...And then things started to turn around

Hmm. I'm running hawt. From last Sunday until now I've netted mid five figures in online tournaments. It helps to run at (maybe even above) expectation, as that is huge in tournament poker. I'm routinely going deep in tournaments, and that's the way it should be. I've been working very hard on my game, and putting in the hours, so hopefully this is the start of something big. I feel like I'm playing a much more controlled style that will result in a lot less variance. I owe a lot of this success to some of my friends who are better at online MTT than me. They've been nice enough to take the time to sweat some of my tournies and talk hands wif me. I've been doing especially well in the rebuy tournaments on Stars for some reason. That's a good boost because just about every 100r that runs on Stars is a tougher tournament field then I'll ever play live. There are so many great young online MTT players out there. These kids have really put in the volume and have seen just about every possible tournament situation arise. They don't spew chips at all, at any stage of the tournament. All these online MTTs have hopefully prepared me to make a nice run at all of the events at WPT Five Diamond. Turning 2007 into a winning year overall is really as simple as one deep run at Bellagio or knocking off one big tournament online. I am re-energized and ready to go. I was wrong in my last post to be so angry at poker, I think. The game has afforded me the opportunity to do things I would never have the opportunity to do without it, and I'm truly grateful for that.

This past Tuesday morning at 2 a.m. Stephanie I met up with Bryan Devonshire, Brett Jungblut, Bryan Micon, Jon Friedberg and a few others to see the implosion of The Frontier Casino. It was sickkkkkk. We watched it from the top of the Wynn parking deck. When we went out there I expected it to be maybe a few hundred of Las Vegas's faithful to witness this thing. Boy, was I wrong. It took us an hour just to get from Decatur to the Wynn. There were tens of thousands watching, and it was a lotta fun. Not too much else has been going on. We ran 4 more days this week, and I've lost 5 pounds. Weeeeeeeee. The running is starting to get easier, and I'm actually looking forward to doing it each day. I don't masquerade as a health nut, but I feel much better upon doing just this lil bit of exercise over the last two weeks. The true test will be if I can keep it up when I return to Birmingham for Thanksgiving on Tuesday. We've been grilling out a little bit, playing a lot of Super Mario Brothers 3 on Nintendo, and watching some movies. Don't rent Deck the Halls. It's dumb. I'm gonna try to watch Fracture tomorrow before packing for the flight home. I'm also all caught up on Lost, Prison Break, The Office, Survivor and Big Shots. I didn't watch TV for like 5 years from like 2001-2006, but now I'm addicted to all these shows. I hope the current writers strike doesn't keep these shows off the TV. I was sad to see my buddy Jean-Robert Bellande booted from Survivor. Survivor is a really sick show. I think I'm gonna go back and watch some of the previous seasons, because I only saw the one that Richard Hatch won. The strategy and deep levels of thinking in that show are second to none.

A few congratulations are in order: Congrats to Mike Banducci for finishing 6th at WSOPC Lake Tahoe for 33000ish. Mike is one of the first guys I ever started talking to online way back in 2005 in the PartyPoker SnG days. He's a truly fantastic player that will be around for a long, long time. Also congrats to Jason "20KJay" Mellross for finishing 19th tonight in the FTOPS. He ran really bad late, unfortunately, but it was fun to watch. Jon Little also had a nice run in it finishing in the top 100. He lost a siccckkkk hand for top 4 chips with 90 left with KK vs 99. Jon raised to 16000 or something, and one of the chipleaders pushed for Jon's 225000 chip stack. Board x x x x 9. adfjkhad;fkjhadsfkj.

Also, might go down to Auburn for the Alabama vs Auburn game this weekend. I am sick to my stomach that Alabama lost on homecoming vs LA-Monroe. A loss like that is just inexcusable (sp?) in Tuscaloosa. Hopefully we can beat Auburn and improve to 7 and 5. Thank you for reading.

SS