The Marvels of modern technology

During my drive over to AC today (I wasn't actually the driver) I was able to win a seat into tonights FTOPS 1K buyin. This is one of the biggest if not the biggest non-sunday online tournaments ever. Should be fun... yeh im in AC playing online poker in my hotel room.

Presidential elections

Before you turn around, the 2008 elections are gonna be here. There is nothing we can do about it, every 4 years we hold elections. Now, the fact that elections are held does not mean that reasonable candidates will be put in place in time. As it turns, the front-runner Hillary Clinton is an opportunistic power driven person, who during her co-presidency (93-95) managed to infuriate half the country with her extreme-leftist initiatives. (In recent years, she has taken steps to moderate her positions.)

As a social moderate/small government proponent/keep taxes low etc. person, naturally a Republican candidate will be closer to my positions. On the other hand, I refuse to vote for anyone that supports/ed the Internet gambling legislation. This excludes many of the so called "conservatives" as they in general like to pander to the Christian coalition (and groups like that) and will not want to be seen as pro-gambling- i mean anti family.

Candidates such as Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani leave some room for hope, but their positions are not clearly staked out. They both have impressive resumes, Romney highlighted by turning around the Salt Lake City Olympic games and a successful stint as governor of Massachusetts. Giuliani instantly gained national attention for his leadership on and after 9/11, and his cool under pressure is a huge plus for a president. Furthermore, his years as NYC Mayor show him as a manager that gets things done, even when there may be political consequences.

I have wrote to the campaigns of Romney and Giuliani to try and obtain there position on the Internet legislation that was tucked into the Port Security Bill last year. When I receive answers, will post them.

I'm off to Atlantic City today for the "WSOP Warmup" series of tourneys going on @ Harrahs. I'll be playing a 1k and a 2k buyin, GL me.

I final tabled the small field (80 players) Stars 200 Horse yesterday for the second week in a row. Once again, I wasn't able to take it down, but I did improve on my 7th from last week, this time finishing 3rd. I had another repeat this Sunday, finishing one table away from a major final table for the second straight week. Last week's 11th place finish in the Full Tilt 400K, was followed up by a 14th in the Bodog 100K this week. Quite disappointing to say the least.

50 1 Rebuy/Addon

I had a rollercoaster ride in it, and despite once again (Stars 300 where I got 2nd a couple weeks ago) playing poorly (or at least getting in my money behind a number of times) I managed to take it down.

You might be asking, what's with all the poor play Ari? Well, I routinely play poorly in about 20% of my tourney's. It's not something I'm particularly proud of, but having decreased that number significantly from when I started, I am happy with my progress. It's hard enough winning a tournament when you play well, but when I'm not playing my A game, I virtually never do well in a tournament. I certainly will not enter a tournament if I feel like I wont be able to have a strong showing. The fact that these 2 tournaments I did well in, I also played poorly, is the exception that proves the rule.

Happy Mother's day to all mom's especially mine.

I've been thinking...

I bluffed off my chips in the stars nightly 150 tonight to one of the best players on the internet, westmenloaa. Why do I do those kind of things?

In the 25k, for the few hours that I sat with Chip Reese he opened virtually every pot, and almost never got resistance. Of course I was sitting 2 to his right, so there wasn't much I can do. ZeeJustin was sitting 2 his left, and wasnt really looking to get in pots with him it seemed. I was thinking, if I had been in his seat, I'd be reraising often, then again, I bluffed off my stack while ZeeJustin went deep in yet another tourney, coming back from a very short stack to start day 2. (When I played with him)

I'm off to AC this week, not sure yet what I'm gonna play, but there a couple of series going on, then soon its vegas time.

Tommorow is Sunday, hopefully good things happen.

In the course of this post I got bad beat out of 2 tournies. That's Poker!

edit: i bubbled the 11pm UB $100. 20 paid, with 21 left, UTG+1 limped for 600, a big stack raised to 2500 utg+2, and I pushed from the cutoff for 10500 with aq. The raiser had ak, and his kicker held. Going into the hand I was sitting 12/21. Definately a questionable play, but mainly because the big stack had not really been getting out of line. Still I'm sorta happy to go out on the bubble trying to accumulate chips. It'd be sick if he had rags, and folded them even with the odds, thinking that I must have a monster to push on the bubble as a mid-short stack.

So I've busted out of everything tonight, except the 50 1 rebuy/addon on Stars, where I'm sitting 2/32 on break 2. (144 entered) One tiiiiiiiiiiiiime.

So with all my talk of bubbling and trying to bubble, you'd think I might take getting knocked out on the bubble well. The truth is a little farther, I hate getting so close, and not hitting. However, I realize that is what it takes...

which is all an intro to what happened last night. 5 paid in the UB 100Rebuy (the days of UB being a major site are almost for sure numbered) and I got sixth. The interesting part was that I actually had the best hand when the money went in. (I can't remember the last time I was called on the actual bubble (1 away) and showed the best hand.) The other tourney i bubbled was the 20R, and there I went out in a more normal way, when my 109 couldnt beat aq.

Speaking of UB, I've broke my DB curse. Ever since thepokerdb.com started tracking UB tournies, I'd never been able to cash for more than double my buyin. We are talking about over 6 months, with nothing to show. Of course, I wasn't playing much on the site- partially due to the bad run, and partly to a general dislike of UB- either way, it hurt, and breaking out of that slump is sweet. I cashed 3 tournies in a row, winning one of them for 4k, and having scores of about 1k in the other 2. I'm still down on UB since the DB started tracking it, but its a huge step in the right direction. Of course that 100R last night woulda been real helpful..

In live tournies, my Bellagio trip didnt go as planned and other than winning a satellite to the main event there (25k buyin) - which I proceeded to donk * out of early in day 2 - and a meaningless cash in the nightly 1k. Next stop is Las Vegas again for the WSOP and the surrounding tournies. Hopefully I can make a dent in the live poker world this trip.

* Folded to me on the button, I had just come to a new table, and I 3X'd BB w/ a8. The SB folded, and the BB reraised to about 10-12BB's. He had me covered, and when I reraised all in (for about 65BB's) he insta called me aa. An 8 on the flop just provided me wtih some fake hope.