I find this thread amazing. It's totally obvious to me that he was upset by his unfortunate bustout and just wanted to vent his feelings and what you do then is you talk in "always"sentences like "They ALWAYS do this wrong",yaddayadda. I ALWAYS lose ever so tragically... This isn't reasonable but human, by winning this pot he would've been in excellent shape to win the big one. I like him a lot more after this.

BTW Cantu acknowledged on a German podcast that he almost goofed it on that day, not referring specifically to Benefield. He's also a very good player, he's entitled to make a couple of major mistakes in a long tourney.

Kind of funny when that guy came on here crying about raptor ripping his play in his blog dave pretty much told him to nut up and not care what people said and now he is whining that pokernews misrepresented one of his hands. Not the same thing (blog vs report, opinion vs incorrect reporting) but there's parallels between the two situations, seriously why do you care how a live update made you look? I guess it kind of makes sense if you actually think it would hurt your CR business, but it seemed like more of an ego thing. I think the "paid my dues" thing is venting, there's no such thing in poker regardless of age. If he is really this frustrated at the ME already, maybe he shouldnt play it anymore because the reality is with the fields this big you could play great for the next 20 years and not make the final table.

You sir, have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

In 1998 or 99, on the Motley Fool Message boards I coined LMAOSGSAOMK (laughing my ass off spitting grape soda all over my keyboard) , or something to that effect. Pretty sure the beverage was different and it was wittier than that. I've gotten dull in my old age.

I think TMF may have some kind of archive but I couldn't find it.

Regardless of how well Dave did staking people in last years WSOP he was EXTREMELEY disappointed with his own showing. Going 1 for 42 doesn't sit right with a kid as competitive as he is. I don't really understand why, since he doesn't even really play donkaments, but he wants a bracelet ridiculously bad. So much so that the kid literally changed his entire life so as to put himself in a better position to do well this year. He bought a house here, changed his eating habits, works out hard every morning, stayed lowkey all summer refusing to partake in the degeneracy that is Las Vegas, etc etc

First event of the year he comes out blazing getting super deep in the 10k PLH event only to bubble the final table and get 10th. He was pretty devastated, but he kept his head up and stayed on the path. Then he goes super deep in yet another 10k event only to once again bubble the final table and get 13th. And now he outlasts 7,000 monkeys to get super deep in the 3rd biggest tournament of all time only to go out the way he did when anyone who knows anything understands he was the clear fav.

When he came home and walked in the house he was the saddest I had ever seen him. I didn't even know what to say so I chose to just stay quiet and give him the sorry look. He was beside himself so he did whats therapeutic to him and started banging the keyboard venting in his OWN ****EN BLOG. Yeah the poker news thing came off as a little paranoid, but w/e he was super upset and was just expressing the way he felt.

Yeah dave runs good staking people, and yeah hes made a few million online, but that has nothing to do with the fact that he wants a bracelet super bad, worked extremely hard on and off the tables, and got super close 3 times only to go out 3 times getting the monies in good.

You guys really need to get off his dick. Dave runs good at life/poker, but he is also very good at it, and out of all the talented high stakes 20 somethings out there he probably has the best head on his shoulders, as well as super good habits (that he worked super hard to form) away from the table.

maybe so, but to me the expression "paid my dues" is a statement that you are entitled to a big score because of the way you have been playing. I put that up there with people saying they are "due" for a hot streak.

Just for what its worth, you dont know me, though i have played with you and like you and what you have done for the poker world. As far as paid my dues, would you say that doyle brunson has paid his? I will make a wager i have played more hands lifetime as he has. What about hellmuth? again, i would play pick an amount i have played more hands than him. What about you? same story. The poker world we are all involved in is changing, it is much easier to put in the hands, get the experience, and truly get a grasp for the game playing online as opposed to sitting at a live table playing 20 hands an hour. You guys have more live tournament experience, and a longer amount of time spent being a pro gambler, but is that the only way you can pay dues? Call me crazy, but i dont think it is.

Perhaps i was a bit off when i said i have paid my dues, at least when speaking about MTTs. I dont think i am the best of the best, and feel like i miss a lot of spots against the weaker players that some of the more experienced tourney guys can pick up on. I am used to playing higher stakes where everyone has a good idea of what they are doing, and feel i am definitely at the top for exploiting them, but as far as these mtts go, i definitely have a lot of room for improvement. I have not paid my dues in tournaments, but as a poker player, I feel like I am MORE than justified in saying I have paid my dues, and I would venture to guess that anyone who knows me or knows about me would agree wholeheartedly. The only people that are saying things against me are people who have no idea who I am, which I suppose is fitting.

The first wsop i played i cashed once in 23 events, and felt truly miserable. I felt like i had a very big edge on the field, and it just didnt work out. I was ok with this, and realize that it can all be due to running bad, or god forbid, playing bad. I am well aware of variance, i constantly talk about how no1 knows how good or bad they can run in live mtts, and how much luck REALLY is involved in them. Take you for instance, you are obviously a sick player that has paid his dues, and ran ridiculously well a few years ago, and now you just cant seem to break through anymore. A lot of people are probably like ohhh negreanu sucks now, but they dont realize that you have probably gotten 10x better than you were when you had all of your initial tournament success, and are just on the flip side of the good run.

As far as the poker news, i was unhappy because i have a lot of friends and family following me in the main event, and they all were rooting for me and i feel like the way pokernews reported the hand really let them down and made me look bad. I could care less how it makes me look to other poker players, but for some unknown reason i want my family and friends i have known my whole life to be proud of me, and not think i am an idiot fish. The more poker players that think i suck the better. I got numerous txts, calls, pms, etc asking where my other 2 mil chips went, how i lost them all, etc, why i played KJs putting in 20% of my stack pf, just calling the flop, etc etc, im sure you can understand, and i feel like my complaint was justified. I think i could have gone about it differently yes, i could have emailed support about it and that would have produced the same result, but my mind wasnt exactly thinking in the most sane of manners, after all i just lost a pot worth prob 800k in equity, perhaps more, so i feel like to say i was slightly tilted would be a massive understatement. Anyways, i am very happy with how pokernews handled it, i just sent a PM apologizing to them, and i am very appreciative of their efforts to constantly update everyone about live tournament results, it is a very tough job and i know they catch a lot of flack for it.

I also dont think there is a 'conspiracy' about making the live pros look better. Again, I was just super tilted about how it made me look, and was venting about it. I think it is funny how worked up everyone gets about my blog, but I don’t really mind, it is a blog after all and by the nature of a blog, the more people you have talking about it, the better it is. I don’t know Brandon Cantu at all, I have never said more than 3 words to him, and don’t have any reason to dislike him. I am not calling him out or trying to make him look bad, I just don’t like being made to look the fool when it is unwarranted. My dad called me after that went up and was like wtf happened I thought u were doing good, and that is prob the straw the broke the camels back.

I am not really sure why people feel a need to criticize younger players because oh im 22 i obviously have no idea how good i have run to get where i am, or how i have no idea about variance, blah blah. Internet kids grow up a lot faster than live pros. We put in a TON more hands, play higher stakes more consistently, deal with larger swings, and the emotional repercussions involved with that. Just because i am younger than you doesnt really give you the right to laugh at me or cajole me based on my age, and because you have been playing poker for a longer number of YEARS. Feel free to criticize my play, or how i handle things, or my maturity because of my age, but to say I don’t understand variance or poker because I am 22 and you are 50 is completely ludicrous.

I think I addressed some of the concerns people had in this thread. Let me go ahead and say I don’t mind one bit if people talk about me on 2p2, make threads about how whiney I am, how little I understand about the world, etc. This is my job. I am a poker professional. I just lost the biggest equity amount of my life in a single hand. I was upset. I am still upset. I am less upset than I was yesterday when I wrote my blog. My life is amazing; and believe it or not, I don’t take it for granted, and am constantly looking for ways to improve it and help out others that aren’t as fortunate as me. I am 22, I am learning, but feel like I have done a pretty damned good job up to this point. Thanks to everyone for the support during the 08 series. I’m not going anywhere, so next summer should be fun. -David

I don't have a problem with his blog and I don't understand why anyone else would. He is a professional poker player and was eliminated from the most prestigious poker tournament of the year. It's pretty mind numbing that people are in this thread bashing him for being upset. Are you telling me your reaction to being eliminated by a bad beat with that many people left is going to be "wow, I'm really lucky to have made it this far?" Of course it isn't, you're going to be pissed. The only difference is that the majority of people where wouldn't post about it here or blog about it like Raptor did. And the fact that Raptor has been a successful poker player shouldn't negate his right to be angry once in a while. Some of the people in here tilt me so hard.

super imo

Its obvious that he wants to vent out and its not a wrong thing to do. Everyone would be pissed after bubbling a ft twice + dropping out 72th in the me

The last post 7ummed it up pretty good.

WHERE'S THE HU4ROLLZ CHALLENGE TO DANIEL?

The whole "paid my dues" stuff...

When I was 18 I thought I knew it all. When I was 22 I looked back at my 18 year old self and laughed at how foolish I was. When I was 25 I chuckled at how little I actually knew at 22. Etc, etc.

I am old enough now to know that I don't know squat. I will always be an idiot to my older self and I will always over estimate how mature and wise I really am. Welcome to the club.

Dave,

Hundreds of poker players bitch and whine in their blogs daily. But of all the bitching and whining, yours was brought here so that a bunch of feigning trolls could find something to pick on you for.

I think this thread should signify where you stand in this world. And you should be damn proud of it. Nice post. Though I've spoken with you a few times/seen you everywhere, maybe one day I'll formally meet you. Until then, keep on doing what you're doing imo, and try to remember why you decide to not go the way of so many young high stakes cocky kids. GL.

moral of the thread:
leatherass has paid the most "dues" since he plays 5k hands a day

raptor ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuules.

lol.

This is why Raptor is the man, what a great response to Negreanu's "pay your dues" garbage. He's absolutely right, he has more poker experience than several of the top poker "pros" combined even if he's only been playing the live tournament circuit for over a year.

Probably one of the truest things i've read here and was having this discussion with another one of your roomates, about how many people we met this summer that were just complete ******s. Of all the people I met this summer during the WSOP... your house was by far the most enjoyable, and gald to have made friends with you....

For every 20something year old rich poker player I met this summer 9 of them i'd never want to talk to again... Congratulations you're good at poker, but you suck at life. From my short time knowing Dave he has worked hard to get where he is... and everything I saw of him this summer reiterates his drive to be the best on and off the tables... Not as just a poker player, but as a person too... He's a good guy... period

Try to imagine yourself in the Cretaceous Period. You get your first look at this "six foot turkey" as you enter a clearing. He moves like a bird, lightly, bobbing his head. And you keep still because you think that maybe his visual acuity is based on movement like T-Rex, he'll lose you if you don't move. But no, not Raptor. You stare at him, and he just stares right back. And that's when the attack comes. Not from the front, but from the side, from the other two 'raptors you didn't even know were there. Because Raptor's a pack hunter, you see, he uses coordinated attack patterns and he is out in force today. And he slashes at you with this... a six-inch retractable claw, like a razor, on the the middle toe. He doesn't bother to bite your jugular like a lion, say... no no. He slashes at you here... or here... or maybe across the belly, spilling your intestines. The point is... you are alive when they start to eat you. So you know... try to show a little respect.

grunch, what leatherass said, +

this. he said in a vid (or blog, cant remember) recently that he doesnt like to talk about great days he had and focuses on that bad; which is fine, b/c as you say, he just needs to vent (as everyone does), fwiw im the opposite. wp in the main event raptor, look forward to more vids from you. have you considered doing a well?

edit: after reading a bit more, i am happy to say that for once, i agree w/the majority of nvg.

DN is 50? Gotta admit, he looks for his age.

"I could care less how it makes me look to other poker players, but for some unknown reason i want my family and friends i have known my whole life to be proud of me, and not think i am an idiot fish."

Your family and friends should be proud of you for being a good person who doesn't feel the need to whine when they just had a 1,000,000$+ month. Granted, lots of emotions get built up in these tournaments and you have the right to blog about whatever the **** you want. You don't honestly think your family and friends give a **** if you ****ed up a hand or merely got sucked out by some idiot do you?

You have to understand that pokernews ****s up hands usually because they aren't standing there watching the whole hand they just run over when the pot gets big and sometimes when the pot is over. Half the time the idiot in the hand telling them what happened tells it wrong anyways.

P.s. What the **** does paying your dues mean since when does clicking a mouse 500 million times qualify as paying your dues? WTF DOES paying your dues EVEN MEAN? IM SO CONFUSED

I bet youre fun at partys.
/sarcasm

raptor is the man. He handled himself fine. Reading his blog daily for the last few months this was inevitable. He should be extremely upset about missing out on a few more million. He has put his heart and soul into this game and won [x] millions, but that doesnt mean he shouldnt be extremely pashionate about winning a few more. He knows as well as anyone that this game is getting to tough and his win rate will continue to diminish, and has every right to sound selfish, bitter, greedy, whiney.

Dues = rake

I don't doubt he's right about Pokernews and I can almost empathize.

The rest of the entry is written in the style of someone writing their paper journal, access to which is granted by a pink key with ponies on it.