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I set a tentative goal to play 2000 sngs in the month of November but I failed miserably. Part of the reason is I decided to have somewhat of a life and the other reason is I was just really lazy. Anyways, here are the results:

Total Sngs Played: 731

ROI: 15%

Total Profit: $3,001

Hourly Wage: $43/hour

I’ll definitely take these numbers considering how little poker I played this month. I’d like to be able to say that I’ll play 2000 sngs in December but I’m gonna be really really busy so I might end up playing less than 700. I’m also working pretty hard on my game because I think there’s a ton of room for improvement. That’s all for now, on to December!

Grinding

—Don—

Since I forgot what poker is, I’ll share with you the story of my Friday night. Justin and I decided at around 3:30pm to head up to see Bob at his apartment in Norwich. We were just gonna chill for a little bit, maybe play a little poker and then come back to Jason’s house and head home late Saturday morning. We got there and Bob had hooked up his laptop to his zillion inch tv like i requested and tried out an hour in the life of me by 6 tabling sngs. Anyways so at 7:30pm I’m going to start my car and Bob calls. He says “There’s five thousand dollars missing, you guys can either get back in here or go to jail.” If there was ever a time to be thinking wtf it would be here. So we obviously go back inside and he shows us his safe with the key in it. He said he had counted $30,000 in there last night and now there was $25,000 and you could clearly see that a $5,000 bundle had been ripped open and was missing. He said he was home all day and we were the only two people in his house. I was just speechless like I just didn’t know what to say.

I really appreciated how he handled the situation by not wanting to get into a screaming match, not wanting to fight, not wanting to accuse us of anything because I know I would’ve been livid. I asked if he wanted to search us or search my car but he didn’t want to do that. So I thought the only reasonable thing to do would be to call the police. I was more than happy to stay and give a statement to the police about what happened. I never left Bob’s side once the whole time so it’s physically impossible for me to have stolen it. Justin only left his side to get us cups and I guess go to the bathroom. Bob later mentioned that his friend DJ had come over earlier to use his bathroom for like 2 minutes.

The cop was a bum. First of all, it took him like 20 minutes to get there which isn’t surprising but after we gave our statements he didn’t search me, justin, or my car. Like WTF. He just took down all our information and said that we would probably have to submit fingerprints the next day. As I sit here on Sunday morning, I’m still in shock of the whole situation.

Anyone who knows me knows how much I care about my reputation and how my word means everything to me. I would rather have people think of me as a good person than a good poker player and I pride myself on it. So to just be in the wrong place at the wrong time really sucks. I know Bob doesn’t think I was involved in taking the money but unless Justin, DJ, or someone on his floor goes down for this, there will always be that doubt in the back of his head and that really hurts. Of course, I’m being very selfish about all of this. As confused and pained as I am, I can’t imagine what he’s going through. He’s out $5,000 at the moment and he has reason to believe that his own friends took the money. I feel helpless. Bob, if you’re reading this, I told you before but I want to restate that if there’s ANYTHING at all I can do to help please do not hesistate to ask. I want to get your money back, but more importantly, I want to get your trust back.

Helpless

—-Don—-

I didn’t think I’d do a TR on my trip to PA but I haven’t put up something in a while soooooo here it goes. Five hours into the trip my dad and I are commenting about how awesome the weather has been. Well wouldn’t ya know, as soon as we say that, it’s like Snow City, USA. Sooo standard. Anyways, so we survive the last 20 minutes past Beaver Stadium to my uncle’s townhouse. This place puts my townhouse to shame. For starters, they don’t share walls with other people which I really like. But downstairs he has a place to drive golf balls along with a 46” plasma set-up and my aunt has this sick art studio. Needless to say I was jealous. So that night my cousin and Aunt who I haven’t seen in years joined us. We all caught up for hours and tried to convince my Aunt that she should put her 5 bedroom house on craigslist for the Inauguration weekend. She lives right in D.C. and she’s also a tour guide not to mention my cousin said she was willing to turn it into a B&B cooking or w/e so I’m pretty sure they could get $30k for the 3 days.

The next day another Uncle who I haven’t seen in prob 4 years came over with one of his sons who I was going to be sitting with at the PSU game. They told us it was gonna be cold so I put on a t-shirt, long sleeve shirt, hoodie, jacket, 3 pairs of socks, gloves, and hand-warmers. It was the coldest 3 hours of my life. My balls are just now descending. With that being said, PSU kicked some serious ass. After the game, all of us ate dinner together then talked for another 5-6 hours and called it a night. I woke up this morning, had the most delicious French toast I’ve ever and prob will ever have in my lifetime and booked it back to CT. It was really nice to catch up with everyone and see how they’re doing. I mean I hadn’t seen most of them in at least 4 years. I’m definitely looking forward to going back.

Till Then

—Don—

I decided that I was for sure playing Event #19 on Fri but it was just a matter of whether I wanted to play 3 $75 stt sats or just buy in direct. I ended up playing the sats, but bricked the first so I was in for $150. Nothing really exciting, my stack stayed around the 5000 area for the first two hours. Then 140/280 level I’m in bb w/5600, LAG MP makes it 605, I have gross spot w/KTdd as I think it’s sooooo close but I ended up shipping it in. He snaps me off w/JJ Flop: QdJd4s Turn: 6d River: Jh. Oh. Not gonna lie, I was pretty dejected. I haven’t played mtts in months so sucks but w/e.

I went to bed at 8am Sunday morning and actually considered sleeping thru the first hour at 2pm but woke up on time and hosed off 1200 first hand. Good decision! I actually went to break over original 5k starting stack and once again, my stack didn’t waver too much first two hours till 140/280 level when I once again had 5600. I was utg w/QQ, make it 700, MP flats, sb ships for 6500, I snap, he shows AKo, Board: xxxxK Sighhhhh  I haven’t grinded SNGs since Fri solely because I’m lazy but this isn’t goooooot since I’m gonna be in PA for the weekend. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll get back to grinding eventually. Until then…..

GoGoGo PSU

—-Don—

This month I set a tentative goal to play 2000 sngs. As of right now, here’s how I’ve done:

Total Sngs Played  613

ROI +19%

Total Profit +$2,771

I realized before I started playing that if I could play 2000 sngs for the month then I’d make anywhere from $1,100 if I had a 0% ROI to $10,000+ if I had a 20% ROI. Unfortunately, I’m only on pace to play 1400 and I’m going to be in PA next weekend so I won’t be able to play for those 3 days. While I won’t reach 2000 this month, I do believe that’s an accurate judge of your results. I think someone can run good through 1000 sngs but after 2000, you should have a good idea of what type of player you are. So there is a very good chance I’m running above expectation right now. But I did buy SNG Wizard because I believe it can help which hopefully it does so I can keep this ROI up through 2000 sngs.

I also won a seat to FTOPS Event #24 courtesy of an $8 satellite that I played to keep myself busy while Champ played his PCA sat. I was buying in direct anyway so it’s a nice bonus to get in for $8. I decided not to play todays SO event and go to class instead but I have tomorrow off so I might play the $200 FO. If not, then I’ll try to get into FTOPS ME on Sunday. Till then, it’s back to the grind.

Grinding

—-Don—-

Saturday night while grinding my life away I was informed in chat box by Bob and Justin that Bob was still in Foxwoods Main Event with 33 left. So Justin and I decided to head down Sunday morning at 10am and meet up with him for breakfast at Foxwoods. Looking on CP the night before I noticed how sick the field was. People that were still in: Freedy Deeb, Gavin Smith, Alex Bolotin, Jon Friedberg, David Pham, Jonathan Little, Bill Gazes, Kevin Saul, Mike Matusow, and last but not least Phil Ivey. Speaking of Ivey, I bet Justin that Ivey would show up after 12:05pm. Well look who comes strolling in at 12:03 ready to go. Justin says “hey Ivey you just made me 5 bucks by showing up on time” and Ivey says “anything I can do to help.” Right after that, the chip leader asks Ivey to sign the back of his shirt. Ivey says “this is some voodoo shit right here” and signs “asshole” on the guys shirt. LOL  Bob had Ivey to his immediate left for the first level but seeing as Ivey was playing Dewey Tomko poker, it didn’t matter. Going into the day with 20bbs at 4k/8k not much you can do but grind out the short stack which Bob did for hours. In the meantime, a sick hand came up at Mikey’s table. The big blind thought he was utg and folded but Mike pushed his hand back and told him he was the big blind. It folds around to the sb and he raises, now the bb reraises, the sb ships, and the bb calls. It’s 2To vs. QTo aipf and the board comes out JQ98x lol  You’ll hear Mike talk about it on the Mouthpiece this week. Pretty nuts.

Mikey is funny though. Before the tournament started, he gave this guy at the other table a hug and Justin said “awww Mike I don’t get a hug?” and Mike said “you’re a piece of shit, I don’t know you, I’ve known this guy for 20 years” to which the guy replied “Mike I’ve only known you since 2000″ and Mike said “so yeah 3-4 years.” Some of these guys though, while geniuses on the felt, are clueless outside of it. Couple levels in, I get a tap-tap on my shoulder. It’s Alex Jacob with his girlfriend (who’s incredibly hot btw) and he says “hey can I….” and points to the rail. I move out of the way, and he ducks underneath it to I guess give something to Bolotin. Keep in mind, there about oh idk, 4 different places where you can walk right inside the rail without having to duck underneath it.

Anyway so Bob sits there looking at J2o for 2 hours before they break the tables. I touch his chips before he sits back down because I run like God. He picks up 59o still in jam or fold mode. He folds, flop 55x. Couple hands later he thinks about shoving and folds. He tells us he had KTo. Flop comes down Q9x so no biggie he wouldn’t have hit anything. Turn: A, yah def good fold    River: J  loooooool All three of us are laughing hysterically on the rail while everyone is like wtf. So standard, I told him if he would’ve shoved every hand after I touched his chips, he’d prob have a million. No one ever listens to me though. 59o is a perfect value shove hand pf imo. Anyways so blinds are 5k/10k, utg limps (weird), old guy makes it 34k, Bob with 155k jams and it rolls back to the old guy who says “one time for the old guy” and calls with AKo.

Flop: T95   

Turn: 4

River: K

Sooooo sick. I don’t think he made one mistake all day but that’s how it goes. We headed over to the cage to collect the $24k, then ate at Hard Rock, then back to Bob’s incredibly nice place which I’m very jealous of, then because I was running on 1 hour sleep from night before and Justin had to get to High School Monday morning, we called it a night. Definitely an awesome experience. It’s a glimpse of where I want to be in a couple years. It also motivates me to try again at getting a seat into PCA in January. But Bob you played great and I hope one day I can own your zillion inch tv that shows the sweat on Phil Hellmuth’s face when playing at the tv table in the WSOP.

GG

—Don—

The 44rth President of the United States is……..

An amazing journey has come to an end. Up until 2 years ago, I didn’t care about politics. But I made the decision that this election since I was finally able to vote, that I would at least take the time to make an educated choice about which candidate I was voting for. Little did I know, I would follow the election more I do my beloved Red Sox. It seems like ages ago but way back in the primaries I realized Obama was the candidate for me. Looking back, I regret not doing more. I wish I would’ve campaigned, knocked on doors, made some phone calls, etc. That’s how much I believe in Obama and the change that’s necessary for this country.

Last night was a blowout. The country spoke and McCain got trounced. I’m really proud of us young voters (24 million of us) who went out and voted. Not to mention the countless others who have helped the Obama camp these past 17 months. I cannot tell you how rewarding it was to watch Karl Rove squirm in his chair as each state was turned blue. Not to mention watch Sean Hannity spew his garbage but this time, no one is listening.

As much as I’m thrilled that Obama won, I can’t even imagine what this feels like for black people in this country. This was a huge victory for them. It wasn’t long ago that Martin Luther King made his I have a dream speech. I wonder what he would say today. I guess we’ll never know. What I do know is I’m excited about the next four years. I think Obama has the potential to be the next JFK but only time will tell.

GG Republicans

—-Don—-