LOL.  It's really all I can do as I sit here thinking about what I'm going to write about.  There's plenty of content, I finished 2nd in a $1k at the Wynn, I hired Danny Eggelhoff to shoot video for a MTV thing, I took a bus to LA, and now I'm laying in my bed ish on a Carnival cruise ship somewhere in the Pacific between Long Beach, Catalina, and Ensanada.  

So I'll start with the beginning.  A few weeks ago I was contacted by Annie Duke and my agent Katie about a MTV opportunity.  This dude Andrew Jenks is making a series of mini-documentaries covering the lives of normal people with random jobs.  He's gonna follow them around for 8 days, make a show, and it's going to be on MTV.  He's covering people like a rapper, a soldier in Afganastan, and he wants to cover a poker player.  

I spoke with Claresa the casting director, she liked me, asked me to submit a video, and sent directions.  They were super intensive.  They called for an interview 20-40 min in legnth and for a video showing what a day in my life is like.  I've shot and edited video before, and I used to be a sound guy, but that was like eight years ago and I don't know anything about software now.  Nor did I have the time to shoot video, and it's hard to shoot video of yourself by yourself.  Shelley woulda done it, but I decided to hire Danny Eggelhoff instead mostly because I wouldn't have time to edit and also because he's the man.  

So Friday, after planning to shoot this video on Saturday, I entered the $1k NLHE event at the Wynn.  I had played the $500s all week, have been super happy with my play in the last two weeks, yet didn't have any results to show other than a mega satellite cash for the cash in pocket and a min-cash in the first $500 nlhe.  I took like 110th in the LAPC main when 72 paid, I took 30th in a $500 nlhe at the Wynn when 24 paid, and I never had a chance in the $500 O8 tourney.  I've been experimenting with a laggier style, love it, and have built huge stacks in every NLHE event I've played during this experiment.  

The $1k went just as well, with me being amongst the chip leaders the entire tournament except for a few hours here and there, and I made day 2 with 14 left like 3rd or 4th in chips.  It was great timing to shoot a video, since making a final table live is such a rare occasion, and I was stoked going into day 2.  

I got some cards early and built my stack to like 260k of 1.59m in play with like 12 left after the first two levels, and then couldn't do much of anything for a while.  We hit the final table and I remained stagnant until we got 4 handed when I built the stack to almost 500k.  I then doubled the shortie twice; the first time he shoved UTG for 4bbs and I re-shoved AQo in the SB, he had QQ and won, nice hand.  The next orbit I opened my button with A6o, he called with 8bbs in the BB, flop QT3ss he checks, I move him in for a pot sized bet, and he goes into the tank.  He takes like 45 seconds and finally calls with J3o and calls.  Sigh nice hand.  I min-raised pre + one chip, he said that my smaller raise size (I went from 2800 to 2500 at 6-12 because of his stack size) scared him, but he still decided to see a flop with J3o, flopped a pair, and still almost folded.  

We got 3 handed with me pretty short at 275k, and then I went on a shoving spree, ending the level with 375k.  We climbed to 8-16/2k, and I opened the button with AQo.  Flop A26r, short stack villain in the BB check calls, turn a 4, he check shoves and I snap, beating A8o.  He gets the rest in next hand on his sb with 26o v my blind call J6o in the BB, I win, we're heads up.  We're pretty close to even, I battle for a while building my stack to almost 1m at one point, and then the last hand before break we play this one.  

He limps the button, I like 3.5x the bb with A8s, he calls.  Flop 932r, I check, he bets small, I check raise to 191k like 620 effective, he shoves on me.  Whoops.  We go on break, come back, my button at 15-30k, I open 62dd, he calls, flop AT8r, he checks, I bet, he calls, turn a J, he checks, I bomb the turn, he shoves.  Whoops.  Next hand I have like 450k now in the bb, he opens, I shove A4o, he snaps with AQo, and I lose yet another tournament heads up.  Sigh, but getting a decent finish finally feels good, $32.9k cash for a $1k isn't bad.

The next day I played online, built a ton of stacks, had some great opportunities, never cashed big or good, and I think I made a few bucks but ended up disappointed.  

I went to bed early, didn't fall asleep til 4am, and had to be up at 5:30am to drive over to Half Shell to get on a bus and go to Long Beach.  12 of us dudes eventually made it on the bus headed to LBC to get on a cruise ship for my brother's birthday.  We picked up Danny's brother Shaun on the way, boozed it up the entire way, got on the boat, boozed it up more, and the rest of the night is a blur.  

I woke up today expecting to be in Avalon harbor in Catalina not knowing what time it was.  I looked out the windown and saw wall since I'm in an interior cabin, which is pretty sweet because that means sunlight can't wake me up.  Gil wan't around.  Just me.  It's 1:30pm.  They must be on the island.   A paper slips under my door, and it tells me due to wind and swells they can't dock in Avalon.  K.  Go upstairs, find Danny, go exploring, play air hockey (again apparently since I had tokens in my pocket), oh by the way I looked in my wallet and found one dollar.  I definitely came with more than that.  We eventually found everybody else at the casino bar, went into a room to drink smuggled Jaeger bombs, and returned to the casino.  I played some $1-2 nlhe on the PokerPro machines, I remembered being pissed about the $7 max rake and asking for a break on the rake playing short handed.  I had about $200 more in my account than I expected.  No clue how that happened. 

Until I started talking to people in the game and they informed me that I was on another planet last night.  Yeah no shit what happened?  One story I got was this:  a guy raised or re-raised to over $100, I just called with 63o, said, "This is how a pro plays this hand,"  flopped a straight, and stacked a dude with tens or jacks.  Don't remember that.  Turns out I played blackjack for like $100 a hand and broke even, then lost all my money playing roulette because a bunch of black numbers came in a row and damnit a red one is gonna come soon and Mr. Martingale came up with a theory a long time ago that fucked me broke last night.  

This afternoon Jared and I entered a slot tournament for $20.  We also side bet $20 on high score.  We played like the last qualification round, Jared almost did it, whiffed by like 100 points, but was so animated that by the end of our 5 minute qualifying round there was a crowd gathered.  Put a tent around the kid and sell tickets.  We also entered a blackjack tournament and I didnt' qualify, and played some more poker and won about a hundo.  

Avalon tomorrow and Ensanada the next day apparently, then dock on Friday and take the bus back to Vegas. 

Peace and good luck,

Devo