Degenerate Alert

Russian Pokerstars player "I7AXA" has had quite a crazy past couple of weeks.  He was able to pull off every online poker players dream and take down a huge score in a large field tournament.  He won a $10 satellite tournament into the $225 Sunday Million and ended up taking down 2nd place for $150,000.  Most people would have immediately hit the withdrawal button and cashed out a year or two salary, but not this guy.

He took his newfound hundred thousand right to the $5k sit and go tables and proceeded to lose it all back within 3 days.  I can not imagine the levels of pain he must have been feeling as he donked that money off.  There were times when he was sitting at $300 sit n gos, then he would win 2 and move right up to a $1000 sit and go, and rinse and repeat.  The incredible thing was that after losing all the money in sit and gos, he was still playing FPP tournaments with first prizes in the single dollar digits!  Read the hilarious twoplustwo thread. Suicide watch starts now.

Summer is here

Summer is most definitely gearing into full swing. The Memorial Day weekend was abnormally hot, even Marina, my Brazilian wife, was sweating and complaining the whole weekend. I have been getting back into playing pick up basketball with some old friends and some new ones here in Quincy. We played some poker at my friend Joe from Walpole's house on Monday night, and I managed to drink roughly 20 craft beers!


I was in Western Mass with Marina checking out dorms at Mount Holyoke College, where she begins in the fall. She couldn't decide which one she would pick, but we made some progress. That campus is breathtaking in the summer, the old buildings are beautiful, its exactly what you think of in a private liberal arts college. We managed to grab some food and beer at Amherst Brewing Company right by UMass' flagship campus. Their beer is not spectacular, but the "Gone Postal" IPA that complemented my Bison Burger was hoppy and delicious. Didn't manage to take pictures, but I definitely recommend checking the place out, if you are in the neighborhood.

I grabbed a sixer of Founders Centennial IPA, could not find a date, but the hops were slightly faded, I was disappointed for $12. Additionally, I picked up a 12 pack of cans of Cisco's Whale's Tale Pale Ale, which is a solid English Pale Ale, that very lightly hopped, but thirst quenching and awesome in cans.

I grabbed a 750ml of Cantillon Rose de Gambrinus, mostly because I never see Cantillon in the bottle shops around here. Would drink exclusively sours if they weren't $17 a bottle! This was a 2010 vintage, and the raspberries were very clear, and accentuated the tart base lambic. I apologize for the lousy picture! Cantillon really is the master of sours, although my next sour will be Jolly Pumpkin's La Roja, to see what an American sour brewer can do.

Finally, I enjoyed my second 500ml bottle of Maine Brewing Co.'s Zoe. I grabbed 2 bottles for $10 at my local packy, which apparently is a pretty good deal. Zoe is a delicious amber, darker than something like Nugget Nectar, which is one of my all time favorites, but it was still hoppy and delicious, bottled 4/28 so the hops were still bright.

I will be volunteering at BeerAdvocate's American Craft Beer Fest on Saturday, and will try to get some photos!

Book Review: The Odds by Chad Millman

The Odds is a look at the world of sports betting. ESPN columnist, Chad Millman spent the winter of 1999-2000 in Vegas doing investigative journalism into this culture. This book is a result of the time he spent there. Millman captures the positive and negative aspects of sports betting, and presents his findings impartially.

The book is written as a profile of three different players in the Vegas world, and what they represent. The main character is Alan Boston, a professional sports handicapper, known as a wiseguy. Alan is an eccentric Ivy League grad, who has a very unique view of the world. I admire Alan a lot, he is a great stud player (Full Tilt Red Pro) and a world-class college basketball handicapper. I actually heard him interviewed several times on the 2p2 Pokercast, one of my favorite podcasts, and he is one of their best all-time guests. Next, up is the bookmakers Joe Lupo and Bob Scucci of the Stardust casino. They are regarded throughout the industry as some of the best handicappers in the business. Finally Rodney Bosnich, a 23 year old kid, who believes he has a knack for betting sports, and decides to move to Vegas to bet full-time. The book captures the lows and highs for each of these characters based on the professions they have chosen.

The book covers the Superbowl, the biggest single day of sports betting, through March Madness, the end of the college basketball season. Throughout these various events, we see the different aspects each of the players is affects and is affected by. Additionally a number of issues that affect the sports betting industry are touched upon, the legality of sports betting, fixing of games, the offshore, Caribbean sportsbooks, betting emotionally, the high roller lifestyle, the affect sports betting has on relationships based on it's solitary nature, are all covered extensively.

In conclusion, the book is a little dated, however most of the issues are still relevant right now. As I have gotten into sports betting, although for much more nominal figures than anyone in the book, this interests me a lot. I highly recommend picking up a copy on Amazon.

Poker

Hey guys, I play a decent amount of online poker, but I have taken the last few months off. A week ago, I deposited $25 bucks and got to it. I quickly won at 5NL and was up to $80 in a few hours. After that, I decided to take it more seriously and try to grind it out.

I started 12 tabling the 5NL 6max games, which are pretty soft, and my first session, at night on Sunday, probably the softest game time I won 6 Buyins and was over $100 Bankroll

Monday I played 3 Sessions, 20 minutes in the morning, and 3.5 hours spread over 2 sessions at night. Bankroll ended at about $130. I am planning to take a couple shots at $10NL next month, and will update that. Also I am at roughly 530 VPPs for the month, with 3 days to go. I am going to try to reach 750 VPPs so I can make SilverStar for April - to make double the FPPs, which is essentially rakeback. Also at 750 VPPs, you reach the first Stellar Bonus, which is an additional $10 to pad the BR.

Some of my goals are to play fewer tables at the new limit, and take notes of relevant hands.

Going to play a little more tonight and will update with BR/VPP progress. Thanks for listening