I show up like 2 minutes before they deal, but am somehow the first person to sit at my table. I draw the 1-seat (:sad: ) We started with a comedic 4k stack at 25/50, 30 min levels. Looking around my table I get kind of excited, since it's a bunch of older men, 2 women, and one youngish guy across from me in the 5 seat. The guy beside the young guy looks like he's about 40 until I look a little closer at him and realize that he has a fo-hawk, a terrible mustache, and the fruitiest sunglasses I've ever seen. He's got a really nice all black suit on though, plus the fohawk gives him credit for a joke-stache, but decide that i don't really like him all that much regardless. He limps the first 2 hands UTG and takes them when the following hand comes up:

Eff. stacks- 3.8k, stache covers.

UTG limps- He's 45-50, really bad teeth, and has already finished a beer and is on his way to #2. Seems to be a local, and knows the guy to my left.
UTG+1 limps- UTG+1 is joke-stache.
Couple more limps, i complete with junk, bb checks, 5 or 6 to the flop.

Flop- AK7r.
2 checks, UTG leads 200, jokestache minraises, everyone else folds back to UTG who calls.

Turn- (AK7)8.
UTG checks, UTG+1 bets 1k, UTG calls.

River- (AK78)2
UTG checks, UTG+1 bets 400 (yes, 400), UTG calls, UTG+1 rolls over KK, UTG claims to have mucked A7.
UTG gets down to like 5bb's about 4 times, and up to over 75bb's twice before the table breaks.

4 hands later-- I've raised once, and c-bet and took it, so I have like 4.5k and cover villain, but barely.
Preflop- 3 folds, ~40yo limps, as he's done a few times, 2 folds, ~50yo lady limps, as she's done once before in the only hand she played. Folds around to me on the BTN, I look down at QhQs and make it 250, man folds, lady calls.

Flop- Qc4s9d
Lady donks 400, I flat.

Turn- (Qc4s9s)5c
Lady donks 500, I take ~20 seconds and make it 1350, she thinks a second and calls.

River- (Qc4s9s5c)7c
lady snap checks, I think for 15 seconds and move in for ~2300, she says that I probably caught the flush and takes a while before folding what I assume was a 9, I'm up to ~6k.

I notice that the young guy (Jason from here on in) across from me is pretty sharp with chips, cutting them to count and shuffling them really well, but he's also been pretty tight. He loses a pot with JJ and is down to like 1.7k and shortstacks for the next hour or so. I end up doubling the guy with the bad teeth from earlier in a 4 way limped pot when I flop top pair on a monotone flop and call a small check-raise AI only to be up against the sb's AKcc for a flopped flush (Yes, SB, 4 ways, limped, AKs).

Same dude triples up the next hand, then busts a guy the hand after that, and has < 10K at 50/100 after being down to 400 chips like half an hour earlier. I get up and grab a water and turn my chair backwards to sit AC Slater style when I come back. I count my chips incorrectly, thinking that I have 4k and change, when I really had just over 5k when this hand comes.

Bad tooth guy opens to 625 UTG+2 9 handed at 100/200, folds around to me in the BB, I shove AKo. He asks how much it is, I say "Like 4200 total?" The dealer counts out something like 5125 total... oops. Guy turns his AcTc face up says "I really like this hand." I do my best to look nervous and purse my lips a little bit. He must have gotten some kind of read off me or something, because he calls. I turbo turn over my AK and flop a K and hold to double to over 10k and 50+bb stack.

We get a 10min break soon after. I go for a pee and run in to someone that I go to school with in the lobby, and brag to him about how soft and passive my table is. As I come back in to the room, it's just me and the Young guy sitting at the table. He asks for a courtesy double (he's sitting on like 8bb's at this point), and I say "Yeah maybe. I really don't want this table to break until it absolutely has to."

Next level is 100/200/25a, and jokestache asks what an ante is. I hold back laughter. The guy to my left has been a giant nit, but once antes come in to play he doesn't shut up about how "there's an extra 200 in there when you raise and take it". I really want him to shut up because I plan on raising every single pot from here on in. 4 hands later, jokestache is BB and doesn't post his ante, only to find out that the blinds still have to post antes, which is apparently "insaaaane man".

My next 4 hands are 72o, 73o, 32s, 53s. I raise each of these, get blinds and antes twice, get flats and flop-folds the other two. Jason squeeze-shoves over my open like 3 hands later, and the flatter calls with T9s and doubled him up. I continue to raise most every hand minraise+25 to a high level of effectiveness. At one point, after actually folding 3 (!) hands in a row, I'm in the SB. It folds around to some girl on the button who open limps 200 with like 6.7k I make it 725 after looking only at my Kc, bb folds, she flats. I bet 925 without even looking at the flop, she pulls the chip off her cards, looks at them, and then sits there for about a minute. "let's go, you're folding, come on" I say. She obliges.

Next orbit, I've raised 4 hands in a row at this point.
Effective Stacks- Villain-~5.7k, I cover with 11k, maybe a bit less.

Preflop- folds around to me in sb. I make it 525 at 100/200/25a with Ac8d, villain calls fast.
Flop- As8dQh
I follow with 650, he calls quick.
Turn 4d
I bet 1225, he calls quickly again.
River 7c
I count out 2625, shuffle it for a second, and say "Nah you got the ace" and rap the table while sighing, planning on checkshoving and hoping to induce a bet from an Ax or any Q, since I thought that with my image, he'd certainly put some bluffs or Qx in my range. He thinks for a second and then tables ATo. He tells me that he was folding if I had bet that 2625, but I don't believe him.

As I'm scooping this pot, I can see the floor man walking over. I look up at the screen and see that there are 44 players remaining of the 80 that started the session, and that we are the next table to break. I tell Harris, the dealer, to hurry up and deal so we can get a few more hands in before the table breaks. He doesn't even get the cards dealt before the next player busts, and the floorman tells me to move to table 3. I say "Fuck" out loud, the young guy across from me laughs and says "Oh I'm sure all the tables will be this easy." I say that I hope so, but find out immediately that he's wrong.

I'm at my new table for maybe 10 minutes before I get moved to even up tables. I Slater my chair immediately and remove my hoodie to reveal that I'm wearing my Bum Ho jersey. I'm in the bb in my first hand at my 3rd table.

Eff. stacks- SB- 13k, I cover with ~14.5k. We're the two biggest stacks at the table, and probably in the top 5 in the room, as we're about 2.5x avg. SB is probably 25, wearing a white hoody and hat, and has a couple days growth in his beard. I assume he's an internet guy.

Preflop- Folds around to sb, he makes it 1100. I look down at red KK and think for a second before sliding out 3150, he tanks and folds. Had it not been for the facts that (1) I'm Slatered, (2) it's my first hand at the table, (3) he's a young guy who probably plays online, (4) I'm wearing a bright orange jersey that says "Hanhwa Eagles" on the front and "Bum Ho" with a 7 on the back, I probably just flat here, but with all those things combined, I decide that if I can induce a 4b shove from anyone in any spot, it's this one, since I "want to assert my dominance at my new table, and who better to do that against but the other big stack?". Meh.

I raise and get 3bet twice over the next orbit, folding both since it was an old pasty man 3betting both times. Next hand I play:

blinds 200/400/25a
stacks- villain (HJ) 9-9.5k, I cover with ~13k.
Preflop, there's an EP limp, folds around to villain, he limps (he's a fat guy who has been chatty and friendly with everyone at our end of the table, though I haven't said much over the 10-12 hands I've been here, and he hasn't spoken to me really). Anyway, CO limps, BTN limps, I complete the SB with Ts3s, bb checks. I check the flop dark, Hellmuth style.
Flop- 3c4c5c. Action checks around.
Turn- (3c4c5c)Td
I grab two of each color chip and lead 1250. HJ flats, all others fold.
River- (3c4c5cTd)Th
I lead for 3350 hoping to get value out of a hilariously played flush, but more likely a pocket pair or a stubborn 5. I get called quickly. I feel certain that I missed out on a ton of value by not CRAI or just simply cramming on my own, and get that feeling confirmed when I roll over my hand, to which he replies "Sick. So sick" and turns JTo.

Young guy to my right opens a bunch of hands over the next few orbits but doesn't get 3bet, meanwhile I get jammed on every single time I open. I double a dude up with AK vs. his 77 and the blinds go up to 400/800/50a, so I'm down to like 20-22bbs. A guy from my first table gets moved over to the fat guy's seat. He limps a lot and is really passive. He jams one hand for like 7700 over limps and gets folds, then open limps the next hand on the button. SB pops it to 3000, BTN flats. SB bets 3800 on 9c9x7c and folds when BTN shoves like 4300 more. My stomach turns.

Little while later, there are 23 players left, with top 16 moving on to Sunday, and people are looking at the screens to see if people are busting and stuff. The structure is so bad that Avg. stack atm is like 14.5bbs, though the structure reverts to 200/400/25a to start Sunday, but I'm mehing, I want a stack going in to Sunday for a shot to win.

I live-misclick UTG with ATo, trying to make it 1775, but accidentally put in 1575 without saying anything, so they make me limp. UTG+1 limps, folds around to CO, who just lost KK<AQ two hands ago, but is apparently the defending champion of this tourney. He jams ~4400, folds around to BB who flats, and I just assume that he's up to no good, so I fold. CO rolls over 66, BB 88, I curse for not shipping my 22bbs. Board comes K4468 and everyone freaks out twice.

Two hands later, I'm SB when an interesting spot comes up, still at 4/800/50a.
Stacks, BTN (young guy to my right that I 3b in the KK hand)- ~18k, Me- 16.7k, CO- ~11k, HJ- ~12.5k Both CO and HJ are passive and limp a lot, raising big hands and limping others.
Preflop- folds around to HJ, who limps, as does CO. BTN makes it 3600. I decide that this will be a really good spot to 3-bet jam and plan on doing so reasonably wide given the ~7k in the middle. I look down at 9c9d and shove, thinking I fold out like TT/maybe JJ/AQ-. Folds back around to BTN who calls and says "*sigh* you don't have AA do you?" as he rolls over KK. I brick and assume he's going to win the tourney.

I leave the tournament room and walk outside, only to realize that I've yet to use my food voucher. I 180 and go back. There's a cute girl working at the counter. It's kind of late, so I ask her how long they're open, and she says for another half hour or so. I tell her that I'm going to go talk to Steve (the pitboss) for a second and see if he can find me a seat at the cash tables before ordering. Steve is my sister's roommate, and I'm going to be sleeping on their couch tonight, so I'm just going to wait for Steve to drive me home. Steve butts me in front of like 7 people on the list, and I go back to the restaurant. I order a sandwich, which comes to like $3. I tell the girl that I need more food, because it's a $10 voucher and I'm getting my full $10 worth, since I can only use it tonight. She informs me that the tournament is still running tomorrow (Saturday, which is now yesterday I think), which, to me, seems like something that I would obviously know already.

"I'd love nothing more than to be back here tomorrow, however those of us who have 0 chips left are no longer permitted to play" I answer.
"I'd love nothing more than to be anywhere but here tomorrow." She says.
"Should have played the tournament" I say, with a smile.
"I'd way rather go for ice cream." she says, grinning.
I'm quite confident that this girl wants me to take her for ice cream tomorrow. We chat for a while until my foods ready, and I tell her I'll see her around, despite the fact that I will not see her around, since I don't live here. She comes around and starts wiping tables that have clearly already been recently wiped. We keep chatting, and I tell her that I'm uncomfortable because she's watching me eat. She laughs because she thinks I'm joking; I legitimately don't ever get nervous if I'm talking to girls or playing poker or doing whatever-- but I get really paranoid when people watch me eat for some reason. Anyhoo...

The restaurant is just outside the tournament room, and players go on break while we're still talking. That Jason guy from my first table comes out and sees me, and sits down. We chat for a second, long enough for him to inform me that he shoved 3 hands in a row right after I left, doubling through with A4<QT on the third, and from that point forward he tells me that he scooped up about 60% of the chips at the table until it broke. He also gave me props for making it tough on him, I wish him luck and he leaves.

As he's walking away, joke-stache walks up to the desk looking for an order of fries, but they're done serving for the night. I tell him to grab a handful of mine since I won't finish them. He thanks me for the fries and says that he was glad that I busted because I was clearly the best player left, and that I played really really well in every spot. I thank him and definitely don't return the compliment since he was terrible and wouldn't know a good poker player from a hole in his head.

The young guy that I busted to came up to me after that and tells me that it's a really shitty spot for me when I get the 99 there. I ask him what he iso's with there but folds to my shove, he says A9-A5s and 77. I say "pfft" and return to my sandwich and waitress, who is now just sitting across from me nibbling on a fry.

She asks how old you have to be to play in the tournament. WTF? You work here. I try to decide if she's just stupid and running out of things to say or if this is a real question. "Uhh, 19" I say (Canadaments).
"Oh, how old are you?" she asks. I'm getting kind of skeptical here the longer this chat goes on.
"I'm 22." I answer, "Why? How old are you?"
"Oh... I thought you were younger. I just turned 17."
"Why are you 17?" I say forcibly, while stuffing my remaining 12 fries in to my mouth, also forcibly. I leave without saying bye or securing a phone number. Enjoy the prom.

I sit at a cash table waiting for Steve. I 3bet AQs my 2nd hand at the table over a raise and a flat. Both flat and I check fold on JT2dd when the original raiser shoves $75. A while later I flat 77 from the sb after a raise and 2 flats. Flop 632, I check and try to jam over a cbet and flat, but live-misclick again, dropping a $25 chip short of the line and they make it a call. Turn is an offsuit 9 and I shove like 80 in to 115 and get called by 96 and brick. I've successfully rinsed off a buyin at live 1/2NL for the first time in my life. I run in to Jason as I'm leaving and he tells me that he got it in with AA on a T high board vs. bottom set for in what would have been a 95k pot at 800/1600.

I leave and get beers with Steve and we talk about WSOP and sportsbetting and stuff. We discuss some of the hands I played and tells me that he folds JJ and probably even AK to my shove if I'm unknown, and that my shove is fine if BTN had been opening a lot. He's one of those 2003-era PartyPoker guys who got all the money when it was still available, but doesn't really play much anymore because he doesn't like sitting in front of a computer for hours.

I sleep on the couch until like noon, then go for sushi with my sister. Last time I went to this place, I went with old college roommates. We went at like noon and stayed until about 4:30 getting shitfaced on sake. We didn't know at the time that this sushi bar closes at 2pm until the evening rush that starts at ~5, but asian people are too polite, so they just kept serving us, despite the fact that shifts were over long ago. We were too drunk to notice, or care for that matter, that nobody was coming in to the bar, and that the waitress cleaned and mopped around us. When she finished doing all that, she sat down with us and we just chatted for a while, and I ended up scoring this girl's phone number despite the fact that she was clearly in her 30's and apparently I don't even look 22.

Fast forward to this time, I'm nervous that I'm going to see this waitress and have to be faced with the unpleasentness of seeing her again despite having not taken her up on the offer of getting together outside of this joyous sushi establishment. Fortunately, the waitress from last time is not working, which is good since I'm with my sister and would rather not be hitting on girls in that situation. It's not that there is anything wrong with this girl, I just don't live in this town and spend about 30hr's/year in this town to begin with. I order the volcano roll and my mouth is on fire for the next several hours, though I polish off 3 Sapporo beers and feel joyous.

I go back to my sister's house waiting for my other sister to get off work and drive me home. I go back and get more sushi whilst waiting. I then look up directions for making sushi. I pretty much think only of sushi for the next 4 hours, then I write this, and now I'm thinking about sushi again.

There's a live $330 Freezeout coming up this weekend, and there was a satellite for it tonight at 7PM. I show up at 7:05 and ask if I can buy in late, to which they say no. I ask how many empty seats are there, and she says 1. This means that they will be paying off 1 seat, and 2nd place is $40 short of a second seat. I think to myself "try to figure out if this makes sense" but fail to see any logic in it. I guess I'm out of touch. Some old guy even looks at me and then the pitboss and says "Oh good, we have one more! Now we can pay 2 seats!" which causes everyone else to look up at me and then the pitboss and perk up. Sorry guys. "Great..." I'm thinking to myself sarcastically. "Finally decide to not grind online for once. Leave the house and the first person I run in to is a complete cheesedick." Someone tells me as I'm turning to leave that there will be a cash game starting up in about an hour.

So whatever, I drive around aimlessly for an hour and decide to buy Heavy Rain for PS3 before coming back to the casino to sit at a 1/2NL table. As I walk in, I have my iPod in one ear on shuffle, and the song happens to be CM Punks entry theme/ Killswitch Engage screaming. I'm scruffy and unkempt, and oddly jacked up and ready to crush. I yell "WOO!" to nobody in particular. Someone tells me not to yell in the casino. I give her the wink and the gun and say "you got it." as I'm sitting down, despite my every intention of winning a giant pot and yelling again whilst still in the casino.
There are still a bunch of people kind of talking about busting the satellite (OMG bad beats wahhh), plus a couple of old men, so I'm pretty sure I'm just going to win enough playing cash to buyin straight to the tourney, though I'm still just going to buy in to it anyway irregardless of how much I win tonight. I sit with $200 and automatically cover the entire table. Doesn't take me that long to get involved since I'm a spazz.

Effective stacks of bb and utg- $120, I cover.
UTG is a young guy that I've met somewhere before and might have played with once but I don't remember. I think I would have remembered playing with him before, but idk. BB is unknown, probably 35-40yo.
UTG limps, 2 folds, MP1 limps, 1 fold, CO limps, I look down at 7c5c and limp behind, sb folds somehow, bb checks.
Flop- 2c5s8s.
Checks around.
Turn- As.
Checks to me, I stab for some reason-- $7 in to 12 or 13 or w/e. BB flats, UTG flats, folds around.
River- 2s.
Checks around to me, I bet $32 in to $39 as a bluff, since I think everything that doesn't lead river folds to my second barrel. A hand with Ks or Qs (maybe Js?) calls, but I think they lead the river with that.
To this point (~10 hands), UTG had limped in to a lot of pots and called flops fairly light, but with a paired board and 4 spades I thought I could get him to fold all 1 pair hands, a 2 if he had it, and like a Ts or worse. I also didn't think BB would call me light with UTG behind him, so basically I'm trying to fold out the Js.
BB folds rather quickly, UTG takes forever and then says "Ugh, I was hoping to just check it down when I called the turn. I would have folded to a river bet but I made trips on the end." So he clearly has a 2x without a FH.
He flips a coin and calls. I say "Good call. 5." He says "a 5 with what?" as if the kicker mattered, and then he tables J2o.

An orbit later, 1 limp, 1 fold, 1 limp, I limp with Jc8c. BTN folds, SB limps , BB checks (BB being the youngish guy from last hand). I cover the whole table again with like $165, they all have ~100.
Flop KsJh8d.
SB checks, BB bets $14 in to $10, folds to me, I ask how much he's playing. He says he has another ~$85, and to "Just go all in, I'll call, and then we can turn 'em up and count the money later."
I say "yeah okay, I'm all in." Folds quickly around to BB, he snaps with KTo.
Turn- Ts.
"Meh" I say to nobody in particular.
River- Jd
"Amirite?" I say, again to nobody in particular.

At this point, I'm sitting on like $275, with the buy-in for that tourney being $330. I tell myself that if I can run this up to ~$450 then I'm just going stand up and leave, and use that to straight buy-in to the tourney tonight. I limp behind a couple times and stab, raise a few and c-bet vs. old people a couple times, and raise a few times only to get 6 flats and whiff, so I'm sitting on $315 when the following hand comes up, still covering the table.

Guy busts the satellite the next table over with AA, buys in over here and posts blind in MP1 or MP2. UTG limps, 1 fold, UTG+2 (~40YO from the first hand) makes it $7. 1 fold, poster flats, 2 folds, guy to my right (had just sat down 10 minutes prior and has already rebought, looks like Chris Moneymaker) flats from the SB, I flat 4c4s from BB, UTG calls with like $13 behind. Beyond UTG, we're all like $100 effective, give or take 10.

Flop-Kd4d3s (5 players)
SB donks $13 and I have no idea what to do, since raising folds out everything I get value from with 3 others behind. Then I turn my brain back on and make it $47 so as to not price in FD's. AA and AK still jam (K5s might too lol). Folds back around to SB, he flats to put exactly half of his stack in the pot.
Turn- Qh.
He checks, I think about putting him in for his last $45, but then realize that he might fold if I do that, so I bet $18 since I have 3 $1 chips amongst my veritable sea of $5's, and this sets up a nice 1/46th pot river bet. He flats.
River- 8x.
He bets his last $23 or w/e, I obv call and roll over 44. He tells me that he thought I was drawing, and mucks.

Fast forward a while, I raise every other hand and got 3 bet a couple times. I fold most, but flat once with 98s after 4 cold-callers, but c/f on ATQhhh. I then successfully minraise 64s UTG and get 9 folds, immediately thinking that this will be a necessary addition to my repertoire.

Half an hour goes by and I don't really do much. 4 limps to me, I pop red 99 to $14 from the CO, and get 4 calls. Kx6c4c, checks to me, I pick up 3 red $5 chips and stack them on top of 24 $1 chips as I slide a giant mess of $39 in. I immediately hate myself for betting, and get what I deserve when BB crams his last $62 total. Folds around to me, I decide that he could have a flush draw/bottom two at least one in five times, so I kiss a $25 chip and throw it in the pot, much to everyone's entertainment. He has KcQx and holds. Idk, that might be a fold getting 6:1 or whatever I'm getting. I'm just a tourney donk.

I'm about ready to leave, and tell myself that I'm just going to play until my next BB, which is another 5-6 hands. As hand #2 is being dealt, this old guy Brent sits in and I almost ejaculate in my pants. No way am I leaving. Dude is a massive station/POW/government employee/bad mustache victim. I play every pot Brent plays and just brick every flop, while he makes pairs. While this is going on, people are kind of noticing this and flatting us a lot, and one guy squeezes us twice in the span of about 6 hands, I fold both, meh. He shows JJ the second time.

Couple hands after the 2nd squeeze. Effective stacks- UTG- ~$275, Me- $350, HJ- $100, BTN- $163.
The squeezer opens to $12 UTG. Folds to me, I look down at black Q's and 3b to $37 from the CO. Guy to my left (who won the satellite somehow, but is now stuck well over the price of the seat, having bought in for $100 4 times now in the last hour) overflats. With ~$85 in the middle, button jams $163 total. Button is an older guy who had made a few spewy calls a while ago, (along with flatting an EP raise with QQ only to snap muck face up to a cbet on KK5), but hasn't really done much in a while. Folds back to me and I brainfart that button can possibly have JJ/TT/AKs/J4ss and call for some reason. Guy to my left is thinking about his last $70 for a solid 3 minutes, and finally folds KTo face up as if he had and Ace and a Joker. A in the door and I'm mad at myself, back down to ~$225.

I'm pretty upset with myself so I down my water and go for a pee. When I come back, the waitress is just coming to the table. I went to high school with her and we were kind of friends with each others' friends, so friends by default I guess, though I've said exactly 2 words to her since highschool. I had made out with her once at a party, and had always kind of wanted to bang her. I actually thought we might end up getting together a few years ago, but I ended up getting involved with someone else within that circle of friends instead, whom I dated until my 2nd year of university, so that was a no-go.
This ended up being good for me since the Freshman 15 happened to come at least twice for miss waitress.

Fast forward ~5 years to tonight- I see her working and she has clearly lost all of that weight and then some. She asks if anyone wants drinks. I ask if beers come in draft or bottle, to which she replies bottle. WTF kind of casino serves bottles? IDK why I even asked, but Fuck you, I either want a draft or nothing. Anyway, I say no thanks. She finishes going around the table, then looks at me again and says "are you sure you don't want anything?"
I say "Yeah what the hell, Double Jack and Coke." She says that they don't serve Jack. I quickly facepalm in to my left hand, and say out of the right side of my mouth "Just slip me your phone number then."

As the next hand is being dealt, the guy to my left asks if he had heard me correctly, to which I said something to the effect of "Yeah I was just joking around though, I've known her for 6 or 7 years". She comes back with the 2 beers that were ordered at the other end of the table, then comes back around to my end and slips a folded up coaster on the table beside my stack as she's walking away. I tip her a dollar. The paper says "Shave first, then call. ###-####" Bink. The people at the table are all eyebrow-raisey and half-smiley, despite the turn having just been dealt in a 4 way raised pot. I say "Keep. Gaming." in my best Simpsons impression; I get what I assume is a mixture of people not getting the reference and people not caring. The dealer giggles. I tip him $1 as well.

I spew around for another 20 minutes and miss every flop, and am actually stuck like $30 somehow. Brent opens to $7 utg and I flat MP. Guy to my left ships another $28, having lost the previous hand with K8o in a 3bet pot. Folds back to Brent, he flats, and I jam for his last $90 with AJdd. I'm certain he's 4betting AQ+ and TT+, so I'm pumped when he calls, assuming he has like A8s or 55. I let out a "Awww" when he tables AJ and the A flops and we chop the $28.

I'm ready to leave when the supervisor comes over and says that they're shutting down in 10 minutes, and that we have another 7 hands, so I decide I'll just hang around for those. I raise and take the first, open fold the second, raise and take the third, raise the 4th and get 3bet, so I fold. Around this time, someone mentions that they want us all to stick in 10 blind for the last hand and put out a flop and take it from there (apparently all the regulars at this game do so for the last hand each night). I immediately think about open shipping that flop with ATC. I then verbalize this, and laugh along with them since they assume I'm joking. I fold the next 2 hands, and then everyone agrees to put 10 in pre.

Effective stacks- guys 1 to my right and 1 to my left have like 80, CO and BTN have like $400. Myself and the other 2 people have like $150.
PF- Everyone is in blind for $10. $70 in the pot.
Flop 9c7c5c. BB checks, Old guy beside me has $80 and checks. I jam ~$145, still not having looked, and pull my hood up. 1 fold, guy with ~$150 thinks for a while and calls me a turtle (green hoodie obv). He tank-folds what he later claims to have been an overpair. Folds around and I bask in my free money. I turn over the Th, and then sweat out the Ac lol.

I color up and cash out for $3 profit, which I take to the gas station down the street and put $3 supreme in my Dad's car. I'm certain he'll be thrilled.

Still not a whole lot to say, but there have been a few developments of late, so here goes.

Got a message from my backer the other day. He was curious how deep I was, and I told him ~80 ABI. He told me that he's been on a big downer, and that he had to withdraw some for life stuff/WSOP, so he might not be able to top me up if things continue to go sour. The next couple of days were spent playing really really low stakes stuff (not that I go high at all in the first place). Wednesday night I shipped a $2r on ftp, and Thursday I successfully defended my title. Played again last night and lost a 100bb pot with KK<QTo for the chip lead with ~55 left. Meh.

Pretty sure I'm playing my ~first ever live tournament next weekend. I've played live cash at a casino a dozen or so times, and I've played tourneys at a bar in my hometown, so whatever, but this will be my first tournament at a casino. It's a $350 buyin, and is kind of weird. The poker room only has 6 tables, so they're having 3 separate starting heats, but people can play in multiple heats for some reason. So basically, they play 8 levels on day 1A (Friday), 1B (Sat AM), and 1C (Sat PM). You can play 1A, bust, buy in to 1B, bust, and buy in to 1C and be chip leader. Conversely, you can play 1A, make it to the end of the day, play 1B and try to get a bigger stack than your 1A, etc. If you get through day 1A as a chip leader but also through 1B with an even bigger stack, the day 1A stack COMES OUT OF THE TOURNAMENT. WTF? Seems kind of silly to me to let people play multiple day 1's, especially if they make it to day 2 the first time around, but whatever. Pretty sure I'm only bringing one bullet and I'll just play Sunday if I don't get to Sunday.

Quarter of the way through the WSOP and I don't think my fantasy team has a single cash yet, but it's a long series.

My team:
Andrew "luckychewy" Lichtenberger
Daniel Negreanu
Isaac Haxton
Steve "gboro780" Gross
Allen Cunningham
Shannon Shorr
Freddy Deeb
Steve Sung
Carter "ckingusc" King
Jennifer Harman

Here's hoping that they figure things out.

-Grady

My life is boring. Just letting everyone know that I'm still alive despite not writing in a month. I'm also on a ~90 ABI downswing, but don't wanna write about that either.

[x] blog delivers.

I have played 2 sessions of poker in the last 2 weeks. I've been extremely busy with exams, which sucks since I was going on a bit of a tear before that. I had made a final table in like 4 consecutive sessions leading up to my forced break, though they were nothing major and I didn't book a win in any of them.

I only squeezed in three tourneys on Sunday, and ended up making a pretty deep run in the sunday $11/250k, busting out in 130th (or something like that) after jamming 8bb's from the button with KQs and somehow lost to 99 after he turned quads for a boring non-sweat.

I wrote an exam Tuesday morning after getting like 2 hours of sleep. I was hovering at about a 20% confidence level when I woke up on Monday, and ended up studying for 12 hours straight, going to bed for a few hours, and waking up at 6am to cram another 2 hours or so. I still feel like I got about 50% and actually might have a sweat to see if I passed the course since this exam was worth 50% of the final grade. I got home from the exam at about 11:30 and was asleep no later than 11:35. I woke up at 6pm and just sat on the couch not really doing much, but was dozing off for a good percentage of the rest of the day. I figured I'd be gone to bed by midnight (standard bedtime is about 3am), and was well on my way to that. I decided to open up FTP for some reason, only to discover that it was turbo night, which means that I'd be staying up until about 6am again. Joy!

I ended up final tabling a $5 PLO tourney and making a couple other deep runs, finishing with a whopping $4.xx in profits on the night, which is what we all love.

My last exam is monday morning, and I'm going to get ridiculously drunk for the following 3 or 4 days before moving back to my parent's house and grinding online for the summer. I've made a vow to myself to start golfing again this year. From ages 13-19 I played ~80 rounds a year on average, but have played maybe 15 rounds in the last two summers combined. I'll be taking a couple of courses online to try and finish up my degree next year. I think I'm half of a course behind pace as of right now, so I'm hoping to earn a few credits via distance so I can take a reduced course load in the fall and winter semesters. With those all of those items combined (plus drinking on Wednesday evenings watching baseball), I really feel like there is just no time to be doing silly things like having a job and contributing to society, so instead I'll hang out in my parents' basement in front of a computer until the wee hours of the morning. I can't effing wait.

In the meantime, I've strayed somewhat from my tradition of wearing the same pants everyday during my exam period in favor of shorts. I've also always grown my own version of a playoff beard in years past, but for some reason, turning 22 makes the ability to actually grow facial hair start to kick in, so the beard was getting all gross and scruffy and visible, so I shaved tonight and now have a mustache. Not sure how long I'll be keeping this little piece of awesome, but meh.

Finally, a free plug for some friends (not like anybody reads this blog anyway lol). A really cool project started up by a couple friends called Tournament Poker Edge, which is a brand new training site exclusively for tournaments. The idea is really cool and is one of, if not the first of it's kind in a sense that it is exclusively tournament training. They have a few tourney superstars of the online world (HITTHEPANDA, bigdogpckt5s and more), and while it has literally just launched, and is still in the ground-level stages, there are a few videos up that seem really compelling. If I know anything about the guys who are in charge of this operation, this is going to be a pretty awesome project with some really good content.

www.tournamentpokeredge.com
-Grady