vacationing until Monday. I have a full slate of live tournies for that whole week when I get back. The tournament series is the Denny Crum Poker Classic at the Horseshoe in New Albany. I'll be playing a 200+30 buyin on Tuesday, a 300+40 buyin on Wednesday, a 500+50 buyin on Thursday, and the 1900+86 Main Event on Saturday. I'll be staying down there a couple of nights next week and plan on playing online if I bust early but who knows. I'll be keeping my blog updated nightly while I'm down there giving you the tournament summary. I'm really looking forward to playing down there next week. I've always thought I was a better live player than online and hopefully I can run average and play some good poker and well see what happens. I have a $600 fantasy draft coming up Wednesday night in which I'm partners with Mattster. I doubt I have any more updates until I get back from Gatlinberg and down at the Horseshoe playing live. I'll talk at ya later.

So many big stacks....

I built up some huge stacks in alot of tournaments last night but caught no luck deep in them. I played the 24+2 buyin at 10pm at tilt. It was over 7k to win last night. I had a huge stack entire tourney and with 17 left I lose KK vs TT allin preflop for the chiplead. In the Tilt 50 single I ran TT into KK with 19 left but couldn't get the suckout there. In the Stars 11 rebuy I lose AK vs 77 for a huge stack with around 70 left. I final tabled the Tilt Fiddy Turbo and got 6th when I ran A9 into JJ in a blind battle. That paid close to $1200. I had a couple of other small cashes on the day but nothing big. I ended up profiting around $500. Such a sick day though for the stacks I had and couldn't get the big score. Well I'm running behind and gotta hop in the shower before I go golfing. I'll talk at ya later.

FTOPS and SNG's

I played FTOPS 200 turbo last night and some SNGS. In the FTOPS turbo, I doubled early on with AQ vs AT to get a decent stack. I 3 bet a couple of times and had around 5500 at 120-240. I pick up KK in late position only to run into AA and AK for a top 10 stack, but I couldn't hit my 1 outer. I played in some SNGS on stars and ended up winning a couple hundred after getting 2nd in a 60/45 man. I ended up breaking even on the night which isn't so bad. I'm going to play some tournaments tonight probably start at either 9:30 or 10:30. I'll talk at ya later.

Some online play from last night

Last night was the first night I've played since the last update. Things started out pretty ugly from the get go as I got AA cracked twice in the 162 on stars but somehow still cashed. One of them was on the bubble where I flatted AA preflop vs a big stack and got a shortstack to squeeze and got all in 3 ways vs AK and 84o. I couldn't hold vs the 84o. It was probably the worst squeeze play I've ever seen as the guy shoved in his 11 BB which he has 0 fold equity. That pot was for a top 15 stack with around 160 left, I broke even on the hand though as AK had twice as many chips as him. I built up some huge stacks in the tilt 50 single rebuy single addon but went card dead and add a cooler and was busto short of the money. I ended up final tabling the 50 rebuy on tilt once again, this time for 7th for around 1k. I ended up losing around 100 on the day, which isn't anything really for the stakes I play. Tonight I plan on playing the FTOPS 200 turbo at 9pm and than just play a bunch Sit-n-go's. Probably multi table some $60/45 player and $60/9 player ones.

I shot a 79 in mens league on Thursday which is a pretty good score for me but really should of been alot better. I lipped out so many putts it was rediculous. Oh well, I don't plan on playing anymore golf until this Thursday mens league. I went to the state fair for the first time with Angie on Saturday. I really don't see how the people who put this on expect people to afford this place who have a family of 5 or 6. It was $7 for a tenderloin, $6 for cotten candy, $7 for mozzarella sticks, some of the games that last 20 seconds were $5 a person. I had a good time though. We walked around the whole runway and saw everything. Well that about sums it up, give ya updates either tonight or tommorow after tonight's session.

Oh yeah, I'd like to congratulate Stephen "aka smcrawford2, gtfobish" Crawford for recording his biggest score in a online MTT of $1800 for his first place score in the Full Tilt 3 dollar rebuy.

Back to the dark side of Online

After having a great night on Monday night, I was hoping the rush would continue. The night started off great I ran into a couple of coolers but the poker gods bailed me out. I built up some pretty good stacks but going card dead deep didn't lead to a big score only led to a couple of small cashes and a couple of bubbles. FTOPS(Full Tilt Online Poker Series) started last night and I decided to play it. I grinded this tourney for hours until I won a pretty big sized coinflip to get me over average. This tourney started with around 5800 players and it paid 738 places I believe. I ended up busting around 830th when my TT couldn't hold vs 99 for 27k stack at 500-1k. Nothing like grinding a tourney for four hours and getting in that good for a good stack only to get 2 outed. So a night that started off great ended just worse than what it started. I ran absolutley running horrid at the end of the night. Oh well, thats how poker goes. I probably won't play again til Monday, but could log in some hours on Sunday. Well I'm bout to hit the shower and go play in mens league. Talk at ya later.

4 Final Tables, 0 Wins

I went over to mattster's house and played online last night with him. I think playing with him motivates me and it really makes poker better all the way around. This is the first time I've played since my last post and I was really looking forward to it since I was going to be playing over at his house. I ended up with 4 final tables which that is new record for me. My first final table came in the Tilt 35k at 7pm in which I got 3rd for a little over $4700. This would be the only final table I got my money in bad as I was severly shortstacked 3 handed. My next final table came in the Tilt 33 rebuy at 8:30pm. I had a big stack the entire tourney but kind of dwindled away deep into it but won a flip and got AA all in vs QQ for a huge pot to get me into the final table. I ended up busting out 6th here as I lost AA vs AT allin preflop. That tourney paid a little over $1600. The whole night I had huge stacks it seemed like and was doing quite well until I lost KK vs AQ allin preflop in the 163 at Tilt for a huge stack. It didn't seem to matter though as I continued to build stacks. I was at the final tables of the 70k at 9:30 at Stars and 50 rebuy at tilt at 11:30 at the same time. I ended up getting 4th in the stars 70k as I lost 99 vs AK/K9 allin preflop for a pretty good sized chiplead. I also lost K8 vs T8 to a shorstack on the final table bubble who had shoved into me the last 3 times. I made the hero call but couldn't get it to hold. I ended up cashing that one for a little over $5200. I ended up getting 4th in the Tilt 50 rebuy for a little over $2300. I took a sick beat 5 handed in which I raised 88 on the button and the SB called. We were currently 1-2 in chips with me having the chiplead. The flop rolls out J98. He bets 15k into the pot I make it 45k he than makes it 81k and I shove and he calls with QJ. The turn brought his dream card with the T, and I couldn't fill up on the river. I would of had a dominating chiplead 3 handed. I ended up getting QQ all in preflop vs A8 but couldn't get it to hold either for 26 BB. That tourney was $6200 to win and I feel I left some money out there on that one. All in all, I ended up profiting around 11.5k on the day. I was still pretty upset last night the way the final tables went as I got my money in great in some big pots but couldn't get it to hold. I ran well though the majority of the night, it wasn't like I was sucking out alot, it was just having my hands hold at the right times. It would be super nice to run like that everyday, but face it we all know thats not going to happen. It could of very well easily been a 20-25k+ night though. I don't think I'm going to play tonight as I only got 4 hours of sleep last night, but I do plan on playing Wednesday night as FTOPS is starting. Oh yeah, before I forget mattster took 2nd in the Tilt 50 single rebuy single addon for $3800.

I played some golf yesterday with mattster in the afternoon. I shot a 40 from the tips playing it down as I'm doing that more often now. It makes the game tougher but thats how it's meant to be played. I started out 4 over after 4 with me just duck hooking my drive. I hit some crisp iron shots in which I hit 4 right over the flag stick. If I get my driver figured out and keep hitting my irons the way I have lately I could end up being a single digit handicapp I think by the end of the year. Which I don't really care about a whole lot, but it would be a good accomplishment since I haven't been a single digit since 3 years ago when I played everyday. Well that sums it up, talk at ya later.