Suffice to say, I don't know what happened in the past 2 weeks, but someone opened up a black hole and everything good fell into it. I even have some small tourney wins and final tables in the past 2 weeks but I'm down substancially. My all in win rate for the past 2 weeks is running at about 22% overall on damn near 1400 called all ins... THats bad.. I believe, that's worse than if you had 72 off vs aces all in pre 1400 times, you'd do about 3% better than I have....What's worse, is that I've had the best hand about 75% of the time when the money went it..

Who knows,,, they say things come in 3s...

Number 2 came today when I got home and opened my mail. I had a drivers license suspension notice in there. I flipped, wtf is that all about?? I called the ministry and found out that I had an unpaid speeding ticket from August that was due Nov 26th for 38 bucks... Yes, 38 F'n dollars.. I forgot, with my travelling etc, it was an oversight.. How the Ministry of Transportation handles that now?? THey suspend your license,,, double your fine basically and then it takes you 5 fckn days to get your license back.. THEN,,,,to get it back you have to pay an additional 150 bucks..so, I'm a lil choked..

Number 3 is something that isn't funny, nor is it pleasurable, and I hope it's the last bad news that I have to deal with for 2008.. Any quiet good thoughts or quiet prayers about this would be greatly appreciated. I've known one of my favorite aunts has had lung cancer for a while now. But, yesterday it really took a turn for the worse. She had to be hospitalized and it isn't looking good. Her family is moving her *home* to be with her family.. Anyway,, nothing else really matters in my world right now other than reflecting on that, and praying that somehow it will end up ok... However that is.. I just hope that her, and her family, somehow, find some peace and some great things to reflect on.

Anyway, I guess you really have to focus and embrace the good things in life. Never take them for granted and be thankful for every blessing that you have around you. You never really know when something tragic is going to happen. A poker hand, is just that, a poker hand..

KK

Well, despite the Aruba poker event not going great for me I had a bunch of positives start to happen at the beginning of October. All of which gave me a renewed sense of excitement and passion for this industry again. New projects that are exciting, fun and challenging.

First of all I signed a deal with www.picclub.com a new payment processor. Check this site out as it gives players access to about 130 poker rooms around the net. I didn't even know there was 130 rooms out there but there are and there are many good choices for people to play on out there. What this showed me was that there's money to be made out there, especially on some of the smaller sites as the competition out there on these sites is very soft in comparison to many of the bigger sites.

This deal opened up new doors for many new poker sites as well. I signed a short term deal with www.reeferpoker.com which is on the Merge Network. I like this site and the interface a lot. There's a few things that I'd like to see them change to make it a bit more user friendly for multi tabling, but they are listening and I'm sure good changes will come down the line. I really like the management from this company and think they have a great attitude and passion for the business. If you sign up and want some good perks, use KRAZYKANUCK as your bonus code.

About mid way through October, I started a new poker radio show along with Mark Kroon aka P0ker H0, one of the online pros from Ultimatebet. Mark is a long term friend of mine from the industry and one of the first people I met from the cyber world of poker. Mark is a class act guy, a great friend and one of the nicest and most successful online players out there. We called the show the KrazyHo Poker show and it airs on http://Roundersradio.com every Sunday night at 8pm eastern time. Our first 4 weeks saw Chris Moneymaker, Robert Williamson, Annette_15 and Steve Dannemann as our featured guests. There has been a lot of excitement around this show and Mark and I know enough people in the online and live world to always have interesting guests to talk to. ( I'll write a separate blog on this show to come as some things have happened that I'd like to share with the poker world).

Also in October, I ended up grinding out a decent month online despite having to travel a few times for family emergency issues. Despite all of that the month turned out to be a generally positive one.

Jim *KrazyKanuck* Worth

Well, I fell of the face of the earth for a while there, and to both pokerspace and the people who follow my blog, I apologize.

Had a pretty turbulant month and a half with some major family health scares and trama. Balancing some road trips because of family, work, my daughter, I neglected some of my responsibilities to pokerspace etc. For that I'm sorry.

Anyway, the end of Sept brought UB's Aruba poker classic. This was my 6th year going down to that little island paradise for this event. This year, was the first year that I went down there and had no obligations or commitments with UB. That made things definately different. Was the first time that I was somewhat of an *outsider* for lack of a better term, but it also gave me the freedom to do as I pleased while there. I went down with my amazing girl and very much enjoyed that time with her.

I played the main event while there and lasted until the end of day one. To say that that day was frustrating was the understatement of the year. Unfortunately I don't remember the key hands now, but basically I know I butchered one hand that cost me about a third of my stack and then did it again about 2 hours later costing me another half of my stack. We started with 20 K in chips and other than raising the very first hand and stealing the blinds I was never above 20 K again. I hovered at 12K most of the day. I got up to about 15K when I flat called a raise on the button with AK off. The blind called as well. We got an AQ4 rainbow flop when the BB led out for a pot sized bet. The raisor folded and I minimum raised the blind( like an idiot) and priced him into the pot. After the T hit the turn, he led out for a half pot bet. Having potentially straight outs and maybe a K out I called him. The river was a blank and he led out again for a half pot bet. I knew I was beat and actually put him on AT,, but I called, like an idiot, and he had AT. It knocked me down to about 3000 in chips. I rebuilt it back up to about 15 K again when I finally got all in with QQ vs 77 and lost to bust out.

The part about the week that I remember more than anything else is that I played 4 tourneys while there and 1 single table to which I bubbled after losing 3 all ins in a row. I went 1 win for 16 all ins while in Aruba. God only knows why I could run that bad while there but it happened.

Karen and I finished off the trip by hanging out, going for walks, being at the beach and enjoying the rest of our vacation together. The poker part for me was over for this trip as I had no more desire to play after basically bubbling the 2000 NL late in the week. I know I got all in in that tourney with the worst of it but the way the hand came down it turned out to be another frustrating bad beat. I was getting kind of short chipped with about 15K in chips on 1000/2000 blinds. The cut off raised to 8k while I was on the button and I looked down at TT. I had no other play than to shove or fold. But, folding wasn't an option so I shoved. Well, the small blind instantly announced all in behind me for nearly 40 K. I KNEW I was dead, he had to have a massive pair that close to the bubble. Well, the cut off mucked his cards face up and showed an A9 of spades. The small blind rolled over his aces and I was cursing my luck to finally get a half decent pair and run into aces. Well, I got the damn T on the flop! Because the cutoff folded an ace the small blind only had 1 out on me with no straight or flush possible for him. BOOM, turn brought the last ace....now I had 1 out and of course didn't get it. I figured I had caught my first break for the week and it lasted for all of 3 seconds...

Anyway, poker wise, Aruba was a bust for me. The trip itself was half decent with the exception of a few things and having to watch some pretty obscene behavior from some people that I know. Other than that, mostly it was great to see some great friends and spend a week with my gal.

More to come.

KK

Well, September was a very disappointing month for me play wise. I had expected to come back after not playing much in August and concentrate on both improving facets of my game by focusing on the games that I excel at and making a good amount of money on the month. Unfortunately, the latter part didn't come through for me for Sept. In fact, it was one of my most disappointing months in a long time. I tracked a lot of things very closely this month, including my called all in win rate and it was so damn low that it was actually disturbing. To say that you could play 1000 all ins blind and probably win more of the actually all ins than I did for the month wouldn't be a stretch. Variance, if that's what it was, was beyond reason for me. Anyway, I didn't lose the farm for the month, but it wasn't a fun month for me at all.

Obviously when this is happening you have to find the reasons for it. Who the hell knows if it is just simple math or being extreamely unlucky for a month, but it rattles you. So, maybe that feeling or expectation to lose that all important all in comes into play. Maybe ideas like *The Secret*, about the laws of attraction have some truth to it. Negativity breeds negativity, positive thinking breeds postive results,, I don't know, but I have to find the answer because I most certainly did NOT enjoy the game for the month.

Chris Moneymaker, who's become a great friend of mine over the years after playing Day 1 together back in 2003 when he won, was watching my play a lot the past month at Pokerstars. All he could say was Good God Jim, you run bad, after watching me lose 3 Four to One favorites all-in in a row. By contrast, he was running very well and cashed very deep in a number of the WCOOP events. I made it close to the money in the $1000 NL, but took a very bad all in beat of course to cripple me, then I got called by some random hand vs my pair and was facing a 3 out hand by my opponent. Of course he hit and my day was done.

Regardless of this, I don't give up. I try and search out the reasons for what's happening. I am in a funk, but will find a way out of it. Again, I stress that you have to love the game you are playing to play it correctly and profitablly. When you play it for fun and love what you are doing, you win. Seems to go hand in hand. When you have days where you've had 70 called all ins and lost 62 of them, you feel like chucking your laptop across the room.

Anyway, on a positive note, and maybe this is a sign of good things to come, I will be signing with a couple of companies to help endorse their products, to which I will announce here when everything is set in stone. I am very excited about it. I've been playing on some of the smaller sites the past week that are out there with some amazing success. The be all and end all isn't the big 3 sites I've found out. There's many great choices out there.

I am heading to Aruba for Ultimatebet's Aruba poker championships tomorrow morning and am very excited about it. I've always loved that trip and this will be my 6th time going down there. I will give updates while there and hopefully will not only have a very fun trip there but will have something great to talk about from the main event poker tourney there.

Cheers and have fun at the tables.

KK

Well, after a summer of ups and downs, the disappointing WSOP, a month vacation basically in August I had a lot of time to think about what I wanted to accomplish in the upcoming year. I have goals to meet in my game, places I want to go and play but my primary goal this year will be making money. As silly as that might sound as a poker player it's all too easy to get caught up in multi table tournaments and satellites to get into different events. Of course you can make a big score in a multi table tournament but the day to day play is what sets your destiny.

I've decided that my focus is going to be on building up a very good bankroll and doing things differently than I have been. I'll be focusing on the cash games and sitngos that I am good at and not so much on the multi tables. Reality is, the ROI expectation on multis is lower for a good player than it is in the other games. I guess what I'm saying is that I'm going to not focus so much on the *glory* games in poker being multis and refocus on the games that I know I can consistently make money at. By doing so, it takes the pressure off having to do well in the multis in order to both pay bills and to keep your name in the spot light. I think I've realized that unless you are having fun playing, enjoying yourself and really loving what you are doing, you aren't going to do well. This game can be very rewarding when things are going well but it can be hell on earth when things are running bad. The ups and downs of the past year has been a real eye opening experience for me that I haven't had to deal with or think about in the past 6 years. Your head space, confidence, love for the game and your ability to play the game for the enjoyment goes a long way in your success.

Basically I'm saying I'm going to work on things in my game because not only do I want to get better at the game, but I want to have fun doing it. Not try to improve my game because it's my job or because I need to. That will never work. When I play the game because I'm having a blast doing it, I've realized I am very tough to beat and I win a lot. When I'm not in a good head space or negative, I lose. It's that simple and it's that black and white.

I have a real love hate relationship with this game, and I want to get that back to just loving to sit down and mixing it up. Therefore, if I'm not *feeling* it, I'm not playing:) PLain and simple. But, if I am feeling it,,, watch out :)

cheers

KK

Well after taking that week to go away with my daughter to see family and old friends I really came out of the gates charging last week. I had written previously about coming in 6th in the 9pm $120 10 sniper tourney at UB but that was just the beginning of my week.

I don't have a huge, big money success story to tell here, but I do have something that I am happy with to share. The week in general. I played very few multi table tournaments last week but had success in most of them. I played four 8pm $120 10 deep stacks at Ultimatebet last week and cashed in three of them including one final table for 7th place and $1000.00. I played the Sunday Million at pokerstars and cashed in that as well, around 700th place for about $450.00. After taking numerous bad beats in the other Sunday tournys that I played I was a little steamed so I hopped in a $5.00 .50 tourney I saw about to start at about 8pm on Sunday night at Pokerstars. It had over 1150 players in it and I jumped in to blow off some frustration and steam. I played like a charging crazed bull.... Funny thing happened... I got chipped up. I continued playing that tournament without paying much attention to it. I was concentrating on bigger sitngos and a much larger, $500 30 buy Aruba Super Satelite at Ultimatebet. Well, 5 hours into this damn $5.00 tourney we were in the money, top 100 I think, and I didn't even know!! LOL... All of a sudden, 6 hours in I realized that I was close to the final table. It still paid squat for busting out, like 4x my money, but first place was over $1100.00 and I figured I might as well buckle down and play it well! By nearly 3 in the morning I was heads up for the win against another player. I took the lead from him but ended up making a move on what turned out to be an 18 out hand and I missed, basically crippling myself. He ended up winning it but I got 2nd place for nearly $700.00 for $5.00 invested... It was fun!

Moral of the story is this:)

I don't know what changed last week but my results sky rocketted. I mean, overall money made, success rate etc went way up last week. I can't really peg what I was doing differently or whether it was just luck or not, but I'm sure feeling refreshed, happy and recharged had a lot to do with it. Let's face it, people get stale, no matter how good you are, how much experience you have etc, you fall into ruts. I think the positive mental attitude, coupled with a relaxed happy demeanor went a long way to help me think clear headedly and make good decisions last week and I think my results showed it.

Watch out on the tables this month folks, I'm going to steam roll them!

Look out!

Jim *KrazyKanuck* Worth

Now last week was fun! I drove up to northern Ontario, about a 7 hour drive up to my home town of Sault Ste Marie Ontario! I spent the entire week at friends and family's cottages. Spent the week on boats, hiking and having fun and very little poker! What a relief it was to be sitting on a gorgeous patio overlooking the lake and watching the birds and fish jumping like crazy! The salmon have started to run so watching them do leaps in the air was a pretty relaxing sight!

One of the best reminders of how gorgeous Northern Ontario was at night time looking up at the millions of stars in the sky. Living in the Toronto area you forget sometimes how many damn stars are up there! Even saw a number of shooting stars, was such crystal clear skies!

Was great to drive up north of Sault Ste Marie into the Canadian Shield area where the rolling hills and forests are just one of the most beautiful and peaceful sights imaginable. I took hikes along the Gros Cap area along sheer cliff faces overlooking Lake Superior and was sitting there was awe watching the waves roll in. The last thing on my mind was poker, which was a relief to be honest as I've played so damn much in the past months.

Spent a day on a friends boat going up to Parisian Island north of Sault Ste Marie on Lake Superior and had just an amazing day of boating, sun and fun. Then headed back to his cottage and fell dead asleep, peacefully, on his dock after a day of sun, swimming and fun.

I ended the trip driving down through Michigan. Stopping overnight at Mackinaw City and taking a ferry over to Mackinaw Island. Spent the day with my daughter and girlfriend biking around the island, an 8 mile journey. At about mile 6 it started to POUR rain, thunder and lightning included. Honestly, it didn't phaze us at all, we were loving it. No one else was on the trails, they were all hiding from the rain, we were having a ball and rode the last 2 miles in great spirits. We were soaked to the bone and ended up having to buy new shorts and shirts, lol, but, we didn't care, we were having a blast. We stopped in Petoski and Harbor Springs for a day of shopping and looking around then made our way back down to Toronto.

I got back, felt refreshed, recharged and great. I need to do that more for my own health, sanity and happiness. The first tournament I played was last night at Ultimatebet. I hopped in, last minute into their 9pm $120 10 sniper tourney that had 281 players running for an $8000 first place. I went into the tourney feeling good and clear headed. I made it deep into the tourney. With about 90 players left however, the wheels fell off the bus. I had been running in between first place and 15th place for about 2 hours when everything went wrong. With 90 players left, I found myself with 2000 in chips and in 88th place. I was in deep shit. I moved all in in early position with some random hand( forgot) and got called by the big blind. He had 2 overs but my cards were fresh. I flopped a pair and it held! I doubled up! Then, while under the gun I moved all in again with an AJ and got called by 99, I won that race and was up to about 8000 now. 2 hands later while in the small blind a late position raiser moved all in, I had 77 and called his all in. He had TT, damnit! I turned a 7 and almost fell off the couch... I was up to 19000 and back in the hunt. 30 positions paid and when we were down to 38 players i was in 32nd place and struggling. Low and behold I moved all in on the cut off with a K9 off suit and the small blind moved in huge over top of me. He flipped over AK and when the flop came down A92 I knew i was toast... River 9,, again, I was stunned, now, I was going to make it into the money. I made it in and survived right down to about 13 players left but I was in last place. Just through aggressive play and a few uncalled all ins I made the final table! I was the short stack by far though. I joked around with the table and told them I was in last place so I had them all where I wanted them. Basically, I went all in on the first hand, was called, got lucky AGAIN and doubled up, was up to about 30 000 now. Then a mid stack pushed all in in late position and I had AQ in the Big blind, I called, won that race and was up to over 70 000. Then a short stack moved all in from the button and I had AJ in the small blind, I took a shot at him and called and he flipped over TT, i won THAT race too... I was running good and was over 120 000 now, amazing... unfortunately, that was the end of the fun for me really. I busted the 10th place player then missed a 18 out drawing hand then got caught on a bluff and gave up 60% of my stack on those 2 damn hands. 50 000 in chips and and was in survival mode again. I lasted down to 6 players when my luck ran out. I pushed all in from late position with 66 and ran into TT and didn't suck out. I cashed for $1700 and got 7 bounties for a total of $1770 for the $130 buy in. Not a bad result for the first tourney back after holidays..

Hopefully more to come. I want to make $5000 by Friday so I have my work cut out for me!

Today though, I'm off to Wasaga beach, cards will have to wait!

Knock em Dead,

Jim *KrazyKanuck* Worth

Well, today was a long day. I was feeling the pinch of a bad run the past week or so with mostly winning days but certainly not a lot nor close to my daily average. I was bound and determined today to make sure I had a good day. I scaled back my limits today and ground and ground and ground out small wins.

I even entered small feeder rebuy multi table satiltes into larger buy in multis today. I won a $500 seat and I got heads up for a $130 seat into the 9pm UB sniper tourney, the $120 10.. but, as I was heads up with my opponent, I think I jokingly asked if he wanted to make a deal. Well, he had me 2-1 in chips. So, I threw out proposal. I said, Tell you what, you sit out, I'll win the seat and give you 35% of my action, he asked for 50%, i said, ok 45%,,he said deal... based on a 2-1 chip lead he had, I think he was a little too anxious to take that deal regardless of my experience vs his,, but he took it.. Well, must have been good karma because I put together one of my better touranments and ended up finishing in 3rd place for a $3300 score to which my *partner* got 45%,,, he was pretty happy and obviously didn't regret making the deal. I think that feeder was a 3 buck rebuy feeder that i was into for like 12 bucks, so it was a good return on investment..

Between that and putting together a solid day overall, I had a pretty decent day. I went card dead from 6 handed down in my tourney and am somewhat disappointed at not winning it, but C'est la Vie..And, if I hadn't of made a completely stupid $550 mistake earlier in the day it would have been a stellar day,, but again, that's life... was a good day.. I played too long today tho, that last tourney took over 6 hours, I think I logged close to 13 hours today at least... too much...

Next week I'm heading north for a week of fun. I'll still play a bit, but I'll be enjoying cottage life..

Cheers

Jim *KrazyKanuck* Worth

I am currently finishing off a new lesson or course for the poker school here revolving around sitngo play and the different strategies around playing and making money at them. Any feedback would be welcome to help me direct this course to be as helpful as possible to the players at this site. Just message me or make comments on this blog for any advice you might have or any content that you'd like to see covered in this course.

The course is going to be a little different than the normal courses here because a lot of the content will be poker theory rather than black and white answers like "IF you have 5 cards of the same suit, what is that called"....so, again, if there's any areas of sitngo play you'd like to see touched on, let me know.

cheers

KK

Getting back home from the WSOP was actually a relief for me. I made money overall while there but the series this year was a very long drawn out frustrating few weeks for me. I don't think I've ever had such a long cold streak live as I did there, at least for satellite and tournament play. I had some successes and ended up making money overall in the satellites and tournaments but not even close to what I was hoping for. I made money in the cash games consistently while there however and that really got me thinking. I looked over my satellite receipts the other day and I was shocked at how many satellites/single tables I had played while at the WSOP. My success rate certainly wasn't anywhere close to where it usually was and it reminded me on how frustrating it was to be on such a negative variance run at a major event. But, I've realized, for the most part anyway, that there wasn't a hell of a lot I could have done differently. It was just a frustrating and disappointing experience this year.

Once I got home it was actually tough to get back into the daily online grind. The weather was great outside and it was great to be back home among friends and family. Spending hours playing took a real effort. But, you have to do what you have to do so I've tried to put my nose down to the grind stone and get playing to make some money. The good news is that I generally doing well. I think I have to get that passion back to really start loving it again. What helped with that was playing a $5.00 dollar rebuy satellite one day a couple of weeks ago. The satellite was to get into a bigger $530.00 satellite to win a seat into the UltimateBet Poker Classic in Aruba. Well, I ended up being into the rebuy tournament for about $35.00 total with rebuys and the addon and I won the $530.00 seat. The main satellite had a 50 seat guarantee and had close to 900 players in it. I had my work cut out for me. The tournament was going ok for me but I really wasn't getting any good hands at all. 3 hours into the tournament I was at about 75% of the average stack with about 200 players left. I remember making it down to about 90 players with about 50% of average and feeling that little panicked feeling for about an hour and a half screaming inside that I needed a big hand or break and it just wasn't coming. I remember I got ACES once and raised from middle position about 2 1/2 times the big blind and everyone folded, how frustrating was that! Then I got dealt KK in early position and I really needed action so I limped. Only the 2 blinds came in and no one raised. I think I had 2 red kings and the flop came down all spades ACE high! DAMNIT! The blinds checked and I made a little bet into the pot and they both folded so I really didn't get much from that pot. I don't think I had been all in once yet during the tournament. And, the way I had been running in multis at UB at that time, I didn't really want to get all in because I was tracking out so poorly at them. With about 85 players left and everyone playing super tight I had about 40% of average and was in about 75th place in the chips. I needed to make something happen. I was in the big blind when it was folded to the button who raised it 3X the big blind. I had 55 and decided to make a stand. I had enough to make him lay down his hand by pushing but not enough to flat call and fold. Flat calling and doing a stop and go was an option, meaning flat calling preflop then just pushing all in on the flop and praying the guy didn't hit and will fold, but, I shoved all in. Well, he called and he had AJ vs my 55, a race. Flop came down JT2 and my hopes were dashed. I just haven't been running well enough to even hope to hit a 2 out hand. Turn card was a 5! I sat there silently and shocked. I couldn't even tell you how long it had been since I pulled out a miracle like that in a critical situation. I had people sitting around me when I played and I guess I was so quiet that they were confused whether I had won or not. I was just shocked was all. Anyway, I got the critical double up. A little while later I flat called a raise from a huge stack with QQ in my big blind and the flop came down KQT. I checked, he shoved I called and he had AK. The turn was an ace, just to panick me but the river paird the tens giving me the win. There were about 65 players left when this happened and I just had to make it into the top 50 to win the $8500.00 package to Aruba. I basically locked it down from there and let the inexperienced players slit their own throats. It took a LONG LONG time to make it to 50 players but we finally did. I was AMAZED at the mistakes some players made to not get their seats but it worked to my advantage. One player that I'll give credit to was a very short stack who, in my opinion, crippled himself with some mistakes but I have to give him kudos for being so patient. He made it into the 50 players left with one big blind bet left. Some moron pushed a good sized stack into a big stacks raise from his blind with JJ and ran into aces and busted when he didn't have to giving this tiny stack, who had 3 hands maximum left to play, the seat. Thank god sometimes for morons in this game, it makes us all money.

More to come.

Jim *KrazyKanuck* Worth

Well, after 5 weeks away it's sure as hell nice to be home. I was very happy to see my daughter, girlfriend, friends and relatives. Now comes the task of getting back in the groove of balancing online play and life.

I know I've decided to change things up. I did a lot of thinking while away and realized that there's a lot more to life than poker. I'm not saying I'm giving up the game by any stretch of the imagination. Quite the contrary. I've realized how big of an impact balance plays in success. How much positive and negative attitudes can affect your game. How playing MORE poker, MORE hours doesn't make you a better player. In fact, I've learned that with balance, positive mental attitude, contentment and happiness comes a better game. I know that when I am happy with all facets of my life I approach poker as a game that I love to play. When I do so, I play better and am very hard to beat. In fact, when I'm in the groove like that I virtually always make money. I love the game and when I play it for *sport* rather than survival I play better.

The next month and a half I am focusing on my family life, life and balance. I'll still be playing, but shorter hours and I guarantee you a more successful Return on Investment in the hours played. Shorter hours meaning not waking up and going to sleep playing poker. I'll still be putting in hours as economics dictates that I must, but, I'll be doing it fresher, happier and for sport which is a winning combination.

Keep your balance in life, stay focused on what's important and work on your game because you love the thrill of playing it. No more no less. Anything you get from it over and above is a bonus that compliments your life, that doesn't control it or run it.

cheers

KK

Well, I played the Super Satilite today for the $15 000 Bellagio Cup. Made it down to about 90 players of about 240 that started and sputtered out. We started off with 4500 in chips and my high point was about 7500. I got a lot of big hands early in the tounament but didn't get paid much from them. I was playing aggressively but the table was playing passively and was hard to get money out of. Case in point was when I raised in late position 3 X the Big Blind. The button flat called me, although, I thought he was going to re-raise but he didn't. The flop came down 10 5 2 rainbow. I bet out about 60% of the pot and he flat called. The turn was a King and I bet out about 75% of the pot and he called again. The river was a Q and after thinking about it for a bit, I checked. I had NO idea where I was in the hand and whether I was being trapped by 2 pair, whether he made a straight or not or a set, had no clue so I Checked. He quickly checked behind me and I showed aces, he flashed JJ. But, my point is, he didn't reraise preflop nor did he raise my bet on the flop which was amazing to me because 90% of the poker world would have raised me there. I didn't make a ton of chips off him when I should have probably crippled him there.

Anyway, the rest of the tourney was a bit of a yoyo for me. I laid down QQ on the river basically a KKT93 board and I really don't know if it was the correct fold or not. The guy, John Gale insists he had the goods but who the hell knows. I wish I called him even if it had of busted me now. In the end, I flopped a pair of jacks and moved all in, I got 2 callers and one guy had KK and rivered the set, not that he needed it.

Anyway, enough is enough. I'm going home. Catching a red eye tonight so I can be at my daughter's play tomorrow afternoon. I've made money while here but unfortunately, no more than I would have at home playing online. C'est la Vie. There's always more tourneys.

Cheers

KK

Despite not having a great run at the RIO this year, I am still up on the trip. I managed to squeek out enough single tables to pay the expenses while down here. That coupled with the Venetian 4th, ring games and online poker I am up on the trip. Which, by itself is important. I think I should have been up substantially more on the trip had my variance not been so whacked out but it's a hell of a lot better than being down. I only had 1 losing session of playing live while down here and I think it was a loss of $310.00 which is really nothing. The 2/5 NL game at the Palms was sickeningly fat and a license to print money. I've found out that getting out of the major card rooms and into some of the less busy ones in Vegas can prove to be very juicy. Moneymaker and I have played this 2/5 nl down here and had silly success at it.

Today is Single table followed by Super Satilite day at the Bellagio for me. I've had a lot of success at the Bellagio in the past few years and it is by far my favorite place to play tournaments. The stack sizes and structure suit my game to a tee. I am hoping to get into the Bellagio Cup's main event, the $15 000 NL starting on Friday. It should be a big one as they are having 3 day ones. If I can get in I'll be very happy. I don't intend on buying in directly to this one but will invest in the satilites.

I took a break off of live play yesterday and basically relaxed and didn't go out at all. I feel rested this morning and ready to hit the tables over at the Bellagio in a couple of hours.

Cheers

KK

Well, I've thought about my bust out hand and again, I am totally undecided on what I should have done there. I've talked to many friends and pros alike and 90% would have raised the hand there and almost 100% said they would have gone broke there. One comment on my last blog was right though, about trusting your instincts and gutt feel. I should have. Regardless of what logic says you should do, I keep having to learn the same lesson over and over again that my gutt instincts ARE good and they generally are right. Point being, I might not have been out had I listened to them, even after the flop. One of these days I'm going to have to throw logic and reason out the window and trust my gutt instincts and just pull the trigger on them. Honestly, even if it was the wrong decision at the time, I'd feel better about it. I had this, for lack of a better term, 6th sense screaming at me in my head and I over ruled it with logic and reason and ended up on the rail. I am going to try and not make that mistake again.

My day 1 started off ok. I sat at my table and honestly didn't recognize anyone at the table. In fact, I hadn't seen any body ever before. The guy sitting to my left recognized me but otherwise I don't think anyone else did and I kept a low profile. It was only after about 4 hours of play when reporters and photographers kept coming to either talk to me or take a picture that some of them started to ask who I was. I just said I used to be a porn star turned part time poker player, which got a few chuckles. The guy to my left outted me though.

One of my first big hands was blind vs blind. The small blind limped into my big blind on the first level, 50 / 100. I had a Q9 off in the big blind and just checked. I hate these sort of situations as you have no information and I don't really like raising a Q9 because typically the blinds get stubborn heads up. Anyway, the flop came down Q93 with 2 spades. The guy led out 200 bucks into me and I raised him to 600 to which he snap called. I'm thinking immediately that he's on a flush draw. The turn card was a red 4 and he checked. I bet 1300 into him and he called again. The river was a 2 of spades and he bet 2200 into me. I knew he had it and still paid him off. He rolled over a K3 of spades and took down the pot. First gutt instinct of the day ignored and I lost the pot and paid off the chaser and lost 4200 off my stack. A while later, a girl who arrived late came to our table and started playing fairly aggressively. She limped into the pot in middle position on the 100 200 blind level. I was in the small blind with a K8 of hearts and limped in and the Big Blind checked. The flop came down Ks8s5h. I checked the big blind checked and the girl led out 400. Like a moron, for whatever reason, I just flat called there. ( I know, rake me over the coals, believe me I was steaming at myself). The big blind folded and the turn came down a 2c. Now I was going to make my move, but like an idiot I got fancy and checked going for the check raise because she was playing aggressively. Well, she obviously felt she was in trouble and checked behind me...FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFACK.... the river came down a red 4 and this time, again, like a moron, I led out 425 and she raised 1600. Again, like a donkey I called that and she rolled over 44 for a rivered set. Now, I was steaming. It was the second hand I had horribly misplayed and I was vibrating. Then a little while later I got an AK snapped off by AQ on an AKQ flop. The rivered Q cost me another 5K off my stack and I was down to about 8000 in chips. I was standing up now, and obviously visibly steaming when my friend Chris Moneymaker walked into the room, grabbed me by the arm just before my set of blinds and walked me out of the poker room. He made me go for a 20 minute walk with him and talked me down. Reminded me that when we played the 2003 WSOP main together, we had only started with 10 000 in chips. That I'd been in this situation before and there was nothing to worry about. Put it behind me, calm down and play my game. I went back with a new mindset and started playing my game. That was the smartest thing that happened that day, going for that walk. Sometimes, regardless if it costs you some blinds, you need to walk away and clear your head.

When I came back I started playing my game. Without getting any major hands and just reading the situations, making good calls, good bets, good raises and reraises I got my stack back up to about 14 000 without seeing a showdown. I felt better and was starting to get in the zone. On the 150 300 round now the player under the gun brought in for 850 and got a caller in front of me. I called on the button with 99. The flop came down Ah9h4c and the raiser led out 1500 and the guy in between us quickly called. I figured that the raiser might have an ace, and I put the caller on a flush draw. I had heard of so many players busting with top or middle sets to flush draws and the advice that I was given by many pros after their day 1s was if my stack was in jeopardy on a hand then just ship the chips in if you are somewhat short stacked and try to win the pot on the spot. So, I did that, I went all in. The originaly raiser after some thought folded and the guy I pinched thought about it foreeeeeeeeeever confirming to me that he had a big heart draw. I put him on KQ of hearts and after a really long time, like about 6-7 minutes he folded KQ of hearts face up. I was ok with that. I was going to re-raise to about 5000 but honestly, I needed that pot badly there and the way I had been running, I did not want to price him into a call. After some more solid play and reads I managed to get my stack up to just over 25 000. At the dinner break I think I had 25 500.

I went for dinner with Robert Williamson 3rd and his wife Cate and had a good relaxing dinner. Robert had just busted out and was kicking himself for overplaying AK on a K high board and getting his chips committed against a middle set. So, we just talked about some funny stories to get caught up on and a little strategy. I came back from dinner feeling recharged and fresh but unfortunately they immediately broke our table and I got moved into the Amazon room to a table of big stacks and again, no one that I recognized. Nothing happened at this table really as I was card dead. I raised a KQ of spades in late position and the guy in the big blind over re-raised me and I layed it down. I made 2 blind steals with mediocre hands and basically nothing happened for the better part of 2 hours. With about 10 minutes to go in that round is when that A9 hand happened against 2 tight playing blinds and the big stack playing fairly aggressively to my left. You know the rest....poof I was walking out of the Amazon room cursing myself once again for not listening to my gutt instincts.

Last night I went to the Pokerstars party at Rain night club at the Palms. They put on quite a show. Then Moneymaker and I cut out a bit early and hit the poker room at the Palms. We have made quite a bit of money there in the past few days but last night, unfortunately, it was a losing session. I lost only about 300 though but Chris lost quite a bit more than that. But, he was prop betting quite large with the guy to his left on Black or Red on the flop and kept losing. He gave up after a few hours and crashed. I played for a little while longer as I was up about 900 at the time but then got caught on a semi bluff for quite a large pot. Then a few hands later I had a set busted by a flush draw and I was down 300. I did not feel like playing anymore and just called it a night.

Today, I am heading to the Bellagio. I am going to try and qualify for the Bellagio Cup $15 000 which starts on Friday. I am going to try and either single table my way in or super sat my way in. If I am not successful, I am not going to just buy in. I have been away from home now for over a month and really want to see my daughter and girlfriend. The 2 girls that I have really missed while down here. Time for a little break when I get home and time to enjoy some life away from poker for a while. I do not intend on going back on the road until September and plan on spending and spoiling my 2 girls for a couple of months.

Cheers for now

KK