Time to kickstart this old blog

I've felt like writing lately and why not use this old blog? I'm mostly writing for myself and while I could just as well put all the thoughts into a text document, I tend to lose text documents whenever I format my computer or switch computers so why not put it online. It's always fun to go back a year or two later and see what was going through my head at the time.

I'm starting to get frustrated with poker. I moved down to Florida in August of last year and it was supposed to be the promise-land. More money than what we knew what to do with, the chance of rebuilding from past mistakes and finally getting my life together and all this while surrounded by palm trees, hot chicks and beaches? How could it go wrong?

It's now been 9 months or so of living here and things didn't turn out the way I hoped. The first few months started out really well and after having a 15k month early I thought this was everything it was built up to be, then a downswing hit. Then dealing with regular life shit that probably made me play worse. The downswing turned into a break-even stretch and my limits of how much I was playing with every day (I'm entirely backed) went down in hopes of saving the amount of money I was losing per session. Now I'm stuck playing $2/5 still after 9 months with $800 a session to play on and with the guidelines of play really snug and let the money come to you. Except the money isn't coming to me.

Now the more I've spent time thinking about this, my theory is that tight definitely isn't right in these games. I can't name one regular in that poker room that is a winning player that plays predictably tight, not one. Besides Lenny if he wins as much money as he claims he does but I rarely see him win when I'm at the table, I'm not calling the dude a liar, I'm just just saying that people are full of shit and I don't know for certain. The good regulars who I suspect are winning players all play good, loose aggressive poker. They pick up all the dead pots, they usually are the only ones 3-betting with any frequency, they valuetown the tight regulars and bloat the pots whenever they have hands and try to punish the tight regulars who play hit or miss poker. I've tried playing this tight hit or miss poker and it definitely isn't working. It's so reliant on catching cards and inherently more frustrating when you get your hands beat. It kills me seeing good preflop spots that I have to fold, where I normally would 3-bet or see a spot postflop where I just feel like a raise would win the pot and instead I fold because if I'm wrong it'll cut down so much of my 800 limit a day to play on that it makes it hard to maneuver. Plus I have to get quizzed after the session why I did that and it's always hard to explain hands that are based on live reads or how the flow of the game is going to somebody who isn't at the table. In a vacuum a lot of the hands look silly which is why I now will not play a hand that I can't justify in writing afterwards (since I have to report all hands I play) and it makes things tricky as well when you have to first think about how this is going to look before you play the hand. I talked to an old buddy from Tunica about this and his suggestion was to just play my game the way I'm used to playing and then lie about the hands. Now while this would be the easy route, I couldn't do it. I've never been one to make up shit about my poker game or hands that I've played and I didn't plan on starting now and I have a feeling that would add a ton more stress in the long-run.

Now the counter-argument, so if I supposedly have the secret how to win in these games, how come I didn't make 100k in the first couple of months? I think a couple of things. For once, I ran really well early, got sloppy and was just autopiloting after that without thinking about cards too much, I just played. I took the aggression a little bit too far as well and need to learn how to slow down when the game asks for it. I also didn't put in as many hours as I should've early, I've put in lots of hours now when I'm trying to play like a nit but I didn't put in enough hours once my downswing started hitting before. I could've played more.

I also had some shit that I can't talk about in the blog which messed with my head a bit, and while I kept telling myself it didn't affect me at the time, it certainly did. I also was getting used to the game, the players and playing full-time for the first time in about two years. I played very sporadically over the last couple of years and hadn't played for a few months leading up to the Florida trip. If I could do it all over again I would but now there's nothing left but regrets.

It looks like my only option now is to return home to Sweden. I have to give up the dream and just throw in the towel unless something goes radically different in the next couple of months. I am not religious but I pray every day for a heater so I can make enough money to pay my debts and have a little bit left to play on. I don't wanna leave as I love it here but the current situation isn't working. The hard part is that I know it is near impossible for me to make the amount of money that I need to when I play tight like I've been told to play so it is even more stressful. When I get 2 outed for 2500 with two cards to go like two days ago then it hurts fifty times more knowing I can't make that 2500 back unless the cards absolutely hit me in the face. Even so they have to hit me in the face over the next couple of days just to make that back, I will never have a chance to make it back in the same session playing snug. When I was still "playing poker" and not waiting for hands, it still bothered me but not nearly as much as it does when I'm now playing like a nit as I could just calm myself down and look for good spots and wait for hands, now I'm just waiting for hands. It was so much easier to calm myself down too when I win some pots and lose some pots instead of just waiting for hours and hours and hours only to play a hand and get beat, plus if you're up a bit from just picking up dead money in pots, it doesn't hurt so much to lose some back.

I feel like I'm completely at the mercy of luck and I pray to whoever runs shit up there in the skies to let me run good for two months. Please, so I can pay my debts and then play on my own come September. If that happens and I am still struggling 2 months after September then I'll go home and I won't complain. But I just want one more real chance, give me my "one time dealer" as we poker players like to use... unless I have already used up my one time. :(

swede9.blogspot.com

I'm updating a newer blog it's mostly poker related information but anyways

swede9.blogspot.com

La la la la la bamba

So yesterday I sit down at the Commerce casino to play their $10/20 NL game and there's a few tables to choose from, my buddy tells me to get in whatever game Lou is in... it took a minute to realize who he was talking about when I saw Lou Diamond Phillips sitting in one of the games. I sat down in the game and realized quickly he wasn't too experienced at poker, but I suppose he's learning, but he was a really nice guy. I was sitting on his right and he introduced himself and we were talking just like he was a normal guy.

Poker has been going so so, still stuck for the trip but now that I'm playing a little higher I hopefully can eradicate the losses and go back to having fun. Me and Chris were eating dinner today when he told me something I've been thinking about for the longest time, he goes, "man, I can't wait until we get home I don't like this playing every day shit"

He goes on to say, and basically echoes what I've been thinking for the whole last year, that it is tough when you are playing every day and focusing on nothing but playing because your mood becomes intertwined with your results. For example, there's a certain redlight on the way home from the casino that doesn't always register when you pull up to it, so you get stuck sitting at that light for sometimes 4-5 cycles of the light or until another car pulls up. If it is coming home from a winning night, the music will be blaring and I couldn't care less if that light changes now or in 30 minutes. On a losing night, I feel like I want to explode and run outside and break the fucking thing with a baseball bat.

This goes on to everything else in my personal life too, my mood is too directly associated with how I am doing playing. It is horrible. I think once I'd get more financially stable, this could potentially take care of itself but I'm looking for some kind of miracle cure right now. I've been in a really tough losing streak for a while now and my mood has certainly reflected that. I'm sure my girl Jessica hates how depressed I get at times but she puts up with it like a trooper, my friends the same way. They must get tired of me and my swingy mood as well, and just like Jessica, I wonder how sometimes how long they would put up with me until they are tired of it. Because I'm tired of myself at times, haha.

It's hard to just put it out of your mind though, everything becomes so much more stressful when you struggle with money. The financial swings of winning and losing tens of thousands within a span of one or two weeks really tears you down mentally too. There's this cheesy cliche saying about how poker is a tough way to make an easy living, I always laughed at how stupid that sounded, but I'm starting to realize that there's a point somewhere in there!

Anyway, still out here for another week or two at the minimum. I'm going to try to satellite into the $10,000 buy-in WPT Legends of Poker at the Bicycle which starts on Saturday, so Friday might be spent playing some satellites.



Now for the poker hands from the session

I can't remember in what chronological order these hands come in and I'm sure I've forgot a few interesting hands, I felt like I really was running a lot below expectancy but anyway.

I lose about 800 or 900 without picking up a pot, after buying in for $3000 and I have about 2100 in front. A good, tricky asian player in the 3 seat makes it 100 to go, one call, I call 80 more from the big blind with A5 clubs... flop is K83 with the 38 of clubs. I check, he bets 250, other guy calls, I checkraise to 700 he tanks for what seems like a million years and finally folds two queens. So I finally win my first pot of the game about an hour and a half into the session.

Then I pick up a few more pots when I actually get dealt hands and 3-bet peoples opening raises in late position to pick up a few hundred here and there. The two hands for my session was jacks and queens, I had them both at least 8 times each, queens probably more. I kept limping with them the majority of the time and just folding to overcard flops over and over. The game was great and there were several people giving a ton of action.

One hand a guy I played with from a 1500 max 5/10 game and he was horrible opens for 120 on the button. I call with A9 of diamonds in the big blind, limper calls. Flop 982 two spades. I check, next guy checks, button bets 250 and he has 750 total. I make it 600. Now the limper behind says "Time!" and starts going into this whole Hollywood agony thing, and I'm thinking I just stepped in it and when he calls I'm telling myself to proceed very carefully. The preflop raiser also calls. Turn offsuit ten. I check, limper who has another 2500 or so checks, the preflop raiser with only 150 left checks. River pairs the deuce, T9822 flush missed. I check, limper checks, preflop raiser sends in his 150, I reluctantly call but the pot is so big. Limper folds, whew. Preflop raiser mucks instantly and I don't have to show my hand.

Also in one particular hand, a new player to the game in the 5 seat (i'm in the 6) had previously gotten stacked right off the bat and now rebought. I thought he was a bit steamed, he makes it 120 from the small blind after a few limps, I have queens in the big blind just call the 100 more. Head up to the flop. 223 with two clubs flop, he bets around 200, I just call, turn 5 he bets like 600 I make it 1400 which covers him, he calls river 2. He shows two tens, I table queens and drag the pot.

I limp in later with 77 flop comes 973, two hearts, checked to me I bet 60, tricky asian calls, he was big blind for the hand. Turn 9. He checks, I bet 150, he makes it 400, I just call in position. I'm a hundred percent he has a 9 and I'm raising most rivers, unless the river is like an 8 or T or A and he comes out bombing the river for like a thousand I'd probably just call. Most rivers if he leads 400-600 I'd put in a smallish raise. River 3 for the lovely 99733 board and my lower full gets counterfeited he leads like 800, I fold in complete disgust.

Cory Carroll from WPT and online fame sits down at the table in the 1 seat and starts playing fast out the gate. He limps in, I limp in with sixes and its like 4 way on a $40 straddled pot. Flop is 532, checked to him he bets 160, I decide to call once and reevaluate. At this point I had added more money to the table and had 6k starting the hand, he had about 5k. Turn a 6 for 6532 two hearts. I check, he bets 280, I don't want to raise here so I just call... river 4 puts a straight on the board, I check he checks he has TT and we both play the board.

I also play a big pot with Lou who was next to me, I limp in UTG with AK of spades, he limps behind few more limpers. Flop JT2 one spade. I check, he bets 60 everyone folds, I call. He's about 4k deep I'm 6k. Turn a beautiful Q giving me the nuts. I check, he bets 200, I make it 800, he calls. River ugly K for a KQJT2 board and I bet a weird 300 on the river hoping he'll make a crying call, he puts like 2000 in the pot and I sigh and call. He has AA and we chop the pot. I make a big suckout on the flop, obviously, but he gets 60 dollars in ahead, 800 when behind and god knows how much I could've got from him if a river blanks off a 6. I think he might've called 1500.

I dodge a bullet in another hand when I open UTG with QQ to 80, get two callers. Flop 864, I bet 200, Lou and the big blind both calls. Turn 2 there were two spades on flop. Big blind checks, he was a tight player and his flop call really worried me, I thought there was a decent chance I was beat and I didn't know exactly how to proceed. I hate checking these drawy boards but I didn't like the spot. I check, Lou checks. River 5 for an ugly 86542, big blind checks, I check, Lou bets $350. I didn't believe him at all, he has in previous spots checked behind on these kind of boards when he had the big straight and I just honestly thought there was no way he'd valuebet any kind of two pair. I'm getting ready to call him when the big blind calls. Now I'm thinking the big blind has a set, or two pair himself but probably not the straight because he truly agonized before calling. I'm toying with the idea of what a sick spot it would be for me to make it 1050 or something right here, but I fold. My buddy is right behind me sweating me and he says I should've overcalled, Lou shows a pair of 8's and the big blind had two kings that he played very odd. Losing 280 in a 10/20 game with QQ against KK on an 8 high board I consider a victory.
I really think I could've won $10k for this session but I had several hands not go my way. I cash out 1900 winner and I feel somewhat sick about it. I go to play 5/10 1500 max afterwards and the legendary gambler Archie Karas is in the game. He apparently does not play Hold'em very well but he drew out on me pretty awesomely in several pots and I play for 2 1/2 hours, never win a pot literally, I never had to chop up a $5 chip to make change so I can tip the dealer cause I never got a chance to, and lose 2200.

One cute hand he was involved in I had 88 he makes it 60, guy calls, I call. AJ8 flop, he bets 125, dude minraises to 250, I just call, Archie calls. Turn Q. Check from Archie, guy bets what I think was 300? I call again, just figuring I want to let Archie make a mistake and I am confident I'm ahead by quite a bit. River a cute T for AQJT8 and I want to throw up. Archie leads 300, dude inbetween moves allin, I fold, Archie calls. AK for Archie, other guy was going crazy with KJ... kinda awesome when flop is AJ8 and I have 88 and finish third place to KJ and AK.

So ended up losing on the night and it was a very, very bitter loss. I really felt like I should've came home with 10-15k

Back to back winning sessions, oh really?

I played the 5/10 game at Hawaiian Gardens yesterday, picked up about 750 and then left when Chris was ready to go after not having done so well in his game. Chris has been on quite a tear lately in the 200 max buy in game. They play $3/5 blinds with a maximum buy-in of 200 and he has beat the living shit out of that game and he's up 5200 in 6 sessions of 200 max. That is unbelievable. Most people have like 200-400 on the table, I'll walk by his table to see what he's up to and he'll have 1600 in front of him. It's kinda cool. Every time he's taken a step up to play higher though he's not been running too great but at least he's pummeling that game.

Tonight I went to the Commerce, played the 1500 max 5/10 game and won a few hundred nothing major. I made one blunder towards the end of that session that got me down to being 350 winner as opposed to being 900 winner. After that I talked to my buddy for a while and he suggested I should go play the $10/20 uncapped no limit game in the top section.

I sit down in the game with 2k and we're playing 8 handed and the game was really good. I can't even remember the first few pots I was in but I think I got up to about a thousand winner without a showdown, I then make a back to back blunder. The game was playing big, most of the pots were straddled to $40 so it was a 10/20/40 game most of the time and they were a lot deeper than me and my (now) $3000 stack. I limp in UTG with 99, another limp and the guy who was in the straddle who was by far the action player on the table tosses in two more white chips and makes it $240. He did this quite frequently. I called and the flop came J-J-J. He checks, which he also did frequently whether he flopped anything or not. He checked after raising preflop both with his monsters, his medium strength hands and his total misses so that didn't tell me anything really, I check behind. Turn 7 he bets 200, I call. River T for JJJ7T board he bets 600 and now I'm just left guessing. My hand is fairly face-up as a low pocket pair and I thought there was a decent enough chance he'd bluff and even in some cases value-bet worse hands than mine so I called, but he had KJ for the flopped quads. Right after that the very next hand there's a limped pot I limp on the button with 33 and see a flop of 743 two clubs. Guy who limped UTG bets $100, gambler that made quads previously calls 100, I make it 350 they both call. Turn 5 for an ugly 7543 board. UTG checks, gambler guy bets $1000 and I fold and the UTG guy had limped in with KK and folds it faceup. The gambler showed us both a 6 before he folded. If turn comes a blank, I think I win a big pot off of the guy with KK though.

Then after that, I went card-dead and nitted up for like 3 hours when I didn't get involved. Only major pot I play I limp 66 UTG and I get looked at right away like this one guy expects me to have a monster, he limps behind, next guy makes it 80, one call 80, gambler from previous hands makes it 180 from his small blind. I'm thinking this might be a premium spot to limp-reraise given my tight image and I think it over for a couple of minutes, literally, before I decide that I'll just call thinking that I can bring in the callers behind me and somewhat profitably set-mine and keep in mind that my hand looks pretty strong after limping UTG and cold-calling a reraise. Flop 332... the reraiser, mr gambler checks, I decide to try stab at this one and bet 500... the two callers immediately fold and the gambler guy tosses in 99 faceup in the muck instantly, so picked up some there.

The only other noteworthy hand was me raising AQ to 120 getting three callers, flop AQ3 two diamonds they check to me, I check in cutoff, button checks. Turn 7 of diamonds putting 3 diamonds out. First guy checks, second guy who had gotten stacked a few hands earlier and was a little tilty shoves 1250... I call, the other two folds. River blank, he says "one pair", I show my hand and its good.

I feel like I could've done a lot better in the game, but I was adjusting to a new and bigger game and they were playing very fast and gambling a whole lot. I picked up 1100 and learned quite a bit about the game and a couple of the players so looking forward to going back to that game later this trip.

$300 Rebuy at the Bicycle Casino

Yesterday I decided to play a $300 multiple rebuy with $150k guaranteed prizepool at the Bike here in LA. I had an uneventful first day, you start with 3000 chips, 3000 for every rebuy and I ended the rebuy period with 12k and ended the day with 10300. It was a very good structure, I just never got anything going. The first 25/50 level of the day during the rebuy period I had AA, QQ four times, AK twice, flopped a flush and had JJ three times and I went from 6000 to 7050 chips with those hands lol. I just barely hung in there the rest of the day was completely card-dead which made my image at the table one of a total rock-solid tight player. I am not used to having that image at all.

I was at about 6800 chips with 200/400/75 blinds guy opens for 1k UTG, call, call and I ship 6800 with A8 mainly because I was only worried about the UTG raiser and he had opened big hands (AA and QQ) early before but with those hands he opened 4x the blind to 1600. When he opened for 1000, I thought he had a more speculative hand and with my image of a nit I thought anyone else besides him would be even more hard-pressed to call. Anyway that's the only really interesting hand I played. We played 7 levels until we took a break for day two.

I come back on day two and blinds are 300/600/100 ante and I raise early with AQ flop top two, make a smallish bet and the guy folds. I open later KTs flop comes J43, I had three people call me and one guy shoves the flop with QT high and I fold, guy behind me calls with 98 for no pair, no draw. It was about a 28k chip pot that Q high took down, these guys were playing pretty awful.

A little later I shove AK UTG with 12 big blinds left, get no callers there either. Then comes a spot which if I played worse I could get some chips. UTG is a big stack with about 65k he limps, he seemed like a very good player as well. Next guy limps, I'm third to act with two deuces. I have 8800 chips so about 11 big blinds and I opt to fold. The UTG limp from him scared me, if it was anyone else on the table I'd probably shove since they limped with anything but I know he didn't. I didn't wanna limp and lose 10% of my chips if I get raised behind either so I just pass.

Flop K72 rainbow, UTG checks next guy bets 4000... fold fold, UTG calls. Turn 3 of clubs putting two clubs out. UTG checks, next guy bets 6000, UTG moves allin, the UTG+1 who originally made the bet has about another 11-14k and snapcalls him with 65off for a pure gutshot nothing else. UTG has AK of clubs but the other guy ends up catching a non-club gutshot 4 on the river for a monster pot.

I fold UTG+1 and when I'm UTG I look down at A9. I don't wanna blind down either to like 7-8 bbs cause I will have very little fold equity and I hadn't played many hands, I make a shove which I think is marginal at best, get called right behind me by the tightest player in the world, this lady who had played all of zero hands. She has AK makes a king and I'm drawing dead and out.

Still no results anywhere and I keep getting my money in bad every time I put a chip in the pot...

Running bad in poker

I can safely say that in my 9 year career, with 5 years full-time, of playing poker I've never ran worse than I have right now. Just like anybody else I've been in slumps where it seems like I can't win or that I'm running worse than average, but sooner or later I snap out of it. Since January 2008, I've had two decent starts to a month but neither of them ended up being a very good month at the end of the month and since April, I've had a large losing month every single month.

When I finally snap out of this rut that I'm in and the next time I start running great and make $20k in 3 weeks in our lousy Tunica 2/5 game or make 25k in two weeks of online play, I'm going to count my blessings and hold onto that money a lot harder. I've always been really bad about fucking off my money and spending it unwisely, making bad investments or just the good old "Get drunk and blow $15k because you're mad at the world" kind of thing but I'm slowly realizing that poker isn't as easy as it used to be and money does not come around that easily.

I don't want this to turn into a bad beat post but there's been so many ridiculous hands I've played since World Series of Poker in June/July and now on this Los Angeles trip in Commerce. There's been so many coolers where I've been on the bad end of the cold-deck, so many ridiculous gutshots for 2k or 3k pots that I feel like I'm running an absurd amount of money under my real equity for the last few months. But there's nothing I can do about it.

It's gotten so bad the last while that I am totally gunshy when I play, which in turn I think makes it so that I play bad poker, which in turn fortifies the fact that I'm going to lose for the session and it is just a horrendous cycle.

I had a couple of hands earlier today where I flop a 6 high flushdraw, turn the flush and I'm check-calling every street not even attempting to go for value because I assume I'm beat every time, and I was. He had a higher flush. I later raise with a pair of queens and get a 655 flop and I check the flop, check the turn and call a small bet and check and call the river because I'm assuming I'm beat every hand. In that hand, it turns out I was, he had T5 off he called 50 with.

There's not just the bad beat hands either, I miss out on an $800 pot earlier because I used the same mentality. I assumed I was beat. Call 65 pre with JJ. Four people in the pot. Flop Q83 rainbow. Raiser, who was on the button and a LAGtard, bets 175 on the flop. I really didn't feel that he was strong at all and my gut instinct was to call, but then I had two people behind me, so I thought if I make a small raise to about $375 or 400 I at least fold out their KQ/QJ/QT type hands... but then I turn my hand into a bluff at the same time. I am thinking what to do when I just fold because I'm clueless. I had no idea what to do because I don't trust my own instincts anymore. Both guys call behind me so I'm thinking I made a decent fold. Turn Q river some blank they check it the whole way down and the guy on the button wins with 99.

If I'm not such a vagina in the hand, I'll 3-bet him preflop and lead the flop and I win the pot. Or raise the flop and I win the pot. Or call the flop and I win the pot. It seems like I'm zigging and zagging at the complete wrong times. I call when I'm beat and I fold when I'm ahead. It has completely started fucking with my head and I don't know what happens anymore.

Another rant... yesterday I miss out on tons of value with KK twice because I'm so scared of playing a hand I limp it preflop, just check-call the flop, turn and river and I end up making $200 bucks first time and $180 second time against hands where they would've paid me off a decent amount but I'm too scared to put in a bet. The reason I was particularily gunshy was that earlier in the session I play KK hard preflop, get it in for $1100 vs a guy who was making the game by playing erratically and basically was the target for everybody but he has AA and holds. A little later, I slowplay it preflop but play the flop and turn hard when I have black KK calling $90 preflop on a Q53 all spade flop, he has AA with the A of spades... money goes in on the turn (I bet 550 he sets me in for 350 more or so, I puke and call hoping to spike a spade which I did) and I get stacked there for 1400 or somewhere around there as he makes the nut-flush.

I do the complete opposite of what I'm supposed to do in just about every hand right now and I'm losing money at a rate that is absolutely alarming to me. I've tried everything. I keep a positive attitude coming in to play but usually four hours into the session I'm talking to myself and just wishing I hadn't woke up that day. Then I go home, think about the hands, tell myself I'm an idiot and go to sleep. Wake up the next day in a great mood and ready for this rush to start and for me to win money and then it happens again. Since May.

This was long but I had to write something to get it out of my system, I doubt a single person made it all the way down here to this paragraph unless you skipped a few! But I don't blame you, it is cathartic for me to be able to write and clear my head some. The next time I end up running good for a few months and run into a week where I lose a few hands and end up losing, I'm going to open this blog and re-read it and realize I've been through worse. However long it will be until I snap out of this damn thing. I try as hard as I can to not think about it and just enjoy life and the other good things I have in life and how happy I really should be, but it is very hard sometimes. Actually most of the time! It's a constant work in progress to try to ignore the poker results and just life happily anyways and maybe some day down the road I'll learn to separate the two.

Real long overdue update.

Wow, I really do suck at updating my blog. I had all kinds of intentions to start a new blog, and keep writing and every time I end up writing for four days. Well I'm writing this one from Los Angeles, California. Me and Big Chris drove out here a few days ago. I've never been to LA before and it was a pretty long drive. We decided to divide it up into three days to make it as easy as possible, and truthfully it wasn't all too bad. We drove only 6 hours first night, 10 hours second night and finished it off with about 12 hours on the last night. With stops, of course.

I got a great opportunity out here and I was kind of aching to get out of Tunica anyways so I talked Chris into driving and off we went. I met up with my friend out here the first night and he thought it'd be a good idea not to play the first two nights but just relax after the long drive. So that's exactly what I did. I stayed the first night at his house which was a very nice house in what they call "Little Saigon" here. Now here's my immediate problem, I'm as white as they come and I was raised in northern Sweden. Me and chopsticks don't get along. So I order some kind of meal in one of the vietnamese restaurants here and they didn't even bring me a fork or knife.... fuck. I try poke around with the little wooden sticks for a minute, trying to figure out how Greg (the guy who lives there) did the shit and I somewhat got the hang of it by the end of the meal. But it seemed like way too much work compared to a fork and knife. :(

The Commerce Casino was great, it's like the World Series of Poker every day it seems. A hundred and change tables with just about any limit of whatever game you want to play. Last night I didn't play but went to a restaurant with Chris and Greg called Del Rae, which Greg claimed was the greatest kept secret in Southern California. The steakhouse was very nice, had a valet as soon as you pull into their lot. Their peppersteak was off the charts. And then I played tonight, as in Saturday night in their $500 to $1500 buy-in $5/10 No Limit game and booked a small win, nothing major. Me and Chris then went to some sports bar and watched the UFC fights and had a couple beers, a pretty chill night.

Well that was all I had to write, I just felt like updating something.