Tecmo vs The World

This is a collection of my favorite inspirational videos. This is mostly for me so I have them all in one place, but I still encourage you to watch them

“Think Different(ly)”

“You want more than you have now? Prove it.”

“You want something? Go get it. Period.”

“But it ain’t about how hard you hit… It’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward…how much you can take, and keep moving forward. That´s how winning is done.”

“If you are not making someone else’s life better, then you’re wasting your time.”

“Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.”

This man was a true inspiration.

This one is long, but worth it.

“What we do in life, echoes in eternity.”

So I’ve been backburnering part 2 of my Vegas 2011 trip report for so long now that I figured I would just post a bunch of pictures and be done with it for the most part. It is worth noting that my girlfriend, Meagan, came out during my 2nd week and we had an amazing time. We hung out at the pool and saw 3 different shows, including O, Mystere, and Jersey Boys. Surprisingly, the highly touted O was our least favorite and Jersey Boys, a show we only saw based on recommendations and the fact that it was playing in our hotel, absolutely blew us away. It also helped that we had VIP seating due to being guests at The Palazzo. If you enjoy Frankie Valli even in the slightest, then this show will be one of your favorites. However, if you are interested in a Cirque show, I’d recommend Ka or Mystere. O and Love were both good, but I enjoyed them less than the other two. That being said, many people think O is the best so I’d pick 2 if possible.

The other main activity in which we participated was EATING. And we ate A LOT. And it was YUMMY. The following will be an assortment of photos of the various food we consumed.

I’ve never liked running. Whenever we had to run in practice for whatever sport I was playing at the time, I dreaded every moment of it. It reminds me of baseball in that it takes a long time, is exceedingly boring, and the only thing that would make it better is some nachos and a hot dog. Ok, maybe I stretched that analogy a bit, but you get the point.

With that being said, I’m thinking about signing up for a 5k race. Makes sense right? Well, this isn’t a normal 5k. It’s called Run For Your Lives because THERE WILL BE ZOMBIES.

Per their website:

HOW IT WORKS

Run For Your Lives is an apocalyptic 5K obstacle race. But you’re not just running against the clock — you’re running from brain-hungry, virus-spreading, bloody zombies.

BASIC SURVIVAL

Before the race, you will be given a flag belt, just like the overly intimidating game of flag football. These flags represent your health.

The zombies want to take your flags and maybe eat your brains.

If you lose all your health flags, you die. And the zombies win.

Health bonuses will be hidden throughout the course. If you find one and carry it to the finish, it will save your life.

WHAT YOU’RE UP AGAINST

Throughout the 5K obstacle race, there will be 12 man-made and natural obstacles for you to complete. Runners may choose NOT to complete an obstacle, BUT any runner who skips an obstacle will not be eligible for prizes.

There will be zombies. Their job is to chase you and eat you — but mainly go after your health, in the form of your flag belt. Avoid the zombies to keep your health flags.

Use speed, strategy and your intact brains to make it to the FINISH LINE with at least ONE FLAG INTACT. If you finish with zero health flags, your time will be recorded, but you will not be eligible for awards.

HOW YOU’LL DO IT

There will be a start line, and a finish line, but what happens in between is up to you. There are multiple routes to reach the finish. Choose wisely, or your 5k might turn into a 10k.

http://runforyourlives.com/

Now in order to train for this event, I’m going to follow the “Couch to 5k” program (h/t Entity), found here. I play basketball regularly so I might skip the first few weeks as they seem pretty easy. It’s a 9 week program and I have 8 weeks until I need to be in zombie shape so that’ll work out nicely if I skip the first 2 weeks.

I imagine the zombies and obstacles will add a fun twist to things so I’m going to need to be ready for anything. That means I can’t just train to jog 3 miles. There will be climbing and sprinting and dodging and 3-man-weaving. Luckily, I’m also currently training hard at the rock climbing gym so I’ll just need to work on some sprinting to ensure I don’t run out of steam.

Speaking of climbing, I’m still improving my rock climbing skills. I attended the Renaissance Festival (more info here) last year and they had a climbing wall. It was $10 to climb and you get 2 tries. If you complete it, then you win $30. Now, I’m not too concerned with the financial aspects of it, but it is not an easy wall to climb and I made it my mission to train hard enough so that I could come back the following year and complete it. If you know anything about climbing, at that time last year I was just starting out and was climbing 5.6s/5.7s and maybe some V1s. I’m now starting to work on 5.10s and have done many V4s. PygmyHero climbed it last year and said it was probably a tough 5.10 so I’m making a final push in these last 2 months to train even harder. There is one big problem in that they don’t allow climbing shoes, but I’m going to give it a shot anyway

If I can manage to do well in the 5k and beat the climbing wall at the RenFest, then I will be very happy! At that point, the new Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Elder Scrolls games will be coming out so I can proceed to lose everything I trained for and just play video games and eat bon bons. Or keep training. Definitely one of those.

(h/t JoeTall)

With the NFL season approaching, it seems appropriate to remind everyone who Michael Vick really is. The following excerpts are from the book “The Lost Dogs,” by Jim Gorant.

One of the men comes towards the dogs. He grabs the one that had been in the rectangle with the little red dog and fastens the old nylon leash around her neck. He picks her up and carries her over to two trees that stand next to the two-story shed. The other man ties the leash to a two-by-four that has been nailed between the trees. Once the leash is secure, the first man boosts the dog a little further up and lets go.

For a moment, the dog lifts upward, her back arching and her legs paddling the air. Her head spins as she looks for the ground. Then her upward momentum peters out and she begins downward. Forty pounds of muscle and bone accelerate toward the earth. The rope pulls. The dog’s head jolts to the side and with a single yelp she is dead.

The other dogs in the yard spring to their feet; the ones that had been brought up from the clearing that morning, the ones that lived in the kennel, the ones inside the shed. They bark and howl and run back and forth, pulling at their leashes or bouncing off the walls of their enclosures.

Even as they do, the other man approaches a second dog, one that had been injured and that now lies meekly on the ground. He carries him to the bucket and then holds his back legs in the air. One of the other men takes the dog by the scruff of the neck and plunges his head into the water. The dog shakes and flails, splashing water out of the bucket, but he is unable to shake free and within a few minutes his body goes limp. He’s tossed into a wheelbarrow.

In all, four dogs get the bucket and four the leash, although not all of them are as lucky as the first dog. Some of them swing from the rope, gasping and shaking, eyes bulging, blood trickling from the corners of their mouths as they slowly strangle. Even when they are finally cut down, they are not quite dead, so they too have their heads stuck in the bucket.

If those passages made you uncomfortable, just imagine how the dogs felt.

As the little red dog lay on the ground fighting for air, Quanis Phillips grabbed its front legs and Michael Vick grabbed its hind legs. They swung the dog over their head like a jump rope then slammed it to the ground. The first impact didn’t kill it. So Phillips and Vick slammed it again. The two men kept at it, alternating back and forth, pounding the creature against the ground, until at last, the little red dog was dead.

I highly recommend watching the following videos (the first one is older, while the second is more recent):

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This year I booked a 2 week trip to Vegas. The first week was for poker & meeting/hanging out w/ poker peeps, and the second for hanging out with my girlfriend whilst eating tons of amazing food. Seems like a great plan to me! I flew out on Monday, June 27th and was particularly excited to finally use my sweet new headphones. I purchased a pair of Sennheiser PXC 450 NoiseGard Active Noise-Canceling Headphones on Black Friday (the Thanksgiving one) for ~$250 (they are normally $450) with the intention of using them at the poker tables and on airplanes. They have a fantastic “Talk-Through” button that allows for two options, noise-cancelled bliss with your music on or silenced music and amplified exterior sound. This means you can easily press the Talk-Through button and hear what is going on around you without removing the headphones. This is VERY useful at the poker table, not to mention on the plane when the pilot is making announcements.

In addition, I had received a year end bonus gift of an iPad from my part-time employer. In preparation for said flight, I rented the movie American Gangster on iTunes and downloaded it to my iPad. I don’t enjoy flying very much at all, but I was determined to make the experience as good as it could be! Armed with my noise-cancelling headphones, iPad, and movie, I was prepared to eat peanuts in style. It turned out to be one of the best decisions ever. I rented the extended version so as to take up as much of the 4.5 hour flight as possible, and the movie ran about 3 hours long. Not only was it a great movie, but it was 3 hours of bliss on a plane! Soooooo worth it. The guy next to me was watching something on his tiny iPod using his earphones and I’m right next to him watching a full-length movie on a giant screen w/ badass headphones haha. The flight actually ended up taking 30 mins less than estimated originally so that was a nice bonus too.

I landed and checked in at The Gold Coast. TGC is not the greatest hotel, but it’s cheap and right across the street from the Rio so it’s all good. If you’re looking to save some $ while still being near the WSOP, I definitely recommend it. Excited to play the WSOP Triple Draw event the next day, I unpacked, watched some TV, went over to the Rio briefly to check things out, and then went straight to bed to get some rest.

For a detailed report on the following two days of my WSOP event, check out the two posts below.

http://tecmopoker.com/2011/07/10/2011-wsop-triple-draw-day-1/

http://tecmopoker.com/2011/07/15/2011-wsop-triple-draw-day-2/

After playing the WSOP event, I had a busy day planned for Thursday, June 30th. The Deuces Cracked guys were having a trampoline dodgeball game for the Founders & Coaches, and they were gracious enough to invite me along as well. If you’re like me, you’re saying “umm, trampoline dodgeball? what?” But whatever, I knew we’d have a great time so I wasn’t going to miss it. Unfortunately it was at this place called Skyzone, which isn’t too far from the strip, but that necessitates a cab ride. If you don’t know anything about Vegas cabs, they pretty much attempt to longhaul you (take unnecessarily long routes to increase the fare, which contrary to its name, is far from fair) at every opportunity, so I knew it would be an expensive trip. Luckily, Matt Flynn, a buddy of mine who has written a couple of fantastic poker books (Professional No-Limit Hold ‘em: Volume I & Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em), was also invited so we split a cab. The driver inevitably longhauled us a bit, but we finally made it there. As a point of reference, SkyZone is 10 miles from the Rio, which is where we departed. The cab fare ended up being $60. Yea, ridiculous.

But I digress. We walk in to Skyzone and are greeted by Chuck aka Danzasmack, Jay aka KRANTZ, and Rob aka Entity. Knowing that Bryce aka NixonTheGrouch was going to be rooming w/ me for a short time in Vegas, Chuck, who had yet to meet Matt Flynn, assumed Matt was Bryce. Everyone then laughed at Chuck and informed him of his mistake. Granted, it was a totally logical assumption on his part, but we weren’t about to pass up the chance to laugh at him. Both Matt & Bryce agreed the other got the worst of that miscommunication, but I think Matt clearly took the ignorant end of that draw. We then looked around and realized we were surrounded by children….and arcade games….and possibly even a ball pit. Suddenly we became aware that this was not necessarily an adult activity. Undeterred, we waited for everyone else to show up. All told, we had ~25 people show up to play and DC reserved our own dodgeball section, meaning we could act as immaturely as we liked, while at the same time not being afraid of pegging some 10 year old in the head and subsequently feeling the wrath of tens of soccer moms. What ensued was an amazingly exhausting yet incredibly fun hour of nostalgic dodgeball with an added trampoline twist. See below for 3 epic videos (starring yours truly in the first) from that hour.

 

 

 

 
After an amazing time (thanks to DC!), I hitched a ride with John aka KasinoKrime back to my hotel, along w/ Matt Flynn and Janis aka shuttle. My buddy Bryce and his friend Rachel were flying in that night to stay w/ me for a few days so I showered and got some dinner at The Gold Coast buffet. (I’ll be making a future post dedicated to reviewing the food in Vegas so I’ll save my opinions + pictures for that one.) Bryce & Rachel arrived while I was eating so I finished up quickly thereafter.

That night was the DC Home Game (annual event where DC employees and members all get together and play poker for fun) at the Aria and we started to make our way over there. Instead of cabbing it, we decided to take the free shuttle to the strip and walk the rest of the way. While cheaper, that turned out to not be the best decision. We ended up taking a Homeward Bound-type journey around the back of the Aria, at one point traversing on roads without sidewalks & dodging cars via the median, but nevertheless we eventually found a door that lead to the actual casino. (Vegas Tip – If you don’t know how to get somewhere, it might be worth it just to pay the extortive cab fare.) Once inside, we stumbled our way into the tournament poker area and finally found the rest of the DC dudes.

I greeted many people, including Aaron Wilt aka WiltonTilt, Jared Kenworthy aka jk3a, & Aaron Gerdes, whom I met at the dodgeball game. Jared had quite a bit to drink and was a wee bit drunk (understatement) He introduced me to his buddy, the Doctor, who seemed like a cool dude. Then about 5 minutes later, Jared introduced me to the Doctor again. Then about 5 minutes later, again. And again. Did I say a wee bit drunk?
 

 
They passed out some free The Micros shirts at the Home Game and I snagged a sweet yellow one, along with a new DC shirt.
 

 
We ended up playing a mix of Badugi, 2-7 Triple Draw, Razz, Omaha 8, and Crazy Pineapple which was a lot of fun (except for Razz obviously). I met Danielle Andersen aka dmoongirl, who is one of the main characters of the upcoming poker documentary BOOM, along with Lana, the marketing director for poker training site CardRunners. Both were super nice and super bad at these particular games haha. I ran into both of them multiple times throughout my trip and they seemed very cool. (I’m sure once you get to know them, their TRUE personalities come out though ) Hope to see them again next year!

Here is the trailer for Boom if you haven’t seen it yet:
 

 
So yea, we played that mix for several hours and I finished down a bit. Luckily, DC coach TerryFan was playing PLO at the table next to us and I booked some of his action. He won a good amount too! Unluckily, I only booked 1%, which resulted in me looking over every so often and seeing him raking in a pot, then I’d walk over and he’d toss me a $1 chip

All in all, it was a great time and I’ll wrap up part 1 of this trip report with a video from the Home Game.
 

The time had come. Day 2 was here. Considering how well things went on Day 1, I decided to stick to my routine. I slept in as much as I could after being up until ~3:00 am the night before, but I found I couldn’t sleep past 10:00 or so. The excitement of playing Day 2 with a healthy amount of chips prevented me from laying around too much. I showered and decided to go with room service waffles again We would begin playing at 3:00 pm, so in the meantime I called a few people and updated them on my progress in the tournament, in addition to just relaxing and preparing myself for yet another long day. When you’re used to playing ~90 minute online sessions, playing for 8 to 10 hours live is actually pretty exhausting. I’m not going to go so far as to say it’s hard per se (I mean, you’re just sitting there playing cards), but there is definitely a period of acclimation.

Before I knew it, the time had come to head on over to the Rio. I found my table and walked around for the last bit of time I had left, knowing I’d be sitting on my butt for extended periods of time. Before the tournament started, I got a quick scouting report on a few players at my table. Unsurprisingly Jason Mercier was deemed a tough player, Hooman Nikzad was apparently a decent nit, and Jared Bleznik had too much gamble in him to play well at all times.

Eventually we got started and these reports all turned out to be pretty much spot on. Jared played decent, but made several mistakes from just spewing too much. When Mercier called him out on it (in a friendly manner), he just said, “man, it’s only $2,500, and it’s LIMIT! Who the fuck cares?” Needless to say, I was happy he was on my direct right.

As the day went on, I was pretty stagnant. I’d lose some chips, then win a couple pots here and there. I managed to bluff Mercier after he had been the aggressor in position throughout the hand. We both drew 1 on the 3rd draw and I had seen many pairs up to that point. My 3rd draw resulted in yet another pair, meaning it was less likely that Mercier made a hand, so I donked into him and he begrudgingly folded. For those familiar w/ Triple Draw, I made 5 #1s on Day 1, along w/ several other 7s. On Day 2, I was forced to win pots by getting creative or by making rough 8s when I wasn’t bricking. I was way above average to start the day, and gradually my stack became slightly below average as the blinds went up.

Eventually, people starting busting from our table. Galen Hall came over and sat to Mercier’s left. A kid with a ton of chips sat in between Mercier and me. He noticed my Deuces Cracked hoodie and said, “I hope you’re just a member and not a coach.” Somehow in a very short amount of time, Mercier took about 75% of his chips and I took the rest. Fortunately, he was replaced by one of the aggressive fish from my Day 1 table. Hooman was knocked out and replaced by online high stakes Triple Draw crusher, Oogee. I eventually busted Bleznik on my right, who was replaced by Eugene Katchelov. Numerous people were coming and going, but Mercier and I remained. My stack was still going up and down for the most part. I’d play a pot vs Mercier and lose. Then, I’d play vs someone else and win. It turns out that it is much easier to win a pot vs someone who doesn’t have insanely good luck.

Speaking of Mercier’s rungood, at one point right before I busted Bleznik, a very attractive blonde girl who could have been a Playboy bunny was watching our table from the rail. Bleznik silently signaled her presence to Mercier and all of us took notice. The guy who was standing near her eventually whispered something to her and pointed at Mercier. She walked over and tapped him on the shoulder, asking “are you Jason Mercier?” He told her he was, and she began rattling off the most bizarre string of questions you’d never expect.

How are you doing?
Is this a cash game?
Oh is this a last longer?
Do you still blog?
When was the last time you blogged?
How come you don’t blog anymore?
Would you mind if I interviewed you?

They walked away briefly, returned, and Mercier continued playing. Bleznik just looked at him with disgust, “You lucky son of a bitch. You run so damn good.”

After the table had a good laugh about it, including Galen mentioning the extremely weird questions, we all got back to playing poker. Shortly afterward, I busted another top pro.

Greg Raymer took Katchalov’s place which was pretty cool. He and Mike Sexton are the 2 nicest guys in poker so it was a joy playing with him.

After stacking Katchalov, I was back up to around an average stack. As opposed to Mercier’s famous chip castles, I went with the Great Wall motif.

Meanwhile, as per usual, Mercier was running hotter than Chase Berger in a donkament. Don’t get me wrong, he was playing well, although some of his fundamentals could use some work, but it’s hard to make many mistakes when you’re drawing 3 and patting after the first draw. He started the day with 20k in chips, while I started with 40k. After a few hours, I was around 35k and he was well over 100k, getting closer and closer to 200k. I managed to win a big multi-way pot against him at one point when I binked a good 9 on the 3rd draw, but that was one of the few pots he lost that day. In fact, PokerNews even posted the following update:

One of the rare pots he loses happens to be against a short-stacked Galen Hall lol. Speaking of Galen Hall, no disrespect, but that guy has no idea how to play Triple Draw. He was definitely one of the soft spots at the table, and could be heard talking to his friend on the rail every so often asking for further strategy advice. Really nice guy, but even he would admit that this wasn’t his game.

Play continued into the night and soleztis aka TJ showed up to sweat the remaining DC guys in the event. It was really nice having him, everyone on Twitter, and everyone on Facebook cheering me on as I got closer and closer to cashing. It was especially nifty to see the random collection of people who were actually interested. Many were following my progress via WSOP.com or PokerNews.com. Their support made the experience a ton of fun.

As play continued, the blinds were getting bigger and bigger and I needed to start getting some hands. I got into a couple big pots, and even attempted a big bluff, but nothing was working out. Once you get deep into a limit tournament, if you make it all the way to the end of a hand and lose, it gets pretty devastating. I bricked out on all 3 draws a couple times and was left with a short stack.

At this point, there were ~35 people left, and 30 people cashed. I knew all I needed was to win 1 or 2 pots and I’d be fine since any pot was big relative to the stacks. I picked my spots carefully and did my best to not make any mistakes at this critical juncture, but ultimately my fate would be decided by the next hour’s level of luck. I was making 7s left and right on Day 1, but only managed to make 1 7, a #4, on Day 2. This left me struggling to find the smallest of edges to win any chips.

Eventually, as I watched the giant TV monitor displaying the current tournament stats, the number began to fall. 34 people left. 33 left. 32. 31…

Unfortunately, while the number of entrants were falling, so was the number of chips in my stack. I tried to hold on as long as I could, but the following PokerNews updates sum up my final hour.

1 away from the money. My first goal was to make it to Day 2 and I did that and then some. My second goal was to cash and I came ever so close. It was surprisingly heartbreaking to bubble the money, especially considering I’m just a recreational player who had to scrap and claw to even get the chance to play in this tournament. Not to mention the fact that my previous 6 months of studying and playing put me ahead of most of the field in terms of skill (such as Galen Hall, who would go on to finish 12th). But alas, it was not meant to be. Luckily, a fellow Deuces Cracked guy was able to cash, as he finished in 21st. He’s one of the best Triple Draw players in the field and definitely deserved it, although I’m sure he wanted much more than 21st.

Overall, the experience was fantastic. I got the chance to play a game I love, which isn’t taken for granted now that I can’t play it online. In addition, I got to play with some top pros, even busting a few. I accomplished my goal of making it to Day 2. And to top it all off, having the support of so many people was ultimately what made it an experience to remember.

I’ll be back next year for sure, hopefully with an even deeper run and much less Jason Mercier.

At the end of 2010, I began playing Triple Draw online. I was tiring of NL Hold’em and quickly learned how much I enjoyed its polar opposite, 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball. For whatever reason, I instantly loved the game and began studying it. The freshness of a new game allowed my enthusiasm to flow as it had back in the early 2000s, when I was buying & reading every poker book I could get my hands on. Poker was less of a grind when playing Triple Draw and it reminded me that it was in fact still a game.

Games are supposed to be fun. I’m not a pro poker player and don’t rely on my poker income to pay the bills. It’s important to remember that when you are playing this game. Sure, my goal has always been to use my poker winnings to start my own charity, but in the words of Van Wilder, “You shouldn’t take life too seriously. You’ll never get out alive.” The same goes for poker.

So as I continued to play and learn Triple Draw, I began eyeing the Triple Draw event at the World Series of Poker. Every year for the past 3 years I’ve gone out to the WSOP to play some poker, hang out with friends from all over the world, and just have a great time. Last year I played my first ever WSOP event in a $1,000 NLHE tournament. That ended relatively quickly when KK lost to 56o on a 55x board. I quickly realized that the $1k events simply weren’t a great value. Sure, the players are horrible, but you start with so few chips that it’s hard to build a stack without running hot early. Twas a disappointing beginning to my WSOP career and I decided that my next foray would need to be in a higher buy-in event where you received more chips.

Enter the $2500 Triple Draw Event. Now, this was still a large amount of money for us “normal folk” so even though I wanted to play in it, I had to find some people to stake me in order to help cover the costs. I eventually was able to sell roughly 2/3 of my action, which allowed me to pay for the rest with a portion of my poker bankroll. In preparation, I continued to play Triple Draw cash games online, and even entered several Triple Draw tournaments, with fairly decent results. I was excited to play in a few bigger buy-in online TD tournaments in April and May to help me gain experience and also hopefully pay for the trip! Things were moving along nicely and I was learning more and more. That is…..until Black Friday.

April 15, 2011. Dubbed “Black Friday” by the poker community (not to be confused with the day of wonderous shopping deals), this was a day that will live in infamy in the poker world. The 3 major online poker sites were essentially shut down for Americans on this day by the Department of Justice as a result of bank fraud and money laundering charges, among other things. I won’t go into detail about it here, but suffice it to say that Black Friday threw a large wrench in my WSOP plans. No longer would I be able to continue improving, practicing, and studying TD online. Instead, I was forced to either cancel my plans to play the WSOP event or do the best I could with the work I had already put in. After mulling it over, I realized that even without further practice, I was still going to be one of the better TD players to sign up. Not many people have the fundamentals of TD down and the game is far less evolved than NLHE.  With that realization, I stayed the course and continued to do what I could to study the game away from the table.

Fast forward to June 27th. I fly out to Vegas and start mentally preparing myself for the next day. June 28th was the day I had been awaiting. I was both excited and a bit nervous as I slept that night. Excited for obvious reasons, knowing that I worked hard and was ready. Nervous because this was still only my 2nd WSOP event ever, and my first live TD tournament. Regardless, I actually slept pretty well and awoke early, still pretty much on east coast time. I worried that I woke up too early as the event didn’t start until 5pm and we’d be playing into the morning of the next day, but I was pretty sure adrenaline would take care of any onsetting drowsiness. I opted for room service that morning and selected one of my favorites, waffles with peanut butter! It probably sounds weird, but if you love peanut butter like me, you should definitely try it.

After a delicious meal that included strawberries and whipped cream, I called a few people to inform them the event would be starting soon, then headed over to the Rio. Soon enough, the time had come. I took my seat and didn’t know a single person at my table. I suspected this was a good thing, but you never know with Triple Draw. Many big name pros are pretty poor at this game so it would have been cool to at least play with someone famous (and subsequently take their chips). Meh, not a big deal. I whipped out the Deuces Cracked Duck in hopes that it would provide some luck and prepared to play to the best of my ability. My goal for the day – make it to day 2.

As the day went on, I was running pretty well, playing well, and spotting many, many mistakes in my opponents’ games. It was pretty clear that 4 out of the other 5 people at my table had no formal training in the game and I was obviously thrilled. The one other guy who seemed competent was directly to my right. I couldn’t have asked for a better table and was able to stay away from mistakes for the most part, make several great hands, and chip up throughout the day. At one point, I started to get low in chips, but luckily I got a rush of cards and built a big stack toward the end of the day.

An interesting side-story that developed during the latter half of the day was a back-and-forth I had with Doyle Brunson via Twitter. In order to avoid boredom during slow times and keep those interested in my progress up to date, I was constantly tweeting updates and reading the tweets of others. While reading, I saw that Doyle posted the following tweet:

To which I responded, “Don’t you mean the poker sites who broke the law?”

Turns out he wasn’t a fan of that response as he proceeded to tweet the following two messages:

I thought that blocking me for voicing an opinion was a bit of an overreaction, and it turns out many others did as well. Soon thereafter, many more people started following me on Twitter Doyle responded by tweeting the following:

So all in all, just a funny little side story to spice up my day. A few days later, I actually saw him playing in the 50k Player’s Championship Event and he was near the rail. My friend Bryce convinced me that not introducing myself would have been a mistake and I agreed eventually. When the opportunity arose, I introduced myself as TecmoSuperBowl from Twitter and he surprisingly remembered my name. He laughed, shook my hand, and just said that he was in a bad mood that day. Doyle is a living legend in the poker world, and he also seems like a cool dude.

Getting back to my Triple Draw tournament, with less than an hour of play left for the day, my table broke and I was moved to a new one. A Deuces Cracked Triple Draw coach and buddy of mine, Vincent aka soepgroente, was seated at this new table. I obviously wasn’t happy about having to play against another good player, but I had position on him, he didn’t have many chips, and the day was ending soon anyway. I managed to win a hand against him and before I knew it, we were bagging up our chips for the night! I made it to day 2!

310 people entered the tournament, 105 survived to make it to day 2. I finished the day with 39,400 chips, which was good enough to put me in 12th place. Not bad for my first TD tournament and 2nd WSOP event ever!

Shortly after day 1 ended, they posted the new table draws for day 2. The good news was that I was the clear chip leader at my table. The bad news was that I had Jason Mercier, one of the hottest players on the circuit, on my left. Jared Bleznik, a high stakes online player, was also at my table, but I was happy to see him directly on my right.

I accomplished my goal of making it to day 2. Now it was go time.

The latest Episode of Badugi All-Stars is up!

http://tinyurl.com/badugi

http://badugi.nixonthegrouch.com

Episode 6: One Night Of Pleasure – Guest: Mitch

Your hosts ramble about putting money on Merge, Hellmuth’s shot at bracelet #12, and Tecmo’s pleasure withdrawal. The guest is Mitch, the resident no content poster of Deuces Cracked.

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In other news, we’ve been fostering a 2 year old lab named Jake for a couple months. We’ve had a couple bites, but no takers thus far. If you or anyone you know is looking to adopt a dog, then please let me know. His previous owner in Georgia died and left him and several other dogs unattended. A great lady named Marcie in Tennessee helped him and sent him up to us in Maryland. Jake had lived outside his whole life and didn’t even understand what toys were when we gave them to him. Now he loves toys, ESPECIALLY tennis balls, and he’s perfectly house-trained and crate-trained! Here is his petfinder page:

http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/19153283

In addition to Jake, Marcie has helped saved many, many other dogs. One dog she is currently helping is Bella, a beautiful shiba inu mix. Bella was found on the side of the road and is extremely friendly and sweet. Marcie has yet to find a foster home for her so Marcie has been boarding Bella with her local vet. Unfortunately, her husband got laid off yesterday With a baby on the way in the near future and 3 dogs of her own, in addition to boarding costs increasing soon, things are stressful to say the least for Marcie. Again, if you or anyone you know is interested in adopting her, PLEASE let me know. Here is her petfinder page:

http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/19788872

If you can help find homes for either of these wonderful dogs (or are interested in fostering Bella), contact me ASAP @ tecmo@deucescracked.com. At the very least, please spread the word!

 

I’m currently preparing for my Vegas trip in 10 days! Studying up on some triple draw as best I can, hosting my mixed game tomorrow night, and trying to decide my rough itinerary. I’m going out from June 27th until July 8th, with my girlfriend meeting me out there on July 4th. I’m playing the WSOP Triple Draw event on the 28th and plan on crushing that for a few days. Final table will be streamed on the interwebz so I’ll be sure to let you know when that airs Also, if you’re in Vegas, stop by the Rio and say hello. I’ll likely be rockin’ some DeucesCracked gear or my QB Bills NFL jersey.

I’m staying at the Gold Coast for the first week, then the Palazzo for the 2nd week. I haven’t fully decided my plans, but they are sure to include relaxing poolside w/ my girlfriend, eating tons of good food (pictures to come obv), the WSOP event, the DC Home Game @ the Aria, grinding some NLHE and mixed cash games, maybe trying 1 of the Rio deepstack tournies, hopefully seeing O @ the Bellagio, and possibly playing the Venetian deep stack on July 1st. Hopefully I can make a deep run in at least one event and hit a big score. If you’re interested in a small piece of my action in the $550 Venetian NLHE event, let me know. I’m not entirely sure I’m going to sell pieces for it, but I might if someone really wants a sweat. My buddy just got back from Vegas and I knew he’d be playing several $200-$300 NLHE tournaments so I booked 10% of all his action. He cashed twice and I made the easiest $100 ever

So yea, excited for two weeks off from work, dreams of big $ big $, and hopefully no whammies.

And just in case I do encounter some whammies, I’ll be sure to follow this kid’s lead: