http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php The official Zona Crew forums en Fri, 30 Jul 2010 03:08:17 GMT vBulletin 60 http://zonacrew.net/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=318 Tue, 11 May 2010 21:55:52 GMT i just started keeping a new blog at:
http://wardenpoker.wordpress.com/

i'm still trying to find my footing, figure out exactly what i want to talk about, and get my styling down, but it's up. for now it's pretty much a glorified brag post though. still, check it out. ]]> dpottz http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=318 http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=317 Wed, 05 May 2010 18:37:49 GMT After playing zero the past week, i didnt miss it at all and i was fine with that. i have no motivation to play. winning doesnt make me happy,... After playing zero the past week, i didnt miss it at all and i was fine with that. i have no motivation to play. winning doesnt make me happy, losing makes me depressed so its a no win situation. i have cashed out everything from poker stars and im fine with it. it was fun while it lasted but poker is just not fulfilling ]]> Kill Pot http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=317 http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=315 Thu, 22 Apr 2010 19:24:56 GMT Today went really well. Started the day off with a $22 plo hu, won it so the session was off to a good start and i was relived of the tilt i was... Today went really well. Started the day off with a $22 plo hu, won it so the session was off to a good start and i was relived of the tilt i was still suffering from yesterday. Played 4-5 tables of .25/.50 plo 6 max 50bb max then threw in some .50/1 with decent results.

One thing i noticed today which was really inspiring was a lot of the regs are really terrible at plo. I usually try to have really good game selection but i really don't think its going to matter at these stakes.


Day 5 +$129

Overall +$370

I need $3130 ]]> Kill Pot http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=315 http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=314 Thu, 22 Apr 2010 19:02:06 GMT Yesterday was mostly Plo hu's. Played a bunch of $22's and some $33's. I don't know why but i find it so much harder to beat these stakes but i crush the $57's. Maybe it's because i take the $57's really seriously but i'd like to think i take them all seriously.

I played pretty we'll but i was unlucky in almost every pot that was for the win. I saw a reg i've played before before in the $57's sitting so i played her, had her drawing to 4 outs then 9 outs for the win when she had 330 in chips. Lost them both, then lost the match.

My main problem in plo hu's is when i have my opponent down to 10-15 bb when the blinds are like 5-10 or 15-30. I just cant find a strategy that works. I think im going to try just limping otb in these spots to see flops. Anyone have any plo hu sng advice on this???

Day 4 -$73

Overall +$241

I need $3259 ]]> Kill Pot http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=314 http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=313 Wed, 21 Apr 2010 16:47:01 GMT Won some big pots, lost some big pots, nothing real exciting as far as cash goes. Found a big fish I've played before in a $57 plo hu and played him, and won easily. I'm not exaggerating when i say he is probably the worst hu plo player in the world. I managed to dwindle him down to 200 in chips only to have him come back twice with some 2 outers. Unfortunately i had to be somewhere at 5:30 so i could re-match him which was the most tilting part of the match

Day 3 +$58

Overall +$314

I need $3186 ]]> Kill Pot http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=313 http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=312 Mon, 19 Apr 2010 23:53:29 GMT Played a very short plo session on stars. .25/.50 6 max, 20-50bb tables. I hate playing non deep stack plo but 40bb+ tables are all full of regs... Played a very short plo session on stars. .25/.50 6 max, 20-50bb tables. I hate playing non deep stack plo but 40bb+ tables are all full of regs so i decided to just play where the money is but today, all the 20-50bb tables were full of regs too which was unfortunate. i 4tabled and had the same 3 players at all my tables and they were all solid. Made some not so great plays and wasnt being patient so decided to just call it a day.

Day 2 +$38

overall +$256

I need $3244 ]]> Kill Pot http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=312 http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=311 Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:13:26 GMT Started the challenge by playing some live 1-2nl today. Went down with moes duff. Made $218 and playing really gave me some new motivation and... Started the challenge by playing some live 1-2nl today. Went down with moes duff. Made $218 and playing really gave me some new motivation and confidence. I forgot how bad people play sometimes and how profitable live poker still is. A few hands...


4-5 limpers, i have q4 in bb.

flop q63 two diamonds. i bet 10, 1 caller.

turn 3. i bet 15, he calls

river q. i bet $10 into 65, he makes it $60, i call, he shows 66 for 666qq.




6 limpers, im otb w 23hh, i make it 15, get 5 callers.

flop kk8, checked around to me, i fire $45, everyone folds




My most interesting hand. thoughts please.

a few limps, asian guy makes it $7, Button calls, im in sb w/akcc, i make it $30, original raiser folds, button time banks, then says "looks like jacks" and calls. i instantly put him on aq or kq.

flop q hi w 2 clubs. i check, he thinks for a moment and bets $40, he has $180 behind, i cover. i got the clock called on me for taking so long and ended up folding. he showed kq.


thoughts- i really like the way i played this although some may see it as weak. i could have c/r All in, but i really don't think hes the type of player that is folding top pair, great kicker, when he gives a speech pre and and calling with aq or kq knowing i have jacks. At most i had 12 outs but i really think the asian raiser had aj or a10. he would flat pre with 88,99,1010, jj so now im only optimistically at 11 outs now. marginal fold but the right one.


Day 1 +$218

Overall +$218

I need $3282 ]]> Kill Pot http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=311 http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=310 Mon, 05 Apr 2010 05:34:43 GMT With no real motivation to play lately, i decided i would do a very mini 100k in 100 day challenge. 3.5k in 100 days. baller, i know. I actually... With no real motivation to play lately, i decided i would do a very mini 100k in 100 day challenge. 3.5k in 100 days. baller, i know. I actually think that blogs are really stupid and pointless and dont excpect people to actually read this, so my blog is mostly just to keep me motivated and on pace and so that i cant quit a month in. Ill be playing plo50 6 max and $55+ plo hu's ]]> Kill Pot http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=310 http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=309 Tue, 23 Mar 2010 20:27:19 GMT Whattup Zonacrew, I just joined the forum and figured this would be a good place to introduce myself and give a little background on my poker... Whattup Zonacrew,

I just joined the forum and figured this would be a good place to introduce myself and give a little background on my poker history.

I've been playing off and on for the last 3 or 4 years in both online and live settings. Originally I found my strengths were more suited to small stakes cash games when I found myself making a decent profit playing small stakes ($1/$2) at Casino Niagara in Niagara Falls, Canada. Around the same time was doing some recreational play online, playing small sngs as well as some small stakes cash, but never really did well in larger mtts.

The last few years I've really been trying to step up my game and learn the dynamic of larger mtts so I picked up a couple books and started reading.

last year I found myself making it deeper and deeper in tourneys but just barley cashing with little or no profit. I started noticing a couple of my friends, including the legendary JeanGrae, turning into complete sickos which really got me determined to start uping my game. My only issue is time. I work 40+ hours a week and find it hard to devote lots of time to playing consistently well.

This year, although off to a rough start in Jan-Feb, has turned out well so far. I just recently came 6th in the 11 cubed for $1440 and later that week came 9th in the nightly 70k for $1100. This has given me a huge confidence boost and shown me that I can definitely make it deep and get to that FT.

I've been trying to learn a few things from friends who have been doing well over the last little while and hope to keep it rolling throughout 2010. This is my year!

After reading JG's last blog post, I think im going to take some time and figure out some solid and obtainable goals for this year and just do my best to get there.

Anyway, big shouts to JG, keep killin it kid, and thanks for havin me zonacrew!

Cheers,

Marcus ]]> MarcusB416 http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=309 http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=308 Sat, 06 Mar 2010 22:59:35 GMT OK so this year I wanted to put more time in tourneys and win something over $500 lately ive been playing a bunch of low/micro stakes tourneys... OK so this year I wanted to put more time in tourneys and win something over $500 lately ive been playing a bunch of low/micro stakes tourneys because of my Bank role. These past few weeks ive been playing the 1$r 3x to Mohegan Sun 700$ qualifier with beck I noticed. Last week I played it me and beck were running good we both had good amount of chips I remember being in first with over 500k and 2 tables away from the money/seats. The blinds were 10k/20k and I am in the BB 500k with AQ off and utg goes allin for like 50k then a call for like 60k and then another all in for like 100k I thought about it and I made a bad fold I would have back doored flushed it and took 3 people out. I mean I don't know why I folded I felt like I was beat which I was but would have gotten lucky. Very next hand I had QQ I believe I raised and a guy 250k deep pushed with AJ DD I insta called and of course he back doors a flush on me. So i still had around 230k maybe more. Two hands later I am holding 99 bigger stack goes all in I call of course, he's holding 44 once again the guy rivers a 4 to knock me out. So I was really bummed about that because I usually run horrid toward the end of tourneys. So last night I decide to play it again to kill time before Alice And Wonderland. I didn't wanna watch it but my girl wanted me to go with her. So I noticed beck was playing again and said see ya at the final table and GL and unfortunately he got knocked out not sure when. So after the add-on period im sitting with 145k I got down to 75k because I wasn't able to make a move. So utg goes all-in and he didn't have enough to cover the blinds am I am holding 89 in the BB. SB limps i shove to make a move cause he didn't have that much and he folded I ended up making a straight. So that pot brings me up to 140k again, and after that i steal a couple of times and im at the final 2 tables I get AA I guy shoves I call and it holds so im at around 900k very next hand I am holding AQ blinds are 50k/100k a guy shoves for around 800k I fold to wait for a different spot. So before I know it im at the final table with around 1.2 mill I make a move to steal with 33 and take the blinds which were like 90k/180k and moving along to the bubble where top 4 got the seat and 5 got 31$, my mentality was play to win so I made steals when I felt were good spots. Short stack was down to 2 and a half BB's break comes so im felling good right now i have 1.6M. The break is done and I have AK Suited on the button it gets folded over to me and the shortstack is in the BB, I Double to put him all in and hes forced to call with 74 so I feel pretty good here and flop comes xxx turn x river 4. My heart dropped I was so pissed so I am down to 4 BB's and the guy who I doubled up pushes with AQ and BB calls with 22 and flops a 2 to take him out. I was really excited about this because lately ive been having doubts about my game and ive been so overdue for a win. I mean its not a lot but good enough for me to have confidence in my self again. Thanks for reading and I hope to make more blogs in the future.



Dear jugi v,

You finished the tournament in 1st place. You qualified to play in Tournament #297300040 and are automatically registered for it. See Tournament #297300040 Lobby for further details.

If you choose to unregister from this tournament your account will be credited with T-USD 700.00. Tournament US Dollars can be used to buy into any tournament. Visit our web site at http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/tournaments/ for more details. ]]> jugi v http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=308 http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=307 Sat, 16 Jan 2010 02:51:28 GMT Hey guys... Happy New Year. Just got home earlier today from PCA which was such a sick time, as it always is. I had a really fun trip which... Hey guys... Happy New Year.

Just got home earlier today from PCA which was such a sick time, as it always is. I had a really fun trip which included a pretty deep run for me in the Main Event (my first live 10K) and just going to do a trip report and have some goals for the New Year that I'd like to accomplish.

So PCA... where to start. I met so many new people this year, mostly a lot of MTT regs who I play with on a consistent basis. It's fun because you get to meet the people you are constantly battling with online and get to see the personalities behind the players you know. One night included a super drunken 1/2NL 6-game dealer's choice game with many mandatory straddles, and the dealers getting tipped over $1k in an hour or two.

My Main Event went really well and if it wasn't for getting really unlucky in a hand deep, could of made a run at the final table. Day One started with a pretty good table draw (I thought). I had a PokerStars pro from Argentina at the table, Nacho Barbero, who played really solid, and later found out but didn't know at the time I also had two Swedish mtt-regs who I know (G8vmylifeaway and antesvante) at the table. Basically the entire Day One I played pretty snug other than a failed triple barrel against one of the swedes (which I obviously wouldn't have attempted had I known who it was), which I spewed my stack from about 28k to 18k. I won a couple nice pots playing nitty and eventually moved to a new table during the last level of Day One. My new table included high-stakes NL player mastrblastr/Scott Seiver, Pokerstars pro Angel Gullien, and Tiffany Michelle. Guillen busted Michelle about my 3rd hand at the table where Angel flatted Tiffany's 2.5x open with 10bb's behind with AA and Tiffany actually thought her QQ was good when they got all-in on a 7 high flop (lol live pros). I ended the day with 36.5k after starting it with 30k, which was fine with me. I played fine and just grinded pretty much the whole day, and had 36 big blinds going into the 2nd day.

My Day 2 starting table had Bryn Kenney at it, who was pretty much my only tough opponent. I lost half my stack early in a race where I flatted a raise with 55 and then called a short stacks squeeze jam for about 15bbs total and got outflopped by KQo, putting me down to 18k at 500/1k. I then doubled a few hands later in a similar pot where I squeeze jammed 55 after an open and call, and won a race against AKo to get my stack back to 45k and some breathing room.

From there I basically just cruised the next half of the day, playing some pots with Bryn Kenney, one which involved me open raising 22 in a 3 way flop 744 two spades, checked around turn 2s, Bryn leads I call other guy folds, river another spade Qs putting four spades on the board, and Bryn check/jammed over my river bet with the As so I doubled up to about 80-90k at 600/1200. The rest of day involved a lot of small ball poker, and I peaked at around 130k, but then got moved to the right of the chip leader of the entire tournament at the time, Praz Bansai, who had 950k at 1500/3000 at one point. He was really good and kept playing back at me and pretty much raped me, so I spewed some off towards the end of the day and ended the day with 85k going into Day 3, which blinds started at 2k/4k.

Day 3 started with 280 players and 224 making the money, and min-cash was 15k so I was going to play my 20bbs pretty snug and try and squeak into the money and start making moves. I raise/folded once and pretty much and then had the blinds eat away my stack as low as 50k at one point with the blinds at 2k/4k. I got a double up after jamming QQ over a solid old guy's open and held against KQs. I had about 110k after that, and grinded until this hand on the literal bubble. This Italian old guy 3x's to 15k utg at 2.5k/5k, I look down at AA (birds) with 102k and decide to just jam, there wasn't really any other play b/c I had competent players at the table so flatting would be too obvious, and luckily before I even put my chips in the kid directly to my left instantly says All-in. Italian guy tank folds AK face up, and I held up against the kid's QQ to double. At that point I was right where I wanted to be... I had 230-240k at 2.5k/5k going into the money with 224 players left and knew I was gonna make a run at it.

I got moved to a super super tough table that included Ivan Demidov (WSOP runner up from 2 years ago), Justin Bonomo/ZeeJustin, G0lfa, Bdybldngpkrplyr, and the eventual winner of the tournament Harrison Gimbel. I grinded my average stack for a level or two and eventually caught a nice double up at the 4k/8k level where it folded to this old Costa Rican guy who opened 18k from cutoff, I 3-bet to 41k with AA on the button, and my eyes lit up when I saw Demidov push his stack in with a cold 4-bet from the big blind with 77. I held up and the dealer counted our chips and we both had exactly 211k so I knocked him out. That was pretty fun cause he's a really good player and it was a clutch double up at the time. There were about 130-140 players left at the point.

Going into the last level or two of Day 3 I won a few pots to get my stack to it's eventual peak at the 5k/10k level where I had 550k, and then things took a turn for the worse. The pivotal hand I lost that really fucked my chances at a deep run was at 5k/10k when it folded to g0lfa on the button, he min-r to 20k as he had been doing almost every time it folded to him considering he had a stack of 1.5million, and the old Costa Rican guy jams 26bbs (260k) from the small blind. It was like exactly half my stack and I look down at QQ, get it in really quickly and the sb flips over J9hh after g0lfa folds. Hold one time? Nope.. lol after the 873 two hearts flop I knew I was fucked. Turn was the 2h to complete his flush, and I missed my re-draw on the river with the Qh. Was really really upset after that one, I would've had approx 800k if I had held, but was hit down to like 275k.

Another table change wound me up at my good buddy Jake Toole's table (psutennis11 online). Other than that the table seemed pretty soft compared to the last one. Unfortunately, my bust came within my first orbit or two at the table. Blinds were 6k/12k and I had approx 290-300k to start the hand. I was utg+2 hand we were playing 7 handed. I open 98dd to 27k, and it folded to the bb who was a young kid who I had no reads on. He calls, flop is 9h 5c 3c. He checked and I really was torn on what to do. I wanted to check for pot control but there were just too many scare cards that could've came on the turn, and flopping top pair when you raise pre with only 25bb or less is just too good of a spot to chip up. I bet 32k and got check-raised to 75k, I sighed and jammed, and the kid snap calls with 555. Sighhhh geegee. I was out in 77th place of about 1500 entrants for $28k. It was no doubt fun and I think I did the best I could for sure. Wasn't a bad run for my first live 10k.

Played a few of the side events including the $1k NL, $1k PLO 6-max, $1500 NL, and $5k 6-max without any note-worthy runs in any of them. Still a positive trip, and I had a blast of course. Sooo looking forward to next year already.

Now I just want to set a few quick goals for myself for 2010, which I think and hope is going to be a breakout year for me.

Goals:
-Go unbacked. I've been backed almost all of my MTT career and I'm looking to go on my own at some point during the year and starting playing on my own bankroll.

-Have my first 6-figure score. It's a pretty big goal, but I feel like it is attainable and within grasp.

-Final table a big live event. I turn 21 in April, just in time for WSOP, so that would be ideal to make a run in one of them. I plan on playing most if not all of the NL events including the Main.

K guys, that's all for now. Pretty lengthy blog entry but I hope it's a decent read. Good luck to all of ZonaCrew throughout 2010.

-Bryan ]]> theczar19 http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=307 http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=306 Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:52:16 GMT Overall 2009 was a good year. I played a little over 1400 MTTs with an ABI of $11. I had $5,100 profit online with a 31.8% ROI. Not too shabby. I had... Overall 2009 was a good year. I played a little over 1400 MTTs with an ABI of $11. I had $5,100 profit online with a 31.8% ROI. Not too shabby. I had 4 online wins in 2009. One in the Stars $8.80 15k guarantee turbo for $3,572, one in a $5 FTP KO tournament and then I won the Stars $11 1k guarantee HORSE tourney and one of those $3 turbo rebuy 180-mans.

I also made a good run in Event 16 of the California State Championships in May. It was a 2-day event with a $220 buy-in and had 1723 runners. I made day 2 (72 players came back) and ended up taking 25th place for $1,183. That tournament was the first time I ever had to bag up my chips at the end of a day and come back for a day 2. Pretty cool.



These were my goals for 2009 that I posted in my blog at the start of '09 (with results in bold)

-To get my Stars TLB score over 20,000 for the year. I finished the year with 12,943.87. I didn't play at all on Stars for the last 3 months of the year though. Probably wouldn't have made it anyways.

-Right now I'm #239 on the BluffMag Bronze rankings. I'd like to get in the top 50. LOL. I think my highpoint was like #104.

-To win an MTT with a buy-in bigger than $11 (current high) I think I'll count the $3r as achieving this goal. I didn't achieve this goal but I did win another $11. I only had 3 chances to achieve this goal in '09. The only 3 FT's I made with a buy-in > $11 I got 4th, 5th and 7th place in.

-To win a seat to the PCA 2010 or somehow have had a great enough 2009 to go anyways. Not even close.

-To continue to learn and improve.
At least I can check this one off the list.



I didn't fare very well on the goals for 2009 but when I made them at the beginning of the year, I wasn't working and envisioned playing the whole year. I started working full-time in May and my volume decreased a lot which made most of my goals unattainable. So, my goals for 2010 are going to be goals that I think I can achieve while holding down a full-time job. Here they are

Goals for 2010

#1 - To continue learning and improving. This may be redundant as it's been on my prior 2 years goals as well, but IMO, it has to be on everybodys list of goals.

#2 - To make at least $10,000 in profit for the year. That would be a nice supplement to my job income. I'll only be playing MTTs 1-2 days a week but I think I can do it. Getting my first 5 figure score would help, lol

#3 - To final table a big live tourney. My first chance will be January 20th. I'll be playing Day 1a of Event #1 of the L.A. Poker Classic. It's a $335 buy-in with a $1,000,000 guarantee. Yes, you read that correctly. $335 buy with 1 Milli Guaranteed. Wowsers.

#4 - To make lifestyle changes that allow me to be healthier and in a better state of mind while I play. A major help to that might be coming soon too. After working graveyard shift (10pm-6am) at work for the first 7 months on the job, I'm 90% sure that starting February 2nd, I'll be working a normal day (10am-6pm) and having Sunday and Monday off. OMFG pinch me. Graveyard is horrible for many facets of life, including poker. AFink93 can attest to that. Cross your fingers for me!

#5 - One more carryover from 2009. I still want to win an MTT with a buy-in bigger than $11.


That's all for now. Happy 2010 to all the Zonacrewers and good luck! ]]> SICKTIGHT311 http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=306 http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=305 Thu, 31 Dec 2009 03:42:30 GMT where to begin...

locgically, i suppose January of 09.

Started the year off with a "deep" run at PCA. Finished 33rd (ish) for 35k.

Also started the year off extremely well grinding SNGs hard. There were several Supernova Elite chasers so the games were extra juicy and i was running well which is an excellent combination.

I lead the chase to be first SNE for about 3 months before I decided to go play EPT London and Monte Carlo.

I did poor at EPT London, but played extrememly well and made it to day 3 of Monte Carlo before bubbling the money.

Monte Carlo may have been my best display of aggressive poker in an important tournament, but unfortunately i got impatient near the end of day 2 when i was extreme card dead and made a 3 bet all in with AJcc against a player who had JJ+AQ+ 99% of the time....had i just folded i would have entered day 3 with a healthy stack and lots of confidence (guy had AA buy the way....he called).

I then shared a condo for 2 months in Vegas with lee... there was the whole card counting incident, 0/7 in WSOP events, but atleast i hit my new biggest score online finishing 3rd in the warm up for 65k.

over the next few months i floated from sngs, to plo, to nlh, to mtts... i couldnt keep a constant profit in anythign and my mental game was pretty poor.

From Aug - Nov i made some poor choices in game selection and lost a lot of money in high stakes PLO, and high stakes Heads up SNgs.

I was fortunate to bink 3rd in the FTP sunday 500 for 82k to hault a 50k downer

I played too many 1k tournaments and 100/200 rebuys that i never put my full attention into and just didnt respect the amount of money i was putting up to play.

Mid Nov - End of Year i got back on my SNG grind to reach the 1.25 Mil VPP mark and recieve the additional 10k bonus (actually im 3k vpp away still...but will surely get it tomorrow afternoon)

While most SNg players are complaining about the toughness of the 9man fields, im perfectly happy where they are. So many regulars who are just clueless, i think a 1-4% roi is very obtianable in the 225's+ while most are struggling to break even.

My Favorite Grinder award goes to Dana Gordon (for obvious financial reasons for myself). This cat would 25-30 table the higherstakes sngs with no clue how to play...but somehow he was happy doing it... I think he's turned it around now so good for him.

My Run well award for 09 goes to Azntracker. A super solid player, but come on...run well much? he had heaters compareable to the initial SNG hotstreak of Bigjoe back when the 335's 555's and 1100's were added to the roster.

Honerable mention for run wells goes to Kenny05...nobody has beat up on me for a month straight like this guy...he knows how to use his luck thats for sure. Like bigjoe though, they all come back to reality sooner or later.

Nice guy award goes to Scossett. This player grinded sngs with me for awhile, he was a solid regular but i hated it cuz he was actually good. Later we became friends (i think via hating similar morons) and he helped introduce me to HU sngs where he now succeeds

My big mistakes : 5k Hu sngs, 25/50 deepstack plo (shortstacking it is fine, but there were several times when i had my entire ftp roll spread across a few tables)


Looking forward to 2010:

Well firstly, PCA is in 5 days...This will probably be my most Poker Oriented trip to PCA as i hope to grind some live Sngs and some side events IF i bust the main event. My good buddy Kirk will be there for 4 days though, so he might drag me away from the tables. Looking forward to meeting JeanGrae and others.

Havent really talked about it with anyone on here yet because its not 100%, but i'd say its 99% that Bill ivey and i will be doing a Euro Trip from mid Feb-May 1 next year.

We've been in contact with pokerstars Travel Agent and are tryign to work out the details.

We'd be hitting up the following 8 poker tournaments during that time, and hope to spend a week in Romania volunteering with the united planet organization (we'd be entertaining/teaching orphan kids if things work out). We'd also spend a few nights in Paris, Rome, Venice, Amsterdam, Vienna, Geneva, Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon and maybe another 1 or 2 i missed.

UKIPT Manchester
EPT Copenhagen
EPT Berlin
IPT II
EPT Snowfest
UKIPT Coventry
EPT San Remo
EPT Monte Carlo

I plan on using these to pay for the travel and some of the Events:




My GOAL for 2010 is to once again reach Supernova Elite, however it might be too difficult. My plan is to try and play online still while on this Eurotrip, but im sure u guys know how that goes when on "vacation". My real hope is that i succeed in the Step 6's to these various events seeing as they are generally weaker than the PCA and WSOP step 6's cuz its a lot of Eurodonks...plus they award many vpps.

After Europe though, there's the Wsop...so that's mroe time away from my computer...Elite will definitely be a challenge.

Congrats to Everyone who like me has improved as a player in 09, and GL to everyone in 2010...look forward to hearing everyones' goals

P.S.....non poker related goal : Get on the TV show Survivor. If i get on its a lock for a milly vanilly....

application deadline is JAn 6th, so i wont make this one unfortunately... ]]> bdubs3737 http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=305 http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=304 Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:14:09 GMT Starting saturday i'm going on a cruise in the bahamaish area with the fam, will be the first full week off poker i've had in a while and it couldnt come at a better time.

lately ive been grinding like crazy trying to get to the 1.25 mil vpp (10k bonus) mark.

for the most part its been the standard up and dwon, but the last 2 days have been terrible.

In yesterdays session i managed to lose ~ 10k playing 100-500$ sngs...and today i lost about 8k pllaying the same.

Im 100000% sure that it's just a cold streak, and only a matter of time before i have a 20k day on the good side...but man does this suck.

Kenny05, Stevie444 and DDbeast are just tearing me apart. Not skillwise, although none of them are bad, but they have been super lucky vs me and it never seems to end.

ddbeast is clearly the only solid sng player of the 3, but they are all wise enough to know when they are running well vs someone, and they have been doing anything they can to get to showdown vs me.

i keep telling myself its gotta turn around at somepoint, and to just keep playing...but soon ill be busto if this shit keeps up.

That's why im really looking forward to getting away for a little while. unfortunately when i return ill have about 2 days to get my final 30k vpp which wont be fun, hopefully by then ill be able to win a showdown.

For a while i was thinking my account was hacked, because after my session i checked my cashier and it was soo low, i didnt possibly think i could have lost that much in a sng session. When im playing long sessions ill occasionally check my SNG leaderboard points, and that gives me a general idea on how im doing, but i leave the Cashier check for post session.... anyways, according to leaderboard points its not like im getting crushed, seems just a little below avg...so i dont really know waht to think.

Shoould have some pictures to post when i get back from the crusie.

gl to everyo0ne this weekend! ]]> bdubs3737 http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=304 http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=303 Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:26:34 GMT Sorry for the delay in posts recently, i have been meaning to write up a summary on the Golf tournament, however i have been waiting (and waiting) to... Sorry for the delay in posts recently, i have been meaning to write up a summary on the Golf tournament, however i have been waiting (and waiting) to have pokerstars PR guy get back to me with a link for all the pictures that were taken at the event. There were plenty of cameras and i didn't want to be too rude to any of the celebrities so i didnt take too many of my own .

unfortunately , this guy still hasnt gotten back to me so im going to assume ill never see them.

I arrived in LA on a saturday, my buddy Kirk who played in the tourney with me and who lives there @ Hermosa beach picked me up and we chilled at his place for a little before heading to Le ' Hermitage...a 5 star hotel in beverly Hills.

**actually , before we went to the hotel, we went to the driving range where we hit balls (off mats...uggg) for an hour. He was crushing them like i have never seen before, and i was the usual shankopotomus.

Anyways, we pull up to this nice hotel, the valet, and well, to be honest we probably didn't look like we belonged there. The valet people were like "can we help you" ...we say "is this the valet for the hotel", they say "yes, are you staying with us", im say "ya i think so" and they give me this weird look and say... "you know this is the Le'hermitage" (basically hinting that we were at the wrong place)...we assured them it was correct so they go to look us up and of course we ARe NOT on the list....

Turns out it was an error on their part (the pokerstars PR guy took care of this for us)...and within 20 minutes we were each escorted to our own rooms. ANd they were verrrrrrrrry nice! definitely one of the nicer hotels i've stayed in.

saturday night we pregamed in our hotel room then headed out to some of the "hotspots" the concierge suggested. Unfortunately we were insta shot down from the one main place ...the Sky Bar. i believe the bouncer said "i'm gonna be honest with you guys cuz you look like nice dudes...there's no way i can let you guys in without girls"...so that was that....we ended up going to a less classy, but still nice bar where we had a good time for a few hours. my buddy hits on just about every girl when he's drunk, so it was very entertaining.

Pic of Kirk and I before going out :



They next day we played golf at a local course for a little practice and i played my best golf ever...not really sure what the difference was but it was just working.

That night we met the pokerstar PR guy, an employee of Pokerstars (who was also in our golf foursome), and anothe rpokerstars player (soon to be elite)...he a limit player...cant remmeber the online name but he was a real nice guy. We all sat down buy the bar and racked upa 400$ bill in a few hours. It was a very relaxing time and got to hear some good stories from these guys.

Monday was the golf tourney, our limp picked us up at 8:45. Daniel Negranua was supposed to be in the limo with us, but he didnt know we were leaving that early...and he was traveling with his Personal Caddie (lol who brings a personal caddie to a celebrity tourney..but w/e).

We arrive at this club, and are instantly given a ton off hand outs, and gift bags. they had a nice breakfast buffet, then we got fitted with new adidas golf shoes, gloves, shirts ...basically everything a golfer should have , but i have never owned....

Saw several Celebrites however a few of them i couldnt put a name to, but definitely recognized them.

Besides the entourage cast, i saw mark wahlberg, Al Borlan (sp?), some of the guys from Prison Break, the Cash Cab guy, the guy from the All State comericals, Jerry Rice, Joe Peshi, the big intimidating guy from Locked stocked and two smoking barrels, and im sure some more im forgetting.

Mark walhberg was very friendly and went around to everyone shaking their hands and thanking us for coming out.

When Jerry (Turtle ) showed up the first thing i noticed is that he was really short lol..and skinnier than on the show. I liked him right away... "I'm sorry in advance guys, my golf games fucking terrible."

Our plan was to not talk about Entourage at all, and to just have a good time . And that we did.

Jaime lynn didnt show because she had to go to court for texting while driving, so we played with 4 players instead of 5...which meant one person got to go twice every hole.

I was playing with a 28 handicap, kirk was a 14, Jordan was a 10, and Jerry a 18.

Right away i was crushing my balls and hitting them real nice. Jerry kept calling me a scumbag sandbagger lol. He really thought i was sandbagging, but in fact i was just playign the best golf of my life.

Our team started off as hot as possible as i oppened with a fwe 3 for 1's on par 4's lol.

after 9 holes we were convinced we were going to win. Jerry would say "okay guys, we dont want to win buy 10 strokes, then it will be obvious we had a sandbagger, we just want to win by a few, and whenever anyone asks how we are doing we just say that everything is going in today".

It was a perfect day for golf, so beatiful. I remember at one point kirk had been telling me how he's been in LA for a few weeks, but still hasnt seen that HOLLYWOOD sign yet. well as we are driving over a big hill in the fairway on one of the holes, we peak over the top to see the Hollywood sign right in front of us on the mountain...at that point i remmeber thinking "fuck this is amazing".

On the back 9 they got to see why i was a 28 handicap, as i made a few crucial 3 puts that should never happen.

during the round we were supposed to be convincing Jerry to go to PCA (thats what pokerstars wanted kirk and I to do), and to get him/ his crew to do the Million Dollar Challenge TV show.

We talked to him about it some and he definitely seemed down/interested...we'll have to see though. It would be sweet to see him down in the bahamas though.

during the round we talked a lot about sports. he's a big fantasy guy and a huge NY fan.

At the conclusion of the round, we finished 24 under...which actually landed us in SECOND! ...which at first was dissapointing, but later turned out to be a relief.

They had a nice buffet dinner and then a Charity Auction and Reception with a few speaches and such. The auction was sweet, i wish i was rich!.

they auctioned off Walk on Rolls to entourage (two of them) that went for 20k a peice...expect to see Daniel Negranue on entourage in season 7!

When they called us up for prizes...first our whole team one these nice Humidors for Jerry winning the Closest to the Pin. The funny thing is that we didnt really win...we were second but our caddies are iddiots and made it look like we won....so we took the prizes happily :)

Oh ya the caddies were great...i caddied for 7 years or so , and they were not at all what i expected. these guys were 50+ years old...looked real dirty...didnt ever hustle, smoked cigs on the course....but damn did they know there shit. I guess they've been doing it full time for 20+ years so they know the course by heart which was very helpul for putting.

Anyways, then we get called up for our 2nd place prizes which were a Full set of Taylor MAde clubs, driver, woods, irons, wedges, putter, new bag...a range finder (gps thing for golf whcih i used once so far and is extremely accurate/helpful).

the first place team (who shot 1 stroke better) won 2 nights at some real nice hotel in LA and maybe some otehr small thing...but basically i was glad we got 2nd.

After the speaches/awards we talked for a while and tried to sneak in a some time with some of the celebs before we packed our limb super tight with all sorts of prizes (it was redic how much shit we had).

Kirk and Cedric the Entertainer (this is pretty cool cuz kirk does standup and is an aspiring comic and he got to talk to cedric for a good 10-15 min)



That night we smoked cigars (they gave out a bunch of monte cristo cigars) on the Rooftop of the hotel (they have a rooftop pool up there) and it was really refreshing. the plan was to drink beers out of our 2nd place trophies (big glass vase thingys) but we were all way too exhausted.

All in all a great experience. It was the first time i ever golfed with Golf shoes, and the first time i ever golfed in Long pants, but i definetley pulled my weight on the team!

As for poker...well i finally got my grind back in this past week. It took 3 giant swings in PLO (shortstacking 25/50 on ftp) for me to realize i just need to go back to sng grinding. I went up 25k one day, and down 25k the next THREE times in a matter of a week on FTP then decided i had enough.

So now i've been pumping out tons of sngs on pokerstars.

This week ive set a few personal records wit hmost sngs in a day (over 400) and most sngs in a week (i dont know, whatever im at right now).

I've been playign 9 man turbos and 6 max turbos, mainly 60's - 555's.

Here is a screen shot of my SNG leaderboard points as of Thursday 4:00am...hopefully i can cash for a 1-2k in bonuses this week



on average im probably 30 tabling most of the time, but its anywhere from 22-50 tables at a time in any given session depending on how many of them are 6 max.

I might be making a late push for 1.25 Million vpp...im at 1.11 mill right now, but ive gotten like 70k of those vpp in the last 6 days. ]]> bdubs3737 http://www.zonacrew.net//blog.php?b=303