I've always disliked basketball.  However, in the last 24 hours I've heart the two best basketball ESPN reports ever and have a little bit of a crush on it now.  Last night Coach Knight on ESPN did a commentary why some college stud was the best passer in the game, and his breakdown of why was incredible.  Then, right now on SportsCenter, they did a report on the Lakers/Spurs game with how they defended Kobe, and it was fascinating.  I think the game is so fast that it appeals to the general American public, but too fast to pick up on the strategy and playmaking easily.  Anyways.  Was what was on top of my mind. 

Last night I wrote a blog about the trip here to Biloxi, but didn't post it cause I posted that PCA novel last night.  So now you get Biloxi day's 0 and 1 in one blog, right now being day one. 

Anyways, I had the best first day in a main of my life, running hot and playing very very very well.  So many fun pots to talk about, but basically the cliff notes are this:

I chipped up to 33k or so. 
I got 22 and flatted Doug Lee's raise, flop KQ2 two diamonds, he check calls, turn J, he check/raises, I shove, he calls w/KQ, J on the river I'm up to 69k. 
I flopped 2 sets before that, and flop 3 after.  No post-flop action.  In one of them Vanessa Russo made an excellent laydown to me (QQ on  964 rainbow flop, I had 44 she folded to my flop raise).
I played better than I have played in a long time.  Feel super confident, super good, and am looking forward to the rest of this tourney.

After the tourney a bunch of us went to dinner, $1600 bill + we're tipping $400, gonna be a sick credit card roulette, but a $600 and $400 comp comes in last minute, so it's only a $1k CCR, and I beat Tiffany Michelle heads up. 

She had a rough day.  In one of the last hands of the day it folded to Cantu's button he raise, SB calls, Tiff re-raises to 5k in the BB, Cantu re-raises to 15k, SB folds, Tiff calls.  Flop 665 two diamonds, Tiff shoves, Cantu calls, Cantu's 67o holds over Tiff's KJdd.  You read that right. 

Anyways, that's about all I got for now, gonna be a long day tomorrow.  Restart at noon, expected to play til 3:30am.  Updates on worldpokertour.com as always.

And here goes the 2nd blog. 
 

Ayaaaaa.... So it's been a rough start here in Biloxi, but before I get into that, I want to tell you about a prop bet that Scott Seiver and I made back at PCA so I become happier. 

It was Saturday afternoon, and I ended up in that same place in the not-so-lazy river that we started in from the last blog that I told you about it in.  Scott says we should gamble on a race, I accept, and we establish the rules as "...you can't cheat or anything.  You must stay in your tube at all times."  We establish that you must be in the standard reclined beer-drinking low-ride-lawn chair tube position at all times.  So, somebody holds us in the current, lets go and the race is on. 

Scott takes of pounding as do I.  He gets an early lead, makes it to the first rapid before me, and I decide that I need to focus on my water-reading skills to beat him with efficiency.  Coming off the first rapid I give it a half-dozen good strokes to catch the momentum from the faster moving water, and then go back to coasting.  Scott continues to charge and is a good ten seconds ahead of me by the second rapid.  I repeat the charge at the bottom of the 2nd, and then go into a full recline, kicking my legs out and putting my hands behind my head, grinning at Scott.  He says, "Oh, I see your strategy.  I can play that game.  I have position." 

He takes his 15 seconds of position and floats right downstream from the cove cut-across.  At the perfect time, I start charging backwards, fighting against the current out of the cove for a good twenty seconds before I catch the dead water.  I charge hard all the way until I catch the swift water when I check back at Scott, and he's running up the river and across the cove, dragging his tube as it bounced off of innocent's heads until he finally abandoned it and just went into mad pursuit. 

At the conveyor belt there was a backup, and four cute local girls were trying to go up at the same time, and the local lifeguard obliged, and I lost my entire lead.  I was first in the queue when Scott charged through the crowd, grabbed a tube off of the pile, dropped it in front of me and headed up the tube standing on the belt with the tube around his feet.  He even tried to drop tubes on me but that was crossing the line a bit.  When we finally hit water it was an all-out charge.  I got hung up in traffic, brought it back close by the time we hit the first rapid, kept in the current perfect, and near the top of the second and final rapid, Scott caught the eddy.  Ahh, eddy is my friend.  I flew past him in the swift water as Scott was frantically trying to catch up, but it was too late as I made it back to everybody first. 

I lost the $100 in one throw of rock paper scissors later that night. 

So, anyways...  LOL. 

We made it to Biloxi without problem and for the first time in my life it was a damn good thing that I had a beer in my hand before getting on the 2nd plane.  Andy (BKice) met his buddy Ravi and I wandered off to sneak a quick charge on my laptop.  On the way back I ran into my friend Kimberly and from then on I kinda forgot about doing anything productive.  Andy and I had gotten a drink at the bar, and then they called us for boarding.  I'm like lets sit here and finish, they're like lets go bring it, so at the gate they tell me I can't bring it.  I ain't wasting a beer so I ask the lady her name and stand there to drink the beer.  She has no interest in talking to me so I decide to be productive and go to the restroom, and on the way out I see my laptop sitting on the window sill across the terminal plugged in. 

Yup.

So we get to Gulfport/Biloxi, Kimberly says, "Wanna ride in my car?"  At the bottom of the elevator there's a guy with a suit holding a sign with her last name (must be nice), and they go to get luggage.  I didn't check luggage.  Kimberly doesn't have luggage tonight.  So after taking a while to go through the process, the driver asks if she minds waiting for another person coming in shortly, "it won't be a while."  A couple minutes later he says, "The plane's ETA is 28 minutes." 

Yeah right you kidding me?  C'mon lets get a cab we'll pay for it.  He then calls dispatch and asks if they'll reimburse us for the cab (his idea tyty), and then they say don't worry about just bring us.  Sweet.  So we go out to her stretch limo (must be nice) and get an awesome ride to the Beau Rivage. 

After settling in we go to dinner at Waffle House (mmmmmmm... Kevin and I set the line at 3.5 total meals at the Waffle House this trip).  Back across the street, and I want to play some PLO.  Here's how that goes.  Poker TV

I get a seat in 5-10-25 PLO.  That means 5-10 standard blinds, 25 on the button, action starts in the small blind.  I buy in for $1500, get my first hand in the cutoff (no post), and the button puts $50 on the button.  Apparently you can make it $50 instead of $25.  Nice.  I find KKJ4 with J4 hearts, and after two limpers I pot to $225.  The button calls, both limpers call.  Flop 887 rainbow, check, check, I bet $425, button calls and is obv weak, others fold.  Turn a 7h putting 2 hearts out there, I shove my last $800, he calls reluctantly, river a 5h, I table my Jh4h, he tables AdKh6x5h.  Sigh.  Rebuy please, $2k. 

Next hand it's $25 on the button, after limps I pot to $150, fold the flop.

I fold every single hand for an hour, with $1775 in my stack and in the small blind, $25 on the button, I limp KKTx, limp, best player on table makes it $125, c/o calls, button calls, I call, limper calls.  Flop KTx rainbow, I check, check, bet $500, shove for $1700, fold, I obv shove, other player calls slowly, turn A river 9, I lose to KQJ9 and QJ99.  Sigh.  I'm going upstairs.

And here I am.  And I'll post this later.  10k starts tomorrow, 4 day event, gogogogogogo.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

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