Been a while, I apologize for that.

But, one of the fan favorites, and a first time for pokerroad, here comes the drunken blog.

For those of you who are new to my blog, I promise a purely authentic blog, written solely from the heart, and never edited. If you ever find a typo, it's not because I suck at editing, it's because I don't [edit]. What you read here is purely a stream of consciousness.

Anyways, I might as well start in chronological order. A week ago Monday I held a "party", which basically means I invite a bunch of my friends to my brother's bar and pick up the tab, but since we were watching my WPT premiere it was a fair party to throw. There weren't many people in Reno to celebrate with me, so this was Celebration, Part Deux. Probably about 25 people showed up at Half Shell to see my TV episode on WPT. It was a great group of people, and I was very satisfied with the night. I didn't get to hear most of the episode, but I was happy with what I saw. I love that I got it in drawing dead. Whoops I suppose, but I thought I had the best hand in that spot to be honest. Obviously I was ridiculously wrong, but, whatevs... :). Kinda fun to look silly on TV. Poker News

My feedback has been good for the most part, except for a blog from Shaun Tobin on my previous blog hosting site, pokerpages.com. In response, 1) LOL. 2) I'm glad that I don't have my blog there any longer. Immediately after I left right before the WSOP, Shaun wrote an article basically accusing some very respected high stakes online pros of cheating, and I'm disappointed that they didn't fire him after that one. Now he rips me apart in many ridiculous ways after the WPT episode, and, all I can do is LOL really. I feel like I should write something witty here, but all I can do is chuckle and shake my head.

Anyways, in the episode. I was pretty happy the way the episode came off. I thought I was a little dorky in spots, but whatevs, I'm a dork and I embrace that :). Still don't mind the final hand, I really thought he was making a move on me and I really thought I had the best hand. When I bet the flop, I thought to myself, "He's raising me on the turn no matter what." I think I got a bit unlucky in most spots vs. Lee, ie, he didn't have to flop clubs, he didn't have to turn 2 pair, he didn't have to have K8o, etc... but, he still owned me on all the normal hands, and I'm happy with the way things turned up. I won the two most key races of my life and I sucked out in a very critical spot that put about 90k in my pocket, and I can lose every single tournament for the rest of the year and still have had a career year. I'm not complaining.

After returning from vacation, I had an insatiable desire to play. It felt really good... it had been a long time since I had actively wanted to play.. since the beginning of the year, really. So I embraced this, played a cash game at the Commerce, and found myself in this silly spot. I've been really nitty, when it folds to my button in a straddled pot, 10-20NL. I find the A4o red, make it $140, the SB with 2500 who I cover with 2800 calls, as does the straddle. The SB is a bitter old guy... nothing against old guys, but he was on the grumpier side of old men and played like it. The straddle was a goofy but awesome dude named Pete, who I had taken a fond liking of during the past two hours. Super fun good people who maintain the fun level in poker. He calls, as I expect him to do with anything, and the flop comes T52 with two diamonds. SB checks, Pete checks, I bet $330 into $440ish, SB check raises to $660, Pete folds, and instantly when the SB c/r's I know that he's weak. Best two hands I give him? ATo or Axdd. Now, since I have A4o red, I know that I have the Ad half the time, but I can't check otherwise I blow my image for a bluff. Since I feel that he has Tx in so much of his range, and is basically raising this kid since he thinks this kid never has anything, but won't call with QT, I instantly ship my stack, about 4x his total re-raise. He thinks for a while, finally says, "Call," and since it's a cash game nobody turns over their cards. The turn is the trey of clubs, Pete points at it, looks at me, and nods his head excitedly, I grin and start laughing, the river is an offsuit nine, I table my wheel, and the old guy, who was already out the door since he had a diamond draw that went brick brick, looks at my hand, looks again at his Ad6d, shakes his head, throws his cards in the muck, and walks out into the Los Angeles afternoon.

I couldn't help but giggle.

Unfortunately, since then it's been kick in the nuts after kick in the nuts, but I've sure been getting close. I've been banging it pretty hard online lately with the FTOPS going on and everything, but it's been much tease without getting there. I've been getting deep consistently, but either running bad/playing bad deep. I've blown more than my fair share of big stacks too. I've kinda gotten to that point of run bad where I have convinced myself that they can't have it every time, so I've started calling lighter than I normally do, yet they keep showing me what they're representing... so, I am pretty sure that I need to start nitting it up and re-sort things. Running bad sucks, really. Brutal part of the profession we've chosen, but it's inevitable. Sucks, but standard.

So, I've gotten my girlfriend to play more online and to start crushing like she should be, but she's been kicked in the [female nuts] as much as possible lately too. We've been talking much about how she can manipulate players based on their reads on her, and it's worked to a charm, however the bastards that control the turn and river haven't been so kind. Today, in two big tournies deep, she gets QJ to shove vs. her on a KJx flop vs her AA, QJ makes broadway, then get TT in vs. T9 on a 9xx flop for top 10 in chips, T9 makes quads. So, now she hates online poker (don't blame her), and goes to sleep as soon as possible. About half an hour later, I bust out in gross fashion from both the FTOPS 1k and the nameless site nightly in the money, but instead of wanting to pass out, I want to get out of the house. 22 hours of intranet poker in something like 36 hours made me pretty ancy. So, since I'm in a new place in LA, I decided to find the nearest watering hole and go have a few Bud Lights.

I walk to Oxwood Inn (bar) on Oxnard St., order my Bud Light, and take in the scenery of four people (everybody in the joint) watching "Weeds" on the tube. I make friends with the woman sitting next to me, who looks like a 10 years younger/5 inches shorter but same design Whoopi Goldberg, and she's cool as hell. In a commercial break, she says, "Hi, I'm Jen." We make more friends, then she says, "Just thought you should know, this is a gay bar. Men and women."

Just thought you should know, but I'm not sure how to respond now. I said, "Sweet!" Made up some excuse about it being cool with me, and proceeded to spend the next hour drinking Bud Lights. I had a great time. Finally left around midnight, walked home, and am proceeding to watch Kevin Saul run hot and win the FTOPS $1k 6-max. As I sign off here, he is ... wait... LOL... Phil Gordon just put 2/3 of his stack in on the turn, got shipped on, and folded. LOL. K, I'm signing off now... GL Kevin, 2/8 remaining.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

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