LAPC Day Two

Today was probably the best I've played during the last week. There were two hands I think I misplayed preflop - one probably should have been a call of a Believer82 three-bet and one probably should have been a four-bet of Steve Zolotow - but postflop I was happy with every decision. I continue to run well and move on to day three with 122,600 chips.

LAPC Day One

I played today at one of the toughest tables I have ever sat down at, though it did get slightly easier as the day progressed. I was fortunate to get up to 39k from the 20k starting stack before losing a big pot to Joe Tehan near the end of the night and finished with 23,700. Blinds will be 200-400-50 starting day two.

NAPT Venetian Day Five

After I busted out in sixth place, I went to fill out some payment paperwork near the poker room. There was some small tournament with plastic chips going, the sort of tournament where someone is all-in every hand and the players will likely end up making a four-way chop at the end. I thought about the first "big buy-in" $500 and $1000 tournaments I played in Minnesota and Vegas, the first time I played the big Party Poker Sunday tournament. I thought about how far I have come, how a really huge score like this could feel disappointing because it wasn't a truly stratospheric life-changing event. It is a wonderful situation to be in when a six figure win can come with a tinge of disappointment.

NAPT Venetian Day Four

Things went very smoothly early today. Then I hit a few speedbumps before a pulse-pounding double-up on the tv bubble. I head into the final table second in chips. Here is the list of players:

Sam Stein -- 6,145,000
Thomas Fuller -- 4,735,000
David Paredes -- 4,700,000
Yunus Jamal -- 3,940,000
Tom Marchese -- 2,370,000
Eric Blair -- 1,690,000
Daniel Clemente -- 1,345,000
John Cernuto -- 1,300,000

Everyone at the final table plays well to extremely well.

Here are the payouts:

1 $827,648.00
2 $522,306.00
3 $309,366.00
4 $241,064.00
5 $184,816.00
6 $144,639.00
7 $104,461.00
8 $60,266.00

The final table starts around 2 PM Pacific. I believe there might be a live stream at http://www.napt.com/tv/

NAPT Venetian Day Three

Most everything went very well again today and I finished the day with 1,540,000 chips which puts me sixth in chips of the remaining 24 players. MasterJ is still in as well. Tomorrow we play down to eight players and the televised final table.

NAPT Venetian Day Two

Today I found myself in many very profitable situations and went on an incredible rush from 8500 chips at about 1:30 PM to exactly 400,000 more when we ended play about eight hours later. There appear to be 148 players left and I am in 9th place. MasterJ is 5th in chips and my good friend SamENole is still in as well.

NAPT Venetian Day One

Sometimes I feel bad that the most popular form of poker in 2010 is full-ring tournament play. Poker is such a beautiful game. Playing it live, ten-handed, with average stacks of 30-50 big blinds is a corruption. I feel bad for the people that win a satellite to an event like this, the people who are playing in their first big tournament. I feel bad for the people who win a seat to a WSOP $1000 or $1500 event in a bar league or basement kitty. Ten-handed poker with shallow stacks is an abomination of what poker should be. This alleged "big tournament" is not any finer than your average online MTT. It's just more uncomfortable.

I am on to day two with 16,300 chips. Blinds will start at 500-1000-100 tomorrow at noon.