Ladies Event Mohegan Sun 4/10/10 -NAPT

I made the trek over to Mohegan Sun (which I had not been to since they re-opened the poker room there) on Saturday to play the Ladies event during the PokerStars sponsored NAPT. I had a great time, played great and ran deep finishing 14th of 98. Unfortunately only the top 9 paid.

I hadn't seen LJ in almost a year and a half and we started at the same table (table #1) which would be the last table to break. She was in the 2 or three seat and I was in the 8. Both of us managed to build our chip stacks early. In fact, I was up to almost 30k (starting stack was 10k with 30 minute levels) after the first two levels and she had about the same stack too. I wound up getting down to starting stack size but chipped back up to 40k before the dinner break.

Unfortunately when we got down to 18 players and the 3rd to last table broke the wall of chips that was the chipleader got moved to my immediate right and I knew my final table fate was thru that stack. She literally had more chips then all of us at the table put together and then some. The first hand she was dealt at the table (and she was still unracking her chips) she moved in over the top of the prior big stack having been dealt AA to that stacks QQ and busted one of the existing big sticks.

LJ and Lucko came back into the poker room about that time to check on me and cheer me on. I just gestured to the Great Wall of chips and knew I had a tough road ahead but I never game up. Dr Pauly and F-train (working for PokerNews during NAPT) both helped me keep my shit together a few times. I was getting antsy. When the Main Event broke for dinner the Pokerstars/PokerNews crew which also included Change100 and Otis left for dinner. Pauly had faith I'd still be in when they returned. It was not to be, however, with my chip stack dwindling to just under 10 BB and the chip leader moving in virtually every hand i took a stand in a blind vs blind hand: me QJos BB She had KTos SB and the flop came K K X sealing my fate.

I was disappointed but felt good about the entire day. I hadn't played a hand of poker since prior to 2/20/10 and I hadn't played live since New Years Day. As I said to Change100 the lay-off may have actually helped my decision making. I wasn't too far off my A game. OF course, I thought to myself that if I actually got back to studying and working my game and playing as much as I did in 2006-2007 the big score would be right around the corner.

By choice, I'm just not ready to commit to hours and hours spent playing/talking cards. PHISH and FURTHUR are on the road this summer and I'll be taking in 2 Phish Shows at SPAC with Dr Pauly on a weekend he escapes from a WSOP donkament, and at least 4 Furthur shows on my own including two in Brooklyn. Plus, a couple of multi-day Music festivals are also on tap. I'm also trying to get back into shape. I just had a wisdom tooth removed and now have the green light to resume running. I had to take the last two weeks off from my dance class.

I do have a couple of SCOOP tickets i earned during Pokerstars blogger series so Ill be taking a stab at a couple of the lower buy-ins in May. And even though I shelved my Vegas trip the week of July 7th thru 12th in favor of all my concerts I will probably attempt a couple of our local poker-rooms WSOP tourneys.

It was great catching up with everyone albeit briefly. Otis and I were two ships passing in the night. I was either busy playing and he was on the sidelines of the Main Event or he had his head down and was pounding out stuff for the PokerStars blog on his laptop. Never enough time with the lovely vixen Change100 either. Pauly and I get to catch up during Phish shows on the east coast on all our non poker mutual interests. But Change is usually working on his trips east and doesn't get a chance to accompany him even though she has an open invite to Casa IG. And I havent been out to California in many moons. Next time Change, well do a Phish show together in NYC or shop/do a Broadway show. OR, I'll make the trek to California. If i get myself running distance again I can combine a running/concert/poker trip to the left coast. My version of multi-sport!!!

SCOOP Begins Today

Still not sure if I will be playing the NLHE low option rebuy starting at 2:30 PM today. I better make up my mind soon because 16851 are currently registered and the total is climbing. That is going to be one hell of a prize pool. I am registered for the 4:30 PM PLO8 Low option buy-in. And Gods of the Interwebs & Network Connections please don't let me disconnect during said tourney. I have already lost connection with your servers twice this morning and I'm not even playing yet. 95115 people have nothing better to do on a Thursday morning apparently. Oh and I know I mentioned that I will gladly take river beats for a month because I was smiled kindly upon and received Phish tickets for SPAC but can we please please please put that penance on hold for two weeks or so?

The First Annual SCOOP per Pokerstars is:

Spring Championship Of Online Poker (SCOOP) - All Stakes

With 66 tournaments, covering 22 different poker disciplines at three different stakes levels and a combined prize pool guarantee of $30,000,000, we’re bringing you a new poker championship not to be missed. Beginning on April 2, we bring you the Spring Championship Of Online Poker (SCOOP) - All Stakes. With buy-ins as low as $5.50, everyone will have the opportunity to play and the chance to win big cash prizes.

Running until April 12, SCOOP will have two events every day, and each event will consist of three individual tournaments based on different stakes levels: one for low-stakes players, one for medium-stakes players, and one for the high-stakes players. Every tournament has its own guarantee, so even low-stakes players could win big.

Otis, Change100, F-Train and Shamus will be covering the events over on the newly redesigned PokerStars blog along with a few other bloggers

Big congrats to Dr Pauly. It appears that Project Z is now titled so look for his upcoming book release LOST Vegas



And be sure to check out the great music coverage over on Coventry. I did a recap of The Dead's triple crown of shows performed 03/30/09 and Strawberry Shortcake (a ginger) has a post up on Suwannee Music Fest 2009. The Joker being a prankster and all had a great April Fools joke up too . I wasn't one of the lucky ones to get picked for the free tickets to the NYC shows, but you can bet your ass I would have driven to the city for the day/evening. With the Dead and Phish touring this summer and all the summer festivals: Rothbury, Mountain Jam Bonnaroo we will have some kick ass coverage coming your way.

I'm only working 4.5 hours of my normal 9 hour day today and will be signing off at 2pm to play some poker. If I bust out early I can always make a run down to the club to play the Thursday nite tourney I normally can never make. Good luck to all in the SCOOP's!

The Music Gods are listening... Poker Gods not so much

Nope, didn't score any additional Dead tickets or Phish tickets to anything.

But part of my music wish list has been satisfied: KBM for Kreutzmann, Burbridge and Murawski are now booked for Mountain Jam. That now puts two members of the current Dead line-up on the mountain (Billy K and Warren Haynes) and one member of Max Creek on the mountain (Scott Murawski). I'm crossing my fingers that Max Creek will be added to this years festivities.

Disappointed I'm going to miss Eh-Vegas but I and BFF Kim will be attending a Max Creek show here at Troy's Revolution Hall in two short weeks. One month later its the Dead, a month after that Springsteen and a few weeks after that Mountain Jam. Dave Matthews just announced a couple shows at SPAC (Phish did not) in June.

Kim looked into condo rental for Mountain Jam, but supposedly already sold out and taking deposits for 2010. I suggested renting an RV with nephew Zack and Sierra. I cant rage for 72 hours with no sleep and enjoy the music, especially when its rained every year. Sleeping on what amounts to Hunter Mountains version of the Lhotse Face loses its charm when there are no Sherpa's to do the hauling. I could sleep in my SUV away from the mayhem. Seriously considering getting VIP tickets so I can take in the music from a nice covered perch and actually really write about the whole weekend.

No one wants to read bad beat stories but the past week of poker(beginning with last Monday) has been a cluster fuck and I've blown thru a good $150 or so on pokerstars. This was after finishing 2nd in one of those $2.20 90 person sngs (I had a first and second in my first two attempts at them) last Sunday night. . I have made deep runs in $8.80/$5.50 90 person sngs and the $22 deep stack, only to get bamboozled at the end just short of the money. Maybe Ive played the AA hands wrong by just not shoving all in but I'm trying to extract value from my hands and at the lower limits I constantly get run down by someone chasing their flush, gutshot etc without the odds to do so. Example, I flopped to pair with 57os on board of A57. bet the pot and some donk with Ace high only calls me all the way down to the river where they are rewarded with a better two pair. I know its tricky playing those kinds of hands. But its redonkulous to call off your stack with just top pair. Poker is not fun when you are card dead and get your big hands cracked when Pokerstars RNG throws you a bone. I looked over one SNG I played and I think i only hit the 5 card flop 5 times over the whole tourney till i busted out. I was catching no pieces of anything.

Today started a new week and I did manage to win a $5.50 DoN which is my first cash since last Sunday in anything.

I made an awesome marinated Flank steak, roasted yukon gold potatoes and marinated asparagus for dinner last Sunday during the Daytona 500 which fed me for a few days. I was disappointed at the rain delay/cancellation. Next time start the race like at 11 AM or noon. The West coast is used to getting up early for football!!

PokerStars SCOOP

It's no secret that my preferred site to play online is Pokerstars. I haven't played on Full Tilt since October and I don't see myself redepositing anytime soon there. I do have a small bankroll on Bodog which i use for the Bodonkey and for playing the ponies, and a bit on Poker.com and Bugsys Club but i rarely if ever play those two sites.

Fresh off their 25th billion hand promotion, PokerStars announced its first ever SCOOP- The Spring Cup of Online Poker. This is not replacing the WCOOP at all which is still their penultimate series.

The reason PokerStars in my opinion reigns supreme is they have a price point for everyone in each of the events scheduled. There is something for everyone low limit grinder to medium to high. I kind of fall somewhere between low and medium, so I'm as happy as a clam.

The schedule subject to a few tweaks can be found over on 2+2 and satellites begin this week.

Click here for the link to the thread/schedule.

And as an aside, Snake5970 chopped the Thursday 11 AM tourney at Foxwoods for a cool 2300+ with none other then his brother Silo. They started at the same table and both were card dead, got split up and met back up at the second to final table. Their friend/coworker Doggan freerolled a slot tourney and won it for $1k plus he and his wife had about another 4-5k in slot winnings. Between the 4 of them they brought back almost 10k to help stimulate the Upstate NY economy.

I'm thinking of heading to Turning Stone for the $350 buy-in in a few weeks on Friday March 6th to be exact.

The WSOP-E coverage last nite (4 hours of great poker) featured some really good play and hands. Scott Montgomery took an ugly beat and handled it with class. His composure really impresses me. Brandon Adams and Peter Neff both wound up getting some bad breaks and both had that shell shocked deer in headlights oh what could have been look on their faces. I felt bad for them. And of course Negreanu impresses with me with his hand reading/people reading skills. Even though I know the outcome, I enjoy watching the interactions and hands visually.

Time for 24 and to pay attention in the 90 man $5.50 SNG Im in since its down to three tables. I finished 2nd in a $2.20 90 man yesterday after playing some really good poker early in other tourneys, only to blow chip stacks with I cant believe that moron just hit that flush again itis. Curiousity is expensive!!!

Fawking donkey just called my 4x bb raise with q9os and cracked my aces. once again a deep run only to get bamboozled.

PokerStars World Blogger Championship

It's back for another round and doing things a bit differently this year.

And while we are at it, Happy Birthday to Otis, of the PokerStars Blog, Up For Poker Blog and Rapid Eye Reality.

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

The WBCOOP is an online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers.

Registration code: 626153

And if you read the fine print as to prizes it appears Pokerstars will be offering a spring version of its very successful WCOOP the SCOOP.