FreeRollllllllin..........

I have been playing good in MTT's lately but unable to get past final 3 tables for a decent cash. So today, on my anniversary, I not only make it to the FT but was able to get a big chip lead HU. I told my wife that I would only play the blogger today and she didn't mind. However, I went ahead and enrolled in the monthly RTR freeroll not expecting to last longer than the Blogger tourney. So she was pretty upset with me during the whole final table. In my defense, I am pretty sick so if I wasn't playing I would've been lying on the couch anyway.

The first hand of HU we got it all in on this hand.

Full Tilt Poker Game #11889528036: RakeTheRake.com $25,000 FR (88600968), Table 26 - 12000/24000 Ante 3000 - No Limit Hold'em - 20:22:22 ET - 2009/04/26
Silly Pirate (Observer): nice !&$%ing hand
Seat 7: Shabazz Jenkins (1,253,348)
Seat 9: sfanants (638,152)
Shabazz Jenkins antes 3,000
sfanants antes 3,000
sfanants posts the small blind of 12,000
Shabazz Jenkins posts the big blind of 24,000
Shabazz Jenkins: gg
The button is in seat #9Silly Pirate (Observer): amazing
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Shabazz Jenkins [9s 9d]
Silly Pirate (Observer):
ggsfanants raises to 72,000
Shabazz Jenkins raises to 1,250,348, and is all insfanants calls 563,152, and is all in
Shabazz Jenkins shows [9s 9d]
sfanants shows [As 3h]
Uncalled bet of 615,196 returned to Shabazz Jenkins
*** FLOP *** [Tc Kh 8h]
*** TURN *** [Tc Kh 8h] [3c]
Silly Pirate (Observer):
shabazz if u win this which i know u will please ship me 5
*** RIVER *** [Tc Kh 8h 3c] [3s]
Shabazz Jenkins shows two pair, Nines and Threes
sfanants shows three of a kind, Threes
sfanants wins the pot (1,276,304) with three of a kind, Threes
Silly Pirate (Observer): !&!$
*** SUMMARY ***Total pot 1,276,304
Rake 0Board: [Tc Kh 8h 3c 3s]
Seat 7: Shabazz Jenkins (big blind) showed [9s 9d] and lost with two pair, Nines and Threes
Seat 9: sfanants (small blind) showed [As 3h] and won

That was an $1800 3 on the river. Damn.

Happy 1st Birthday Cody!

Today is my son's 1st birthday and my wedding anniversary. Cody was a BIG suprise and was totally unexpected. My wife was planning on going back to work once my youngest daughter started 1st grade. The day after the first day of school we found out she was pregnant. Not too long before, we had given away all of our baby clothes and furniture.

After having 3 kids I couldn't imagine having another baby in the house, but now can't imagine life without him.

So close again....

Congrats to TuscaloosaJohn for taking down the Big Game. It was a very tough final table. My AK ran into the much better hand A9 held by 1Queens Up1 and I finished 3rd. I got the much needed points but would have been nice to take this one down.

Also, congrats to 2BA and Heffmike for making the final table of both blogger tournaments today.

Almost 2 for 2

If I could just stick to these SNGs my ROI would be great. I end up spending my profits chasing the big score in tournies. I've noticed these being a lot softer on weekend nights. Anyone else think the games are softer on Friday and Saturday nights?

I finished 2nd in the Mookie on Wednesday which moved me up to 2nd place in the points standings and giving me a great start in April's points race.

Congratulations to 1Queens Up1 for taking down the the March points race.

Vegas plans....

I've got my Vegas plans set. I will be arriving early on Wed. June 17 and leaving on Monday June 22. The Venetian Deep Stack summer schedule just came out and they don't have one $330 tourney while I am there. I planned on playing a couple of those and trying to satellite into the $550 and the $1k. Last year I played in a couple of the Caesar's Mega Stack events which have great structures. Hopefully they will have a few of the smaller buy-in tourneys that week.

The last two year's I've played a tourney in the Binion's Summer Classic, a H.O.R.S.E and an Omaha/8 limit. They have great structures and treat the players very well. The lower limit cash O8 game and the 1-2 NL cash games were very soft. They don't have their 2009 schedule out yet but I hope that they will have an omaha or horse event that week.

As far as the BBT4 goes, I'm sitting in 7th place in the points with 7 events left in the month. I'm hoping to make a run at the monthly 2k prize. Last year I lost the 3rd month prize by just a few points. I got deep in the Mookie for the 2nd straight week only to lose to heffmike's donk preflop all in raise from sb into my KJ in the bb. He flips over T2o and takes me out. He did have me covered but I only had 4k back after posting the 1200 bb and I figured he would know my calling range had to be huge considering my stack size and pot odds. I just can't see how that play makes any sense.

Took the kids to see Race to Witch Mountain today. Pretty good movie with lots of action. The kids loved it.

Nice, my AQ just flopped qq6 rainbow i check raise late pos bettor he insta pushes with TT and hits his GD T on the river.....now I'm pissed L8

Gettin it out of the way early!

I won the first blogger tournament today! I don't even know how to get screen shots to post yet. (can anyone help me out?) I had a few bad calls and played a couple of hands badly but overall I think I played pretty well. Once we got to the final table I was totally card dead for an hour or so. I picked up a few pots with air and was able to stay alive. Once we got 4 handed I was in the sb and Joanada was in the bb. I had q9 and limped into unopened pot. I had about 1 1/2x her stack and didn't want her to come over top. She checks her option. Flop came A95. I bet about 2/3 pot and she tanks then goes all in. At this point I only have about 6 big blinds left. She had been playing pretty tight but with her stack size, I figured she woulda pushed pre with any A. If I call and lose I've got about 3 BB left so it was tough to get away from. Even with my small chip stack, I've got a good read on the other players and feel good about my chances to win. So I gave her credit for the A and I folded my q9.

Joanada went out a few hands later and then my 77 held up vs cooldog's all in push w/8T. So I get heads up with microvillain which is exactly the situation I was hoping for. I think he had the chip lead by about 60k to my 40k. I was able to pull to about even and then fell back to about 25k. Came back up to about 35k w/blinds at 1500/3000. He raised his button to 9800 which he had been raising about 70% of the time and I have a9. I decide to push but when he types in "crap gl" I know he's calling. He shows 55 and we are racing. By the turn I think it's over until the river brings the beautiful A. I rake in the pot and leave him with about 20k. He has been the big stack throughout the final table so I'm not sure how he's gonna play the short stack. I raise his blind with 9Th and he insta pushes all in. This is a close decision for me, 34k in the pot and will cost me 12k to call. I decide to wait for a better spot. The following hand I have KT in the bb. He raises 3x bb leaving about 22k behind. I figured he'd be pushing all in pre here with any decent hand and with the frequency that he had been raising, I put him on a wide range of hands. So i come over the top and he calls w/Ax. Not looking good until I spike a ten on the river and it's over!

Still have the Big Game to play tonight, so I hope I can make it two in a row. Gl.

BBT4 is here! I didn't have my blog up last year for bbt3, but I have been following several blogs for the past couple of years and played in the bbt3 last year. I started this blog back in 2007 but never kept it up. I'm not much of a writer and don't have a whole lot of time to keep up with a blog but I'm going to do my best to keep regular updates.



This past year online poker has been pretty bad for me. In 2007 I won quite a bit and was able to play in my 1st WSOP $1500 event. I had my AA cracked in a big pot close to the money. Last year, I won the 17k gtee early in the year and was able to go back to Vegas for the WSOP but I only played in the Venetian and Caesars events. I will be in Vegas this year also and hope to have a bigger bankroll. Since the 17k win i have been running pretty bad but hope to turn it around this year.

GL, see ya at the tables.