To me, little makes more sense than following the elation of a first place World Series of Poker victory, with the utter misery that comes from the unrelenting, devastatingly, fiery diarrhea, you get from consuming a 5lb bag of Sugar Free Haribo Gummi Bears, one might acquire after selling their championship bracelet over an online auction site.

I've decided some written documentation of this journey may be in order, and seeing that WSOP #??? is essentially upon us, now seems as good a time as any.

Quite frankly, I have a number of goals, and disproportionately more challenges. To save us all some time, the more condensed, and vague version of my situation is as follows.

I moved back to Chicago not too long ago, after a short stint in Montreal, where I was staying with 2+2 PLO darling alexeimartov. He has a glorious loft-space conducive to playing music, the online pokers is a legal thing, and our comradery, purely from a weirdo standpoint alone, made the idea a thing worth trying. I'm happy to go more into this experience outside of the OP, but basically, I just decided that I didn't think Montreal was my ideal base, and I came back to the states to regroup.

Until this year's WSOP passes, and I have a better idea of my financial situation, I've been fortunate enough to bypass dragging all of my **** out of storage, and finding a place, in favor of staying in one of the dorm rooms at 2+2er electrical's recording studio. I am admittedly not the most interesting person, but I'm well aware that I run insanely good at friends.

Here is a picture of my current writing desk



Electrical just moved with his wife to their new place, so he says he likes having someone around to make sure bands aren't defiling the tape reels, but I think he's just giving me a break.

As a mixed game player, currently we have a 40/80 game at the Horseshoe in Indiana on Wednesdays, and Fridays. A private 40/80 game in the city Elec and I call the 'Fancy Shmancy' once a week or so, and the odd 15/30-30/60 game when I can stomach the less friendly company, coupled with the smaller stakes. Our current game rotation has been HORSE + Badugi, Badaci, Badeucey, 2-7, A-5, Limit Omaha High, and Razzdugi. I got this fancy App on my phone to share a graph of the last 45 days or so ( lifespan of app ), although there are some cross-booking wins and losses that probably aren't accounted for. The big spike was a session of 100-200 Mixed in NYC.



The last 10 days or so has been an exercise in taking one outers, ill-timed snows, and tilt control, but I have no doubts that all will be well. More on WSOP preparation and plans later; this is already way tl;dr. For now, thanks for following my quest. I'll be posting stories, and documenting this year's WSOP and the cash games that proceed it, along with answering questions in the meantime.

Immediate Goals:

*Get in best shape before WSOP ( I am an avid participant in boxing/kickboxing/muay thai ).

*15k profit from now-May 27.

*Win bracelet, and **** my brains out on Haribo Sugar Free Gummi Bears.

<3 Osc

[x] Chicago >>> Montreal, eh?

[x] will kick the **** out of anyone defiling tape reels

[ ] sombrero on desk is clue that ceegee is in town

[x] will win bracelet

I'll start the bidding at $5k, plus a 5 lb bag of gummi bears

Posting to verify all details. The consumption of sugar-free gummi bears will be the payout of at least one wager at the poker house.

pretty high goal you set yourself there, wish you loads of GL (I guess will you need at least some of it to win a bracelet)!!

I'll be there in Vegas to witness said gummy bear eating happens. Do not disappoint!

Why is everyone posting in this thread? I was going to stalk it and pretend I wasn't aware of it...

[ ] first

Congrats on providing documentary evidence that you had a sombrero at least a day before Cinco de Mayo. This is the type of Advanced Thinking™ that will ensure your victory(s) in any WSOP events you care to enter.

Can you put gummy bears on ice cream?

My kid puts them on frozen yogurt all the time.

Also, will need independent verification that the sombrero wasn't photoshopped into that pic.

What bankroll app is that?

turn your bluetooth off to save some battery

Sorry, I'll catch up on comments and stuff later. It's been a busy last few days, between cat-sitting, kickboxing, alexeimartov being in town, electrical's inaugural home game, and the Chicago Poker Classic HORSE event. A more thorough retelling to come.

I'm on to day 2 of this little event, so I'm going to sleep now, try to win that tomorrow, and catch this thread up on the rest before the week is over. 9 left 7BB, meh. GL!

Gl!

will not be eating gummy bears at the poker house. they make you fat.

I had wanted to update this sooner, but I'm down a phone, and unless some iCloud miracle happens, I'm stuck a ton of pictures that I very much wanted to share. I had been holding out for miracles, but wifi is being ****ty, and I'm temporarily over it.

On Tuesday electrical hosted the inaugural Tuesday game at his new place. ChipsAhoya, and alexeimartov were both in town visiting, Grapes showed his face, along with fxstone11, and most of the usual cast. Some of you may have heard of a game by the name of Swingo, and this is the home game it originated from. I have Swingo footage on my phone that I am hoping turns up, but if it doesn't, I will make electrical go over the rulebook on vid, and record a hand for you, dear reader.

I came late to the game, and spent most of my time playing videographer when I arrived, but from what I have been told, Martin and Steve just made it Christmas for everyone.

I signed up for the $500 CPC HORSE event on Wed semi reluctantly, since our 40/80 looked pretty promising, and first place in the tourney was just slightly over 12k ( a difficult, but doable win were I to play cash ). It seemed like good practice for WSOP since I have no live tourneys placed this year.

I spent the majority of my day with Kessler and Raymer to my direct left. It's sort of annoying playing a smaller tourney, with what you would perceive ought be a weaker field, with two guys who know what is going on, but I spent most of that time bemused by their dynamic. Raymer is an overly friendly guy, who does his best to please dealers to keep the game moving, and he is constantly telling stories. Constantly. Alan is generally bitching about something or another. They make for a fine yin and yang. I get along with both guys quite well, and they are both very good for the game in different ways ( sincerely, and not in the dead money kind of way people say that ), but they make for a cute odd couple. Alan busted later in the day, and was replaced by Dan Heimiller, who is another long time reg/whiner, but for one reason or another I tend to be endeared more towards Alan, and much less so to Dan. I've never really had a pleasant experience at a table with him. Irrelevant, since he busted before the table change.

I dwindled early on in the day to a 5bb stack in fairly standard hands. I missed a bet in o8 that annoyed me, and I'm pretty sure saved a bet in a s8 hands where our boards read something like

Me: AQA3x7x
??: xx266xx

Villain was some kid in his mid/late 20s, playing pretty solid starting hands, and not getting out of line. Action was me comp 3rd, bet 4th, call 5th, call 6th, fold seventh.

Generally I'm looking to see if I can call with A high or a pair of twos in some spots. The fold is extremely rare and exploitable, but I was not expecting the bet on 6th street after my board makes a perceived low, and the way he looked at his hole cards on 7th gave me the impression that he was betting the high, and not a low. There are ways people look at their card and their board that can show which way a person may have hit. Often times a player will do the obligatory 7th hole card peek when they already have trips/lock low/fh that they will be betting regardless, but sometimes, when they are drawing to the low, they will look at their 7th and check their board to see if it paired or not, and sometimes they wont, and when they dont, it's often an indication that 7th is irrelevant to their hand, or connected with their board in a known way. In this spot it really looked to be like he was doing it for the sake of doing it, and that is what solidified my fold.

Whether I was right or wrong, I got to use all of my remaining chips to triple up a few hands later in O8. I then saw a Razz hand where all four door cards paired on 4th. Made a hero call in LHE with AJ on 46638 vs a btn 3 bet that bet all three streets, and then we were down to 24.

My table change was amazing. One of our more solid 40/80 regs was to my left, but he was playing passively, and the two guys with chips were to my right. One was John Holley, who often plays in our mixed when in Chicago, but definitely plays as many live tournaments as anyone. The two of us had most of the chips towards the end of the night, but I was crippled in the very last hand we played of Stud8

SS(1.5bb):xx5x6xx
John H: 35753QQ
Me: A24x4xx

SS completes JH raises I call from bring in, not wanting to bloat a pot vs CL, when I should've for sure 3 bet to close the action since SS is just going to get it in and reopen the betting anyhow. Also, I have the best hand here plenty. SS gets it in, and Holley elects to cap. So now the pot is pretty sizable, and folding 5th is no longer an option. I can easily have the best hand if Holley paired his 3, and I still have a backdoor low. On 6th street things get significantly more annoying. Holley bricks, I have his straight blockers, but I no longer have a low draw, and am stuck with a pair of fours. My thoughts are that if he does have just an unimproved pp, he will most likely check back 7th, and I wont have to pay. Unimproved, I'm going to wind up calling a bet vs 2pr+, and a low, but the pot is just too big, and scooping is still a possibility. 7th checks through, and I drop from 16 bets at one point to 8, and leave day one, heading into the final nine tomorrow with a sour taste in my mouth.

This is already out of hand tl;dr, so I'll save the rest for tomorrow. Later gators.

<3 Osc

Thanks! I'm pretty sure I've got it in me this year. I'm not one to throw around bracelet threats all willy nilly

Will you hold my hand?

Cant take credit. Electrical provides sombrero, ChipsAhoya to provide the ice cream.

Holy ****, I think this is a genius reference to my Match.com gimmick profile thread. VVWP. Wish I had thought of that.

Its called Run Good. Trivia question: Which member of this thread has that phrase as their license plate. The answer has a worth of 5 points!

Thanks!

What you gain in weight, you lose in **** afaik.

Thanks for the a Run Good app tip. Bought it and will give it a shot at my upcoming Foxwoods trip.

Grapes drove us both to the Horseshoe for the FT of the CPC HORSE event, and we would spend the next 6 hours or so in Indiana, however, collectively, only about 90 of those would be spent playing cards. Matt busted immediately, after bricking out in a Razz hand. 6 short stacks doubled through, as I ran hands into hands in s8, and lost my flips in 08 before meeting my demise in the same game as my friend, the very next orbit of Razz. 'What luck' we said to ourselves, when Razz was the game drawn to play first, since the both of us were predominantly short-handed specialists in the variant online for a number of years ( you may see your way out now ). Razz, however, reiterated that she cares for noone, and she stated this while fisting us aggressively using orange T-Chips as lube. Our weeping, defeated buttholes slid from our chairs, and spilled over the main stage. A scramble to throw out memory boxes, and her old gym shorts that were left over, would be an exercise in futility. Instead, I found Matt in the High Limit Slots room trying to grind Diamond Card status for his mom on a $25/hand Video Poker Machine, and decided to sit down and let some dude run off with my g****mn iPhone 5 while I watched Matt reload hundreds on a loop.

The rest of the time was spent with Security, as they went over the playback footage of some guy running off to elope with my cellular device. He took her to the shuttle of all places. Couldnt even call in a cab. Stay classy Hammond.

I lost $190 playing door card props ( T=$10 J=$20 Q=$30 K=$40 A=$50 if it's your suit, it's double, but if it's a heart, you owe the other guy ). We also have Roll up props in Razz ( $40 if rolled up, $80 if you win with it ), Aces props in 2-7 and Badeucey ( 2 when dealt is $40, 3 is $80, 4 is $500 ). I cut props off semi-permanently for the time being. So my profit after BI and props in the tourney was a little over $900 minus a phone.

Sometimes the correct play is just to stay home, and blind out your final table. Let that be the lesson taken from this blog entry.

5/10 40/80 Mix +1590
5/13 30/60 Mix -1040
5/14 40/80 Mix -650
5/14 75/150 Mix +3535
5/16 60/120 Mix +4615

+8050

5/16 was our first session since CPC came to an end. This was the least active our cash games had been for one of these series, namely because a handful of game starters have been absent. Eric Crane and Kris Tong added to our crew, but a lot of the traveling mixed players were MIA. Fri we managed 2 full tables and a third shorthanded table. All players agreed to play 60/120, which was a nice surprise.

Generally a handful of us who wish to play higher have been cross-booking one another. For those unfamiliar with cross-booking, if I were to lose 1k in a session, and you were to win 1k in that session, you would be up 2k on me. If we were cross-booking for 50%, I would owe you 1k ( 50% of the 2k difference in our totals ). Its a fun way to have a sweat in game when you're out of a hand but your xbook is playing one.

You can torture your xbook by showing him your cards when you've got the lock nuts in a hand with 4 way action, and watch him hate life as people shovel bets and raises into the pot drawing dead. Or torture yourself by sweating someone who is hopeless at making triple draw decisions play against your competent x book. There's little worse than seeing someone's hand as they cap 4567 street after street drawing one card against your book, and there's nothing you can do about it.

The most action had been coming from a guy named Francesco "Cheech" Barbaro ( WSOP O8 bracelet winner a few years back ), who on occasion had been booking up to 6 people at the same time. His biggest win netted him 30k in a 40/80 game ( 10k of that came from a guy who actually broke even in his session ).

If the game stays at 60/120 before WSOP, most of the xbooking will be kept at a minimum to reduce the extra variance before wsop, but the games have been good! Good enough to make me not feel so bad about missing SCOOP at least.

What could possibly go wrong doing this?

Hahaha, obv only doing this when I'm booking against someone I know and trust. I get action from 3 guys; all of whom would be doing themselves a huge disservice by breaching the tables trust.

Does anyone ever notice you flashing your nuts like this?

Only four days away, and I am Vegas bound. This will be my 5th time attending the WSOP. Results to this date are as follows:

Year Buy Ins Cashes
2010 $7,000 =(
2011 $16,807 $14,560
2012 $32,730 $126,081
2013 $32,000 =(

Total BI: $88,537 Total Cashes: $130,641 ROI: 47.5%

It's clear to see that where I went wrong between 2012 and 2013 was by not doubling my buy in number this past year. Having taken note of this, my 2014 schedule is as follows:

28th PLO $1,000
30th Razz $1,500
31st Millionaire Maker $3,000 ( day 1a and 1b )
4th Omaha 8 $1,500
5th 2-7 $1,500
6th Razz $10,000
8th HORSE $10,000
10th Omaha8/Stud8 $2,500
12th HORSE $1,500
13th Stud 8 $1,500
15th Stud $1,500
17th Stud 8 $10,000
19th Dealers Choice $1,500
20th LHE $1,500
22nd NLHE $1,000
25th 8 Game $1,500
26th Monster Stack $1,500
30th Omaha 8 $3,000
2nd 10 Game $1,500
5th Main Event $10,000

Total Buy Ins = $67,000

To ensure that I don't sad face this series, I've been cycling my WSOP wardrobe to see which shirts are lucky. So far, wolf shirt wearing necktie guided me into a 4,500 loser + an additional 3k loss by cross book. Alexei Martov shirt was a tragic disappointment for CPC day 2, and I had my iPod jacked to boot. Russian Circles is killing it, Cosmic Cat is a winner, and my Grey Converses are magic, but not so much the Pink ones.

The last few years I started ordering custom shoes for the Series. Last year I bought ChipsAhoya a pair, so that's tradition now. This year's are in and mine need a cleaning, but I'm into them:





The 40/80 Mix has been running 60/120 lately. TR from both sessions after I finish with Friday. Gl!

GL man!

It's gotta be the shoes!