BWI is great if you want to add 7 hours to your trip.

+1 to DCA. Will be flying in there on Friday.



Oh and MOAR!

I don't know if strat discussion is allowed in TR threads, but why do we check 4th with split Aces? Is it because catching the 9 and betting flips our hand up as high-only?

I thought Forrest would bet, but given the table dynamics I wanted to check aces there.

Discussion about this hand in WSOP hype thread.

LOL @ tank-call.

slow roll

So my wife and I and ceegee had dinner there, I bought ceegee a milkshake b/c like I said, I'm baller. Huang calls me b/c he can't find the restaurant that's right in front of the door when you walk in, and comes (I think) w/ foldingst8n. Since Niki was in town, I wasn't going to be sleeping on a couch at ceegee's anymore, and when I checked into the rio that day, I got upgraded to one of the suites on the top floor of the Ipanema tower that you need a key to send the elevator to, so that was awesome. She dropped her stuff in the room as ceegee and I went back to Thunderdome.

I don't suppose I have too many particular hands to talk about, and most of those were on pokernews anyway. Of course, the FT was live streamed, and I was really honored at how many people I knew were watching it. Obv. lots of people from the forum, but tons of people on facebook were, even a bunch of people I hadn't really talked to in years. A few people I know stayed up the whole night watching it, or finally fell asleep and then woke up for the end. I felt super great about that, though, and that's one of the reasons I was constantly on my phone is b/c there were so many people wishing me luck and stuff. Of course, having an awesome rail was awesome. Some people were there the whole time, others filtered in and out... Ceegee was explaining hands to everyone, I hear, so that was nice.

I really felt great about the way the FT was going and how I was playing against the field. It seemed to take so long though, Hellmuth was all-in like 10-13 times at least in total at the FT until I finally busted him. 3 handed w/ him and Racener also took forever... HU was only like 45 minutes...

Everyone seemed to be pretty quiet at the FT, even Phil for the most part. I was having none of this, and was yelling back and forth w/ my rail, trying to needle Phil, etc. I mean, you're at a final table, have some fun... maybe some people can't play w/out being SRS BSNS, I dunno...

When it got HU4BRACELETZ, I was surprised at how quick it was. I had just rivered a flush and a low on Racener and announced "just a low" as I flipped my cards up after I bet and he called, not realizing I had a flush, too. I felt super bad and apologized profusely but he was suuuuper pissed. It probably didn't help that the tourney director thought announced that he had busted, too, lulz. Heads up play started up like instantly after that, no break or anything. They didn't even wait to bring the bracelet out, which came like 5-10 minutes later or so... As I said, I had been in the 8 seat, Phil was in the 2 seat, so I moved to the 7 seat to sit facing directly across from him.

I feel like I've talked about the final table a ton on the interviews and podcasts and stuff, so please ask me questions if you want me to cover anything else...

Winning was amazing, obviously. They took a million pictures, I did two intereviews; one with ESPN that I guess will air sometime during their coverage, and another one w/ Pokernews. Apparently Phil, JRB, and Huck Seed invited us all out, but my rail declined? Not sure exactly what happened there. Also apparently Ted Forrest and Matusow had been talking **** about me, maybe Ceegee or Alex or Ghost or someone can elaborate here... After that all settled down, we went over to AAB&G again for breakfast; I got a bottle of champagne for anyone who wanted it & picked up the check. We were all super tired, though, and everyone left then. I was absolutely exhausted, obv, but made a few calls before going to bed.

I was told the bracelet ceremony was already full on Tuesday, but that I could have Wednesday to myself! So that was fine. I slept in until like 4pm, did a bunch of internet stuff & texting, and then went to craftsteak w/ Niki to celebrate. After day 2 of the 2009 razzament, when I was like 11/13, she said she had a dream that I got 5th, and that's what happened (I told her next time to dream that I won...). So this time, she had had a dream that we were eating at craftsteak, and then she woke up and flew to Vegas & we were eating there the next day! I did not notice either of these, but she told me two groups of bros identified me as "the guy who busted Hellmuth!" Then we went to pick up Ceegee to join Alex and the Aria for some craps, which he covered in his TR. I was super impressed w/ the Aria, can't wait to go there again...

The bracelet ceremony itself was pretty basic, I met Nolan Dalla there again (and told him they should have a Triple Stud tournament next year! and he had never heard of it!! but said it was a great idea, so you have me to thank if it happens...) there was a big $1500nlament or something running so there were a bunch of people in the room, I got presented the bracelet, posed for a bunch of pictures, the anthem played, which was awesome, did a couple more interviews, including one w/ Poker Listings that I really liked, and then some people from Sioux City saw my Sioux City t-shirt and came up to the stage, so I talked to them for like 15 minutes. Later on, I had dinner with soepgroente that night at this italian place over on Flamingo, which was great.

So it was nice to have had a few days off to bask, because the next tournament wasn't until the Razzament on Saturday. I still have a few more days to write about, including the DC bowlathon, the day before the razzament, and of course, the razzament itself, which was awesome.

Here's a pic of the battle after Eric moved from the 8 seat to the 7 seat. Sorry, my BlackBerry decided to take ****ty pictures that night.



To comment on the JRB/Huck/Hellmuth thing, they invited us to go out and celebrate. I knew Chips didn't drink and neither did I so I deferred to someone else in the group. Most everyone was completely exhausted since it was about 3:30a by this time. Mrs. Chips and I had flown across the country earlier in the day and spent the last 8 hours listening to the announcer recite the hands as they were dealt.

Huck then talked about how Matusow and Forrest had told him that Chips was "By Far the worst player in the field." Apparently Chips does some unconventional stuff at the table or somehow successfully portrayed a fishy image, but it seemed like Ted and Mike were pretty passionate about this viewpoint.

Hellmuth did a bit of slight defense while he stood beside us, commenting that Chips was very good and that he was out-matched. He talked about how this one hurt much less than the 2-7 NL vs Juanda because of both the chip deficit he started with as well as the fact that Chips was clearly a specialist in the game. Very gracious words from someone who I didn't respect (at the time). He was super humble and displayed a great level of maturity in his words. He was clearly disappointed but he admitted that he was a major underdog and that he was very pleased to even be runner-up given how he began the FT.

Chips forgot to mention that we tried to open up a Craps table using his new Supernova Elite Black Card Diamond Preferred Rio status that is given to bracelet winners, but the floorwoman didn't give-in. We also tried our luck with a slot machine near the entrance of AAB&G and didn't win the 2M grand prize.

Also, two of my favorite moments that Chips ignored to highlight:

1. He won the first 3 or 4 pots vs Hellmuth HU4BRACELETZ. Hellmuth says "you just gonna win them all?" to which Chips loudly shouts "HOPEFULLY!" Too funny given the setting. I think even Hellmuth was a bit shocked by the snap-yell.

2. We had a drunkard on the rail who decided that heckling Hellmuth was his best shot at getting kicked out of the Rio. He started screaming at the floor and the cameramen for not having the TVs above the table zoomed out to show the up cards. This went on for probably an hour and finally the TD explained to him that the cameras were fixed. It only took an hour of this drunk yelling "I ain't clapping cuz I can't see sh*t!"

The funniest was that after the match was over and Chips was doing his best Kim Kardashian impression with the paparazzi, this drunk was lurking in the corner waiting to join our group for pics/partying. He didn't make it into any of the pics and eventually disappeared, but he was definitely creepin in the corner.

I see chips in tshirt and shorts. What was the temp around there. Lights warm it up any?

I don't think I've ever seen him in anything else

You'd think he'd get cold too since he's a rail

For the record, the drunk guy was yelling yelling zoom out, etc, and I was sort of following his lead when it seemed more funny than annoying. Also, I was the one who said, after some big hand where people started clapping ( I think Phil won a pot ), " I'd clap, but I cant see **** ", in regards to the non zoomed out tv screen. It was the delivery and timing that was sorta swell, so I cant let that dude take the credit.

Phil and his group didn't invite us out, they just asked us what we were doing, implying something about going out, but I think we were all pretty indifferent and just wanted to see our friend win and then get some sleep. They were all really nice tho, and tall.

MOAR

ha, no, it was fairly cold.

you haven't.

you may think so, but, remember, I'm from SD so like cold and also have an abnormally warped temperature frame of reference after swimming for 10 years on a club team in the winter there... I was kinda pissed when the bracelet ceremony instructions sheet said "NO SHORTS"...

thank you for the extra updates! I didn't mention the craps lol b/c you did in yours, but I forgot about the snap-yell, that's great... I really wish I could have overheard that convo w/ Phil...

I would love to know exactly how I set Forrest and Matusow on tilt, especially after Matusow felt the need to apologize to me on Day 2 about Day 1... I try to do that, though, maybe it's a combination of everything...


LULZ


I wonder what other awesome stuff I forgot... I hope not much...

Def remember Huck Seed explicitly saying "you guys goin out and celebrating?" Not sure if that constitutes as an invite but close enough for me.

Couple other things I can remember:

Guy on our rail booked a bet for Hellmuth to get 3-handed at 3 to 1. Then once he got 3 handed he got another bet for Hellmuth to win so he was quite the antagonist to our cheering section for Chips.

Chips failed to mention the Tourney Director telling him to stop Tweeting/texting and being on his cell phone the whole time while he was HU.

nah, he just said to keep it off of the table.



here's the TD reading an email on my phone saying that the people on the internet couldn't understand him and to enunciate better!

I really wish I would/could have bet on myself to win going into day 3... I bet I could have gotten sick action on that as an "unknown" or whatever...

Oh yeah, one little thing that the readers probably don't realize is that the spiffy Final Table is actually not even a felted-surface. It's some weird leatherish feeling material.

Also, Chips went on a sick rush after I slapped a CR patch on him :P

did we cover Phil asking me at the start of the FT if I was wearing a Colorado Rockies hat?

also, I did forget to mention, one of the best parts of the FT was when I repeatedly caught Phil staring longingly at my big piles of chips b/c he knew they were what was going to stand between him and #12.

What were your impressions of Benyamine...I always thought he seemed smuggish soley from my watching him on HSP...but he was really friendly when i played with him on day 1 of the razz...except when i checkraised him with a 85 to his 86 on 5th

For real?

French gonna french? I didn't really have much interaction w/ him at the FT or in the 10-game six max; he talked to Racener a bit.

of course for real. you think I'm making stuff up ITT?

i had to google to see if it was enunciate or annunciate as well. As I can see from the red squiggly line it is def enunciate.

Well I spelled it correctly, my friend didn't...

Is that the button in the picture?

No, that's my card protector coin