Its Sunday night and I just got back from hanging out with Goodfella's brother and some friends. We hung out at our friend Ryan's new house. The first tournament I ever played was held at Rob's (Goodfella's older brother) house and it included all the same guys. They all lived together in a house in Little Italy on Beatrice Street. We called that first tourney the Beatrice Invitational and since then, its tradition to hold a "Beatrice tourney". Today was Beatrice #4. Our buddy Matt ended up winning. Congrats to him! Last night, we played a couple of home game tourneys with Goodfella's cousins and it was a blast! I had the best time seriously. I got a chance to meet some of the cousins I hadn't met yet and they were awesome. Ms Goodfella ended up being the night's MVP and she finished 2nd and 3rd in the two tourneys. In the first tourney, I managed to get it in with JJ and got called by a drunk happy go lucky first timer who showed Ks5s. He made a flush on the Turn and I was out in 4th. This guy, although he was a nice guy, was just a real newbie to poker and was doing ridiculous things. He just managed to make 2 pair minimum every hand he played and that was just about every hand! During the second one, I knew that he would play the same way so I decided to check raise shove on him with top pair and managed to get sucked out again. I wasn't upset though as I just went back to my scotch on the rocks and bullshitted with friends. I'm so tired from this weekend. We had a lot of fun, drinks, and laughter but very little sleep. Gonna be hitting the sack super early tonight.

This is going to be a huge week. My girlfriend is coming in on Thursday from Portland for Rob's wedding on Saturday. Got a room at a really nice hotel near the water from Thursday to Thursday while she's here. Also, she's bringing our dog Coco with her and I haven't seen her in almost a month so I can't wait to see them both. My plan is to get a ton of mtt volume in between Monday and Wednesday. Speaking of mtt's, I should probably let you know how I got into playing them. The thing is, I've been a cash game player for the last 15 months or so. As soon as a I finished grad school, I got back to poker and started playing 5 days a week at casinos. In between, I went to tournament series that were held at various casinos within 5 hours of home. In 09, I was on a serious tourney heater. I was fortunate enough to win 5 tourneys throughout the year as well as several other final table finishes. I've always enjoyed tournament poker and play whenever the opportunity is right. I've learned a ton about solid tournament play over the last few years and really feel confident in my tournament play, especially live. It def doesn't hurt to run hot for a year playing tournaments. You learn and play so much better when you're confidence is through the roof. Anyway, I've always found that online MTTing requires even more preparation, study, and skill. Even though I had a very successful year playing regular cash games, I felt like a I needed a new challenge. This move to Toronto gave me that perfect opportunity, My boy Eskal has been wanting to attack the mtt scene so we decided that we would take on the new challenge together. This way, we'll be able to support each other and feed off each other for the next year. We're gonna spend a lot of time preparing and studying and getting in a ton of volume. Although I'll be playing live cash games whenever I can, for the next year, I will be focusing on mtt's. Hopefully Eskal and I both have an awesome year.

Getting back to the week, I want to make sure that my girlfriend has an awesome time while she's here for the week. She's super excited to meet all my Toronto friends and can't wait for the wedding. On Friday, we'll be going to a welcome dinner/drinks at Kelly's parent's house (The Bride). The wedding is Saturday followed by a goodbye brunch on Sunday. The night she gets into town, I'm hoping that I can get some friends out for a dinner so that she can meet them and feel comfortable throughout the weekend wedding festivities. Hopefully it can work out. I'll keep you posted throughout the week. I'll also get in part 4 of my Underground Poker Club Story at some point in the week. Hope you guys had a great weekend and are looking forward to a good week.

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