Peaks...Valleys...More Peaks.....

Okay listen...I am not ducking you people I promise. But this has been a typical crazy week...where I play poker all day, sometimes til VERY late...and sometimes I even end up doing famous Wal-Mart dance at the Coast...skinning up my knees, playing blackjack (blackjack!???) and passing out at home with my clothes on...waking up at 1pm...and barely making it back to play some more! So you will HAVE to forgive me!

And I was asked to do this big question and answer thing for Ante Up magazine...and aparantly her deadline was today....so I just spent 2 hours banging that out. It is now 2pm. My dog's need to be fed. Wasnt going to play the noon turbo ANYWAY...but I have now missed the 2pm Texas Hold 'em poker Mega satellite, which isnt really that big of a deal to me. But I do have to play the one at 4pm.


This has been a wild week. And oh I have gotten some great pictures from the guy at Image Masters including me posing in every way imagineable with the 'sailboat' I won for having the chiplead in the Survivor tourney on Tuesday. A trophy which I late dropped and broke the top of the mast on. No biggie...barely noticeable, and now it has some character!

A quick recap. Won/Chop/Cashed on Monday. Won/Chop/Cashed on Tuesday...but as chipleader got the trophy. And I had a massive chiplead. It was a fun day. Wednesday was a nightmare. Lost all three tourneys on the slate. And lost 4 sit n gos. I am currently ONE for 13 in sngs this week...with a 3rd place and FIVE 4th places. Very, very frustrating how I have been getting clipped in those. With even 3 more wins...I would really be having a good week. But those SNG's peltings are really holding me back.

Yesterday I had one of those disastrous noon tourneys that just make you wanna shoot yourself. Nothing holds up. KK went down three times. No bluff goes uncalled. Get low...triple up...get some hope back...then get butchered on a suckout to lose most of it. You all know these days that I am talking about. We all have them. And they suck! Huge! So after busting the nooner, I strolled over to play a $200 sng with a $40 last longer that the whole table played. Nice...win this and I can smile again. We get to 800/1600 I think...or maybe it was 1k/2k...at any rate....it was TWO HOURS in....and I run A7 into A10...dammit. And it holds. They did at least give me my buy in back. But who cares right? I lost (again) to freaking Jennifer...you know who I'm talking about. Breasts? Likes to make sure everyone see them? Yeah. Her. She has been luckbox sucking out on me all week, and I'm really sick of it. I've never seen anyone, male or female, who makes more bad plays and get rewarded...and she does it constantly. Someone told me a story of her in the 2/5 game the other night where she sat down with $500....and went on a heater where she never, ever missed anything...then after getting it up to over 5k or something...lost it ALL. Making bluffs that any novice could see through. Making calls that were just ....well. Whatever. She has been killing me all week. It gets old.

Then I went to play a $100 SnG. This time, I lost to a guy who decided he would play, excuse me...RAISE..every hand...without looking at his cards! He started the game by raising 1500 after three of us limped for 50. Nice. So yeah...I was ready for him to go. He managed to lose a big pot and get down to 400. I called his blind shove with 88. Lost to his K8. Called his blind shove again with 33. He has 25. Five on the river. And on the very next hand when he raised blind again...I shoved with 55. He had J7. 7 on the river. I got up and bolted to the buffet.

Ran into Ken Lambert and Johnny Groomes and we kind of had an entertaining conversation...mostly about the psychotic lady who graced us all with her obnoxiousness the other day. I will tell you more about her later...cuz its funny. I will also tell you about this girl Kerri Simmons who has made quite a splash on the scene...holy smoke...who recieved a penalty the other day for...ya ready....wait for it.....drum roll please.....FOR HARASSING ME! Yes...she got a full round penalty for harrassing me. I didnt exactly recall because I was into my 5th glass of Pinot Noir and was shuttling between the Omaha h/l tourney and the 7pm nightly. Yes, I was playing all three tourneys! Believe it had something to do with shoving on her with 45 on a 235 board...showing her...and her freaking out cuz she had 88. Really didn't think I was showing her a bluff. Whatever.

Where was I? Oh yeah...talking to Ken and Johnny. Then Vanessa Rousso strolled by and she informed me that I was the topic of conversation during one of her Boot Camp sessions. Wow. I'm famous! HA! Whatever. It was pretty funny what was discussed. Just about how to deal with someone like me who uses (in their opinion) table talk to get information from people. I'm not going to expand upon this cuz I am really in a hurry now. But you people are beating on me for an update!

I went and ate a good meal at the buffet. Made all the better by it being free of course. Went and said hi to my lovely wife...then headed in for the 7pm nightly. I got off to a killer start. Called a guy who shoved after raising utg with AJ in my hand on an A-7-4 board with two clubs. Took awhile but it didnt make sense. I was right. He had KJ clubs...pushing with a club draw. Magically he missed. Nice. Then with BB sitting out, Terry "Lake" Garner raised in early position...his nemesis raised it to 1000...and I looked at AK...and with that guy only 4000 deep total, and me at 12k...I four-bet him to 3200. Lake says "now that is a good bet, I KNOW Monkey has a good hand..." and he folds what he claimed was A10. The other guy called with AQ and I held. So I was sitting close to 16k and hadnt used my rebuy yet.

Then they broke us for half an hour! What? Ohhhh...there was a players appreciation party with food, booze and .....I guess just food and booze! In the adjoining conference room. I wish I hand't eaten the buffet! Anyway, it was a really nice touch by the Beau Rivage...and everyone seemed to like it a lot. But it kind of broke my momentum.

Didnt matter...the night would end up being a marathon though...100 players and it took us until just after 3am to end it. I never go short stacked. I did have a hand where I lost 10's against AK that set me back from 25k to 12k...but I worked that back up to where I didn't have to sweat much. Then made a huge hero call in the BB with KJc when the SB pushed with Q10. That pot kind of put me in coasting mode.

When we got to 20 the begging began. Oh shit! I knew this would happen. They have been chopping almost every tourney here this week. In large part to getting deep and having the average stack representing 10 to 15 BB's...pretty tough to play that way. Its really nice though if you are sitting on over 20 BBs! Which I was. Well 10 were supposed to get paid $1750. And these guys wanted to each take $1000 each. And since I lost $1900 yesterday, and was stuck $800 on this day in buyins...taking $1000 would be a joke, I would barely cover my losses for the day. And you know...whatever, if I lost, I lost. But I was sure as shit going to try and build a profit for the day, since this IS my job, and BILLS are due today! So thats what I did, I kept refusing to chop...and sure I might have made some people pissed at me, but thats unfair. And deep in their heart they knew it. I can't just keep chopping with people because I feel sorry for
them. Those days HAVE to end! This is my job, and it is my responsibility to myself and my family to win damn tournaments. And in the past I have left a LOT of money on the table because I caved in to them. And I tell ya, the pressure on me last night was ridiculous! I even texted my wife and asked her what she thought.

So when we got to 11 they wanted to do it again, and I just told them, "I don't care if we pay 11...but I want 1st place money. I want $1750." So one of the guys agreed to pay me the difference out of his pocket. There about 4 shortstacks...and they were obviously terrified of playing for 8 hours and walking away with NOTHING. As I would be too. Hey I understand that. But I wasnt taking a penny less than $1750. Tipped the floor staff $50, tipped the dealers $50, and made a beeline for the house.

Slept like a baby. And now...its 2:35pm...and I must go try to satellite my way into tomorrow's Main Event. Wish me luck!

Monkey