HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY.  Yea, its a new year, and I've already prepared to come in fresh and start off my poker year well.  So far, things are looking good.  My new year consisted of unspeakable debauchery, of course.

The first tournament stop of the year... the Carribean of course, ya mon, ya mon.  I've never been to the Bahamas, and well it's pretty much what I expected it would be here, sunny, sandy beaches and friendly people.  The Atlantis resort here in Nassau is really a beautiful thing to look at.  On the inside it's pretty standard but the outside and in general the oceanic theme comes across pretty well.

It was wierd that in the week before I flew out for the tourney here, I heard a couple of things in the news about bahamas.. one thing was that a shark jumped out of a tank and went down one of the slides on the resort, landing in the pool, lol.  The second thing, of course, was the sad news of hearing about John Travolta's son passing away in the Bahamas.  

Sometimes in life it seems that the things on ur mind or on ur agenda tend to appear around u and come up in random instances.  Things seem like coincidences but I don't think anything is ever fully a coincidence.. I could go on on and on about all my beliefs about attraction and connectivity in the world etc but I won't. Poker Videos

I got into town a day early so obviously me and Cantu and Devo and some other peeps had to hit the town for at least one of the nights we were here.  After getting sufficiently wasted at the Atlantis we caught a cab and tried to figure out where to go.  A club called liquid lounge was recommended so we went there.  Really there isn't much of a nightlife in Bahamas, and this place was fairly slow.  The ratio was pretty bad for a straight guy like myself, lol, so we didn't stay there very long.

Obviously the next question was "can u take us to a strip club", and the cabbie obliged.  We ended up at some hole in the wall joint, forgot the name, but it was actually so ghetto that it was a fun environment haha.  I'm used to all the giant fancy strip clubs in vegas that this was a good change of pace.  

Then, as I sat there, lap being tended too, all of a sudden Devo tells me to come in the back room.. there was an online poker game going!  Seemed extremely random for a game to just pop up in this joint, but I was happy to hear it.  

I went back there and it would be me, Cantu, Devo, Matt Woodward {Dreamclown} sitting with 4 random Bahamians.  Bahamans?  Bahamites?  I don't know.  We would be played 3/4, where we started with 3 cards down, a round of betting, 2 community cards turned face up, betting, and the final 2 community cards face up.  Was a fun drunk game, and I think after a while we were pretty confident we werent getting cheated, so it was all good.  We all ended up losing some money but it was a fun random experience, which I think is necessary to have in any foreign place you go.

AAAaaannnyways, to the important subject at hand, my first tournament of the new year.  This was my first EPT event and first time in a field with this many young internet guys saturating the field.  My starting table was extremely young and unrecognizable, except for Bonomo to my left and everyone else I may have seen before but they were mainly online players.  

I started playing really well from the getgo, and this combined with fortunate situations saw my stack increase pretty easily.  The entire day was pretty much a smooth ride up, 20k pot here 20k pot there.  Im excited for this year because with this fresh start I can simply focus on playing full potential without thinking about results of the past year... its just easier to do that when the calender year restarts. 

Soo I ended the day with 160k and was looking very good for day two with 380 players left and 200 cashing.  This tournament was so big with nearly 1400 players starting and 3 million for first!  I wanted to win it so bad.

Day two started off well and i was up to over 200k right away.  I was playing really well, but it's tough to write about hands I played well because none of them were so big and I've also noticed that its easier to remember hands you lose, or at least hands that stand out in some way more then others do.  Really I was picking off bluffs and using well timed aggression.  About half way into the day however, I lost a few pots and was down to below 120k... and the rest of the day I played solid but hovered around that number for the entire day and ended with 106k.  It sucks to end the day with much less than i started the day with, but its nice to cash in the tourney and have a chance at big money with 100 ppl left going into day 3.  It's wierd but it seemd that when Kevin Saul was moved to my table was when I stopped chipping up and started chipping down.. and now he's killing the tournament.  Oh well.

Day 3 I came back confident but short stacked, and it didn't last long.  With about 90k i moved in from late position with KJ and was called by AK, GG ME.

Dissapointing, but still hopeful for my year to cash in my first tourney.  

I'm leaving here soon, and am alone in the room currently.  Why?  Well, Yesterday Cantu said he was invited to go to Cuba for a couple days with John Robert Bellande, and that me and Layne who I'm rooming with should go.  I considered it, but for some reason wasn't feeling it and decided to stay behind, despite Bellande's stories of the women and the opportunities... lol.  

Of course, Layne; who recently was in a pretty bad ATV accident in Mexico and has in turn been medded up the whole trip, lol; tried his best to talk me into goin to Cuba, giving me the whole guilt trip.  Really I appreciate that I have so many opportunities in front of me and that I have the ability to travel the world, but I also know that I don't always have to take every single one of them if i'm not in the mood.  Besides, I'm in the Bahamas!  I need to hit the beach.  

Next is Australia.