Still feeling sick which sucks but it's not enough to keep me in bed just enough were I feel like crap all day. Not sure if it's been good for me to play since I have that slow groggy feeling where it seems like your brain is thinking in slow motion. Hopefully this will disappear soon.

Yesterday was another ridiculous day and about 2/3s of the way through it I thought it was gonna be the mirror opposite of Tuesday. I started out 8 tabling again and was doing pretty decent to start. Then things went bad and one player in particular put me on tilt. He was stacking off with any draw, any pair, and playing 75% of his hands. But somehow he kept hitting monsters on me and stacking me and then dumping my chips to the rest of the players. So about 2.5 hours into my session I was down $1200. I knew I wasn't playing my best before but I took a deep breath and decided to try and get back to my usual game and just grind back. So after 4 hours of total play I was back up $50 on the day. After a day like Tuesday where you just kill the tables this may be the second best feeling you can have, digging yourself out of a hole to get to even.

I played another 3 tabling session while playing the 33r PCA satellite again later in the night. Went about the same as yesterday. I cashed the PCA satellite but didn't win so I basically got my money back (a little less this time since I had to double rebuy during the rebuy period). Also was up another $150 at the cash games for a total of +$200 on the day. My high point was +$600 but I played a few hands poorly toward the end of my session.

Stars is also starting to run some 'step' sngs to the PCA that I will probably play a few of. For those who weren't around in the Party Poker days here's a link to what a step sng is. PCA Steps

Not sure what the plan is for today. I really need to go get some grocery shopping done but I don't feel like leaving the house. Also, the cable still isn't working so I need to call the cable company again and get on their ass. So unless something crazy happens tonight I probably won't have another blog up for a few days.

Here are the hands against the maniac yesterday:

This is the hand that started me on tilt. It looks really bad without reads but he's stacking off with probably any 8, and straight draw and probably any 6 or flush draw combo on the turn.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1577728

Hand number 2:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1577731

Third overpair in a row against this guy and I have to hit a two outer to beat him:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1577737

I'm not sure what the odds of those three hands happening is but while they weren't one immediately after the other I didn't get any other big pairs in between them. So for him to flop trips twice and hit his set (boat) the other time has to be ridiculous.

Now it's time to "FINISH HIM" though:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1577748

Oh no wait, he picks up another monster against me... ok try again:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1577757

Like I said he was doing that the whole time even with a full stack. So I got a little redemption at the end which helped me to get off tilt and make the little comeback on the day.

Came down with a cold the last day before leaving Aruba so I've had a headache and been congested the past few days. Despite not feeling the best I had an awesome day playing $1/2nl 6max cash games yesterday. Started off with a 1.5 hour 8 tabling session which can be rather draining as playing that many tables requires a lot of focus. I finished up about $600 and then took a little break to eat and put a new load of laundry in from my Aruba trip.

I was gonna catch up on my DVR after that but realized that my cable box was broken so I figured I might as well just put another little session in. Wasn't in the mood to 8 table again so I dropped down to 6 tables and surfed around the internet while playing. Playing 6 tables still requires a decent amount of my attention but I usually never feel rushed playing 6 tables like I occasionally do at 8. I played for about another 1.5 hours and brought my daily total up to about $1500. Then it was back to get my last load of laundry in the washer.

Stars runs a $33r satellite to the PCA every night that is usually super soft. Last night it started about an hour after I finished my last session so I figured I'd come back and play 3 cash tables and the one tourney table until I won it or busted in it. There was a little over 200 runners and I finished around 40-50th in it which was good enough to get me my tourney buyin back. The only downside to the $33r is that it only pays out one seat. Usually the best satellites are the ones that award multiple seats. I was in the tournament for a little over two hours and had been 3 tabling cash the whole time too and brought my daily total for the day up to just under $2100.

As much as I complained about running bad last month today made up for a lot of it. I got set over set once and the one time I got set under set I turned quads. I also got it all in with AJ suited in spades against a guy with aces on a low two spade board where I rivered a spade. I played the hand fine as he's not going to have AA in that spot every time and I will have some outs to my two overs but i still got really lucky this time. I coolered one other guy when I flopped bottom set and he turned trip 8s that gave me a full house but he really shouldn't have been in the hand with K8s to begin with.

So I got really lucky on two of those four hands but even had I lost both of those I still would have made a really nice profit on the day as there were three times that I got people to put in their entire stack drawing dead (once on the turn and twice I induced river bluffs).

Here are a few of the hands:

Set over set hand. I didn't love the turn but I'm still getting it in.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1573128

Set under set but I turn the quads :)
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1573141

Had a read on this guy and would have got it all in on the flop with top pair against him.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1573148

Flushing out against aces. Sometimes I 3bet preflop here but this was early in the session and I wanted to see a flop.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1573155

Here the guy decides to bluff off on the turn drawing dead.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1573167

I won't get into too many of the boring details of the trip. Most of my time was spent at the beach drinking, swimming, getting a tan and the rest was spent partying on the island or gambling in the Radisson Casino.

I barely played any poker while down there (which was my plan from the start) and I was really happy I took that route as it was a great break. The little poker I did play was at the $1/2nl tables usually late at night after I'd had a few too many drinks. It was fun donking around in the lower stakes and not caring too much about winning or losing any pots. I did play a bunch of blackjack and craps while down there and finished up a little bit overall on the trip as far as gambling was concerned.

The first two nights were a blast and I spent the first one meeting a bunch of the Madison poker players who I didn't already know. There was a huge Madison group down there since apparently Ultimate Bet (the poker site running the tournament) is the place to play if you live in Madison. I think I've played on UB twice in the past year and once was trying to qualify for the Aruba tourney. I may start to spend some more time on it now though since the cash games are rumored to be really soft.

The second night I hung out with all of the guys who run the pocketfives.com website. They do a lot of coverage of live poker events on their site. They usually try to cover a lot of the bigger internet names that are playing in any given live tourney which is nice since most other sites covering tournaments focus on only the big name live players.

Both nights I had a blast and will probably hang out with the Madison group more now that I know them and will be sure to keep in touch with the P5s guys also.

The middle of the week Eric and I spent a lot of time hanging out with Shannon Shorr, who Eric is good buddies with, and his girlfriend, Stephanie. Mostly just chilling at the beach during the day and then going somewhere to drink and watch the playoff baseball games at night.

The night before the final table of the main event down there Phil Helmuth threw a big party at his penthouse sweet in the Radisson. Poker Ho (one of the Madison players) wrote a great write up about the party in his Aruba recap so I'll just link to that to fill you in on the party. The party write up is the last entry at the bottom of the page. Phil's Annual Party

I'll also give a quick link to the UB Blog that covered a lot of the tournament action. If you click the 'Madison Bragging Rights' entry you'll see a picture of a bunch of the Madison players (I'm in the back row in the red polo and Eric is right next to me). The link is about halfway down the page. Also, the videos at the top of the page are decent if you want to get a tiny feel for what goes on down in Aruba. UB Blog

The other two highlights were the opening and closing parties that UB threw. Both of the parties lasted 3 hours with great food and an open bar the entire time. It was definitely a well run event by UB blowing away the job Stars did last year at the PCA. Not that Stars did a bad job but UB definitely did an amazing job at this tournament.

Speaking of the PCA, Stars has just started to run it's satellites to this year's event so I will probably be trying to win a seat over the next few months. The Aussie Millions runs immediately after the PCA and I've heard that's an amazing time also so I will probably be trying to qualify for that one too. Hopefully I'll get a seat to one of them.

Wednesday was frustrating again and I'm completely fed up with tournaments for the time being. I'm not going to play the WCOOP ME and probably won't even try to qualify for the $5k in Aruba while I'm down there. Just gonna stick to cash games which have been going really well.

The WCOOP 6max got off to a pretty good start and about 3 hours in I had a nice stack and was playing really well but then went card dead and couldn't find any spots to pick up chips at my table. I also played the 2nd chance WCOOP 6max tournament and had a top 10 stack with about 150 left and ended up busting before 100 left. I lost one really big pot as a huge favorite and then went on to lose 3-4 flips in a row with the other player calling all-in each time. The other players weren't making bad calls but it's frustrating when I give myself two ways to win the pot by getting them to fold or winning the flip and I can't do either 4 times in a row.

The frustration with tourneys lately is probably just because I'm used to playing 10+ tourneys in one session (not at the same time but throughout the night) when I played them before and now that I only play 1-3 in a session the odds of me hitting a good score or making a deep run go down. So I figure it's just the variance messing with me but I just don't feel like dealing with it right now so I will be focusing on cash until at least the end of October.

I put in a few good sessions this week and really only made two mistakes. The first was in a 4 way raised pot where I was over 1.5 buy-ins deep and got it all in with two overs and a flush draw against a set. It wasn't a horrible spot I don't think but considering how deep we were and how small I could narrow his range the call was bad. The second time I 3bet with JJ out of the SB and got shoved on by loose/aggressive UTG raiser (6max) and I knew the call was bad at the time so I don't know what possessed my mouse to click the call button. This player was only shoving QQ+ and AK and some of the time he might even just call AK preflop so my call was really really bad.

Despite those two plays I've been getting my money in ahead almost every time except for a few coolers here and there. While I've had some great results over the past month that any player would be happy with I feel like I've been running really bad. I've lost with an over pair to an under pair quite a few times and even had my AA lose to AK aipf once while I haven't done the same to anyone else. I've been playing well though and the results are showing so it's difficult to complain about not 'feeling' like I'm running good. If I can post the same winrate through October that I've had through September I'll be more than ecstatic.

I gotta go finish packing for Aruba now. If anyone's going to be down there leave me a comment or PM me and let me know.

Haven't played much since the 5CD tourney. Played in the $530 WCOOP last Sunday and then in the $1050 WCOOP this Sunday.

I went home for the weekend starting on Thursday night so I didn't get a chance to play the $215r or the $320 HU tourney. I got back to my apartment on Sunday around 1pm (cst) flipped on the Packer game and jumped on Stars quick to see if I could get into the last few sats for the $1k starting at 3:30. I was able to get into two of the $33r and the last chance $375. I love playing the satellites on Sundays since they usually get a big field and most people don't know correct strategy in them. The first $33r I went out in 32nd when top 30 got seats after losing with JJ < AT and then K6 < J7. The K6 hand I was all-in in the BB and it was very little for the SB to call but if I had won that hand I was guaranteed a seat as there were a lot of other shorties that were gonna get eaten by the blinds. About 5 minutes after that hand I lose in my other $33r when AK < AJ all-in preflop to go out in 50th but winning that hand would have given me more than the average to get a seat. Stars does the usual tease with a KQx flop and the beautiful river T for his straight. Luckily I cashed the last chance satellite to at least walk away with one seat saving myself about $500 on the $1k entry.

Not that it mattered since I could get absolutely nothing going during the $1k. It was a really frustrating day as I continually got into very tough spots with mediocre hands. Even despite the great structure and what I felt to be a fairly weak table I couldn't manage to get my stack moving in the right direction. In my bust out hand I had jacks under the gun for the second rotation in a row. I made my usual 3x raise and got called by a player in middle position who I had just seen make a ridiculous play a few hands ago. He floated a 6JT two tone board with 45s, none of his suit, and then bluffed the turn and river against a fairly tight/straight forward player who called him down. I got a Q62 flop with two spades led out at it and got called. The turn was an off suit 8 and I check raised all in and got called by his AQs. I really don't feel like I could get away from the hand after seeing his previous play. Also, I think I was frustrated since the rotation before I raised jacks from utg and got called and had to fold on a Q98Q board to another player.

Went back to the 6max cash games today where things have been much better than in the tournaments. Started the session up two buyins really quick but then lost a flip with 99 to a half stacks AK and ran KK into AA for just over a full buyin to finish the session just over break even.

Not sure how many more WCOOP events I'll play. I've been getting more and more frustrated with tournaments since having a really dry run in Vegas at the WSOP. I'll play the 6max NL event on Wednesday but right now I'm not sure if I really feel like playing the $2600 main event or not. I'm going to be in Aruba with my roommate (basebaldy), who's playing in the UB Challenge and I probably wont' feel like sitting in a hotel lobby playing online poker. We'll see though when I'm down there. If you're headed down there leave a comment here or PM me on 2+2 if I don't have your AIM. Always nice to meet the fellow poker players and I'm down to have a few cocktails.