Campfire Stories

My last post here..

2008-04-11T21:26:00.000-06:00

I've soft launched my new site, devopoker.net. It's still severely under construction, but it's def a step up from here :).

Cheers,

Devo

WPT Reno, TV Final Table

2008-03-30T23:00:00.000-06:00

So blessed... Man, it's hard to put into words what I'm feeling. The last blog was a pretty good stream of consciousness in my opinion... this journey has been so incredible and amazing that it's very difficult to put into words what I'm really feeling.

Grateful. Lucky. Blessed. Stoked. Those are the first ones that come into mind.

So, after that barf blog, here's what happened.

I went to bed Thursday night expecting to wake up to a message knowing who was sponsoring me at the final table. I needed to get that taken care of before I went to make-up at 2pm. Maria called me at 11:15 and asked me about the deal, said she was on the phone with Vanessa Russo talking deals at the moment. I said see what you can find out and went to get a hold of Matt.

Turns out he got stonewalled and couldn't make anything happen. Crap.

OK, I'll try the guy that tried to chase me down the night before. He was way too aggressive and abrasive and it really turned me off. I didn't want to do business with him, but was out of options.

He says, "PokerStars decided they only wanted to take Jason."

Wow. Last night they said they'll take me and Jason and to let them know in the morning.

So, I start calling people, and got a hold of Katie. I met her in the Ultimate Bet suite during the 2006 WSOP. I'm proud to say she was my first friend in Vegas (even though she lives in LA). I got a hold her 35 minutes before make-up, and she said "I'll make some calls."

At 2:05, Shaun Rice walks in. Ultimate Bet will take me. Sweet. We negotiate a deal, shake hands, and I put on a patch.

Thank you Ultimate Bet so much. I hope I gave you a good show.

So, makeup, interview, lunch with JP, find out my mom just got in, and at the set by 4:30 pm. I am still pretty wound up and am hitting writer's block. I would like to write a blog about the poker, but it's all documented pretty well so I don't want to go into specifics.

Lee definitely deserved the win. I made two decent mistakes, both of which I am sure will make the show. The last hand I severely overplayed my hand. I was just convinced that he was going to try and outplay me early and I thought I had the best hand enough of the time. Wrong. I realized it while driving across the desert when I realized his tell. Basically if I knew that 12 hours earlier I would have saved like 1.3 million in chips. Lee is also a total class act. Excellent card player and total gentleman. It was a priveladge to play with him.

I'm bummed that Jason didn't do better.

I'm bummed that Jeff DeWitt didn't win a hand on the TV table.

I'm stoked that my Mom and brother flew up. I'm stoked that Mike and Vince both told me I did great on set. I'm stoked that I could buy a new car today! And I'm stoked that I am still in the FTP $65k and already up on the day.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

WPT Reno End of Days Two and Three

2008-03-28T05:34:00.000-06:00

:-) This sure has been fun.

This is all going to explode into some sweet blog someday.

But probably not right now. But who knows. I'm sitting here listening to my friend Ryan Ahern play the piano through my Bose sound dock.

See? I'm practicing talking about sponsors.

So, tomorrow I'm gonna get paid a minimum or $10k for wearing a fucking logo.

I gave up on being famous like six months ago. And y'all bitched to me about depressing blogs and what not... but damnit, I was a selfish cocky asshole about twelve months ago.

I'm glad it's taken this long.

Not that one TV table is going to qualify me as "famous" or anything, and really far from it. But this is the break that I have been waiting so long to catch. 2nd in employees event? Nice, but, obv meh. 2nd in O8? Sweet, you know how to play games other than unlimited hold'em, but nobody cares. All of my 2007 WSOP TV time is me being pissed after being two outed in Omaha 8 . Sorry for being mildly annoyed.

Thank God for that eight ball.

Y'all know it better than most how horribly I have been running Aug07-Mar08 minus one week in February, but today I felt like things were finally turning around.

If you haven't read the hand, here's the cliff notes. I open btn with T T , SB w/170k flats, BB w/100k flats. Flop T97 rainbow, 50k in pot, SB bets 15k, BB's turn. My immediate read? He's gonna ship and be really embarassed. Now I need to figure out how to get the SB's piece of crap into the pot also.

BB says, "I'm all-"
Devo says, "I'm all in."
BB finishes, "In?"

I want to look like one pair.

BB thinks for about twelve seconds before he shrugs his shoulders and says, "OK I call."

SB: 67o, bout 14% equity
BB: 55, bout, mmm... 0.1% equity.

Turn eight ball.

Fuck me. I mean seriously. How can this shit happen every freaking time? I seriously quit poker on that spot.

"And the river is... AN EIGHT! DEVO MAKES THE FULL HOUSE TO WIN THE HUGE POT, ELIMINATING DONK AND FISH IN 18th and 17th PLACE!"

Thank you. One time. Seriously. One time don't tack my balls to the wall with lag bolts. And this one time came, propelled me into the chip lead that I carried until we were eight handed, where I lost it getting 3 outed by my friend Jason Potter (although I did pay off turn and river after he made aces up... coulda folded river, but whatevs... cost me 420k) and losing a race do David Pham. Worst beat of that is now Full Tilt has to take the dragon, where they were going to take Lee and I otherwise. I'm going to sign with either the dog or stars in the morning. My friend and aparently new agent is flying up in the morning.

And seriously holy fuck. What a trip this is and I'm loving every moment of it. I feel so blessed to be in this spot, and I hope that the things I have learned over the past couple of years here will pay off, not just on the poker table, but in who I am. Millions of people are going to see me, and I hope that I will be seen as the kind, goofy, good ol' boy that I am rather than the arrogant prick that I used to be.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

WPT Reno End of Day One

2008-03-26T05:54:00.000-06:00

17/75 remaining "World Poker Challenge WPT Event
Reno, Nevada
March 25-28, 2008

9 4 4 8 A
Flop Turn River

T 8 A Q
Barry Greenstein Bryan Devonshire

signed, Barry Greenstein"

Photobucket

It's late.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

This Will Only Be Funny...

2008-03-25T04:31:00.000-06:00

... To Those Who Know Reno/Poker So I really feel like blogging, but it's 8:45 from the start of the main, plus I don't feel like writing, so here goes.

This is the list of random crap that I have noticed while in Reno.

In order of them coming off my head...

1) In Reno, there is this fetish with faucet knobs going the wrong way, particularly the cold knob. In this entire hotel and every random bar/casino restroom without automatic faucets that I have been in here in my entire 9 day stay thus far, I haven't found a cold water faucet in a bathroom that turns on to the left. You know the saying, lefty loosy righty tighty? Works on bolts and everything that twists in this world? Yah, not in Reno. The hot water faucet turns on by twisting left, while the cold water turns on by twisting right. It's especially tilty in the shower when you go to turn if off, which usually ends up in cold water hitting your back as you yell some colorful metaphor.

2) Driveways. Poker players don't drive much, but I'm an anomoly. Probably ruined that spelling. Anyways, I like driving places, and I like driving around while at places. Twice, I've been on the road four times in this trip, I have run into a one way driveway. Man they're tilty. I try to pull into a 7-11 for gas, but the only driveway that I have to pull into peels off into the direction that I am traveling and I cannot possibly make the turn. It happened again today on the way to the bank. I try to pull in to Wells Fargo or 7-11, and I end up parking at a car dealership or waiting at a light to turn right and then right into the gas station. Incredibly frustrating.

3) Reno is the best stop on the circuit. Why? Cause there's things to do here. At this hotel itself, there is all the casino/food ammentities that go with a fantastic resort, but there's also bowling, an outdoor driving range that hits into a man made lake where geese hang out on man made islands with man made grass (astroturf) on them where the geese make such inviting targets for golf balls (done this twice), a golf simulator that's awesome (see Daniel's blog), shuffleboard and pool in the same place, go karts, some crazy bungee jumping swing thing, a locals bar in the parking lot with Golden Tee, put all that within an hour of Virginia City, Lake Tahoe, and my Grandpa, and nestle it in the foothills of the Sierras, and you have a place that I really like.

4) Poker sucks in Reno. Aparrently the WPT in Reno has been the bitch of the WPT forever. Last two years? 600 entrants into a 5k WPT two years, 440ish last year, and this year they kicked it to 7500 and 300 is a fair over under line. Sad. Plus, every random side game that I have played has just been LOL in poker content, and combine that with the draws for these events, it's pretty brutal.

5) I really like the aspect of community on these tour stops. Everybody here is mostly on their own, so when we all get here we want to be around cool people, and it creates a pretty sweet atmosphere of good groups of people everywhere. I have been blessed to be a part of many of these groups and it has made my stay here thoroughly enjoyable.

K... that's all I got. I really wish this was Vegas, becasue I love the proximity to the mountains. I could really see myself living in this neck of the woods at some point, cause I like the mountain climate so much better than the desert, but Reno's just way brutal in so many other ways. I wish I had the Colorado Springs of Reno with everything else of Vegas, but obviously there isn't a place like it in the world.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Reno: Days 1-5

2008-03-20T19:28:00.000-06:00

Good blog, long read Alrighty...

First things first. We need USC to beat Kansas State. And, while we're at it... how bout Duke, Washington State, and Texas A&M. That would push us to a perfect 12 and 12 thus far in my $100 bracket pool. Gogogogo...

I figure that I have some run good in something due to come soon. Since my fantastic week in the middle of February I've lost like 30k straight or something gross like that. Maybe even 40k. Sunday was the worst Sunday I've had in a looooong time, cashing in nothing and going off in the 100r's. I was done so early that I decided to head to downtown Reno, a place that I have not been since I was 16.

My family and I used to travel up here every August to spend time with my grandpa, who lives in Carson City. Ten years later I returned as an adult, and lemme tell you - the nostalgia just poured over me. I started at Fitzgeralds, drank a green beer, and played poker at this table in the pit. It was pretty hilarious really. Only reason that I sat in the game is that I collect chips from places that I've played poker - but my rule to myself is that I must play at least one orbit to add the chip to my collection. So, that was my mission this evening. Wander around downtown, play poker at every place possible, and drink my way into forgetfulness of the brutal day. It turend out to be an extremely pleasant night. I made it back and got 8 hours of sleep before the 11am 100r.

Monday started off just how Sunday ended. I just got brutalized. I was planning on playing through all day, but at 3pm when I was busted out of everything, I decided I needed a break to aboid tilting my brains out. I went downstairs to the arcade level of the Grand Sierra Resort to whack some balls at the driving range. Well, this is by far the coolest driving range I've ever been to. Hitting off mats into a huge lake. I don't know why it's so much more fun to hit golf balls into water than it is onto grass, but it holds true for me at the river and ends up being true on the golf course (for me anyways). So, an hour and a Port of Subs sandwich later, I'm back in the room and ready to go.

Final table 100r, 5th place, $7400. Sweet. Even for Sunday and Monday. Obv won zero key races, didn't suck out, and lost a race to bust. Whatevs can't complain.

Tuesday I sleep in. Shaun Deeb shows up and we grind from 4pm through midnight. I play super high volume. One cash. Min cash in $10r. Sigh. Fuller shows up also and begins to own my soul at everything, specifically Chinese that night after griding. Devo loses $500 at a game that started $1/point, and only had a dozen $5 hands and 1 $10 hand. Deeb, Evan, and Fuller win, Devo donates.

Wednesday I decide to play the $500 PLO rebuy live here. The field size was ridic, but I knew the field and liked the spot a lot. So, in for $550, insta-re-buy for $500 more, lose all pots first hour, rebuy $500 more to get back to 10k, Build to 15k, get it in with a set vs. a naked (just, no other outs) flush draw coughcoughshaundeebcough, lose obv, ship another $1k to get back to 10k, win no more pots, ship another $1k to add-on 10k in chips, and I have 400 chips less and am in for $1500 more than if I would have walked up 1:59 into the tourney and bought in. Sigh.

So, I go about crushing, get unlucky, and then get Fullered with 12 left. Oh yeah, the total prize pool is $33k. I could min cash (5th) and lose $250. Lovely. Rick opens, I re-pot KK2 5 for about 40% of my stack, rick calls with the fabulous K Q89 , knowing that he's getting the whole pile shoved in on any flop, it comes A 4 X, I jam, he laughs, and I miss my one outer. GG me.

In time to play online, but I'm tilting pretty good. I get a text message from my mother nagging me to get in contact with my grandfather.

It's been on the back of my mind ever since I considered coming to reno. I had not seen him since my father's funeral, and in the last ten years I've had one awkward phone conversation and one awkward e-mail of communication. My contact has been more than either of my siblings or my mother. It has always been a sore subject for me, and I have held some resentment against my grandfather for excommunicating himself from the family that reminded him of his son's suicide. I felt like he should have manned up, stepped in, and been there for me in the years of young adulthood where I really needed the guidance and wisdom of a father figure. Instead the only message I got, from my father and grandfather, was "We don't care about you." As a teenage boy that is so brutal.

However, as I have grown up I have been able to understand why he hasn't wanted to talk to us, and I cannot blame him for how he has responded. I cannot imagine how painful it must be for a parent to have one of their children die before them, and then to have it happen in the manner that it did. Ouch. It's a natural human defense mechanism to flee from pain, and this is a pretty painful memory. Just like I don't want to be around anything that reminds me of my father, because it hurts, I am sure that he feels the same. It's scary. It hurts. It sucks. It's not fun. It's not fair.

I have been afraid to contact my grandfather for fear of being rejected. But, with my mothers urging, I realized that at least making an attempt was what I needed to be doing, as I may never have an opportunity like this again. So, I found the phone number, made a phone call, and was walking to my truck to drive to Carson City five minutes later.

Wow. That went way better than I expected.

So I drive down, wondering what I'm going to say, what we're going to talk about, and before I know it I'm pulling up to the curb in front of his house.

He looks the same, ten years older, but good as ever. Betty (his wife) looks great also, and I sit down on the couch. We talk the past, catching up on ten years of estrangement. He wastes no time asking what happened to my marriage, and is impressed with my answer of "I made mistakes." We chat family, what everybody's up to and all that good stuff. I tell him about poker, about my successes, the fluctuation, the ups and downs, and he receives it much better than I thought. "As long as you're making living," Betty interjects, "And you like it," "Then I have no problem with it."

Cool.

So we head down to their locals casino to have some breakfast/lunch/dinner, I pick up the tab, and we hit the slots for a little while. Betty plays Keno and wins a few bucks, Grandpa and I chase down a few slots and just chat. It was fantastic, and everything I could have hoped for. I said to him at one point something like this. "I can remember years ago when I would come in these things with you and everybody else, and you adults would go gamble while us kids had to do kid things, and I dreamt of the day that I would be able to join you. This is really cool for me."

And it was. A dream come true really. People have asked me the classic question of if I could have five minutes of my life back, besides the 37 seconds that I was on the phone with my stock broker on March 10, 2000 when I decided not to sell $197,000 worth of stock that I had earned 7000% on in the last year, I would spend the time with my father. I don't know what four minutes and twenty-three seconds I would re-live, but it probably would have something to do with baseball, or shooting, or something that Dad and I did together often. Spending that half an hour with my grandfather, just the two of us, was the closest that I can come to that dream in this lifetime and was a moment that I will cherish for the rest of my life.

Oh yeah, I broke even. Running good vs. the slots IMO :-).

So, we went home, and we continued our converstation from the casino about ghost towns and rockhounding and all that stuff that a 11 year old boy just soaks in from his grandfather. This 26 year old boy soaked it in with even more fervor than that 11 year old boy. On his bookshelf he had two display cases of indian arrowheads. It came up in conversation that he had found every single one of then in the past dozen years or so.

Our last year or so of heading up to Grandpa's in August was his first year in his retirement home. He bought a few acres outside of Dayton, NV on this hill overlooking the Carson river. Absolutely fantastic place. I can remember driving stakes with my father and grandfather, defining his property line way back in the day. Turns out that his property has been an migratory camp for American Indians for millenia. Recently, like the last few thousand years, it was the perfect place for a camp in that valley, so naturally the Indian's chose it. However, thousands of years ago the area was a lake, and the Dayton area was the beach for this huge lake, and thus had artificts around that dated back as long as Indians have been in the area. He said after a good rain or wind storm, he would go out and just find em everywhere. Seriously, his collection of artifacts was so impressive that it was difficult for me to believe that he found them all. Very cool. It was also fun chatting because I gathered sufficient information to begin searching for arrowheads down by Vegas. It has always been a dream of Jared's to pick up a real arrowhead in the boonies somewhere, and we're going to be able to make that happen.

So, from there we talked about WWII. This hour of conversation was fantastic. I got all the stories of my grandfather's time serving in the war that I had never heard before (or been old enough to understand/remember). That got us talking politics, vietnam, the gulf war, the war on terror, etc, and I found it quite errie how much I agreed with every one of my grandfather's stances. I came across my.

Hold on. WTF Duke. Losing with two minutes?

I came across my libertarian views while in Colorado, mostly through my roommate Travis. I wonder if the seeds for my beliefs were planted by my father and grandfather and thus why I took so strongly to them when I discovered them? I wonder.

So, the part of the night that meant the most to me is when Grandpa looked at me and said, "Bryan, you've grown up. And I'm proud of how you've grown up."

Wow. Something I've needed to hear for twelve years.

That afternoon was worth all the money in the world, and I will take losing every tournament for the rest of my life to have that afternoon in my memories.

So, I came back around 10:30, grabbed Rick Fuller, and had an opportunity to kick his butt at something. Naturally there was no money on this ass kicking, but it was a great time nonetheless. We went downstairs to the same arcade level with my same golf clubs, this time with the intention of playing Pebble Beach.

They have this bar called "Bunkers" with all the standard stuff, pool, darts, shuffleboard, ground shuffleboard, and the coolest golf simulator machines ever. Take an indoor golf hitting cage, add a computer with the software, and an intricate array of sensors that detect ball speed, vector, ball spin, slices and hooks, and does it with 90-95% accuracy (see Daniel's blog... he has one in his house). So, computer feeds a signal to a projection unit over our heads, projects an image of the first hole at Pebble beach onto the wall in front of us, and it looks exactly like you're standing in the tee box of the first hole at pebble beach. The work that went into this program is ridiculous. They have hundreds to thousands of video and images from every hole from every angle they could possibly think of. They have audio recordings from different spots on the hole and it plays in the sound system above your head. That sick famous par three there? Hole 6 or 7 or something? You can hear seagulls, the crashing of waves, and the occassional passing helicopter in perfect stereo sound overhead. It was sick.

The place closed at midnight. We had so much fun that Rick bribed the guy to stay open another hour so we could finish and play a couple of more holes. I ended up hitting a 26 over par I believe, which is an excellent 98 for me, and really excellent for pebble beach. I was helped a little by having the wind turned off and the putting, as the system can only record putts outside of six feet, therefore anything within six feet is a gimmie. Six footers are not even close to gimme's for me. However, the chipping and putting took some time getting used to so that cost me some strokes also.

Oh yeah, Rick scored +44.

Sadly though, Rick would get me again today. Busting me out of two live tournaments in two days. Now, not only does he have the lead (2-1), but he has that to hold over my head for the rest of forever. Siiiiigh. I played really well today but ran really poorly in all-in pre-flop situations. I got it in 7 times, winning once. I was ahead twice lost, racing twice lost, and behind three times, winning one.

TY for coming back Duke.

The bustout hand was fine I think. Rick had a stack and was active, and I restole with A5o for his late position raise. He said, "Uh oh, I've only looked at one, an ace." I'm liking this though, and even though he knows I resteal light, I don't think he thought I was re-stealing light here. Finds a Q and I whiff the suck-out. 35th or something, 18 pay. Ugggh... win just my expectation of all-in situations and I don't even find myself in this spot (cause I would have had chips) and would have been able to play the game that I want to play, not the shove/fold game that I had to play.

Oh well. GL Rick - I'm rooting for you 100% now.

1500 tomorrow, 2k saturday, online sunday, online monday, and 7700 main on tuesday.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Reno... The Gettin There

2008-03-16T13:11:00.000-06:00

Snow sucks I have had plenty of content to write about all week, but for whatever reason I have been pretty dang lazy and unmotivated to write. But after yesterday's adventure through the snow across Nevada, most of the time spent with a hippie named Kevin, I decided it was time to come out of hibernation once again.

So, Friday night after I couldn't get away from my 9 4 on the A A 2 , 5 , Q board (I check/raised/4-bet flop, shoved the river), I was feeling pretty ancy. I came home, wanted to write, couldn't ended up playing in a frequent player point satellite to a $200 main event satellite, and that sure was fun. It was a rebuy-and add-on structure, so since these infinity frequent player points are worthless to me, I jammed every hand trying to get a stack and putting chips onto the table. I kid you not I went twenty minutes straight shoving EVERY hand pre and lost every time. Then, I finally sucked out, and then I was able to take advantage of my image, getting it in waaaay good with the hands I got later and they held. I ended the rebuy period with the chip lead, regained it with 3 tables left, and carried that all the way into the money which was top seven. It really was quite fun at the end since I had all the chips and basically raised/4-bet every single hand. Ruined this poor guy's day... raise with the ol' 57o, get shipped on, call since I'm getting 5-2 for like 1/15th of my stack, he has 88, flop XX6, 3, 4 with 9 left. So, I win my seat and decide that I'm officially playing online Sunday, not the Wynn $10k. I had been wrestling with the issue for a while since it's obviously going to be a small/tough field. After talking with some dudes I was leaning toward online, and hey, the seat just kinda sealed the deal :-).

Also, I was planning on heading up to Reno on Wednesday, but yesterday (Saturday) I had nothing to do and didn't want to play online or live, so poof. It became travel day. I was going to go to Reno early. I called up, booked rooms on the poker rate for 10 days, and after shaking off the hangover that I blame entirely on AMAK316 from Saturday night, I started the drive north on 95 out of Vegas.

I had taken this road as far as Beatty before, but that was back in December of 02. I really enjoyed the drive. There is a lot of cool stuff out there in the desert. I'm gonna have to take my time coming back and check everything out. Anyways, about 10 miles outside of Beatty I picked up a hitchhiker named Kevin. I'll admit... he was pretty weird, but in the I'm scared or the I need to draw my weapon kind of scared. I asked if he had any music requests, picked Led Zepplin, and freestyle sang to all 10 songs I had on my iPod. But not in a creepy way, but definately weird. The dude had been on the road for 23 months, originaly from San Francisco. We really didn't chat much (as he wasn't very good at chatting...), and I dropped him off in front of the Atlantis or something like that around 11:30pm.

I then drove over to the Grand Sierra and went through one of the most frustrating check-in processes ever. I don't have a credit card. I just don't. Sorry. Never been a problem before.

"Sir, there is a $50 deposit that will be held against your card for incidentals if you wish to have those available."

"Yeah, yeah.. no problem."

She's already told me that she's charging my card now rather than at the end of the stay, which kinda pissed me off, but whatever - it doesn't really matter right?

She whacked my card for $1200. $650 for the room, $550 for 11 days of $50 in incidental deposits.

K this is just ridic.

"No, take it off, you told me $50, not PER DAY." She got really confused. Left the desk. Left me with a line for about 5 min. Comes back, says she's gonna call my credit card company, there is still nobody else at the desk, I say just give me my card I want to leave, she does, and now I need to find the Bell Desk. Why? Beats me. when I gave my bags to the bellhop, he gave me a ticket like normal, then said to take it to the Bell Desk inside. I'm like, why? No reason. Just do it.

*Sigh*

"Hi, they told me to come to you." I hand him the ticket.

"Yup, this is why. Are you going to your room right now?"

"No."

"Ok then, take this ticket, and when you get to your room give this number a call and we'll bring your bag up."

POGAIERMGOPAIRJFPOAIENPOFOAIDSNHFPOIJQOEWPIFHOIJGAIONDOIGVNAPOIEFAO.

I mean, seriously?

So, I get everything squared away, and I decide to go do some exploring. I discover the poker area, see my friends Crystal and Jeremy who live in Tahoe (not surprised to see them here), and end up taking an empty seat in a 15-30 LHE game. They looked at me and licked their chops, thinking "Yum Yum! NLHE Tourney donk trying to play a limit cash game!" No... and I can't really come up with what they were thinking to be honest. This was the best LHE cash game that I have sat in since... at least July 07 in Arizona, but prob way farther back than that.... Canterbury 05? Bellagio 04? Not sure really. Seriously - I played 45 mins, we ranged from 6-9 handed, and one other player raised pre-flop. He did it twice, and once was BvB. I prob did it like 10 times. Nobody else raised. Here's one sweet example. Limp, Limp, Limp, I raise ATo, SB calls, BB calls, all three limpers call. Flop 865, SB bets, lots of things happen, and SB rolls over KK at showdown, which miracleously ends up being good. If you know anything about limit hold'em you know how especially awful this is.

Another example of money hating that they did last night, this one directly benefitting me. UTG limps 6 handed, I raise UTG+1 w/A 8 , we see the flop heads up. It comes Q 8 4 . UTG checks, I bet, he literally hmmmm's and bob's his head, shrugs his shoulders, and thows three red $5 chips into the pot (hypothesis: since these chips were synthetic and since chips in general are hard to light on fire, he decides to throw them into a pot

Time out: My 55 just lost to A2, A3, and A9 aipf in the 100r. LOL. It's a rough Sunday already. Busto in Brawl, in for $700 in 100r, have min chips.

K game on.

So the dude decides to call with XX. Turn 3. Now he fires. I make the easiest raise ever since it's so obv what he has at this point, and he calls. River a 3, he fires again, I call obv, thinking I'm gonna be pissed if he has something worse than I put him on and just hit a 2 or 5 outer, and he says, "I missed."

Damn right. Ship the money. But he won't fold. He says, "What do you have?"

I say, "I called you sir."

"I missed. I have nothing." Drops his cards. I drop my cards, put a $1 chip on them, and hold on to them until the pot is pushed to me.

The dealer says, "Are you folding sir?"

"Well, no... not if he's going to be like that." He retrieves his cards and finally tables the five and the six of different suits. Exactly what i put him on. I have to respond to this though...

"Sir, don't get mad at me for not showing my cards when I don't have to. Don't insuniate that I am being impolite by not tabling my hand when I called you. You, sir, are the one trying to avoid showing your cards when it is your turn to, not me."

Anyways, I was amused to say the least. The hand was fun in all aspects.

I walked with $230 after about 40 minutes, came upstairs, passed out, woke up before my alarm this morning, and am gonna be playing online all day for next four of em...

Peace and good luck!

Devo

Close on Sunday and Catching Up...

2008-03-10T05:22:00.000-06:00

Win $3k on the river and I'm bummed. Tonight I was the most disappointed 3k winner on the day to ever set foot in the Avi casino.

Ever I bet. But that's what the Sunday tourneys do to you really. I decided this afternoon at the river house that I was going to be working, and while obviously a good decision (considering that I made 3k in 7.5 hours of "labor"), I was still very disappointed.

I have had a fantastic week. Poker has been terrible, but life has been great and I really have no room to complain. But, since this is a poker blog and poker has sucked every day except for today for the past eight, I haven't really been motivated to write a "I run so bad" blog esp since y'all hate reading them almost as much as I hate writing them, but it is what it is right? Have I set a record for usage of the word 'but' in the last several sentences?

So, we'll work backwards. Today, Monday, but really Sunday, I became really robusto in Sklansky bucks, or Sue bucks if you will (If you don't know the Sklansky/Sue story, do a google search and find it...). I decided to play and enjoyed the greatest office anywhere (as seen in previous blog). From immediately out of the gate i was running good and playing excellently. First level of the Sunday Million I ran a bluff with AK where I raised a limper pre, saw a T9x flop hu, he bet, I raised 4x, he called, turn 9, he bets, I raise 4x, he calls, river J, he checks, I shove for the pot, he folds. I was just seeing everything, executing on everying, and everything was working. The schedule was pushed back an hour for most of the day, and I played the standard afternoon Sunday schedule without going over my 6max rule. I played the Sunday Million at 230, FTP 750k at 3pm, site I won't tell you about big one 4pm, Mulligan at 405, 100r and 2nd chance at 430, and the 65k, formerly 55k, formerly "Devo wins" at 5pm. Seven donkaments. At six pm, when the 200r was starting, I still had six going. I was crushing. I was double stack in all of them at some point. Anyways, I make it really deep in the FTP 750k, being 3/like 70 at one point playing for 140k, and I also make it deep in the unnamed site major, 38k for first, and the FTP 65k. Long story short, I finish 7th in the unnamed site for 3200, losing races in back to back hands to go bust. I had enough chips that the first race cost me half my stack, and if I won the second race I would have been chip leader again. Gross. In the 750k, I decided that bigegypt is my total nemesis. He has screwed/busted/owned me deep before, but this time I got it in good vs. him both times yet still lost both times. First one, steal/resteal situation, I have 88, shove on his steal, he calls getting about 1.6-1 with AJo, and hits a J on the river. Sigh. Bout five hands later I shove A3 on the button, say to Danny, "Watch this, he's gonna call with K high," he does with KTcc, flop AJ3, and I lose. gg me like 53rd place for 1200. I bustoed like 80th in the 65k, don't remember the spot but remember knowing that I couldn't have done anything better, and all the others fizzled in standard procedure.

Damn. Good day, but I really thought something big was coming today. I played honestly one of the top ten sessions of my life today and for that I'm proud, but I still feel let down. My expected value seriously when deep before bad things happening had to be at least 20k. 3/60 or 70 or whatever in the 750k and 4/20 in one for 38k? Anyways... I run bad blah blah blah whatevs I'll just store up all those winning races in critical situations which I have to be like -20 on for the main event and just win 20 races straight and say I raise to five millions on TV.

Blah. Good ramble. So, while still on the topic of Sunday, i want to respond to the e-mail in Mike Paulie's blog that referenced sending the question to myself or Shaun. It'll just be quick and brief but I feel like I should respond because I could easily be one of the players that the e-mailer could be complaining about. I'm too lazy to get into the details here but it can't be that hard for you to find the blog :-). For me (and I know many like me), live poker is a social experience. We see people that we haven't seen in forever and we meet cool people that we've never heard of before. But, most of us who are local/intheclub/"cool" or whatever, we don't get to chat with those of like mind live very often. So, we naturally become acquaintences due to the obvious similarities in our personalities and in my opinon it has nothing to do with our games. For example, in the $1k LHE Wynn Classic event on Wednesday (that I took 15th in after 11.5 hrs of play without making the money), I found myself sitting across a 23-28 year old dude in sandals, pajama bottoms, a hoodie, a hat, and a beard. We chatted, connected, and began bull shitting. Just goofy ol' good times. Mind you this is limit, easily less stressful than NLHE in tournaments. I open raise a hand (which I do like a third of the time...), and just after raising hand my iPod video to my new hippie young pro poker player friend with the gymnast running into the vault video playing saying "Check this out." Tangent: that video is like my most favorite bad beat therapy ever. I take a beat, watch that, and am reminded that it really could be worse. If you have never seen the video, find it on youtube. Gymnast runs into vault/bloopers/lol etc etc.

K, so... This old dude on the button in this hand throws a fit. He literally calls the floor after raising hell with the dealer saying that we're excanging "communication devices" (he literally said that to the dealer) during the play of the hand, and he strongly implied that my hand should be killed. Now, the head floor guy at the Wynn tourneys is a friend of mine (and really deserves a blog of his own... young, super class act, I have heard many Wynn tourney and cash game players say how impressed they are with him, specifically the level of maturity he handles himself with in the high stress environment of high stakes poker, and an excellent poker player himself, recently taking down a 2k live event for over 140k). He hears the situation, is obviously never going to kill my hand, but handles it perfectly and says, "Bryan, not while in a hand, please." Perfect. He made the guy with the beef happy by correcting me, but he also made me happy by not making it a beef. The point? I wasn't bull shitting with Joe to establish some sort of pecking order, intimidation on other players, etc, etc... I am a very social outgoing person, and Joe was the closest to me (both in proximity and personality) that I ended up chatting with him a lot, and poker was bound to be a little part of that converstaion since it's what we both do for a living. Hope that helps, but if it don't at least you got a little insight as to why pro's will chat it up at a table, sometimes too much and to the point that it significantly annoys other players.

Soooo.. poker last week, I played something live on Saturday, whiffed Sunday, played live Omaha 8 1k on Monday and got the best 4 hour run of starting cards ever just to bust in 4 hours. Tuesday I played a full online schedule starting at 4pm, 11 tourneys including both 50/50's at 6:30 and both the doubles at 7pm, and I was bust out of all of them at 7:59pm. Gross. Wednesday was a 1k LHE that I put the 11.5 hours w/o cash into, Thursday was a 1500 NLHE at the Wynn that I busted in the 30th minute in. I had 33 in the BB limped 4 ways (including me), 200 in the pot. Flop K92 two diamonds check around, turn 3, I bet, get raised, re-raise, and call a shove to lose to 99 (siiiiiigh....). Friday and Saturday I took off.

The other cool thing that happened was that I went to two professional sporting events between Monday and Tuesday. Monday just before I busted I saw Travis (who just won the Wynn $1k rebuy for over 100k!) who said that his friend from high school was a professional Tennis player and had full access to the Tennis Channel Open in Summerlin and he was going to see the Leyton Hewitt match that evening. I had like six chips, asked if I could go, I could, and it was a good time. Sick how good those guys are. It was cool chatting with Eric (the tennis pro) about his journey in being a professional tennis player and the similarities between tennis and poker. There were way more than I thought there would be!

Tuesday night right after I busted one of my friends who deals on the circuit and who is in town for the Wynn Classic invited me to a Wranglers game. Kinda funny that the person from out of town invites me to the local semi-pro hockey team home game, but Jared and I went and had a great time. $28 got us seats three rows behind the opposing team's bench and they could hear us =). The Wranglers won 5-1 and really looked doing it. Jared and I want to get season tickets after that game. Great times.

So... yeah. I played literally one of the ten best sessions of my life today. I was killing it. If I had just a little bit more run good big things would have happened, but whatevs... I did what I need to do to get myself in that spot and the deck just didn't work out in my favor today. There's always another tournament tomorrow, and with the way I have been playing lately it's just a matter of time til I win one of these suckers, especially one of these Sundays.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Wynn Classic Events 1-3

2008-03-01T23:08:00.000-07:00

LOL Blogaments Been a while, but haven't really had anything to write about. All the randomness floating around my head hasn't quite materialized itself into word yet, although I think if I write a spew blog a bunch of that will come out. So, that's what I'm gonna do, write what's been up lately, try and to find something interesting to write about in poker, and maybe a sweet tanget will come along.

Soooooo. Saturday I believe was the last day I wrote a blog. I was supposed to play the Venetian $500 event, but when the bike shop called and said my motorcycle was ready I knew I was going to call in sick. I had just dropped off my bike the Wednesday before to partake in my ritualistic lighting of fire to money on something silly afterwards (it was the motorcycle once). I bought pipes, bags, a windshield, tires, and a hypercharger . You know on those 50's hot rods how that sick supercharger intake pops out of the hood and has those flaps that open more when you gas it thingies? I got one for my bike. Not sure why (fuel economy and performance according to the salesman). But, all those toys with the routine servicing and installation of everything I was $3500 in the hole... so I had to play with my toy.

Ended up going to this local casino like a mile from my house called Club Fortune with Danny to play some drunken poker. I was actually really jonesin for some live poker cash style. Long story short, we get 4 handed playing 3-6 nl, I ask for a break in the rake and they say no beause they're on overtime. Fair nuff, game over. Then this bad player says, "Wanna play NL?"

I was stuck $100. Couple hours and atm trips later I'm up $600. Ty. Got home at like 7am, said, "Nope. Not playing a $2500 in 5 hours." So I slept the Venetain main, and made it up by three to play the afternoon schedule. That didn't go well quickly, Jared said lets go to Laughlin, I unregister from all the rest and we're out. Jared, Danny, and myself were there til Tuesday. Good times, but no really good stories.

Rest of the week I've been plaing online and at the Wynn (Th-Sat), playing a $500, 1k, and 1500 respectively. I love these structures because they start with 4k in chips and 25-50 blinds (the 1500 was 5k which is a perfect everything imo). It goes up quickly, but then slows waaaaaaaay down deep. The way it should be. So, Thursday I played great, lost most of my stack in a dumb situation (called a raise on the button pre w/TT to induce a squeeze from the perfect shoving stacks in the blinds, get it and they have QQ obv), and couldn't get going otherwise.

Friday was fantastic, busto by the 2:30 mark, just general nothing you can do tourneys that I love.

Today I had 12k by the 30th minute after...

Ah!

Lets play, "Put the (insert slang word for bad poker player) on a hand!"

25-50 blinds like 10 mins in, 4 way limped pot, we're in the big blind with A 8 . Flop 8 7 2 . I bet 125, the dude calls, Matt Brady, friend of mine who is an excellent player and has a lot of playing history with me, makes it 325. I re-raise to 1025, the dude calls , and Matt folds. Turn 9 ty, I bet 1425, the dude calls. River a napkin, I shove for 2500, he thinks, thinks, thinks, shrugs his shoulders and calls, mhig and he mucks before anybody can see. Any guesses? I give up. Only read is that it didn't look like he hated the turn, like if he had a set or a small flush or something.

Anyways, from there somebody pulled the plug. Actually after the first break. I was in fifth gear halfway through level 1 and kept the pedal to the metal for the rest of the first round. Then just couldn't get a damn thing going. Like, I was getting max-value one outed. Dude raises, I call button with KQss, flop AAx, x, Q, check check flop and turn and he bets like half pot on river I obv call and he has QQ. Know what I mean? No money goes into that I don't get back any other card. Whatevs... I shortstackninja'd for as long as possible, turning 4k into 12k twice at 300-600/50 WITHOUT A SHOWDOWN... :-). That's tough to do you know. In that period I made the greatest speech of my poker career. I shove over a guy for like 12 big blinds with QJo. He's getting a great price to call and I hate my hand, but I thought with his stack it had enough fold equity to make it profitabale with 400-800/100 fifteen minutes away. He tanks, cuts out the checks, knows he should call but hates it and I have him right in the AJ range. Shit. Then, I see an out.

"Cocktails?" asks the the beautiful ty for walking up at this moment woman.

"Yes!" She walks over. "I'll have a bud light please!"

Dude obv noticed. Mucked within six seconds of speech. :-).

Anyways, like three hands later I get my first real hand in the second round of going from 4k to 12k (I only had one the first time). I have like 10k at this point, pick up 88, open, get re-raised, I'm never raise/folding 88 w/17 bb's and a blind increase five minutes away, so I call the re-raise and stop-n-go the Axx flop and get called by kings. Oh well - 31st ain't bad when I never had a double up hand or otherwise big pot after that first one.

I never did get that bud light.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Venetian Deep Stack III Events 27 & 28

2008-02-22T23:39:00.001-07:00

(insert witty "Intro Text (Required)" here. WTF why is it required? Sometimes I don't want a subtitle. Bad news: I didn't do anything.

Good news: I busted before dinner break both times.

Last two days were a tale of two different tournaments. Thursday was the $500+50 NLHE. 40 min levels, blinds 25-50 with all the normal levels (and reduced ante... going 100-200/25 to 200-400/25 instead of 50) and 10k in starting chips. Really fun structure actually. I played so freaking good. Like sick scary good actually. I was making moves that I didn't even know I was capable of, and I was really surprised at the accurate reads I was picking up after being off the live horse for so long. I even almost limp-re-raised the small blind once, but I thought it may be too fancy... we'll get to that hand in a sec.

I came out of the gates guns blazin. By the first break I had 22k and had only seen one showdown - and that was for a small pot. Very proud. In that period I 3 bet Q4o (won on flop), check-raised the flop or turn vs. pre-flop aggressors three times (all check-raises uncalled), and picked up almost every pot I opened with a c-bet. It was some sweet steamrolling.

They move me tables, and I continue cruising, but this time I get screwed in a couple of spots that were pretty silly. One, I bet the flop for 975 (like , and this dude puts in 525. Flop is Q 5 4 , I have 5 4. Dealer informs him that it was 975, he makes a stink saying that he wouldn't have called and that the dealer should call the action better (cause we all know that 1 purple, 4 blacks, and 3 greens looks very similar to 1 purple or 5 blacks and one green). Anyways, turn 8x, I bet 1800, he says, "Well now you have me in this far," I think please don't give this dude with the 9 or whatever another diamond. X on the river, I check, he checks. He says, "Two pair?" I say, "Two pair?!? What the crap two pair! I flopped bottom two and it has remained bottom two. Lemme see."

He shows me 8 4 . He was not in the blinds. I was in the big blind. Sigh.

Next hand goes out to Fruitkin. I open UTG+1 w/AQ or whatever. I get called from the big blind. Flop 422r. He checks, I c-bet like 60% pot, he calls. Turn x, check, check. River x, check, check. He rolls over 72o. No joke. I LOL. Literally. I can't help myself, and chuckling I ask, "Two questions. One, if you call that, what do you fold? Cause I've seen you fold your big blind before. And second, why?"

He says, "Implied odds, obviously."

Mind you he's like 25 bb's deep with 15k. I LOLed again.

So, shortly after that hand, this really interesting spot came up. Woman, good looking, early thirties, blonde, white chick, sits down to my left in the 6 seat. I say, "Hi!" She says, "Ohh, don't get to know me too well! I only have this many!" She has 1875, it's her big blind at 300/600/50. She makes it clear that she's going all-in this hand. This is how great live poker is. Seriously, I didn't realize until this last week after playing 4 mos online how bad people are live compared to online. It really is astounding. First three peeps under the gun limp. First thought through my mind: "OMG... it would be so sweet to get a hand here so I can limp re-raise the field from the small blind." As I think this, one more guy limps, it's my turn in the small blind, and I look down to find: A K .

Ha.

Now what creative bastard?

I really believe that AK is the best hand to do this with too, for the simple reason that seeing a limped flop 6 ways with AK is exponentially less criminal than with any decent pair. I suppose that 55-88 would be decent hands to do it with also though... anyways, after about fifteen seconds of deliberation I decided to just make it 4k myself and take the dead limper money now, rather than take a whack at an extra 1200 per caller. My first thought was the mid 30's white chick stereotype, that if she can check she's gonna in this spot. I decided that there was too much risk in losing the 5k or so in dead money already out there (counting her 1825) to risk trying to get the extra 2bb's outta the limpers. My standard play in this spot is to stop-n-go anything that I don't mind juicing the pot with so that hopefully I get a little fold equity rather than just wanting to get it in. But then I thought and... with 5 limpers, none of whom are folding, is it better to get 5-1 on your last 1200 with any two cards or is it better to have some fold equity/escape the worst flops?

Beats me. What do you think?

Anyways, I raised, the guy who never folds but hits everything like 84o on Q54 monotone flops, called, and we checked it down board reading 543, 9, 2, my wheel beating her 94o and whatever the hell that guy had.

OK. Next level, 400-800/75... move me to a new table. Bryan, meet Kent. I didn't learn that his name was Kent until today, when I found him sitting on the same table in the same seat with a ginormous stack and played several hours with him. Super nice gentleman and I truly had a pleasure conversing with him throughout the past two days. He certaintly enjoyed it more on this day though after this hand. Young guy with chips opens under the gun to 2100. I call on the button with 30k. Kent calls out of the big blind. Both have me covered, all are above average in chips. Flop 7 6 3 . Kent leads for 4k. I count his stack, estimate about 22k total, and make it 15k+cheese. Kent goes all-in, I'm obv calling, and he has the top end of his range, J J , and that's just fine. The pokerstove numbers have me at a 47/53 disadvantage, which I'm plenty fine with. I think the rest of his calling range is 88-TT and maybe an A7, and maaaybe 76. I knew that he wasn't betting a set or a draw cause that's not his style, confirmed today. My mistake on the hand, which I gave you a hint on in here, is his stack size. He had me covered pre-flop, and I was just shy of 30k, and then on the flop I estimate him at 22k total, thus making getting it in the obvious play (shoving v raise/calling like i did, doesn't matter, I just raised like I did because I wanted it to look stronger). Anyways, the board bricked out, I asked how much, and when I heard "30+K" I said, "What?!?!?" Oops... gg me. I felt pretty silly actually, but on the walk out I was fine with it even if I knew stack sizes by the time I got to the car, and then a couple of phone calls later I confirmed that also.

Got in the truck, fought traffic down koval, through the tunnel, onto the 215, and then all the way to this new joint called "Gyro Express". It's the nuts. They had flyers for a beer pong tournament tonight, $20/team, all money goes to prize-pool, and free beer to players . Wow. They'd be in trouble if they were closer to UNLV. Take it to go, love the food, and pretty much don't leave the couch. I was planning on writing this blog last night but then "Mass Effect" happened (I love/hate you Dutchie)(not a pun)(Mass Effect is a sci-fi RPG).

Pass out, wake up before 1045am alarm (wtf?!?), head to the bank, withdrawl $4500 which takes an eternity because they're trying to figure out what the heck the $5k check without any identification is from (any of y'all get checks from internet poker sites know exactly what I'm talking about... :-), I'm like what's taking so long it's a Wells Fargo check, and... yeah. My bank has to wonder about me. I mean seriously, I have used my atm card like once in the last two years, every cash withdrawl I make is for at least 4 digits, I have mysterious wire transfers coming in from backers that I usually withdrawl into cash within a couple days. Mysterious checks. In demoninations like $9500. Never over $10k. One time I walked in there with a metal bucket full of one dollar bills. It broke both cash counters. They had to do it by hand. $1046 worth. Dude asked me what I do, I said bartender (it was Jared's money, I don't remember why I was cashing it... think I needed to borrow some money or something so I had to do the legwork), but now they think I'm a bartender and keep making these huge transactions. Obv drug dealer.

My favorite story from the bank is when I discovered that banks don't have a lot of money at them. I see casino cage drawers with like $50k in em, I guess I have always assumed with all the bank robberies/movies + my casino cash experiences that banks have bank. So, when I waltz into Wells Fargo and ask for $23k cash before the 07 WSOP, they do the usual "Oh shit, $5k+ cash transaction" dance like they do almost every time I walk into the bank, and after about five minutes the manager tells me that they don't have the money. I laugh out loud, and say, kid you not, "Man, that's hilarious! Could you imagine if I was a bank robber? What a crappy day that would be! I'd be getting pissed thinking you were lying, shooting up the place, but you really don't have money!" The poor girl teller didn't realize that I was quite amused really and just heard "bank robber, crappy day, shooting up the place" and froze. The manager laughed though and all was fine. She informed me that she'd find a branch that had the funds.

Ten minutes later, she comes back and says the fourth branch has the money, and it's in downtown Henderson (not nice neighborhood). There they didn't want to give me the cash either. Teller says, "Ok, so I'll go get this $23k cashier's check."

"No, cash please."

"Why do you want that much cash? Lemme go get you this check."

"Lady, you're my bank. I need cash. If I take that check, I would just hand it back to you and ask for you to cash it."

"OK..................... ummmmmmmmm.......... are you sure?"

I just looked at her. She got me the cash after about 20 minutes.

And that has to be one of the most successful post hijacks via tangenting in the history of this blog.

So now you get the cliff notes from the 1k.

level 1-2 - nothing exciting, 11k
level 3-4, same, 7400
level 5-6, lotsa action, shoving, restealing, double through Kent three times, and the highlight. 3 limpers to me in BB, blinds 300-600, I have 36k and AKo, I make it 3600 total, first limper calls, both others fold. I'm new to table and say, "May I see your stack please?" Kid you not less than 7k. Thats correct, the ol "Limp-call 1/3 of your stack play from UTG+2." I laugh, go all-in in the dark, flop T9x, he taaaanks. I'm like, wtf.. What possible hand can you be tanking with here? He finally calls with KQo and rivers a Q. I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLED.
level 7, check-raised the flop with ten high, won, bled down to 19k at end of level, raised the last hand before dinner, had KTo but that didn't matter cause I always win the last hand before dinner, get called by the big blind flop T 7 6 , BB checks, I bet 3k, he makes it 9k, I put my last 15k total into the pot, he calls with 8 7 , turns an 8, and I obv brick gg me.

Had dinner with pbdrunks and TheNew, both awesome dudes. Got home, and here I am.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Crushing.

2008-02-14T14:33:00.000-07:00

Happy Valentines Day y'all!

I'm currently laying on a king sized bed looking out over the Colorado River valley from the Avi Indian Casino about as far south into Nevada as geographically possible. Tiff and I decided to pop down here for Valentines Day. Not exactly the most romantic spot, but when you live in Vegas your non-casino destinations are rather limited. This place has a beach and a golf course and it's right on the river, so it'll do.

Actually, we're having a great time. We absolutely killed em at everything we touched except video poker last night. I talked her into playing a $25 tournament that started at 7pm. We were 2nd and 3rd alternates in a field of 40 and were in within the first eight minutes (LOL). I busted a guy on my second hand with 99>AJ on an J9x flop, when the betting went raise/call preflop, bet/all-in/call post-flop (stacks were reeeal deep... pause... NOT). Then a couple of minutes later, I hear the floorman teasing Tiff as she was stacking chips about, "Hustlin these guys? First time? Riiight... :-). Tiff simply won every pot she played which was pretty funny to watch. She played one hand where she limped UTG for like 1600 with blinds of 800-1600 and an average stack of 9k, small blind goes all-in for like 2400, BB calls, she calls, flop Axx, check-check, turn x, check, Tiff goes all-in, BB mucks, tiff has two red kings and they're good obv, and I just kind of laugh to myself. I think I was the only person at the table that noticed how awful a play it was, but at that point I reached a point of nirvana. It didn't matter if she played good or not - she was having a great time, and that made me happy - and a girlfriend that enjoys poker *has* to be better than one that doesn't with my profession. At seven handed our stacks were all pretty even, average stack was like 4 bb's, and in 5 minutes we were doubling the blinds again. We chopped it 7 ways for $137 each, and Tiffany is one of the few people in the world who has entered a poker tournament, won the maximum, and never busted lifetime. Good job girl!

I also saw something at that final table that I haven't seen ever before and I've been playing live poker since 1999. One guy goes all-in, both blinds call. All three hands make it to showdown, and they are the A{moscardsuit:ss} J{moscardsuit:ss} , A{moscardsuit:ds} 9{moscardsuit:ds} , and A{moscardsuit:ss} 4{moscardsuit:cs} . The guy with the AJ wins the main and is stoked. Then I say, "Woahhhhh... Those players have the same card!"

The dealer quickly tells me that he knows what he's doing. "No, I'm not talking about that, they have the same card! Look!"

"Listen, I'm going to chop this pot, and I don't need your help."

"No no no... I'm not talking about anything about that... (I stand up and physically grab both aces of spades, put them obv next to each other) LOOK!"

There was a good 3 seconds of silence. I was pretty amused with it all. They handled it well, gave everybody their money back, put time back on the clock, and play resumed. Sure woulda been funny to look down and see the A{moscardsuit:ss} A{moscardsuit:ss} .

In other poker news, I absolutely killed em last week. The sick thing is that I really did not run well on my final tables otherwise I would won like double what I did. I made six final tables last week netting a little over $75k on the week. 3rd in the FTP $1k for $47,400, 3rd in the Stars $50 + 1 rebuy and add-on, got it in on flop of 678 with 89 and was against K5, stacks about equal, score $3k. 7th in the LHE LAPC #15, y'all read about that already. 6th in the FTP Sunday Mulligan for $10k, losing KK to AK with 12ish left, then two races, then chopping A9 to A4, got it in bad vs two shorties and lost, and then got it in with a bad ace and lost that one too. That was pretty frustrating cause I was just crushing the entire tournament and then had the wheels fall off with two to go. Meanwhile during that one I was busy making the final table in the FTP 55k, taking 4th for $9k, getting it in with 98 on a 973 flop vs KJ, he immediately turns a J, stacks even again. I took 21st or something in the 200r at the same time also for $2k. I feel like there's something else in there but I forgot. Anyways, stoked, good run, I also got out of makeup in my cash games, and poker's so sick how one week can erase 5 months of BLAH.

Off to breakfast..

Peace and good luck,

Devo

LAPC $1k+65 LHE Event #15 Final Table

2008-02-10T05:02:00.000-07:00

Meh. Took 7th for $5400. Nice spontaneous payday, but pretty disappointing. When we hit 8 handed I was 2nd in chips. I then played a pot with the K6 guy from yesterday where he limped my big blind, I raised 66, he called. Flop 953. He checked, I bet, he raised, I called. Turn K. He bets, I raise, he calls. River 8. He checks, I check, he takes it down with 97. Whatevs, standard hand of limit holdem.

BUT I LOST 40% OF MY STACK IN THIS HAND.

I was a strong 2nd in chips and only had 10 big bets. The structure was kinda silly and we were playing super shallow.

Anyways, I win and lose chips in small incriments but eventually building back up to 3rd in chips, then I play a strange hand with the never folds to me guy from yesterday that was pretty annoying.

I open playing 4k-8k with the average stack at 60k with AKo, guy that never folds 3 bets, and I just call (normally a 4 ball, but with stacks this shallow it's not worth the variance IMO). Flop KQJr, good news/bad news, I check, he bets, I just call, again normally a raise for same reasons but def not in this spot. Turn J, I check/call, river A, I check/call, he wins with AJo, a 70k pot. So, got short, doubled with AQ > K9, made a thin mistake against Max that prob cost me about 4k on average occourance, and then got it in when the limits went to 6k-12k with AQo v AKo and couldn't get there. It was a pretty annoying day to say the least, I had the cards to get there but a couple of key suckouts really ruined my day, and that's pretty frustrating that a key suckout like that will kill you with structures this shallow, but... now that I think about it I guess it's the same in no-limit, but instead of 2/3 of your stack it costs you the whole stack. Tournament poker is just gross really. It was also unfortunate that every time the shorties went in 8 and 7 handed, they doubled like 9/10 times, and I feel like I should have at least been able to make another pay jump or two. Oh well. Nothing I could do really.

It was fun though, I enjoyed all of my tables and had a pleasant time playing with Max and Randy. And really, you can't ever complain about making 4k in two days and 50k in a week :-).

Peace and good luck,

Devo

LAPC $1k+65 LHE Event #15, end of day one.

2008-02-09T07:06:00.000-07:00

Yep... read that right. Love it when things like this happen. So, Friday Pickett and Jon Eaton make the final table of the Rincon main event. We're all planning on heading up and sweating, but then Pickett decides that he wants to head to LA immediately after and Jay decides to go with him, but the rest of us don't want to go. So, we decide to stay back and watch the 1 hour delay webcast ad home. We play online, they all make like 10k and I take 3rd in the stars 50 + one rebuy and addon while we watch Pickett win the whole tournament for $225k. Now, it's party atmosphere in LA, and Dave, Billy, and myself head up to LA. I take the bike as I am planning on heading straight to Vegas after here. We actually wake up somewhat early (11:30am) and get on the road in time to make it to LA by 2:30 before traffic. We talk about how the games are going to be, I wonder about the stakes of the tourney buyins (not planning on playing today), see $1k limit hold'em (yum yum my favorite) donkament, immediately want to play, call the backers and get approval, and I'm in. For the record, I only have cash to cover the buyin on me because of the debt I was paid back.

Anyways, there's 13 left at the end of day one and we have 52k good for 3rd in chips :-). Leader has like 75 and 2nd has like 53k. Average is in the neighborhood of 40k. 42k for first.... Devo FTW!

I got really lucky early when I got most of my chips in pre and on the flop (4 bets each street) with JJ in a spot that I clearly needed to be in and spiked a J for our last chips on the turn to beat his AA... oh and some goofball hung around calling 2 bets cold four times with A8 on the 987 flop and J turn. LOL. So, I got a healthy stack, ran it up good, and then lost four pots in a row with JJ, AA, 99, KQ. I shouldn't have even bothered raising the KQ it was that gross. Got crippled to 2500 at like 600-1200, floated a few orbits, and then went on a siiiick heater (TY Scott Diamond for the sweat!) eventually having 25k in front of me like an hour later. So, now we're down to three tables, and I'm opening like every other pot, winning the maximum when ahead, bluffing 8 high on the river and showing it, all kinds of sick crap. This hand cracks me up. With 21 left I open UTG with AJo playing 1k-2k, called by the guy who would rather eat his socks than fold a hand to me, and called by the big blind who started this hand with 5500, posted the 1k big blind, and decides to smooth call m y open. Flop J62 rainbow, BB tanks and checks (lol), I fire, call station raises, BB tanks for I almost called the clock on him long enough, finally calls 2k off of his 3500 stack, I three ball, station calls, and this guy "random cap guy's" all in. LOOOOOOOOOL. Turn A, I bet, guy folds (ZOMG!!!), and I'm like I bet my bankroll have the guy drawing dead cause how does he ever get in this pot without exactly a single J, but he rolls over the mighty K6o and nails it on the river. Siiiiiiigh. So I'm tilty, have like 9k left of what was once a 25k almost chip lead stack, and I'm watching this money hater stack a 19k pot.

Anyways, I double somehow, pick up some chips somewhere, and spend a couple of hours at 20k. It was pretty frustrating... almost every time I saw a spot to do something creative and accumulate chips they woke up with a hand and I bled a lot of chips that way. So, every time I had value from a hand I would lose it back trying to outplay people and doing a good job of it but running into bummer crappy spots. Oh well.

We finally crack the money and have like 25 more minutes to play for the night. I get up to 30 quickly, blow a few pots, float for a while, and then with 14 left and five minutes to play for the day, a new guy to me with 50k opens in the cutoff (playing 2k-4k), I three bet the big blind to 6k with the A Q , and the guy calls. I have about 20k to start this hand. Flop T62ish rainbow with one spade. I bet 2k, he raises to 4k, I call. Turn J completing the rainbow. I check, he bets 4k, and with 21k in the pot and figuring to have 10 outs at best 7 outs at worst plus the 10% chance he's spewing and I have the best hand, I call the turn. River K. Nice. The ol "runner runner I have the nuts" trick. I bet, and HE RAISES! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhahahahhah. Based on his reaction he had at least a set. I obv three balled and he paid it off. Devo has 40k. Then I win one more "I 3 bet and am betting until you fold" pot and end the day with 52k, good for 3rd in chips with 13 left. Max Pescatori is the only other known player in the field and I don't know anybody else in the field. 42k for first, and we resume tomorrow at 7pm PST.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Rincon WSOP-C $5k Main, FTP $1k monday

2008-02-05T19:36:00.000-07:00

Devo's not busto anymore! Gotta give it to the money factory. I'm officially unbusto and actually at 5 digits again for the ol roll. More to come on that later, first lets go over the Rincon main event that I just bustoed out of.

First off, I get a great table draw with fish like Theo Tran, Brandon Cantu, and Gavin Smith who were 2, 3, and 4 ro my right respectively. Anna Wroblewski was in the three seat, Gavin knew the guy in the 4 seat, seat two was meh, and the guys to my right and left were horrible. Naturally these two are the ones that I lost all my chips to :-). First big/weird hand, I open to 200 UTG at 25-50 (we started with 20k in chips) and was called in the BB by the bad player who had already spewed/loose called his stack down to 7k. Flop KJ9r, he checks, I bet 275, me makes it 1k quickly with 5400 behind. Weird spot, I decided to just call with my position. Turn a brick, and the guy quickly jams all-in for like 5400 in to the 2500 in the pot. LOL. I tank and fold. I had him on J9 and he later confirmed it in the restroom.

Go into break with 17k. Come back we're playing 100-200/25 (why do we play 25-50, 50-100, then 100-200/25? WTF?!? Start with 50-100 and go to 100-200. Oh yeah, they skipped 150-300 also, straight to 200-400/50). Gavin opens from mid pos for 525, I call in the SB with 3 3 , donkey in the big blind calls. Flop A 2 3 , I bet 1100, donkey calls, Gavin calls. Turn T . Checking's horrible, but I obv don't like that card, but I have like 13k at this point, there's 5k in the middle, I'm getting it in. I bet 2800, donkey thinks, is deciding between calling and raising but doesn't feel too strong and calls, Gavin mucks. River I bet 3275 or my 10k remaining and donkey insta jams, and now he looks like he has the nuts. I tank, muck, and he shows me the A 7 . So, I nurse a short stack, shove on Anna's big blind with 57o and pick up the blinds, then get it in with Gavin AQo v AKo and I lose. Oh well. No worries at all, not a damn thing I could have done. It's not easy to do well in tourneys with winning 3 small pots in 4 hours and running into two bigger hands than my big hands.

So, last night I reg'd for the 100r, 55k, 100k, and tilt 1k monday. After about 90 minutes I was out of three of em and not happy at all with my play or how things were going. But, I built a stack in the 1k, blinded off to short around 50, and then basically short stack ninja'd my way into 3rd place. I had one brutal beat and one gross suckout, but other than that nothing too exciting. I was really proud of my play as there is not a single way that I could have finished better than I did, but there were many spots that I avoided that would have busted me sooner. The final table was very tough, but I never once had a good hand or opportunity to pick up chips more significant than the blinds. I had KK once and got the blinds, everything else was absolute rags, and my table position sucked with three shorties to my right and four big stacks to my left with me right in the middle. At one point there were 4 of us with less than 10bb's, and without cards I navigated my way into 3rd for $47k. Clear 25k in make-up, advance ship $5k to Devo, still up 10k on backers. I also got paid back $2k that was owed to me, plus $100 from Gavin in a prop bet, plus $1250 from Theo (not paid) and oh, by the way, he took 4th last night. Life is so much better notching Theo. I re-raised him 4 times, he folded every time like the little nit. So, that plus $2500 from cash games and we're back in the black baby!

I'm pretty proud to have gone busto one month ago and have a bankroll higher than I have had since October now. And I bet y'all are happy to read a winning blog for once too, eh?

Anyways, FTOPS starts tomorrow, so I'll be playing online for the next couple of weeks, and then I launch a pretty intensive live+online schedule. I'm playing almost every Sun-Wed online and almost every Th-Sat live between the Venetian Deep Stacks, Wynn Classic, Reno World Poker Something, and Bellagio 5 star in April. I'm feelin good and glad to be finally winning again.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Motorcycles to the Money Factory

2008-02-02T22:00:00.000-07:00

..... I had a pretty surreal experience today as I rode Ol Blue (my motorcycle) south on the 15 Freeway through Escondito and into San Diego. In August of 2005 I rode my old bike down here from Kernville for a couple of days off from the river and never made it back. I crashed on the on-ramp to the 15 on my way back to my friends house (with her on the back) as we were headed home from an evening at Harrah's, Rincon. You can read the blog I wrote about that experience here... it's a deep/controversial one LOL. It's some weird triumphant symbolism to ride past that place, esp when I rode past the hospital, but I think it will be a nice victory when I am actually able to ride a motorcycle out of San Diego for the first time.

I decided to ride this time since it's February and that lets me pretend that it's almost springtime, and I just finished Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman's book, "The Long Way Round." It's a story about their 4 month motorcycle ride from London to New York City, headed East. All the way across Europe, Mongolia, Siberia, fly to Anchorage, across Canada to Montana and over to NYC. Epic trip and I have always been itchin to do something like it. Fuller and I are talking about riding the Pan-American Highway (Anchorage to Patagonia, Argentina). So, why not ride 400 miles rather than drive?

Yeah. I'm still sitting in most of my cold weather gear as I am thawing from that ride. But it was awesome.

I'm down here under the excuse of the Harrah's Rincon WSOP-C main event. I start a pretty intensive live schedule on Tuesday taking me all the way through the end of April hitting here, the Venetain Deep Stacks in Feb, the Wynn Classic and Reno events in March, and the 5 star in April. I didn't realize until this week how long it's been since I've played a live tournament (not counting the Viejas thing in Dec, but that was the official last time I played live). I'm pretty dang excited to play some live donkaments.

I thought I would have more to write. I don't. I will soon I'm sure :-).

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Quick Update

2008-01-29T21:23:00.000-07:00

confirm run bad Sorry it's been a while, it hasn't' been too much fun lately pokerwise. I've still been getting deep, made final two tables in the 100r last two days, but am running very bad in all my all-in situations and I'm getting coolered a lot more than usual. I cashed in the Sunday Million and I lost every single all-in pre-flop situations, and I was ahead in every single one of them until the last one where I was short. But, when people tell me "No, I'm playing really good, I'm just running really bad," I kinda laugh and am like, whatever, esp after many months of losing.

So, here's my tallies for aipf situations:
theoretical pct actual pct
Races: 7-11 (wins/losses) .500 .375
Favorites: 17-10 .750 .588
Dogs: 3-24 .250 .125

I also took a gross one 3rd in chips w/44 left vs the chip leader where I flopped top set we get it in and he immed turns his 2 outer. So, it's tough to overcome being a 2-1 underdog every time I get it in, but I'm still cashing - just hate writing about this as i'm sure that you hate reading about it.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

The Great 2008 Road Trip, Days 9-11

2008-01-21T00:40:00.000-07:00

Whadda weekend... So, I took Thursday off, Tiff and I had dinner in what has become one of my favorite places anywhere here in Leavenworth, and really nothing else to report.

Friday we went into town and had breakfast as some awesome hippie breakfast joint (I love these places!). She took me back to work and went exploring. I started out hot, up $1500 in cash games and doing well in tourneys. Then the wheels fell off the bus and I lost the $1500 back and cashed in zero tourneys.

Saturday Tiff went up to Mission Ridge and I played the day schedule. I took 6th in the 100r on stars which was pretty disappointing as I was crushing the whole tournament with a huge chip lead. I made a mistake/got in a bummer spot on the final table and doubled up bigegypt. I opened pre w/KT 7 handed from the cutoff. bigegypt called on the button with a stack that should be shoving not flat calling. It was like 1/8 of his stack pre. The big blind called also and the flop came Kxx. BB checked, and I was in a weird spot. bigegypt had 100k, I had like 280k, and there was 40k in the pot. Normally it's getting in with top pair and these stacks, but his pre-flop call was so odd. I gave him 99-AA in his range which may be off. I reasoned that I'm not getting value from 99-QQ by betting, but the chips needed to get in, so check-raise all-in was my best line trying to get him to bluff with those hands. KK is pretty unlikely, and if he has AA so be it. I think though that he's not always betting here with 99-QQ, I have a T so TT's less likely, and losing 100k is a pretty good ding to my stack with the relative chip stacks on the table. I think better lines would have been bet/fold or check/fold. So, I got crippled (to just below average) and couldn't win a hand after that. GG me in 6th. for like 4400, I win 4k on the day after cashing in the ftp 100r also.

Saturday night was awesome. We went into town for thier Ice Festival. We had beer brats at an outdoor beer garden, I bought a stein with discounted refils (and uuuuuuuuuusssssed them), and then we ran into like 15 frat dudes from UW and one girl (her parents owned the cabin LOL). We ended up kicking it with them for about 5 hours and we had a blast. I felt like I was in college again... so much fun!

Sunday started out the grossest ever. I never had a chance in any tournament til the 4:30pm 100r. I had an avegage stack with 12k, got some info that a certain player was extremely LAG opening like every UTG with garbage, so when this villain with 20k opened to 2k and another 20k stack flatted, I thought it was a good spot to squeeze with 64s. He has AA obv.

Fast forward a couple hours, and all I have left going is the 200r. I'm in to the day for like $4600. Fortunately I'm chip leader in the 200r, but there's still 100+ players with 36 getting paid and me needing to take 8th to make money on the day. Fast forward a couple more hours, and I'm 3rd in chips with 12 left. I ran hot hot hot hot hot. I never lost a race, but I never sucked out either. Every chip I won was accumulated or won as a coinflip or better. I was very proud of that. Then I played a hand 6 handed vs. the 3rd in chips on my table. I had like 215k and he had like 125k with average at 150k. I have 88 on the button blinds 4k-8k, I open for 10k and he ships. Weird spot... I think I'm ahead slightly more than I'm behind, but I think he has AK/AQ a huge percentage of the time and ICM wise I shouldn't be racing there. Questionable, but I like it.

Little did I know though that I wouldn't see a better hand the rest of the tournament. With 10 left I played a race for half my stack w/AT<88, and that was the best hand I would see. I stole the blinds a few times, but busted w/K4 v KT when I open shoved the cutoff with 3.5 m's and 7 left. Sigh.

On one hand, I'm very proud that I'm cashing in these rebuyaments so consistently and getting in them for much less than I used to. These fields are the toughest online and that makes me feel good. That point however, plus the ol not running good on final two tables part, is largely the reason that I haven't finished better than 6th in one in 6 final tables last 6 weeks. People really just aren't giving it away deep in these things.

Anyways, we're headed back Tuesday. Tiff's sister's birthday is on Friday so we're gonna get back for that.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

The Great 2008 Road Trip, Days 5-8

2008-01-17T18:24:00.000-07:00

1867.4 Miles Into the Trip... Wow this has been a fun journey. I am finally at the point in a long road trip, or long anything really, where the days melt into each other and the distractions of daily life fade into forgetfulness. We are on a journey, much like life, that never has a fixed destination. We're not going somewhere on this trip, the trip is where we're going. It's a beautiful feeling and the state of mind that I wish to live the rest of my life like. Living for the moment, living for now, and thus thoroughly enjoying the beautiful details of every moment of these nameless days I am living.

Besides that, I've been grinding. A lot. I averaged about 10 hours a day for the last four days while Tiffany has been riding, but really I shoulda stuck to writing these last four days. I was super psyched for Sunday and even brought my laptop to breakfast to make sure I was in time for the 100r and Brawl at 11am Western time. Well, before I even made it out of breakfast I busted with JJ on an AJx flop vs. the big blind that check/called a 3/4 pot bet on the flop and then did the same on the 9 turn and then check-jammed the K river which I obviously fist-pump snap-called only to be shocked that the chips were going that way to his QTo. Whatever. I had the worst Sunday I have ever head until about 5pm when I started rolling in the FTP 750k, Mulligan, Stars 2nd Chance, and the 100r. I had huge chip stacks in all of those tourneys but ended up getting effed in all three losing pots as 3-1 favorites for top 5 chipstacks. I only made the money in the 750k taking like 106th, but the day still cost me $2500 plus $1500 cash where I got horribly unlucky also.

Monday... Sweet! FTP 1k! Nope. 10 mins in playing 10-20 a dude opens for 70, I flat right behind him with JJ, heads up flop of QJx and we go bust to QQ. Oh, but to not despair. In three other tourneys I busted getting it in with the nuts of top set vs flush draws, and then I got it in with an open-ended straight flush draw with two overs vs top pair (QJcc on Tc9cX vs AT) and couldn't hit. Whatevs... I know there's nothing I can do about it, but it is very very very frustrating and as y'all know it's been this way for a long time.

That night we went to a local bar and I had a couple of interesting conversations. Tiffany asked, "Why don't you talk about what you do in places like this?" Cause I really don't unless there's a reason to. I was trying to explain to her how often it's a general pain in the ass as 80% of the people are going to hear the words coming out of my mouth and immediately do something to piss me off. It might be the judgemental type that believes that gambling is wrong, the skeptical type that says it's all luck, the know it all who plays poker and immediately thinks they're better than you, or just the quiet person that instantly puts some stereotype label on your forehead. It's just not worth it really. I make up something about what I do when I'm talking to some random person that I'm probably never going to see again, and then only if they really press and want to know what I do. I often go with the wilderness guide since I have done that, sometimes I'll make up something wacky like Eel Farmer, and I've even signed Danny Masterson autographs. The other 20% of the people are either people like most of you who understand the game of poker and the theory of it being a profession or just plain cool non-judgemental pepole. I suppose I could use talking about poker as a correlation to personalities for friendship, but meh. I've just argued "long run" and "skill game" too much and every time I get in that discussion I feel like I would be more fulfulled talking to potatoes.

Enter Laura. She meets Tiffany outside smoking, Tiffany talks about us and what we're doing and Laura brings up poker somehow and Tiff says I'm a pro and blah blah blah. So, I shake hands with Laura, and she says, "So, you're a pro, huh?" I do my best to dodge questions cause I really don't want to talk to this random drunk chick that is obviously already skeptical about me. Eventually the conversation gets to the point where she says, "So, have you found any games in town?" This is after she challenged me to heads up for $3 and then talked crap when I politely declined. I mentioned that I play online mostly, she said online's a joke and went into this tirade about reading people and looking into their eyes and all this hollywood crap, and apparently this sent Tiffany into defensive girlfriend mode, and Tiff says, "So have YOU found any games in town??"

Nope.

I am going to become an accountant to make my bar going experiences easier.

The bartender, however, was right up my alley. His name is Dave Fish (seriously). He is married with a kid, spends his winters in Bend, Oregon bartending at this lodge, and spends his summers in Alaska running a Fishing Guide service that he owns. So sweet. We had good ol talks about many things and I thoroughly enjoyed his conversation.

So the next morning we left to head north into Washington. We settled in Naches, WA, which is somewhere in the middle. LOL. This town was hilarious. It felt like something out of the 50's movies. Like, seriously. Everything down to the traffic lights looked like they had not been altered in 50 years. I loved it.

Tuesday poker: same flavor. Don't wanna talk about this.

Wednesday was a good day however. I went back and watched a few PXF videos, read deeper into some threads, did some thinking, and reviewed some of my hand histories and found a couple leaks that I thought might help. I also brought some of my live tricks into the online game, and the results showed. I played 16 tournaments yesterday, took 4th/800 and change in one, 11th/1600+ in another, and 18/270 in a third. Furthermore I got screwed deep in three that I really should have cashed in. I don't think there was anything I could have done to get further in the one I finished 4th, I made a marginal mistake in the 11th, and I got effed in the 18th. I played very well making only a couple of marginal mistakes all day. I also won $1k in the cash games.

That reminds me. I finally had a couple of revenge suckouts yesterday. Twice I got it in with aces, once vs KK and once vs. QQ. The queens flopped top set and we went running clubs for the nut flush, and the kings flopped KQQ and we rivered an A. Those made me feel much better about life.

Last night after working we walked across the street to the bar. This place was the perfect downtown locals bar in a small town. There was a lady who looked 65 hanging out knowing everybody with a kitten walking around her shoulders and nooooobody cared. Then I met her mother. She looked 40. I still can't figure it out. So, apparently this cat was very friendly, I know this because the cat lady told me so as she insisted that this cat goes walking around my shoulders. I watched this dude shoot a sick game of pool - with a kitten on his shoulders that was not owned by him. Add that to the list of random shit I've seen in my lifetime...

So, today's Thursday and we just arrived in Leavenworth, Washington. Apparently this is some Bavarian town and this weekend is the ice festival so everything was booked up. I called the Chamber of Commerce, they gave me three hotel names, the first one didn't have any availability Saturday, and the second is where I am at right now. I got on the phone with this lady named Helen. She gave me the usual greeting, I responded, "Hi Helen, how are you?!?"

Pause. "Well, to tell ya the truth I have a damn cold."

I like this lady already. We chat about rooms, rates, and she's trying to figure out a way to give us a discount. Nice. "Well, what the hell ya do? AAA? AARP? Senior Citizen? Student? Military? Ride a Harley? What?"

"Uhhhhh... well, I work for myself. Ahem.. I'm self employed."

"C'mon, what the hell ya do?"

"Well......... I'm a professional poker player actually."

"REALLY?!?!? Ya know last week I went up der to dat Casino and I done won myself darn near four hunned dollas." She just could not stop talking about gambling, getting married in Vegas, not being able to get a room so sleeping in their car on their honeymoon in Vegas, her brother in law who is a professional gambler, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on............ She was absolutely hilarious. Racist as all hell, sweet as sugar, quick wit and humor, and after chatting on the phone and in person, she gives us this sick room for $55 a night through the holiday weekend. The rate she quoted first was $55, $99, $149, $99 for the next four nights. NICE! So, I'm done writing, and I am going to go check out this Bavarian town.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

The Great 2008 Road Trip

2008-01-12T21:31:00.000-07:00

Days 1-4. Bend, Oregon, by way of Los Angeles, Pismo Beach, and Half Moon Bay

Sorry about the lapse between blogs. I came back from Christmas/San Diego with a sore throat. This was magnified by the UFC fight the night of Dec 28th, not helped by New Years Eve, and I thought I was home free New Years Day, when Tiffany didn’t feel well. I felt like I was still on the tail end of things and not completely recovered. By this point I had decided to go with Tiffany up north and we made the call to wait til the 3rd to leave for Washington.

Long story short, she got really sick, then I got really really really really sick, and we weren’t all the way fixed until Monday the 7th. We finally left for our road trip Wednesday afternoon. Destination: Washington ski areas. All of em. Schedule? None. So, Tiff wanted to hit Mtn. High in So Cal since she tried to on Monday but the roads were closed. We drove down to my Mom’s place, kidnapped her for dinner, met up with a bunch of the homies (Nick, Shawn [Danny’s brother], and Tommy plus 3 girls), and ended up crashing at Shawn’s pad.

Next morning Tiff woke up early, I woke up later and started working. My mission on this trip is to grind my ass off and get back somewhat of a reasonable bankroll. She’s been planning on doing this for a long time so I’m kind of tagging along. I figured with all the drive time I’ll get a bunch of reading and writing done and with all the down time/her boarding time I’ll get a bunch of work done. I started out winning both in cash and tournaments on Thursday, but just marginally in both and I’m in make-up in both so it didn’t really matter… plus I felt kicked in the nuts the way things went down and really should have gotten out of make up in cash and won about 5k in tournaments. Damn river I swear. In that cash session I only played one big pot, got it in on the flop w/KK v 75 on a 97x flop and he promptly turned a 5. Course I brick. But two nights before I had an especially gross session where I got it in five times, all $800+ pots, four times I got it in on the turn with the best hand and lost all four. One time I got it in with an open-ended straight flush draw with an over vs.. top two (I’m a favorite) and I lost that one too.

Anyways, so we decided we were going to San Francisco, then Bend, stop, ride Mt. Bachelor, maybe Hood, and then keep on keeping on. That didn’t work, and I’m stoked that it didn’t. We stopped in Santa Barbara and had dinner with Kristin, and then continued north to Pismo Beach. We decided along the way that we were taking the coast up and found this sweet room for $109 right on the sand with a 24 hour beach front Jacuzzi. Rough life really.

Friday I spent the whole day driving. Just meandering our way north on PCH, stopping to check out what we wanted to, enjoying the scenery of the Big Sur area otherwise. One of the highlights was an elephant seal colony that we came across. There were literally hundreds of elephant seals on this small stretch of beach and it looked like something off of the Discovery channel. Freakin cool. We saw a birth right after it happened, and it was crazy. The seagulls were hell bent on eating the protein rich afterbirth, the mama was intent on deafening the seagulls (she made a BAHHHWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!! noise in their ears showing her teeth. I was hoping for her to rip some heads off really, or maybe I would provide her with some alka-seltzer, but there was no more blood to be seen). The newborn pup just kinda wiggled around the sand thinking about what I suppose newborns think about, which is a lot of, “What the F&#!“ and whatever their instincts are telling them, “Booooobs.“ When I’m not in the middle of nowhere I’ll post some pics, probably toward the end of the trip.

We ended up staying at Half Moon Bay in this old Victorian right on PCH since the hostel at the lighthouse was sold out of private rooms. Sad. It was cool, but not worth the money really.

Today we finished the drive up the coast, through San Fran, across the bay bridge, breakfast at Tom’s Cabin in Berkley (this awesome little hippie organic breakfast joint), and have continued driving all day. We’re staying at the Mt. Bachelor Village Resort the next couple of days, and I’m psyched to get in a good day of tourneys tomorrow. I’m back on a somewhat normal schedule and am actually gonna try and make it up by the warm-up and play all the way through the 200r.

“And it didn’t matter exactly where we were headed. We’d get there. We’d find somewhere to stay. Something or somebody would turn up. And if they didn’t, we’d camp. It was that simple. At last I was living for each day, free as the eagles that lined the roadside…” - Charley Boorman, Long Way Round

Peace and good luck,

Devo

My New Favorite Hand of All Time

2008-01-06T21:25:00.000-07:00

What do you put him on? Sorry I've been absent as of late, but I got sicker than I have been in my adult life since the new year. And no, it had nothing to do with the NYE festivities. Kinda disappointing really!

I wanted to show y'all this hand I just played. It brought a roomie downstairs saying, "What are you laughing at?!?"

2-4 nl. Over my dead body (or sweet information of your own that you'd like to swap) am I telling y'all where these fishies hang out. 6 max table, I open to $14 w/QTo from the cutoff, the big blind calls. I have zero history with the big blind. Flop 233o. BB min bets $4, I jack it to $34, he calls. Turn an ace putting a heart draw out there. BB bets $4 again, I jack it to $90, he calls. Damn. River a 6, he checks, I'm like, "Damn. I know he's got nothing, but I give up." I check, and they ship me the pot. AHHHHHHHHHHHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Guy types into the chat box, "Nice value." I think it's my new favorite hand of all time.

Time to suck on a Sucrets.

Peace and good luck,

Devo