Hey everyone,

I'm sure most of you have heard about the tragic earthquake that struck Haiti this week. The projected death toll is in the hundreds of thousands and the country is in shambles. It's a really terrible thing, and Full Tilt Poker is offering several options to players in order to help. The below instructions are copied and pasted from an email from FTP:

1. Aid For Haiti tournaments: Starting tonight and running through Sunday, there will be a number of "Aid For Haiti" tournaments at a range of buyins for players to participate in. The first one is at 2PM ET (under an hour) and it's a $5 + $5 ($5 from every entry will be donated).

2. Aid For Haiti "no-play" tournaments: These are "fake" tournaments that won't run. For anyone that wants to make a direct donation, they can enter one of the 10 different tournaments (all "scheduled" for Sunday at 6pm ET, 3pm PT) and not worry about playing a tournament.

3. An "Aid For Haiti" user has been set up for direct P2P transfers. Anyone can transfer any amount greater than $5 to that player ID.

All money raised will be matched by Full Tilt Poker and sent to various charities, so for every dollar you donate, an additional dollar from FTP will be directed toward helping the cause. Personally I will be making a direct donation, as well as possibly playing in some of the tournaments. I urge anyone who can help, even a little, to do so as well.

Poker in the new year has been going pretty well for me. After not playing much the first few days due to New Year's hangovers and friends spending their last few days around before going back to school, I've been logging a solid amount of playtime the past few days, mostly at mixed games. Aside from a cap PLO session the other day where I ran 85k below AIEV (hate hate hate cap PLO lol), it's been going pretty well. I'm very pleased with how my mixed game is coming along. I even won 42k in a rotation of 1.5k/3k HEROS (no NLH or PLO) yesterday. I definitely have some room for improvement, particularly in Omaha hi-lo, which is clearly my worst game and which I'm stuck over 150k for the year so far in, but I'm on the right track and improving every day. I feel like I'm a winner in most mixed game lineups at even the highest stakes right now, but then again who doesn't, haha. Here are some of the biggest pots I've played so far in 2010:

1. weaktight.com/1892754
tough river call vs durrrr in PLO that worked out well

2. weaktight.com/1892755
this river call worked out less good

3. weaktight.com/1892757
absolute monster pot for 100/200 PLO, I'm 58.3% on the flop here 3 ways

4. weaktight.com/1892763
river of dreams for me that allows me to get 3 more bets in here in LHE

5. weaktight.com/1892767
tough runout here in O8, unfortunately I suck at this game so not many fun winning hands to post :(

6. weaktight.com/1892768

biggest NLH pot so far in 2010, I 'hold' with 37.2% equity because that's how I roll

7. weaktight.com/1892774
tough calldown with 1 pair to scoop a big Stud Hi pot....don't bluff me :)

8. weaktight.com/1892777

thin value vs Gus in Razz

9. weaktight.com/1892783
more thin value, this time in Stud 8

Hope you guys enjoyed the hands. As for life stuff, I'm heading back to school tomorrow, but only for rush week, I still don't start class for almost 2 more weeks. Break has been fun but I'm about ready to go back. I know I promised some party bus pics, there are some good ones but I think this blog is long enough already, I'll post some next time. Good luck at the tables everyone, and remember that any donation helps, Haiti certainly can use it.

Brian

edit - not sure what happened with the links, I'll get 'em fixed asap.

double edit - I know it's annoying but for now if you just copy/paste the "weaktight.com/1509850" (or w/e the number is) into your browser, you can still see the hands

triple edit - further details from FTP at http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/aid-for-haiti">http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/aid-for-haiti">http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/aid-for-haiti

The three charities selected to receive the donations are: Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, and UNICEF.

Money should be on its way to these charities on Monday, perhaps a day or 2 later but no more than that.

final edit - links are fixed, thanks support