Keep it up, crush dem wsops!

was a pleasure meeting you! ^.^

Grats on the huge cash! Gl

Thanks!

I have 3 side events left and the main.

Will be going to Selbt's 4th party as well unless I make day 2 of the 3k plo8.

Should be a really fun last week of events!

looking forward to the pics!

I ended up making a deep run in the 3k plo8, so I wasn't able to make Selbst's party.

Ended up taking 37th for my largest mtt-buyin cash ever and my first non-nlhe cash in the wsop.

Today I'm playing the last side event. Playing day 1c of the main on Sunday.

Thank you for following and best of luck at the tables!

Good job on the 37th finish!

Hopefully you will be at the 2p2 party tonight -would be great to see you again!

thanks! was unfortunately unable to make the party due to hanging out with tt_fold and his bf. Hope you had fun!

I'll be playing the Main Event tomorrow. Registered yesterday for it.

I'd like to thank everyone for their well wishes and support over the summer. It has ment a lot to me. Really excited for the main event and will be happy no matter what happens. Thanks to all your wonderful support!

Made day 2 of wsop main. Have 34k, blinds will be 250-500 when we come back.

Glgl prot in the ME

awesome GLLL

Thanks for the well wishes every1! ^.^

Best of luck man! go go go TID

updates!

I just got done spending the last few days seeing the grand canyon and going down to L.A.

I am currently just relaxing now in vegas. In a few days my bf and i will be driving first to texas, and then back home to wisconsin.

After we get back home to wisconsin i'll have loads of free time and will then work on my trip report for the summer.

What i have planned so far for it is:

Will start off with a picture montage to music of the drive down (drove through yellowstone).

Have a bunch of writing about my time in vegas, the people i met, my vds ft, my wsop ft, and some other odds n ends. With the text i'll have some pictures of vegas and me with people I was fortunate to meet there and get pics with (esfandiari, Boston Rob, jeffery lisandro, Johnathan Duhamel...etc).

Then i'll end it with another picture montage of grand canyon + L.A. + drive back.

Might have it up within 2-3 weeks. Probably won't have any more updates until then.

Thank you for following and for your interest. Best of luck at the tables!

Working on my trip report now. Hoping to get it finished within a few days.

"Living The Dream"

TL;DR: This is the short version, read it!

Ever since I first played poker with my friends in high-school I've been fascinated with the game. Not until my senior year though did I begin to think I could do more with it than just have fun with friends. Ever since my first budding aspirations in the game began I started daydreaming about what it would be like to play in the World Series Of Poker and what it could be like to play this complex alluring game as my profession.

For the longest time I had thought that my dreams of becoming a professional and playing at the series would be unfulfilled, that they were just pipe-dreams for me and something to keep my mind occupied while I mowed lawns and did other work for my family.

I never truly thought that I would get to live out those dreams. But, not only have I done that, I have been fortunate enough to surpass them and have life changing experiences that I will never forget.

I owe all of the above to 2+2 and the people I have been fortunate enough to meet because of the forums. Because of that (and because I don't mind the attention ) I have decided to write this Trip Report, to give others an idea as to what a great summer at the WSOP might be like for them (as much as my paltry writing can do).

******** Part 1 ********
"The Drive"

In order to get to vegas, my boyfriend Chris and I decided that driving from Milwaukee to Vegas would be a rememberable experience and a great way to start off a long hot summer in the City of Sin.

The drive ended up being over 2400 miles and involved some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever experienced in my life, and I wish that the vocabulary and writing skills I possess could do it justice.

Luckily for everyone I don't have to try to make a fool of myself by attempting to describe the amazing beauty we were fortunate enough to see; As we took many pictures, compiled them into a slideshow of the best ones, and added some music; I hope you enjoy it!

(Note: I forgot to extend the time on the 2nd slide, pause there to read basic info about the trip if you desire to.)

Part 1


Part 2


******** Part 2 ********
"50 Days of Christmas"

Someone once stated that the world series of poker is like "Having 50 days of Christmas"; I couldn't agree more.

The anticipation I felt, not only from myself, but from others in the community, was immense. Twitter and all the forums were bombarded daily with thousands of posts by amateurs, professionals, and legends alike during the days leading up to the first "Shuffle Up and Deal" of the summer.

The World Series Of Poker isn't just a series of poker tournaments. It's the time of the year that poker player's dreams are made by and hopes rely on. Bankrolls are built up and destroyed, legends are made, millionaires are created, and hopes shattered over the course of 7 short weeks.

I know that I'll never stop being excited for the WSOP, and neither should you.

******** Part 3 ********
"On The Grind"

From my first table draw of the summer, I knew it was going to be a great one.

I was one of the first players seated at my table, I had arrived a little early and was in my seat listening to music. I was trying to focus and get in the zone, as I usually do before the start of any major live event. I was attempting to keep myself from thinking "OMG, the ****ing world series! Lets goooo!!!!", I was instead trying think of hands and situations and keep my emotions in check.

As more players arrived I knew it was going to be a fun and entertaining table draw. Jeffery Lisandro on my immediate left, and Captain Tom 3 to my left, with a few other old school regs and a couple guys around my age. Being the first open event as well, people are yet to be burned out and agitated, it made for a great time.

Captain Tom gave a short speech and gave the enthralling "Shuffle up and Deal!" to start the event. After doing so and making his way to our table, everybody started to chatter and liven up a bit.

After an hour or so of play, Lisandro and Tom started exchanging Jean Robert-Bellande stories. Apparently the 2 of them had been the very first people to stake him; to say the stories were entertaining and hilarious would be an understatement and I wish I could retell them, however it is likely best that I do not (I don't want to be "that guy").

Between JRB stories, discussions on poker legislation and news, minor debates on politics, and all around enjoyable chatter; it made for an unforgettable table draw and I couldn't have asked for a much better start to my series.

******************************

Thank you for reading so far! Hope you are enjoying it. Comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated. Will have more parts up with in a few days.

Really enjoyed it! I hope you have a ton more more to write!
I live in WI too, what kind of car did you drive from wi to vegas? How long of a drive did it take you? I plan on going to vegas with my wife within the next year for a vacation but we can't decide whether we would drive or fly, and if we drove whether to take our fuel sipper or our comfy ride lol.
I look forward to reading the rest.

We drove a 2007 Mitsubishi Eclipse, took around 40 hours on the road (we took a round about way, going up to yellowstone then heading south).

I'd take the comfy ride and make a real journey of it, stopping at cool national parks or whatever along the way, def the most enjoyable!

******** Part 4 ********
"The Real Part 2/Backing History"

Something that I feel is important to mention, that I probably should have done before I discussed playing at the series, is that I am a backed player. I have been backed throughout my entire poker career, and wouldn't be where I'm at today, or the player I've become, without having been backed by great people.

The first person who backed me really was Baza88. When he picked me up I was a barely profitable micro-low-stakes donk and was working at subway. I didn't even own a computer at the time and would walk 4 miles each day so I'd have access to one. He started me off in 2$ 180's and micro mtt's, within 1.5 years I was able to play the 2011 WSOP under him(sold action to others as well), in large part thanks to his encouragement and coaching while with him .

When Baza decided he wanted to drop me, April of 2012, I was still in Toronto with Chris (we had decided to move there for 6 months). At the time I knew what I wanted to do over the next 3-6 months (go to wsop, then get back out of usa in time for WCOOP), but didn't really know how I was going to achieve it without a great backer.

I was pretty worried when he told me that he was looking to drop me. I started looking for a new backer right away (while I was still in make up and trying to clear), but the market for horses who need help with moving costs and such to get out of the U.S.A was pretty slim (still is I'm sure), so I was having great difficulty finding someone.

Luckily for me a good friend of mine was backed by Dirty already, told him about me and convinced him to pick me up. Definitely one of the luckier things to have happened in my career, as I have not only found a new great backer, but a good friend as well.

After finally getting backer stuff situated with Dirty and formulating a plan of some kind for WSOP/WCOOP, it was already early May. He had been saying he was fine putting me in most of the 1-3k's and selling action a bit for 5k's/main, but I wasn't really comfortable with the fact that doing so could easily have me 40-70k deep heading to Mexico (with bricking events and borrowing for living expenses), and trying to grind out of 40k+ make-up on a 30-60 ABI.... No Thanks! I've done that once already, and the prospect of having to do it again seems pretty unpleasant. So, we decided to compromise by having me try to sell as much as I could, up to 75%, and whatever I didn't sell we would take under the roll.

With 2+2 being down I thought it was going to be difficult to sell, but once again I was fortunate to have an acquaintance (who bought action in my wsop last year and this year) tell some of his friends about it and have 1 show interest. Mad Marvin being the one who did so, and who also decided to completely buy-out my package.

When Marvin mentioned me on twitter and said he'd take it all, it was music to my ears! While I wasn't really that worried about selling out, as I'd be playing the series either way, having a well known professional, who was just picked up by a major site as a "Pro", taking my action was great for me for many reasons. Firstly building a good relationship with someone likely to buy future action makes selling much easier. Secondly having a well known player vouch for your game and your value as an investment = great for reputation. Thirdly having that player willing to rail you deep in events is a nice confidence boost and can be great for your game. Thus it's pretty understandable that I was very excited when he said he wanted it all.

Apparently there has been a major perk lately in backing me: sick amounts of run good... Since picking me up (mid April) Dirty has gone on a 300k+ upswing in mtt's (he ft'd some SCOOP's, won a 1k in canada, and ft'd an event this year at the series). Mad Marvin binked the WPT championship for 1.2, my friend who bought most of my main action chopped the Mill not long after buying from me. Lastly, one of my investors in a 3k I did this year won his first bracelet and 200k+. Guess you could say that i'm the "Midas Horse".

Back on track:

One of my favorite things about the series is who you can meet there. It's really nice that there is a good a reason to meet online poker friends/backers/horses/2+2 legends/etc, especially when normally you are located around the world from each other and thus don't really have a good excuse to be in the same area.

Add the fact that you also get the opportunity to not only meet, but play with online and live legends of the game as well as various "celebrities", it truly is an awesome experience you should enjoy at least once in your life.

Antonious and Robl playing 1k-2k PLO


Victor Blom (Seat 1 with the ski cap)


LuckyChewy, Jason Mercier, and Jason Senti


Johnathan Duhamel and I


"Boston Rob" and I

********* Part 5 ********
"The 1st Half/Fanboyism"

Over the course of the summer I ended up playing 23 WSOP events, 13 other tourneys, a handful of sng's and also the WSOP main. While it would be nice if I could remember in detail every event I played and tell anecdotes about each one; sadly enough I don't have that great of a memory, and it would likely turn this into a novel, a boring one at that. So in this part I'm going to go over a few interesting hands I played (as best as I can remember), and tell about some funny/interesting situations that occurred during the first half of the series.

After playing with Captain Tom and Lisandro at my first table draw of the summer, I was very fortunate in my new table draw to have Allen Cunningham on my direct right.

I have been a fan of his ever since I saw him on ESPN for the 2006 Main Event FT. Last year at the series I had ran into him and his awesome girlfriend (she loved that I wore pink a lot, especially my hat, and told me stories about the GLBT scene in New York in the 70's) in the box area at the rio and got a picture with him, but I had never played with him.

We didn't really talk much at first, but after playing for a short while his girlfriend came up to the rail and said hello to both of us. After chatting with her and continuing to play, we started to discuss FTP/poker/politics/life. He was an all around great guy and a pleasure to play with and speak to.

I ran very well at my first table draw and going into 200-400 I had already built up to 30k in chips, however it was not ment to be and I busted before the end of day 1.

The second event I played I ended up having a very interesting table draw as well (expected because it was a pot-limit Hold-em event). Seats 1-3 were a young German pro, myself, and TheWacoKid; not long into playing we figured out that the 3 of us had sold action to Marvin for the series. We all found it very amusing, and joked around a lot at the table. The rest of the table was pretty crazy as well, there was Mig.com, Terance Chan, Carter Gil, and 2 other young guys. It was likely the hardest table draw I've ever had, but it was also a very entertaining one.


Interesting Hand:
I didn't really have any intersting hands pop up over my first few events, however I did have a fun one occur in the second $235 Rio Daily that I played.

Background Info: 15k effective at 50-100, first level of the tourney, 30 min levels and we are around 25mins into the tourney. Villain and I have played the most hands at the table, and I have been 3betting him a lot, he has been playing wildly and is fairly young (probably around 25 years old). We have also been talking a lot, with light needles when we each win pots and have show each other bluffs.

Folds to villain in the CO, he raises to 250, I 3-bet on Btn to 750 with A9s, they call.

Pot= 1650

Flop: 933r, they check, I c-bet 575, they snap raise to 2400, I tank for nearly a minute and 3-bet to 4500, they tank for 1-2 min and call.

Pot = 10650

Turn: 4h, we both check.

River: 10s, they shove for 9750 (or so) after thinking under 30 seconds. I tank and call.

They snap muck.

End Hand

I didn't really have anything interesting happen for a few days. However, Marvin ended up making a deep run in the 5k Mix-max (made the final 8 I believe of the HU rounds), as I had busted an event early I decided to rail him for a bit and had the chance to speak to Subiime while railing Marvin (he was deep in the event as well and was waiting to see who won Marvin's heads-up match). He was a great guy, very humble and fun to speak with (He ended up taking 4th ).

The next day while playing day 1b of the massive re-entry 1500 I ended up playing with Rob Iler (AJ in the Sopranos). Was really nice guy, told some funny stories about acting on the show, and was a fairly skilled player as well. I had asked what he had been up to lately and he said that he quit acting for the most part to play poker full time and that he enjoyed poker much more than he did acting.

The best story he told was about his last acting job. Apparently a few years back he had gotten a letter about having to do jury duty, as his only income at the time was from poker, the only way he could get out of doing it was by getting an acting job during the same time it was. So he told his agent to get him a job doing pretty much anything. The acting job he landed: "Law and Order: SVU".

I busted the event fairly quickly, and ended up registering a 235 that day as well. About 6 hours into the 235 I got moved to a table that had Same Grizzle 3 to my left, a professional I had met in an earlier event, another "old school reg" who knew Sam well, and a really nice woman who was a professional as well. It was a very active and fun table, and surprisingly Sam was one of the more aggressive players.

Interesting Hand:
Background Info: 150k effective at 1500-3k, 30min levels, we are around 8-9 hours into the tourney and have been playing at this table for 2-3 hours. Villain (Sam Grizzle) and I have both been playing fairly aggressive, neither of us have been caught in large bluffs though.

Folds to Sam in MP, he just over min-raises, folds to me in the BB, I defend with 78s.

Pot = 16.5k

Flop: QJ6r, I check, he c-bets around 7500, I call.

Pot= 31.5k

Turn: Jx, I check, he bets around 15k acting fairly quickly, I tank for 15-30 seconds and raise it to about 35k, he tanks for around 1min and raises to 75k.

I say "Jack is good Mr.Grizzle, nice hand" as I muck.

He laughs, grins, shows A8o and says "Don't need a jack here kid."

My head explodes as the table erupts in laughter.

End Hand

It took me nearly 2 weeks to get my first cash of the summer, of any kind. By that time I had already played 15 tourneys (8 wsop), and 5 SNGs. The tournament I ended up finally getting a breakthrough in, I hadn't even planned on playing it.

My plan for the day had been to grind Rio SNGs, but as they were running fairly slowly, I decided to see what was running at the Venetian, they had a 600$ deep stack that was nearing end of late reg, I decided to head over and play it.

First hand I played, I had AA>KK. 11 hours later I was chip leader heading into Day 2, we were in the money, with 38 left, and 66k for the win!

Stack From Deep VDS Run


Day 2 for me started off fairly poorly. At one point I was down to 120k and needed to win a 30-70 to stay alive. Thus going into the Final Table, even though I was 8/10 I was happy to still be in.

Interesting Hand:
Background Info: 8 players left in VDS 600, guranteed 6.7k, 66k ftw. The table has 1 massive stack who has over 80bb, and everyone else has around 10-35bb. I have around 550k at 15-30, villain has me covered. I had been raising a lot at the ft and 3-bet shoving a lot, I had been staying afloat due to having to R/fold a decent amount. Villain was middle aged and playing somewhat loose.

Folds to villain in MP, they 2.5x, I'm on the Btn with 1010 and shove all in. Villain tanks for a long time and calls with 77.

As the stacks get counted up, someone says "Pretty sure I folded a 7".

All I can think is "Please hold...Please!!!... I want this so bad, lets save my first half of summer here, or even freeroll the summer...no7 no7 no7!!!"
Flop:992

Turn:4

River:7

"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oo "

End Hand

To say i was dissapointed would be a huge understatement. I was shattered, angry, annoyed, etc. I had been running fairly badly up to this tourney, and really wanted to prove to my investors and to my brand new backer that I could do well.

While it was pretty much the normal range of emotions for someone taking a bad beat at a final table I am ashamed in how I handled it. I did not take the beat in the way befitting a "professional".

As the 7 hit I cussed fairly loudly, pushed back my chair hard and threw down my sweater on the Table behind me. I then sulked the entire time while getting my pay-out slip, and half heartedly shook my opponents hand and don't think I said "Good luck" to anyone else.

After 2 minutes of being a sulking brat, I realized how ridiculously I acted, walked back to the table and apologized to everyone for acting poorly and wished everyone the best of luck.

My mind set and how I handle variance has been one of the worst aspects of my game and who I am as both a player and a person. Although I have made huge strides, I still get a bit annoyed in fairly large equity situations. While it is to be expected to some degree, it shouldn't be to the degree where I make an ass of myself.

--------------------------------------------------------

Thank you all for reading so far. Will post the final sections sometime this week.

Very interesting read, those two hands are sick... Keep it up!

Posted tbe below in my mttc thread as well, thought it would go well in here also.

Awesome read Ryan, really enjoying it!

Do you still coach for $15/hour like your first pg&c thread? lol

Seriously though, do you coach still?

Keep up the good work!