Merry Christmas!

Here's hoping a very Merry Christmas and Happy new year to all!

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The Micros - Holiday Special

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Fulltilt Epic Fail

Needless to say, I was doing well in both tournament SNG's I was in. Just standard I suppose.

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Cruelty?

That's me with the Kings....yuk!

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The Micros

.

Great stuff here!

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Season 9 WPT promo

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Top This!

Proudly brought to you by FullTilt poker:

Awesome!

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Called by Stuey's ghost!

Like, obviously!

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Nice pot dude!

Ok, so obv I got it in bad...but c'mon, just shove the knife in quickly! LOL!

This didn't even phase me. 200K pot would have been nice to make a run, but it wasn't meant to be.

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Want a WSOP ME Bracelet?

Don't know why, or if this is even legit:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330496918404&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT#vi-desc

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Today, I go for the BLACK

My weapon of choice to finish the deal, is what got me here...namely, "Rush Poker"....aka the game of the 'nut peddlers'. Har har!

Update: Done!

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Another Royal Suckout

Always nice to suck out, royal style! Again!

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500Th Post

To celebrate my 500th post on this here blog:

Played one last night, and one this afternoon. My ROI continue's to be way above expectations in these 45man $75 SNG's. I just don't play alot of them, but when I do, I do well. I've wrote about this before, so someone may ask: "why don't you grind them?". Answer: I don't know! Plus the minute I start playing them regularly, there will also go the ROI!

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Redemption

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Taking it Greek style

Can you say OUCH!!!!

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November 9 today on ESPN3

Thx to HeffMike for pointing this out to me.

03:30 PM Eastern

POKER

WSOP

World Series of Poker No Limit Hold'Em Championship (Final Table)

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Watch this, next time you take a bad beat....

Interview after:

I just got around to watching it on the DVR, and that's about as a bad a beat as anyone can take, especially with the stakes that are on the line. My hat's off to this young man for not losing it entirely, although I'm sure the libation's may have help to ease the pain.

The November 9 final table is tomorrow, and I will probably keep tabs on it, although will have to check to see who is covering. Too bad they don't do the PPV, I think they are missing out.

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The Rush

Been feeling 'The Rush' at the $1 rush cash tables. I'm having some decent results, and the rakeback is pretty nice too. But I've been missing the rush of getting deep in a tournament as of late, and I got that old feeling again in last night's 12K rebuy:

Funny thing happened 3 handed, one of the guys disconnected. So I was playing heads up against the chip leader, with one guy basically sitting out. Kinda mess with the dynamics. At any rate, I got coolered and then the chip leader got to blind out the disco guy. I'm sure he was pissed.

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Fun Hands

Obviously would have preferred to won the latter hand:

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Just what we all need!

http://www.pokernewsdaily.com/full-tilt-beta-testing-rush-poker-mobile-16045/

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Beyond the Felt

Interesting series....total of 13 episodes, you can find them all on youtube. Here's the 1st:

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No cigar again

I think I just got tired at the end. Pretty disappointing to say the least. But at least it's a step in the right direction. Not bad actually for a $9 investment.

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Funny PSA

Be aware....going to fellow blogger LJ's blog may be hazardous to your computer's health! LOL!

Maybe that's why she's now primarily blogging from CardRunners. Which reminds me that if you play at FullTilt, and are not taking advantage of the Free Cardrunners offer, you are missing out.

And in case you don't know, LJ has been tearing it up on Fulltilt, which is always nice to see a fellow blogger do well.

On the other hand, I'm on the other side of the coin. 2010 is turning out to be a very weird year for me. The first half saw me have tremendous success on the poker front, winning a bunch of tournaments, including my biggest payday ever. I was chatting last night with NewinNov, and mentioned how I am very streaky. When I'm hot, I can't do wrong, but when I'm running cold, it's freezing cold! And that's where I've been stuck the latter half of 2010 to date. I hope that will change, but it is frustrating, and if your going to play tournaments, you have to grow a pretty thick outer layer or you'll go bonkers.

At any rate, I'll keep plugging along, and we'll see if the last quarter of 2010 has a bit of turn to the plus side (LJ Style!).

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Another close one

Final Tabled the 35K last night, although I was the first one bounced:

Pretty standard, I raised AK with about 20 bets, and got reraised all in my chip leader. He had KK, and I have yet to perfect pulling the 3 outer, so out I went.

I hope Shaun Deeb writes a book or something, since he's obviously perfected it.

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Couple of close ones

Knocking on the door again, in fact have had a few other deep runs, so here's hoping to get back in the winner's circle soon.

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Hate when this happens!!!

Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Durrrr Challenge continues

In case you don't know, Durrrr aka Tom Dwan has started a 2nd challenge, this time with a 20 yr old phenon known as Jungleman12 (Dan Cates).

You can read about it here.

Pretty incredible the $'s these guys (the challenger's obv) not only toss around, but makes you wonder what they have already banked in order to be able to do this. Or perhaps he's also sold his action? either way, it looks as this one will go alot quicker than the first challenge, with Patrick Antonius, which is winding down, and has taken about a year to play. Durrrr is up about 2Mil, and looks to have that one under control, save a major blow up down the stretch.

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Choctaw Trip Report

As mentioned in the previous post, my brother in law and I ventured out to Choctaw Casino in OK for the Friday night $225 Bounty tournament. For your buyin, you got 5k in chips, and you could buy an additional 500 chips for $5, when you registered. In addition, if you played at the cash tables leading up to the tournament, based on time, you can earn additional chips.

The day we went, they had about 60 runners or so. The poker room itself is pretty nice, by Indian casino standards. It is fairly new, I believed just open back in February. The chairs are very comfortable, which was a nice upgrade from the standard hard chairs you usually get at most casino's.

The structure is pretty fast, 20 min levels, so you have to watch stack sizes relative to the blinds at all times, and you have to try and look for opportunities to steal or double up to give you some breathing room.

My first table had a bunch of regulars. I knew this since every time we had a dealer change, greetings were done on a first name basis. What you basically had in the regs, were some hard core rocks. It took me a very short time to figure this out, however, there were a couple of young guys who were playing pretty loose, so it somewhat countered the table dynamics.

I had 3 tight players immediately to my right, and had the loose young guys to my left. Not ideal, but I worked with it. The first hand I got involved in was in the BB with 99. The tight button raised 3x and I called. Flop comes 555, I check he fires 2/3 pot, and I rocket my boat into the muck. The nice thing about the local tighties, is that for some reason, they play friendly poker, and he was nice enough to show me his Kings.

An interesting hand took place between the 3 tighties and one of the loose guns. The tighties were button and blinds, and the loose guy open 4x, only to get flatted by all 3 tighties. Flop comes KQJ all spades. Young guy bets pot, and all 3 tighties flat....hmmmmmm. Turn brings a low non spade blank. Young guy shoves, first tighty cold calls, and so do the other 2. River brings another low non spade card. I don't recall the stack sizes, but bottom line is that they all wound up all in. Young guy had AA with the a of spade, and he lost. Can you guess what the 3 tight guys had? Yup, KK, JJ, QQ. Live poker is rigged!

The tighty who wins the hand, rides that to the final table, where as I alluded to the earlier post, was chopped 7 ways.

We got some new players, who were some more action players than rocks, and things opened up a bit. I unfortunately kept getting 2nd best hands, and had dwindled down to about 10 blinds, at around the 100/200 level. I got 99 in the big blind, so needless to say I'm going with the hand. Middle position opens for 3x, button flats, I shove and both call, where I and the button are all in. I'm in bad as middle position has JJ and button has TT. However, the dopey poker gods decide to allow me to hang around a bit longer, and I get a 9 in the window and hold to triple up, and picked up my first bounty for $50 bucks.

I pick up another bounty on a play where I wasn't paying attention, and got promptly chewed out by the BB. The guy in the previous hand was crippled, and had less than a BB. It had folded to me, and not thinking, I made it 3x. The BB immediately has a cow, because I was suppose to just 'call', so we could check down and eliminate the all in guy. First of all, I was distracted and acted in auto mode. However, had I really thought about it, I still would have raised out the BB, as I had a decent hand to go up against a basically blind hand, in KQ. I won the hand, got the bounty, and told the guy to STFU. Ok, maybe not in exactly those terms, after all I am in OK, and I was sure these guys would have no problem getting into a brawl right then an there. In fact, that did happen, but let me finish the recap of the tourney.

So a few hands later I get moved to the what would be the final table, and my brother in law is on life support with about 4 blinds or so. We immediately go on break, and he gives me the rundown on the table, which we were 7 handed. Basically, the 1 seat was a decent player, 2 was a loose cannon, 4 was a local rock, I was 5, and 6 was drunk and BIL was in 9. A few hands after break, I'm on the button and get AA. First big pair I've got, and I have BIL in the BB. Oh well, not going to soft play so I put in a standard raise, and of course BIL insta mucks. No issue realizing that I'm not raising him without a hand, just unfortunate for me that I get that hand in that circumstance. A few hands later BIL goes all in with Kx, and gets eliminated by someone with a pp, and the table goes 6 handed. In fact, at that point we are 11 handed, and I'm down to about 12 bb's, with the blinds heading to 1k/2k. So I have to make a move, and find KT sooted, so I shove, and get called by K2 and 44. I don't improve, and I get eliminated on the final table bubble.

I hang around and 2 players get eliminated pretty quickly, and then much to my surprise, the chop talk starts. I mean I understand that with the blinds at 2k/4k, that this is going to be a crap shoot. But you got 3 players which had less than 4 blinds! The chip leader had around 100k....and he agrees to an even 7 way chop, where they all got about 1K! It really made no sense to me, but these guys were pretty happy. I asked the chip leader why he would agree? at a minimum, he should have asked for a larger share....and his reply was that, with the blinds as high as they were, anything could happen. I just shook my head, and went to look for my BIL who was in some cash game action at $2/$5 blinds.

I don't want to get very winded here, but suffice it to say, that the play I saw was about as bad as I've ever seen. And there was some serious money on the table too! There were guys with several thousand dollars...I don't recall if the buyin was uncapped, but these were some juicy games.

At one point the drunk guy from my table in the tournament that my BIL had updated me on, got into some argument with a TJ lookalike. I happen to be with the floor manager asking him about the TJ Cloutier classic in September, when all of sudden we hear FLOOR! I look over, and it's at my BIL's table, and the TJ lookalike and the drunk where nose to nose, with fist clenched. So the Floor dude (after politely excusing himself from our conversation) runs over and gets between them, right before the punches were about to fly. Pretty wild, but then again, it is OK, and I thought about my earlier incident I related above.

Well, that about did if for that night, as I described in my previous post, BIL got his money back and then some on that pot, and we left shortly after midnight.

The following week, I went back to play in the Shawn Merion Celebrity tournament, not realizing it was a charity event. So I gave a little to charity, and at the end of the day, had a decent time.

I met TJ Cloutier who is the 'house pro', and in fact you can see him pimping the casino on the tournament of champions on ESPN. Annie Duke, Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho were there too, as was Mark Cuban, the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavs. I didn't get to play with any of them, although they were at adjacent tables, and were stopping play all the time to take pictures, which I'm sure is what they are told to do. I of course took no part in pictures, as I'm much too good looking to be seen with ugly folks! ;-)

Oh yeah, I made the final table bubble again, so that is 2 for 2, and I hope to break that string the next time I play. I do think I will be going out there again for the TJ classic, and may run some satty's. It's only about an hour drive for me, so its not that bad.

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Mookie win!

It's been a while, but I won the Mookie/Buddy again last night! Of course, it was a bunch of suckouts that enabled me to win, and not my savvy play, but I'll take it at any rate!

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Hand results and back to the FT

The results of the hand were pretty surprising to me, given my BIL is a pretty good cash player, but then again, I questioned calling OOP with the mighty 75 sooted. From his pov, he put his opponent on AK. In his defense, he had been at the table for a while, and had a read, although I still don't think I invest OOP with that hand. The villian had AQ suited, and again, pretty surprised at how fast he called, beating BIL into the pot. I mean, what's he putting him on? At best, he's calling for a chop? I don't know, but it was pretty silly, and in the end it worked out for my BIL, with the 'concealed' boat.

I'm going to work on trip report in the next few days, I'm going out of town on business, so still work getting in the way of poker...also made a 2nd trip out this past Saturday, for a celebrity tournament hosted by Shawn Merrion of the Dallas Mav's.

I farted around yesterday with this $5 rebuy on Tilt, and somehow had some results finally:

I pushed A9 Blind Vs Blind, only to have the BB wake up with KK, and IGH.

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Live Cash hand of the day

I was surprised (not really) as to how long I've gone without posting. The reality is that poker has continued to take a 2nd place to other priorities. So while I still play almost daily, I'm not putting in the volumes I have in the past. Case in point, FTOPS has started up again, and I didn't even realize it, let alone play in an event. I just don't have the time to invest right now, and I'm about as casual about my poker playing as ever.

I finally did take a few days off this past week, and had my (poker playing) brother in law (BIL), and family come for a visit. So, we made a little time and headed out to Choctaw Casino in OK.

Don't have time to do a full report right now, but will try and have it up in the next day or so. I have a hand that BIL played, and would be interested in opinions from all, as we talked about it at length on our drive back home.

This was in a cash game, 2-5 stakes.

Villian had BIL covered, he had been involved in a 7 player chop in the earlier tournament.

BIL had $400 or so.

BIL was UTG with a random, as he had straddled for $10.

Folds to some dufus in middle who flats.

Villian in SB raises to $30 total. BB folds.

BIL decide's to flat, since he feels that the other dufus will come along for the ride, which he does. Flop comes J25, 2 diamonds.

SB bets $30, BIL calls and Dufus folds. Pot now $155.

Turn comes a 5, and does put the 3rd diamond on the board.

Villian now bets $30 again, and BIL flats. Pot is $215.

River pairs the Duck.

Villian now checks the J2552 board, and BIL moves in for his entire remaining stack of $175.

Villian knocks his drink, chips and dignity by basically pulling a Helmuth as he can't get his money in the pot fast enough!

As played, what hands do you think they hold?

Results and the rest of the trip report to follow.

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LOL Hand

Nothing like taking a 'cocky' comment and ramming the nuts right down their throat!

Here's the hand:

Check his comment when I over bet the river:

- No Limit Hold'em - 22:35:17 ET - 2010/07/25

Seat 1: twoblackaces (3,030)

Seat 2: cbm710 (2,970)

cbm710 posts the small blind of 15

twoblackaces posts the big blind of 30

The button is in seat #2

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to twoblackaces [9s 8s]

cbm710 calls 15

twoblackaces raises to 60

cbm710 calls 30

*** FLOP *** [7d 5d Qs]

twoblackaces bets 60

cbm710 calls 60

*** TURN *** [7d 5d Qs] [6c]

twoblackaces bets 120

cbm710 calls 120

*** RIVER *** [7d 5d Qs 6c] [Js]

twoblackaces has 15 seconds left to act

twoblackaces bets 1,000

cbm710: wow

cbm710 has 15 seconds left to act

cbm710: u good

cbm710 raises to 2,730, and is all in

twoblackaces calls 1,730

*** SHOW DOWN ***

cbm710 shows [4c 3c] a straight, Seven high

twoblackaces shows [9s 8s] a straight, Nine high

twoblackaces wins the pot (5,940) with a straight, Nine high

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot 5,940 | Rake 0

Board: [7d 5d Qs 6c Js]

Seat 1: twoblackaces (big blind) showed [9s 8s] and won (5,940) with a straight, Nine high

Seat 2: cbm710 (small blind) showed [4c 3c] and lost with a straight, Seven high

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2010 November Nine

1. Jonathan Duhamel - 65,975,000
2. John Dolan - 46,250,000
3. Joseph Cheong - 23,525,000
4. John Racener - 19,050,000
5. Matthew Jarvis - 16,700,000
6. Filippo Candio - 16,400,000
7. Michael Mizrachi - 14,450,000
8. Soi Nguyen - 9,650,000
9. Jason Senti - 7,625,000

Go Grinder!

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Nutting it up!

Cool....I hope I get action!

Alrighty....A Customer!

Walking the Dog......

Bingo! Fully paid!

........and then a few hands later....

Lucky me!

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Ted Forrest wins 2Mil Bet

This is pretty incredible.......

Ted Forrest: I Wanted To Show That The Impossible Was Possible – #1109 – 2010 WSOP #90

At 5:14pm, on Tuesday, July 13, 2010, Ted Forrest won one of the biggest bets in the history of wagering when he stepped on a scale on the stage at the Pavilion Room at the Rio Convention Center in Las Vegas and the number staring back at him was 138.0 pounds. The moment was numbing: exciting, exhilarating, alarming, anticlamactic. But Forrest swears he didn’t do it for the two million dollars. “Somebody I care about very much needed to see that the impossible is possible.”

I just finished spending 3 1/2 hours with Ted, his girlfriend Pui, his trainer Mike Santoro, and Mike Matusow. I’m going to write up as much of it as I can, as fast as I can.

As soon as I get something to eat.

See below for the picture of Ted on the scale. I was alarmed when I saw him there.

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WSOP Main Event Champion Peter Eastgate Quits Poker

We'll see how long this last.....Reposted from Cake Poker:

WSOP Main Event Champion Peter Eastgate Quits Poker

Peter Eastgate has decided to take the money and run.

Every poker player dreams of winning the World Series of Poker Main Event. But how many of them would quit the game completely just two years after claiming its most prestigious tournament title? It’s hard to say exactly, but that’s precisely what former 2008 world champion Peter Eastgate has decided to do.

“When I started playing poker for a living, it was never my goal to spend the rest of my life as a professional poker player,” Eastgate said in a statement announcing his early retirement. “My goal was to become financially independent. I achieved that by winning the WSOP main event in 2008. The period following has taken me on a worldwide tour, where I have seen some amazing places and met many new people; it has been a great experience.”

“In the 20 months following my WSOP win, I feel that I have lost my motivation for playing high-level poker along the way,” he continued. “I have decided that now is the time to find out what I want to do with the rest of my life. What this will be, I do not yet know. I have decided to take a break from live tournament poker, and try to focus on Peter Eastgate, the person.”

The youngest player ever to win the WSOP Main Event, Peter Eastgate took home $9.1 million for his achievement. In the two intervening years he grabbed another $1.8 million in earnings thanks to impressive showings at EPT London, the NBC National Heads-Up Championship, and a $4,800 preliminary event at the 2009 PCA.

Eastgate’s decision to quit the game echoes that of another young poker player who has enjoyed incredible success over the last few years. Former EPT Dortmund champion and $4 million man Mike McDonald announced earlier this year that he was quitting poker in late March before ever stepping inside the Rio for the World Series of Poker.

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A little light....

I hope this is the start of a nice positive streak....although I have not had my head fully in poker as of late. I have been really tied up with my real job, to the extent that it put a huge damper on my getting out to Las Vegas for the WSOP. Can't tell you how disappointed I am, but until the day I decide to hang it up, I'll continue to have poker as my hobby, and will have to take second banana to other priorities.

I don't have grand illusions of ever being a professional poker player, although if I ever got some huge score, that may change. And my huge, I mean 'set for life' type of score, which of course, is equivalent to a lottery score (read: Cada, Yang, Gold, etc).

It's actually easy to get caught up in the success, that some of the players out there are having. And there is no denying the amount of success some of the guys are having, especially the young online guns. But the reality is that your talking about less than 1-2% of all 'tournament pros', which are making money. Among those, the majority are staked players, and many fall by the wayside year by year. Just think of some of the past 'big names' of WSOP/WPT winners you've never heard of again.

Your big name players that remain in the spotlight, all have sponsorships or have ownership in the online sites. Short of that, the names you still see out there are more than likely 'staked' players. And those in the latter category have some big names....as in people who are always introduced as 'having made millions', and yet are broke.

So that was a pretty nice tangent, but really playing poker as a hobby, and hitting the occasional score is still pretty cool.

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Comedy relief

Haha...are you laughing??? If that doesn't do it, check this out...too funny:

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What would you do?

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Phil wins #8

Phil Ivey Wins Event #37: $3,000 H.O.R.S.E

My favorite line is that supposedly Phil Ivey asked, "So how much is it for first place anyway?"

I'm sure there are plenty of guys that are going to be motivated even more now.....Giddyup boys!

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WSOP TOC Set

Here's the source:

RANK	NAME	VOTES
1	PHIL IVEY	16,267
2	DANIEL NEGREANU	16,239
3	DOYLE BRUNSON	13,796
4	PHIL HELLMUTH	12,673
5	CHRIS FERGUSON	11,585
6	ALLEN CUNNINGHAM	10,486
7	JOHNNY CHAN	10,434
8	SCOTTY NGUYEN	9,834
9	BARRY GREENSTEIN	9,806
10	JOHN JUANDA	8,835
11	ERIK SEIDEL	8,802
12	JENNIFER HARMAN	8,206
13	HUCK SEED	8,180
14	DAN HARRINGTON	7,342
15	T.J. CLOUTIER	6,281
16	SAM FARHA	6,085
17	HOWARD LEDERER	5,596
18	GREG RAYMER	5,404
19	JOE HACHEM	5,272
20	ANTONIO ESFANDIARI	5,129
Automatic	ANNIE DUKE	2004 TOC WIN
Automatic	MIKE MATUSOW	2005 TOC WIN
Automatic	MIKE SEXTON	2006 TOC WIN
Automatic	JOE CADA	2009 WSOP MAIN EVENT WIN
Automatic	BARRY SHULMAN	2009 WSOP EUROPE MAIN EVENT WIN
Sponsor Exemption	BERTRAND ElkY GROSPELLIER	WSOP ACADEMY PLAYOFF
Sponsor Exemption	ANDREW BARTON	WSOP.com UK ONLINE QUALIFIER

I guess this goes to show the power of being on the televised poker shows. Talk about an oldtimers list, huh? Funny how Sammy gets in over MoneyMaker (as do later champs Raymer and Hachem).

There were alot of the young guns (with bracelets obv), that staged strong campaigns over Twitter and other outlets, but none got in. Elky had to win a sponsor's sitngo to earn his seat, so he doesn't count. Should be an interesting show.

In other news.....my crappy run seems to be stuck in the on position. I am tempted to show you guys the beauties that I have been taking recently, but I am really hating on BB stories as of late. And I'm talking about huge pots where the winner zooms to the chip leader position. Last Sunday I lost more holding boats than I ever have. In the Stars Sunday Million, I got 1 outed after making my boat on the Turn, my opponent makes his boat on the river for a huge pot...and then to add insult to injury, another player chimes in how he folded his other out. Sigh! I've been through this before, and know you have to just play through it all.

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