Finished my 2nd 45 person SnG in 15th spot:

Only one bad play where someone who was too committed preflop pushed into a 10-rag-rag board while I held 99. I thought about it and it seemed like he was trying to push me off with overcards so I called. He had JJ. Ooops. I was out shortly after.

I am sweating drewspop who has some chips with 7 left in his challenge game. He is playing the $1 game. I am moving to that next time. I’m not really doing this for the money and my bankroll does not need the damage.

Personal SnG challenge has 2 games played, 1st and 4th. Played well when I won. Absolutely smoked the other guy heads-up, but could not get anything going in the last one.

I played my first official 45 person SnG for the challenge tonight. I bombed out very early when my kings ran into aces. The money went in pre-flop and I took a screenshot when it was over. Not a good beginning. I have played three of these so far and my finishes are 11th, 15th, and 37th. Ooof.

Edit: Results screenshot:

So I decided to play my first 45 person SnG as a warmup to the SnG Challenge starting this weekend (I’ll send the money today drewspop). I ended up 11th. Not bad, but not what I had hoped. Two big hands stick out in my mind.

1st was an early round with A-Rag on a KAK flop. I re-raised all-in only to be called by KJ. I got lucky and hit an ace on the river to more than double through. The third participant in the hand claimed he folded an ace, so hitting the case ace is a major-lucky turn of events. The “f!!!!” comment was very accurate when that happened. The unluckly player quickly busted out.

The 2nd important hand was a mid-round (50/100 blinds maybe?). I had about 4500 in chips to his 2000 in chips. I put him in with his AQo against my 33. I lost the race and then had to nurse a shortstack until nearly final table (there were probably 20 or 25 people left at that point). If I keep this up I will never do well in these events. It looks like you need a minimum of 6K to make a good run at the final table, and if I win that race I will be in prime position. 33 tends to be a good hand to be counterfeited and I am either dominated by a pocket pair or racing with counterfeit options. Just not a good play anyway I look at it.

I ended up busting with AQ when another player, also nursing a short stack, called my all-in push with KT. King on the river and I am out. I’m not upset about that one because I would have needed one more double up to even get a chance at 7th.

All of this wordage being said, I am really looking forward to the challenge. It should be good fun and hopefully good for my MTT game.

I ran 2.1 miles this morning. I actually felt pretty good. I am using Podrunner for tempo and so far it seems to work. Recommended by this fat guy trying to get back into it again. For whatever that is worth. Speaking of which- I am looking for a good way to carry my nano while running. I have a generic armband with a neoprene cover, but is slips off my t-shirt, down my arm, and digs into my elbow joint. Is the actual Apple one good? Is there another brand recomended? I might actually want some sort of belt based one so I can put it in the small of my back. I don’t usually need to control it once I start.

Fixed my WordPress blog- or at least the ShortStat plugin, which was not recording stats. If you are using the 1.3 version of that plugin on WordPress 2.0 you will probably need this fix, let me know and I will send you a patch (it is really simple).

I signed up for the next 45 Person SnG Challange. It is being run by Drewspop. Let him know if you are interested in playing. I am going on vacation in early August, but I should be able to bang out 15 SnGs in a month. Should be interesting as I am also working on my single table SnG game. I will probably keep to the low levels because I am not sure my bankroll can it. *That* is confidence, isn’t it?

Just this afternoon, I plunked down my credit card and joined the Poker Player Alliance. I hope anyone who reads this will consider doing the same. It is theoretical that if the bill that passed the House passes in the Senate ISPs will be required to block access to online poker sites that are located *outside* of the US. If it gets treated like the Washington state law then even linking to this blog, or Mookie’s, or Dr. Pauly’s, or the Blogfather himself would have to be blocked. And that is just flat-out scary.

I golfed Tuesday morning. 7:07 tee-time. Ouch. Yeah, especially since we were having a going away party for my good friend Jenny and I was pretty drunk at 1:30. And yes, I did walk all 18. And next week’s tee-time is 6:37. Yeah.

Time Warner came by with a couple of guys on Tuesday and fixed the cable running across the street. I still have internet and it does not even look like I am stealing it. Nice.

A bit of variance in my SnGs over the last two weeks. But I have 5 cashes in a row now in the so-called 6 Packs (6 x $12+1). My bankroll is getting close enough to begin the move up to the $20 games. This will make three jumps to that level. The first two didn’t go so well. Third time is the charm, right?

I am going on a trip in August (I can’t exactly call it a vacation since it is with family- and I have to bring my work laptop “just in case”). I am looking for reading recomendations. I am familiar with most of the poker books published, so I am more interested in other genres. Fiction or non-fiction does not matter to me.

I swear that is not why the cable is run across the street in front of my house.

I don’t even want to talk about my poker game… I am hoping to turn around a really bad run this weekend.