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So first today, while half the field got byes, I drew this guy who’s online name is xMonsterxDongx, which is pretty hilarious.  As an aside, you’d think that once this guy became pretty well known, he’d change his name, but no, I asked him, and he’ll be MonsterDong for the long haul.  Either way, MonsterDong played in the 100k event, final tabled both that and the opening day 1k event, and so appeared to have a decent rep.  Oh yeah, he also was wearing a Hornets jersey (a day after Chris Paul beat my blazers at the buzzer), so I pretty much had to win.

And win I did.  The format was a best-of-3 series.  Game 1, I limped Q4 suited in spades on the button, and he checked.  Flop was JT2 all spades, he c/c.  Turn was a 9 offsuit.  He checked, I bet 650, he check-raised to 1300, I jammed, and he snap called with 92 offsuit no spade.  I’ll refrain from commenting on his play, other than that I think it’s pretty bad.

Round 2 i got it in with AK against TT and won a flip.  nothing interesting there.

Round 2 I played against some no-name that I instantly underrated, and he ended up taking me down to the ropes.  Round 1 was a grind, which he won eventually.  Round 2 I won on the 3rd hand when I turned trip 3’s against his top-pair top-kicker.  Round 3 I was down really low, and then this happened:  he limps for the first time all game, so I raise Q6o expecting him to fold every time.  He calls.  Flop is KQ9 rainbow, I bet, and he calls.  Turn is a 6, I jam, he instantly calls with JT for the straight, and I spike a Q for the boat and the win.  whew, that was close.  Mike mcwhirter, you are not bad at poker.

Round 3 I get the unfortunate pleasure of playing against my good friend Dani “Ansky” Stern.  Round 1 I am hit in the face with the deck and can’t miss any flops, and it goes fast.  Round 2 takes literally forever.  The blinds are huge, we both have no more than 25 big blinds ever, and I shove J7o over his minraise only to be snapped by QQ.  Too bad the flop is 984, turn T, river 8, and I take the win 2 games to 0.

Tomorrow we play televised.  Me, Vanessa, Brian/Flawless, and LuckyChewy are all in the final 8, so it should make for some good tv.  will let you all know what the deal is.

Oh, and 8th place books an 8.5k win, so even if I lose, I pretty much secure a +40k trip.  hooray.

gl all,

Andrew