Once again I was right on schedule waking up just before 8:00am. Did the stretching, made a tomato juice, then another vegetable juice concoction followed by some soy milk with protein powder. After that I hit the treadmill, then did a bit of exercise. I downed a gatorade and I think that helped a lot. I didn’t really have dizzy spells throughout the day, very minor ones at the most.
I brought some light snacks to the tournament and didn’t eat much all day but didn’t feel as though I was hungry at the end of the day. When I go home I squeezed out an orange, pineapple, blackberry juice and went to bed. Woke up this morning to weigh myself and since Monte Carlo have lost close to 4 lbs. I was up to 154.0 before that trip and am back down to 150.6. If it were muscle that would be a good weight…. buuuuut it’s not, lol. I think my ideal weight is between 145 and 147 lbs. but would also like to be a big stronger.
Anyway, as for the tournament I got off to a pretty good start after pwning Jim Bechtel in a pot. For all the updates from today you can check out the FCP General Forum. Bechtel started with a good stack of chips, but was seated two to my right and I just tortured him all day long. The big hand came down like this:
Bechtel raises to 2500, I smooth call with Ad As and everyone else folds. The flop comes Kd 10h 6d and he fired out 6000- I call. The turn is the 9h and he fires out 17,000- I call again, but am not crazy about the situation at all. The river looks like the worst card in the deck, the Qh putting a back door flush draw out there and a four card straight. Jim fires out 20,000.
Now I try to piece the hand together. He fired the flop, and STILL likes that river card? Really? Hmm… AK of hearts? That’s possible I guess. His bet size looked like either a value bet or a cheap bluff. I can’t beat ANYTHING at all in this spot, but after looking over at him I didn’t think he had anything. I also knew that, much like the new breed of internet player, this guy is capable of firing three bullets with complete air. I call, he says, “Good call,” and I’m thinking, ooh baby, good call indeed!
That got my chip count to about 160k after starting the day with 90k. I dribbled away from there and was down to 100k before my next key pot:
Guy limps for 1k I limp with 10d 8d Eli Elezra makes it 5000 and we both call. The flop is Js 9c 8s and the first player checks. I felt like Eli may have a big over pair here so I thought I’d slow him down and bet 7000- they both called.
The turn is a blank, the 4d and the first player checked to me. If I checked, I was worried that Eli would make a huge bet and shut me out of the pot, so instead, I maintained the lead and fired 12,000 at it. Eli called and the other guy folded.
The river was the 9d and I pretty much gave up on the pot and checked. Eli checked behind me. I showed my hand… he showed As Qs!!! woohoo, like found money there. That got me back to 140k.
The next key hand was pretty sick. I was able to chop my way up to 230k before the following hand:
I raise UTG to 2800 (blinds 600-1200 with a 200 ante) with AK and a guy flat calls me. Jim Bechtel from the small blind makes it 30k with about 70k behind.
I look over at him and am totally convinced that he has complete air. Not worried much about the other player, I decide to go all in. The other player in the pot calls me faster than I can say all in. Uh oh, that’s not good. Bechtel folds as expected and I get the bad news, he has AA.
The flop came Kd-2c-2d so I was destined to lose a big pot anyway, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as big if Bechtel didn’t make that play. The turn was a 4c and the river a 9d to complete a flush so I figure I would have lost close to 25k rather than the 130k I dumped on that hand. Kind of a brutal situation, but kudos to the guy for setting a solid trap and getting help from Bechtel.
Once again I got back up to 180k, then fell back down to about 100k. Up and down all day long. Late in the night I hit the 200k mark again, only to fall back down to 154,600 to end the night.
Today the plan is the same. Read a few chapters of the Bible, do some running, hitting a few golf balls on the simulator, getting some healthy juice in my body, and then having a big day at the tables. I fell a bit short of my goal of 200-250k for the day, which means my goals for day three are going to be a bit modest. I hope to end the day with 300-350k but could totally see myself end the day with 500k. What I don’t see happening, is me hitting the rail… ]]>
When you are young you strive for what would be a “perfect” life, or at least one that is organized and you feel like you are being productive everyday. When I was younger I always had so many daily goals, workout, eat well, juice, jog, etc. Well, my life is as close to perfect as it can be at the moment in terms of being productive. I woke up at 8am yesterday (today as well) and started out by reading a few chapters of Proverbs from the Bible. Good stuff in there, some powerful verses. From there I went downstairs and stretched. After that I made a power juice. Carrots, Apple, Kale, Spinach, Parsley, Broccoli. It actually tastes really good, I promise! After that I went upstairs to run on the treadmill. Then I decided to actually do some weights since I haven’t in ages and worked on my arms. When I was done there I drank a protein shake then packed a lunch for the tournament. Almonds, walnuts, pine nuts, fruit, beans, salad, etc. By the time I got to the tournament my body felt great, but as the day progressed a recurring problem that I’ve had recently scared me a little bit. Every since I started running again in Monte Carlo, I’ve been having dizzy spells periodically. I looked it up on the internet and dizzy spells have many causes. Working out, low blood sugar, heat exhaustion, etc. It all makes sense that I’ve been having them since I’ve also been cutting down on carbs. I’m definitely addicted to carbs and I’m the heaviest I’ve ever been at just over 150 lbs. In fact, Ted Forrest walked up to me and asked how much I weighed. I laid him 20-1 odds years ago that I’d never weight 170 lbs. The next day I became a vegetarian, lol. He then proposes that we do a weight crossing with some one, claiming that we could cross weights in two weeks. To do that I’d have to eat like a pig and wasn’t into that idea. **************************************************************** I started out slowly in the first two levels not fluctuating at all. My chips stayed between 47k and 50k. If you want a full report of all my text updates from the day you can find them here. I’ll be updating again today and you can find those updates in the General Forum at www.fullcontactpoker.com. I did make one significant error today, but it didn’t cost me. With a big stack of chips I made it 1000 to go with KQ and J.C. Tran called from the button. The flop came K Q 8 rainbow and I checked. J.C. bet 1500 and I raised to 4500. The turn was a 9 and I bet 10,000. That’s a major error against a good player in a deep stacked tournament, do you see why? The way I played the hand it’s extremely unlikely that I have the J-10 but J.C. could easily represent that hand. If J.C. decided to take this pot away from me, he could easily do it by making it 35,000. I’d be forced to make a wild guess as to whether he has it or not. J.C. finally folded and I realized I got away with one there. J.C. even mentioned that he could have taken that pot from me- he was right. I played one other interesting hand against J.C. Two players limped and J.C. made it 900 to go. I called from the small blind with 8d 9d and the others folded. The flop came Ad 5d Ah and I checked my flush draw. J.C. bet 1500 and I called hoping to either make my flush or steal this pot on the river by representing the Ace. The turn was the Qd, I made the flush but it’s still a scary card as he could have AQ. The river was a King, an even worse card. I checked, hoping that J.C. would check behind me. He thinks for quite a while before finally checking as well. Had J.C. bet the river I would have been forced to fold as it would be foolish of him to value bet just trip aces in that spot. What could I call him with? I had my chips up to 118,000 but in the last level lost back 30,000, 1500, 3000, and 5000 at a time missing lots of flops. I ended the day with 89,200 which is a good stack but a bit disappointing as I thought I’d be at 150,000 or so after hitting a few hands. By the end of day two I hope to have in the range of 200k to 250k. It’s 8:30 in the am right now so that means it’s time to read a few chapters of the Bible, do some stretching, make some juice, and do a little jogging. I feel great.]]>
I was able to leave a day early after doing some commentary for EPT Live and doing various interviews. Two of those “interviews” created quite a stir on the forums. I’m sitting here in LA waiting for my flight to Vegas and laughing out loud pretty hard after reading some of the responses. Durr in the bathtub was classic, btw, well done!
My flight from Nice to Munich again had complications, luckily I flew with a REAL airline, Lufthansa and not British Airways. There was a technical problem, but they got it fixed in pretty good time. Still too late to catch my connecting flight to LA, but they’d probably get me on a flight to San Fransisco later.
When I got to Munich, a lady was waiting for me outside the plane. She throws me into a limo and takes me directly to the plane… my original flight to LA! The plane literally waited for me! How cool is that? I’ve heard they’d done that before which is cool. The doors were already closed, etc. but they let me on anyway.
Back to the interviews. I filmed two that were pretty bizarre. One with the guys from SikTilt, a website that covers poker in Europe. The interview is here: www.siktilt.com
The other one I did was a road edition of High Stakes Living on CardPlayer.com which gave people a glimpse into what the rooms in Monte Carlo looked like for the SuperNova Elite players on PokerStars. Pretty cool room with two floors and a great view of the SEA.
When they showed up to do the piece they brought along a girl to plant in my bed. I was a bit uneasy about it at first, thinking it might come off a bit wrong, but was like, “Why not” and went with it. It was just supposed to be funny and they didn’t use the part where I made that clear.
Oh, and no, I am not doing cocaine! I’ve had friends ever since high school that smoked weed pretty regularly, but I’ve never even taken a toke in my life.
Never smoked a joint, and most certainly have never done a line! Some in the forum misinterpreted my sniffles for the classic signs of a coke head. Bad read.
As for the SikTilt interview, that guy is a jerk and I’m glad I threw him in the pool. He totally deserved it after that line of questioning… kidding, that was all just a joke too and they approached me with the idea earlier in the day and I thought it would be fun.
So in both cases it was just silly fun. The girl in the bed wasn’t mine and the interview with SikTilt was all planned.
Some of the responses in the forums to both of these interviews were classic. Many believing the girl in the room was there to dispel gay rumors. That’s not the case at all, I could literally care less about gay rumors, in fact, I think most of them are pretty hilarious and entertaining.
Not like it’s anyone’s business, but I am seeing someone right now, and no, it’s not a dude, lol. I’ve obviously been really busy with traveling and focusing more on playing poker, the launch of PokerVT, etc. so I’m not looking to get married anytime soon. Mostly just taking time for myself, looking to get things in my life organized and projects completed. Once I’m done with all that… who knows.
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Flight to Las Vegas is boarding soon and I’m stoked to get home and see my boy Mushu. Patty is picking me up at the airport and I hope she brings him. I’ll have just a couple days to get acclimated to the time change for the WPT Championship and am really looking forward to a deep run in that event. I’m feeling as confident as ever.
After that, one of the best stretches of my life is on the horizon. Vacation time, so to speak. In May I’m staying home in Las Vegas, golfing, working out,
getting healthy, etc. If anything, I “may” and I stress “may” head to Costa Rica for a week or so to play in the LAPT event there.
That’s not the only reason I’d go, of course, I really like Costa Rica and haven’t been there in a while. While I was in Bahamas for the PCA I also met someone really cool who lives there, and she promised to show me around if I come out there.
I’m still undecided about going, but will know in the next couple weeks. I’m totally sick of traveling right now, but I don’t have any more travel plans until after the WSOP so a one week trip to Costa Rica sounds reasonable. Part of me feels like I really NEED to go, while part of me feels like I need to stay in
Las Vegas at that time to prepare for the WSOP. Right now I’m leaning heavily
towards going… we’ll see.
As soon as I get home, me and Mushu are going to do an American Idol marathon. I’ve missed like 4 weeks!
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I played my absolute best throughout the entire tournament but finally was eliminated with about 280 players remaining. An aggressive player raises to 2200 and I re-raised from the big blind to 7400. It’s only the third time I’d ever re-raised before the flop in the hole tournament, the second hand was also against this player when I moved him in with AK. This time I had QQ and he didn’t believe me I guess because he shoved me all in. I already decided that when I put the 7400 in that I was committed to the hand, so I called and we now had over a 40k pot in the middle. He showed 10-10. Great spot for me, but the flop came K-10-4. The turn was the Ace of clubs which gave me lots of outs, I could hit a club, a Q, or a J to stay alive but the river was the 5s and that was that. So I didn’t “win” the tournament, but it was a win in my book anyway since I played an excellent tournament. I feel strong, and am committed to being even more physically ready for the WPT Bellagio and the WSOP. In fact, I’m in my room now and am going to head to the gym now for a bit before dinner. Tomorrow I’m playing in a special “Stars of Poker” event that will be televised. It’ll be against some of the other members of Team PokerStars. I’m going to give it my all in that one as well. Anyway, that’s that. I’ll likely be doing some commentary of the tournament in the last two days. You can watch the tournament for free at www.eptlive.com. ]]>
The thing is, following my own advice is often very taxing and if I’m not physically able to do it I can’t be at my best. I’m talking about simply paying attention and focusing on EVERYTHING I see at the table.
Thanks to following all of my “rules” my mind and body are in great shape and that’s allowing me to see subtle things I may have been missing. Subtle physical tells that help me make better decisions. On Day 1 I picked up some tells that were just gold. Some very obvious ones, some that were a little more obscure.
I am not one of the chip leaders after day 1, I ended with 26,475, but based on the cards I was dealt, etc. I’m extremely happy to be close to average in chips after the first day and feel like I have more than enough chips to drive to the finish without having to making any major adjustments to my game.
I climbed carefully and slowly on day 1, at most getting to 40,000. Late in the night I lost my biggest pot on the following hand: Paul Testud raised to 1100 and I called from the button with Qs 9s and we took the flop heads up. The flop came Q-7-4 with two diamonds. Paul bet 1000 and I called. The turn was the 9d and again Paul bet 1000. With top two pair I decided to raise it up to 3500 and Paul called. The river was a Jack and Paul fired 3000 which I quickly called. He turned over Ad 10d for the nut flush and that got me back under 30k.
I played “my game” all day, re-raising before the flop only once. I twice limped in with AA then KK in late position after a few players entered the pot hoping to set a big trap. I wasn’t able to get anyone to bite pre-flop, but won both hands in small pots. The hand I re-raised was just totally read based as well as based on the fact that I have a super solid image in terms of pre-flop re-raising. Since I basically never do it, when I do, I get credit.
The hand went down like this: A player from Quebec raised to 800 and I had about a million tells on him and knew that he had a marginal hand- not AA, KK, QQ, JJ, 10-10, 9-9, or AK. The button just called, and based on that I knew he couldn’t be all that strong either. From the big blind I looked down at A-8 off suit and re-raised another 2500, essentially risking 2500 to win 2050. Both players folded.
It was tough to win a lot of chips at my table, it was a real tough table. Unless you’ve played in Europe this table may not seem all that tough, but it was:
Paul Testud (loose, limping French player- he’s tough)
Chad Brown
Fabrice Soulier
William Thorson (busted)
Good internet player on my left (busted)
David Stieke (APPT Final table appearance)
Christer Von Haller (used to grind 400-800 cash games against him at Bellagio when I was coming up)
The table started with two bad players but they went broke quickly and were replaced by some pretty tight players that knew what they were doing. Today I hope to get a softer table so that I can get some donations, etc.
Anyway, it’s 11:00am here now and I’m about to have breakfast, stretch, go run on the treadmill for a bit, and then head over to the casino for the 1:00pm start time. I got this one… seriously, I’m about to go on a sick tournament run here, Bellagio, and then the WSOP. It’s so much about mental state, and I’m as confident as I’ve ever been…
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April 20: 25,000 US WPT Championship
May: Golf, work out, play online, and get my head right
May 30: $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em Championship 12pm
May 31: $1500 No Limit Hold’em 12pm
June 1: DAY OFF
June 2: $5000 Mixed Hold’em 5pm
June 3: $1000 No Limit Hold’em w rebuys 12pm
June 4: $10,000 Mixed Game Championship 5pm
June 5: $2500 Omaha 8/Stud 8 5pm
June 6: $5000 No Limit Hold’em Shootout 12pm
June 7: $10,000 7 Card Stud Championship 5pm
June 8: $2000 Omaha 8 or better 12pm
June 9: $1500 No Limit Hold’em Shootout 12pm
June 10:$2000 Limit Hold’em 5pm
June 11:$5000 No Limit Hold’em 12pm
June 11:$3000 HORSE 5pm (double tournament day if out of NLH)
June 12:$2000 No Limit Hold’em 12pm
June 12:$2500 PLH/PLO 5pm (double tournament day if out of NLH)
June 13:$10,000 Heads Up Hold’em Championship 12pm
June 14:$5000 Pot Limit Omaha w rebuys 5pm
June 15:$10,000 Limit Hold’em 5pm
June 16:$2500 No Limit Hold’em 6 handed 12pm
June 17:$5000 Stud 8 or better Championship 5pm
June 18:$1500 Pot Limit Omaha w rebuys 12pm
June 19:$10,000 Omaha 8 or better Championship 5pm
June 20:$2000 Pot Limit Hold’em 12pm
June 21:$1500 No Limit Hold’em 12pm
June 22:$2500 2-7 Triple Draw 12pm
June 22:$1500 LH/NLH 5pm (double tournament day if out of NLH)
June 23:DAY OFF
June 24:DAY OFF
June 25:$50,000 HORSE Championship 5pm
June 26:DAY OFF (Day 2 of HORSE)
June 27:$2000 No Limit Hold’em 12pm
June 28:$1500 No Limit Hold’em 12pm
June 29:$10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Championship 12pm
June 30:$1500 No Limit Hold’em 12pm
July 1:$1500 Limit Hold’em 12pm
July 2:DAY OFF
July 3:$10,000 No Limit Hold’em Championship (will likely start on July 5th)
This isn’t set in stone obviously, as I’ll gauge my fatigue level throughout the series as well as likely make day two on several of those events. All told, the maximum number of events I will play is 33, but more realistically, it’ll probably end up being closer to 20.
During my off days and free days I’ll be working out and golfing, trying to get into the best physical shape I can for the stretch run. I won the player of the year in 2004 at the WSOP, but still felt like I could have done much better if I was in better shape. May is an important month for me to get a routine going and that is why I’m skipping out on the May tournaments to prepare.
I’ve done more than enough traveling already this year and need a solid month at home to get in shape for the WSOP. No bracelet bets at the moment, but as usual, I’d be willing to take 5-1 odds on winning a bracelet in 08.
Anyway, flight is about to board….]]>
I have pretty simple rules when it comes to preparing for a tournament and despite knowing how important to me these rules are, I’ve had several setbacks in terms of following this year.
Frankly, my whole life is in a major transition- the divorce, playing in Europe, being part of the Poker Stars team, finishing the book, launching PokerVT, doing commentary for the APPT, etc. I feel great about the way I’m handling it all considering it’s a pretty full plate of things to deal with, but one thing is clear, all of these distractions are real and that’s why it’s so important to stick to my “rules.”
I can’t exactly stick to the rules exactly as I would like as I have more responsibilities now, but I should definitely be able to more consistently be prepared when I play in big events.
My rules are simple:
-No drinking alcohol the day before player (or even the day before that)
-No socializing with people
-Eating alone in my room the night before the tournament
-8 full hours of uninterrupted sleep, waking up two hours before the tournament starts
-finish all projects that need to get done during the week
-read through the format, “think” about poker the night before- get my head into WANTING it badly
It’s a pretty good list of stuff and in San Remo, I didn’t do too badly. When I’m able to follow everyone of those rules, though, I know in my heart and in my mind that I simply perform better. So, let’s take a look at what has caused me problems in terms of following these rules:
Rule #1: No drinking alcohol the night before a tournament. The reason this has come up is that I’ve been playing on the EPT a lot this year and it’s, well, a lot of fun! PokerStars usually has a smashing welcome party for all the players and it’s scheduled either the day before I play, or the day before that. Being at a party, I’ll usually have a beer, a glass of wine, or maybe a glass of champagne. That often leads to another… and another… and another! It’s all well and good at the time, but I pay for it the next day in terms of mental strength.
Rule #2: No socializing with people. Much like rule #1, being on the EPT, thoroughly enjoying the people who frequent the tournaments, coupled with the Poker Stars welcome parties, makes it more difficult for me to be a hermit, go up to my room and be alone.
Rule #3: Eating alone in my room the night before a tournament. I’ve addressed this issue more often than not by bringing my own food or having a room service menu that suits my needs, but not every city I travel to is “Vegan friendly.”
Rule #4: 8 full hours of uninterrupted sleep, waking up two hours before the tournament starts. Without question this is my new obsession and the most important aspect of me being at my best. Traveling overseas with the time change can be a challenge, as can be a room with bad A/C or even beds that are uncomfortable. I don’t take sleeping pills, so the only real solution to this problem is coming much earlier, but I often don’t have the free time to do that.
Rule #5: Finish all projects that need to get done during the week. The problem here is that I often have too many projects on my plate, many of which are big projects that take time and energy that I don’t often have. I do my best to get things done before playing a tournament so I can have a clear mind.
Rule #6: Read through the format, “think” about poker the night before- get my head into WANTING it badly. This is mostly a question of motivation, but when all other things in my life are in order and I have a fresh mind to think about poker, I just play at a much, much higher level.
As I said, I didn’t do badly in San Remo. I did drink at the PokerStars welcome party two nights before play and stayed till the bitter end. I didn’t do “too much” socializing the night before and I got an “ok” sleep. I didn’t have all my work done, but I certainly wanted it badly. I fought really hard in San Remo and I think that bodes well for the two huge events coming later this month: EPT Finals at Monte Carlo and the WPT Championship at Bellagio. I feel great going into both events and think I’m going to do very well.
In many ways, my first season on the EPT mirrors my first ever WPT season. I had zero cashes on the WPT in it’s first year, but then put things together in years two and three. I’ve had zero cashes on the EPT in season one, but expect to have a much better season two next year as I think I’ll be better prepared for the pitfalls, the newness will wear off a little bit, and I’ll have a chance to focus on what’s most important: taking every event seriously and playing my best in every situation.
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We are off to London today to do the commentary for the EPT Copenhagen event. We need to take a car to the airport in Nice and then it’s just a two hour flight to Heathrow. I can’t believe I’m doing this, but I’m gambling again…on British Airways!!! BA and Heathrow are like a deadly combination in terms of losing luggage and I swore I’d never fly with them again after they continually lose my luggage. I’m thinking I’ve got about a 45% chance of having my bags with me in London, otherwise I’ll be buying a whole new wardrobe. Wish me luck.]]>
-if he had a hand like J-8 would he check the turn?
-was he capable of bluff raising the river?
It was a tough decision because I felt like he would just call the river if he had a pair, would have bet the turn with a random 8, but also felt like he was capable of a bluff raise on the river. I folded.
The very next hand I was dealt AK on the button. A player from early position raised, a late position player called 2500, and I called from the button. The small blind, the same guy who just beat me on the last pot, raised it to 12,500. It felt like a squeeze play to me based on his hesitation pre-flop and I felt like he had a weaker ace than mine. If one of the other players pushed, I was planning on folding as it would be a bad spot to play AK, but they both folded.
If I make the call I’d be left with close to 26,000. Since my opponent had a ton of chips I didn’t see any fold equity since it would “look” like I had a pair of 88 or something like that anyway. If I call, though, I’m committed to going with the hand no matter what hits the board. I decided to make the call instead of going all in because I felt like I may be able to get him to fold on the flop, thus protecting myself from him seeing all five cards. Also, if he had a small pair and the flop came, like, Q-10-9, I could probably bluff him off of the best hand with an all in bet on the flop.
I called the raise and now was playing for a monster pot despite having only 10,000 to start the day! The flop came Q-7h-4h and he shoved. I looked at the dealer and said, “That’s a very, very, very, very, bad flop.” I didn’t like seeing the Queen on the flop, but I did have the Kh for a miracle runner-runner draw in case I was crushed. I know he is going to push with any hand he raised with on a flop like that, so AK could be the best hand. I had 26,000 left and there was 32,000 already in the pot. 26,000 to win 58,000 in a spot where I felt my opponent’s range was pretty wide made it a pretty easy call. I called, and he showed A-Q. Yuk. If I pushed pre-flop he was DEFINITELY calling so I like my play, including the 26,000 flop call. The turn was a heart, giving me a bit of hope, but the river blanked and that was that. I went from 10k to 50k in a heart beat, and then didn’t even make it through the first hour!
Oh well. I really tried my best and felt like it was a good effort. I got bluffed a few times by some bizarre, random plays, but that’s ok. If you never get bluffed then that means you just aren’t trying all that hard.
It was a tough way to go out. I almost wish that I would have went out with the As 3s rather than get some hope and then go broke the way I did.
I’m feeling good about my game right now and am going to try to get a bet down that I final table either Monte Carlo or Bellagio. Huge fields so I’d obviously need some good odds, but I’m feeling really confident now about the way I’m playing. Doing commentary for almost two weeks straight most definitely helped.
The plan now is to spend a few days here in San Remo. My aunt lives here so we are going to probably visit her tomorrow or the day after. Other than that, not really sure what to do around here, but we’ll think of something.
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I worked harder in the past nine days than I have ever worked for that long of a stretch without a break in my life. Since the 20th, I felt like I was in the movie groundhog day:
Wake up 10:30am. Shower, grab a bite to eat, then get in the car and head down to the recording studio on East Flamingo, about a 30 minute drive from my house.
As soon as I get there, we load a show and I step into the booth with my partner on the broadcast and we essentially stay in that tiny little room for about 8 or 9 hours.
I then drive back home and do my homework for the next days shows. We were doing two one hour shows a day, so that meant my homework would take over three hours every night to complete. I would watch the shows, make notes on every hand, record time codes, come up with funny tag lines, and analyze the gist of the hands so that I’d be prepared for the next day’s work.
In bed by about 2:30am… and then do it all over again… everyday… the exact same drill.
By the end of it I was losing my mind a little bit as evidenced by my insane doodling. My doodling in between hands became completely nuts. Just random scribbling, the kind of thing you see in a mental institution. 9 days of nothing but work, work, work, in such a small room can make you nuts and I was on my way.
I didn’t turn my TV on even one time during that stretch, never surfed the internet, and barely had time for showers and food (also thanks to my assistant Patty I was in good shape since she has been juicing for me every morning).
Saturday was supposed to be a day for fixes, which means any lines we may have stumbled on, or names we may have mispronounced would have to be corrected. I planned on getting in and out of there quickly and hit the links by about 2pm. Fat chance. We didn’t get done until 8:00pm that night.
When we were finally finished it was one of the best feelings I’ve ever had. 14 excellent poker shows done in about 10 days. I did commentary for the PCA that will air in the U.S. and then did the entire season of the APPT. The quality of the APPT shows are incredible. The same crew that does the WSOP on ESPN is doing the APPT events also and I think the tour is going to be a huge deal in Asia, and of course in Australia where the finals were held.
I’m very proud of myself for taking the job seriously and really giving it my all. Prepared every morning, not out partying, and really caring deeply about the finished product.
My buddies who were waiting for me at the golf course, instead had to wait for me at dinner. As soon as I got to Paymon’s I inhaled about 3 Peroni’s, man did I need that! After dinner we all went over to my place to shoot pool, play Golden Tee, Backgammon, etc.
The thing is, my flight to Italy was leaving at 9:50am which meant that I needed to leave the house by 8:00am. I wasn’t packed, and my buddies were still at the house at 6:00am! Oops. On top of not sleeping, I polished off about 19 Heiniken Light’s to go along with the Peroni’s I had at dinner. It was just one of those really fun nights where the beers were going down like water. I was such a good boy for two weeks, I really needed to let loose and be irresponsible for a night.
I called up Patty and she came to the rescue. I gave her my list of stuff I needed to pack and she got it done like the trooper that she is. I still forgot a few things, but the important thing is that I made it to the airport and am now in LA waiting for my flight to Frankfurt.
I still have loads of work to do: a couple columns, a couple book edits, and some PokerVT questions that need answered, but I’m planning on getting some much needed sleep on the plane, then worrying about all of that when I arrive in San Remo.
I play the tournament on April 2nd, and despite not having actually played any poker recently, nothing but poker has been on my mind day, after day, after day. Sometimes that’s better preparation than actually logging a lot of hours. I’ve been analyzing play, watching some amazing plays (this Grant Levy guy is one sick puppy), and feel like I’m in tune with my game. We shall see.
It’s a long trip ahead. After San Remo I fly to London to do VO work for the EPT Copenhagen, and then from there I go to Monte Carlo for the EPT Final. Right after that, it’s back to Vegas and the WPT Championship.
After that… I throw the phone in the garbage, bury the computer… and try to break 90.
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