CARDRUNNERS

Ok so today I woke up to hear that z won 260k in the 3-6 game, and I had a small piece so I was super happy to wake up to the good news. I was planning on waking up early and working out, but I slept till like 11 and Phil and I went to go to the bellagio buffet but it was packed, so we went to snacks and got some sandwiches. Everyone I know was still in the tourney, so I came back to my room to putter around for a bit.

I really didn’t know what to do with myself for the next few hours, so I played a few plo hands and shipped 4k or something, people play really terrible, and I need to start playing more again, but I have just been so lazy lately and haven’t really had the desire to play a lot, but ya games are definitely still good so I have no excuses at all really.

I quit pretty quick because I got numerous offers for HU dota action, which I will pretty much never turn down, so I played a few games then decided I had been lazy long enough, and headed to the gym. I got in a pretty good workout, and even had a pretty sweet highlight towards the end. One of the ab machines next to me some older guy was using it and he was a bit hefty to say the least, and as he was crunching up, it COLLAPSED and completely fell apart. This is at the pay 25 bucks to use the weight room bellagio weight room, so normally this stuff doesn’t happen, and I had to stop mid set because I couldn’t stop laughing. I felt really bad and tried to help him up but he was too embarrassed.

After all the tourney stuff was done a bunch of us went to nobu again, and we had a fantastic dinner. I always feel pretty gross after nobu because I eat entirely too much and completely ruin all the healthy eating habits I have built up recently, but its ok because its amazing and not the worst thing to do on occasion I suppose. Raj ended up losing the CC roulette, so that was a definite plus as well. He was complaining the whole time about doing CC roulette because he knew he was going to lose. Self fulfilling prophecy it seems.

Not a whole lot going on today, I’m hanging out with phil z and his girlie person in our room and everyone is probably waking up earlyish for the tourney tomorrow. Me peter chud and z are definitely doing fast lap tomorrow, so if anyone wants to join feel free, I am accepting small prop bet action for race times, as I have done FOUR whole races and have a very high opinion of my track game, so bring it.

-David

So after the tourney I was a little unhappy to say the least. I came up to my room and just sort of puttered around for 2 hours not really doing anything. I did kill off half a can of honey nut peanuts because when I am sad I like to eat. I suppose I am like a woman. However, I couldn’t be truly like a woman since I can’t really eat chocolate because of the bet with phil. Such a downer, I know.

I got a txt and heard that a 3-6 HA game was running, and I figured ‘hey, im so miserable, I might as well go lose another 100k to make myself feel better.’ I am not sure what the word is for someone that enjoys their own misery, I mean shadenfreude is when you like OTHER people’s misery, what is the word for enjoying your own? Is there one?

Anyways, I went downstairs but only had like 80k on me, so didn’t really wanna blow off the rest of the little cash I had left firing one shot at the game, so I sat for 35 in a juicy looking 1-2/5 on the button nl game. It was playing 5-6 handed, and I played for about an hour. I reraised 90% of my buttons, and a few hands oop. These live players just do a lot of calling pf and then folding to flop bets, it is great. They all thought I was a monkey idiot and made lots of comments about it.

I played a couple ok hands, nothing super interesting to talk about. Very early on I reraised 54cc out of the sb to an 800 raise and call, I made it 3600 and they both called, and I got a 643 flop with 2 diamonds, so I bet out 7600 planning on getting it in, and they both folded obv cuz I’m scary.

A few hands later I picked up AA in the bb, cutoff raises 800, sb calls, and I make it 3600 again, raiser folds and sb calls after much deliberation. Flop comes down QQ4, sb checks and I bet out 3100, hee hee, he calls. Turn is an offsuit 2, he checks I bet 5600, he calls (he has about 20k behind). River is a K, he checks and I bet 20,100 and he snap folds.

Another hand I played I had KJo and there was a raise and 2 calls so I called in the bb. Flop was K87 with 2 clubs and it checks around. Turn is a 3s putting 2 spades out too, and I bet 2600 and get called by asian guy who opened. River is a Qc for KQ873 with 3 clubs, and I bet out 4800 and get called and ship it. That’s really only hands I played, but I managed to win 41k in about an hour, so I am feeling much less miserable at this point.

After I got done playing I went with Phil, Chud, Peter, Vanessa, and Anna to go eat at Trader Vic’s in planet Hollywood. It was actually pretty tasty, and they had very nice apps. I had never met Anna before, but she was a lot of fun and really goofy in a good way, and added a new entertaining element to our little poker group which was nice.

I came back to Bellagio with Phil and checked out the games again, but the 3-6 game was full and the 1-2/5 game had broken. Z got in town earlier today and he was in there playing, so hopefully he crushes. For the last 2 hours Phil and I have been discussing poker and life, and the effects of it. Has been very good talks but I wont get into it here, perhaps another day. I am pretty tired so I’m going to go watch some more lost. Hopefully Z ships it then Tom wins the main event so I can be even on the year. Yays!

-David Benefield

So I woke up this morning at 930am and headed to the gym and got in a great workout. After that I had salmon, asparagus, and a giant bowl of strawberries waiting for me in my room. I ate pretty quick and headed back to the spa area to get a massage, which was wonderful. I am kind of a pussy when it comes to massages but got the mid level pressure one today and really enjoyed it, even though it hurt a bit.

After my massage I met up with Phil who just got into town for the tourney. We decided to skip the first level and hang out for a bit since you get 50k chips and its 50-100. Normally I like to spew off all of my money in the first level anyways, so I thought it was a great plan. We headed down an hour and a half late to meet up with everyone and figure out who all was playing today.

Durr was wearing the most ridiculous hat that Alan picked out for him. It was some kind of island hat that dancers wear that has all the fruit on top of it. I was laughing, in a great mood, and super happy about playing today. I had great expectations for this tourney and I thought I was out of my slump after the last 5k.

So its 100-200, and I run into a similar spot as I did in the first 5k. Mp older dude limps, I complete sb with QJo, and bb (other old dude) checks. Flop comes down Q74 with 2 clubs, I have Jc, so I lead out 400. First old dude folds, second old dudes jacks it to 1300. His range seems like it is pretty polarized, so I make the call. Turn is a fun Jd, and I check call 3300. The river is an 8s, and he does some weirdo chip exchange thing then bets 9k. I cry and cry and cry and throw away 9k chips to his 77. I think I can probably fold the river, but flush draw did miss and he did some weirdo shit so I stuck in my money and got ownd as usual.

A few hands later I picked up KK in mp and utg raised to 675, so I called. Kenny Tran called behind as did the sb. Flop came down 8d8s6d, and utg bet out 2k, which I called while the others folded. The turn was a Td and he checked fairly quickly. I thought about firing out 3200 or something but decided to check. The river brought a 2c and he bet out 8k, so I folded after quite a bit of deliberation. He was a youngerish prob 25 guy and had been pretty nitty so far showing down AK KK type stuff, which made me want to call more but I guess im just a pussy.

So we go on break and I am sad that my stack is down to 35k, but I felt good still and was ready to come back to the ante level and stomp. 20 minutes in same youngish guy raises to 575 utg and I call in mp with KQo. A few stragglers come in and we see 5 way flop K76 with 2 hearts. He bets out 2200 and I call, rest fold again. Turn is a fairly dece Qh and I weigh my options. I considered checking, but I felt like a bet was better.

At this point I have a 24k stack or so and bet out 3600 into the 8k pot or so. He all but instashoves on me. I kinda look at him as he is counting out his chips and just see no possible way that he can ever have a hand, so I call after a good 15 second deliberation. He sheepishly turns over Ah 8d and I smile and flip up my KQ for the own, as the dealer rolls off the 3h. It really is silly to me how this can happen in every big tournament I play. I have an uncanny ability to get it in ahead and lose for my tournament life in the first 3 levels of seemingly 85-90% of the tournaments I play. It truly is unbelievable.

Something people try to do against me is play as terribly as possible and attempt to make me fold. This is probably the worst strategy on the planet because I detest folding, and yet they continue to make ridiculous plays that make no sense while I own them over and over, yet somehow they end up with all of the chips. I don’t think I play perfectly, and I make plenty of mistakes in live tourneys, but there is no fucking way I should be 2 for 48 in live mtts. It blows my mind how this shit keeps happening over and over, when idiot extremes go on to win over and over. It is quite frustrating.

I have gotten a lot better about dealing with it, but it is still extremely frustrating. I feel like I am actually a super great tournament player, but I just can’t ever seem to run even fucking average for an entire day. If I could just not get instafucked as soon as I sit down, I could build a decent stack and fade a couple of the retards sucking out on me, but no, that cant possibly happen. All of these retarded monkeys that are staked would have been murdered by their backers at this point, yet i keep buying in so i can donate to them. From now on, I am going to start shoving every single hand I play as soon as I sit down at the table, and if I double ill start playing normal. I am 100% convinced that if I did this, over the next 48 tournaments I would cash in more than 2. I am willing to book 5 million dollars on this as well, so if anyone wants to take me up on it, feel free.

I am not sure what I’m going to do at this point, this stupid game has made me a miserable bastard over the past few months, and I used to be a fun loving kid with aspirations of winning a bracelet! Blah blah life is good blah blah I should get some perspective, blah blah bleh I still want more, and always will.

-David Benefield

Wowww what a long day. I woke up with the intention of working out, but got a call to meet up with Gavin, Dustin, Brian, and Raj for lunch over at Rio hibachi, which was of course closed, so we ate at nasty Sao Palo café where we eat every day during the series. I really hate that place but we were all pretty hungry so just sucked it up and ate there.

After that I came back to the room and saw that a cpl tables of 40-80 nl were running, so I took a seat. The games weren’t really that good but I felt like playing and gambling it up with Stinger and Flipokeher, who I am sure I due for an epic downswing sometime in the near future, though of course not today. I got crushed. I think I might have played bad, and I am not a fan of a couple of my hands.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1780461  -  this hand was epic bad I think. After I raised it just seemed like a great spot for him to bluff 3 bet, so I talked myself into a call, even though I knew it was bad. It was probably not too great to raise to begin with, but I felt like I would get called by such a wide range since my raise makes no sense, which also lead me to call the river 3 bet thinking he is smart enough to know my raise makes no sense and stick in another raise with air. I outleveled myself and got ownd.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1780524  -  KK vs AA against flipokeher is pretty much the sickest cooler on the planet. He 4 bets lighter than anyone in online poker at the moment.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1780608  - HU vs him on a 25-50 table, mehhhhh

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1782155  -  this is pretty much the nastiest spot in the world, stinger is good enough to have nothing here, but also has a 3 a lot, I was stuck a little angry and just called without thinking. He ownd me too, and I quit right after this.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1780661  -  here is a hand from stars sesh that I think is actually pretty cool. It is something I don’t do enough, but so much of his range is pair and straight draw or pair and diamond that I think I can fake value bet the river and get epic amounts of folds here. I am going to implement more of this into my game, it is something I have never done well enough and I think it leads to me not getting paid off as much as I used to.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1782191  -  figured I would throw this one in as well, who says NL players can’t value bet properly in limit??

Anyways, I have been trying to get more and more into limit poker lately, and decided to play a bit after my NL sesh to sort of cool off I guess. I ended up losing 5100 to some guy on ftp called TheComplainer who seemed pretty bad. He also had very bad form and kept sitting out asking me to reload when I got to 8x stack or lower. 51 bets is kind of a lot, but I really think I outplayed him and he ran like god, though its entirely possible I just suck.

After that I found a couple 100-200 tables on stars, and decided to play for a while. I noticed neverwin was playing and I thought that was kinda funny since he is supposed to be busto and owes everyone and their mother money. I played a bit of 6max and did well, then I got Neverwin to play me HU 200-400, since I really felt a need to bust him for all of his life. At the beginning of the match he crushed my soul and ran up about 18k or so, but I got it all back and then some, and ended up about 9500 on him for the sesh, and he snap quit with the rest of his 3k bankroll on the table. He was in for like 12791 or something, so obviously his whole stars roll.

This made me epic happy and I ended up only down 7600 on the day, so it wasn’t too terrible. If anyone that plays limit reads this, and was sweating the match or saw any hands, I played with Togni a bit on the 6max table, I would love to hear feedback about how I played, as I am still learning and think I have a lot of room for improvement. I think I am getting somewhat not terrible, but I know I am a dog in just about any 6max game I play in, and probably HU too though I seem to run and do decently when I play HU, and most of the nitty ass ftp limit guys all quit me, so that makes me sort of happy as well.

After this I headed over to Dustin’s house to watch the UFC match tonight, and it was pretty sweet. I got 5 to 1 on Serra so I booked 200 on it, but he got stomped. Georges St-Pierre I have decided is the Patrik Antonius of UFC. He has that accent, the style, the flair, and completely dominates people in the ring. It was really remarkable how bad he stomped Serra, and I felt like a complete fish for thinking 5 to 1 was a good line.

After the fight we played rock band for about an hour. This was the first time I have ever done this, and it was awesome! Stinger is always talking to me about how awesome rock band is and blah blah so I always call him a douche, but it actually was quite fun. I tore up some oasis songs on the mic, 2 99s and a 100 on medium! I was very happy with myself for my first rock band experience. It is cool how even if u don’t know the words to some of the songs if you can match tone and read a bit you can still do pretty well and not let the ‘band’ down.

I am about to head down to register for the 25k, and hopefully will stomp tomorrow. I am planning on waking up at 930, getting in a great workout, a good meal, and have a massage scheduled at bellagio for 11. I will probably show up 30 mins late or so to the tourney so I have time to shower and not rush around, but that’s ok cuz we start 500x deep and have 90 minute levels; needless to say I am not very worried about blinding off .3% of my stack. Good luck to everyone that is playing tomorrow (unless you are at my table).

-David Benefield

Good morning everyone, I would like to introduce someone to you today. His name is sad raptor. Sad raptor is the anti happy raptor, but not the ranting raptor, who is occasionally fun. Sad raptor just sort of putters around being sad. Right now I am in my room ordering special K with bananas in it, and some wheat toast to go on the side. I would get a milkshake but then I would lose my bet with Phil.

Ok so today started off well, I woke up around noon and got in a good workout, then met up with Eric and Asha for lunch at sensi. Sensi was fantastic, and I highly recommend it. After that I headed over to play my tourney, in which 19 were left. I was 7^th in chips initially going in, but was feeling good and was ready to dominate.

In the first 30 minutes I ran my stack up to 300k reshoving over every open raise at the table, and quickly became second in chips to Bakes. Then it all came crashing down as usual. Miller shipped in 55k or so at 3k6k with AJ and I called with AQ, but he binked a J on me and doubled up, so was down to 240ish.

A few hands later Bakes opens utg to 17k or whatever and I call with AQcc in the bb. Flop comes down 774 rainbow I think. I check he checks. Turn is a 9s putting a spade draw out, and I bet out 26k, and Bakes calls pretty quick. River bricks off I think it’s a deuce, and I decide to value bet 56k for the own. Bakes calls pretty quick with AK and I feel like a dipshit retard. Right after this we go on break which is probably good because I was totally not zen at this point and needed a few minutes to strap my head back on. At this point I did my mind power spell and mentioned to Bush that I would either get 7^th or 1^st in the tourney.

From this point I hovered around 120 to 180k and the blinds started getting pretty big, up to 8-16/3. I couldn’t pick up dog poo diddle for hands, and didn’t even have many good spots to reship on, but eventually ComeOnPhish shipped it for like 160k in the cutoff and I stuck in my 120 with AQ on the button, then Froelich woke up with JJ in the bb. COP showed 44, and I lost the big race. Not a lot I could do and I finished out in 7^th for 27k or so. I feel like I played a great tourney I just didn’t have things go my way in the end. Bushman ended up winning which is great, and I think Bakes got second. I like them both so I am happy that it worked out that way.

Anyways, after that I went to dinner at fix with a few people and pigged out. I ate like 3 of those gigantic breadsticks that are pure heaven in refined carb form, as well as a plate of yellow tail, a crabcake, and a filet with lobster mash. Ya, I definitely felt like a fatty after that.

During dinner Durr is txting me telling me to come to Poker After Dark because Hellmuth is on tilt and a seat is about to open up. I decide to head up there and end up sitting in the hallway talking to the security guard for 30 minutes because you have to have a pass to get into the area, and retard Durrfish didn’t leave his cell phone on. So I sat, talked to Mikey, who came with, and we finally got in to the screening room to at least sweat the action. Durr lied to me, and I couldn’t get in on the action at that time. However, shortly after filming they decided to pick the game up downstairs in the poker room, where the avg stakes being played was 1-2 NL. This was a 200-400/500 button ante game, so.. it was a little bit bigger.

Anyways, I sit for 100 and the lineup includes Viffer, Durr, Allen Cunningham, Phil Hellmuth, Guy, and Johnny Chan. To say that I liked my chances here was the understatement of the century. Hellmuth is a complete joke at the table btw. He is the LEAST professional professional I have ever gotten the dispriveledge of sitting across the table from. He nonstop complains about everything, and it is quite frustrating. He really should just act like a normal person, it’s not a tournament and none of us were falling for his antics. Anyways, he dropped 50k quick and left.

A little later I was down to 90k and Guy limps utg, so I raise button to 1800 with KJo. Guy calls and flop comes down J42 with 2 spades, I have Ks. Guy checks I bet 3600 he makes it like 14k. I weigh the options and decide to call. The turn is a 5, and he bets 60k. I start crying. At this point im really not sure what he can have, and im really only scared of 22 or 44. I feel like he has spades a tonnnnnn so I shipped it in for like 1/8^th pot more, and he snaps and flips 44, so I quietly muck, tap the table, and say nh. People start flipping out like I folded with outs or something, but I didn’t really care what the river was because I couldn’t win. I suck. On the other hand Guy is an awesome guy, and i have never actually not been tilted losing a 200k pot to someone. He is just such an easy going easy to like guy i couldnt hate him for stomping me.

I reload 100 more and manage to get down to 90k or so when this comes up.. Johnny chan limps utg +1 and I limp button with 75o. A few other limps so 5 way flop K75 rainbow. Checks to me I bet 1600, Allen calls, and Chan makes it TEN K. (10k). I am just at a complete gaping loss, so I call, and Allen folds. The turn is a Q, and Chen bets 20k pretty quick. At this point I don’t really know what I can do other than ship it in, he has like 16k behind, so I scoot it and he snap calls showing KQ. Yayyyyyy I suck again.

So I am down to like 40k and run it down to 30, then back up to 63 before the game finally breaks. I won maybe 5 pots over 10k that session, and all of them were against Durr, so that makes me happy. I finished the sesh down 137k though, so I managed to completely destroy what little happiness I had created breaking my tourney streak. I actually ran into ComeOnPhish in the elevator on the way up to my room like 20 mins ago and he asked me what I had been doing, so I told him I lost 137k to a billionaire and he looked at me like I was joking. Then my floor came up and I had to make a quick exit while he was looking at me with an expression that said ‘wtf man are u serious are u gonna kill urself now?’ and ‘you could be joking but I think ur not whaaaaat?’ I think he thinks im a low stakes mtt player that won a satellite or something to play in the 5k, but im not sure.

Anyways, a crazy thought occurred to me while I was driving back from South Point contemplating my loss. I lost almost 2 of the cars that I was driving in at that moment, in about 2 hours of play. I am not a fan of thinking in those terms, so it began the sad raptor state. Right now I actually feel ok and am not really tilted or anything, im just a little unhappy at how the day turned out. I ran into Gavin Griffin in the lobby of Bellagio and we are getting some people together tomorrow to go to Fast Lap, which is one of my favorite afternoon wasters in vegas, so if anyone is out here and wants to join in let me know and ill post a time im going in the blog, and we can get a sicko 12 person race going or something.

-David ‘sad raptor’ Benefield

Dear God,

Why do you torture me such? I am just kidding god, you don’t torture me, you just tease me, its like a tickle, but it hurts a little bit, so it’s not exactly pleasant, though it is fun for a couple seconds, and gets me sort of worked up but is utterly exhausting at the same time. Yes God, I am talking about live mtts.

So today I woke up, went to SWISH which is quickly becoming my favorite lunch spot in Vegas, and had an amazing kobe chuck meal. I got back to the tourney just in time for the 1pm start.. but OH WAIT!! They have been playing for 53 minutes! I missed almost all of the first level. UPS. At the end of the second level I was down to 8850 without a whole lot happening. Didn’t really get any cool spots or have any cool hands.

Levels 3 and 4 apparently I did well as I finished with 29125 chips, but it was probably 13 hours ago so I don’t really remember how the fark I got my chips. Same goes with lvls 5 and 6 though I’m pretty sure I was up to like 60k, then whittled it down to 42425 making a butt awful bet call on Q22 2 clubs flop with AJ and a club. Ya, he did the smooth call pf with AQ and ownd my soul. I blow.

Anyways, levels 7 and 8 were awesome. I did the pwn vs Clonie calling her down with a 7 high flush on a 4 flush board to her river pot, so that made me happy. She came to the table when I had 20k and she had like 65 and was on her mighty high horse. It felt good watching her crumble. Shadenfreude I know, but alas it is with me.

I had been raising and reraising a lot, so I decided to open limp button with A6o. Newhizzle was in the sb and limped, and rando old guy that had tons of chips checked. Flop came down A96, hizzle checked, old dude fired out 2300, and I made it 6600 pretty quick. Old guy called, and checked an offsuit J turn. I fired out 10.6k and he SHOVED for like 40 more. I pretty much instacalled and he flipped out when he tabled A2. He was berating me saying HOW CAN U CALL THAT WTF UGH #%@)%#%. I was practicing my zen breathing the whole time so could barely hear him.

Let me talk a little bit about my zen breathing. There isn’t a lot of strategy to it, but today I really tried to sort of meditate for 20 seconds at a time in between hands or when others were in them. I would stare at the i in Bellagio on the poker table, and focus all of my energy on breathing in, then breathing out. This really calmed me and helped me stay focused throughout the long day. Generally after about 6 hours I start to get distracted. Today I didn’t even shuffle my chips, and I only showed ONE hand voluntarily, and that was at the end of the day near the bubble so they wouldn’t think I was reraising every hand with crap. I was very proud of my mental fortitude today.

OK so I finished lvl 8 with 116.8k, and then the fun began. Michael Bingalinger opened to 4500 at 8-16 and Bakes smoothe called on the button. I had been rr a fair bit and looked down to see JJ, so juiced it up to 14.6k. Bingalinger decided it was a good time to do a snapshove, bakes fold, and I instacalled. Binger flipped a poo diddle when I tabled JJ and was like HOW U CALL ME WITH THAT UGHHHHH as he flipped A3hh. I don’t understand why live players feel the need to berate you when they make a completely ridiculous play and get called. I continued to focus on my zen breathing and ignored him as the flop came J94 and I shipped it. Finished the level with 160.8k and was feeling great.

So, we were nearing the bubble in the last 2 levels, blinds got up pretty big but I had probably 3^rd place chips so was in pretty great shape. At 1.5-3 chaio giang shoved for 32k from the cutoff and I called with AK, he binked a Q on me with his KQ and I was back down to 150k or so. I got up to like 210 at peak I think, then this hand came up..

I had been raising tons of pots, and our table was 6 handed and theres 19 left, it pays 18. I have around 200k. I raise JJ in cutoff to 10.5k at 2k-4k/500, and the BB Indian guy calls. He has been playing lots of hands and just being pretty agro in general. Flop comes 965 with 6s5s and I have red JJ. He checks I bet 12.6k and he calls (he has 70k effective). Turn is a beautiful Jc, and he checks again. I weigh my options and decide to bet 23.6k, and he thinks for 18 years and calls again. The river is a 3s and he thinks for a few seconds and shoves 30-35k. I was very sad but decided to call since im getting like 5 to 1 and have the top set, but alas, he had the 5s4s for the straight foolish. This brought me down to like 110 or so I think and I was very sad as I couldn’t pwn the bubble with a 28x stack.

I finished the day with 142k and tomorrow the blinds are going to 3k-6k/? not sure on ante hopefully 500. The avg stack is like 122 but its skewed because Bakes has like 500k and is stomping the world being a complete monkey, it’s highly entertaining for me to watch. Him and danny wong got in some sicko hands, at one point getting all in pf for 450k pot bakes had A7dd and danny had AA, and they chopped when a straight came on the board. Bakes actually turned the straight with his 7, but the 7 on the river sealed the chop. Later they got it in on Ks4h2s with bakes having KQ and danny having AJss. It bricked off and bakes shipped biggest pot of tourney.

Right now I am thoroughly exhausted and sitting in my room waiting for my special K with strawberries in it and a banana on the side. For some reason I am very excited about this. Tomorrow I plan on waking up around noon and getting in a good workout, then laying by the pool for a half hour or so. After that I should have food waiting for me in the room and ill grab a shower, eat, and head down and win a donkament. Updates to follow tomorrow <3

-David Benefield

OMG PS PSPSPS i completely forgot my favorite hand of the day. It's 1k/2k/300, and its first hand back from break. Clonie opens to 6k, and Binger makes it 20k with a 41k stack. It gets around to me and i have like 110 and ship in AKdd. clonie folds, and Binger goes into a rant about OMG this is SOOO sick ughhh god im the best player in the world no1 makes this lay down, and THEN FOLDS QQ FACE UP. QUEEN QUEEN. GETTING FOUR TO ONE. WOWOWOWOWOW. i was obviously zenning and doing my breathing excercises so i didnt show him and just mucked slowly, but wowww wtf is wrong with live players. So ya had to include that cant believe i forgot it.

Today was a pretty great day. I woke up at like 930am, ate my staple half bag of jerkey and handful of raw almonds, and headed to the gym. I really like the bellagio gym, it has everything I need in it, and the best part is after you get done, there is a pretty good sized spa with steam room, sauna, and hot tubs waiting for you. I think it’s just a great experience and a perfect way to start the day. I even saw shaniac! I didn’t know other poker players worked out! It is a very good think I think everyone should spend a good portion of their time staying in shape, as it really does help maintain focus and build up lots of natural endorphins for a good mindset while playing.

After the workout, which was a freaking killer, I am never a fan of legs and back days, I went down to the pool with Tom and ate at the little outdoor grill type place they have by the pools. I had some salmon and asparagus. So far I have been relatively successful with maintaining my diet and workout regime while here; hopefully I can keep it up. I brought a good fiction book and was prepared to get in an hour of reading in the sun, as weather.com said it was supposed to be 75 and sunny.. Well, it was, except there were 40 mph winds blasting me from every direction, so I came inside pretty quick. I was fairly disappointed by this, but no big deal.

At this point I had a few hours to kill and played a lil 50-1 plo cap online. Generally when I am out of town I try to limit my play, as I am sort of out of my comfort zone playing on a laptop, and as such seem to just donate to everyone. It is a weird phenomenon that when I play at home after working out and eating a good meal, I win every coinflip, but if I wake up and just log in and load up tables, I seem to insta run bad wayyyy more often. It’s like they know!

Anyways, http://www.pokerhand.org/?1766565 this certainly helped to start the day, as it was v early in the sesh, and I really didn’t even play all that long. I think that he thought he had a flush draw or something, because otherwise it is pretty atrociously terrible on his part to stick it in there, but he seemed kinda fishy so maybe he thought QQxx was good? Ya.. games really suck.

After playing for a bit I headed out to the house I am in the process of buying to take a bunch of pictures of the rooms and make some measurements so I could get furniture stuff figured out. I was originally supposed to close on May 16^th, but they pushed it up to May 9^th, though I am not going to be able to make it out until likely May 20^th, as my bday is the 17^th and I want to be home in TX to hang out with Haley and some of my college friends.

The house looks great, these are probably the most amazing sellers in the history of homeownership. The guy that owns it is going through and patching up all the holes from having paintings and what not, and repainting everything, as well as getting the carpets cleaned before I move in. The inspector came 2 weeks ago and listed 4 different problems, some cracked roof tiles, a pump problem in the waterfall, etc, and those have all been fixed. This makes me extremely happy as I don’t want to be dealing with painters and repairmen when I am trying to adjust to a new living area. So ya this is extremely good news for me, and I am super excited to move in, I really can’t wait.

I took the long way back to Bellagio so I could check out some of the surrounding areas, and found quite a few asian food places, as well as a best buy and a grocery store very close (these things are important to me). I got back and had nothing to do, and there was a cool 40-80 game running and decided to sit. I barely made anything, but played a cool hand that I would like to share..

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1766982 - I have never played with nowa1 before, but he seemed fairly aggressive, and was playing imthefranchise on a 50-1 table and seemed to be doing decently. I was trying to pay attention to the table and get a feel for how he was playing, but couldn’t pick up a whole lot. I was actually on the phone with Sass while this hand was going on discussing some tourney stuff, and I actually said ‘hold on I’m about to do a spew’ and just sort of raised the river without too much thought. I mean, I think I have the best hand here a bit, but it just seems kinda not good to call. I really hate it when he shows TT and owns my soul. I think a small raise here it makes it very reasonable that I have a straight or better, and I think I can get him to fold all of his overpair hands making thinnish value bets. I think raise > fold > call, but I am not 100% sure. It just kinda felt like the right thing so I went with it. He timed down for a while so I don’t think I had the best hand, though its possible he had crap and was thinking about a bluffshove. Anyways, I liked it, and thought I should share.

After playing for a bit I headed to my favorite spot, Del Friscos. Even when I am in Vegas I love eating here as it reminds me of home, since its obv my fave place in Ft Worth. I completely terrorized my healthy eating habits by having a couple crown and cokes and probably an entire loaf of white bread, not to mention the crab cake, then filet and shrimp lathered in delicious sauce filled with epic proportions of butter, all washed down with a few glasses of 04 Ladera. Yummmmm.

After dinner we went across the street to Firefly which is a sort of tapas bar that has some pretty good mojitos, and had a couple drinks there and hung out for a bit. The group plan was to head to the artisan next, but I bowed out and headed back to Bellagio and regged for the 5k tourney in the morning.

I stopped by the poker room and a neat looking 2-4 plo game was running (I think it was 2-4 it coulda been 1-2, Johnny Chan and Benyamine were bickering over a pot for about 16 minutes so I couldn’t really tell. The lineup wasn’t all that great and it was 9 handed, so I didn’t even consider sitting. Apparently there was some drama with Sammy and some rando guy where the dealer shipped Sammy the pot after both players turned over their cards, and it was clear the other guy had the winning hand and the whole table realized it. I am not sure the exact details, but apparently the cards were then mucked, and Sammy refused to ship the guy the pot. Again, I am not sure of specifics so I could be off slightly, but that’s the gist I got.

Personally I think this is truly terrible, and shows how degen some of these live players can really be. If I was at the table and it was clear that I had the losing hand, irregardless of if the table was paying attention or not, I feel like I would correct the mistake and ship the guy his money back. I mean, at worst you show character and come across extremely well when people realize you aren’t a scum bag, so it seems like a pretty easy decision, but what can ya do. This apparently happened like 4 hours before I was even in the poker room, and I saw Sammy outside the poker room arguing with some older white guys I had never seen before, and I presume one of them was the guy that he took the pot off of. Again, I don’t want to start a dramabomb or whatever, but I don’t think this is the first time something like this has happened.

I drank a bit tonight, and am planning on going to the pool tomorrow and perhaps getting a massage or a haircut when I wake up if I can squeeze it all in before 1. Hopefully I can be up by 10 again, which shouldn’t be a problem if I can fall asleep fairly quickly. I have been sleeping extremely well lately, and haven’t had trouble waking up early. I’m not sure if it’s the healthier diet, increased frequencies of workouts, or just a more comfortable routine in the last few days, but it has been great. I feel great and can’t wait to go stomp some fish in the tourney tomorrow.

-David

PS i forgot to mention, the EPT finals has a super sweet final table lineup, and i am super excited to watch that unfold. I am fairly good buddies with Mike Martin and Isaac Baron, so will definitely be rooting for them to go 1-2 in this tourney. Also i hear BeepBeepImaJeep is there, I THINK he is Maxime Villamure. He has always been my favorite railbird, and i am pretty sure he has been stomping 10-20 and what not lately, and according to a few people i talked to he is a pretty sick player, so i will be silently rooting for him. Ok thats all i got gngn.

Well, I woke up at about 10 am this morning and got in a great workout. Ran into Eric Cajelais down there, who I consider a decent friend, and I seem to run into him everywhere so we had a nice little chat and caught up. He has been playing in some pretty sick montreal games with Guy Laliberte which sounded pretty sweet. He also ended up being on my first table. Anyways, got back to the room, had salmon, asparagus, strawberries, and green tea show up for me about 5 minutes after returning, so got in a great meal and took a shower, then headed down for the tourney.

My table seemed pretty tough, lots of young internet pros, but I figured I would be able to take advantage of them pretty easily making good value bets and playing very aggressively in position. We started with 10k chips and in the first level of 25-50 blinds I ran up to around 12k or so playing very well. I was extremely focused and just felt great after working out and getting a good meal in. I seem to have an ability for busting out early in tournaments, so I was hoping today would be different. I don’t even get into any really crazy spots, I just generally play very solid and seem to come out with the worst of it a lot.

Anyways, next level 50-1, Eric limps in mp, he has whittled his stack down to about 4k, my buddy Frankie limps in the cutoff, and I check the BB with Q8o. Frankie is mostly a limit player, but he is best friends with my old roommate in Vegas, and won a satellite last night for the 5k today. He is a very good limit player, but I don’t know much about his NL game.

Flop comes down Qc Jc 4h and I lead out for 225 into 350. Eric folds, and Frankie thinks for a bit and makes it 700. I considered folding, but I felt like there was a decent % chance he had a hand like 66 or just random A high with a club or various straight draws and was trying to move me off of my hand. Turn peeled off a good looking 8s. Nothing too amazing but it definitely helps. I checked again and he fired out 1500, which I called after 7 seconds of thought. The river was a dreamy Qh and I checked fairly quickly. Frankie fired out 3k, and I moved in on him for about 4400 more. He snap called and said nuts, flipping up QJ, and I just kinda shrugged and said nh.

I was down to 2400 chips or so and began practicing my zen breathing, really focusing on controlling my breaths, as I think it really helps me relax. A few hands later I’m in the cutoff with AA, so I raise it up to 250, and get 3 calls. Flop comes down K64 rainbow, and I bet out 525. The button calls (he has been playing probably 65% vpip, and not playing well), and the rest fold. Turn is an offsuit 3, and I stick my last 1600 or so in and get snap called, and hear the words ‘Nuts’ again. He flips ups 75hh and I say nh and get up.

I am really not sure why this keeps happening. Last year during the wsop I kept pretty good track of most of my tournament results and made a post breaking down a lot of the hands for me to get stuff off of my chest and perhaps get thoughts from people more experienced in tournaments than me. I am not sure the exact number, but I am something like 1 for 45 cashing in live MTTs, give or take a couple; and I do mean couple, it hasn’t been pretty. I feel like I play very well, and usually get my money in pretty well, I just haven’t been able to find any success.

I took a long break from tourneys and haven’t played one in about 3 months or so since PCA, where I busted around 20 from the money after losing a pot for 150k chips with AA vs QQ aipf, then donking off my last 40k in tiltrage (though I still made +ev shoves I think there were better plays if I was playing my A game). I was looking forward to getting back on my feet and playing these Bellagio tourneys, and went into today with a great attitude and was very prepared to play.

Oh well. I am still going to stick around and play the 5k on the 17^th and the main event on the 19^th, so hopefully I am just getting the run bad out of the way (if only it worked like that). Not sure what I am doing today, there aren’t really any games online right now, and I am probably not in the greatest mindset to load up a bunch of tables, so I think I’m going to get into a non smoking room for starters, then perhaps hit up the mall. Thanks for listening.

-David

So today I woke up with ambitions of fast lap and minigolf, with perhaps a movie thrown in to cap off the day. I also planned on registering my car and getting Nevada plates. That also failed. What I DID get done was quite a bit of nothing, which I am fairly proud of. I woke up at 10, and got on to check to see if there were any cool games runner. Much to my chagrin, there were a whopping TWO tables of 10-20nl or higher between pokerstars and FTP running. So… I sort of sat around, watched DURRRR dominate Hellmuth (nbc HU ep i hadnt caught yet), then played in a 75-150 game that ran for about 3 shakes of a donkey dick (a bit crude perhaps, but it felt right). I managed to get stuck about 800 but gamboled it up short stacking some 25-50 plo to get even. Yes, I am a degen sometimes.

A little bit later I went to this super awesome restaurant called Swish down Sahara, which was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. Probably one of the best lunches I have had in a while, but I felt like a complete sloth after I consumed the ‘hungry’ portion of kobe sukiyaki. Here is a link to their site, I highly recommend everyone checking this place out for lunch. http://www.usmenuguide.com/swish.html

Anyways, shortly thereafter Dustin called me to inform me that a 50-1 plo/nl game was starting 5 handed focused around Keith Lehr and Kido Pham. I told him to lock me up a seat, jumped in the shower, and headed to Bellagio. My original plan was to not play poker, and perhaps even get a workout in, but alas, Vegas kills.

So I get up to Bellagio asap, and much to my surprise my seat has been filled. I had it locked up only 20 minutes before, but apparently since I am not a ‘known’ live player they just gave it away. Luckily there was a nice looking 7 handed 25-50 nl game going so I jumped in that while being 1^st on the list for the juicy 50-1 rotation game.

So I sit down and post in the cutoff with a 10k stack. Utg limps, I don’t look and check because I didn’t wanna be too monkeyish while waiting for the other game, and button makes it 175. … cool. Sb calls utg calls I call and we take the flop 4 ways. Flop comes down Ks 8s 7h, and I have T9ss. Checks to me I bet 450, some asian guy named Teddy I think makes it 1800 from the sb and it folds to me, he has me covered. I am kind of thinking this is interesting because its my first hand, so I sort of want to call, but decide to make it 5100 in hopes that he folds 87 and stuff like that some % (it is live after all people are nits).

He banks and banks and banks and gives me the devils stare, and finally says ughhh ok all in. I snap call and he yells ‘SHIT’ at top of his lungs, and asks me how many times I want to run it (standard practice for nitty live players). I say I don’t care and its up to him, cuz I really don’t care, and we settle on 3 times. He flips up 77, and I manage to brick off all 3 times. He paired the board twice, once giving him quads, and I didn’t hit either way. Soooo very first hand down 10k good start.

About an hour or so later (yes I am still waiting for the 50-1 rotation game), I am stuck about 13k or so at this point, I raise J9hh on the button to 150. Teddy makes it 600 pretty quick, and seeing how he has a 26k stack and I cover, I consider 4 betting, but decide to just call. Flop comes down K64 with 1 heart. He bets out 800 and I make an agressive call. Turn is a magical Kh, and he bets out 1400 after a bit of thought. I think on my options and decide to make it 4700. Teddy thinks for about 14 years and finally calls. River bricks off (obv) like a 2s, and he fires out 4k even. I get into serious mode and seriously consider a shove, but I just feel like he has AK a ton and is going to bank and call since no1 seems to be able to fold. Anyways, I nit it up and just fold and say nice hand I think u got me.

So.. at this point I’m stuck about 19k when JCMOUSSA yells over hey they starting a 1-1 plo 1-2/3button NL rotation game in Bobby’s room. BINK! Perfect chance to get unstuck. I text durr to book him a lucky 20% (every time I give him a piece I run like god, and hopefully this will get him to ship me a % when he plays sammy HU), then pull up a seat next to kido. We start off the game 5 handed with me, sammy, good2cu, kido, and Kenny tran. Literally 3 hands in, we are playing 1-1 plo. New biz man sits and straddles, sammy opens to 800, and good2cu makes it 2400 (30k effective). Biz guy calls and sammy makes it pot for ~10k. Good2cu calls, and biz guy calls. Flop comes down J76 with 2 spades, biz guy checks and Sammy sticks it in, good2cu thinks for a while then sticks it in too, and biz guy folds. Sammy flips up AAJ7, and good2cu has the super sick cooler with AKJJ. They run it twice and BOOM good2cu is up 30k.

A couple hands later sammy jacks it from somewhere and I call with TT87 with a suit on the button after a couple calls. Flop comes down T66 and sammy bets out for pot, folds to me and I call. Turn is a an offsuit 3 and sammy pots again. I hem and haw like I have a K6 or something and then call. River is another 3 and sammy sticks it in pretty quick. I snap call and he says full house kid. I flip up TT and he is like WTF WITH THESE INTERNET KIDS and boom I’m up 5k on the day (well after nasty durrs 20% im about even).

I played a few more kinda meh hands and played a pretty bad hand against sammy I think. Couple raises or whatever straddles I dno I have JJ33 with a suit in the bb and I call. Flop comes 943 with 1 heart and I check, sammy pots for 2500, folds to me (we are 60k deep) and I decide to call because im not happy stacking off here. Turn is a 9 and I check and sammy pots again. I really don’t know what I was supposed to do here, but I just don’t think he was in the mood to check the river if he missed, and I felt like there was a good chance he already had 94 or 93 and I was in trouble. I decided to fold, though im not sure if that’s good. Perhaps I could call and fold to a river pot, but I think my fold is ok.

I had dinner reservations at 8, so ended up leaving the game after only about an hour an 18k winner or so. Not too many more interesting hands to report. I went to dinner tonight with durrr, my old roommates dustin and brian, their buddy kyle, tsarrast, and his girlfriend. We went to probably my favorite overall restaurant in LV. It is absolutely nothing like any of you would expect for a typical person’s favorite dinner location, but I cant get enough of it. The food is amazing, the atmosphere is fantastic, and there is always live music. I am an absolute sucker for live music. Anyways, we had a great dinner, a few bottles of wine, and I am turning in early for the evening to watch some lost. http://www.bootleggerlasvegas.com/ there is a link if you guys want to check it out, I highly recommend it.

Tomorrow my plan is to wake up at 1030, eat some almonds and jerkey, then get a workout in. right before workout im going to order some lunch, probably salmon with asparagus and some iced green tea in preparation for the 5k event. I haven’t taken the route of working out and eating healthy before tournaments, and hopefully it will keep me focused throughout the day. Perhaps I will have a bit more success than I have experienced in the past.

Oh a slight beat, I got into my room (I requested main tower) at bellagio and it’s a smoking room! Ughhhh I am NOT a fan of smokers. I called down to ask if I could change, and they said I could but would have to go to spa tower which is literally a 15 minute walk through the casino and across the world. I decided to just suck it up since its not that bad and switch tomorrow. Hopefully I don’t smell like my grandmother in the morning. Cheers.

-David

ok so i just got into vegas, staying at my buddy alan's house tonight, then checking into bellagio. had a great 3 hour delay at the airport, apparently the FAA is trying to bankrupt american airlines and apparently 3500 flights were grounded in the last week on the MD-80 aircraft. anyways, i finally got in, drove over to my old roomates house and picked up my new car (yays) and met up with alan, his gf, irieguy, durr, and tsarrast for dinner at nobu. i absolutely love nobu, and after a good 7 hours of travel or so i was super excited to sit down and have some yellowtail jalopeno and some kobe. anyways dinner was great and i just got back into alan's. nothing very interesting to report today.

im going to take a little bit more time to look at my 'rant' situation. i really do think people are going a bit overboard, but that is their right, and its obviously not going to effect what i do or say. though.. it was one blog post after a long day and i was extremely irritated. hopefully some of you will recognize that and take it for what it was, then move on. if not, again, that is your right. this is not how i always am or how i always think, so i think judging me and making declarations about my character after ONE post is a bit unfair, especially seeing how i prefaced the rant by saying i was on tilt and explained that i was going to go overboard, but again, that is your right.

on the topic of me complaining that this is my personal blog and people arent allowed to talk about it or whatever, i never said that. it is a BLOG that i expect a ton of people to read, and a ton of people to criticize. i fully expect it and very much appreciate it. i like hearing peoples thoughts on what i say both good and bad, though i am not a huge fan of personal attacks based on, again, just one ranting blog entry.

i think a lot of people get a lot out of my blog and enjoy reading it, and thats great! i am glad that you are enjoying it. i really like making blog entries at the end of the day as it helps bring closure to my day. it is relaxing to put my thoughts into words after a long day and i actually think it helps me sleep as i dont have as many thoughts swirling around.

something a lot of people talk about is REAL jobs. ive never had a full time job for more than a 3 month period or so, but i have had 3, and i worked 40 hours a week pushing carts around, being a cashier, or being a game technician. i hated all of these jobs with a passion. i was not a fan of waking up and showing up at a certain time, listening to 4 different higher ups tell me what to do all day every day, etc. it was not fun. obviously it wasnt for a long period of time and cant really be compared to someone who has worked a desk job for 10 years or whatever, but i definitely wouldnt trade that for what im doing now. i AM very appreciative and thankful for the abilities that i have, but its not something that was just handed to me. i dont think people realize how much work and time it takes to become very good at this game, and i have definitely paid my dues.

anyways, i want to apologize to the people i offended that arent looking for handouts, that just want to talk or say hi or whatever. i love that stuff and have always and will continue to answer any and all pms that dont ask to come over to my house. you dont have to preface every pm with stuff like 'hope this doesnt piss you off' either, it wont ;) i just have had a few bad experiences in dealing with people trying to get the best of me and take advantage, and i was definitely being a little unfair clumping everyone together.

however, to the people that dont know me, just read that one post, and are trying to call me a douchebag pompous spoiled prick and what not, i just want you to take a look at your posts and what you are saying and what kind of person that makes YOU. i am not personally attacking anyone. i AM attacking the group of people that are trying to take advantage of me or treat me dfiferently because they find out i have money. just wanted to point that out so perhaps you can take a step back and look at the situation before making your next attack on me. but, having taken those few seconds to view your own personal situation on this topic and after having looked at yourself and what you say from a third party's perspective, by all means, keep it coming ;)

cheers.

-David Benefield