So the WSOP was, well, disappointing.  I mean, it could have been much worse, like zero cashes, but scoring a 26th (that made a $20 pay jump at 32

0, a min+1 cash in a $1500, and a 2/3 min cash in a $2500 is not going to put you in the positive when all is said and done.  I lost $400 in cash games over 74.25 hours.  I played a lot of damn cards, worked over 250 hours, and lost about $60,000 in the process.  And some of y'all think this is living the dream :).  It's not all roses.

The good news, though, is that I'm still in the Venetian $5k main event with an above average stack.  The gooder news is that I can win this thing, get out of makeup, and put a lil money in my pocket.  The goodest news is that I have like twelve months of run-good stored up from the quarter million downer that I've enjoyed for the last year plus.  Unfortunately though, there's a ton of sickos still left.

So I started tapping into that run good today.  Things always seem to go just the worst right before things get good, and this last week was torture.  This Sunday I played the Dream Team event as team PokerVT with Jon Turner and Adam Junglen.  The registration guy was very laughibly visibly disappointed that Jon/I were replacing Daniel.  So thirty minutes in some stripper to my right open limps at 100-200 (10k starting stacks).  I raise to 800 w/AKo.  Somebody representing "TheMavenVT" and "Ari's Training Center" (Ari, love you.  David, don't know you.  I think y'all are brilliant businessmen.  But I also think it's all pretty lol, in the like lol you guys are nuts for trying can't believe you're getting away with this but *shrug* wp way)... so this guy re-raises to 2200, I go arr-in for 10,800 effective, he snaps with AQ, queen on the window, turn me the nut diamond draw, brick.  Next hand I shove 800 or so TT UTG+1, another one of "them" (there was like eighteen of them) calls me on my immediate left with A7o, I have my backpack serving its function and am standing up on the turn because I knew the ace was coming on the river.  BJ Nemeth lol'd at me.  He's like, "You were good on the turn and leaving.  You must think you are cursed."  I was getting there. 

I get home at 3:15pm, get to register for the 500 and the 750k which I'm stoked about, and within half an hour I play this hand.  SB limps, I raise the BB at 150-300 to 2.9x with AA.  Flop 862r, check, I bet, he raises, I shove, he snaps me with 56o, I go bust. 

**** poker. 

So, I spend the rest of the night playing a game called Pandemic 2 where basically you are the intelligence behind the life cycle of a worldwide outbreak.  First you choose Virus, Bacteria, or Parasite.  Then you randomly show up in one of 30 world regions.  Your goal is to evolve the disease expertly enough to wipe out the entire worldwide population.  I felt better by 3am, even though I only won once.  Several times I just got stuck on Madagascar or Japan and wiped out the rest of the world so felt fine knowing that the Earth could be repopulated by animals that like to "move-it move-it" and the world's greatest jet-ski and motorcycle manufacturers. 

*disclaimer* I'm not really serious, just giving you a first hand look at how a poker player feels at the end of a long WSOP. */disclaimer*

So, on to the Venetian main event.  $5k gets you 20k in starting chips.  A $10 staff bonus (tips basically) gets you an extra 5k in chips. 

...

Blinds start at 50-100 with 25k effective except for the guy who looked like a monk in the 9 seat who said he was against tipping.  Kidding (Thay3r).  I've had retarded tables every table, with no more than two good spots at any given table ever.  So, I've had to make spots.  New guy to table raises, I call JJ, they can't help but squeeze cause they're all sick ****s, they do, we shove, they fold.  BadBeatSlayer raises, Mexican dude calls, we have XX on the button.  Re-raise.  JForest comes to table, he opens in late position, I shove Q3o.  Those were all today, yesterday I flatted ATo on the button v. a cutoff open with a 22 big blind stack partially to induce a squeeze from the big blind, he did, I called, had the best hand, and held. 

And, I finally turned on the run good.  After getting 2 outed for a 50k pot early in day 2, dropping me to 20k, from there I shoved 99 and beat KQhh.  Next hand open/4bet shoved 33.  Folded until moving to a new table, folded for 2 orbits, found AQcc in the BB when a 15bb stack opened, I shoved, ran into AK, and made a running club flush.  I was rooting for the board to double pair.  Then an orbit later I opened the button, they folded.  Opened the cutoff, a sicko in the SB re-raised to 16k, I StandUpAndHighFiveTheDealerFirst shove 90k w/TT, he snaps with JJ, we flop a ten and hold.  That was the last actual hand that I had and happened 4 hours before the end of play.  For the rest of the day we all took turns outplaying each other and I chipped up to 271k when we popped the bubble, then blinded down to 241k to end day 2. 

Anyways, people have gotten better at poker.  It sucks. 

Lastly, one big piece of news.  This weekend I was offered and accepted a short term endorsement deal with Ultimate Bet.  I have agreed to wear a UB logo in every tournament I play until Aruba in the first week of October as well as blog a few words here and there for their site which should be fun with the motorcycle trip coming up.  I'm very happy with the progress they've made in the past year, and am pleased to have the opportunity to work with the company and meet everybody involved higher up while in Aruba.  I've been wearing their logo the last two days and made my first day 3 this summer :).

Peace and good luck,

Devo