So I guess alot has been going the last month or so. A little poker, some big sports playoffs, and of course the usual time spent with my family. The last week or so I've just been taking a complete break from poker in preperation for the WSOP that starts next week. As far as my schedule this summer, I plan on playing pretty much all NLH, PLH and PLO tournies w/ a buy-in under 5k, and possibly playing the 10k heads up and 10k PLH depending how my series is going, and possibly a few caesers or venetian events when there isn't anything going on at the Rio. I'll be renting a house a few other internet players who plan on playing just as much as myself, so I'm sure there will be all sorts of sidebets with in the house on who will do better. I also won't be playing the 40k NL tourney that kicks off the series. I think the field overall is gonna be really tough, and I really don't like the idea of starting the summer off 40k in the whole if I don't cash. There's just so many more +EV spots this summer, plus I don't know if I'll be able to get up for playing the 1ks-2ks after busting from the 40k, so I think it's best to just skip it all together.

As far as poker news for me in the last month, well there's been the good, the bad and the ugly.  As for the ugly...I went out to vegas to play a 5k pre-lim @ Bellagio and the 25k WPT championship. We started with 20k chips in the 5k and I think I my stack peaked somewhere around 115k during the 5th level and I spewed all the chips away and was butsted by the 400-800 level, not even sniffing the money. The 25k wasn't much better...we started with 100k chips and I couldn't even survive level 4 on day 1....oh well.

As for the bad...well it's not that bad. Before my break that started Monday we recently completed another FTOPS series that had me playing alot online poker. I had a few deep runs in some tournies and am happy with how I'm playing, tho I missed out on any good final table scores or wins. My best finish was 10th in the FTOPS 1k 6-max tourney, which doesnt sound so bad but was pretty disapointing since I'm pretty sure I held the chip lead with about 13 or 14 people left. From there nothing went well for me unfortunately :(

And then there was the good...right after the bellagio series I came home for a few days then headed over to Indiana to play a 5 tournament series there. There were 2 500's, a 1500, a 1k (which I decided to skip), and then the 3k main event. I ended up chopping the $1,500 with 6 people left, but it was one of those fun chops. I had about 500k in chips and the other 5 guys had about 250k combined, so they gave me 1st place and the trophy and chopped 2nd-6th place evenly. I also went deep in the main event, finishing 17th or 18th when they paid 14 spots. I lost a big race all in pre-flop with JJ vs AK, the flop came QJT and I failed to pair the board to scoop the pot. Instead I was left with about 5 BBs and hung around for a little while before eventually busting with AQ vs 66...Oh well was a fun overall trip.

The last week or so I've been doing everything but play poker. I just want my mind to rest before the 2 month long grind I have ahead of me at the WSOP. Monday night I went to dinner with my Dad and Step Mom, which is pretty rare for us to be able to get together given their ever changing work schedules. Tuesday night some friends and I went to the bar to watch the Hawks lose a heart breaker in OT to the Red Wings. Luckily we captured game 3 last night and still have a chance in the series.

Thursday night I got to see my nephew Tyler play t-ball. It sure was different from what I was used to growing up. They don't keep score, they don't track the outs, and they play 3 innings where each kid gets to hit one time. After every hit each kid only advances 1 base unless they make an out, and when the last batter hits they all run around the bases. It was quite fun to watch and I had a great time taking all sorts of pictures with my new phone. Unfortunately it's a new phone and I had no idea I wasn't even saving the pictures to my phone...GRRRRRR. After the game I grabbed a bite to eat with my Mom and Step-Dad then headed home.

Monday is my birthday, my last year in my 20's. Kinda scary to think I'll be 30 in 367 days! Were gonna have a cook out at my Mom's place to celebrate my b-day/memorial/ me going away to Vegas for 7 weeks. Hopefully the series goes better for me than it has the last 3 years. I'll be sending updates on twitter so you can follow me there. The updates will be coming thru to pokerroad to, and I have no idea what my actual twitter ID is but I think you can find me if you just search BeL0WaB0Ve (zero's for O's). I don't get it right now but hopefully I become an accomplished tweeter.

Kevin