Brian "Stinger" Hastings took down the $11 turbo that started at 9pm (for a whopping $148.50). Needbankroll lost the HU battle, taking second place, while CR instructor Lee Przytula finished 4th. Numbbono took the other money spot for third. I spewed my stack early thinking my fiance would fold whatever crappy hand he opened from the button (A9o) to my three bet, and I donktastically called his four bet shove w/ KJhh. :)



Stinger also final tabled the super turbo, which got 36 runners, but finished in third place. CR customer support rep Joe "asufan23" Coplan already had three 2nd place finishes in Tuesday Spewday but finally took one down, winning $81 and bragging rights. Rounding out the money were wolfshead, who took 2nd place, and, you guessed it, Needbankroll in fourth place.



Thanks to the instructors, members and employees who played and chatted. As always, it was a blast. At the request of Alex, I'll be switching up the format for the next Spewday on November 30th. I'm going to try and get a turbo HORSE going for the first tournament. I also may experiment with a later tournament that West Coasters who have a job can play, and make it a slightly lower buy in. It's just not the same without TeamWillow.

Got any suggestions? Hit me!

First things first. Two private MTTs on FTP tonight.

9pm - ID 181980093, $11 turbo
9:15pm - ID 181980391, $6 super turbo KO

pw for both = spewday

You can also search for me, pvanharibo. I'll be in the CR chat, come around to play with other members and have fun! We usually get about 30-40 and the tourneys don't last super long.

I haven't had any big cashes on Stars for awhile, and as I mentioned in my last post I didn't start playing till after 6 on Sunday, so I entered the 5r, and then after some hesitation decided to play the Second Chance. The guarantee is smaller than I'd normally want to pay $200 for, and there aren't as many satellites, making it a tougher field (IMO). That said, since I was starting so late I decided I would just play "bigger" tourneys, signing in for the 750k on FTP, Mulligan and HORSE.

The problem was that I was playing a 5r on stars and kept losing! When it came time to add on, I was extremely annoyed to realize that I only had $4 in my account. At that moment I was mad at myself for signing up for the Second Chance, but more annoyed I hadn't realized it sooner. Kevin tried to xfer me money, but there is such a lag on Stars that it didn't get to me in time. I ended up grinding the tourney for a few more hours, despite not receiving the extra 4k in chips. I even remember thinking it'd be super baller to win it without the add on, but it wasn't meant to be. Instead I just fted the Second Chance. :)

I haven't had time to go over any hands from the Second Chance yet, but I remember two huge ones late. One was a massive chip lead pot with two tables left where my KK lost to AK all in pre. I was sooooooo bummed, but tried to keep my cool. The other big pot was a suckout I had, also with two tables left. I was a shortie after my KK lost, and I made a very marginal reshove w/ 44 over a min raiser. He had TT but I sucked out like a champ with a 4 on the flop. If I don't win that hand I'm out. Gotta get lucky to win! Or finish 3rd.

As for the deal, most people I was talking to didn't think I should take it, although I had one person whose opinion I trust very much and who has helped me a ton with my game tell me he thought I should take the deal. It was tough to turn it down, but I really felt that it was a crapshoot with our stacks, and that I had just as much of a shot to win it as the other two guys, despite them being competent players. Maybe it's a consequence of having too much gamble (which is not a problem I ever thought I'd have), but I didn't think it was worthwhile given how close the stacks were to accept less than 2nd place.

A few people have told me since that they think I made the right call but mostly I'm focusing on being happy about winning 28k and change (happy now Devin?!), and not about missing out on an extra 8k. As I mentioned in my previous post I did take over the chip lead after turning down the deal, and if anything my biggest mistake was shoving K7ss when there was a short stack at the table.

I've clearly started to play more tournaments since the run in September. Before my win in the 42k on Sept 12th I'd been playing mainly super turbos, and now I find myself playing longer tourneys 3-4 nights a week! I was getting a little frustrated since I hadn't had any big cashes since late September, and this couldn't have come at a better time confidence wise. Hell, I was super happy to finish 2nd in the super turbo for $500, since final tabling that felt good.

OK, long ramble over. I will try over the next few days to carve out some time to review hands, and post some on the forums and maybe even here. I still haven't even gone over my 3rd in the 42k last month, or my win in the six max, so some studying is in order. There are also a million vids on CR I want to catch up on, including Parts 2 and 3 (out Sunday) of Matt Matros's latest series, and the last two mement and augie vids. We've got some sick tournament instructors right now, and I hope everyone is taking advantage of all CR has to offer.t

The guys are finally coming tomorrow to fix the hole in our living room ceiling, so maybe once they finish I'll get my new set up going and then go through a bunch of hands/tourneys. Yay for no more hole and sporadic falling plaster!

See you at Tuesday Spewday tonight!

Despite what i wrote in my interview on CR, I've been taking some shots. Last week I played the 640 $1m guarantee on FTP and the weekly HORSE. I did the same this week, adding in the Mulligan, HORSE and Second Chance. I don't ever recall playing the Second Chance before, but it's def possible. We had friends/family over for football, so I didn't play any earlier tourneys and started w/ the 750k (which I donked out of early). I was feeling down on my night as I busted out of everything, but I somehow final tabled the Second Chance for my biggest score ever of $29k on Stars.

When we were three-handed we waited forever for Stars support to chop the tourney, and I turned down a deal for 36k, just under 2nd place. In hindsight, it obv blows that I turned down an additional 8k, but at one point after turning it down I had the chip lead, and I don't think it was a horrible decision. Given that the other two at the ft were clearly competent players maybe should have swayed me more, but I decided to gamboooool and it didn't work out. I won a big flip w/ 33 > A2o, but I four bet shoved an active guy w/ K7ss and he snapped A9o and held. gg me.

I also final tabled the 9:10 super turbo on FTP (ship the $500!), but finished 2nd to a guy who talked massive shit to me. It woulda felt great to beat him, but oh well.

I've been meaning to make a post about TV for awhile. Quick reminder that Tuesday Spewday is on for this Tuesday night. I'm already registered, so ctrl-F me, pvanharibo, in the FTP lobby, or you can find the tournament under IDs 181980093 & 181980391. There's a 9:00pm ET $11 turbo and a 9:15pm $6 super turbo. We've been getting about 40 people, and a crew builds up in the CR chat (you can find it along the footer on the homepage).

If you haven't seen it yet, check out the 2,000th Video by Stinger, released today. High stakes PLO with Ivey, Ziigmund, Urindanger & more ballers.

What I'm Watching

The Event - Hey, it's 24 without the clock gimmick ~ crossed with X-Files! Actually, I think it may be better than 24. It certainly has potential. Aliens land in the US and after being held captive for 66 or so years the President was thinking about releasing them but then someone tried to kill him and a plane disappeared and some dude's gfriend got kidnapped off a cruise ship and...start from the beginning. It could end up massively sucking, but for now I'm digging it!

Boardwalk Empire - About three episodes behind, but one of the only other new shows I've been trying to watch. Started slowly, and I'm on the fence about Buscemi as the star, but in HBO I trust.

Sons of Anarchy - No spoilers here, I just finished season 2. It was recommended by a friend and I didn't pay a ton of attention during the first few episodes, but man it creeps up on you and gets under your skin. Season 2 was kickass, with a tour de force by Katey Sagal who was absolutely robbed by the Emmy nomination committee. I am vacillating between starting season 3 online or just waiting for it to finish and wait for the DVDs. Ron Perelman plays the head honcho of a motorcycle gang in a California town. The characters are fairly different from anything else you see on TV, and I'm always a fan of shows that dare to be different.

PokerStars Big Game - When I finally started DVRing this show I caught some highlight episodes, and kept getting annoyed that I wasn't seeing all the context. I waited patiently for new episodes, and man have they been delivering. I yell at the Loose Cannons for playing like complete morons, laugh at Negreanu's continued bluffing despite getting looked up every single hand, and love watching the wheels turn in some of the best minds in poker. I wish they'd invite some CR guys on, it's definitely annoying to only see the same circle of faces, but I'll keep watching. If I thought I'd have any chance at getting on the show I'd apply to be a loose cannon and show these horrible limp/folders how it's done. :)

The Biggest Loser - I made fun of Kevin mercilessly for watching this show when we started dating, but now I pull up in my recliner every week for it. The show is better when you have a prop bet going, cause it keeps you engaged, but it's not necessary. BL works because even though half of every season's cast is annoying beyond belief (man, fat people cry A LOT), you watch people completely turn their lives around, in a healthy way. With so much sensationalism on TV, and gastric-bypasses being done live on morning television, it's refreshing to see a program that rewards working out and eating healthy. Even if they do stage people finishing marathons. Bob and Jillian are the trainers who yell and play psychotherapists to the contestants, and occasionally provide amusement. It's always fun watching all the girls swoon over Bob, too, who's clearly gay. Warning: I usually fast forward through Dr. Bob, even though my mom insists it's the most interesting part. He looks at people's tests and tells them what "age" their body is, which is generally much higher than their real age. He also has a strange way of talking, like he had a stroke or really bad plastic surgery, and it weirds me out.

World Series of Poker - This is shaping up to be the best telecast in years. They've done a fantastic job of showing a lot of the players who made it deep earlier in the event, and instead of just showing bad beats and coolers, they sometimes even show the best hand winning! The commentary is still cheesy and knowing who the November 9 are takes some of the fun out of it, but it's been a good year. If only they'd air more than 2 events!

PSA of the day: Don't play poker when you're tired. I spewed a workable stack last night in a tournament 2 hours in cause I was tired and made an awfuckit shove bvb figuring, meh, if I lose I can go to sleep! That is not how to make money in poker. :(

Non Sequitur of the day: I wish I was a guy and I could pawn all sorts of wedding planning stuff off on my future bride.

Tonight is "date night" with the fiance, we're off to Nanking and Social Network. Also have the Village on Netflix, somehow missed that the first time around. We're having people over on Sunday so I can't play poker, and I'll probably make up for that by playing a bunch tomorrow. Happy pokering this weekend!

This Friday will be the release of the 2000th video on CR. Brian "Stinger" Hastings, who made the video, has been involved with CR almost from the beginning, and as someone who went from student to teacher, he's one of, if not the most, successful CR alum. His video is 200/400 and 300/600 PLO v. Ivey, Ziigmund, cadillac1944 & Urindanger.

The whole week is really kickass, starting with Nikachu's "first" video today. He won the Video Challenge a few months ago, for 5k, so technically this is his second video airing on CR. Later in the week JBaller88, Marshall28, & Schneids will all have new releases. For the first time in over a year, we've got a new vid from MasterLJ. He's playing two tables of 200NL HU v. a former student. There's also a new MTT session from mement_mori with some mid-range buy-in and turbo tournaments.

Poker was awful for me this weekend. I had a ton of min cashes Sunday but couldn't break through in anything. The super stack $11 tournament on FTP is awesomely structured, but it hurts to make it through 2800 people for a min cash. I decided to take two shots in bigger tourneys, and neither went well. I played the $1m guarantee and lost a big flip to Kelly Kim (missing out on getting 200 bucks back also) w/ AK to his QQ. Then a few hands later I pick up QQ in the bb, shove over a co raiser who calls with 88 and promptly flops a set and gg me.

Thinking things couldn't get worse I decided to play the Weekly HORSE tourney. I'm no expert, but people were awful. I definitely made some questionable calls, raises, etc. but my bustout hand I had a K showing and raised the bring in, he called, then called another bet on fourth, in Stud Hi, with (A4)35. He obv hits the gutter on fifth when I hit 2p. :( I kept thinking, he can't really have A4, can he?

Hand of the night AINEC.

Full Tilt Poker Game #24790133383: Sunday Night HORSE (181571171), Table 2 - 120/240 Ante 20 - Limit Razz - 23:10:37 ET - 2010/10/17
Seat 1: Heyoke (3,787)
Seat 2: Max 5306 (6,198)
Seat 3: Felipe Mojave (3,176)
Seat 4: mattyv (5,310)
Seat 5: bizaaar (1,498)
Seat 6: The Piper1 (4,181)
Seat 7: UhhMee (3,795)
Seat 8: pvanharibo (924)
Heyoke antes 20
Max 5306 antes 20
Felipe Mojave antes 20
mattyv antes 20
bizaaar antes 20
The Piper1 antes 20
UhhMee antes 20
pvanharibo antes 20
*** 3RD STREET ***
Dealt to bizaaar [Tc]
Dealt to The Piper1 [2d]
Dealt to UhhMee [6c]
Dealt to pvanharibo [5s 2c] [3c]
Dealt to Heyoke [Ac]
Dealt to Max 5306 [Ah]
Dealt to Felipe Mojave [Th]
Dealt to mattyv [Jc]
mattyv is high with [Jc]
mattyv brings in for 40
bizaaar folds
The Piper1 folds
UhhMee folds
pvanharibo completes it to 120
Heyoke calls 120
Max 5306 folds
Felipe Mojave folds
mattyv folds
*** 4TH STREET ***
Dealt to pvanharibo [5s 2c 3c] [7s]
Dealt to Heyoke [Ac] [6h]
Heyoke checks
pvanharibo bets 120
Heyoke calls 120
*** 5TH STREET ***
Dealt to pvanharibo [5s 2c 3c 7s] [Kc]
Dealt to Heyoke [Ac 6h] [4c]
Heyoke bets 240
pvanharibo raises to 480
Heyoke has 15 seconds left to act
Heyoke calls 240
*** 6TH STREET ***
Dealt to pvanharibo [5s 2c 3c 7s Kc] [7h]
Dealt to Heyoke [Ac 6h 4c] [Ad]
Heyoke has 15 seconds left to act
Heyoke bets 240
pvanharibo calls 184, and is all in
Heyoke shows [4s As Ac 6h 4c Ad]
pvanharibo shows [5s 2c 3c 7s Kc 7h]
Uncalled bet of 56 returned to Heyoke
*** 7TH STREET ***
Dealt to pvanharibo [5s 2c 3c 7s Kc 7h] [Ts]
Dealt to Heyoke [4s As Ac 6h 4c Ad] [6s]
Heyoke shows [4s As Ac 6h 4c Ad 6s] two pair, Fours and Aces
pvanharibo shows [5s 2c 3c 7s Kc 7h Ts] T,7,5,3,2
pvanharibo wins the pot (2,008) with T,7,5,3,2
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,008 | Rake 0
Seat 1: Heyoke showed [4s As Ac 6h 4c Ad 6s] and lost with two pair, Fours and Aces
Seat 2: Max 5306 folded on 3rd St.
Seat 3: Felipe Mojave folded on 3rd St.
Seat 4: mattyv folded on 3rd St.
Seat 5: bizaaar folded on 3rd St.
Seat 6: The Piper1 folded on 3rd St.
Seat 7: UhhMee folded on 3rd St.
Seat 8: pvanharibo showed [5s 2c 3c 7s Kc 7h Ts] and won (2,008) with T,7,5,3,2

gotta be honest, i'm freaked out by this concept of looking at dead people after they've died.

i went to the viewing today of my next door neighbor growing up. my dad was his best friend, and mr. quigley was a constant presence throughout my life. he and his wife came to lots of our family parties, and i saw him a decent amount of the times i would visit my parents when i was living further away.

the idea of going up to a dead body to pay last respects does not jive with my concept of honoring loved ones. even though all of my grandparents died before i was 14, i never saw any of them after they died. thank you judaism for not forcing me to look at the dead bodies of my relatives.

i was gonna post about tv today but it seems too lighthearted and after the viewing i'm in a pretty somber mood.

first a quick shout out to a few other bloggers. thetyman9 just scored big in a few MTTS and credited me for some inspiration. i guess if my bragging can help other people then it's all worth it! also have been enjoying getschmidty's blog. he had a link to a great ny times article a few posts ago on how athletes develop, focusing on russian tennis clubs.

second shout out is to the mtt forums. people have been starting to post hands and comment more, and make it a really fun place to post. i've been bad and haven't been around for a few days, but others are picking up the slack. It might also be the promotion for people to win free lessons from Matros, but hopefully everyone will stick around. There will be other chances to win free lessons coming up, and one of the best things you can do to improve your game is post in the forums.

thursday night i heard a huge crash while i was upstairs watching tv. turns out it was the sound of the sheet rock tumbling down from an ~ 8 ft wide hole in our living room ceiling. there was water damage years ago and it finally broke down. we (and by we, i mean reyanni, our awesome cleaning lady) got most of it cleaned up yesterday, but we're waiting to find out how long it will take to fix, and in the meantime it seems senseless to set up my new computer and monitors. def would not have gotten my computer rushed to me if i'd realized this was the situation. so i've got this kickass new computer and my two new 30" monitors sitting on my living room floor.

i snapped a picture of the hole, but then on friday morning i dropped my phone in the toilet bowl. amazingly the call didn't drop, but it hung up when i was towel drying my phone. numerous people, including micah, informed me i should have turned it off and stuck it in a bowl of rice, but unfortunately after the fact. i was running out to the worst blood test of my life, so i took it with me in the hopes i could respond to any work emails that came up. if they tell you that you need a glucose tolerance test, find out if there are alternatives. i had to fast starting 12 hours before, which sucked. first they took my blood as a baseline, then i drank a sweet glucose drink, and then they checked my blood again after a half hour, 1 hour, 2 hour and 3 hours. they wouldn't let me leave, even though the lab was only 10 min from my house, so i just had to sit there and read the poker mags i brought.

somehow iphone has survived, i kept it off most of the weekend. only big problem is power button no longer works, but battery seems even more terrible than it used to be, so it will prob run out fairly often. i wasn't going to get another one, woulda settled for some crap at&t phone, cause in may when my 2 year contract runs out i'm switching to verizon and saying au revoir to my iphone.

no big scores to brag of from this past weekend. i played a little poker fri night and saturday, but it was kevin's brother's bday on sunday so no poker while we hung out and watched football. i was inspired by meatbuoy's challenge to win 1k in $3 90 mans so i decided to play a few. i entered four total over the weekend, and finished 7th and 1st in two and didn't cash in the other two. i'll end this post w/ a screenshot from the final table of the one i won. :)

Daragh999 won a hard fought heads up battle v. Asufan23 (aka Joe from CR support) and Chalupacabra007 (sup sup Hokulea) crushed the super turbo.

Slytlytilted won the bounty, and actually busted me from both tournaments! I will get you back!

My computer crashed during the final table, so I had to boot up my mac to observe, and missed out on screenshots.

We had over 40 people in both tournaments, and I think we can make October even better. Mark your calendars for October 26th, and you can already register (I did!).

Here's Hok winning the super turbo, and the lobbies!

play the tuesday spewday tourneys with me and CR instructors augie, verneer, mement_mori, schneids & matt matros. knock me out of the 9pm DS and win an easy $25 bucks. they're under the private tourney tab, or you can ctrl-f augie00 from the lobby.

Tournament #181876634 (09.28.10 21:00 ET) - Turbo NLHE DS $10 + $1
Tournament #181879017 (09.28.10 21:15 ET) - Super Turbo NLHE KO $6 + .60.

password = spewday

i'll be in CR chat too, trying to keep up! find it on the bottom of the homepage under services.

in non poker news, i went ~ camping this past weekend. i've never been camping for real (sad, i know) and i've only slept in a tent once at a music festival ages ago. this wasn't real camping, i'd call it "camping lite." we were in a bunkhouse with a fridge and bathroom, and there was a grill and fire pit outside. lots of bugs and time outdoors, so kinda like camping. :) my shoulders are still sore from our 9 mile kayak ride, but it felt great to be outside and get some exercise. we grilled fri and sat night, and got to spend some time w/ cool friends who we don't get to see very often.

i am trying to get back into going to the gym, but between work and wedding planning (and a smattering of poker playing) i've been terrible about going. i know it's gonna help my neck/back pain, plus i want to lose weight for the wedding, but it's just so damn hard to make time. i mean, biggest loser is on tonight! ;)

been going back and forth on p90x, has anyone out there tried this? i'm not sure how i'll find 2 hours a day, but i've heard amazing things about it, and i've got just enough time to finish it before the wedding. tomorrow will be four months to the day!

i watched some of the wcoop main event last night. timex busted around 30th, and while i was railing i noticed potterpoker suck out w/ A3hh v. a better A for his last 20 bbs. he went runner runner gutshot iirc. i was shocked when i woke up this morning to find out that not only did he win, but i've actually met him. i bluffed him once at a venetian deep stack, and then found out later he's a friend of a friend. in fact, just found out another friend had 3% of him, mbn. easiest 60k he ever made...

the A3 hand got me thinking about how lucky i've gotten at various points playing over the past couple weeks. playing well will get you far, and can mean the difference between 100th and 1st, but somewhere in there just about everyone winning a big tournament is going to suck out. tyson happened to do it in the main event. if he wasn't a good aggressive player, he wouldn't have been able to take his lucky break w/ A3 and turn it into a win.

that may sound like a not so thinly veiled brag for myself, but it's not. i know i play very, very badly at times. poker requires me to maintain complete focus with constant analyzation and that's not easy in an 8 hour tournament. sometimes i'm wrong and i look like an idiot, and sometimes i play badly and get rewarded. if nothing else, i put myself in a position to win a lot of chips. i look like an idiot when i make a bad hero call or three bet at the wrong time, but other times i pick up chips without a showdown, or get a guy to bluff shove 33 into my AA.

hope to lay some bad beats tonight on full tilt, play tuesday spewday!

final tabled back to back sunday 42ks! couldn't play last sunday cause we had friends over for the jets game so i sat down yesterday to play some early wcoop (did not go well sigh set over set) and a few tourneys. this one had 4,050, a few more than the one i won, so first was over 1k more. really wanted that 19k, but i ran QQ into KK three handed for 8.5k. i also went deep in a 2500 person $10 tourney. after i regged i immediately regretted it, cause i prob shoulda played the 6pm $26 instead, and wanted to limit myself to four tables. finished 30th and don't think i could talk about a single hand in the tournament. i was mainly on auto pilot since i was playing the 42k most of the time.

in the past couple weeks on ftp i turned $187 into over 50k. i should start an affiliate website guaranteeing people success like me, lol. i can't tell you how many internet sites/mailing lists i see in my online research that are basically people saying exactly this. the truth is there's no quick and easy way to win money at poker. if i didn't have the help of friends and forums i wouldn't be half the player i am today.

CR is offering an amazing promotion for all tournament players. we're giving away completely free lessons with matt matros and collin moshman just for posting in the forums. if you create a post in the sng, low limit mtt or high limit mtt forums with a hh before this thursday, sept 30th, at midnight, you'll be entered into a random drawing for four free lessons. no brainer if you play tournaments imo.

don't forget tuesday spewday this week, search for me or augie00 in the lobby (ctrl-f) to find them. first is turbo $11 at 9pm, and then a $6 super turbo at 9:15. i'm offering a $25 bounty on my head, so come and get it! i think we'll get close to the 30-40 we've gotten in the past, but hoping for 50!