Day 0: Calm before the storm

Date: Tue, May 26, 2009

I'm mostly settled into adult Disney with room and board and quick access to every indulgence. I spent my first 24 hours drinking with Dr. Pauly then hitting up the poker in the new M Resort til the sun came up. My first bender the first day and now time to settle down to take care of business. If you can believe it even possible, it my drunken state I put a hurt on their 2/4 limit game (only 3 tables going and that had the only empty seat). The sober folks at the table didn't seem to care too much for my antics but I kept stacking and drinking.

The Amazon Room in the Rio opened today for registration, cash games and satellites. Tomorrow I'll pick up my media credentials, meet with the Full Tilt folks and find my camping spot for the next few months. As the rookie in the room I'm sure I'll make mistakes or completely hose myself up at some point I'll count on my intuition to get me safely back to the bar and/or my hotel room. It's going to be an interesting couple of months, of that I have no doubt. I'll keep my daily thoughts here while the professional poker stuff will be over at Poker From the Rail. I'm also on that confounded twitter thing with @AlCantHang and @FullTiltPoker_WSoP once everything kicks off.

My last night of sanity, I think it's time to start drinking again.

Blog reading during the WSoP:

Poker From the Rail (my FTP blog)
Dr. Pauly (he's writing on his own which is the best in town)
Pokerati (DanM and gang write about all things poker)
Wicked Chops Poker (Poker and boobs, boobs and poker)
PokerNews.com (every game, up to date and employing most of my blogging friends)
Pokerlistings.com
Poker Stars Blog (Otis and gang follow the Poker Stars gang)
Ulimate Bet Blog (MeanGene and crew)
~

The Daily Crutch

I figured poker was the perfect tie in for the semi-nekkid five today but it almost caused me to puke. I have this random application that I use on occasion to scour the internet in the background and grab random pics, these are some of things I do for you. I set the search to go grab any vague pics tagged "poker girl". Start going through the directory later to see what I grabbed in my fishing net. I swear to friggin christ a dozen pictures in and I got a god damn picture of Waffles. Just can't get away from that troll doll! (But not nearly as disturbing as this picture).

My standard 2-7 Triple Draw starting hand



Absolute Poker, they'll steal your money and.... look boobs!



Next Door Nikki, always a favorite 'round these parts



There are more pictures from this set that are NSFW, perhaps later for you the reader



No idea why she was picked up in the search but no complaints

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Last week of BBT4 (for reals this time)

Date: Sat, May 23, 2009

This time I'm pretty damned sure that this is the last week in the Battle of the Blogger Tournaments 4, just six games left before we settle up and settle down for the Tournament of Champions. I definitely won't be playing in the Brit Blogger game tomorrow unless my Vegas flight is REALLY delayed since 16:05 is my departure time.

Get in there and get it done.

Tournament: Brit Blogger Game
When: Sunday's at 16:00ET
Game: NLHE
Buyin: $5+.50
Password: donkament

Tournament: PPI / Riverchasers
When: Monday's at 22:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: $24+2 or token
Password: riverchasers

Tournament: Blogger Skillz Game
When: Tuesday's at 21:30ET
Game: Limit Hold'em (with Knockouts)
Buyin: $10+1
Password: skillz

Tournament: The Mookie
When: Wednesday's at 22:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: $10+1
Password: vegas1

Tournament: Brit Blogger Game
When: Sunday's at 16:00ET
Game: NLHE
Buyin: $5+.50
Password: donkament

Tournament: Blogger Big Game
When: Sunday, May 31st at 21:30ET
Game: Superstack NLHE
Buyin: $69+6 (or token)
Password: donkey

~

The Daily Crutch: Weekend Edition

I'm backed up a few of these after a long week. She ain't the mortal nutz in the looks department but I picked her since there was an NCIS marathon during the weekend. Dr. Pauly will remember her as Pacey's brother on Spanker's Dawson's Creek. Sasha Alexander ladies and gentlemen. Hand to hand tipping only.

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Run Good Challenge: WSOP Edition Part 2

Date: Sat, May 23, 2009

Never a dull moment this week, and for once that's not silly blogger speak for checking emails, writing puny 200 word posts and rearranging my iPod playlists. It was amazing how at one moment I was hanging out at a very very successful Cystic Fibrosis benefit loving life to the other end of the spectrum.

I'm always dealing with my demons, what's one more?

My bags are mostly packed and I have a few more items on my to-do list, 24 hours from now I'll be sitting in Philly airport (and hopefully not the security office portion of the airport) waiting for my flight to Vegas to cover my first full WSOP. I have no idea what to expect but we'll see what happens. When in doubt I'll self-medicate with booze.

~

Following up last week's Run Good Challenge: WSOP Edition from PokerListings.com, today they are poneying up 2 prelim seats to a few bloggers out there. I'll be there hoping to dodge Benjo's ducks and make a better showing than last time around.

Feel free to stop by and rail your favorite bloggers. That's always assumed to be one of the other players, I won't be offended.

~

Thank you to everyone who left comments and sent emails last week. It was very much appreciated. I will mostly back to myself next week and will bring back The Daily Crutch with gusto.

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Goodbye my friend

Date: Tue, May 19, 2009

I don't want to write this post and I may take it down after I do. I don't know if it's anyone elses business or I just need to write something to get it out of my system. I've done what I need to do, put on some pedal down music and get through it.

Friday my friend Ashley went out with her boyfriend, my good friend Mike, and Saturday morning she was gone. There is no reason, no explanation, she just didn't wake up that morning. I found out Saturday evening and I still can't make any sense of it.

She was just 23 years old and I met her when she became the regular bartender at the pub. We spent a lot of time laughing and bullshitting and had more fun than should be legal. I would work on any excuse to talk her into staying over after her shift and the laughter never stopped. If you spent any time around her, she cackled like a school girl til she couldn't take it anymore. The days were full of practical jokes and you could never say she didn't love life.

There were serious times when she knew I would be there help out and she spent more than enough time listening to me bitch about anything and everything. Those complaints seem childish in light of what's happened.

I just spent an evening with the two of them last week and it was the same old fun and games. We spent the night playing horrible music on the jukebox, making friends at the bar, snapping pictures, and ragging on her tattoo. Standard.

Some of my internet friends met Ashley at different points when they were in town for a Bash or a drink. This seems to be the easiest way to let my friends know that I've lost a friend and you'll have to forgive me for being a little withdrawn and snarky. I'll miss my friend but I don't know that I'll ever understand it.

Rest In Peace Princess, you were around far too short a time.

My last picture taken with her last week

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BBT4 Tournament of Champions correction

Date: Tue, May 19, 2009

I won't be posting much this week, I just don't have it in me to write and I don't care to explain why. I do need to clear up about the BBT4 Tournament of Champions.

The BBT4 page on Full Tilt was incorrect and being changed now. The ToC is being held on June 7th, the Sunday after the BBT4 is complete. The last game of the challenge will be MiamiDon's Blogger Big Game this Sunday at 21:00ET.

There are just 4 games left before we crown a winner starting with tonight Blogger Skillz Game which is good ol' fashioned Limit Hold'em. I'm in the process of updating the leaderboard after the last two events.

Update: Obviously my brain is somewhere else. Of course there are two weeks of games left in the challenge. My apologies for the confusion.

Update #2: Every BBT Tournament of Champions has been a 5000 starting stack, 12 minute/level, slow structure tournament. Every. Single. One. What do you think I might have set up for this one?

Tournament: Blogger Skillz Game
When: Tuesday's at 21:30ET
Game: Limit Hold'em (with Knockouts)
Buyin: $10+1
Password: skillz

Tournament: The Mookie
When: Wednesday's at 22:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: $10+1
Password: vegas1

Tournament: Brit Blogger Game
When: Sunday's at 16:00ET
Game: NLHE
Buyin: $5+.50
Password: donkament

Tournament: Blogger Big Game
When: Sunday at 21:30ET
Game: Superstack NLHE
Buyin: $69+6 (or token)
Password: donkey

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Death Before Vegas

Date: Fri, May 15, 2009

The last few days I've been getting my ass killed by some nasty little flu that's destroying my mind. No silly jokes about the swing flu (although everyone is making funny with my love of bacon) but just a good ol' fashioned head pounding cold. Before last night I hadn't had a cigarette in well over a week and my alcohol intake shrank to next to nothing. I made up for it last night by hitting up the Boathouse with BigMike for an old timer drinking showdown. Huge shots and carefree conversation with old friends was the perfect cure to make me forget about the flu.

It also gave me a chance to relax before the craziness in Vegas.

I'll spend the weekend getting together with my friends in the area before disappearing again into the unknown. I'll drink too much and smoke too much and scam on every girl in my line of sight. I'll play a little poker and talk bullshit. I may even do something completely against my nature and have a good time. It'll be a stretch.

I'll drag the camera around and see what I can find for you.

~

Tomorrow I'll play in the Pokerlistings.com Run-Good Challenge: WSoP Edition with a bunch of bloggers in a winner take all freeroll. I'm not exactly sure how big the field will be but you should stop by and rail if you can the chance. I will be the lowest rated blogger for sure. The game is Saturday at 14:00ET on Poker Stars under the private tab.

~

Only a few tournaments left to earn your place in the BBT4 Tournament of Champions. Sunday is the small buyin Brit Blogger game which is one of the best chances to get in. Smaller buyin and smaller fields. See you there.

Tournament: Brit Blogger Game
When: Sunday's at 16:00ET
Game: NLHE
Buyin: $5+.50
Password: donkament

~

The Daily Crutch

Since I'll be spending the next two months in the company of Pauly Drama (copyright TheRooster) and figured I'd give you 5 pics of my favorite Entourage girl, Emmanuelle Chriqui. I love a girl that can rock a wife beater.

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Blog Chop Suey

Date: Wed, May 13, 2009

I haven't done this in awhile and it's one of my favorite blogger-related activities. It's time to take a weed whacker to my blog list over there on the right. Dead, dying, stagnant blogs are about to see the recycle bin. It's not really that big of a deal, the dead and rotting blogs are long gone and won't get upset about losing a tiny spot on a now insignificant site.

I'll try to load up some links on the list that I now have in bloglines and keep my interest. I'll just randomly toss them in and see what happens. There is no method to my madness, the only spots that'll never change are those at the top.

You think you make the cut, drop a line.

~

Gracie, SSP and friends made a trek down to the Kennedy Space Center to watch the Spaceshuttle Atlantis launch. Check out her post for a shit-ton of pictures and stories. They definitely got better pictures this time then when I was in Gainesville.

"Look! A really bright star!"
"Nope, that's the rocket launching from 5000 miles away."

Gracie tells me the kid in the picture below was distracted by ice cream. I know the kids feeling.

~

The Daily Crutch

Here's how this damn thing usually happens. I'm a pig. I'm generally chatting with other like-minded pigs about piggy things. Someone says something and a dirty switch clicks in my head and the picture searches begin.

Today's smut is brought to you courtesy of Riggs. He got a look at on of the Michelle Ryan pics and said "that little underboob is GOLD!" So you know what you get today. What I didn't show below was the creepy animation, cartoon, and WTF underboob pics. All safe for work, just really weird. It was tough to settle on just five, but here you go.

Underboob pro lucror.




"I really love soccer" underboob



"Where's my breakfast?" underboob



"Just something about her" underboob



"Weekly Daddy asian girl" underboob



"Well hello!" underboob



Bonus: My next "girlfriend"

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Get Me Outta Here

Date: Wed, May 13, 2009

Good god damn, nobody prepared me for ALL the crap I'm going to deal with leading up to Vegas, at least not the shit I've got going on over the last 48 hours. At this point I can't wait to get there so all I have to deal with is poker and work and booze and staying alive, staying alive. I'm getting Vegas extra early so I can hit my standard Vegas first 36-hour-raging-solo-bender before settling down for work.

The worst part of living in Key West is elminating my natural (ingrained, habitual, junkie) need to drink every drop available and bring the party. That can't happen over my two months in town so I'll need to get it out of my system early.

~

My apologies to the micro-limit button masher and push monkeys that I've been ragging on over at Poker From the Rail. They are naturally the lowest form of bad on the planet, but I got a little view into the play of those idiots at 10/20 LHE. Dr.Pauly was doing a hit and run so I silently railed to check the action. I can't LET anyone know I'm on the rail, I am the worst cooler on the planet.

It was the dumbest 10 minutes of online poker I've ever witnessed. I saw so many stunningly bad plays that I think I'm ready to bankroll Waffles in the game, it's right in his wheelhouse.

~

Tonight is the crown jewel in the weekly blogger games, the beloved Mookie game with deep stacks, big fields and almost witty banter. Pauly won, I won, The Blogfather ran deep. Who's going to carry the flag for us old fart poker bloggers who remember the day when Iggy had to beg sites to let us run a private game.

I want 100 players. Not a request.

Tournament: The Mookie
When: Wednesday's at 22:00Et
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: $10+1
Password: vegas1

~

The Daily Crutch - UK Edition

I never saw the new version of the Bionic Woman before it was canceled but apparently the chippy on the show was something else. I accidentally ran across a few of her pics the other day and figured it was worth sharing. Oh, she's a Brit and has been on Doctor Who for a bonus.

I couldn't decide between the picture about or this one. So yous gets both.

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The Daily Crutch

Date: Tue, May 12, 2009

Julius the Goat pings me this morning and tells me I've been banging it up pretty well lately with the pictures. I feel the need to explain to him that the cutie pics are just the crutch of a weak-ass writer who isn't good enough to get things down in words but smart enough to do something to keep the masses appeased until something interesting comes around.

Yeah, nothing interesting today either. Perhaps once I jump a plane to Vegas things might start to liven up just a little.

Til then I sit back and wait for insanity to hit me. Ironing out all the details like travel and room and liquid fun money. I'm still trying to get my head around that I'll be spending 8 weeks in the Nevada desert with a town full of degenerates and drunks. Actually, it sounds just like my kind of place. Mardi Gras sans whimsy.

Pauly, Otis and other friends have been cool enough to give this hippy a little advice on his first full series. It's even money that I'll survive, I've already booked my return to Key West to recoup.

~

On a quick note, congrats to the Otis Family on the healthy arrival of Dos into the world. It looks like everything went smooth as silk with Mom, Dad and both brothers doing just fine.

~

It seems there just isn't enough dead money running around in WSoP freerolls this year. After missing out of the first two, Matt Showell from PokerListings.com invited me to join the Run-Good Challenge:WSoP Edition with a bunch of your favorite bloggers. Looking at the list I'm probably the longest shot on the board somewhere in the neighborhood of 300-1 odds.

But I'll play just for the chance to tilt monkey with some of my friends and favorite bloggers. I'll try not to embarrass myself along the way. The first tournament is this coming Saturday at 2pm ET on Poker Stars for anyone who wants to rail.

~

My other WSoP freeroll, of course, is the BBT4 Tournament of Champions. I've never been in this position before of being really happy to see BBT4 final tables now with players who've already booked there spot in the ToC. That means one less player I nee to donk my way through or more equity for my lone win. Donkey-killer Jordan won his THIRD tournament during the challenge last night. God damn.

You'll notice that the leaderboard isn't updated today. I made a critical error in judgment and I'm in the process of recreating the last few tournaments thanks to a backup mistake and not enough booze in my daily diet.

Everyone should show up tonight for the Blogger Skillz Game. Not quite as fun as Four Card Bingo, but this week is old school H.O.R.S.E. for your $11 buyin. I suspect there will be more than the usual share of chat cursing. If I gave anyone 500-1 odds on Waffles to win it tonight, would anyone actually take it or is that a bad price?

Tournament: Blogger Skillz Game
When: Tuesday's at 21:30ET
Game: H.O.R.S.E. (with Knockouts)
Buyin: $10+1
Password: skillz

~

The "Now" Daily Crutch

This might become a regular feature for The Boy Genius since I found a boatload of the lovely Laetitia Casta.



How did I miss Rachel Hunter in my MILF post yesterday?
I owe several more of her down the line.



I don't think I did justice to Salma Hayek yesterday so I'm adding another.



A thought a little reminder was due. Remember when Nikki Cox was stunning?
This was before she turned into some Daffy Duck-like monster.



Holy crap, a picture from just the neck up! Adriana Lima is worth it.

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Riverchasers Tournament

Date: Mon, May 11, 2009

Waffle's new girlfriend (blind?) would like to remind you to play in the Riverchasers game tonight on Full Tilt. Only a few games left in BBT4 and spots are getting scarce.

Tournament: PPI / Riverchasers Tournament
When: Monday's at 22:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: $24+2 or token
Password: riverchasers

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Mike Matusow: Check-Raising the Devil review

Date: Mon, May 11, 2009

“Daniel Negreanu says the players today are harder to read because they play so many hands. Maybe they’re better now. Or maybe they’re just tougher to read because they’re a bunch of idiots who don’t know what they are doing. Nobody folds now. They think every raise is a bluff.”

Mike Matusow: Check-Raising the Devil

Everyone around the poker blogging world should know by now the Amy Calistri and Tim Lavalli worked on the Mike Matusow autobiography coming out tomorrow. They were nice enough to get an advance copy sent in my direction so I could get a head start and post a review on the Full Tilt blog. Naturally I wrote it up and planned to drop it right before the book was available to the public. I waited too long because it's now out there in most book stores and Amazon shipped early.

Dr. Pauly was the first out there with a review and I've added my small voice to the discussion. Feel free to check it out.

Dr. Pauly - Check-Raising the Devil: The Mike Matusow Autobiography
Poker From the Rail - Mike Matusow: Check-Raising the Devil (Autobiography)

Amy and Dr. Tim also put out what was originally the opening chapter which was later cut.

Tim Lavalli - Matusow Chapter One
Amy Calistri - The Matusow Book: The Crossroads

~

Apparently something crazy happened on that Celebrity Apprentice show. Thank god Riggs was there last night to IM me the details, I was much too busy watching downloaded episodes of The West Wing season 2. I've never been subtle about my disdain for all things "reality" TV or "scripted reality" TV or whatever the fuck they call it these days. The only thing I've ever watched was Top Chef, and that's because I'm a lard ass who loves him some food. It seems Botox-zilla said some disparaging things about all us Nobel Peace Prize winning poker players.

I think it's almost adorable that people actually thought Annie Duke had a shot at winning. People getting all hot and bothered over a reality TV show where a leveraged-out-his-ass weirdo is the "final" judge. Duke could have raised 100 times Rivers for her charity and ran like god but there was no way she was going to be the poster child for an NBC show. The Twat-erverse is alive with calls for poker players to boycott Trump casino properties and other such non-sense. I guess they don't know Trump hates his casinos.

God I can't wait to spend 8 weeks in Las Vegas, I'm currently taking shrink referrals.

~

In honor of Mother's Day, I'll put up of few pics for your enjoyment.



She may not be a mother in real life, but she's given a brief moment of glory as the mother of Captain James T. Kirk in the new Star Trek movie. ZOOM IN!



I had a choice between two pics. Riggs wanted the one about. The other choice was this one.



Mookie's selection for the list. He should know about mothers.



Please god don't click on the picture for the full size version. Tough choice, The Superficial has the rest of the pics.



Scarlett Johanson isn't a mother yet? So sue me.

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Outgeeking the geeks

Date: Fri, May 8, 2009

My geek friends are bigger than your geek friends. This is a pic of an unnamed crew member who spent his down time before Star Trek catching up on some reading. It was a real page turner. Automating Windows Server 2008 Administration with Windows PowerShell. Sure to be on NY Times bestseller list.

Last night (Thursday, I'm taking forver to get this post up) we hit up the first showing of the new Star Trek movie in IMAX. There was a little pregame and postgame drinking. The movie was everything you've heard. Funny and full of action, aliens and explosions. Kirk even has sex with a hot green chick. Pay the extra to see it in the Imax format if you have the chance.

The crowd had a few interesting characters, I actually tweeted (twitted, twatted?) that there were 200 guys, 1 girl and 1 unknown. I was being kind. The worst job in the theater was the poor guy who had to delay the movie by asking some trivia questions. The natives were restless but he was in no real danger, it was just a bunch of trekkies (trekkers, trek-daddies?). What are they going to do? That vulcan death grip thing doesn't actually work.

~

Don't forget to swing by the Brit Blogger game Sunday afternoon. Time is running short, the WSoP is right around the corner.

Tournament: Brit Blogger Game
When: Sunday's at 16:00ET
Game: NLHE
Buyin: $5+.50
Password: donakment

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MiniFTOPS Tilt Spectacular

Date: Thu, May 7, 2009

I seriously have no one else to blame for my horrible performances last night on the tables. It was so bad that my MiniFTOPS recap was heavily edited to remove many phrases which would have been insulting to 99% of the player database and several decency laws. Now it's a watered down mess but I'll just link it here instead of retreading everything I did wrong. I even told someone at my Mookie table that I would get back to them after I finished tiltiing off my chips in the MiniFTOPS. I completed the night by intentionally pushing with the JackAce and it didn't hold up. Rigged.

Congrasts to TuscaloosaJohnny who's dominating the BBT4 at the moment.

"I take full credit for losing my patience, making a bad read, and then way overplaying afterwards. My game plan went right out the window and I have no one to blame. Except those few button-mashing, junk-calling, over-hyphenating lemurs that I’ve added to my enemy list."

Poker From the Rail - MiniFTOPS Event #1 - My Recap

Seriously as crappy as I've been in years. I can't remember still carrying it this far, I'm not good enough to get this tilted. Nothing a little booze shouldn't be able to cure.

~

I haven't had much if a chance to listen to BuddyDank Radio during the BBT games. Too much side stuff going on and I usually end up remembering sometime around 2am that I planned to listen in. I have a suggestion for next week's Mookie game though.

Metal Night at the Mookie on BuddyDank Radio. Hosted by BadBlood, PokerPeaker and myself. That might destroy some eardrums.

~

Quick post today. I'm heading out to the bar with BigMike for pregame drinking and IMAX: Star Trek.

Sports Illustrated loves Kiss.

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Intervention

Date: Wed, May 6, 2009

Sometimes the hardest decisions have to be made for those close to us with big problems. You can have those little converasations with them to get them to change their ways but that rarely works. You can do your best to stop enabling them or others but they always go back to their bad habits. Eventually the only option is rehab or an intervention.

I think we all need to virtually sit down Waffles and tell him to stop playing poker. No more uncomfortable chuckles when he claims to be a "break even" player. He knows just enough poker terms from various poker books and blogs to make us think he knows of what he speaks. We all look the other way when he blows away yet another bankroll. Sure, he can stick around long enough to be a functioning poker-holic but we all know how it's going to end. He's going to tilt it away with a horrendous play and blame everyone except himself.

It's time to break the vicious circle.

~

Obviously the above will do nothing but boost his self-esteem. Because SOMEONE said something about him. Score one for Waffles.

~

Two weeks ago DrPauly won the Mookie, last week I won the Mookie, which old schooler is going to step up tonight and knock it out of the park? The Blogfather, Otis or Drizz? Hoyazo has a Mookie win, why not Mookie himself.

I'll be there defending my Mookie title. My profile was put up yesterday so you can check it out here.

Tournaments: The Mookie
When: Wednesdays at 22:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: $10+1
Password: vegas1

~

Tonight also kicks off FTOPS XII. I don't have anywhere near the online bankroll to go after them but I am going to take a shot at the new MiniFTOPS events (same game and host at 1/10th the buyin). Nice size prizepools for smaller buyins. I picked out 7 events (may add the $50 HEROS event) and will try to live blog them over at Poker From the Rail.

I'm looking to sell off some of my action if anyone is interested. Drop a comment. I picked $200 worth of MiniFTOPS games.

Event #1 - No Limit Hold'em 6 Max - $20+2 ($200,000 guarantee)
Event #10 - No Limit Hold'em - $30+3 ($300,000 guarantee)
Event #11 - Pot Limit Omaha/8 - $20+2 ($20,000 guarantee)
Event #19 - Razz - $30+3 ($15,000 guarantee)
Event #20 - No Limit Hold'em - $20+2 ($40,000 guarantee)
Event #24 - No Limit Hold'em(with KO's) - $12+1 ($100,000 guarantee)
Main Event - No Limit Hold'em - $50+5 ($500,000 guarantee)

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