As many readers are already aware, Friday was my last day working for CR. When I left corporate law in 2009 for a new challenge I wasn't sure what to expect, but CR opened my eyes to a whole different business world, and I'm extremely grateful for all that I learned over the past couple years. Overall I had a great experience, and got to work with some lovely people. I'm hoping to have more time for Swamping now (hi willow).

Many people have asked me about my next step, and I'm currently running a lot of errands and preparing for the birth of our first child in a few months. We're having a boy, and currently call him Buddy. This started awhile back since Elf makes me extremely happy and I hated calling him "it" or "the kid" which is what I was starting to do. That will not be his real name, but it works in the interim.

I never posted a Vegas recap, and will just give a short rundown now. It was the worst summer in Vegas I've ever had poker-wise, which hurt. It's the first time I haven't made even a semi-deep run in a tournament I've played, and I went 0/5 in WSOP events and 0/2 in other tournaments. It was surprising because I felt like I was playing some of the best poker of my life leading up to the trip, and continued to play well throughout my trip.

Vegas was also not nearly as much fun pregnant (yeah, I said it) although I did have a great time with both new and old friends. There were people I didn't get to see as much as I would have liked (hi augie), but I got to spend a bunch of quality time with friends who I don't see much outside of vegas (hi dani and matt). I made it over to the unofficial CR party and met Lee and Haseeb, and also got to see Mike McDonald, who I'd only met once previously, very briefly, in London. I recognized one of the guys sitting with him, not cause I knew him, but cause I'd busted him from a 1500 I played. He ended up making a deep run in the ME, and seemed like a very good player. That 1500 was the only tourney where I made day 2, but unfortuantely I busted on around the third hand, before a bunch of people had even taken their seats. Sigh. I could not have run worse overall in Vegas, from flips to table draws to coolers. I was bummed as a horse cause I sold more action than I had in the past and wish I could have made the people who invested in me some money. With Buddy on the way I'm not sure whether I'll even make it out to Vegas next summer, but I'll worry about that at some much later date.

I'm not sure how much blogging I'll do, cause I don't see much demand on CR for reading about my observations on pregnancy and moving (we bought a house the end of June and move in 3 weeks), but I'll still be around.

I made it to the Borgata last Sunday to play the ladies event. It only got 80 runners (79 women and 1 man), which was a super low turnout. I guess between summer and WSOP there's an impact on the numbers in the Borgata series. I flatted KK early to a girl who'd been opening a few hands (in hindsight I don't like my flat and I shoulda raised being so deep) and flop came AAx. I called a small 1/2 pot bet on the flop and the same bet on the turn and then hit a beautiful K on the river. She check called and I chipped up a bit early. I lost a few pots, then raised JTdd in ep. The flop came Q87 with one diamond, I cbet and got called by a woman who defended her bb. Turn was a 9d. um, GIN! I bet again and she took her time before calling. River was a third diamond and I now had a J high flush. She donked out most of her stack, I put her all in, and she snapped showing 87dd. Sweet turn for me! :)

A few hands later I called a three bet with 88 and three better overshoved 2.5x pot on an 843 flop. I held v. her AA. She was not happy. Then a few hands after that I got three bet again and decided to shove AQo. She had about 30 bbs and AA. :( I played with her a lot throughout the day, and it was a horrible shove by me in hindsight, but I had been running over the table ever since gaining a mountain of chips, so I figured she was playing back at me. This actually happened very rarely throughout the tournament. Our table broke and I moved my stack to table 2 where I would sit for the rest of the afternoon until the final table.

Most of the women were fairly bad, and it was just a matter of figuring out who was passive, who over valued trash hands (I'm looking at you, ginger) and who was trying to fold to the final table. I sucked out like a champion a few times. I raised my fourth hand at the table, I think it was A8, just to test the waters, and a woman behind me shoved for about 20 bbs. I didn't think there was any chance I was ahead, so I folded. A few hands later a woman raised with about 17 bbs behind and I looked down at 88 in lp. I honestly hated all my options. Folding seemed really weak, calling was out of the question, so I did what I do best and shoved. She didn't take too long before calling with TT, but an 8 hit on the turn and it's been awhile since I saw someone that angry about getting sucked out on. A few hands later a weird player (as in, she took some very weird lines) limped, I 4xed QQ and got shoved for about 25bbs by the sb. I snapped and was up against KK (wtf!?) but obv rivered a Q. Running good is so fun.

I played a couple hands against an Asian woman who by far seemed like the best player at the table, but she got pretty unlucky v. me. I flopped trips on her once, then called her raise a few hands later w/ A6hh and we saw a flop three ways. She overshoved 2x pot on a 643hh board, and I called and beat her KQhh. The ginger was the other person in the pot and was so mad that I reshoved and pushed out her oesd, which would have won. I won a hand w/ KK > QQ and mostly slowed down as I was pretty card dead for a stretch. Saw one funny pot where weird girl raised, girl who beat my AQ earlier with AA (who it turns out is an actress on One Life to Live, the soap opera) called, and then a third woman shoved in her stack of ~ 15 bbs. Weird girl called, as did OLTL girl. They checked a T52 one club flop. A 5c came on the turn (check check), and 2c landed on the river. Now the first girl overshoves the pot for the rest of her stack. Only, there's no side pot, so I guess it's her version of a blocker bet? OLTL girl begrudgingly folds her 99, weird girl proudly flips over AJ, and the original shover scoops with A4cc.

Saw another good one where older woman who has a monster stack opens for 5x. She's been opening anywhere from 2.5x to 8x and my favorite hand was one where I raised her bb (maybe QT?) and she asks how much it is, then says "NO, make it XX" and 4x raises me. I obv folded and she was kind enough to show AA. Anyway, she is screaming strength, but this ginger chick who went runner runner with her K8dd earlier to crack a much better hand aip decides to ship in her 30 bb stack with QJ. Older woman basically snap calls w/ AQ and holds.

I did have one other ~ suckout when I raised QJo from co, and older woman in either sb or bb flats me with a stack she should never be flatting. I cbet a 98x flop (i has a gutter!) and when she shoves I can't fold. She shows AK and I binked a Q on the turn. Don't remember much else from table 2, but eventually we're down to 10 and we redraw for final table. Now the fun starts.

After some experiences deep in tournaments over the past few months, I came to the conclusion that I don't like paying the bubble boy/girl. In Chester we had one guy steadfastly refuse, saving me the trouble of being the bad guy. However, here at the ladies event at the Borgata, I became public enemy #1 for saying that I had a policy against paying the bubble. I had a huge stack and frankly it was in my best interest for the bubble to last as long as possible (which it certainly did, I think we went three levels at 10-handed). Anyway, one woman in particular at the table took it personally, and decided to bitch out at me for everything I did, including calling the floor over at one point because I was texting but put my phone down the second I realized cards were being dealt. No way she is that bitchy if I pay the bubble girl, but unfortunately the rest of the women all chipped in, so instead of bubble getting $0 (as I'd prefer it), she got $180. This woman directed ire at me several times throughout the final table, and ended a sentence or two referencing my refusal to participate in paying the bubble girl. To be honest, even though I certainly didn't care that much about the $20 and even thought about caving at the end once everyone else paid up, there was something a little fun about having everyone completely hate on me for a totally rational stance.

I don't remember many hands at the final table, because my memories are really overshadowed by the two hands that ended the tournament for me. I was playing some of the best poker I've played in my life, and pretty much running over the table. I had a girl behind me who really liked to flat everything, but for the most part was taking more chips off her than she took off me. I made a sick river call with bottom pair and won a nice pot v. her Q high, and all my bluffs and good hands were timed really well, and just really working. Then at four handed the calling station open ships 25 bbs from utg. I snapped with JJ in the bb, and would have taken a HUGE chip lead (she would have been out, and the other two players had 10 and 6 bbs) but an A hit the flop and I took a big hit. I was left with about 18 bbs and on the next hand it folded to me in the sb and I looked at A9. I thought about raising but with her calling so much and my precarious stack size, I decided shoving was best. She SNAP called me w/ QJ, flop came 98x, turn Q and game over for me. I went from CL to out in 2 hands, and it sucked.

To make matters worse our car died on the way home and we had to call AAA and wait for a tow at 1am. We finally got home close to 3am and the whole time all I could think was, why did that damn A have to hit!?

I was going to bitch in this blog post about how ridiculous applying for a mortgage is, but this seems long enough. The original title included "and buying a house" but my husband pointed out that one sentence does not make this blog post anything related to buying a house. Finger crossed, we close on Friday!!!!

Instead I'll end with a HUGE congrats to ChipsAhoya aka Eric Rodawig for shipping the 10k stud 8/b WSOP event last night for ~ 440k.

I did not realize how long I'd gone without a blog post. I have no poker trip reports, although I'm headed out to Vegas on June 27th and am so ridiculously excited. It is getting tough reading everyone's twitter and blog updates cause I want to be there so badly. I sold my first package on 2p2 and was pretty nervous, but the 40% I sold got bought in under an hour, which was a relief. Special thanks to the bosses who gave me permission to play a few events while I'm out there. :)

Jeff and some others in the Swamp talked about an informal meetup on July 6th, since the official CR party was canceled, and I'm currently working on some drink specials. Check the Swamp for more info soon. I'll also try to be at the 2p2 party, so if you see me stop by and say hi.

Life is otherwise quite boring for me. I work, I play table tennis, I sleep. My newest obsession is table tennis. I found a club nearby owned by a former Olympian, and my husband and I have been playing about every other night. I took one lesson so far and learned a killer forehand, but it goes much better playing at the robo-pong than it does playing in the middle of a heated game with Kevin. Poker was initially a replacement for soccer, so it's nice to have a new competitive activity that burns calories.

Obv I still love poker, and I'm hoping to play the Borgata Ladies Event this Sunday in AC. We have a wedding in the city on Saturday night, so a lot will depend on how late we're out. I believe the event starts at 11am Sunday morning, which is crazy. 11am start times should be banned IMO.

In Twitter news I was super thrilled yesterday when as part of his Norman Chad Loves Twitter campaign, Mr. Norman Chad himself chose to follow me as his NJ representative. If you don't follow me on Twitter, check out my feed here for exciting information like what I ate for breakfast and how I'm doing in poker tournaments.

A friend recommended this band to me yesterday and I'm now slightly obsessed. Check out Mr. Little Jeans. They also have awesome Arcade Fire and Beyonce covers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bhfq-YPnEQ

There have been a lot of live tournaments on the East Coast lately, but unfortunately I haven't gotten to play in many. Since Event 1 of the Borgata Spring Open work was too crazy to play anything else, although I did drive down last Wednesday to rail Matt Matros as he made it to the final three tables of the Main Event.

He had the eventual winner drawing to 3 outs when the dude shoved A3o from utg+1 and Matt woke up w/ JJ in the bb. Obv an A hit, and the guy then made Matt's life fairly miserable, three betting a ton and playing really tough on his left. Matt four bet the guy all in after he three bet for about the fifth time (Matt's button v. him in the sb) and the kid took forever and finally called w/ AJss. Matt had KQ and couldn't suck out.

That left Matt short and although he made the final table he eventually busted 9th. I had a good time railing him and Matt Glantz (who I played with last summer in the WSOP Horse and a WSOP Circuit event in the fall, and I think is one of the coolest poker guys I've ever met). The kid who won, a guy named Russell Crane, I've seen around at a decent amount of Borgata tourneys, and he does seem like a nice guy. I also met MrPerfekt, who was this super sweet kid who finished fifth. At one point when I was on the rail I overheard him telling his friends how his mom was dissing him and at Tropicana but told him she was gonna go him rather than rail him. Eventually she showed up and I joked w/ him about it, making a new poker buddy in the process.

If you didn't catch Matt on CNN, you can watch the clip here. Don't miss the cameo appearance by the CR table mod. I thought it would look super cheesy for Matt to be wearing a CR patch, so I suggested he have CR wallpaper on his computer, or make sure they showed a CR video since they told him ahead of time they wanted to film him at his computer. Great success!

Watching Matt had me jonesing for more live tourneys, so this weekend Kev and I headed to beautiful Chester, PA to play in one of the first WSOP-C events there. We were already in Philly for the Phillies/Mets game Friday night (LOL Mets) and stayed with friends. We woke up to discover a flat tire on Saturday morning, but that did not deter us!

The turnout was fairly pathetic, I think the noon tourney (ring event) got about 180, and they were clearly planning for more. I chipped up on two hands, one where I hit 2p w/ JTcc and a guy paid me on three streets, and another where I flopped tp with AK and a lady called me down with AQ. We had three women at my starting table, which is rare, even moreso b/c there were probably only 7 women in the whole tournament.

My table was really chatty, and the highlight was when the guy to my left (Jason) and a guy across the table (Ryan) tried to make a bet on whether a bb could take his cards back after he mucked out of turn, and then whether, if they called the floor over, the floor would have to call someone else over. The floor woman who was closest to our table seemed lovely, but had been called over already about four times, and each time she had to go check with someone else for a final ruling. They finally seemed to agree to a bet, but when Ryan called the floor over, he yelled for a guy named Jimmy really loudly, which caused Jason (and the table consensus) to call him an angleshooter and cancel the bet.

It caused loud arguing and lots of stares from the other table, but eventually it blew over and we got back to business. Then I raised AQo on the button, Jason rred about half his stack from the sb and I put him in. He had KJo and hit a J on the flop, which quieted me down a little and left me with 30 bbs. About ten minutes later there was a min raise from ep, a call and then a guy who just sat down raised on the button to 3k. I looked down at AKcc and shipped it in. Sadly he had AA and that was the end of the tournament.

Kev was still in and I was torn on what to do. There was a 4pm second chance (I busted around 4:15) but I was starving, so I hit the noodle bar, grabbed some spring rolls, and Kev persuaded me via text to play the second chance. I wasn't in a great mood, but still felt like I had more poker in me. I registered with about 5 min left till reg closed, and arrived to receive a 40 bb stack. The next level came 5 min later and all of a sudden I had 22 bbs 10 minutes into the tournament. I raised AQ but c/folded a 775 flop. One of the callers nicely showed 99. Then I moved tables, raised QQ and got shoved by AQss and won that hand, pushing me up to almost 30 bbs. Until the final two tables, I never got close to this stack size again, and even then I think I barely got over 30 bbs the entire tournament.

I raised AQo and this older woman running like a god insta shipped all in. I wouldn't normally raise fold AQo with that stack, but just didn't see any way I wasn't completely dominated. She nicely showed KK after I folded. I grinded for the next few hours and don't think I was involved in many (any?) showdowns. It was mostly raising pf and taking down the blinds, or shoving all in over limps or raises. The play was...interesting. A guy raised 4x on the button w/ 11 bbs and folded to my sb shove. Wat? That actually happened a few times.

I got shoved on holding 88 in the bb when we were down to final two tables, and was up against 77. Another guy said he folded a 7, but didn't matter, 7 binked on river for me to get back to under 10 bbs. I shoved AJo and when the guy w/ lots of chips behind me went all in behind I figured I was toast. He had AK, but board straighted for me and I was still alive. Then this old guy limped utg and I shoved 15bbs w/ TT. He decided he just had to call w/ his KQo and hit a K (boo), but the flop had two diamonds and the turn and river both came diamonds and I was turning away from the table when someone yelled out flush. I was happy. :)

I went to the final table with a decent stack, and we had one guy who refused to pay the bubble boy and one guy who refused to chop (the dude who lost AK to my AJ). I didn't mind, as I"m not a big fan of paying bubble boy and at the time I was very happy to continue playing. I actually think playing 10-20 bb stacks is a weakness in my live tournament game b/c I can get impatient, so I was happy to have the practice, and really happy overall with how I played the tournament.

I think we were down to 8 players (ITM, woo hoo) when this guy who was limping a lot limped once again from the hijack. I had raised him once earlier w/ AJdd and he folded, but when I saw KJo in the sb I decided to call. Blinds were 1500/3k/500.The bb checked and the flop came QT9. BOOYAH! Both blinds checked and the guy bet out 15k, leaving himself less behind. I put him all in and won a nice pot v. his Q9o.

I lost a pot when a guy w/ 12 bbs min rred my open at 2k/4k/500 and I shoved him w/ ATo. He'd been playing pretty snug and in hindsight I think I should have folded based on reads, but that hand v. his AA put me down to about 16 bbs, and took away some of my abiliy to raise/fold. By that time we were down to 6 players, and some guys who had been pushing for a chop starting pushing for it again. There was one guy on the shorter side, but most of us had between 15 and 20 bbs and I agreed to do a six way chop for slightly less than 2nd place money. It seemed like a huge crapshoot and even though I thought I had an edge over most if not all of the remaining players I was hungry and tired, and woulda been annoyed to bust 6th for $700. I took my $2049 fairly happily, and headed home in a good mood until we hit ridiculous traffic on the turnpike.

I wish I lived a little closer to live poker so I could play tournaments more frequently, and also that UIGEA had never been passed so I could still play online. SIGH!

This is getting long, but quick recap from when I went to a town hall that my local Congressman held last week. I showed up a little late and there were about 20 members of the public there to ask questions and interact. I let a few people go ahead of me, and then when the more active members of the audience chilled out I asked him about his stance on playing online poker and making it a priority to pass legislation regulating it, and told him a little about my experience as an online poker player. He said he supported peoples' rights to personal freedom and had supported a bill in the past but that for anything to get passed it has to get past Spencer Bachus and he doesn't see that happening. I consider the trip a success because at least he now knows that the online poker legislation impacts at least one person in his district, and the next time it comes up he will remember the discussion we had. I also like to think I educated some members of the audience on a new revenue source, one that most of them hadn't thought of, so there's that. It feels like we are so far removed from the political process and have so little impact on the priorities our legislators set, that it gave me a small glimmer of hope that I could have a teeny tiny bit of influence.

Yeah, I know it's lame, but stuff like this is so annoying! I played about 450 hands against an earlier villiain and got basically owned. i dropped about 2 buy ins, mostly cause I couldn't combat his aggression. His three-bet % was about 27% for most of the match, and I definitely wasn't four betting him enough, and wasn't taking away enough pots on the flop. It must be nice to call four bets oop and hit top 2 pair w/ JT. Luckily my next opponent broke me even on the night. I tempted fate and decided to play a bit on FTP and this was my reward. So frustrating.

Preflop: Hero is SB with K A
Hero raises to $1.50, BB calls $1

Flop: ($3) K A 9 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $2, BB raises to $6, Hero calls $4

Turn: ($15) J (2 players)
BB bets $12.50, Hero raises to $42.50 and is all-in, BB calls $30

River: ($100) J (2 players, 1 is all-in)

He had AJ and two outered me on the river, sigh. He quit about ten hands later.

About five minutes after this hand, I got all in in my turbo tournament on Stars w/ AA v. AK, and flop KK9. Clearly time for bed.

True story. I still think about blogging a lot, but one thing comes up after another. The husband was whittling down our 1500+ photos from the honeymoon to post on FB but that project isn't finished yet, so I still haven't uploaded any to photobucket to post on here. His mom fell and broke her hip, so we've been running to the hospital and now rehab center as often as possible. She also has Parkinson's disease, which is making the rehab really difficult. There is lots of cancer in my family but I'd never been exposed to Parkinson's and it's an absolutely terrible disease and really hard to fathom if you don't know anyone who has been afflicted.

On a slightly lighter note, to everyone at the CR office, my constant stream of tech problems is a running joke, so I'm sure nobody there was surprised when I tweeted about my keyboard problems yesterday. All of a sudden the keyboard attached to my desktop stopped working, and it seems like there are some serious problems with the computer's USB ports. My pute keeps saying there is something plugged in it doesn't recognize. SIGH.

I tried two other keyboards in the house and they won't work either. However, my skype headset works, as does my old mouse. It doesn't make any sense, and I can't for the life of me figure out why only the keyboards won't work. Most recent pics are on that computer, so until the keyboard issue gets straightened out, no photo posting. Still hope to get the Per Se pics up one of these days (all for you Ms. Kara). Kev brought me home a new wireless keyboard and mouse during lunch, but no surprise, they're not working. :(

Verneer wrote a post recently about wasting time on the internet and motivation, and I've been having a bit of the opposite problem. While I spend (waste) time on FB/Twitter, it's a tangential part of my job, and one that was substantially neglected while I honeymooned. I did see a link to the Rebecca Black Friday video thanks to Micah, the brilliant intro designer at CR. It was the last video I ever thought he'd link to, but I soon realized it was a hipster (hehe) irony thing. I"m sure there are a million parodies out there, but I enjoyed Tuesday, by one of Micah's friends, and Sunday, featuring Joe Sebok. If it's not linked on Twitter, FB or my google reader these days, I pretty much don't see it. I think writing this blog is the closest I've come to true internet time wasting lately, and it feels long overdue.

I find the differences between FB and Twitter really interesting. Twitter blew up for poker players a few summers ago, but very few of my real life friends/family are on it. Facebook used to be the opposite. I started using it because so many friends kept inviting me I finally decided I couldn't ignore it anymore. Over the past year people in poker started adding me, some who I've never met (which used to be a criteria for me adding people) and it's now at the point where I think more poker people interact with me on FB than my real life friends. All of a sudden both Twitter and FB are all about poker. Yet who joined FB a few months ago and now comments all the time? My dad! At the same time FB became less personal for me, it also became more personal. It makes posting status updates and pictures a little weird, because there are two (and really way more) completely different audiences. I know you can segment out your friends into lists, but I don't know if it's really worth the time/energy.

Getting back to Verneer's post, I barely seem to have time to waste on the internet anymore. I haven't seriously perused 2p2 in weeks -- I'm going through withdrawal! I've downloaded some podcasts onto my nano and listened to them while exercising or driving, but it's hard to catch up on everything, nor is everything covered. I've played poker from time to time, but the relief I felt at midnight on Sunday when I busted my last of three entries into miniFTOPS Main Event was ridiculous. I can barely stay awake past 10:30, which makes even poker playing more obsolete in my life.

That said, I played some heads up last week and had a blast. I was only playing 50NL, but found some pretty bad players. I still need to learn when to quit, because there were times I was up and need to be able to say, yeah that's good, time to move on to another opponent, but I always felt I had an edge, so I never wanted to quit. One guy taunted me about it. I won two or three buy ins off of him, then he won some back and we were around even, maybe 150 bbs deep (??) when I call his 3x pot overshove on Kxx. I called QQ relatively quickly, pretty sure he was full of shit, he showed A9o (for A high, no draws) but binked an A on the turn. I think he's the only guy I quit after losing a big pot, and I loled when he said "should have quit when you were ahead." Not if I have him overshoving pot with A high in a four bet pot! In the end I only "lost" one buy in to him, but it felt so dirty that I should have left the table with almost four. That's heads up, apparently. I'm preferring it to tourneys right now because you can choose how long you play, and it's way shorter than a tournament.

I'd like to watch some HU videos, but there is only so much time in the day. I hope to find some time to waste on 2p2 and The Swamp very soon. Oh Swamp, how I miss thee!

Next post I'd like to cover some of the awesome and not so awesome books I read on the honeymoon and my latest TV passions (they include Amazing Race and Vampire Diaries). Also, don't see Adjustment Bureau. We went for Kev's bday and I was totally hooked for the first 10 minutes, but the movie went straight downhill from there. So much potential wasted. Wish I'd read the short story first.

In closing, here is some fun chat from one of my tables in the miniFTOPS Main Event Sunday night. Lilly asked Phil something about what he thought his chances were in some type of tournament or cash games, implying he was not a good player. I plan to start using the word irrogant as much as possible.

Phil Gordon: like Poker After Dark? I like my odds... good at bad structured tournaments
LillyAllen11 (Observer): awesome. I was going to *instert random comment to get chat ban* but i respect that answer so won't say anything
hot_pepp34 (Observer): lol wtf
Phil Gordon: i'm thrilled
Phil Gordon: i hate banning chat
icepick86 (Observer): lol
hot_pepp34 (Observer): no ftp chat ban could shut up matusow lol
LillyAllen11 (Observer): no i would never actually say anything. You are a class act.
SLM1 (Observer): ban me please
RJD8941 (Observer): Love your books Phil!
hot_pepp34 (Observer): just say sumthin outrageous SLM1
LillyAllen11 (Observer): oh god. Sorry now that he started talking it opened flood gates to random "send me $10" railers
hot_pepp34 (Observer): i didnt see anyone yet ask for 10 dollars lilly
SLM1 (Observer): PHIL GORDON LIKES THE TASTE OF CAWKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LillyAllen11 (Observer): i know. but you railers are dumb. You always start out with small talk
hot_pepp34 (Observer): and your not a railer?
Dr Hustlestein: Phil! its an honor
SLM1 (Observer): GAN GAN GAN
RiceAndBeans20 (Observer): WHAT KIND OF STRATEGY ARE U USING TO PLAY MINI FTOPS MAIS EVENT :
hot_pepp34 (Observer): everytime you type in the chat you show how unintelligent you are
SLM1 (Observer): BAN BAN BAN
RiceAndBeans20 (Observer): RiceAndBeans20 (Observer): WHAT KIND OF STRATEGY ARE U USING TO PLAY MINI FTOPS MAIS EVENT :
hot_pepp34 (Observer): why did TCB get a ban
ashan535 (Observer): i feel a phil gordon double up coming...
hot_pepp34 (Observer): make it a triple
ashan535 (Observer): next 5 hands max..
hot_pepp34 (Observer): after he finishes his blunt
DrDumpenstein (Observer): gl hustlestein
LillyAllen11 (Observer): LOL
TCJ-NCTMB (Observer): why is saying pokerz0ne inappproiate language???
zozo2689 (Observer): waiting for them to blink?
LillyAllen11 (Observer): some railer just came to my table and said this...
LillyAllen11 (Observer): corliss (Observer): it is so sadyou do not even realize how ignorant you are to talk to phil gordon like that.....arrogant ignorant no class ............
Gary Alderdyce (Observer): Hey Phil , pretty intense on that poker after dark,
hot_pepp34 (Observer): you are ignorant lilly
LillyAllen11 (Observer): haha
LillyAllen11 (Observer): haha now everyone is railing me
LillyAllen11 (Observer): haha
hot_pepp34 (Observer): hush
LillyAllen11 (Observer): oh you dumb little railbirds
MrCerze (Observer): all in
hot_pepp34 (Observer): lilly your as stupid as you are ignorant
LillyAllen11 (Observer): ha
Gary Alderdyce (Observer): nh Phil
MrCerze (Observer): phil n1
LillyAllen11 (Observer): sorry to any railers that i came off as irrogant to
TCJ-NCTMB (Observer): lol
hot_pepp34 (Observer): lol TCJ why do they keep banning your chat
ashan535 (Observer): he must be the owner of pokerstars
TCJ-NCTMB (Observer): "what is irrogant"?
LillyAllen11 (Observer): who knows
IMaDGENERATE (Observer): Its the new arrogant
LillyAllen11 (Observer): yep
TCJ-NCTMB (Observer): ahhh
hot_pepp34 (Observer): irrogant is what a stupid person thinks arrogant is spelled like
LillyAllen11 (Observer): correct
LillyAllen11 (Observer): loser is what railers are that spend all day railing to try to get $1
stevel1017 (Observer): ignorant + arrogant
hot_pepp34 (Observer): nobody asked phil gordon for cash yet you tool
stevel1017 (Observer): ARROGANT*
stevel1017 (Observer): lol
LillyAllen11 (Observer): i just assume someone like you that has no games played online and is railing is only here to beg
LillyAllen11 (Observer): anyway i was having some cheap fun earlier. Now im just railing and not going to talk to you anymore *blocked*

we still haven't downloaded all the pics, and i need to upload to photobucket before i can post on the blog, so i'll just start a recap.

our honeymoon started on a horrible note as my twitter followers may have seen. we flew for about five hours and were approaching the north pole when the captain came over the loudspeaker and announced that due to a water problem (that's a little vague) we were turning around and flying for four hours to go to TORONTO. you know, that canadian city that's super close to NY, where we left from. KJAKLDJFKDSJAFKLSJDASKLJFASKL;DJ 9 hours of flying and we were basically back where we started. super frustrating. we made the best of it by trading lines from my favorite george carlin routine and playing chinese. they put us up overnight and rescheduled our flight for the following day. after a 2.5 hour delay we finally got off the ground and started again toward hong kong.

hong kong was rainy and cold, at least the two nights we were there. we never made it to the peak because it was so foggy, but we did some cable cars in lantau and made the best of it. we had dim sum at this restaurant recommended by Tay and Wiggins, which wasn't earth shattering, but made for a good tourist experience.

i had made a couple of dinner reservations for our trip. the first was at felix, which was mostly overrated except for the view. the next dinner was at aqua. it was AMAZING and one of our best meals from the trip. i must have been really tired when i was arranging the reservations and gotten confused by our delay, because when we returned to our room there were three hotel employees packing up our stuff. we were supposed to be in macau that night and checked out of our hotel earlier in the day. ooops!! the hotel was super nice about it, so we quickly gathered up our stuff and made our way to the harbour to catch the ferry to macau. in the end we were happy we'd had the full day in hong kong cause we made it to a bunch of museums and sights we wouldn't have seen otherwise.

the main downside was that we were super tired after sightseeing all day and missed out on dinner in macau. we played a little poker after checking in to the hotel. i was having a decent session v. some really terrible players until the last hand, when i went broke w/ top pair on a J23 board with AJ and lost to my husband's 22. :( the major fish at the table had gotten up a few orbits earlier, and it was almost 4am, so we called it a night. good times in hong kong and macau, but the best of the trip was yet to come.

anyone have any tips for fighting jet lag? i was gold on the way over and had zero problems adjusting, but the return has been brutal. we tried to stay up late on sunday to get back on a normal schedule, and i lasted until around 8:30, but can only seem to sleep in 2-3 hour increments. i woke up at 4am this morning and after tossing for an hour or two finally got up, but i can't imagine how brutal late afternoon and evening is going to be. i've got bad congestion, but i'm pretty sure it would go away if i could just get a decent night of sleep!

First, the latest CardRunners Confidential is hilarious, if you haven't checked it out yet, read here.

I'm now married, though not yet officially Mrs. O'Brien. I'll start the arduous process of name changing when I get back from the honeymoon. We're leaving a week from today and to say I'm excited would be a gross understatement. We'll be in Hong Kong, Macau and Thailand. If anyone has recs (especially food, cause I love food) please pass along.

We're waiting for the official photos, but here's one of me w/ my dad. Someone is pointing a green laser at my neck. Not sure what that's about. Maybe a camera?




Poker in the title was a bit of a tease. I've played a few super turbos, and doubt I'll have time to play any tournaments soon. Only exception is if the wintry mix they're predicting for tonight looks bad. We're supposed to go into the city for game night, but if we end up staying home there's a small chance I'd play poker. It's hard to motivate to play with thank yous hanging over my head.

Good luck to everyone playing FTOPS starting tomorrow!

Thanks to everyone who played Tuesday Spewday this week. I was late due to family stuff up north and spewed my stack very quickly, but watched Goat crack AA the first hand of the super turbo and nothing was going to slow him down. NxtWrldChamp represented the instructors well and took down the turbo.

I'm on my honeymoon the last Tuesday of next month, but will bring it back in March, with the hope of getting some cool prizes and promoting it earlier so we can get a better crowd.

I'm really bummed about missing most of double guarantee week. These multi entry tournaments seem like they're working out well, except for how long some of the later tournaments are taking. Learned my lesson with the 1r, no more late tournaments the week of the wedding! My 30" monitors are made for this kind of bonanza, but instead they have been much handier for work lately.

The wedding is in two days. I still kind of feel like it's happening to somebody else. Last night my "dream" was me house hunting until I realized that my wedding was in an hour and a half and I still hadn't gotten my hair and nails done. Most of my "dreams" lately have involved me stressing out about my wedding. I'm stressed enough in real life, it just seems unfair that I stress out in my dreams also. :(

Excited for things to calm down after the wedding, although still a little sad that the Jets won't be in the Super Bowl. We're not going on the honeymoon right away, and will be in town for a few more weeks. There's gonna be a lot of cool things happening at work, especially after I return from my honeymoon in early March. We're doing Hong Kong, a night in Macau and Thailand and I can't wait. Wish I was dreaming about that instead!

Trying to organize a tournament is hard when you're getting married in four days, but there will be a Tuesday Spewday tonight. Come on over to Full Tilt Poker tonight, these are single entry turbo tourneys.

Full Tilt Poker

9pm EST
214428522 - $11 turbo

9:15pm EST
214428631 - $11 super turbo KO

pw - spewday

My fiance played one of the double guarantee tourneys last night and final tabled. He lost a brutal pot w/ AA to KQo with five left and then busted fifth. First was 18k, such a bummer that his AA couldn't hold.

I went deep in a 1r double guarantee but was brutally tired and dusted off my stack. The tourney has a fantastic structure but I can't start playing it at 10pm when there are 7k entrants. Busting 13th hurt but I deserved it and basically spewed cause I was so tired.

Please play Spewday tonight! I might be a little late cause we have family stuff, but I will be there!