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    <title>Bond18's blog</title>
    <link>http://www.tworags.com</link>
    <description>Tworags.com - poker guide for serious poker players who play Texas Holdem and Other Poker Games</description>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <lastBuildDate>Fri, 16 May 08 10:57:52 -0400</lastBuildDate>
    
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      <title>Around the World in 90 Days with Full Tilt, Days 10-12</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2538]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Here's the link guys, Cheers:
 [url=http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/poker-from-the-rail/article/203/Around-the-World-in-90-Days:-Days-10-12]http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/poker-from-the-rail/article/203/Around-the-World-in-90-Days:-Days-10-12[/url] ]]></description>
      <guid isPermaLink="true"><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2538]]></guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 12 May 08 09:46:40 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Around the World in 90 Days, Days 6-9</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2529]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Hey guys,

Unfortunately due to awful working absurdly expensive internet I haven't been able to get the updates linked properly or consistently in here. That period is over now, so things should be a lot more smooth.

Please let me know if these links work or not, Thanks, Bond

Days 7-8:
[url=http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/poker-from-the-rail/article/199/Around-the-World-in-90-Days:-Days-7-8]http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/poker-from-the-rail/article/199/Around-the-World-in-90-Days:-Days-7-8[/url]

Day 9: 
[url=http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/poker-from-the-rail/article/201/Around-the-World-in-90-Days:-Day-9]http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/poker-from-the-rail/article/201/Around-the-World-in-90-Days:-Day-9[/url] ]]></description>
      <guid isPermaLink="true"><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2529]]></guid>
      <pubDate>Sun, 11 May 08 20:57:29 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Around the World in 90 Days, Day 6</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2487]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Here's the link guys, Cheers.

http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/poker-from-the-rail/article/196/Around-the-World-in-90-Days:-Day-6]]></description>
      <guid isPermaLink="true"><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2487]]></guid>
      <pubDate>Tue, 06 May 08 16:15:39 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Around the world updates</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2481]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Quick X post from 2p2 since my battery is about to die and I don't have time to write anything:

Hey guys,

So for those who don't know I'm going on this around the world poker trip to play tournaments in the Mediterranean, France, Spain, Vegas, and California, then back to Melbourne,all in about 90 days. It's basically a larger and longer version of what I did with the WSOP last year.

I got a writing deal with Full Tilt to sponsor the material in exchange for exclusive rights. So basically for each update I can just create a thread like last year and provide a link. It took them a few days into the trip to get things rolling so there's already a few updates up.

I can't actually see what has been put up so far because the .com version of Full Tilt is apparently banned in Italy so hopefully the links work and everything.

Intro: http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/poker-f...rld-in-90-Days

Days 1-2 - http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/poker-f... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 06 May 08 04:15:34 -0400</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title>Around the world in 90 days</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2445]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Just a quick entry today. My flight leaves in 5 hours. Tilt has yet to give me a URL to link to so I don't have that to provide at the moment, but it woudln't surprise me if that was sorted by the time I touch down in Venice somewhere around 36 hours from now.

There won't be a ton in the way of blog entries made specifically on tworags over the following months, though Tilt may want me to just link to them through here for every entry, I'm not fully sure yet.

Anyway, I'm out. Here goes nothing.]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 29 Apr 08 21:30:29 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Permatilt</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2431]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I’m normally a pretty calm guy. It’s something I pride myself on, since I very rarely feel anything from poker outside very slight annoyance or disappointment. Lately though something about me has been off. I’ve been more short tempered, tired, and quickly frustrated not only when I play poker, but in life.  Today didn’t help things.

The day started bad before I even woke up. I had a vivid nightmare where I was being hunted through a mall by Ugandan dictator Idi Amin as played by Forest Whitaker with the intent of killing me. I managed to escape the mall by disguising myself in a fat suit, hat, and glasses, but the panic felt real. Yes, I watched ‘The Last King of Scotland’ last night.

I was woken up before I’d gotten enough sleep by Bondgirl telling me I needed to get ready for the family dinner we were due at in half an hour. I dragged my tired ass out of bed and jumped in the shower dreading what lay before me. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 26 Apr 08 19:05:59 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Rounder</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2425]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[“Hey Steve, you remember those games I was telling you about?”
“Right yea mate, are you going tonight?”
“Yea, did you want to go?”
“Nah, I’m mackered. Did you still need the cash for it then?”
“Yea definitely. I’ll swing by and pick it up and kick your ass in Madden while I’m there.”
“Sure you will.”

Stevo was used to my asking for money whenever I needed a large amount of AUD at this point. I’m constantly cash broke in Australia, since previous to my signing up for Moneybookers a couple weeks ago I had no real means of transferring money to and from online to anywhere within the continent. The first time he loaned me we met in front of a bank wearing dark sunglasses where he handed me $12,000 in an envelope, we exchanged a few words, then I turned straight back around and walked off.  Now I know why drug dealers think their so cool. 
I drive over to Stevo’s, count out the money, then barely beat him in Madden using a vastly superior team. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 25 Apr 08 14:21:14 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Rounder, a prelude </title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2419]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[…I jam the $8,000 Stevo has given me into my jeans pocket and keep the other three in my wallet. The wallet is busting at the seams attempting to contain the money from pouring out, and I begin debating other places to hide the cash on my person. Sure, I’m driving to the game in a safe neighborhood, but after what happened to JP you can only be too careful.

Prior to tonight the largest game I’ve played in a live setting is 2/5 NL, and I’ve played PLO perhaps a dozen times. Tonight’s 10/20 NLH/PLO mixed game would be a welcome change from the constant grind that is waking up every morning for the tournaments while still having the potential to make real money. I’d sold half my action to Stevo to reduce the variance but considering the way the game is rumored to play there was still the potential for huge swings. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 23 Apr 08 04:40:28 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Things it took me a while to learn part 18, Self Improvement </title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2394]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[As some of you know this entry was on the front of www.pocketfives.com for a little while, and they ask me to delay a couple of days before I move it over here so the content can be original. With that request fulfilled, it's ready to go here. 

At any point in my poker career you could ask me “how were you as a player 6 months ago?” and I could honestly tell you “My God did I suck.” Ask me the same question now, and not only will I tell you I sucked hard 6 months ago, but I still suck fairly often today. Self improvement is a slow and long process, and often times players don’t know the most efficient means of getting better. There’s also a lot of pitfalls and misinformation out there, so not only do you need to know how to get better, but you need to know how to avoid getting worse. So what steps can we take to improve our game?

1.	Coaching: Coaching seems like an obvious and natural first step. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 19 Apr 08 06:15:41 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Senior Prom </title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2386]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I haven’t been playing much poker lately so I’ve decided to write up a very old story of mine. Most schools Proms are some time around mid or early May and perhaps the younger readers are wondering how they can make theirs truly memorable. Well let me tell you kids one way to go about that.

Way back around February 2003 when I was 18 and full of potential some friends and I were hanging around my basement playing poker. We played 5 card draw back in those days, as the hold’em phenomenon had yet to really take hold. We got on the subject of senior pranks, and why nobody ever seems to do good ones anymore. Sure we had created a catapult to launch flower bombs (napkins filled with flour that explode in a cloud of white dust on impact) from across the street onto people leaving the winter ball, but that had barely been effective and little stir had been created. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 17 Apr 08 00:32:49 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Live vs Online and self analysis</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2378]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[The ‘people I don’t know’ blog entry created a bit of a controversy. Someone decided to link it over at P5’s and given my description of most live pros I was branded a hater and egomaniac by some, which you can read about here: http://www.pocketfives.com/poker-forums/7/Bond18-on-playing-live-players-_2800_funny-stuff_2900_-2781881
As the first reply put it “I think Bond 18 has a lil sugar in his tank, never has much good to say about people, ill lay odds that no one has a bigger ego than his....”
I’d already been wondering lately if I’d become hyper critical or whether my descriptions were fair but when I look back at the post I don’t think I’m out of line. I’m fully willing to admit when I think people are better than me, but I’m also willing to say when people play bad. Inevitably, I end up coming down on the side that many online players play well, and many live players play poorly. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 15 Apr 08 11:53:18 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Arrangements have been made</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2358]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Now that the around the world schedule has been finalized I’ve had to go through the process of creating arrangements for everything outside just playing the poker. The flights are now all booked and paid for, and the Vegas house is booked in as well. The flights ended up being very reasonable, totaling about $3000 AUD each including taxes. Now I have to call hotels in Venice, Paris and Barcelona and after that all logistical issues of the trip are solved. I’m going to get out and get one of those Ipod’s that can play movies since the airlines have a very careful screening process to select the man with the worst taste in the world who will have the job of deciding which films air on the flight. 

I’m going to start easing off the online volume a little bit leading up to the trip so I’ll feel pretty fresh. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 12 Apr 08 02:23:09 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>The people I dont know </title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2350]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[The blog entry I made about the poker players around me was polite and complimentary, and I’d really hate to get in the habit of that. Today I’d like to put down a list of name players I’ve run into; how they play, what kid of personality they are, and any other anecdotes from my experiences with them.

Scotty Nguyen: Scotty is just the most fun you’ll ever have at the table. He’s pretty much the best ambassador for poker ever. Highly outgoing, friendly, and often drunk with a laugh that can be heard for miles. I used to think Scotty was the ultimate poker playing machine until I actually played him. Unfortunately, Scotty has absolutely atrocious pre flop leaks and tends to make his raise size based on the strength of his hand with way too much consistency. He also slow plays in some pretty absurd spots, which I found out the hard way. Still, of all the pros I’ve played with, Scotty is my favorite to see across the table. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 10 Apr 08 10:02:42 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Hand History Links</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2313]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I have very little clever on my mind to write about today. There was a request in the comments about getting more HH links up, so I think this might be a good time to put a bunch of quality HH links in one place. So here’s some more:

Tilt $30 rebuy win
http://www.pokerxfactor.com/HA121755/Tilt%2030r%20win%20master/8550

Tilt $109 6-max win
http://www.pokerxfactor.com/HA121754/Full%20Tilt%20109%206X%20win/8550

Tilt Winners Choice win
http://www.pokerxfactor.com/HA120884/Winners%20choice%20win/8550

Stars 50/50 3rd
http://www.pokerxfactor.com/HA119914/Stars%2050-50%203rd/8550

Stars $109 FO win
http://www.pokerxfactor.com/HA118833/100%20Stars%20FO%20Win/8550

Tilt 100r 6-max win
http://www.pokerxfactor.com/HA117689/100r%206%20max%20win%20master/8550

You might have to copy/paste those into your browser to view them. As I’ve said before you don’t actually have to purchase a membership, just need to create a log in to view them. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 05 Apr 08 07:22:07 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Its a lock</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2303]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Party Poker locked me into their cruise today. I spent quite a bit of time on the phone with Party Poker and Moneybookers support and am happy to say both were quite useful and accommodating. My next move will be to book plane tickets and hotel for the trip. I also found out my friends Timex and Pacman are locked in as well, so I’ll have two really good targets to make fun of in my writing. I also found a place and am filling out the reservation papers for our stay in Las Vegas, the pictures can be found here: http://pacificinter.com/realestate/l...cationhome.htm

I made a deep run in the Full Tilt $150 today and came painstakingly close to a 5 figure score, but fell short and finished 3rd for about $7,500. My last hand seems like a questionable spot that I’ll likely go post in HSMTT. Speaking of, I’ve been pulling some weird and somewhat experimental type of plays recently. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 04 Apr 08 08:55:15 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Im as high as Ive ever been </title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2293]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I just having a talk with my friend Corey-Ann online and she did one of those things mid conversation where whoever you’re talking to says ‘how are you anyways’ despite your already been several minutes into the conversation and talking being fairly regular. I knew I was running good lately, but how am I? I’m fucking awesome, that’s how, why you could even say, I’m high as a kite!

Over the last three months I’ve seen my bankroll go on a constant soar, getting higher and higher. It has increased nearly 1.5X fold, reaching an all time high, which for those of you who don’t know was also the title of one of the Bond theme songs sung by some broad whose name I have totally forgotten. Not only that, but I think through talking and picking the brains of the excellent group of poker minds around me I’ve taken my game to it’s highest level. With my upcoming trip and my teaming up with Full Tilt, my writing is set to reach its highest number of audience members ever. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Apr 08 09:38:00 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>The people I know </title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2279]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Spend enough time blogging about your own life and even you get sick of you. I’ve decided to write an entry about those I know in the poker world around me, and take a break from the self indulgent monotony that is talking about myself.

Luckychewy: Over the last six months Chewy is the person I’ve spent the most time discussing poker strategy with. He’s an easy going kid with strong patience and discipline. Chewy plays a pretty TAG game, and his background in cash games makes him a very good hand reader post flop in deep stack situations. I think given his age, quality of game, and determination, Chewy is the player I know with the most potential, that is, if you could buy stock in poker players, he’s blue chip. I’ve also never met him in person. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 02 Apr 08 05:23:41 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Sundays are pleasant and in no way suicide inducing </title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2263]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[As I’ve said before, I have forever given up waking up early on a Sunday to force myself to play, even if that means missing the quarterly $1050 million on Pokerstars. I wanted to have a calm, well rested Sunday for once, so I smoked a joint around 11pm and was asleep by 12:15 with a 10am wake up time.

I registered for everything from the Sunday Mulligan through the late night Tilt $50 rebuys which goes off a half hour after the $109 6 max and $109 full ring on stars. I probably played close to 25 tournaments on the day, but because I got enough sleep felt good the whole way through. The first result of the day came in the 30k guarantee $200 buy in on Bodog where I finished 3rd for about $3,700, which was more than enough to pay for the whole days worth of entries. 

However, the most interesting result of the day came in the Stars $22 rebuys. At the 2000-4000 level with 400 ante I lost a blind verse blind pot and was down to 900 chips. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Mon, 31 Mar 08 04:42:54 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Player Profile</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2238]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I was doing the paper work necessary for the Party Poker Million cruise today and they have a player profile section you need to fill out for TV and marketing purposes. At first I filled the sheet out straight, but then I let a wise crack slip in. One thing led to another and, well, I'll let you read it for yourself. Here's what I'm sending back Party Poker:

Player Profile

(This information may be used for TV production and Marketing purposes)
 

Full name: _____George Anthony Dunst______________
 
Place of birth: __Milwaukee Wisconsin, United States_________________
 
Age: _23__________________
 
Current place of residence: ___Melbourne, Australia________________

Profession: _Poker player and degenerate extraordinaire. For legitimacy purposes I am also a writer.________________
	
Marital status: ___single but my girlfriend has dug her claws in pretty deep. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 28 Mar 08 08:33:46 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>You got yourself a god damn deal </title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2230]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[We finalized the deal with Full Tilt. I’m not sure what their wishes are as far as keeping the details private or public, but until I talk to them about it I won’t put it here. If they say that’s fine, then I certainly will.

I’ve also finalized my itinerary for the trip. I got tired of waiting for Stars to announce the APPT schedule and decided to fuck it. I’ll be going from Melbourne to Venice for the Party Poker cruise, then to Paris for the Grand Prix, then Wisconsin, then Costa Rica, and finally Vegas. 

I emailed a friend who works for Party Poker wondering about the availability of cabins and luckily there were a few left. The only problem is moving the necessary $12,500 into my Party Poker account. For the majority of online companies calling them and saying “Hello, I’m an American who now moved to and lives in Australia, can I please be allowed to use your services? [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 27 Mar 08 03:41:09 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Things it took me a while to learn part 17, Staking deals</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2204]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I’ve had this segment requested a number of times and there seems to be a lot of questions and misinformation within the community about staking arrangements. I’m not the most qualified to speak about being a person who is staking (which is fairly irrelevant since very few reading are interested in starting a staking empire) but I do feel quite qualified in talking about being staked. First, a little history in my experience being backed.

Outside a couple of one off deals I had in tournaments I’ve had two large backing experiences. The first was with a friend from Milwaukee named Rob who knew I had come close to busting my roll. I approached him about backing and he was pretty eager at the chance since he knew I worked quite hard at improving and was trustworthy. Our starting deal was a fairly strange one, he gave me a roll of $10,000. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 23 Mar 08 03:16:17 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Things it took me a while to learn part 16, The flaw in level 2 thinking </title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2196]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Special Guest: Shaundeeb.

I’ve been thinking about this concept quite a lot lately. At first I thought I was being results oriented, paranoid, or simply way too nity. I ended up having the same discussion with a number of players I respect, and after some debate we pretty much all came to the same conclusion; we as winning mid-high stakes tournaments players end up leveling ourselves too often. 

If you’re reading this you’re likely the kind of person who seeks out information on improving your game. That means you probably read forums, books, articles, and converse about poker with other thinking players in an effort to get better. These are the best ways of getting better of course, but they due tend to cause one problem; we thinking players spend so much time around other thinking players considering thinking situations that we sometimes forget that the majority of tournaments players aren’t thinking, or more precisely, don’t think anything like we do. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 22 Mar 08 07:30:20 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Drugs, alcohol, and donkaments </title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2188]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I had a quiet Monday this time around. I got myself up at 9am in order to play the Full Tilt $1 million. I blanked just about the entire day until I found myself deep in my favorite tournament, the Full Tilt $109 6 max deep stacked event. The tournament sometimes get an overlay (and it had that night) and at the final two tables I got a player on my left who started adjusting to my aggression very well, resulting in a constant raise/3 bet/4 bet, raise/3 bet, raise/3 bet, raise/3 bet/4 bet war. In the end we managed to get it in for a ton of chips in a flip where I had 99 vs his AQ and I held up (and by held up, I mean he hit first and then I rivered it to win in maximum retarded dramatic fashion.) That pot put me way out in front with five left and I went on to win for $7,200. 

My friend Daren messaged me while I was playing asking about going to dinner. We discussed doing a movie as well. Bondgirl leaned over to me
“Want to do dinner with Darren and Mei tonight? [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 20 Mar 08 03:27:15 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Upcoming Live Poker Part 2</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2161]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[With my live poker trip fast approaching and a new season of live poker in front of us I thought it was time again to discuss the upcoming live poker across the world and what you should do while there. Make sure to join me in these activities if you see me around the tournaments, not like you should be concentrating on poker or anything.

Event: 2008 Irish Poker Open

When: March 19-24

Where: Citywest Hotel, Dublin

What to do while visiting: A tournament in Ireland huh, I bet you think I’m gonna make a ‘the Irish are all drunks’ joke. Well you’d be dead wrong, I don’t have to make a joke, I can just tell the truth. Here’s a quote from defending Irish champion Marty Smyth about whether he feels pressure defending his title: “I’m just going to enjoy the weekend, and I’ll probably spend most of the first day drunk. If I get through to the second day, maybe I’ll start to think about doing well. If I don’t, I’ll spend most of the weekend drunk. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 16 Mar 08 21:24:57 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Winning begets winning </title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2157]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[With a season full of major live tournaments including the World Series fast approaching there are quite a few satellites running on the various poker sites at the moment. The fields are often small with a winner take all format, or occasionally the next few places get a small profit. I’ve come close a number of times recently but bombed out just short.

Today there was a $500 UB satellite to the WSOP, a $500 UB satellite with 25 Aruba packages guaranteed, and a $200 Full Tilt winner’s choice satellite worth $12,000. I got a nice start on both the UB tables but lost quite a few chips early. A couple hours later I’d bombed out of both UB tables and was left with a very short stack on Tilt. I got up to run to the bathroom and asked Bondgirl to cover for just a moment. When I got back a few minutes later she’d somehow doubled me. An hour later I was sitting with the chip lead on the final table. Thirty minutes after that I’d won the whole thing. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 16 Mar 08 07:30:41 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Make-up reduction</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2145]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Until yesterday the make-up o’ meter was sitting somewhere around $125,000. The tournaments I play for Timex every week include the $1,000 freeze outs on each site and things like the FTOPS, WCOOP, and a few other events that roll around I jump under his financial security again. The largest amount I had won under him previous to yesterday was around $13,000 when I went deep in a WCOOP event. 

Yesterday I won the Absolute Poker $1,000 freeze out for a bit over $33,000. After the scandal I boycotted Absolute for a few months but eventually with the soft $1,000 tournament having its great structure I returned. I’m still not sure how to feel about the issue, but at this point I feel less than criminal playing there. Of course, that’s easy to say after you get your second largest online score ever on it. That brings my make up way out of the six figure area and puts it right back in the upper $80,000 region. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 14 Mar 08 10:34:05 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Day light savings was invented by sadist commies </title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2120]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Seriously, fuck day light savings. Fuck it and the sadist communist bastards who invented it in order to annoy people in Australia who have to work on an American schedule. Oh, you think that’s not why they invented it? According to that Wikipedia entry you just read it’s good for the retail economy and leisure activities you say? We’ll fuck Wikipedia and fuck you too. 

Naturally it fell on a Monday, which as I’ve said before is Sunday for those of you across the ocean. I decided not to even bother try waking up for anything too early and stumbled out of bed in time for the Full Tilt $750,000 guarantee. I only signed up for around eight tournaments because I could feel I was nowhere near 100%. By the time Celina woke up several hours later it was wearing on me and I had her cover briefly while I took a nap on the couch. When I woke up I started making a run in the Full Tilt mulligan tournament, but ended up busting out deep losing 99 to AQ all in pre flop. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 11 Mar 08 10:42:41 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Limit Poker Makes Baby Jesus Cry </title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2094]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[For the past week I’ve been playing the Bodog Poker Open series of tournaments. It’s good to see the smaller poker rooms making an effort to increase tournament traffic and do something to increase prize pool sizes. Up until yesterday I’d bombed out of every event despite the deep structure. Yesterday was event #4, $150 limit hold’em, a game I haven’t played since the 2007 WSOP. 

Limit and no limit hold’em are to poker as Rosie O’Donnel and Jessica Alba are to sex appeal. For about a year during 2005 and 2006 limit was almost the only thing I played. That I’m still alive and possess the majority of my sanity is a true testament to my mental toughness. Still, I played the event because I’m a grinder and that’s what I do. It got something like 180 entrants with a first prize of $10,800. 

Despite my limit game being awful, the games of those around me were considerably worse. I also found AA a ton and it held up every time. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 09 Mar 08 01:02:49 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>White Hot</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2090]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I’ve been talking to a few players I respect lately who, for various reasons; be it playing an enormous volume that wore them out or running bad have started questioning how much they want to keep playing the game. One of them, SCTrojans, (who is one of the top players online and best tournament poker minds anywhere) told me he’s thinking of retiring fully except perhaps a few of the WSOP events. I can see how running bad or playing enormous volume can lead to burn out, but full on retirement? When you’ve got knowledge and talent like his, it almost seems like a waste. More equity for me!

I’ve never really thought about quitting and I hate taking vacations. The last time I took a full on vacation from poker I was 20 years old. I ended up playing 12 year olds on a cruise ship at $5 NL. The kids were thrilled to find out they were playing with a real professional who’d played the guys they’d seen on TV, but I sure as hell couldn’t justify taking 12 years old money. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 07 Mar 08 09:34:52 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Triple Crown 2, Crown Squared</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2074]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I won my second triple crown today. The triple crown consists of winning 3 tournaments on 3 different sites with a prize pool over $10,000 and 100 players or more. I won another some time ago (about 9 months perhaps) after numerous close calls and lots of effort. This time around I happened to simply get lucky in two tournaments on one day, then made some effort towards winning third. I had no idea it’d be such a substantial win.

I won the Stars 10pm (Central) 20k guaranteed $109 tournament tonight, which normally gets around 400 guys, 432 tonight specifically. First was $9,310 and as long as I’m shamelessly bragging I made the final table of the Stars $22 rebuys but busted out 8th.

The totals for the triple crown look like:
Mar 05, 2008: Stars $109 for $9310
Feb 28, 2008: Full Tilt $109 rebuys for $35,890
Feb 28, 2008: UB $30 rebuys for $5130.

I’ve been putting in a ton of volume lately and it feels good to get such a solid return. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 05 Mar 08 11:06:17 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Sundays are Sadistic and Depraved </title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2060]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Calling them Sundays here seems a little ‘I’m American and America is the center of the world!!!’ish but for the majority of people in the online world the biggest tournament day of the week is known as Sunday. This week there was bonus action, a $1500, 2 million dollar guaranteed tournament on ipoker network with massive overlay and terrible players. There was one catch though, it was at 7am (well two, there were no antes either.) I did not enjoy myself.

Even though I was responsible and got to bed at a reasonable hour the night before (which took it’s fair share of melatonin and discipline) a few hours into my Sunday I started feeling groggy and terrible. Then, I just started playing bad. Over the course of the day I made at least five truly awful mistakes. Just flat out terribly played hands. It didn’t help that I went super deep in the Tilt $150 with 750 entrants then lost a flip with 15 left. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 04 Mar 08 03:15:55 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Things it took me a while to learn part 15, Small/Mid and High differences</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2043]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Recently the online sites have been adding more and more high stakes tournaments to their schedules. Four sites now have a weekly $1000 tournament, Tilt has added a couple 100 rebuys, UB has added a nightly $150, and this is on top of the slew of $100+ tournaments (which we’ll define as higher stakes for the sake of discussion) that already exist. There are a number of adjustments to consider when moving up the buy in ladder which we’ll go over.

First of all, peoples aggression ranges are much wider at higher stakes than they are at low/mid. Take shoving ranges on a 10 BB stack with antes for example. If it folds to a player on the CO in the 100 rebuys, their range is going to be very wide here, and in some situations any two cards. Now take a tournament like the nightly 50/50 on Stars or Tilt. I think the average player is often only shoving A high, pairs, any two broadway, and a few suited connectors. Some may even end up folding the weaker A’s and broadways. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 01 Mar 08 06:20:24 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Things it took me a while to learn part 13, Ranges </title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2041]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Unfortunately I’ve been busy lighting money on fire at live poker so I haven’t been able to write for a while. I don’t have much live to play for another two months now so I’ve got some time to do some writing and want to restart the ‘Things it took me a while to learn’ series. Hopefully this article is a return to form.

As I wrote in part 9 tournament hand reading is all about putting players on ranges. However, I didn’t really elaborate on the enormous impact of understanding hand ranges in general. The simple fact is this: If you can pinpoint a mans range, you can own his soul. Pinpointing someone’s range can at times be very easy and at others very difficult, and is entirely situational dependant. Sometimes a person will do something so incredibly obvious they make their range basically one or two hands. Sometimes a persons range will get polarized, meaning the villain either has a very big hand or bluff. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 01 Mar 08 06:18:43 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Things it took me a while to learn part 99, What Would  Phil Hellmuth Do?</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2037]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Authors Note: As an additional exercise for this segment, see if you can figure out which hands were actually played by Phil and which I’ve made up. I’ll give you one hint; the hands played the absolute worst are the ones by Phil, because I simply don’t have the imaginative ability to come up with hands that awful.

Greetings fellow tournament players, it is I, the worlds greatest tournament player, Phil Hellmuth Jr. Normally I would never dispense with strategy advice for free, and the majority of my skilled analysis can be found in my enormously successful book ‘Play Poker Like the Pros’. However, it’s come to my attention that I’ve been taking a lot of flack on the forums by all these stupid internet kids who think they know something about tournaments, so I’ve come to show them all up and educate the imbecile masses. Allow me to walk you through some hands and show you how a true master of the game would play them! [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 29 Feb 08 04:36:23 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>40,000 Dollars Under the Belt</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2033]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[At this point it’s no secret, I had my biggest winning day in online history today. I normally have to talk myself into playing a 100 rebuy tournament because I am a major bankroll nit. However, in the case of the Full Tilt 100 rebuys 6 max tournament, I always play since the field is large, soft, and the tournament plays deep the whole way through. The half dozen times or so I’ve played it so far have been mostly frustrating with one or two near cashes and no serious deep runs. Historically I have a bad history with 100 rebuy tournaments, having never won one and mostly just getting frustrated at the final table or final two tables. Today was different though…

I won the $100 rebuys 6 max on Full Tilt for $35,890. An hour and a half before that I won the $30 rebuys on UltimateBet for $5,130. Combine that with a few other random cashes today, and I’m up over $40,000 on the day. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 28 Feb 08 09:59:21 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Money grows on trees</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=2021]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[At least it does if you don’t mind sitting for hours at live 2/5 NL cash games. I went down to Crown last night with my friend Joel and we sat in what started out as the most loose passive game alive (I’d say six or seven players limped to the flop was standard) and became the most spewtastic insanely aggressive game ever (7 way all in pre flop for 180 dollars and top set insta jamming the flop when he hits.) Certainly there is no way two online players can lose playing in this game for six hours. WRONG.

What ensued was one of the most frustrating nights of poker of my life. Zero draws got there as in literally not one. I flopped one set over god knows how many attempts and the table nit who bets into 3 players on 974 rainbow actually folds to my raise. I only saw two premiums in six hours, AK which ran into KK (I actually sucked out) and TT which ran into AA (the last of the night. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 26 Feb 08 22:56:51 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Whats the most you ever lost in a coin toss?</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1978]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Not quite as much as Anton Chigurh would prefer I bet, but losing a $12,000 flip still feels pretty terrible. I didn’t per say ‘lose’ $12,000, which of course would be much worse, but it seems similar.

I was heads up in the Bodog $250 satellite for a $12,000 World Series package (that you can option to take in cash) against a pretty bad player. The stacks sizes were my 44,500 to his 45,500 at 600/1200. I opened QQ on the button to 3200 and he shoved from the BB, elimating AA and KK from his range. Boo yah. He tables AhKh.
Flop: 3h 7s Th
I’m fucked.
Turn: As
River: Kc
*Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh*

On the plus side, actually managed to win two more tournaments yesterday. When I woke I fired up the computer and found Tilt having connection problems, so I decided to fill in my regular Tilt tournaments with something on absolute. I signed up for a $50 freeze out 10k guaranteed and went for my run. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
      <guid isPermaLink="true"><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1978]]></guid>
      <pubDate>Fri, 22 Feb 08 01:38:47 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>When It Rains&brvbar;</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1966]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[With the Joe Hachem Deep Stacked series over I’m free to occupy myself with more serious online play. I wrote about the very hot day I had in [url=http://www.tworags.com/blog/bond18/post/1878/sunday_money_sunday]Sunday Money Sunday[/url] but perhaps more incredible was the day I had during my day off from the Hachem main event. I was also lucky enough to remember to fire up Camtasia mid way through my session so I ended up recording what was one of my best days in my online poker career. When I turned on Camtasia I had nine tables running, and by the time my video was over I ended up final tabling four of them and winning one. My results for the day looked like:
PokerStars 22 rebuys: 1st for $7,115
PokerStars $150 100k: 3rd for $10,707
Pokerstars $50 50k: 50th for $126
Full Tilt $30 rebuys: 17th for $171
UltimateBet $120 Bounty: 5th for $1200 (I think, the UB updates are delayed on Bluff)
UltimateBet $150 20k: 7th for ~$1000 (again, not sure, definitely final tabled it though.) [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 20 Feb 08 08:54:28 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series ME Day 2, Hello Sir!</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1926]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I down a melatonin before bed in hopes of staying asleep. I wake up at 9am anyway, but feel tired enough that after spending 15 minutes or so on the computer I manage to crawl back to bed and doze off until my alarm starts ringing at 11. I go for my run, take a shower, and grab breakfast before heading out to the casino. Having checked the update from the previous day I am indeed the chip leader from both heats, edging out the guy behind me by about 1,000. Bondgirls 150ish thousand is good for 6th. Still, with a little over 200 players left having the chip lead doesn’t promise anything, especially with my history in these kinds of situations. I just need to keep myself from doing anything stupid and keep my desire to run over the table in check and in balance.
	The blinds start at 1000/2000 and my 216,500 means I’m sitting over 100 BB’s deep, though the average stack is more like 70,000 so most hands are played with 35 BB’s effective. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 17 Feb 08 07:40:33 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series ME Report, A History of Variance</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1916]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[For the fourth or fifth the straight day I wake up at 9am. This makes little sense, since I’m going to sleep around 2 or 3am and getting exercise during the day. Still, every morning I wake up at 9am, run to the restroom, and when I try to fall back asleep lie awake feeling both exhausted yet wired. Eventually I get up, browse the forums for a while, then go on a run to wake my blood up. After the run I normally feel much better but by the middle of the day I inevitably begin feeling tired, though I’ve often been to busy to pay it any serious attention. Either way, today there is little harm, though waking Bondgirl up proves to be a hassle and we get to the tournament twenty minutes late. Luckily I was smart enough to buy in days ahead of time so I simply rock up to my seat, count out the slightly depleted 20,000 start bank and say hello to those I know on the table, including well known Australian Pokerstars sponsored pro Eric Assadourian across the table. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
      <guid isPermaLink="true"><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1916]]></guid>
      <pubDate>Sat, 16 Feb 08 08:59:46 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Around the World in ~90 Days</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1888]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I was glancing over my intended schedule of upcoming live poker recently. For a while the rumor was the APPT was going to be starting up again in Macau in late March, though currently the consensus seems it’s more likely to happen in late April. After finding this out I realized it may line up very nicely for some of the other live poker I want to do, and end up creating a somewhat direct line of high stakes poker from Melbourne to Las Vegas. Here’s the post I made:
“So I was looking at the live poker tournaments I was intending on playing coming up, and while certain things are not 100% at this point (such as the dates for APPT Macau, which is likely late April but nobody knows yet) I found there was a real good opportunity to do an around the world trip including 4 continents for me and would likely be 3 for anyone else. I intend to write about every day in the trip to make the largest/most absurd trip report ever. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
      <guid isPermaLink="true"><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1888]]></guid>
      <pubDate>Tue, 12 Feb 08 08:50:41 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Sunday Money Sunday</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1878]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Sunday is the biggest day of online tournaments of the week, and it’s not even close. This week I got up at 8am (I normally didn’t bother and just got up at my normal noon or maybe, if I was feeling motivated, 10am for the Tilt major) to put in a truly massive day that resulted lasting 12 hours long. Technically, what’s Sunday in the states is Monday here, though when it comes to the online world I still refer to my time schedule like I live in the States. The vast majority of Sundays are a miserable experience. You wake up too early, spend an insane amount of hours, and almost always end up with a loss at the end of the night, feeling totally exhausted and swearing Sundays up and down like a drunken sailor raving about the woman who gave him syphilis. Every once in a while though, you have that magical kind of Sunday, where things fall ever so right, and despite the lack of sleep and playing 8-15 tables at a time for half a day, you play well too. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
      <guid isPermaLink="true"><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1878]]></guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 11 Feb 08 07:51:50 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Pokersavvy, LAPC, and There Will Be Blood</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1866]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Over the last couple of days I’ve made my first two videos for the training site www.pokersavvy.com. The first one I made yesterday followed my run in the Tilt $150 and 30 rebuys as well as whatever random tables I brought over. The $150 is a pretty wild video since I’m in the 5-12 BB range almost the entire video and every chance I get to get a hold of some serious chips I get 3 outed down to 1.5 BB’s (seriously it happened twice and I just kept sucking out to come back) and arrive at the final table with all of 4 BB’s, swearing about how stupid it all is. Today’s video goes on a much more smooth ride as I turned it on with about 8 left in the UB 30 rebuys and ended up winning the tournament for just under $5,000. 

Meanwhile Kyle (Edmond Dantes) has made coming out to the LAPC as alluring as possible in order to promote the new ‘Live at the Bike’ internet video feed we’ll be doing. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
      <guid isPermaLink="true"><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1866]]></guid>
      <pubDate>Sun, 10 Feb 08 04:38:11 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Make upo meter</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1844]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I recently did my post Aussie Millions numbers for my deal with Timex. Going into the Aussie Millions I was in fact not the player with the largest make up, and there was another threatening behind me, though with the guy in the lead making a solid cash in EPT Dortmund I may have overtaken him now. For the time being the make up’o meter grand total sits at….$121,122 US dollars. 

Seeing as I don’t have any very serious live poker series coming up until the World Series in June-July I can’t imagine that number will change all that much unless I get very lucky in one of the small APPT events leading up or the $2500 Hachem deep stack series coming up next week. Outside that there’s not enough opportunities to think I can take a major dent out. Not that Timex minds of course, having just won something like 1.3 million fucking dollars over in Germany I’m pretty sure he’s way to busy running around the hallways of his mansion screaming “I’M RICH, I’M RICH! HAHAHAHAHA! [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
      <guid isPermaLink="true"><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1844]]></guid>
      <pubDate>Thu, 07 Feb 08 09:12:42 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>A Real Blog Entry</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1840]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[This is odd. I almost never write a real blog entry, the kind where I ramble about what I’ve been doing with my life and what I’ll be doing upcoming. For the last week I’ve been on vacation in the Gold Coast and an island off Brisbane. It was pretty good though to be honest I don’t much like being away from poker, my computer, and my favorite Asian restaurants that long. I arranged it so I got back in time for the FTOPS which starts up tomorrow morning. I got home from the vacation and found out my new horse Charlie has won something like $8000 on the stake I gave him, essentially doubling the roll I gave him only a few weeks ago. I also managed to sneak in a few tournaments during the break since I’m incapable of going entirely without, and in my one day of play managed to win about $4,000. 
	
Meanwhile I’ve been asked to come do guest videos at Pokersavvy where fellow MTTC’ers Jurollo and Ansky put up videos. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
      <guid isPermaLink="true"><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1840]]></guid>
      <pubDate>Wed, 06 Feb 08 11:55:26 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>The JJ Diaries (By Bond18)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1806]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Authors Note: After having read Ansky’s inspiring post I realized too long had I stood by and done nothing about the online cheating situation. I decided to take the initiative and do what I always do in these situations, make fun of everyone and everything involved. I give you ‘The JJ Diaries’, enjoy.

First Entry, January 01, 2006: I’ve decided at the start of this near year that I, Josh “JJProdigy” Field, online pokers best donkamenter, should keep a diary to track my tournament success. I’ve had a wonderful 2005 and I really feel 2006 is going to be a break out year for me, I’m going to win thousands in tournaments, get my braces off, and maybe just maybe break the five foot mark without having height enhancing shoes. This diary will log the people I meet, the tournaments I play, and everything that happens in my daily life. Talk to ya soon diary!

February 12th, 2006: Today started out wonderful. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 31 Jan 08 10:13:38 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Things it took me a while to learn part 14, Playing a Chip lead/Big Stack</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1791]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Authors Note: Some of you may notice that part 13 in this series is missing. Part 13 is on the topic of ‘ranges’ and has been finished. Long story short P5’s offered to pay me for articles and I’m A-okay with selling out as long as it doesn’t compromise integrity. So enjoy part 14 while I go blow my money on an unnecessarily expensive shirt. 

Classic poker literature circulated an enormous amount if misinformation about playing a chip lead or big stack. Many wrote that when you have so many chips you should avoid confrontation since it’s ‘unnecessary’ and ‘you have time to wait.’ Yet again, strategy like this is complete bullshit. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 26 Jan 08 22:03:12 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Book Review: Kill Everyone, By Lee Nelson, Tysen Streib and Kim Lee</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1674]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[When Lee Nelson asked me to review his new book ‘Kill Everyone’ I got a little worried. I thought Lee was a nice guy, but I also thought that most of the poker literature out there was very sub par and despite Lee’s prolific success couldn’t be sure his would be any different. I didn’t want to offend the workings of a nice guy, but I also didn’t want to lie if I found the book off base or misguided. A few weeks later and I’ve now finished the book and am glad to say I don’t have to worry about offending anyone or lying. Also, let me clarify that I am not being paid to write this or given any real incentive to give a positive review (though I did get a free book out of it, so I guess if you want to be a nit about it I got paid.)
	
Lee Nelson and crew are entirely aware that in writing a book about tournament strategy they are treading in the shadow of Dan Harrington and his three tournament volumes ‘Harrington on Hold’em’. Are there moments of overlap? [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 08 Jan 08 10:12:21 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>All I Want For Christmas and or New Years</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1630]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[	It’s a bit late for Christmas wishes but there’s something on my list that can only be got in January, a win in the upcoming Aussie Millions. I’m not talking about just the main event, I’m not quite that greedy, but a win in any event would really start 2008 off on a great note.

Despite everyone in poker thinking the WSOP is the most important series of tournaments of the year (and financially, it is) the most important for me on personal level is by far the Aussie Millions. I’ve got a long history with the series that goes a little something like this:

2005: I won an Aussie Millions package on party poker at the age of 20. It was my first time outside North America and I was automatically entered in the World Speed Poker Championship and main event. The speed poker tournament was run in a semi-shootout structure where at 36 players we broke to six tables of six where the winner advances. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 02 Jan 08 00:59:27 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>APPT Grand Final Sydney Trip Report part 4, Return to Normalcy  </title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1536]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I tear through my luggage looking for my Melatonin. I could swear I packed, it, or was that Macau? Shit, I can’t remember. Without the sleep medication I know where my fate lies, staring at a computer screen at 5am with thoughts racing through my head, a brain to busy for sleep. After searching every piece of luggage, every small bag, and checking under the beds I give up and admit defeat, I’ve left the Melatonin behind. It’s 5:30am before I slip into unconsciousness, and I need to be up by 12.

            I jolt awake at 9am in a cold sweat, despite the room being cool. I lie awake another half hour before I fall asleep again. The alarm goes off at 12:05, and I crawl out of bed and try to rub the red out of my eyes in the bathroom. I feel pretty good, but I know I’m still going to need some red bull. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
      <guid isPermaLink="true"><![CDATA[http://tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=1536]]></guid>
      <pubDate>Tue, 18 Dec 07 01:12:30 -0500</pubDate>
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