Not literally cold, its actually as  beautiful as always!  Poker can be a tough tough game though .  This trip I managed to lose 40k in 3 tournaments, the 10k main event, the 25k highrollers, and the 5k postlim event.  I felt like in the main event I only played my B game, didn't do anything particular amazing, but still played solid winning online poker but lost a couple key flips and that was that.  The 25k was an awesome tournament, albeit a super stacked field.  My starting table was one of the toughest tables I have ever played at, Good players kept rotating in, and the final lineup before it broke was super sick.  I was in the 1 seat, Isaac Haxton in the 2 seat, Elky was in the 3 seat, Erik Seidel in the 4, Gus Hansen in the 5, a ftp pro i didn't recognize in the 6, and Scott Seiver in the 8.  This table had no soft spots and I was very happy to increase my stack from 50k to 140k by the time it broke with no huge pots.  I was super happy with how well i played at this table.  

Right when the table broke it was an insta-nightmare though (about 10 hrs into the tournament).  I got moved to a new table that was considerably softer but still a challenging table.  This table featured Josh Arieh, Busto_Soon, Bill Edler,  Ivan Demidovs girlfriend who's name I forgot (she's pretty tough though) and Pokerstars 25/50nl regular Molswi47.  When I got to the table I decided to make my first big bluff of the tournament and made a play that is very uncharacteristic for me as I ran a super long ball air bluff vs Bill Edler, for about 50k in chips, I cant remember the last time before this that I bluffed off a significant portion of my chips deep in a major tournament and I definitely am still bitter about this play.  I went with a read I had and like anyone else I make mistakes.  This apparently set up a sick image for me however, despite leaving me with only ~85k in chips.  The very next hand Josh Arieh limped the button, I made it 4x from the button with AsAh, and Busto_Soon monkey shoved 61k from the BB with  ATs, turned out to be a pretty good play as he turned the nut flush on me and I was down to 20kish chips at 800/1600.  I actually didn't know that the villain was busto_soon at the time, and was very surprised to see a good player make a shove like that when he had that many bb's, oh well the nature of tournaments.  One hand after that sick beat I got AcQs and reshoved on a Bill Edler open, he had JhJd and won the race in the only way that was appropriate for how I've ran on this trip, the board ran out Qc 9c 8c 2d Th and I was out in 23rd place, oh well I can't complain usually i run like god. Poker news.

In the 5k I reallllly grinded.  After the first 4 levels I was running good and playing good and chipped up from 10k to 50k in a few big pots.  After that I went cardead for the next 5 levels are so without seeing a hand better than A6o, I had 36k at 600/1200 and raised 99 from the cutoff, and the bb shoved 31k, I called and he had AK, The flop braught two aces and I lost my only race of the tournament, and I was crippled, and finished shortly after a few spots away from the money.  Overall I was pretty happy with how I played in the high rollers and the 5k, but obviously not super happy with how the trip went, but oh well cant win them all.  I think I will be skipping WPT Biloxi and heading home a little earlier then expected so I'll be refreshed for LAPC in February.  Im in the beautiful bahamas till Monday though so I'm going to be drunken Jetskiing, swimming, and going on water slides for a few more days,  Stop on over and say whatsup if you see me and I'll buy you a drink!

Ill keep you guys updated,

~Amit

Today I decided to play the Bellagio 5k that got a massive turnout of 94 runners! It was a pretty small turnout and definitely a very tough field, but luckily my luckbox was working pretty well and I ended the day 2nd of 9. I feel like I played online poker very well and am obviously happy with how the day went.

We start up again tomorrow at 3pm Vegas time, we have ~30 minutes left of the 2,000-4,000/500 level, my stack is at 243,000 and the average stack is ~150,000. Im super exhausted as we played from noon to 2am, Ill include some interesting hands tomorrow and hopefully can blog about a first place finish! Hopefully my luckbox keeps going strong, more poker news!

~Amit

All I can say is wow, today was totally surreal. I was able to hold the chip lead essentially the entire tournament and go wire to wire in the Full Tilt $5000 6max FTOPS event #22 and it felt incredible to book a win against a very tough field.

I finished the event in first place for $550,000 which was good for the second biggest cash of my life, but definitely the most satisfying. I really appreciate all the support from everyone, all the text messages, phone calls, and instant messages I have received in the last few hours have been truly awesome, its great to have friends as cool as you guys.

With all that said I am incredibly tired as I put every ounce of energy into that online poker tournament, after winning I went out to Kraft Steak at MGM with some friends and had a few drinks, but tomorrow we'll probably all out celebrate and maybe ill post some hands about poker news.

Thanks for the sweat guys, take it easy!

~Amit

A day of running good is soooo much fun, it feels like its been awhile since a booked a really sick day in a major, even if it is only an online major. Today I feel like I was in the zone and playing my "A" game most of the day and I was definitely rewarded for it.

I ended the day with 280k with the blinds at 600/1200 in the $5000 6 max FTOPS event #22, which is good for 1st of 35 remaining players. 1st place in this tournament is $550,000 and the satisfaction of defeating one of the toughest fields in online poker history, which would definitely mean a lot to me.

Im going to get some sleep, play resumes at 2pm EST tommorow, you can catch the action on www.fulltiltpoker.com, my screen name is amak316, hopefully my next blog will be a drunk blog after celebrating a big win =). Poker news.

~ Amit