Sleep With the Fishes, Dine on the Whales

So... that's trump's logo. And that's a Simpson Episode from 2000ish, predicting the future with Trump as President with almost the exact same logo. Did, his logo maker really just swipe the Simpson's logo or what? Pretty crazy, the one on the dais the only difference is five stars vs. three.  Everything else is identical except for the slogan.  Even the font is the same. EDIT:  NEVERMIND, THE SIMPSONS IMAGE IS FROM THIS YEAR.  THOUGHT IT WAS TOO HD.  SHOULD HAVE TRUSTED MY GUT.  THERE IS AN EPISODE FROM 2000 OF THE SIMPSONS THAT PREDICTED A TRUMP PRESIDENCY BUT DID NOT GIVE HIM HIS LOGO. EDIT#2:  SINCE IT TURNS OUT I WAS COMPLETELY WRONG AND THIS POST IS NOW WORTHLESS, HERE'S SOMETHING ON THEME THAT'S INTERESTING...  ALL THE CAMPAIGN LOGOS RANKED...https://medium.com/organizer-sandbox/the-2016-u-s-presidential-candidates-logos-ranked-9ee41fa50964

I started off with the most important hand I played in the last blog post, as after I played it, it was almost like I got rewarded for my bravery.   I experienced my first run good in any WSOP event (ever) immediately after.     That was a theme for this Main Event.  Every time, I made a brave play good cards seemed to follow me in the aftermath.  The good cards were the easy part.  Those few spurts of big hands didn't dictate my run, it was all the tough hands in between that propelled me in the tournament. Nothing given. There is a rumor that your Main Event starting table will be soft.  Soft?  Yes, butter on the hood of a car outside the Rio in typically stifling 107 degree Las Vegas temperature soft.  For me, that rumor is as valid as me dating Kim Kardashian.  One multiple circuit ring winner told me he wouldn't pay $6 for a percentage of any of his starting table.  I'd gladly have paid much more than for most of my table. ...

I look at his bet, it sat ominously in the middle.  A pile of large denomination chips simply sitting on the felt. In any other situation, about as nonthreatening as a stalk of celery, but in this case they looked like the barrel of loaded gun pointed at my forehead. If I called it would cost me every tournament chip I had. The power of putting an opponent all in is obvious.  If he calls and he's wrong then he busts.  Here, I could bust the Main Event early on day two. That would be a bit like tearing up a power ball ticket before the drawing.  If I fold... I counted my remaining stack for the fifth time...  I'd still have plenty of chips. "Discretion is the better part of valor."  That's a quote I recall in these spots.  Sometimes the bravest thing you can do in poker is fold.  But... The hand just didn't make sense. I felt I should call. Still, this wasn't a $365 or a $1500 buy-in where I can just go with my gut and deal with the...

I bricked two flights of the 777.  I felt I played well despite getting few cards.  In Flight A I double up by attacking my table who were all week.  Dream table draw.  Then a late comer arrived and they put him immediately to my left.  A gregarious Russian who immediately played every pot in position on me.  That made things harder. I wanted to say, "Hey, Ivan these people are just giving us their chips slowly, why don't we just take turns instead of beating each other up."  Nope, didn't happen.  He got crippled.  Then I got got run down.  Then he got some chips, then I made a comeback and to be honest with all the poker I played since then, I don't even remember the bustout hand. I do remember the second flight... I sat down and promptly lost the first two hands.  Made top two with AQ, my queen giving the other guy a gut shot straight.  Next hand I flopped a queen and a different guy rivered a straight, and I had to pay...

For Package buyers: Bought into the 777 for both flights yesterday A and B (just so I wouldn’t have to deal with registering again). We start play this morning at 10 am. If I advance through the first flight they will refund the second bullet. That will then be put to future events. Updates to come on twitter and my facebook. Starting bankroll for events is roughly $5550. (-$777 x2) Just to reinforce, this package does not include my main event. That was through the Monkey Minions. If you bought a piece of that you have shares of my Main Event. This package is for all other events I might play.  If I play under the total of $5550 you will get full refunds dollar for dollar (no markup). Here are the percentage breakdowns, I ended up selling a little more of myself than I planned to (as a couple of longstanding investors got in late).  Regardless, it’s good to be wanted. Mike, Justin: 7.27% ...

Poker players inherently possess some common skillsets and qualities.  Many of our shared traits like critical thinking and a natural questioning of authority can make us good brave poker players.  That streak of independence combined with intelligence at times can produce a massive group who are all really good at doing one other thing besides poker and that's complaining and complaining and complaining some more. Since, we don't always agree it means any decision a floor makes will have at least one person foaming at the mouth.  Makes running a tournament tough to do as literally every guy in the room thinks he's the smartest guy there and he can do it better. Yes admit it, we are all guilty of it but, that trait goes hand in hand with enjoying competitions of thought.  That said, when we all agree that something is wrong or "off" it'd probably pay to listen. The WSOP this year listened to the players, perhaps more than ever, and a n...

Still working hard on the project I mentioned a few months back ago, and unfortunately that has curtailed my "pokering" and my blogging a little bit.  I am a little behind where I wanted to be, as the project is tough sledding at times.  Regardless, I somewhat see the finish line so pushing hard to get there. I have taken on another student, that I'm doing some poker coaching with and I think he's going really benefit to a few tweaks to his game.  Very impressed with some of the skills he already has, and he naturally does some things better then many other players.  As a result, I will be back at Harrahs a little more often then I have been recently. Also, wanted to give a quick shout out to Kenny Milam who met with the Table Games supervisor at Harrahs on Wednesday to discuss tweaking some of their promotions and tournaments.  I had planned to sit in on that and talk about some other things but fortunately, I was deep in a tournament.  From what Kenny...

So my buddy, Eric, who used to blog on www.gulfcoastpoker.net has (for the most part) traded the poker circuit for the film festival circuit.  He graciously reviewed Mississippi Grind for us after seeing it at Sundance.  It's one thing for somebody outside "the life" to review a movie about poker and gambling and it's another thing entirely for somebody from within to give their opinion.  Here's his review of the movie that hits close to home for a lot us. MISSISSIPPI GRIND movie review by Eric Johnson Ben Mendelsohn and Ryan Reynolds give stellar performances as gamblers on a road trip down the Mississippi. Some guys just can’t stop. It’s in their DNA. Faced with even less-than-mediocre prospects against the option to stand pat in a good spot, the gamble gets the best of them. It’s the action that separates them from the squares and in Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s MISSISSIPPI GRIND , it’s what separates Ben Mendelsohn from a stable life. Ultimately, it’...

Once you get competent at poker, it taints your perception of sports to some degree.  As you grow as a poker player dealing with the element of chance you learn to not be results oriented.   You focus on making the right play-- the one that is most profitable, most often. The individual result of the play to some degree is irrelevant.  This kind of thinking doesn't translate to talking heads and/or evaluations of sports figures.   Instead we have to suffer knee jerk reactions, overreactions, and hyperbole.  One play goes different and the majority of people have completely different world-views. Here's an example, last night a Patriot defender made a great play to intercept the ball and here's what the talking points are: 1.  Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback ever. 2.  Tom Brady can play into his 40s 3.  The Patriots are one of the all time great dynasties 4.  Bill Belichek (autocorrect wanted to fix Blichek to bell...

Sorry folks, been behind on blogging a good bit.  Wanted to get a quick one up but have been slammed time wise.  Previously, I referenced some health things my family has been dealing with, some have asked about them so I feel I should revisit it.  Btw, thanks for the support and nice notes some of you have sent even though I was a little vague about things. 1.  Me.  All good so far.  Need a follow up visit soon, but had two little polyps removed both benign.  Hopefully, they were responsible for my abnormal blood-work and I should be all good. 2.  My oldest son.  Looks like we turned a corner.  Appears that we've identified the problem and it's relatively harmless.  Felt like last year he was perpetually sick.  Since we've started up a treatment plan it's been effective.  At this point we think it was just a case of allergies manifesting in some weird ways and some atypical blood work when he might have been fighting ...