40th in FTOPS $2500, 405th in FTOPS Main Event

It was a work infested weekend. I decided to sort of detox this weekend and just stick around Tuscaloosa and play the FTOPS series all weekend. Alabama football was 90 miles west in Starkville, Mississippi playing Mississippi State, but I decided against going. Last week Bama clinched and SEC Championship birth by winning the west, and this week they didn't stumble as they routed MSU in hostile Starkville 31-3. Friday night I played a full slate. There was a razz FTOPS event (torture) and some $500 tournament on FTP an a few small tournaments with laughable field sizes. I bet I haven't played a Friday night online in two years, and I might never play another Friday night online again in my life. I did final table bubble the 100 rebuy on Stars that night despite being chipleader with like 14 left. A guy and I played for all the tournament chips at our shorthanded table with my KK vs his AJhh and sadly it came JJxxx. Saturday morning I woke up and headed over to the gym. I was finishing my run and about to start lifting at about 12:58 central time when it dawned on me that the $2500 FTOPS had always started at 1 p.m. Alabama time in the past. For whatever reason, I had it in my mind that it started at 2. I called Adam Geyer who confirmed the tournament was starting, and I hurried home and got in about 10 minutes late. I went on to finish an insignificant 40th in the tournament for $7000 or so. It was tough because first was $540,000. I was 6th of the 100 remaining entering day 2 of that tournament on Sunday and was cruising right along most of the afternoon but then a devastating hand came up where I value-towned myself in a pretty clear river shove spot (in my opinion) against a mark. The rest of Sunday went pretty miserably. I did min cash in some tournament on Stars and found a 405th place finish in the FTOPS main event to go along with a couple of bubbles. It's not always about the money though, despite what most poker players will tell you. I learned a ton from these FTOPS events that I went deep in over the past week. I'm really happy to be playing with a lot of confidence, and I know that it will help when I play the $15,000 WPT in Vegas in a month. A lot has to go right for you to have monster scores in poker tournaments, but you also have to put yourself in a position to be lucky and to be able to compete for those monster paydays. I know that I still have it despite this sort of layoff I've taken while being at school, and I take comfort in knowing I'm a huge threat to win just about any poker tournament I enter. Give me another week or so and I'll post a lot of hands from both the $1k and $2500 FTOPS that I went deep in. I'm a pretty busy man right now and haven't had time to fully review the hand histories. This weekend all my poker buddies and I are going to Austin/Dallas for a bachelor party of sorts for the already-married Cody Slaubaugh. We'll hit the UT vs Kansas game on Saturday, party all night and then take some sort of shuttle at 6 a.m. (lol) a few hours north to Dallas for the Cowboys vs Redskins game at the new Cowboys stadium for the noon start. That's gonna be bad ass. This will actually be my 3rd NFL game to attend of the season, not bad for a full-time college student who doesn't live within 200 miles of any NFL stadiums. I'll potentially hit number 4 by going to the Saints vs Patriots MNF game on November 30th. That's close to exam time though, so it could get hairy. SS