foxwoodsfiend.com

I did an interview with Shawn Green for “the online zone” on Cardplayer. If you have 22 minutes and nothing better to do you should check it out.

http://www.cardplayer.com/tv/33300

I was supposed to coach somebody today for $450/hour. She (not a typo) didn’t show up at noon so instead I played some 50/100 and in 997 hands won 64k, almost all off of aejones HU(lost one 200bb pot, won 3 coinflips for 35k total, played well in the other pots, etc). I think I’m going to bump up my coaching rate soon (opportunity cost, look it up folks).

Remember when I posted that I was going to take a break from playing high stakes against good players and practice game selection? Well that lasted about a day.

Phil Ivey sat in at my 200/400 HU NL table today and I was eating breakfast so didn’t notice. I just saw myself sitting out, checked to see who sat down, saw it was Ivey, and was hoping he was still online. I have a lot of respect for Phil but there’s just no way I’m worse than him at online HUNL given how much of it I play. Fortunately he was sitting at 300/600 and I got his attention. I took him for 8k and then he quit to go play 2k/4k O8. I sweated the match and when his opponent quit him I sat in and asked if he wanted to play more. He did, I outplayed him in a few medium-sized pots, won a coinflip for 50k, and then he quit because he claimed to have other stuff to do. The coinflip in question:

FullTiltPoker Game #7397516389: Table Ahern (deep hu) - $200/$400 - No Limit Hold’em - 14:08:20 ET - 2008/07/27
Seat 1: DaEvils ($49,498)
Seat 2: Phil Ivey ($81,098.50)
Phil Ivey posts the small blind of $200
DaEvils posts the big blind of $400
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DaEvils [Ac 9c]
Phil Ivey raises to $1,200
DaEvils calls $800
*** FLOP *** [8c 2h 3c]
DaEvils checks
Phil Ivey bets $1,600
DaEvils raises to $5,200
Phil Ivey has 15 seconds left to act
Phil Ivey raises to $14,000
DaEvils has 15 seconds left to act
DaEvils has requested TIME
DaEvils raises to $48,298, and is all in
Phil Ivey has 15 seconds left to act
Phil Ivey calls $34,298
DaEvils shows [Ac 9c]
Phil Ivey shows [Jh Js]
*** TURN *** [8c 2h 3c] [4c]
*** RIVER *** [8c 2h 3c 4c] [9s]
DaEvils shows a flush, Ace high
Phil Ivey shows a pair of Jacks
DaEvils wins the pot ($98,995.50) with a flush, Ace high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $98,996 | Rake $0.50
Board: [8c 2h 3c 4c 9s]
Seat 1: DaEvils (big blind) showed [Ac 9c] and won ($98,995.50) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 2: Phil Ivey (small blind) showed [Jh Js] and lost with a pair of Jacks

So then David Benefield/Raptor sat in at  a couple 50/100 6-max games to get games started.  We played a bit, he called my jam of his first 3bet with AQ, beat my KK (ace on the river! gah!), and ended up winning 6kish on me.  I think he was distracted by other tables and ended up quitting me to multitable 25/50, but I definitely thought I was getting the best of him in our relatively brief session.

Anyway, later that day Genius28 sat in at 50/100 HU NL today against me. Since I’ve decided to game select at 50/100 these days, I obviously played him on 2 tables. So what if I’ve thought he’s one of the 5 best players online? I wanted a challenge. I proceed to beat him for 5300 despite losing our only all-in (my nutflush draw vs his TPGK in a reraised pot).  There were a few hands in which I outplayed him (i gave him some rope and he bluffed me) and he quit because he hasn’t played much HUNL lately and was feeling rusty. Then he asked me if I want to flip him 3k at a time, I did, he won 12k off me, and now I’m stuck to him in my PT database (I think. we haven’t played much).

It’s kind of sick that there’s so little HSNL action going on these days that I’m playing Genius but it was great to challenge myself (even though it wasn’t much of a session it was still a cool feeling to have the roll to play someone whom you respect a lot at high stakes without really worrying about it).  It’s a good thing I’m starting to get the wheels in motion for going to law school because I might have had to quit poker anyway from the lack of action.  I’m starting to get pretty bored of sitting around all day waiting for an opponent and only being able to consistently get action from top-tier opponents.

I injured my leg the other day and the problem with leg injuries is that the more you use your leg the worse the injury gets. It’s not anything permanent (just pulled a muscle) but it basically made it impossible for me to walk without either suffering excruciating (Final Jeopardy answers ftw) pain or looking like a complete idiot. So I decided that staying in D.C. and going out with my friends to some going-away party would probably not be the best call (”Hi, I’m Ariel. I’m limping around and about to throw up from the pain I suffer just from limping. Nice to meet you.”) I still had to stay in D.C. for dinner because I’d promised my friend Adam that for his birthday I’d buy him a steak at Morton’s while making our other friend Dylan eat salad (Dylan is a giant guy who loves steak obviously).

So I had to take the 10 P.M. train and didn’t want to sleep on the train since I never nap and sleeping for even 20 minutes would keep me from falling asleep tonight. I was getting bored and sleepy browsing the internet (Sprint wireless card. look it up) when I noticed the most ridiculous thing I’ve seen in a long time. At a 200/400 PLO table Patrik Antonius and some guy were coin-flipping all-in for 20k. They would just raise to 20k and check it down. A couple other players joined in and the next thing you know 4 people were gambling 20k on every hand with the winner scooping an 80k pot!

At this point Taylor Caby G-chatted me that he was going to go take a big gamble. I asked him if I could have 15% of his 100k buy-in, he obliged, and then he lost the 100k. So I was stuck 15k and decided I needed to get Krantz to flip and go 50/50 with me. We gave a courtesy 10% to Dean, Krantz took a 40k shot and lost and now I was stuck 33k on the flipping. I was chatting with Krantz and said something like “well, that sucked. wanna try again?” and Krantz obviously felt like gambling some more so he bought in for 40k again. Except this time we went 50/50 with no 10% to Dean (Krantz’s call), he ran it up to 160k and I ended up winning 27k on the flipping. The very last hand we had QJ46 on a Q335 board or something like that. As I was sweating the river, we got into Penn Station and the tunnel cut off the signal to my wireless card and I had no idea whether we won a 100k pot of which I had 50% or if we bricked off. Apparently we lost. Oh well.

And yeah, I know that I blog about my big #s all the time but the rush of sweating 100k pots was really sick. If Krantz had busted that 2nd buy-in I”d have lost 53k on the day flipping which combined with some action sharing I had that didn’t go well (Krantz at rail heaven and a friend at 200/400 PLO) would have meant that despite winning 50k myself I’d have been stuck 60k on the last two days. So I’m pretty glad he won obviously. Krantz is supposed to do a full trip report, complete with our g-chat per street of every all-in, at his blog (www.dangerlion.com) so keep an eye out for that

For now, my delirious self is going to pass out. Tomorrow I think I’m going to get a day-long leg massage so I’ll be up and about in no time.

I lost 60k today at 50/100 NL.  I played poorly towards the end which probably caused me 10k, got KK vs AA for 20k, and played my usual crazy style without picking up any hands.  I’ve come to the realization that I haven’t been playing my A-game at 50/100 the last few days.  Every time I move up in stakes I play a bit too gun-shy and weak even if I’m way over-rolled for the game so I think I’m going to grind 25/50 for a while.  It’s not even that losing 60k tilts me (60k doesn’t mean too much to me given my insane run lately) so much as that I’m not used to staring at such a big red # on my pokertracker and it’s somewhat unnerving.  I’ll still play at 50/100 if the games are good but 3-tabling good regs while playing some 6-max isn’t that great an idea.

I’m still up 100k on the last week but I think I’m going to try making another 50k before I make 50/100 my regular game. I realize I only lost 6 buy-ins, which especially in these deep games isn’t much, but I’ve been on such a hot streak (I’ve maybe lost 4 days in the last month and a half) that losing tilts me because I’m not used to it.  So I think I should retool at 25/50 so that when I go through the standard swings of poker to which I’ve been immune it won’t tilt me so much (25/50, oddly enough, is pretty much medium stakes for me so losing days or weeks won’t be that upsetting).

Anyway, I’m on a train on my way own to Washington, D.C. today.   I’ve got some good friends from Yale who live down there that I haven’t seen in a while.  I’m not sure if I’ll be playing much poker this weekend, I’ve kind of been looking forward to taking a few days off.

Hello everybody,

Please try to understand that the proper venue for expressing your appreciation of my work/playingstyle/attitude/blog or whatever is NOT to sit in at one of my heads-up tables to get my attention.  I’m often playing other games and get distracted by my table popping up because a new opponent just sat down.  I’m simply not available to chat a lot of the time while multitabling and although I understand your intentions are good, it really is a hassle when you sit in to say what’s up.

I try to respond to as many PMs as I can and I do appreciate when you guys  give me encouragement but today I must have had at least 6 people sit in at my tables while I was 4-tabling HU who just wanted to say “hey.”  Please just PM me or post on the blog or something but don’t sit in in the future.

Thanks,

Foxwoodsfiend

One of my tiltiest moments ever was last September where I took a piece of some friends in PLO and lost 30k, went home, and decided to take a 10k shot shortstacking 200/400 PLO.  I left myself 2k to rebuy with, lost 1600, rebought for 1600, then repotted it all-in for the 8k I had in front of me with AAxx.  Except for I realized I actually repotted to 10800 which was confusing as I thought I only bought in for 8k.  Turns out I accidentally topped off for 16k and had a 24k stack which I then lost to KKxx with a flush draw on the flop.  Accidentally buying in for 24k and losing it all when I was already stuck 30k was among my biggest life-tilt moments of the last couple of years.

So today I sat in at 200/400 NL and asked Urindanger if he wants to play some 100/200.  He told me he was busy playing PLO and we got to chatting about how I should learn how to play Omaha because that’s where all the money is. I asked him how he started and he basically told me to shortstack for a while and figure out the math before jumping into full stack. So I went to a 200/400 PLO game and bought in for 8k.  My first hand I defended the BB and then had a scary flashback as I realized I had a 40k stack!  I’d totally forgotten about my auto-rebuy options, which I use in hold ‘em to make sure I always have 100 big blinds.  So I totally panicked and was going to play the one round, hopefully not doing anything too stupid as I was playing a game in which I was basically clueless with $40,000 in front of me.

And then I stacked a guy:

FullTiltPoker Game #7262986164: Table Pantheon (6 max) - $200/$400 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 17:32:29 ET - 2008/07/17
Seat 1: Urindanger ($37,019)
Seat 2: applsgirl ($43,021)
Seat 3: lolzcapaneo ($5,600)
Seat 4: THEDONKEYNO1 ($42,987)
Seat 5: DaEvils ($39,800)
Seat 6: ICallSoWhat ($89,384), is sitting out
Urindanger posts the small blind of $200
applsgirl posts the big blind of $400
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DaEvils [Ts Tc Jh 9s]
lolzcapaneo folds
THEDONKEYNO1 raises to $800
DaEvils raises to $3,000
Urindanger folds
applsgirl folds
THEDONKEYNO1 calls $2,200
*** FLOP *** [6d As Kh]
THEDONKEYNO1 checks
DaEvils has 15 seconds left to act
DaEvils bets $4,000
THEDONKEYNO1 calls $4,000
*** TURN *** [6d As Kh] [Qc]
THEDONKEYNO1 has 15 seconds left to act
THEDONKEYNO1 checks
DaEvils has 15 seconds left to act
DaEvils bets $11,000
THEDONKEYNO1 has 15 seconds left to act
THEDONKEYNO1 has requested TIME
THEDONKEYNO1 raises to $35,987, and is all in
DaEvils calls $21,800, and is all in
THEDONKEYNO1 shows [Ad 6h 6c Td]
DaEvils shows [Ts Tc Jh 9s]
Uncalled bet of $3,187 returned to THEDONKEYNO1
*** RIVER *** [6d As Kh Qc] [7s]
THEDONKEYNO1 shows three of a kind, Sixes
DaEvils shows a straight, Ace high
DaEvils: so the thing about shortstacking is when you have auto-topoff you no longer shortstack and when you stare at your stack you’e shocked to have 40k!
DaEvils wins the pot ($80,198) with a straight, Ace high
THEDONKEYNO1 adds $12,813
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $80,200 | Rake $2
Board: [6d As Kh Qc 7s]
Seat 1: Urindanger (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: applsgirl (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: lolzcapaneo didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 4: THEDONKEYNO1 showed [Ad 6h 6c Td] and lost with three of a kind, Sixes
Seat 5: DaEvils (button) showed [Ts Tc Jh 9s] and won ($80,198) with a straight, Ace high
Seat 6: ICallSoWhat is sitting out

And all was good.

I’m back in NYC and getting used to the slower pace of life (not constantly having a dozen people around the house, not going out to fancy restaurants or clubs every night, not as many games running on FTP these days, etc.). I spent a couple days on Martha’s Vineyard with some friends from Yale then came back to New York on Sunday.

Funnily enough, I’m actually sleeping on my couch for the time being because I subletted my apartment to my brother (who is in NYC for the summer working for the Brooklyn D.A.’s office). On Monday I basically did nothing (went to the gym, read, played a little poker, ran errands). The highlight of my day was probably buying 4 copies of Plato’s Republic so that my roommates and then acting out the dialogues with my roommates (weird, I know, but it’s actually pretty hysterical to do). Yesterday I woke up at 10 to do a Yoga session (my first ever). I have a friend who’s a bomb Yoga instructor so I was pretty excited but it really wasn’t that awesome. Everybody has always told me how amazingly carthatic and relaxing Yoga is but I just didn’t feel it. I’m going to keep at it because I want to become a lot more flexible and work on some lingering tension spots I have, but so far I’m pretty tepid regarding the endeavor.

Anyway, after the Yoga I played a brief session, lost 16k, then went to Central Park to see the New York Philharmonic play. When I got there I spent an hour trying to get through to my friends on the phone, couldn’t get in touch with anybody except my roommate Tom because the place was too crowded and was a dead zone, and then went back home with Tom. I was a bit tilted from all that but logged on and won 38k pretty quickly at 25/50. So all in all it was a good day.

Today I woke up early, took care of some errands (ordered a new MacbookPro because my laptop’s monitor is coming unhinged at one corner and I hate my laptop, paid some bills, went grocery shopping at Whole Foods, etc.). When I got back my roommate, AG, was home from work because he wasn’t feeling well. So I went up on the roof, read for an hour (restarted Blood Meridian which I’m now almost finished with and completely obsessed with), and when I came back my roommate was gone. So I played a session, won 9k, and then realized I’m completely bored with poker. I’m on such a heater that I win 9k or 20k or whatever and it just doesn’t matter to me and I think I need to take a break to reevaluate and get some perspective. As is I’ve decided I’ve achieved basically what I want to achieve (up 100k since the last post btw) and that poker’s boring, I’m looking into volunteer opportunities to keep me busy until I take the LSAT in October. I’ve decided I don’t want to get a job after all (yes, I know, “but you had that long post about getting a job!” Well I’m still working on quitting poker, just decided to change my plans). I think I’ll find law school more stimulating and it will set me up to go into academia or public interest work which is really what I’m feeling right now.

Anyway, after the session I went to the gym and did some cardio (20 minutes treadmill and 15 minutes on the stationary bike) and then went out and met a friend for drinks. Unfortunately, as I was going to meet her I got a text that my roommate, AG, was in the hospital getting ready for an appendectomy. I’d wondered where he was all day and obviously was very worried so I rushed to the nearby hospital to give him his iPod and some books to read and to see how he was doing. He seemed upbeat despite being hopped up on morphine and very nauseous, but the last I’d heard from him he was going into surgery. I’m obviously hoping everything works out okay (and expecting it to since most of the time everything’s fine, but there’s always risk when surgery’s involved). I went home, watched some t.v. and then decided to start up a session.

The session I played was ridiculous: I waited for forever for games to go and started playing flipoker at a 6-max 50/100 table tryin to get it filled. Eventually John Juanda sat in and next thing you know I’m playing a 6-max game and 2 HU tables with Flip. I think I was playing very well and I was up 19k at one point but I decided to run a couple of 200BB bluffs against takechip/flipoker at 50/100 HU and that didn’t turn out so well so at one point I was down around 30k. I played one awesome hand that basically got me to even on the day in which I insta-called a $20,000 bet with a pure bluff-catcher and won. Flip instantly sat out and quit so I guess I tilted him pretty hard which is good because it means he’ll play me again. If I’d lost I’d have been down 59k but instead I was only down $1900ish, so I flipped with Jonas for that amount and won and ended up even on the day. The hand in question is one of my favorite hands ever because I overbet with the nuts to induce a check/raise then 3-bet to induce a crazy play and it all worked out beautifully. I actually called faster than anybody’s ever called in the history of online poker on the scariest card in the deck:

FullTiltPoker Game #7255266380: Table Lamer (deep hu) - $50/$100 - No Limit Hold’em - 1:07:51 ET - 2008/07/17
Seat 1: DaEvils ($28,831.25)
Seat 2: FLIPokeHer ($30,752.75)
DaEvils posts the small blind of $50
FLIPokeHer posts the big blind of $100
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DaEvils [8c 6h]
DaEvils raises to $200
FLIPokeHer calls $100
*** FLOP *** [Js 5c 4s]
FLIPokeHer checks
DaEvils bets $300
FLIPokeHer calls $300
*** TURN *** [Js 5c 4s] [7h]
FLIPokeHer checks
DaEvils bets $1,450
FLIPokeHer has 15 seconds left to act
FLIPokeHer raises to $4,900
DaEvils has 15 seconds left to act
DaEvils raises to $8,350
FLIPokeHer calls $3,450
*** RIVER *** [Js 5c 4s 7h] [Ts]
FLIPokeHer bets $21,902.75, and is all in
DaEvils calls $19,981.25, and is all in
Uncalled bet of $1,921.50 returned to FLIPokeHer
*** SHOW DOWN ***
FLIPokeHer shows [3s 3h] a pair of Threes
DaEvils shows [8c 6h] a straight, Eight high
DaEvils wins the pot ($57,662) with a straight, Eight high
FLIPokeHer adds $18,078.50
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $57,662.50 | Rake $0.50
Board: [Js 5c 4s 7h Ts]
Seat 1: DaEvils (small blind) showed [8c 6h] and won ($57,662) with a straight, Eight high
Seat 2: FLIPokeHer (big blind) showed [3s 3h] and lost with a pair of Threes

My graph at the top is my session for today and I love looking at the steep 20k swings and thinking about how great it is that I can be playing such high stakes completely over-rolled and comfortable that I’m playing my A-game. Gonna go to bed now, hopefully AG will be okay in the morning.

Got into NYC at midnight, woke up this morning to find out my friends were going to Martha’s Vineyard for the weekend.  Played a quick session, ran well against Isaac Baron (formerly mjorgenson and theguru11) at 50/100, won 23k, and am now leaving for a leisurely internet-free weekend on the Vineyard.

I was going to post a long breakdown of my last week but all the days blurred together in my head. Basically every day I played a little bit of poker and won a ton of money. One night Flawless, his girl, Vanessa, Emil, and I went out to dinner and I lost 10k in the pit. This upset me because that made me only up 16k on the day. Luckily I woke up the next day and played some 200/400 NL, took a way bigger piece than I normally do due to my heater, and won 160k (of which I cleared roughly 80). I’ve been on an insane heater at 200/400 and crushing all other stakes also, plus I’ve had a piece of quite a few players who have been winning big.

For the 4th of July my brother came into town and Team Israel threw a big party at the house. It was really sick the collection of poker talent that was there: Urindanger, Jman28, Raptor, Durrrr, Taylor Caby, Stinger, an quite a few other amazing poker players were there. We all played volleyball in our backyard’s sand-pit (I gambled 1k a game vs Emil, ended up getting odds after losing the 1st won, and won the next game for a clean $200 hustle), played wiffle ball, and drank a ton. That night Team Cardrunners and Team Israel went out to Tao and partied.

Needless to say, the next day I was absolutely exhausted but I’d committed to going Dune Buggie racing with my brother, who was visiting from New York. Flawess, his girl, Vanessa (who’s staying with us), Ansky, and Krantz all came along. It was really sweet: we were out in the desert driving these Dune Buggies at high speeds along some pretty bumpy and steep routes. We were out in the sun at mid-day for 5 hours so were absolutely exhausted. When i got home I decided to play some poker and won 6k at 25/50 in half an hour before passing out at my computer (a running theme of this trip seems to be making a ton of money when coming back home from one of these “outdoor adventures” and then passing out mid-session).

On Sunday, despite being insanely tired, I went out to party with some friends from out of town later that night. I got home at 5 a.m. and remembered that I had to be up at 9 a.m. to go waterskiing on Lake Mead. So I woke up 4 hours later hungover/still drunk and got in a car with Vanessa, Flawless, and his girl and met up with J.C. (jcmoussa) and Jay (1800Gambler/Jay.). We ended up chilling out on the lake for 6 hours, drinking and water-skiing. I actually couldn’t water-ski because I’d sprained my ankle playing basketball so I had to tube instead. Anyway, obviously after drinking and chilling in the sun all day I wasn’t in the mood to play poker so I sat down and made 32k in 216 hands of 25/50 and then quit. Some hands:
FullTiltPoker Game #7129664090: Table Held (deep 6) - $25/$50 - No Limit Hold’em - 22:05:17 ET - 2008/07/07
Seat 1: DaEvils ($13,459)
Seat 3: AlexandraPaul ($13,674.50)
DaEvils posts the small blind of $25
AlexandraPaul posts the big blind of $50
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DaEvils [7d 7h]
DaEvils raises to $150
AlexandraPaul raises to $525
DaEvils calls $375
*** FLOP *** [7c 5h Jd]
AlexandraPaul checks
DaEvils bets $850
AlexandraPaul raises to $1,950
DaEvils has 15 seconds left to act
DaEvils has requested TIME
DaEvils calls $1,100
*** TURN *** [7c 5h Jd] [6c]
AlexandraPaul bets $3,200
DaEvils has 15 seconds left to act
DaEvils raises to $10,984, and is all in
AlexandraPaul calls $7,784
DaEvils shows [7d 7h]
AlexandraPaul shows [As Ah]
*** RIVER *** [7c 5h Jd 6c] [2s]
DaEvils shows three of a kind, Sevens
AlexandraPaul shows a pair of Aces
DaEvils wins the pot ($26,917.50) with three of a kind, Sevens
AlexandraPaul adds $9,784.50
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $26,918 | Rake $0.50
Board: [7c 5h Jd 6c 2s]
Seat 1: DaEvils (small blind) showed [7d 7h] and won ($26,917.50) with three of a kind, Sevens
Seat 3: AlexandraPaul (big blind) showed [As Ah] and lost with a pair of Aces

I played the following hand against muchbetter which led him to say “wp (well played for you noobs out there),” obviously sarcastically.
POKERSTARS GAME #18660064643: HOLD’EM NO LIMIT ($25/$50) - 2008/07/07 - 21:30:50 (ET)
Table ‘Luznice’ 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: Vick Is God ($5974 in chips)
Seat 8: muchbetter ($12160 in chips)
Seat 9: leukspel ($1524 in chips)
leukspel: posts small blind $25
Vick Is God: posts big blind $50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Vick Is God [Qh Ac]
muchbetter: raises $100 to $150
leukspel: folds
Vick Is God: raises $400 to $550
muchbetter: raises $800 to $1350
Vick Is God: raises $4624 to $5974 and is all-in
muchbetter: calls $4624
*** FLOP *** [Ad 4c Qc]
*** TURN *** [Ad 4c Qc] [6c]
Vick Is God said, “AQ”
Vick Is God said, “Ac”
*** RIVER *** [Ad 4c Qc 6c] [5d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Vick Is God: shows [Qh Ac] (two pair, Aces and Queens)
muchbetter: mucks hand
Vick Is God collected $11972 from pot
muchbetter said, “wp”
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $11973 | Rake $1
Board [Ad 4c Qc 6c 5d]
Seat 1: Vick Is God (big blind) showed [Qh Ac] and won ($11972) with two pair, Aces and Queens
Seat 8: muchbetter (button) mucked [Kc As]
Seat 9: leukspel (small blind) folded before Flop

So a couple hands later when he snap-called me on the river I decided to needle him a bit and typed in “wp” afterwards.
POKERSTARS GAME #18660102237: HOLD’EM NO LIMIT ($25/$50) - 2008/07/07 - 21:32:36 (ET)
Table ‘Luznice’ 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Vick Is God ($10473 in chips)
Seat 8: muchbetter ($6136 in chips)
Seat 9: leukspel ($3047 in chips)
muchbetter: posts small blind $25
leukspel: posts big blind $50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Vick Is God [Tc Th]
Vick Is God: raises $100 to $150
muchbetter: raises $400 to $550
leukspel: folds
Vick Is God: calls $400
*** FLOP *** [3c Qs 4c]
muchbetter: bets $850
Vick Is God: calls $850
*** TURN *** [3c Qs 4c] [5h]
muchbetter: checks
Vick Is God: checks
*** RIVER *** [3c Qs 4c 5h] [4s]
muchbetter: checks
Vick Is God: bets $1750
muchbetter: calls $1750
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Vick Is God: shows [Tc Th] (two pair, Tens and Fours)
muchbetter: mucks hand
Vick Is God collected $6349 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $6350 | Rake $1
Board [3c Qs 4c 5h 4s]
Seat 1: Vick Is God (button) showed [Tc Th] and won ($6349) with two pair, Tens and Fours
Seat 8: muchbetter (small blind) mucked [Jh Ad]
Seat 9: leukspel (big blind) folded before Flop

So he decided to challenge me to a live heads-up match at Bellagio for any stakes. I agreed and showed up to Bellagio the next morning a few hours early and treated myself to a facial, worked out at the gym, got a massage, and then went to go play a 200/400 match. Muchbetter, who is a Brazilian billionaire, never showed up so Krantz and I went to go play some blackjack while I was waiting on a seat at 50/100. Coming into the day I realized that I only needed to win 40k to reach a million dollar bankroll. I was betting $400/hand while Krantz was betting 1k/hand and I won 8k before getting called to my game. Krantz was up 10k and decided to do one last hand before I left, double or nohing on his profit. He got a 17 against an 8 (almost better to bust than have that sweat sometimes), but the dealer rolled a 3 (yikes!), a 2 (monkey!) and a 9 (YES!!!!!!!). Old Japanese gambler dude at our table went crazy high-fiving us and we rolled over to the poker room, with me in pursuit of 7-figs.

The 50/100 game was not that juicy at first: it was me, Krantz, jmc (very good stars player), and Lee Markholt (solid live pro). I raised KhKd from the sb against Krantz’ straddle, he defended, and I bet 3 times on 3h4h7h3dTc but unfortunately he folded the river. Then I called his reraise with 78o in position, he check/called QsTd5d and check folded on a 4d turn.

I also finally made a hand in live poker. I raised AdAs utg, got 2 callers including Lee in the SB. He donked an AsJc2d board for 350 into 1150 and I raised him to 1850. He called. At this point I knew I was going to stack him because he ha to have a monster there (hard for him to have Ax, don’t think he plays it that way, and he would play JJ like this every time). Turn cam ea 6d and he checked, I bet 3200, and he check/raised to 10k with 10k behind. At this point I was sur he had a set and wanted to jam but I figured I’m stacking him no mtter what on the river and I might as well protect my future just calls so I can’t be bluffed in big pots so easily (really I should have jammed and was being cute for no reason). The river came a 7d and he jammed, I called, and he had 22. Life is easy sometimes.

At that point I was only 6k away from a million dollars and I finally hit it in true DaEvils style: I squeezed a raiser, got 3 callers, and bet Ak into all 3 on 588 rainbow. They all folded and I started playing Lil Wayne’s “A Milli” over and over, just looping the first 20 seconds. The game broke with no real interesting hands occurring (although there were 3 huge fish, I picked up no hands and basically broke even).

By now Krantz had left my game to go play 300/600 PLO/NLHE in Bobby’s Room. I got a massage at my table for an hour and went inside just in time to see Krantz lose a 120k pot and pick up and leave. He’d lost me 24k so I was no longer a millionaire. Sigh. I decided to try making that 24k back in Craps, lost 4k, and rolled out. It was Danzamsack’s last night in town so the house went to Pierro’s for dinner (solid Italian spot) and then we went out to Blush at the Wynn.

Yada yada yada, today I woke up hungover and saw there was a great 200/400 game on Stars. I won 60k (~22k of my own money) pretty quickly thanks to very well-played, non-luck-related hands such as this one:
POKERSTARS GAME #18701126621: HOLD’EM NO LIMIT ($200/$400) - 2008/07/09 - 16:55:03 (ET)
Table ‘Bellona V’ 6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: ktrieu ($38200 in chips)
Seat 2: Vick Is God ($56595 in chips)
Seat 4: $tinger 88 ($39400 in chips)
Seat 5: Steve_Haris ($41390 in chips)
Seat 6: Vaga_Lion ($81968 in chips)
Vick Is God: posts small blind $200
$tinger 88: posts big blind $400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Vick Is God [9h Jc]
Steve_Haris: folds
Vaga_Lion: folds
ktrieu: folds
Vick Is God: raises $1200 to $1600
$tinger 88: calls $1200
*** FLOP *** [7s 5h Th]
Vick Is God: bets $2600
DCal Zone is connected
$tinger 88: calls $2600
*** TURN *** [7s 5h Th] [8d]
Vick Is God: bets $7100
$tinger 88: calls $7100
*** RIVER *** [7s 5h Th 8d] [Kc]
Vick Is God: bets $28400
$tinger 88: calls $28100 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($300) returned to Vick Is God
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Vick Is God: shows [9h Jc] (a straight, Seven to Jack)
$tinger 88: mucks hand
Vick Is God collected $78795 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $78800 | Rake $5
Board [7s 5h Th 8d Kc]
Seat 1: ktrieu (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 2: Vick Is God (small blind) showed [9h Jc] and won ($78795) with a straight, Seven to Jack
Seat 4: $tinger 88 (big blind) mucked [4d 6d]
Seat 5: Steve_Haris folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 6: Vaga_Lion folded before Flop (didn’t bet)

After paying off my credit cards I realized I was still $6,229 short of a million. Krantz offered to PLO-flip me for that much because he felt bad about sending me back to 6-figs, so we flipped and I got it in as a 60% favorite:
Full Tilt Poker Game #7153533147: Table Full (heads up) - $50/$100 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 17:45:23 ET - 2008/07/09
Seat 1: pr1nnyraid ($6,229)
Seat 2: DaEvils ($6,229)
pr1nnyraid posts the small blind of $50
DaEvils posts the big blind of $100
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS **
Dealt to DaEvils [Kd Ac 8h 6h]
pr1nnyraid raises to $300
DaEvils has 15 seconds left to act
DaEvils raises to $900
pr1nnyraid raises to $2,700
DaEvils has 15 seconds left to act
DaEvils has requested TIME
DaEvils raises to $6,229, and is all in
pr1nnyraid calls $3,529, and is all in
DaEvils shows [Kd Ac 8h 6h]
pr1nnyraid shows [8s 8c 8d Qc]
** FLOP ** [9s As 9c]
*** TURN ** [9s As 9c] [7c]
*** RIVER ** [9s As 9c 7c] [Qh]
DaEvils shows two pair, Aces and Nines
pr1nnyraid shows two pair, Queens and Nines
DaEvils wins the pot ($12,457.50) with two pair, Aces and Nines
pr1nnyraid is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $12,458 | Rake $0.50
Board: [9s As 9c 7c Qh]
Seat 1: pr1nnyraid (small blind) showed [8s 8c 8d Qc] and lost with two pair, Queens and Nines
Seat 2: DaEvils (big blind) showed [Kd Ac 8h 6h] and won ($12,457.50) with two pair, Aces and Nines

After the flop I was really happy obviously and jokingly told myself I wasn’t going to play any more poker today so I could have 1 day as a millionaire at least. But tjbentham sat down at my 100/200 table on Stars and he was playing really poorly (weird because he’s normally pretty good) so I took 100% of myself and beat him for 25k. It’s been an amazing month, I’ve made a ton of money, and I’m flying back to NYC tomorrow. Think I’m going to have a quiet last night and decompress from the craziness that is Las Vegas for a few days.

Anyway, here are a bunch of pics. I apologize I can’t tag these photos before each one, but my blog interface is crap. So the pictures are at the top but I’ll just tell you what they are from top to bottom.

1) Brian, J.C., Jay, and I floating on life vests while drinking beer in a cove

2) The dune buggie place had Antonio Esfandiari and Phil Laak over for their show and decided to prominently feature the release form in their shop. They highlighted Phil Laak’s name but not Antonio’s. LOL!

3) Flawless destroyed one of the buggies

4) Me, Urindanger, OMGClayAiken, and somebody whose name I totally forgot (if you’re reading this my bad: semi-drunk and didn’t hear it the first time) playing Chinese poker

5, 6, and 7: more dune buggie pics

Emil wearing a Team Israel yarmulke (with playing cards design) while playing poker.

9) Chef Robert with the Deucescracked ice sculpture

10) Strasser vs me in a flex-off.

11) Me tubing

12) Totally candid shot of me just thinking about life in general, you know?

13) More tubing

14) Vanessa pulling a sick move water skiing

15) My screen shot since July 3rd.