CARDRUNNERS

I haven't been posting much lately. I apologize.

Aruba was a fucking blast this year. I really love that island. It has a beautiful beach and just good times all around. I wish the resort was a bit bigger with some more stuff to do, but that's about my only complaint.

The tournament didn't go as well as I'd hope. I think I was a bit distracted to be honest. Last year I was just very excited to play a live event. This year that wasn't there. I kept thinking aobut last year where I sat inside for 3 days playing poker rather than being on the beach only to win 5k. Don't get me wrong, last year was an excellent experience, but in a way I kind of regretted getting so deep. I knew I missed out on all the island had to offer. That was always in the back of my mind during this year's tournament. I wanted to try to get a stack rather than grind away. I was never able to do that though. I never got over 15k. At the dinner break I had around 11k. After dinner I didn't win a pot until I was at 6k w/ 300-600 blinds. I opted to push AJo UTG. It was a pretty standard play IMO. A guy who I called the "old timer" called me. He had been killing me all day long. I probaylb would have had 10k more at dinner if it wasnt for him. He would limp call almost every raise I made preflop and then c/r the flop or turn. It was sick. I never had a hand to raise him back with either. Anyway, he called and turned QQ. All of us laughed b/c it seemed right that he'd be the one to take me out after all our confortations. The flop came KJx and I felt like I had a chance. After a J turn adn A river I was up to about 12 or 13k. I built it up to 15k but was down to 12k when my final hand came up. The old timer raised to 2k from the cutoff and a guy who had just sat called from the small blind. I was in the BB and looked down at AQo. It seemed like a good spot to squeeze so I pushed. The old timer folded but the sb decided to call with AA. Peace out muddy. I didn't make too many mistakes I just never got cards and as I said I maybe lacked some focus.

On to the gambling act. People are freaking out over this. I see no reason to and I even think that this could possibly be a good thing for all of us. That's right, it could be a good thing. I have read most of the threads on the bill so I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on the situation. First off, if Frist decides this is all the legislation he wants to pursue, thats a good thing. The orignal bill was much worse. This one only makes it illegal for banks to accept transactions for gambling. It doesnt make it so you can't plya or can't promote online gambling. I find it hard to believe that banks will comply 100% with this. Next, if neteller slides under the radar I'd say that not much will change at all. Most credit cards don't work for gambling as it is anyway. It will also take away the uncertainty. We have all been wondering for a long time what is going to happen, if this is it, thats not too bad. Of course, it could possibly completely dry up the games and online poker might be all but dead a year or so from now. Only time will tell. I feel optimistic. It isn't easy to shutdown a $12 billion industry.

That being said, I'm going to try to play as much as possible this next 6 months to a year. This bill could fuck up my plans for what I do after college, but if I can put away a lot in the next year, I might be okay anyway.

Taylor just wrote a long blog that sums up this week pretty good. I'd recommend checking that out if you want to know more about what we've been up to.

This year has been awesome. I definitely agree with Taylor that this year has been better than last year. I think mostly because this year we have friends from last year to hang out with and we don't have to meet all new people. Also, we have a few new people this year that have been hanging out with us that are really cool. One person we met this year is Jeneene Deeb. She's our age and shes really cool. We also have been hanging out with Amanda from pokerwire.com. She's also a lot of fun to be around. I gotta say that it's nice to have a few girls around. Last year it was always all guys and that gets a little old. We've also met some cool cardrunners guys and had some drinks with them.

I've played two sessions of poker and I'm up about 1500 or some from them. THe first one I played drunk 1/2nl and pretty much donked around. The second session I played 5/5nl and ran really well. Mkind caught the bad end of a couple of hands vs me. One hand we got allin preflop with his aces vs my jacks. I sucked out on the river. I didn't feel too bad though because he slowrolled me preflop. I also flopped a set against him that turned into a boat by the river. He had flopped a flush and just called all the way. Other than those two hands I didn't have any other really notable hands.

Tomorrow the tourny stars. I'm pretty excited and I feel good about my chances. I do have some HW to get done for school that I'm not sure when I will complete. I'll figure something out though. I'll make a post tomorrow with how I did.

So this is how people play omaha?

Hand #35084755-2673 at Syracuse (Pot Limit Omaha)
Started at 20/Sep/06 01:05:52

P__Dubb is at seat 3 with $2573.
muddywater is at seat 4 with $4909.
The button is at seat 4.

muddywater posts the small blind of $10.
P__Dubb posts the big blind of $25.

P__Dubb: -- -- -- --
muddywater: 3d 9c 5d 5c

Pre-flop:

muddywater raises to $75. P__Dubb re-raises to $225.
muddywater calls.

Flop (board: Tc 5s 2h):

P__Dubb bets $450. muddywater raises to $1800.
P__Dubb goes all-in for $2348. muddywater calls.

Turn (board: Tc 5s 2h 6h):

(no action in this round)


River (board: Tc 5s 2h 6h 7d):

(no action in this round)

Showdown:

P__Dubb shows 7c 9s Kc Td.
P__Dubb has 7c Td Tc 6h 7d: two pair, tens and sevens.
muddywater shows 3d 9c 5d 5c.
muddywater has 5d 5c Tc 5s 7d: three fives.


Hand #35084755-2673 Summary:

$.50 is raked from a pot of $5146.
muddywater wins $5145.50 with three fives.
----------------------------------------------------------------

I played for like 10 min today and stacked this guy twice on UB. PLO is treating me very well. I made a somewhat questionable call preflop here, but I knew if the flop hit me I could probably win his stack. Luckily, thats what happened.

Right now I'm trying to study for my Meteorology test tomorrow. It's very hard to concentrate on school this year. I want to do at least decent, but I don't have much reason to care about how my grades turn out. At least I'm taking two classes pass/fail and the others shouldn't be too difficult.

I'm really getting pumped for Aruba. It's coming up fast and I'm very excited. I plan on having a great time again this year.

I went to IU last weekend and it was awesome. I'd have to say it was one of the best weekends I've had in a long time. A bunch of us from High School all met up there. The reason we chose this weekend was because my friend who plays WR for Sothern Illinois was giong to be playing in the game vs IU. He never played much before this year, but has been getting a lot of playing time this year. We were all pumped to see him in action. We tailgated starting about 11am before the 4pm game. At UofI we don't really tailgate much because we mostly just go to the bars. It was nice to do some real tailgating. We had some trouble getting into the game but eventually found some student tickets and got in. We were sitting in the IU student section. The game was a high scoring game and was close most of the time. Phil (the WR) was playing the whole game but wasn't getting any passes thrown to him. Then in the 4th quarter when the score was 21-21 he finally got a look. We could tell he was the only one open so we all started to yell anticipating the throw. The QB threw to him and he was able to get into the end zone for his first college TD. It was one of the coolest experiences I've had in a long time. We all went absolutely crazy. It didn't take long for everyone around us to starting yelling sht at us. When we finally calmed down I looked around to see that the entire section was staring at us and screaming. They wanted to get us kicked out and we had to tlak to a police officer and convince her there would be no trouble. Phil's parents were there too. It was a huge day for him and I am really glad we were all there for it. Here's a great pic of him. http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/...otball_bls108&prov=AP

Anyway, back to poker. I wasn't going to play at all until I got back home or to Aruba. Last night I was studying some adn talking to stinger on aim. We got talking about PLO strategy and I decided I felt like playing PLO. The test I was studying for should be easy anyway...I hope. I sat down at some 5/10 and 10/20 PLO on stars and FTP. I ran crazy hot. I got from 2k to 13k at one table in less than 30 min. I first doubled through with a HUGE draw vs a set and hit and then chipped up so more. The other big stack at the table decided to bluff the river of a 77xxA board. I had A7. It was an easy call. Ship the 10k pot. The 10/20 played a little tough at times but I just ran really well. The 5/10 played ridiculously soft. I left the 5/10 table with a 5500 stack. I never got it in as anything but a huge favorite at that table. I had 16k and 8k stacks at the two ftp 10/20 tables when I left. I lost about 1k on stars, but whatever. I lost a 2k pot w/ AAxx vs AAxx allin preflop and lost another tough one that I forget. In the end I won a little over 20k. That gets me out of my downswing as I am now at my peak for the year. It's nice to have such a great session. I'll probably play some more PLO in the near future, but I'll likely mostly focus on 5/10. I'm not sure I'm really ready for 10/20 and it's easy to swing down hard if I run bad.

It was a crazy week this week. The last 3 nights we went out hard. Tuesday I went out for my 21st as I did wednesday and then last night we went out for my friend's 22nd. The interesting thing was that I was probably the most drunk last night. We went to an off campus bar that actually serves real drinks. The mixed drinks were stiff and the shots were big. The on campus bars generally have bullshit shots and weak mixed drinks. All three nights were a lot of fun. I'm ready to tone it down a bit though and get back into a normal schedule. I think tonight I'm actually going to play a poker tournament with some of my friends. They have asked me to play a few times, but I haven't played yet. I told them last time that I'd play the next time they had a game. I generally play pretty poorly in home games. I'm gonna try to play well tonight. I need to make some cash to keep up with my spending at the bars.

I played some poker today and ran well. I had AK win vs 55 allin preflop for a 5k pot. Samh113 also slowplayed a flop set against me and I filled up on the river with my pair of Queens. That was also a 5k pot. I played on stars, ftp, and ub. I lost on FTP like I always do. I haven't booked a win there in probably 2 months now. I think I'm going to quit playing there. It just doesn't seem to make much sense at this point. I also tend to play extra loose there. I'm sure that's part of the problem.

I think I'll try to get in a long party poker session tomorrow or maybe tonight if I don't end up going out. I'll probalby go out though.

I'm gonna post all of the pictures from the last few days right now. Same link should work to see them.