My year continues.  Things are falling into place and my game is evolving in front of my eyes!  Thank da poker gods!

After my successful stint in L.A. it was definitely time to get back to my house in Vegas and have some fun, play some tournaments at the Wynn Classic.  I ended up only playing two tournaments there, but the second one turned out to be pretty sick.

This $1500 buy in at Wynn I had probably the sickest run I've ever had in any tournament!  The beginning of the tournament started pretty standard for me... bluffing off some chips and making a few unfocused mistakes.  I was doing ok but still found myself going into the dinner break with about 7500 in chips with the blinds at 600-1200. Poker Radio

At dinner I had to give myself one of those little pep talks that although it wasnt a huge tournament and I didn't have a lot of chips... anything could happen.

The next two hours of the tournament were ridcilous!  Everything fell into place... I doubled when I pushed with 97 vs. 88 and flopped a straight.  I doubled again AT vs. KT.  I flopped a couple set, made some good plays to force folds.  Then I shipped it with 88 vs. JJ and flopped an 8.  I got payed off in a few more hands.  Slow played QQ vs. JJ Liu and made a full house and got paid off.  All of a sudden, after 90 minutes, I ran 7k up to 90k!!!

But it wasn't over.  My table broke, which I was partly sad about seeing my ridiculous run... and I sat down at a new table.  There was one other player at the table who had slightly more then me, we were probably 1st and 2nd chip position in the tournament.  

First hand I sit down, I pick up 78 of spades and make a standard raise.  Two callers.  Flop comes down 456 two hearts!!!  WOW sometimes things are so streaky in poker. I lead out, the chip leader thinks for a bit and raises.  I tank and raise to about 23k.  He looks resigned but forced and he pushes all in for 100k!!!  Of course, I call expecting to see a set and begging for the board to not pair, but he actually turns over a worse hand for me to see.. the 79 of hearts.. higher straight draw and flush draw.  Somehow I dodge the bullets and in 2 hours I have run up 7k in chips to 195k!!!  By far my craziest run in tournament poker history.

The rest of the tourney was uneventful for the most part and I ended up finishing in 7th... no worries... stack up those POY points!!

After Wynn I decided to fly to Reno to meet up with a few friends and to support Jennifer Harmans charity tournament, for the National Kidney Foundation.  It was a fun tournament as always and we were able to raise over 110k for charity.  I do like to help out when I can.

The next day was the 3k World Poker Challenge tournament, and the casino added 50k to the prize pool so it was fairly lucrative.  Again, I started off the tournament going bananas and playing every hand, bluffing, and successfully running my 10k stack to about 1800 in a couple hours.  Great.  Of course, I've noticed that being low early has often got me motivated and got me to respect my chips more in the event that I built back a stack, which I did.

Another great day of cards and well timed plays, and I saw myself as the chip leader about 6 hours in!  Online Poker is fun.  

Only 9 players would be payed so the entire 14 hour day of poker led us to 16 left and still no money.  The next day i tightened up a bit and tried not to make many mistakes... and there I was at the final table again!  The final table didn't go swimmingly for me, as I should have maybe amped up my pre-flop aggression a bit, but I was able to finish 6th.

Finally Finally I am playing poker who I know I can.  Already this year I believe I've had as good or close to the stats of 2007 and 2008 combined!  I'm not taking my foot off the gas pedal, either... I am truly trying to take down POY this year.

Now I'll be heading out of Reno and flyin to the bay to play the Shooting Start tournament.  I have some history, there, as it is really the only WPT tourney I've finished deep in.  Again, I need to start really performing in these WPT events... they've been my one weak spot so far in my career.

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