to realize how fortunate you are to be so healthy and then realize that everything else is pretty much immaterial.

I realized this late last night when I happened to look at one of my old friends from middle school's facebook page. It was heartbreaking. She has a rare kind of MS that onset very quickly and lost most of her ability to move or speak. From what I understand (her sister keeps an awesome blog about everything that has happened www.maryfishburne.com/maryfishburne.com/Annes_Blog/Annes_Blog.html). Anne is such a pretty, sweet, Southern gal with an awesome fashion sense (or at least when we were 14 she did). It literally broke my heart after reading it and I realized how fortunate I am to have everything in life that I take for granted and how petty all my concerns etc are.

Anyway, I will be sending her a card and invite her out to Vegas when she gets better. Her family and friends are in my thoughts and prayers as well.

(I have another longer blog written up about life, poker etc that I have to get around to posting but for now I wanted to write about this.)

Until next time,
xoxo babes glgl.

Hey everyone, I feel so slack about the lack of updates and the vague blog. I was so excited the other day because I won two tournaments in the same night. The first one was the UB 80k sniper which actually had close to a 100k prize pool. The second was the Stars 70k 11r which was a huge field of over 1700 people. No chops in either!

The whole experience was pretty surreal actually. I remember wishing the Stars tournament would go away so I could 100% focus on UB and not actually realizing I was at the final table of Stars. Fortunately, I went into the Stars final table as a massive CL and didn't have to worry about playing tons of pots until UB was done. The UB ft was a little intimidating to me as there were some highly ranked p5ers on the table. I got asked to chop at UB during HU but the guy wanted to do a chip chop at this point I was 100k chips behind. I said absolutely not. I didn't even want to offer an even chop but I did and he declined. I totally tried to intimidate him and told him I play/played lots of HU cash (which I guess its more shorthanded than HU). I got a tiny bit annoyed because I had him all in twice before he tried to ask for a chop and he was behind both times. The first time he sucked out and the second time we chopped. I was glad for the 5 minute break that came because I got up and walked around to blow off steam. (Again, fortunately, I was CL at stars and could afford to sit out for a couple of minutes.)

The last hand at UB that won the tournament I did suck out but not by much. It was a really standard hand. I raised A2dd and the flop was K84 with two diamonds. We get it all in and he has 89dd. The turn was an 8 and the river was the 7d. Lucky 7!! I was so excited at this point I jumped up and down for about 10 seconds because it hit me that I needed to win Stars as well.

So I sat down and refocused. Stars FT was 4 or 6 handed at this point...I didn't remember since it was really late and I had been playing for literally close to 10 hours. Stars was super soft and everyone was really passive. I got overaggro at one point and reshipped 86 to a button open when I knew he wasn't opening light. Fortunately, I was able to turn it around and win 1st in that as well! The last hand at Stars wasn't quite as interesting as UB. I had blinded the guy down to less than 10 bbs and he open shipped K7o into my bb which I held Ako. No 7 this time! As a side note, thanks to my friends that railed the Stars FT. I know you guys were saying lots of funny things in chat that I wasn't able to respond to because I was focusing 110%.

It's my first actual week playing tournaments. I got the tournament bug about two weeks ago after playing the ladies wsop and watching a few mtt videos. My biggest inspiration is my friend Jason (NovaSky/jakoon1985). You guys should check out his cardplayer interview www.cardplayer.com/cptv/channels/13-other-poker-videos/poker-videos/2221-the-online-zone-jason-novasky-koon . I can't say enough nice things about him at the risk of sounding like a total fangirl...oh wait I am! :) I still have tons of leaks to fix but overall I feel like I'm playing really well. I have never had the passion for cash games the way I feel now about tournaments. Yesterday I final table bubbled two events. I think one was the FTP 50k and the other was the stars 20k $50 (1r+1a). My AA got cracked by AKcc and 99 aipf for the CL. Oh well...on the bright side of things I got knocked out in ftops (1r+1a) really earlly so I didn't have to waste the money adding on!

On a life update, I'm actually on a flight right now back to Charlotte to see my mom for mother's day. I really really want to go for a Triple Crown on p5s but, when I talked to my mom yesterday she was sad and tried not to show it. My brother had made plans to go on a kayaking trip because she never gets Mother's Day off as she works in retail. She said it wasn't a big deal but, I could tell. My mom and I don't have the best relationship...in fact for a long time, we had a very bad one. I guess I just feel like she's my mom, she's family, she's done a lot for me even with all her faults (and all my faults) we still love each other. It's going to be a big surprise to her. I even got my sister in law to buy some flowers so I will be able to surprise her at work (if my stinking flight ever lands!).

Secondly, the best part about heading home is seeing my lovies. I am so fortunate to have such great best friends. Although they don't understand the poker aspect of my life, they know me better than most. We have been best friends since high school and I think its rare that friendships last this long. We have all had our ups and downs but I can say through it all our friendship has stood the test of time. I think that people are really fortunate to even say they have one true friend. I have several (not counting friends that I have met through poker!). So, I feel truly blessed. I cannot wait to see my lovies!! I feel like such a schlub because I literally decided to go to Charlotte the day before and my poor lovies are scrambling around making arrangements to pick me up/go out to dinner etc and come in from out of town (on top of having real jobs haha). I also can't wait to kick it back with my brother and play lots of video games on xbox and wii. He keeps trying to talk me into getting the wii, but I know with my obsessive personality, it would not be good for me!

Unfortunately as I'm continuing my blog, we have just taken off from Atlanta over 1 1/2 late because of some weather issues in Charlotte. Blah. When I arrived in Atlanta, I hadn't realized how long I have been gone from the South. Everyone's accent made me smile! (I know I know, I have a Southern one too.) I ordered a sandwich close to my gate and was tickled pink they had sweet tea! It's totally standard for every place to sell sweet tea in the South, but after having done without for so long I was soooooo excited.

Anyway, I'm giving up a huge opportunity to get a triple crown my first week of playing mtts because I'm going to spend time with friends and family. I will only have one full tournament day when I return to try to make that TC. So far I have UB and Stars covered (which I hear Stars is hardest to win because of bigger fields) and I will try to make it at FTP or Bodog. I will be missing out on Sunday majors and ftops :( but spending time with friends and family is more important than anything else, especially if it makes my mom happy.

As a final note, I completely understand why mtt players get really burnt out. I haven't been eating or sleeping well this week and by the end of yesterday, I was really really worn out. I will have to make sure to take at least two days off a week since I want to do mtts full time. My friend Walter says that at least when I get back I will be fresh and ready to win that triple crown!

xoxo babes, glgl at the tables!

Haha had to make that subject line of the blog obv for dipthrong!

I'm soooo excited right now I can hardly type. Gotta try to crash so I can play FTOPS tonight woot.

Schedule as follows (so I don't forget mostly!):

FTP:
50k at 12:00
75k at 1:00
750k at 2:00
40k at 4:00
20r at 4:30
75k at 5:00

Lock/Cake
50k at 12:00
100k at 2:00
20k at 4:30

UB
30r at 12:00
200k at 2:30
20k DS at 5:00

Stars
Sunday Million
1/4 Million at 12:30
20k at 2:15

Bodog
Mini Main at 1:30
Poker Open at 5:30

Sick life. Wish me luck!!

So the tournament itself was sickly soft. I literally did not have to take any flips except two where I was pot committed anyway. Women are so LOL its not even funny. I hate to say it but I'm so fucking glad I am not like a chick in a lot of ways. WHO CRYS AT POKER?! CRYING IS NOT ALLOWED AT POKER. I was super pissed off when it got down to the final two tables (20 people left) and 18th pays. The women all decided that we should all contribute $30 so 19th and 20th gets something. WTF is that shit. Mega inducing tilt. I obv wasn't gonna do it. Are you joking me. Anyway, I was the only one who didn't want to do it. So finally I said, "Alright, I'll contribute since I don't want to feel like a HUGE dick." Yes, I said that ;) in front of grannies too. I was really life tilted from that. I mean I feel like it takes away from the bubble pressure.

During the actual tournament, I was really super card dead. I had to make things happen for myself. I never got above 25bbs. Everyone was either tight/passive or loose/passive. There were three women that were aggro preflop. There were SO many moments that I had the Phil Ivey face after Jennifer Tilly says to PA "I put you on KK." (I was super thrilled for my sunglasses mostly to hide those looks.) The hand that most deserved this look was a really super huge donk (she was defending with K2o if she hit any pair she'd just call down even if she hit two pair she never raised and never reraised pre) invested 14k of her 16k stack preflop and FOLDED the flop for 2k!!!! Yeah she never folded. My eyes had to be HUGE. I was thinking to myself OMG she's really gonna fold. OMFG. Ivey face for a good 5-10 minutes.

I also totally loved how most of the women were berating online players, one of them goes "Oh that young kid thats on High Stakes...what's his name Tom Dwayne?? Surely, he hasn't made as much money as say Jennifer Harman. NO ONE online has made as much money as these guys on the wall." (At Ceaser's they have pics of big names on the wall) I started to have a huge coughing fit as I was choking on my water at this point. I didn't see any of the live female pros that are big names and especially at the final table, I would bet my entire roll that I have made more at poker than any of them. I know that sounds arrogant but, I was really quite miffed they were saying online pros are bad.

I didn't bother saying I play online or that its all I do. I mean what's the point. Anyway, I entered the FT shortstacked with 9bbs. My AJ ran into AA ldo and I got knocked out. All those hours for a measly profit. I've been working super hard on my mtt game lately so I decided to come home and play more mtts. I won a bracelet race package from FTP yayayay!! I'm going to start out playing lower mtts because I know the variance is higher and I really need to learn them well. I know I've fixed quite a few leaks lately and need to fix more. So tomorrow I'm bribing my friend Walter (Jlizard who is a mtt sicko!) with free lunch anywhere so I can show him all my mtt hands and questions.

Well that's it for now, until next time....

XOXO babes :)

I'm going to start this blog out on a relatively sad note. I found out tonight that someone I knew from high school died from a morphine overdose. The saddest part is that she has 3 kids and the youngest, a new born baby, was found in her arms. I went to a big public high school and while I didn't know her well, she was a really pretty girl who hung out with the wrong crowd then. I guess in many ways, I am still rather shocked and really sad. I guess sometimes in my little sheltered world, I don't think that things like this happen. I wish the best for her close friends and family, they must be devastated.

Onto poker things, like I said in my last blog, I've been totally unfocused lately. Tonight after watching a few videos, going over HHs, I finally strung in a winning session. I was really focused tonight and made some way awesome plays! (Including triple barreling a passive fish but it was an amazing spot in my defense!) Of course, it also helped that I was playing HU deep with a guy that would call a 4 bet with J5ss (the nutz ldo). There are a quite a few things that I KNOW I was missing out on and part of the leak was playing too many tables and not picking up on these spots.

So the ladies event is tomorrow at Ceaser's. To prep, I watched Seabeast's entire 4 part video of the 750k and iweargoggles vid as well. I also took a look at the structure and while it is pretty shitty (starting 6k stack with blind increases every 45 minutes) antes kick in the 4th level. I think my biggest challenges will be keeping up with stack sizes and pot sizes. My eyesight is also horrendous so hopefully I get good seats!! Haha. I'm an old woman obv. A bunch of my friends keep pestering me to sell action. They are just jealous bc they can't play. ;) I'm also gonna go for the whole sunglasses look only bc I love my new Britney Spears (the ones she wore in Womanizer, not the exact ones but u get the drift) Bvlgari sunglasses.

Lastly, here's a video taken by my friends.


I literally laughed like a little hyena for a good minute or so. Great mental image right? Dodgy comes back soon woot, I can't wait!

I feel so scattered lately and I hate that feeling. It has totally leaked over to poker as well so I feel like my sessions the past few days have been very unfocused and extremely blah. (My results totally show it as well). I'm pretty pissed off at some of my poor plays tonight. I guess actual poker has really been one of the last things on my mind lately. I think I'm going to regroup and refocus tomorrow by watching a ton of videos and going over hands. (Also, cleaning my place! It's so much harder to keep my place clean picking up after two people instead of one haha).

Anyway, onto other things. Dodgy has gone off to visit one of his good friends Noel and will be back in a week. I miss him already! He and Nick have me totally excited for this summer. I wish I could fast forward time and get June here already. Sigh, but such is life. Also, the ladies WSOP event is this weekend and you all can be sure I'm gonna winnnn it!! :) Wish me luck babes.

Also, I found out I still rule at beer pong! Haha well kinda. There are some poker players that live in Vegas and they have a small $20 home game on Tuesdays. My friend John and I have been going and they are great guys...its so low key and really fun after the poker haha. (I can't take it seriously!) They taught me a new game (I guess its way past my college days now haha) called baseball beer pong. It was SO much fun and I totally rocked it!! http://www.lastcupstanding.com/baseball-meets-beer-pong I was the DD for the night since I had to get Dodgy home and get him to pack and on the flight to visit his friend so I guess my edge was massive haha. I used to be awesome at beer pong. I scored most of the runs on my team including an awesome grand slam (I think! if not pretty close right? :) ) where I got the home run with 2 outs and 2 strikes. Yay!! I think we ended the game 13-4 or something. Poor Dodgy didn't really understand since they don't have baseball in the UK. I need to work on my flip cup skillz tho haha.

I forgot to post some pics. First up is Dodgy and the doggies. How cute!



Then its us at Binion's. How cheeserrrrific!!



Lastly, I have a song in my head thanks to aejones' video. Damn him. I still worship him haha.



P.S. See even my blog entry is totally scatter brained and unfocused!

1) Dodgy's finally here! I've missed him tons and its been great hanging with him and eating out. He's getting me fat!! ldfjsalkfdjflsfjsal

2) The weirdest thing happened the first night he was here. I was on Skype with Nick and we were talking poker. All of a sudden (I'm not sure what spurred this), Dodgy asked me what Nick's last name was. He was said "Really? I know a Nick (insert weird last name here haha)! I went to school with him and he moved away when he was 11. I asked Nick (I know he told me in the past he had lived in England) and we all started voice chatting on Skype. Turns out Dodgy and Nick really did know each other in the past! How weird is that?!

Also, how weird is it that they wouldn't have known about each other if it wasn't for me. Dodgy had to be here and had to specifically ask me his last name. Such a weird series of coincidences. Anyway, the best part of the night was when Dodgy said "Omg, I can't believe that Nick plays higher than me. Rigged." Hahaha we all cracked up. This is all great because now Nick is super excited about coming to Vegas and Dodgy is excited about possibly coming back and meeting up.

Anyway, gotta run and meet up with more friends. Have a great weekend! xoxo babes

Credits to joshuadzl.

It continually amazes me the longer I play poker, the more I realize how much I need to learn. Contrary to what most people think (and actually, I could care less what haters think), I don't "talk" poker to the majority of my friends. Yes, I am friends with quite a few high stakes players but rarely do I talk poker with them. I always think its hilarious when people just assume I have someone sweating me the whole time. Get a clue seriously, no one good is going to watch me play 50k hands every month. So now that I got that off my chest....

So March was a good month $$ wise, but I really felt I was lacking in poker knowledge. Ugh. (Oh and I don't post graphs because it always seems to insta doomswitch me!) I finally was able to ask my friend Nick (who has been sick for awhile with strep. Get better soon babe!! xoxo) about some 2/4 hands. I was so glad to be able to ask someone about those hands. I am totally grateful and really need to work on my leaks. 1) I hate folding. Anyone who has played with me can attest to this. 2) Overvaluing hands. I mean this is really enough said. Anyway, I don't really want to get into strategy in my blog.

I made a new poker friend tonight to hang out with on Skype while grinding. Hahah yay! It so helps with the monotony of playing a million hands to just crack up and have fun, listen to music, send funny links etc. Brs23 on FTP whose game I had always respected at 2/4 and I started chatting at the tables and he just seems like an awesome dude!

As a side note, I used to talk to Ward a ton, but he's disappeared lately. I know there's a 2p2 thread about him scamming people and if that's true that's really sad. He had given me the impression that it was his money not from staking.

Anyway, I don't want to end this blog on a negative note so I'll just leave you with this hand (biggest pot I've ever won at 1/2 but not biggest pot ever won). Guy was a total fish. What a gift :)


Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 2: Villain 1 ($222.40) -
Seat 3: Villain 2 ($200)
Seat 4: Villain 3 ($845.30)
Seat 5: Villain 4 ($200) -
Seat 6: Hero ($756.90) -


PRE-FLOP:

Hero posts small blind $1
Villain 1 posts BIG blind $2
Dealt To: Hero


FOLD Villain 2
RAISE Villain 3 ($7)
FOLD Villain 4
CALL Hero ($6)
CALL Villain 1 ($5)


FLOP:

Pot: $21


CHECK Hero
BET Villain 1 ($16)
RAISE Villain 3 ($69)
RAISE Hero ($155)
FOLD Villain 1
RAISE Villain 3 ($838.30)
CALL Hero ($594.90)
UNCALLED Villain 3 ($88.40)


TURN:

Pot: $1536.8




RIVER:

Pot: $1536.8




SHOWDOWN:
Villain 3:

Hero:


Hero collected $1533.8 from main pot with a flush, Ace high

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $1 Rake: $3

Final Board:


Seat 2: Villain 1 big blind folded on the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-23)
Seat 3: Villain 2 didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 4: Villain 3 showed [2d Ah] and lost with two pair, Kings and Twos - Net Gain/Loss: ($-756.9)

Seat 5: Villain 4 button didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 6: Hero small blind showed [As Ts] and won 1,533.80 with a flush, Ace high - Net Gain/Loss: ($776.9)


Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

My friend Jason (NovaSky) came and railchatted after haha that was so sweet! I'm sure the other 1/2 regs were all jealous that such a supastar came to chat in the rail hahaha. Good start to April so far...let's hope it keeps going well!

In other news, Dodgy gets here soon. I can't wait. I'm so excited to see one of my best friends!

xoxo Babes, until then GL at the tables!