EPT bracelet party

not stoned, i swear

awwww so cute

pretending to know what i'm doing

more than one bracelet winner in da house

she had a few too many drinks

"i think she's puking at your party"

we didn't need the ice bucket anyways

nas-dog likes the show

why?

ihm gings auch richtig gut

Tweener week

I've been laying low since the end of the rake race, playing not even 30mins/day on average. I haven't been all that productive but I did manage to get the vacation all worked out. I'll be going to the Royal Island Resort & Spa on the Maldives from October 13th-21st. The travel agent promised that the weather is warm year-round there, here's a look at the island:

On Friday I'm going to Hamburg for Seb's WSOP/EPT party, gonna be a fun time for sure. I'll probably take some pictures if I'm not too hammered (hi Mom!) but no promises. I'll come back on Saturday, play a soccer game on Sunday, relax on Monday and then fly to London on Tuesday.

I'll be there to play the EPT, from the looks of it it will be Day 1A. My birthday is also coming up on October 4th so I'll probably throw some kind of party in London for that. I have a few non-poker friends (believe it or not) who live in or near London so that should be fun to get them gathered for a lil birthday bash. That's it for now, ship it crucial!

Was there ever any doubt?

It's over! The rake race is shipped! Surprisingly, I'm not nearly as burnt out as I thought I would be. I was even able to take most of yesterday off, because the guys in 2nd and 3rd place realized I was hawkeyeing the lobby and as soon as they would start playing, it wasn't be long until I did the same.

Some people have asked me if I would do it again. Assuming BossMedia were to do an identical promo, I probably would not take part. It basically took two weeks out of my life where I was forced to sit on my ass and stare at the screen all day. I really didn't even have to leave the apartment much, due to a deal with the bakery to deliver breakfast every morning :) What I'm getting at is that there are so many better ways to spend time than to go into zombie-mode and grind like there's no tomorrow.

My play undoubtedly suffered from all this. The long hours and the high number of tables hurt my winrate for sure, but I guess I can still be happy I pulled a decent profit from all of this. Here is the graph from Sept. 1- 14, enjoy (not gonna post the $$$ graph, sry):

At this time I'd like to congratulate Seb aka Mr. Luckbox on winning EPT Barcelona for 1.3 million Euros! He is an absolute sicko and deserves the win without a doubt. I had eptlive running for most of the final table and it really was impressive how he dominated with hardly any showdowns. Kinda upset that I didn't make it Barca this year, too bad. I know Seb was planning on having a bracelet party later this month, I'm sure that party will now get a significant upgrade!

As for me, due to some commitments I am delaying my much deserved vacation until October. I have pretty much decided on Spain, but if the weather is too cold in October, I may go to the Maldives instead. Rough life, I know.

Destination insanity

Wow this has been tough. It's been 8 full days of intense grinding, I've been averaging 14-16 hours a day playing 6-12 tables. So far I've played just over 130k hands and as I type this I am still leading the rake race. It's going to be a close battle until the very end, but I remain confident that I'll come out on top.

The poker itself has been so/so. When you pack all the variance of 130k hands into an 8 day period, you get some sick swings that can definitely take their toll on your emotions. I've had moments where I couldn't believe how hot I was running and just as many moments where I wanted to put my fist through my monitor and give up completely.

Last night called for some shottaking as one of the bigger fish on Boss was playing some NL10k and NL20k. I sold off some of my action and then managed to win a stack in each of the games, so that was kinda fun. You'll see the effects of the shots if I post my graph at the end of the race.

I'm not sure if it's worth it to risk my sanity for "just 30k" but right now I'm at the point of no return. There's no looking back now, it's less than a week left and then time for some vacation. I'm thinking maybe Spain or Greece, somewhere where the weather is nice and I can chill out before hitting up London for the EPT on October 1st. If you have any recommendations just drop me a comment (no I'm not going to send you money on Pokerstars just for giving me vacation recommendations, nice try)

Rake racing

I'll post a longer update tonight or tomorrow. Right now I am spending all my time and energy at the tables. You can follow my results in the rake race here:
http://www.ipnlive.com/rakerace.html