Shopping Spree!

Refined Fit White Dress Shirt: $145.00
Topstitch Detail Black: $99.99
L-S Crewneck Black: $99.99
Zipper Waistband Pant Cream: $89.99
Soho Pant Blue: $119.99
Soho Pant Black: $129.99 Total damage with tax: $892.20 From there I moved on and hit the Armani Exchange: Zip Crew Orange T-Shirt: $29.00
Zip Crew Baby Blue T-Shirt: $29.00
Zip Crew Green T-Shirt: $29.00 Total damage with tax: $93.53 Continuing on to my next stop Polo Ralph Lauren: Half Zip Orange Top: $134.99
Sports Shirt Pink: $114.99
Sports Shirt Purple: $114.99
Sports Shirt Blue: $114.99
Sports Shirt Striped Pink: $114.99 Total damage with tax: $639.57 Right across from the Polo store was the Emporio Armani where I often shop: Black Dress Pants: $248.00
Loose Fit Black Dress Pants: $248.00 Total damage with tax and rush tailoring: $576.20 By now I was carrying around a heavy load along with my knapsack full of my mother’s lunch, but decided to take a quick look into the Guess store: Hipster Boot cut Jeans: $109.00
Guess Belt: $34.00
Zip up Mock Baby Blue: $79.00 Total damage with tax: $238.66 My feet were really starting to hurt by this point which reminded me… I didn’t buy any shoes! So, on the way back to the car I stopped in at Louis Vitton to get some casual shoes to go with a lot of the stuff I bought: Venice Sneakers Brown: $515.00 Total Damage with tax: $553.63 Throw in a $5 tip for the valet dude and the whole spree cost me $2998.79. I think my choices would have made Stacey and Clinton proud (you won’t get that if you don’t watch What Not to Wear on TLC). So why in the world did I share all that? I have no clue, lol. Seemed like a good idea at the time. I haven’t gone shopping at all this year really, and looking into my closet each morning nothing jumped out at me saying, “Wear me.” I look into my closet now and see more bright colors and variety. I’ve also been listening to this CD about organization and clutter and one of the five key rules is, “One in, one out.” Meaning, with the new clothes coming in it was time to throw out some older stuff. I just did that last week, but was still able to find more than enough items that I just never wear anymore. Oh, if you were looking for a “Poker Blog” I guess the above isn’t exactly what you were looking for! Actually I’m really not in the mood to think or talk about poker at the moment. It’s been a rough month as most of you know if you’ve been reading my blog, but I don’t want to dwell on the rut. Instead, bright colors in the closet, a nice clean shave, a new haircut, and hopefully a new attitude will help me stay positive. Hey, it works on that show What Not to Wear so I thought I’d give it a try! Tomorrow is the $3000 Limit Hold’em event and if I’m going to get a result before the big one this event is as good as any. I’m not going to put any extra pressure on myself, though, I’m just going to play the cards I get the best I can. Winning or losing isn’t the epitome of what makes someone happy. Sure things seem easier when the cards are smiling on you, but there is more to life than poker and bracelets. ]]>

Man, so where were we? It’s been so long since my last entry that I don’t even know where to start. Let’s start with the WSOP: It was a tough week on that front. In the $5000 Pot Limit Hold’em event I got up to 20,000 and was feeling really good. Then I picked up AA in the blind and lost a monster pot to Gavin Griffin who had AK. That left me short and I was knocked out after the dinner break. In the $2500 no limit hold’em event I started poorly and was down to 500 early. Yet I was still able to grind it out and get my chips up over 5000. Then I picked up QQ vs. JJ and 77. The player with the 77 had just 1100 left but the JJ had me barely covered. The flop came 10-7-5 costing me the main pot, and a J on the turn put me in third place in a three horse race. So on that note, I skipped both yesterday’s $2500 pot limit hold’em event as well as today’s $5000 pot limit Omaha event with rebuys. I’m just not enjoying being down there everyday. The facility is awesome, but something about the atmosphere at the WSOP is gone for me. Gone forever most likely. In a card player.com interview Alan Boston talked about how the WSOP used to be a convention of gamblers. I too miss that vibe a little bit. It seems like every other day there is a $1500 buy in event. As far as buy ins go, this might be the smallest average buy in in WSOP history. How many $1500 buy ins were there last year? You would think that buy ins would get bigger over time, but with Harrah’s taking over they’ve decided to add more small buy in events. It’s no surprise really why they do that, but it clearly waters down the prestige of the events. Most of the events are smaller than the regular events at the Bellagio. I’ve decided to change my approach to this year

As some of you may have already noticed from visiting my site www.fullcontactpoker.com there is no longer a pokermountain.com banner on the site. I think I owe it to all of you to explain exactly what is going on with Poker Mountain as well as my clarifying my affiliation with them. Let me start by saying that from day one the people at Poker Mountain have been nothing but honest with me. Most of the people involved with the site were friends before I got involved and will remain friends for life. Before I go any further I should give you all some background as to what happened with the site. The plan for Poker Mountain was, and still is, to offer players the most friendly promotions, including free rolls, deposit bonuses, etc. One of the things that excited me most about Poker Mountain was the fact that they were extremely well funded and could afford to give back to the players as well as offer a top notch product. Well, sometimes things don’t always work out exactly as planned. The site had some issues with the software that couldn’t be fixed overnight. As much as they tried to band-aid the existing software, new problems would arise. That threw a major wrench into the overall marketing plan. The multi-table tournaments had a few unfortunate crashes and with complex problems like these there was simply no easy fix. It just wouldn’t have been appropriate to do a major marketing push until the software was working perfectly. Ultimately, the decision was made to revamp the software and launch a new and improved version. Of course, a process like that takes time. They are hoping to be ready to launch the new software within the month as far as I know. When they do, I’m confident that it will be among the best online and the promotions offered there will be very player friendly. I have no reason to doubt that. As for my affiliation with the site, that relationship won’t be part of the re-launch. The online poker landscape has changed so much over the last couple years and I’m exploring other possibilities for myself. We are leaving things on good terms, with absolutely no bad blood between us. I wish Poker Mountain the best and as I said, I’m very confident that the site will be a huge success despite the problems they’ve faced due to the software issue. I feel very comfortable in saying that Poker Mountain will give you a lot of bang for your buck and you should definitely check out the new software when it’s ready. ***************************************************************
Now that I got that out of the way, did you guys see the basketball game tonight? Wow, what a finish! I had visions of Chris Weber calling a timeout when Rasheed Wallace foolishly called for time when they didn’t have any left! Luckily for Rasheed, time had expired just before he did that or it could have gone down as the biggest and most crucial blunder in sports history. As for Robert Horry, this guy is a machine! Never in history has there been a more clutch performer than Horry in the NBA finals. 4th quarter + NBA Finals + Robert Horry + 3 point attempt = SWISH! Man, that has to be the rush of a lifetime, but to do it time and time again is just remarkable. *************************************************************** E-DOG finally made a final table, although I know he had to be disappointed to finish 9th. As for Josh, he’s already in the books with his second bracelet which led him to make a small donation to the Daniel Negreanu charity fund. He bet me $500 at even money that he will win another bracelet this year. Good luck donkey! LOL. The one drawback to making that bet for me, though, is that if he is lucky enough to win another one I’ll never hear the end of it! *************************************************************** Good news on the doggy front, Princess seems to be feeling better according to my mother. Still though, I’m weary of leaving Mushu with her so he is lying next to me on the couch right now. I was so relieved to hear the news. My mother hasn’t slept in two days, worried sick about the poor thing. The first time my mother took Princess for a walk she was totally confused. I don’t think she’d ever seen grass before. When Princess approached the grass she laid down on it thinking that she could surf on it or something. She wouldn’t walk next to my mother, instead she’d get all tangled up by walking through my mother’s legs! In a few more days we’ll take her back to the vet and hopefully hear some good news. *************************************************************** As for poker, the WSOP has obviously been a big disappointment foe me thus far. I got close in the limit hold’em again yesterday, but couldn’t hit a rush at the right time and missed the money again. In the Stud 8 tournament today I didn’t win any key pots when I needed to. I hit lots of hands heads up against Barry, but had no luck left for the Stud 8 tourney. *************************************************************** Relaxing… that was my focus today. Tomorrow is an important tournament for me I think. It’s a $5000 buy in which has more play to it and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m hoping that I wake up with a fresh and clear mind ready to give it my all. That’s not all that’s happening tomorrow, though, as Lori is coming to town for a week. I’m hoping that I can’t pick her up at the airport if you know what I mean, but I’m really looking forward to seeing her. It’s funny, when we first starting dating it was right around the WSOP 2003. She’d flew in to town to nanny for a couple playing in the tournament. The day she flew in I was in really rough shape. I got little to no sleep the night before, and had a long night of partying with the boys. I must have looked like a train wreck. Actually, I know I did because she mentioned that! Somehow, when she got to town that evening I was still in the S.H.O.E event with two tables to go. I was practically sleeping at the table in between hands. I ended up making the final table somehow and could finally get some rest. The very next day, I went on to win my second bracelet. Will history repeat itself? I hope so. Of course, this year I’ll actually be fresh and focused… hopefully that’s a good thing!]]>

In the no limit Hold’em shootout today I wasn’t the first one out. That’s a step in the right direction! I ended up going broke when I moved in on the flop with an open ended straight draw. With just 1500 in chips to start with, so much of the play is straight forward. There seem to be so many new tournaments at the WSOP this year and strangely enough the buy ins for a majority of them are rather small. I was out before 2:00pm and Barry was the first one out at his table so we planned on resuming our pot limit Omaha match at 3:30pm. By about 3:45pm the following hand came down: I raised on the button to $6000 with J-4-5-8. Bary re-raised the pot to $18,000. Generally that’s not a very good play heads up since position is so important. Of course if your hand is strong enough there is nothing wrong with it as long as you proceed cautiously on the flop. The flop came 6-7-9 rainbow and Barry bet $25,000 on the flop. I’d noticed that when Barry raised before the flop he would always fire another bullet on the flop. With the dummy end of the straight, I decided to play cautiously by just calling. The turn came the Jack of diamonds putting a back door flush possibility on the board. Barry checked and I decided to make a relatively weak bet of $40,000. Barry thought about it for a while and then finally decided to raised me another $170,000! Yikes, decision time for me. The night before I laid down the second nuts straight when facing a big bet, but this situation was different. For one, I didn’t think Bary had 8-10 in his hand. I can’t go into detail as to why just in case he reads this, but lets just say that I felt like he had a hand like 10-Q-K with a diamond draw. What made the decision even tougher was that I was absolutely dominating play in the smaller pots. If I lost this pot I’d be giving up the lead to Barry while folding would have us sitting close to even. Ultimately I went with my read, though, and raised Barry his last $108,000 for a pot of $722,000. The river came a beautiful 3 of spades and Barry shook his head in disbelief. I was on the board, down 2-1. Had I known how Barry was going to play in the PLO heads up match, I never would have played him in stud again. That was a stupid decision on my part and it cost me half a million. Oh well, live and learn. *************************************************************** Barry headed to the cage to get more money and when he returned he let me know what we’d be playing: Stud 8 or better. As if I didn’t already know that! Within about an hour I got hit in the head with the deck, making straights, flushes, and scooping pot after pot. I was up $300,000 before we even got settled. Barry informed me that he’d never played this game heads up before. That surprised me a little bit, but it was good news for me as I have played lots of hours of Stud H/L heads up against the likes of Huck Seed, John Hennigan, and Phil Hellmuth (yum-yum:-) For the entire 8 hour session we played I never trailed for a second. I ended the night up $334,000 and feeling very confident about this match and the following matches. You see, in some senses Barry starts out with home court advantage. He gets to pick the games, so he will obviously pick the games where he feels he has the biggest edge. He beat me up in Stud, but I got the better of him in pot limit Omaha and am a big favorite to take the Stud 8. That means that Barry will eventually have to go down the list of games and play me in games where he feels less comfortable. In fact, I’m sure Barry was assuming that he’d be 3-0 and then have to fade me in my stronger games. He was “supposed” to have a lead after four matches, but if I win the Stud 8 we’ll be all tied up and moving into Hold’em territory. My confidence is soaring thanks to a nice rush of cards today and I’m very confident that Barry might be in big trouble the rest of the way. He is running out of games in a hurry, and again, if I go on to win the Stud 8 we’ll be all squared up thanks to my bone head decision to ask for a rematch in Stud! What was I thinking? *************************************************************** On a sad note, the little dog that I bought for my mother is sick. My mother took Princess to the vet and he informed her that she has Bronchitis and Pneumonia. He gave Princess some antibiotics, but informed us that the illness might get better, but it could also get much worse. Never buy a pet from a pet store. They just don’t treat the animals right. How could they try to sell me a sick dog for $1300? My mother took Princess back to the pet store to ask for an explanation. They informed my mother that she could have another dog, but that just didn’t sit well with me. What would they do with Princess? Put her back in those cages and make the others sick? Put her to sleep? I wasn’t having any of that, and there was no way they

Barry: Q-10-8-6 Flop: Q-2-5
Turn: 10
River: 9 On the flop I was a 71% favorite, but the majority of the money went in on the turn when I was a 38% underdog. No help on the river and Barry was back in it. A few hands later we got it all in again. This time the hands were as follows: Me: A-K-9-4
Barry: K-10-Jd-10d Flop: Kd 9d 5h (Barry was a 62% favorite on the flop when the money went in)
Turn: 5 (I became a 55% favorite)
River: 5 With that win, Barry took the lead and had me down as much as 170. I continued to chop away for the rest of the night and regained the lead shortly after. Going into the final hand of the night, again I had Barry down $312,000. Then we once again played for all the money with the following hands: Me: Qd-7d-5c-8s
Barry: As-6s-7s-8h Flop: 2s-4s-6d On that last hand I was about a 35% underdog, needing to hit a back door flush, a 3, 7, 8, or Q to win. I could also tie with a 5. No such luck though, and Barry ended the night down just $124,000. Considering the fact that I lost three all in pots to Barry totaling approximately $1,000,000 I feel pretty awesome about the fact that I’m STILL ahead $124,000. If I could have won just one of those big pots it would all be over. Well that would have been nice, but oh well, “That’s poker” as I’m becoming accustomed to saying. As for my thoughts on the match, very early on my worries that I may be an underdog in PLO vanished. I feel like I can win, but of course I said that about stud too and look how that turned out! While both stud and PLO have high fluctuations and luck plays a major role, I feel as though I may be better off against Barry in big bet poker than I would be in a structured limit game like stud. Stud is very technical and if two players are playing similarly it will all come down the luck of the cards most often. However, with pot limit Omaha there is more room for imagination and creativity which suits me better I think. In the three hours we played PLO, Barry really never got the best of me. Aside from winning those three all in pots and another $350,000 pot when he flopped a King high flush to my Queen high flush, I dominated play for the most part. It sure helps when you hit some flops and I definitely hit more flops than Barry did. I even made some flushes too, yippee! I’m really looking forward to the conclusion of this match. Being down 0-2 already is tough and I need a win to get back on track. That’s why it would have been so nice to finish Barry off quickly and move on to the next game. Something tells me that if I would have won the match early that Barry wasn’t going to ask for a rematch. This is just a guess, but I’m assuming that his next choice will be Stud H/L. Chances are we won’t be seeing any hold’em for quite some time. All told I lost $113,000 on the night. -$237,000 in stud and +$124,000 in pot limit Omaha. Could have been better, could have been worse I guess. Tomorrow is the no limit hold’em shootout and I’m going to give it my all. If I continue to stay positive and focus on playing my best I know that the results will come. In fact, I may have mentioned this before, but I’m really proud of myself. When I was younger a run like this would have destroyed my confidence and had me negative and bitter. It probably would have also had me in some strip joint at 6:00am sulking about my bad luck. Those days are long gone for me. Having God in my life puts everything into perspective. You have to take the good with the bad. If you can only be happy when fortunes are smiling on you, what does that say about your character? I know it’s tough, I’m living through it right now. I’ll tell you what though, rough patches are a whole lot easier to get through when you know that you are not alone. ]]>

During the tournament at the WSOP my mother has been watching Mushu for me during the days and most nights. I’d noticed more, and more that when I’d go over to her place to pick him up that it was getting harder, and harder for her to let go. She loves my dog like a child of her own. She feeds him “Mommy food,” takes him for walks, bathes him, plays with him, talks to him… he’s become her best friend. Of course, Mushu is MY dog! I too love him very much and couldn’t bear to give him up. So, today after a miserable day in the Stud H/L event I decided to head straight to the pet store and pick up a little dog just for my Mommy. I knew it had to be a female dog since if we had two males they would be marking their territory all over her place and mine. Turning white carpet yellow! I looked at a few dogs and finally found the one I thought fit my mother best. I called my mother from the road to let her know I had a present for her and that I was on my way over. When I finally got there my mother called me to the kitchen to try something she’d been cooking (big surprise!) I had the dog hidden in my jacket (it’s just 3 pounds) and when she grabbed the wooden spoon to put it to my mouth I said, “Why don’t you let her taste it,” at which point I let the dog’s head pop out. My mother cried (again, big surprise) as she grabbed the dog and kissed it. “So what are you going to name her Mommy,” I asked? “She is like a Princess. She is. I’m going to call her Princess,” she said. Mushu barked at Princess for a little bit, but within less than 30 seconds they were running around together playing with toys. When I finally left my mother’s house, I didn’t feel so bad about taking Mushu with me. *************************************************************** As for poker, things haven’t been going well for me. I’m trying my best to stay focused and positive, but it can be hard when the cards are mocking you and spitting in your face. I do feel great about the way I’ve been handling it though. Despite day after day losing, I’m not losing confidence and still focused on trying to play my best. That can be hard as I said, but I’ve been through worse runs before and I always seem to get through it in the end. Last night I played Barry after another early exit from the tournament. I thought I played well in the $5000 buy in No Limit Hold’em event, but it just wasn’t meant to be. Going into my match with Barry I was up $92,000 from the previous session. In the first dealer I won almost $100,000 more and thought things were going smoothly. Eventually, though, Barry went on a monster rush winning $250,000 in one dealer. Oh by the way… Tam, you’re fired! Just kidding. I struggled for most of the session, losing the majority of the key big pots where we’d have close hands. In fact, I lost a ton of big pots when the hands weren’t all that close either. The MO for the evening was ugly: I’d have aces and a flush draw on fifth street and we’d jam it. By the river I’d end up with that same pair of aces, while Barry would turn over sevens and fours. It’s tough to win if you can’t make two pair. Actually, I did make two pair on fourth street several times. Too many of those times, though, I’d lose to a straight or a flush on the river after getting in a raise or two along the way. By midnight I was stuck $237,000 and the match will resume later this week. I hate to sound like a broken record in all of these blogs: “Knocked out early”
“Can’t make two pair”
“Can’t make a flush” Blah, blah, blah, but that’s just the way things have been going for me this month. I guess I was due for a bad run of cards, what with 2004 being such a monster year for me. In fact I haven’t “run bad” since… well, it’s been a while! Overall I really can’t complain too much as things could be much worse. I can handle it. All I really need to do is keep plugging away with a positive mindset and focus on playing each and every hand well and things will turn around. That much I’m certain of.
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