Disclaimer

While I truly wish the below post were reality, it is a work of fiction for a contest someone announced today.

2008 Aussie Millions Poker Championship Report

I've taken a lot of criticism about even being here but I don't consider it lucky. Sure I blew my entire bankroll on Full Tilt chasing a dream to play in the Aussie Millions but I have had the vision of being here for months now.
It all boiled down to the final Big Game. I got in with my last 24+2 token after going through my entire bankroll buying in to the other events. I shook off all the nervousness and pressure and prepared for the game.
The cards hit me early and I chipped up knocking out blogger after blogger and I found myself at the final table with 5 players left when this hand happened. I was dealt 7h 2s in the small blind. I had a slight chip lead and raised "the hammer" with an authoritive 4 times the blind bet. The next player min-raises me and EVERYONE at the table calls back around to me. I reluctantly call. The flop is Jc 10c 2c and we all check. The turn is the 2 of hearts and the small blind pushes all in with a small stack. We all call. The river is the last 2 in the deck and I push all in with my Hammer Quads. AA, KK, set of jacks all call and the small blind shows his flopped ace high flush first. My Hammer Quad is reavealed and the chat box goes out of control.
It was a miracle hand of poker and I was in the Tournament of Champions.
The Tournament of Champions was the toughest blogger tourney field I have ever faced. The pace of the game changed at lightning speed with each orbit. I stayed relatively tight during the craziest moments and made it to the final table with a little less than average stack.
We fought for what seemed like the entire night and before the sun came up I was qualified for the Aussie Millions and had just enough time to shower and go in to work.

Arriving in Australia, Mrs. Surf hugged my neck and told me that this was the trip of a lifetime no matter how I did in the tournament. I looked her deeply in the eyes and knew she meant it. I never thought I would be in Australia and this past week has been like a dream come true.
The tournament has went very well and I'm heading in to the final day and the final table with the chip lead and a guarantee of being able to help my parents retire in comfort.

To all of my friends and family reading this, I thank each and every one of you for supporting me and I can't wait to see you all. Becoming and being a member of the poker blogging community has been fantastic and I wish you all could be here with me today and I hope someday you all get to experience what it feels like to final table the Aussie Millions!!!

I Don't Want To See This

Mrs. Surf and I were relaxing and having a nice conversation on our patio last night when suddenly a familiar sound occurred. We live on a bad curve and about once or twice a month you hear someone not quite make the turn and hit the curb or the subdivision sign across the street or if they double correct they flip and lay up against the house across the road.
This was a little worse. There was a Spack.... a grunt.... sparks...... a loud "PoW"...then a Boom!!!
I knew it was bad before I made it around the house. I shouted over my shoulder for her to call 911 and I hurried to try to help thinking the whole way that the car must be on fire.
When I got around the house there was no car. There was a motorcycle and it was slammed in to an unforgiving stop sign that held it's ground. The rider was not near the bike.
"I don't want to see this" was all I could think when suddenly I saw him. He was walking back up the hill towards his bike. Wow....walking. I asked him if he was Ok and he said "Yes". I told him he might want to sit down but he declined and came on up to the bike. He had some bad cuts and he looked like he had been on the losing end of a 12 round boxing match but he was very lucky.
His family came and got him after the police were convinced that he really was OK.

I pieced together the noises and I think they were:
Spack: Bike hits curb
Grunt: Rider hits ground
Sparks: Obviously the bike scraping the pavement
Pow: Bike hitting the pole
Boom: This I am unclear on but I think the rider hit the neighborhood brick wall sign across the road from the sign.

A friend of mine's brother got killed on this curve. There was another bike that lost it a few months ago as well and he was super lucky. He flew in to the woods and emerged very dizzy but OK as well.

I feel unprepared to handle the situation every time it happens and have no idea what to do to change that.

Thank God he was OK.

Mr. Glass and BBT2 Kickoff

A few months back I went with a friend to help him shop for a new laptop. We went a few places and the service was really horrible. You have to wonder how they stay in business with the customer no-service they provide.
We finally stopped at a place and had a very pleasant experience thanks to Mr. Glass. He was very service oriented and we were soon on our way with a new laptop. I was so impressed by Mr. Glass that I played a big role in getting him hired at the company where I work.
It turns out that Mr. Glass was a blue chip prospect pitcher in high school and college but unfortunately suffered a few setbacks with arm injuries and had to give up pitching.
He likes to play poker and I invited him to come with me to Kaja's with me for a little tournament. BrainMc was there along with many of Kaja's regular crowd. I hit a few monster hands early on but got little action with them. Mr. Glass I noticed was accumulating a huge stack at the other table.
When we moved to the final table, I was a below average stack. I managed to get back in good shape but bubbled out in 4th. Mr. Glass finished in a very respectable 2nd place. Many thanks to Kaja for hosting.

The BBT2 kicked off last night on Full Tilt. I started out well then went card dead for about an hour but managed to stay around 3,500 or so when a very interesting hand developed.
I was holding pocket sixes in early position and limped in. Tripjax called from the button, Cracknaces called from the small blind and Lucko checked. The flop comes 3 6 8 rainbow. Both blinds check and I decide to bet the pot to disguise my set figuring with three players in the hand with me I will get a caller so I fire out 480. Tripjax surprises me and re-raises to 1,300. Cracknaces, not to be outdone, raises it yet again to 2,330 and all in. I don't see any way I'm getting away from my set here so I wait a few seconds and call leaving about a grand behind. Tripjax calls as well and he is all but in with 75 chips remaining. The turn is a 9 and I go ahead and put Trip all in. He calls and we all flip up. I have a set, Cracknaces has A 8 for TPTK and Tripjax has 7 8 suited which has now developed in to an open ended straight draw. The ten hits on the river and Tripjax wins a huge pot.
That knocked me way down but I managed to hang in for another hour building back up to about 4k before i made a terrible play against Buddy Dank giving him no credit for the good hand he held.
A little bad luck and a little bad play ended my chances and I will have to wait for the next one. This is a great series of tournaments with a tremendous prize package going to the winner.
Congrats to Jeciimd for winning the Big Game last night!!

Best of luck at the tables this week everyone!!!

Tagged Once Again

I've been tagged once again in the latest edition of "Tell Us Some Shtuff About You". I'm sure my list will be nowhere near as interesting as some people's but here goes:

1) I'm a little too neutral. Ask anyone that thinks they know me about my political views or which sports team or even which sport I like the most and they will suddenly realize they have little or no idea.

2) I have a baseball card collection. I have no idea what I am going to do with it but it fills a lot of space.

3) I've lost almost 50 pounds since January and plan on losing 50 more before next summer.

4) I have several friends in the music business. One of them tried to "discover" me as a stand up comic and called me onstage thinking I would tell a few jokes. Instead I got the band to crank up a good Aerosmith song and I belted it out while he stood there wondering what in the world was happening. He has left me alone since then.

5) My graduating class from high school has 1 person in it; me. I finished school in an odd way. After changing high schools a few times I graduated after summer school. I was in an 11th grade homeroom that year so I had no senior year. I really miss not getting to be a part of a graduating class as I have no reunion to go to.

6) I do not trust school teachers. When I was in school I took a creative writing class and a teacher encouraged us to write something that we had very strong feelings about. She assured us it would be kept confidential and we should feel free to write whatever we want. I did and she entered mine in a contest contest and it won and was published in the newspaper.

7) I'm an organ donor. My best friend went blind, had limbs amputated and then died waiting on organs and if I can help someone to not go through what he went through I will gladly do it.

8) I love to play guitar. I sold most of my guitars a while back and I really want a new 12 string acoustic. If I win a big poker tournament it will be the first thing I buy for myself.

9) I can say/sing (take your pick) the alphabet backwards in under 5 seconds. This one is great for prop bets.

10) I enjoy playing poker. ( I know you already know this but I have to go and I can't think of anything else right now, lol )

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's all I can say about what AlCantHang just posted regarding Battle of the Boggers Part 2.
I will definitely be giving this my best shot!

6 Hours and 6 Minutes

Wheeeeeeeeeee!!!
I made it to 29th of 1,337 in the Blogger Championships and won an I-Pod!!!
Thanks to everyone who came by the table and wished me well. I really appreciate it!!!

PE is Hosting a Razz Tourney

FTOPS Event #1 Here I Come!!!

I took Hoy's advice and played the 10 buck re-buy to qualify for the FTOPS Event #1 and made it on my first try. Thanks Hoy!!!!

$75 Token

I played a qualifier for the Monday 1K with my $75 token. There were 20 entrants. 1st got an entry and 2nd-4th won a little cash. Hoyazo was at my starting table. He got off to a good start while I became shorter and shorter as the players at our table kept re-raising my hands and forcing me out of pots. I was forced to tighten up as I found myself below 500 in chips early on. I would double up only to see the blinds knock me back down time and again. I finally got a little traction on a very lucky hand where I shoved with pocket tens and ran in to AA only to hit two more tens and get back in the game. Wheeeeee!!!

I missed the hand that crippled him, but somehow Hoy had gotten fairly low in chips. He and I wound up in a hand together and he shoved when I held the low end of a straight. He didn't have enough to push me out so I made the call and eliminated him.

I managed to make the final table as a very short stack where I stayed tight, picked my fights and battled my way to 4th place and $64; a lot better finish than it looked like I was going to have. Oh well, my dream of playing in the 1K this Monday night didn't come to fruition but I believe I will be in one soon.



Best of luck at the tables this week everyone!!!

Running Good

I'm running pretty good this week. I placed 2nd in The Mookie last night. Big congrats to AlCantHang for taking it down.

I also won a $75 token which I plan to use to take a shot at qualifying for the Monday 1k.

I played the 28K guaranteed tonight and stayed tight for 2 and a half hours after getting crippled about 40 minutes in to finish in 83rd of 1,065. I never got back to an average stack in the last couple of hours and just hung in there as others dropped out. I hit AA and KK each once but got little action with them. One table I was at was hyper-aggressive and I couldn't make any moves because they were not folding and I wasn't getting anything playable. A couple of good hands at that particular table and I would have had a great chance of going a lot further.
I plan to play this tourney more often. I seem to do pretty well when I play it.

We interrupt this post for an important service announcement.
Please use link below for important information.
Colonoscopy and You


Good luck at the tables this week everyone!!!

W.B.C.O.O.P.

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 5841710

The Math and The 28k

I'm playing The Math and The 28k guarantee on Full Tilt tonight.
I had a good run at a 3/6 limit table earlier today.