RussellCarson
WCOOP done . . . . . off to Nationals!!
This past week has been pretty slow for me on the virtual felt. WCOOP wiped me out and I was happy to take it easy for most of the week. I didn't have any success in the Main Events during WCOOP, but I did manage to make 2 FT's in the 2nd chance events, PCA package (it eluded me last year), and a few other decent scores (highlights being chopping the UB 1k, and 2nd in the FTP 100r)., But I am happy for it to be over to get back to a more normal schedule.
Before I do that though, I'm off to Prince Edward Island this week to compete in The Mens Soccer Nationals. Four of us from Fredericton got picked up to play with the PEI team as Soccer New Brunswick didn't allow us to register a team, long story, but basically Soccer New Brunswick is useless. Our first game is this Wednesday and I fancy our chances there, this team has already picked up 2 bronze medals and I think with the additions they have this year making it to the finals is very feasible. I'll keep you guys updated on how we do.
When I get back I'll be putting some time in at the tables again, but probably just evening shifts instead of full days. I didn't get anything accomplished this week on Sunday or Wednesday, at least I didn't lose much . . . .
take care all,
R
WCOOP Started . . .
Just finishing up my grind, 1 tabling the 100r turbo on Stars right now, been a 12 hour day thus far. On top of that it hasn't been a great one. Have a handful of cashes to minimize the damage at least, so probably just going to be down a couple k. Hasn't been the start I wanted to the series, but it definitely could be a lot worse.
Sunday I had a couple of solid scores, chopped the 32k Super Turb at tilt for 10k, and took 2nd in the UB 6 max $500 for another 10k. Even with those cashes and a few others I didn't make any money on the day. The high-roller event at stars along with the satellites to it just crushed me. My buy-ins for the day were close to 30k, pretty sick. Anyway, the grind is just beginning and there is going to be a ton of opportunity for some juicy scores. Hope to have good things to report soon,
good luck at the tables,
R
Just getting up . . . .
Well it's early afternoon here and I'm just getting up and at it. Sunday was a long day for me, started at 1pm and finished at 5am, nothing like a solid 16 hour Sunday. It was another day of highs and lows, but overall I can't complain too much. I had 4 final tables and tons of cashes. The highlight being chopping the UB 200k HU for 37k. I also took 9th in the Party Poker 200k, and 12th in the Warmup at stars. Those were both pretty frustrating as I definitely thought I had a solid score locked up but not enough love late. The Stars Warmup and Million has been a massive tease for me of late, can't wait until I get a score in one of those, I"M DUE!
So for the next couple weeks I'm out west in British Columbia for one of my good buddies wedding. He was my next door neighbor growing up, so it'll be a pretty fun night. And just seeing everyone else from my town always makes for good reminiscing. Looking forward to recharging over the next couple weeks as I want to be as fresh as possible for WCOOP. I"m hoping for big things and I am planning on really grinding the series out. I typically take quite a few days off no matter what series is going on, so I'm going to change that this time around and start preparing for the grind now.
Ok, that's it for now, hoping to grind this next Sunday but I'm not sure about that,
gl at the tables,
R
Been Awhile . . .
Yo All,
been awhile since I've updated this now, but I'm back home after my hiatus to the World Cup and my brief stop at the WSOP for the Main Event. I busted in day 2, and wish I never showed up in vegas. It was fun catching up with the vegas crew for a few days, but I just couldn't wait to be home. I like travelling, but after a couple weeks I'm ready to get back and relax around the house. I get more work done when I'm at home, and just have a healthier lifestyle (diet, sports, friends, etc). But didn't get any stack going in the Main. I hit a few hands during the first 2 levels of Day 1, ran it up to 36k, and then it was a slow dwindle all the way down until I busted with the J and the 9 against AJ. No 9 ball 
. But I was happy at the same time, because that night I was on my way home!
Since I've been home I have been grinding quite a bit. Haven't had any spectacular results, but have had lots of cashes and quite a few profitable days. I think my last 6 out of 7 sessions were in the black so that's always nice. The best score I have mustard up lately was a 2nd in the 109 turbo 2 Sundays ago for 12k. I've been close to some big ones, in the Sunday 500 at stars I took 11th, and the week before took a 19th in the Sunday Million. I really thought the Million was going to pay me off one time, but it was a giant tease. I rant AKs into KKs from the CO to the BTN against the only guy who had me covered. Annoying. Ah well. Ftops just got started last night, won't be playing a ton of it as I'm on vacation with family for the week in PEI. We're cottaging and I'm looking forward to it. I won't be missing the Sundays, and I'll be coming home early for the Saturday 2 day event, so I think I'm getting the better events in. I won't be working too hard until the WCOOP rolls around, and I plan to hit that hard. I really want to get some results in these Online Series, or for that matter any series. I was close in SCOOP on several occasions but just didn't finish anything. I'm planning to change that this time around with WCOOP.
Anyway, off to get a workout here, but will try to update this sooner than later,
R
Scoop Aftermath
Wow, been a long time since I have sat down to write a blog. I've had quite the 2 months, feel like I have been all over the place and finally able to relax at home for a few weeks. I finally found my big live score at EPT Snowfest for 290k Euro. It felt nice to run good in a live donkament and have some key hands hold. It's too bad that the FT won't make it to TV, as I think it would have been a fun one to see with quite a few key hands going down. I stayed over in Europe for WPT Bucharest, and started to get deep that but loss KK to TT for a massive pot with about 60 left. Smaller tournament, but would have been nice to make a run. After that I head home for a couple weeks of R&R before I turned around and headed back to Europe for San Remo and Monte Carlo.
Went deep in both of them, but I went out of San Remo with a bad line that I took in a hand, was pretty pissed at myself, but it happens from time to time. Try to learn and move on. Monte Carlo I bubbled the money by 2, got all in with QQ to AK for a top 10 stack, wish that held like we all do but it wasn't meant to be. I had my flight booked out the next day already so I guess I timed that well. And then Scoop started, wish it never begun heh. I didn't get too much accomplished. I had 3 late nights last week, I was up until 9am, 7am, and 8am consecutively, with the first night showing the most profit when I chopped up the 109 mini ftops for 37k 4 handed. I was tired, and small stacked at the time and got a nice little premium so I took it as it would cover most of all the highroller buyins for scoop. My deepest Scoop finish was in the $1000r where I took 17th and went out on a flip. No fun, but that's how it goes.
Anyway, been relaxing this week, lots of golf and trying to soak in some sun since it's warming up here quite nicely. Heading on a road trip next week up to Quebec checking out a few cities I haven't seen and visiting some family with my wife. Looking forward to it, hope Montreal will still be going strong in the playoffs and might be able to catch a game. Will update this again soon,
gl at the tables,
R
Back from Costa Rica . . . .
Home again, but only for a week this time before I head over to Europe for several tournaments. Right now planning to play the ECPT Barcelona tournament, Snowfest, WPT in Bucharest, and the Irish Open. If I don't hate being on the road after those 4 I'll stick around for San Remo and Monte Carlo. So back to the vacation, it started off great. The Sunday before we left I shipped the UB 500 for 40k, always a nice feeling taking some time off on an upswing. Felipe's (Improved) wedding was awesome. They were married on his Family's farm up in the mountains, cool setting and really neat to see how a Latin Wedding goes down. After Costa Rica I met up with my brother in law for some golf in Orlando. Man was my game rusty, I'm not great to begin with, but I'm horrid when I'm not playing. Planning to line up some lessons this week so I can improve on the course. At least I didn't lose to much money to Matt while I was down there. Hopefully I get to sandbag him next time we meet up for some golf!
Anyway, back to the grind this week and will be grinding pretty hard for the month I'm in Europe for. Hopefully I can manage a live result,
gl at the tables,
R
FTOPS and the Start to 2010
It's been awhile again, but keeping up to my once a month average at least! So far 2010 has treated me well and I have no complaints on the poker front. I've managed several solid scores, the most notable being chopping the Sunday 500 at stars for 79k, and chopping the 75k at tilt for 22k. Plus several other small ones and a Barcelona package has made 2010 look very promising. The Barcelona tournament is mid March and allows me to catch their Champions League match against Stuttgart. Be my first Champions League experience live, can't wait for it. I'm hoping the first leg in Germany is a tight game so that the 2nd leg will be meaningful.
I'm off to Costa Rica next week for Felipe's (Improved) wedding. Looking forward to the change in climate, as winters up in the great white north aren't that great, if you can imagine that. This winter has been very mild, but still be nice to catch some sun and try and get in a couple rounds on the golf course. Hopefully this weekend at the tables pays off, going to be a fun one, and a lot of High Stakes action on the tournament front. Man I love the online tournament world these days, it has come so far it always amazes me. We have it pretty good, hopefully it keeps on going. I remember when the nightly tournament (for that matter all the tournaments) started with 1500 chips, and probably 10 minute levels. Tournaments use to be done in under 4 hours, and now we almost double that. It's awesome to think the impact that we have had to implement changes like these. Anyway, off to get a workout in and then going to hit up the Wednesday grind,
gl with Ftops,
R
The New Year
Finally back at home and getting settled in again. Sarah and I were out in British Columbia for the holidays, which always makes for good times catching up with friends and family that I haven't seen in the last year or two. It's tough to find motivation to grind when I'm in that environment and everything is so festive. I only gamed about 4 times while I was out there, so I am definitely well rested again to log in some hours. Planning to get at least 4 tournament sessions in a week, and hoping to log-in a few more hours at the cash tables too. I did get a few cash game sessions in at the 2-4 NL level over the break. I had about 6 out of 7 winning sessions, but they were very short and was only up a buy-in or 2 at most. Hopefully can keep that up and keep better stats with it. Yesterday was a sweet day. I didn't have one really great score, but I managed 2 4th's in a couple of 109's at stars, FT'd the 50r there too, but that went pretty poopy. BUT I finally found a W in the 30r at tilt. Lately I feel I haven't been shipping tournaments and going out at the wrong end of the FTs, so it was nice to come across that.
Onto non-poker related stuff now!
Anyone else getting pumped for the World Cup this Summer ? I'm pretty much saying **ck it to the WSOP this summer and heading to South Africa for the World Cup (I will make it back for the Main Event). I have my buddy out there who is going to med school and has made a few contacts and lined us up a house on a golf course. So golf by day and watch games live by night. I just recently received tickets through FIFA, so right now I have 8 games and trying to track down more. I was over in Germany 4 years ago on a much different budget and was only able to see 4 games, all featuring Ukraine. I loved it, but this time around I'm going to see Germany, England, Portugal, Argentina, Brazil, and Ghana just to name a few. The best game so far is the Brazil-Portugal game and we have it. Stoked to see that, hope Ronaldo is back in form by then and tearing it up. So I can't wait for that and since I hate live poker and rotting away at the table I'll be living it up in South Africa!
Anyway, do plan to hit this blog a little more and hopefully will have some solid news after the weekend,
R
What a grind . . . .
Over the last 9 days I've put in over 100 hours and am down close to 20k, this game is cruel. I think I've played quite well, just couldn't win a couple key hands late, pretty frustrating. I did manage to ship the 20 cube at stars, and have had quite a few FT's, but way too many of them finished at the back end. Oh well, it happens. Taking today off, and only going to play Wednesday and Sunday this week. Definitely burnt myself out a little bit, but plan to cover my losses between those 2 shifts, hopefully that gets accomplished with a little cream on top.
Sarah (my wife) is getting back from Boston today. She was down there helping her Mom recover from back surgery, everything went well and it'll be nice to have her back. I haven't ate quite the same over the last 10 days! We're going to have a couple nights away at a local lodge, refresh myself mentally and get prepared for a big Sunday. Taking off now to hang out with some friends, but hopefully will have some big news at the beginning of next week,
GL, R
Season is over/Back to the grind
Well my final year playing university soccer is all wrapped up and it's time to get back to the grind. Our season was pretty disappointing, we lost our first round in playoffs in double overtime, frustrating for sure, but it happens. I enjoyed getting out and playing again at that level, it's been awhile and nice to know I can still handle it, but having said that don't mind that it's over and get back to the felt a little more and get some traveling in again.
Lately Poker has been pretty good considering how much time I have put into it. I have had some solid results. To highlight a few recent scores, 4th in the nightly at stars, 1st in the $50 1,1 at FTP, and a few top 4s in some smaller stuff. The last few sessions have been pretty rough. I logged in 34 hours this past weekend to lose about 10k, that always leaves you with an empty feeling, but it does come with the game. Looking forward to grinding out a lot of hours this weekend and trying to find a few results. The HSMTT schedule is getting so packed these days you need to ship 2 tournaments a session just to see any profit, it's pretty sick how much we can spend now. Any day of the week you can probably spend close to 10k if you're putting a full session in. It can make for some pretty tough days. Anyway, see what we can accomplish this weekend and will get another blog off on Monday with some results in it!
Gl to all this weekend,
R
