All right, I'm in. I'll be playing Flight C of the Big 50 tomorrow. Only a dozen players were in line at 6:30AM. Registration's credit card processors were down, but I had cash.

Good luck sj, hope you bonk a big score.

See you in July, my friend.

Thanks guys! See you soon AF!

I planned on having two dry months this year, as I've had a notion that one month might not be enough. January was the first alcohol-free month, and now I'd like June to be the second.

The drinking has been creeping up on me again, and it's been a factor in my recent bout of extreme laziness. Also of late I've engaged in a few too many drunknanigans. First there was the sprained ankle, then a few nights ago I accidentally doused my room with a small burst of pepper spray.

I keep a canister of it on me, and the safety cap has come loose and sometimes pops up. The last time this happened was a few days ago. I was in a semi-drunken state and I hit the trigger while attempting to secure the cap.

Fortunately, I'm a fan of roasted jalapenos as well as many things dipped in habanero sauce, so I wasn't too shaken up by it. Unfortunately, I rent a room in a house with central air and interconnected duct work. My landlord is a nice guy, but calling him late at night while I'm drunk to warn him that I've just maced his house is presuming too much on his hospitality.

This morning I woke up to find that I had started a new Fallout 4 playthrough the night before. According to the save history, I had played the game for at least 3 hours and hadn't yet made it out of the original vault, which generally takes between 15-30 minutes to get through, even when you count in the prologue.

My new character was a woman named Subby. Who the hell names their daughter Subby? Her character design--face, hair, etc.--appears to be a painstaking recreation of one of my old college girlfriends. The base woman character already bears a passing resemblance to my old flame, but I apparently took the time to sculpt her as close to a spitting image as the character designer would allow. That's likely what I spent my three blacked-out hours on.

Subby was probably built to be a crude substitute for real human interaction. I'll have to put away my contented hermit facade here for a minute and admit that after all these months I might be getting a little lonely.

Hang in there, new friend. We're all counting on you

Thanks Gambelina!

And here we go. My table looks a lot tougher than most of the others. Hopefully looks are deceiving.

There will be no overlay. 20000 entries have already sold, and they're still selling more for tomorrow's flight.

20000+ sick, is this a record?

Also maybe you should try a little online dating?

1st break. I'm down to 3/4 of the starting stack, having gotten involved with a 3 way 3bet pot and sticking around to the turn with QJ as TPMK on a three flush straightened board with the other two players betting it up.

I don't know the old record, Da_Nit. Seems like it will be a record. They're completely sold out, so that make 24000 entries, and they're opening up alternate late reg starting at level 5 today and tomorrow. I see around 1000 in line for that now. I'm not sure what they're doing about reentries. Amazing: offer people a good price and a good structure and a chance for a bracelet and they'll show up in droves. My overlay prediction is still making me chuckle.

Second break. I chipped up a bit. In one hand I messed up chip denominations and made a tiny minbet after spiking the river. I need to shake off my tourney rust.

You've got time. Take your time, pick your spots. No alcohol !! You're not alone You've got this !!

GL GL Sir!

Thanks Gambelina and Colin! Third break: I've a starting stack now, which is infinitely better than a nothing stack. This table from heck will never break; they keep feeding alternates into the game. Some good players have busted from it, and have been replaced by better players, while every other table around us looks like a charity $10 SNG.

Fourth break: card dead and dwindling--I have 15bb on me so I'll need to make a move before dinner break. After 8 levels, the hallways are no longer completely jam packed. I have to give props to the tournament director and to the Rio for not letting this huge turnout turn into Fyre Fest II.

[x] Phil Hellmuth sighting.

And I'm out. AQ<99.

Thanks Phil. Could have brought me some flip luck at least.

Darn, AQ is really the most common bust out. Hand in holdem tourneys.

I just caught up with this thread and wanted to give this post some love. The Subby story is almost touching. Anywho, hopefully you'll succeed in staying sober this month!

Still love the thread SJ! My main advice to you would be cut back significantly on the drinking, especially if it's leading to black out periods; those can be pretty scary imo. But you said you were going to try for a dry month, so I definitely wish you good luck with that.

That rings true. Here's the spot.

Blinds 1000/2000 with a 2000 big ante (big blind pays everyone's ante all at once, it speeds up the live tourney play). I'm the effective stack UTG with 44,000 and pick up AQ. I open for 5000. I've been card dead for the last level and my image is tight.

UTG+1 is a very good player. We've been at the table together for almost 7 hours. I recognize his face from some poker news feed or other, but I can't recall his name. He likes to flat IP and play well post. He calls.

MP sat down an hour ago and has played pretty tight, aggressive and competently. He made one 3-bet at the last level that wasn't called. MP now 3-bet shoves for $57000 ($44000 effective for me). Folds back to me.

Main Pot ($59000) Three Players - Two left to act.
Side Pot ($13000)

UTG+1 covers us. I seem to remember that he started with around 75000, so a call here will take out a big chunk of his stack if he loses. I act before him.

Given the stack sizes, this is just a great spot for MP to squeeze shove with a good but not necessarily premium hand.

Yes, but I have a tight image and I'm opening UTG, so my range should be really strong here, right? Here's the counterpoint to that read: players who fold a lot are demonstrating the fact that they can fold.

If UTG+1 will fold, I need to be good 40% of the time here. I put my chips in the middle in less than 5 seconds. I think UTG+1 is overcalling pretty much never here. He quickly folds AJ face up and there goes one of my outs.

MP shows 99 and holds.

Also, a jack hit the board.

I’m such a nit as you described MP I’m folding. Really most situations I feel best case your flipping. I’m also a nit that doesn’t play tourneys and a break even at best low limits holdem NL player so don’t listen to me.

I could easily be wrong. My opinion is that I liked the way all three of us played it.

Thanks guys! Back to work tomorrow. I'll be checking out the cash games at the Rio.

Curious do you think MP would be shoving top of the range hands in the same spot?

I have no idea what’s considered standard these days in a tourney like this. Do people limp QQ+ in a spot like this?