Vegas Trip Recap

Back in June I headed to Las Vegas with the hope of winning alot of money. My mind was on the prize and not what it would take to get the prize. I don't want to say that I didn't have high expectations for this trip, but I wasn't focused on winning money. Whatever happened I just wanted be mentally and physically prepared everyday and play my best poker. I went to bed fairly early each night and I did some stretches and excercises each morning.

My first event was the $550 Deepstack on Saturday. I started off pretty good chipping up to about 30k in two hours from a 15k starting stack. I took alot of those chips from a crasian who loved to bluff. He was able to build his stack back up and he raised from utg. I'm on the button and call his raise with 55. Flop comes 345. He bets out and I call. Turn is a q. He checks. At this point I put him on two over cards or a medium pair. I bet and he min check raises me. Now I am thinking he could have aq here or a flush draw so I flat and plan on letting him bluff the river. River is an 8 and didn't complete the flush draw. At this point the pot is about 24k and he bets 12k leaving 3k behind. I put him all in and he turns over A2 for the wheel. UGHHHH. I didn't even think he could have A2 or 67. I hit my set and was focused on getting as much out of him as I could. I doubled up a couple times and survived for another 2 hours or so but couldn't really get anything going.

That night I played the Venetian nightly $120. It drew about 135 players. My first table was extremely weak and I built my 7.5k starting stack to around 25k in the first hour. I had one solid player at my table and the others were unbelievably easy to read. They were folding to my cbets and if I thought they were weak I would check raise or raise their cbet. I felt like I couldn't do anything wrong. I have never just ran over a table like that playing live. A couple hours in I lost a big pot when my QQ < JJ. And then I isolated a shorty's all in w/aq offsuit. He showed up with aq offsuit also. 3 clubs came on the flop and the 4th on the river giving him the pot. I went into short stack ninja mode and was able to make the final table. I went out in 9th place for a little profit.

I played the O8 limit on Sunday. It had 135 runners and I went out 45. I felt pretty good about my play considering there were some really good O8 players in the field. I lasted until around 9pm so I wasn't able to get into the Venetian nightly again.

On Monday the V had a $350 NLHE event. This would be my last deepstack event so I wanted to make it a good one. I drew a pretty tough table and was down to about 10k from 12.5k starting stack in the first hour. With blinds at 75-150 two late position players limp in and I find jc9c in the bb. The limper in the hijack position had limped with strong hands several times already. I check my option. The flop comes QT7 with 2 spades. I check and hijack bets pot. Previously I saw this player check call all the way down when he hit top pair. The last hand he won he limped with TT and bet the big when he flopped a set. I felt he had at least 2 pair and maybe a set here. If I hit I knew he would pay me off so I call his flop bet. The turn is the Kc giving me the straight and a straight flush draw. I check and he bets almost the pot. I raise and after he tanks for about 3 minutes he shoves and I snap call. He has TT for the set and rivers a K for a Full House. I'm not so sure about getting it all in here. Since I was pretty sure he had 2 pair or a set I could have flatted his turn bet and made sure the board didn't pair. The river K may have scared him and I could have gotten to showdown without going broke. Got my money in good just unlucky.

That night I played the nightly Venetian again. It drew about 150 players this night. I drew a pretty lag starting table and was getting horrible cards. I was down to around 8bbs when I got one of my best starting hands of the night 5d7d. I obviously shoved and got 2 callers. The flop comes 578 and I triple up. As we neared the bubble the table tightened up and I was able to get a few valuable steals and resteals. I won a big pot when we were 6 handed on the final table bubble and went to the final table 2nd in chips with about 200k. Even though it seemed as if I had a big stack, I only had about 20bb with an M of 8. I stole a few pots but avoided any confrontations and we got down to 5 handed. Blinds were 8 and 16k with a 3k ante. 39k in the pot and i was sitting on about 210k. The aggro player at the table raises from utg and I find AQo on the button. I shove and he calls with TT. I see a Q coming on the top card of the flop cards! As the dealer slides the 3 cards across the table, the bottom card is a Ten. sigh.... But wait flop is QT9, turn is an 8. I can chop it with a Jack! Jack. Jack. Jack. Deuceeeeeeee. Damn out in 5th for $800. First was almost 4k. During the tournament I was talking to the guy that busted me out. He won an FTOPS jersey back in August.

The Deepstack events seemed to be a little bit tougher than they were in June. I saw more pros at the Venetian than I ever have in June. There seemed to be less tourists in the Deepstack events this time around. However the Venetian nightly seemed to be alot softer. I also played 3 satellites this week and 3 way chopped 2 of them. I played some craps, pai gow, and stayed away from the roulette tables.

Venetian Deep Stack

I am heading to Vegas this weekend to play a few live tournaments. I was planning on going to Hammond Indiana last month for the WSOP circuit event. I was only going to get to play two tournaments and my expenses were:

$300 for the room
$130 for rental car
$100 for gas

total $530

I had my room and car reserved and then realized that I don't even pay this much to go to Vegas. I knew the Venetian series was going on, so I checked flight prices and called Harrah's to see what rate I could get for a room. $300 for flight and $80 for 4 nights at the Imperial Palace. Wow I'm actually SAVING (hehe) money by going to Vegas.

So I will be playing the Saturday, Sunday, and Monday events at the Venetian.

Sick 1M gtee hand

Full Tilt Poker Game #24784135785: $1 Million Guarantee (181789490), Table 95 - 25/50 - No Limit Hold'em - 18:44:14 ET - 2010/10/17
Seat 1: Shabazz Jenkins (5,625)
Seat 2: DarkHorse19 (4,625)
Seat 3: Kazak132 (6,152)
Seat 4: ZaReTa_SbriSsa (4,280)
Seat 5: CharlesBeck (4,915)
Seat 6: berkey11 (2,543)
Seat 7: grindtherail (5,305)
Seat 8: oleg12345 (6,268)
Seat 9: philament28 (5,287)
philament28 posts the small blind of 25
Shabazz Jenkins posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Shabazz Jenkins [2d 2s]
DarkHorse19 folds
Kazak132 folds
ZaReTa_SbriSsa folds
CharlesBeck raises to 100
berkey11 calls 100
grindtherail folds
oleg12345 folds
philament28 folds
Shabazz Jenkins calls 50
*** FLOP *** [Kd 3c 2c]
Shabazz Jenkins has 15 seconds left to act
Shabazz Jenkins bets 200
CharlesBeck has 15 seconds left to act
CharlesBeck raises to 500
berkey11 calls 500
Shabazz Jenkins has 15 seconds left to act
Shabazz Jenkins raises to 1,450
CharlesBeck has 15 seconds left to act
CharlesBeck raises to 4,815, and is all in
berkey11 calls 1,943, and is all in
Shabazz Jenkins calls 3,365
CharlesBeck shows [Ks Kc]
berkey11 shows [Ac Kh]
Shabazz Jenkins shows [2d 2s]
*** TURN *** [Kd 3c 2c] [9c]
*** RIVER *** [Kd 3c 2c 9c] [4c]
CharlesBeck shows a flush, King high
Shabazz Jenkins shows three of a kind, Twos
CharlesBeck wins the side pot (4,744) with a flush, King high
berkey11 shows a flush, Ace high
berkey11 wins the main pot (7,654) with a flush, Ace high




I probably could have gotten away from the hand if I had just called his flop raise and saw the club come on the turn.

Big Win X 2

This is the same tourney that I chopped last Friday. I was tired and went out of the 28k and 50/50 and was going to call it a night. Man, am I glad I didn't. At the final table I got into a heads up battle with jason jiang. He was raising every pot. I picked my spots and kept letting him bluff into me. Had a chance to take him out with 2 pair vs oe draw but he caught on river. Finally my 33 held vs his k9 and I took it down.

BIG Win!

TOOK IT DOWN! chopped for 5200. This was another tourney where I decided at the last minute to get in. Glad I did. loose_cannon_jj was at final table. I think this was the first time I've played against him. He's pretty tough. I was lucky to have position on him. 6am here gotta get to bed...if I can sleep.

Still Alive

It has been quite a while since my last post. I have been following everyone on my blogroll but have stayed away from commenting or posting. If I posted it would've meant that I had to think/write about how bad I was feeling about poker. I had high expectations for my Vegas trip and after another bad year I came home pretty disappointed and depressed. I used most of my online bankroll for the trip and my run-bad continued online. I couldn't even get myself to post a Vegas recap blog. I didn't want to come off as the guy who blames his downswing on bad luck and bad beats and everyone else. I started questioning my game and wondered whether or not I knew how to win anymore. Every decision I made seemed like the wrong one. This made me start playing differently and making more bad decisions to the point where I was way off my game. I kept making small deposits whenever I could, but couldn't build a roll with the small amount I was depositing....until Friday night.



I don't have any screenshots or hand histories to post but I spent most of the tourney short stacked and unable to find any good spots. I was all in several times with under 10 bbs. I stayed alive and made it into the money. I had some very weak tables and knew if I could catch some cards I would be able to make a deep run. At one point I made a big (and correct) laydown with aks pre vs 2 players. When we were down to 4 tables I opened them all up and observed each table. I stayed short stacked until we were down to 2 tables when I doubled up with QQ vs. AQ. At this point the table tightened up and I started I started taking control of the table. I went into the final table 5/9 and had very good reads on the players. I applied pressure whenever I could and was the chipleader with 4 to go. 3 handed I was still the chipleader and had a chance to take out the shorter stack with 99 when he shove over my button raise w/8To but he hit a ten on the flop. This hand put me in 2nd place. Same guy raised my bb from the sb and I had k4 sooooted. Flop comes AK2 with one heart. He bets and I decide to flat and re-evaluate the turn. Turn is a lovely 4. He shoves and I snap call. He shows AJ and blanks on the river. This gave me a small chip lead heads up. I felt I had a big advantage but it was 8am and decided to chop it.

I have been working ten hour days and alot of overtime, so haven't been able to stay up to play the mookie. Good luck at the tables.

The Real Tiger Woods Apology - Funny aniboom Animation

Thank you Al and Full Tilt

Unbelievable opportunity.....but I couldn't get anything going. One of those tournies where I always had 2nd best hand. I picked good spots and was able to stay around my starting stack for the first 2 hours or so with few good starting hands. With around 35 bbs left I picked up qq and reraised rambler. He just had a big hand to knock out pvanharibo. He 4 bet, essentially putting me all in. I'm 99% sure his range here is AA or KK so I folded and he told me later he did have kk. Then I picked up KK and Maigrey called my raise and an A flopped. I cbet and she shoved instantly so had to fold there. Got it all in w/kjo vs. 55 and turned a gut shot and flush draw and couldn't get there.
Going in, I had a good game plan, had a lot of notes on the players, and wanted to make sure my early and mid tourney decisions weren't affected by the prize pool. Hard to do with this much on the line, but I didn't want to have any regrets. I guess I'll just have to stick to the Venetian Deep Stack events in a couple weeks. Congrats to the winners.

TOC seat #2

Short post, I gotta get to bed. I was able to make a comeback being the short stack with 4 left and take down the Poker from the Rail tourney. I didn't have AA or KK the entire tourney and when we were heads up, I got both within 3 hands.

TOC seat

I haven't been playing very well lately and have been pretty frustrated. There was an incident at work a couple weeks ago and I think that may have something to do with it. Let's just say I was almost "rivered" by 69000 volts. Since then, I have been playing with an awefuckit attitude. Calling and shoving when I know I'm beat and pushing draws at the wrong times. Tonight I got my head right and played a solid tourney from start to finish.




I came to the final table 5th in chips. I got lucky here when my AK held and I doubled through KimLovo.



I was able to take out babaghanoush in a B vs B when I flopped top pair and he shove my flop bet.



I made a big laydown when I raised utg w/TT 5 handed. Blinds were 1500/3000 (i think). Smokee shoved all in from the button and I decided to wait for a better spot. We lost kimLovo and usaf_trevor and were down to 4 handed when I picked up TT again in the sb. Dave shoved from the button and I my TT held.



Once 3 handed, lightning was able to maintain his stack while smokee and I (mostly me) were up and down. We played 83 hands 3 handed and on the 84th hand smokkee shoved with his pair and flush draw and lightning called with his top pair.



Smokkee is one of the first bloggers that I started reading. I have had his tourney table up observing his play many times. I hate to root against someone whose game I respect so much, but I am definitely glad to have a TOC seat. GG smokkee!

Congrats to lightning for winning his seat and also congrats to ddionysus for a great tourney.

BBT Final Table

I can't find the words to describe how bummed I am right now. I ran great in this tourney and couldn't get the TOC seat. I came to the final table with the chip lead, took out a short stack's AK w/KJ, and it all went to shit after that. Whenever I made a raise with a marginal hand, I was reraised. When I had a hand, my raise was called and I totally missed and they hit. There was one spot where I'm not sure if I made the right play.

6 players left. I have 52k or so.
Blinds were 1200/2400
All in at 420 rs to 6000 from the cutoff.
Button folds
Ftrain pushes all in from the small blind for 54k
I have 52k in the BB w/TT.......and fold

I'm questioning myself here. 420 was raising a lot of hands which would open Ftrains shove range. Looking back, I think that I should have called. I was definitely shoving over 420's raise but hate to be the caller w/TT. Winning that hand would've put me back in the chip lead and maybe a run to the final 2. Any thoughts?

Invitational Freeroll Thoughts

Just wondering what it takes to get an invitation. Are the blogger invites going to be the same every week or will more bloggers get the opportunity to play subsequent weeks?

Vegas Plans

I bought my plane ticket tonight. I will be staying at the Flamingo from June 15-21. My tournament schedule looks like this:

Wed 16th Venetian $340 NLHE
Thurs 17th Gldn Nugget HORSE $230
Fri 18th Binions HORSE $500 or Venetian $550 NLHE
Sat 19th WSOP NLHE $1k or Venetian $340 NLHE
Sun 20th Venetian NLHE $340

BBT5
It looks like there will be another BBT after all. I was hoping that there would be some sort of prize for the overall points leader but it looks like the invitation only tournament wouldn't allow that. Hopefully I can win my seat and make a run in the MTT.

Good luck to all!

Nice River

All in pre in the 5050 with about 300 left. I got a few "words" in before the river came but was pleased to see the 9.

What would you do?

I'm in the 32k gteed w/300 people left. I have a 16k stack which is slightly above average. Just moved to new table and 2 hands later in the bb I have JJ. Chip leader is at the table and raises from early position 2.5x bb to 1250. I have no info on this player. I don't like playing JJ oop and decide to reraise to 3500. He comes over the top all in. I can fold and still have 25 big blinds or call and most likely be behind or racing.

After tanking I decide that I don't know enough about him or how he got his chips and wait for a better spot. He shows 33 and I then go on tilt and give him my chips in my next bb. He raises, cutoff calls and I have As8s. I flop a flush draw and check raise all in. He has a set and hits quads on the turn.

With the JJ hand, once again I think I had just enough chips to get away from the hand. 3 or 4k less and I get it all in. Any opinions?

5050 recap again

Played very solid most of the tourney. One big mistake I made was when I 3bet a middle position raiser from the button with AQ. I was about 35bbs deep. He tanked and called. Flop came KT7. With a gut shot draw I could check behind and see what happens on the turn. However, I would rather take the pot down right now. He checks and I lead out for 1/2 pot. He calls and T comes on the turn. check, check. 7 on the river makes two pair. The pot is at 105k and I have about 60k left. He bets 21k into me.

Can he be betting 2 pair A high here? and can I fold?

Got down to 27 people and my table was very aggressive. I went card dead and couldn't find any good spots. Got down to 18 players and I was short stack with around 8bbs. I'm sure my image at this point was very tight weak. Both tables were very active and 6 more went out. I was down to 5 big blinds when I was in the big blind and was moving in with any 2 when I found A4 and doubled up. Two hands later I doubled up again with ak vs aq. I am now in 7 place out of 11 players left and have around 22 BBs. Two hands later I have AQ utg and raise, very active aggressive player in the bb reraises to 70k. This is the player that just doubled me up with AQ. I put him on a wide range here and think he may be raising thinking that I just got the chips and wouldn't want to play a big pot. I can't find the fold button and push all in 120k more which is about 1/3 of his stack and he calls with 66. I don't improve and am out.

Once again I am unsure if I made the right play here. I could have gotten away and still had 19 big blinds. I try not to let the prize money affect my decisions. In a sng or smaller tourney I make this move in a heartbeat but here I am playing for 11k and can't help wondering what if...

Deep in 50/50 again

50/50 regrets?

(Read previous post) When we were at the final two tables, I made two big laydowns that I believe were correct. 2009 was pretty bad for me and I think a lot of it had to do with my inability to make a big laydown late in a tournament. I'm curious as to what others would have done in these situations.

Two tables left and I have about 25 big blinds. Active player opens utg+1 for 2.5xbb. I call in middle position with ATd. Big stack on the button calls very fast. Flop comes 5s6sTc. Opener cbets small and I reraise 3x his bet. Big stack button insta pushes all in. I didn't have much history at all on him. However, I knew from checking his stats that he wasn't a very profitable player. I don't see him making this play with JTo, KTo, or QTo. If he had a set, I would think that he would try to get more value but with two other players in and two spades on board he may be trying to chase away any draws. He also could've had top pair with flush draw. JJ and QQ are posibilities but I doubt it. I feel there are just too many hands that are ahead of me or that have a big draw so I puke in my mouth, fold, and am left with around 18bbs.

My next big lay down was against utg min raiser. He had just came to our table and did not see my previous lay down. I was in the BB and had AKo. I recognized this player and he was a very solid profitable player. Sometimes I just call in this spot being out of position. However, I didn't want to play a pot with this particular player oop. I had around 20 BBs and decided to reraise his 10k bet to 24,500. He tanked and used up 45 of his 60 second time bank and pushed all in. I barely had him covered. Him using the time bank appeared to me him trying to act weak, or he could've been checking my stats. Here again, I usually can't fold in this spot but I just had feeling he had AA, KK, or at best AK.

I see other players make these calls all the time and get lucky, but if I had called I probably would've been dominated. Does anyone else make these laydowns or am I just a nit?

Final table bubble

Kicking myself! Had a tough decision with 10 left for most of my chips with 3 smaller stacks than mine. I had about 10 bbs and utg pushed all in for 7bbs. The other table had a 4bb stack and an 8bb stack. Utg has been playing tight on the bubble but was somewhat loose earlier. He pushes all in and I have AQ on the button. His range here I believe was pairs 77+, AT-AK, KQ and possibly KJ. I think for a while and call. He tables AK and I'm basically out. The last few days I have lost some big hands with AQ and have been thinking I should fold AQ in that situation but couldn't do it there.

Any opinions on this hand are welcome.

Amazing Horse

I found this video and now can't get the damn song out of my head. All day long "sweet lemonade mmmm sweet lemonade". Just thought I'd share this beautiful song with everyone. "Get on my horse I'll take you......." damn can't get rid of it!

So close again

It would've been a good day if I hadn't tilted trying to satellite into FTOPS. They wanted to make a deal with 3 of us left. I had around 600k to their 1.5m each and I would've only gotten $200 more so I declined the deal. A few hands later I was up to 1.8mil but lost a big pot when my JJ lost to 44 and then lost a couple of races. Anyone think it was bad idea to turn down deal? Just wondering what others would've done.

10$ KO Tournament Recap

This was one of the few tournaments where I got a big stack early and was able stay near the top of the leaderboard the whole tournament. Once we got to the money, the table tightened up and seemed as if they were trying to move up in pay. I started playing very aggressive and moved to the top 3 of the leaderboard. I sensed that a couple of the players were getting frustrated with my aggressiveness and was waiting for them to play back at me. Then my best played hand of the tourney came. I raised with 8h9h from cutoff and the button reraised my bet 2.5x. He had his bet in about 3 seconds after my bet. I almost folded, but how quick he reraised made me think twice. I shipped my stack and he folded. Phew. I don't do that very often but I was pretty sure of my read.

I lost a couple of races and was the short stack entering the final table. I picked a few good spots and made it HU. The donkey had me by 4:1 chip ratio. I chipped away at his stack and then was able to double up, but went out when my 89 on a 89k flop was up against TT. Obviously a ten came on the river and I was out.

This was somewhat of a weird tourney for me. I didn't have very many big hands or suckouts. I took a lot of pots down pre flop or on the flop by reraising and isolating.

I feel like I am playing really good right now but haven't had the results. This will definitely help my confidence.

Good luck!

Nice Score

I signed up for this tourney with about 5 seconds left in the late registration period. I'll try to post a recap tomorrow.

WBCOOP

I played a lot of poker on Sunday, but only made it past level 5 in one tourney - the WBCOOP Main Event. This was only the 2nd event that I was able to play and I made the most of it, almost.

I played some of my best poker in this tournament, taking down alot of pots down post flop by going with my reads. I didn't have any big suckouts and was able to get paid off when I had big hands.

We got down to 40 players or so when I raised with TT in middle position. At this point I had 65k chips with blinds at 1400/2800. My table had several big stacks and had recently been bullying the shorter stacks, knowing the 55 to 215 SCOOP ticket bubble was close. The BB reraised me 3x my raise. My time bank only had 12 seconds left and I had to make a quick decision. I was thinking fold the whole time then for some stupid ass reason, I push. He insta calls with QQ and I'm out. I saw the time bank down to 5 seconds and I think I paniced. I thought about this all day and really believe if I had 20 more seconds or so to think about it, I would have folded. Pocket pairs 99 and below were probably not in his range for a reraise here, so at best I would have been racing and should't have taken the risk there. I could've folded and still had about 20 big blinds and an M of 10.

Anyone have any opinions on this hand?

As for the rest of the day, some of the hands I remember going out on were my AA losing to AK when he went runner runner for broadway, AA < KK on the river, AA < 66 on the river, KK < 22 on the flop and my flopped set of tens lost to a rivered royal flush.

Congrats to CK and lightning on their deep runs in the WBCOOP.

Video of 345KV switch arcing

This is a switch in one of our high voltage stations. At the end of the video you can see how close we have to be to operate the switch. This day the arc wasn't that bad. When the air is damp the arc is louder and longer.

As you crank the handle, you can't look up at the arc. All you can do is listen as it seems to get louder and louder while you're hoping that the arc breaks. This is one of the few switches I don't like to operate. I'm going to try and get more videos of different switches that put off a good arc.

Ohio Casinos

Ohio's controversial casino issue passes

Issue 3, which was proposed through an initiative petition in March of this year, was passed by Ohio voters by a 53 to 47 percent margin on Nov. 3. The issue, which garnered roughly 1.7 million votes in its favor, will amend the Ohio constitution to authorize a single casino to be built within each of four Ohio cities: Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Toledo.

It finally passed! Ohio has had 5 issues on the ballot since 1990, two in the last two years. The amendment stated exactly where the casinos would be located, however, Columbus has vowed to fight if the casino is built in their Arena District as the amendment was written. The Casino company has agreed to pick another location, but any change and it has to go on the ballot again in May. This casino will be about an 45 mins away from me. The closest casino to me now is over 2 hours away.

This isn't the best deal for Ohio but it was the best proposal so far. The licensing fees and tax rates aren't as high as other states'. After the issue failed two years ago and the economy tanked, a lot of people changed their minds about casinos and it appeared headed towards passing. The opponents were complaining that the deal is so bad for Ohio, but were unwilling to compromise and even discuss other options, assuming it would fail again. Now that it has passed they want to complain about the issue's terms. What bothers me is that it was just a matter of time before this issue passed, so why didn't the state come up with their own proposal with better terms for Ohio? The state wants to keep pushing the state lottery and recently made keno available in bars, but wants to keep casinos out. So while not the best deal, it will be nice to have a casino within an hour's drive.

Multi-Accounter

Evidently this guy has about 1000 accounts on Full Tilt and plays them simultaneously.

Back in the Game

It's been quite a while since my last post. I have still been following blogs and watching some bloggers at their tables but just haven't had the time or the motivation to post myself. I've been busy with work, kids and trying to build my bankroll back up. I have been playing mostly low stakes tournies and sngs with a lot of success in the Super Turbo single table and 45 man's, but then I turn around and spend my profits on tournies.

Last night I went against my better judgement and bought into a Tier 1 token sng. I have always had a lot of success in these but the buy-in was about 20% of my BR. I have been running extremely bad the last couple of weeks and lost almost everything that I had won in early December. I was able to convert my $8 into a token and entered the 28k gtee. The first two hours of the tourney I won a couple small pots I entered but played very few hands. Before I knew it the blinds were at 200/400 and I was down to 3600 chips in the BB. At this point I knew if I had any kind of hand I was all in. The cards are dealt and I see AJ and figure this is it. However, there is a raise and a reraise and a call. If I fold I have 8 bbs left but my table has a lot of big stacks and I'm pretty sure they will call with a wide range when I push. I fold and enter a 5$ horse tourney since I'm sure to be out of this soon. Next hand in the small blind I have nothing and plan on pushing if folded around to me, but there is a raise and I throw it away. The next hand I'm down to 2800 or so and get a double up with AJ and double again on the next hand to about 13k. I get my stack up to about 35k in the next few hands when I raised with 7d8d in late position and get 1 caller. The flop comes A78 and I get it all in against his AQ and just know he's gonna hit another A or Q to beat me, but my hand holds and now I have around 70k with blinds at 300/600 and I am able to keep increasing my stack to the final table. At the final table I am fourth in chips and go totally card dead. I am able to get a couple steals and one player goes out pretty quickly. We play 8 handed for a long time. Still card dead, I'm on the button and 3bet the cutoff's raise w/9cTc to pick up a nice pot. We lose another player and I can't keep from looking at the payouts. I really hate the way that affects my game. I tell myself not to let it affect my decisions but one place is almost a $500 jump. I raise w/kq in mp with about 18bbs left and sitting 5th of 7. The big stack BB puts me to a decision for my stack and I fold. This is a spot where I normally would just push my whole stack in pre-flop. We lose another player and I get down to about 8BBs when my A8 doubles against A5. Another 2 players go out before I play another hand and my 89 is all in against the BB's KJ and I'm out.

The last few days I have been on serious tilt and was doubting my game. Everything I was doing was wrong. I couldn't win a race no matter what side I was on. One win like this and it makes you feel like you are back. Last year was my worst year since I started playing online and my Vegas trip was horrible. Hopefully I can keep this up and increase my bankroll for this years' Vegas trip.