HugePoker

A couple of nights ago I had my first decent score of 2010, finishing 3rd out of 364 in a $109 turbo tournament for a nice $4004 prize. I had been on a weird frustrating streak of “double the bubble” finishes – in a tournament with 1000 players paying 90 I would finish like 175th, so I couldn’t really even whine about bubbling (and you know how much I like to whine) but I would still spend hours playing for no cash. The night before the score I had two min-cashes in turbo tournaments, so I was hopeful that I had turned some sort of corner, and hope was fulfilled. The tournament was strangely not all that interesting, other than winning a couple of big coinflips on the river, losing a nasty suckout at the final table and finally busting out on a big coinflip (99 < AQ) when the three stacks were pretty much even. Always sucks to bust out on a multi-thousand-dollar coinflip, but I’d won more than my share to get there so I can’t really whine about that either (DAMN IT).

A few minutes ago I nailed down a Step 5 single-table tournament for a $2100 prize, so 2010 is not too shabby so far. I don’t know what I’ll use the $2100 Step 6 ticket for (actually I have two of them now) … right now they’re only good for qualifiers to a tournament in Uruguay, which I’d be interested to go to, but I may just wait until they start running qualifiers to the SCOOP tournaments or the WSOP. Speaking of the WSOP, they recently announced the schedule for the 2010 WSOP – I think there are 6 $1000 buyin events, all on weekends … should be good fun. I’ve made a little bit of a resolution to make sure I don’t end up in a spot where I just don’t feel like playing the main event this year – whether that means not spending the whole time in Vegas or just planning my poker finances differently – skipping the main event of the WSOP may have been the right decision at the time, but looking back on it I regret letting myself get to that point, so I’ll try not to let that happen again.

I’m also in the middle of another weight-loss prop bet with Dan (who never tires of getting mentioned in my blog) … I have to get to 180 and he has to get to … some other number … and whoever gets there first wins … loser has to take the winner out for a Rossini burger at Mandalay Bay in Vegas (I wrote about it back in November – CLICK HERE if you missed it) … and watch him eat it while the loser eats a veggie burger. Dan keeps inviting me over and feeding me, which is nice, and he’s a good cook and all, but I suspect he’s giving me the extra butter servings. Dan has also insisted on a clause that the winner gets to call the loser “Tubby” for a month, which I think is just cruel, but OK. When we have a result I’ll let you know – hell, if Dan wins I’ll even let him write it.

Happy New Year, HugePoker readers near and far – may we all run well in poker and in life in 2010 and in the decade to come…

-huge