WSPL Goes to Vegas Episode 2/12

Date: Sun, Apr 28, 2013

Week 12 was fairly anti-climactic. Mark and Rich were almost guaranteed to go to Vegas. Aaron had a chance to knock Rich out if he won and Rich finished in 6th place or worse. I could knock either Rich or Mark out if I won and they came in 6th or worst. Or something similar to that. I don't remember the exact scenarios. It didn't matter though. Aaron went out first. He tried to play too aggressively into Rich and it did not work out well for him.

I ended up going out second. I was doing ok, but then I got distracted discussing a Roulette betting scheme in which I contend that if you pick four numbers and keep doubling your bet until you win, after 16 rounds your EV turns positive. Rich disputes this, and while attempting to explain my math over the interwebs, I failed to notice that I was playing shitty poker. To make matters worse Mark goes out fourth, which was his worst showing of the year, and would have left me room to sneak into the WSOP.

Rich came in third which was enough to put him in the overall lead, despite only winning one tourney.

Here are the finals:

Week 12

1. Shane
2. Jason
3. Rich
4. Archie
5. Noah
6. Mark
7. Cookie
8. Me
9. Aaron

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WSPL Goes to Vegas episode 2/11

Date: Mon, Apr 22, 2013

We're playing twice this week since the last game was scheduled to be the day after Noah's wedding. Of course since we made a special game for him, Noah managed to not show up.

Things did not go very well for me this game. Early on I had JJ in the big blind. Everyone folded to Archie in the small blind who limped. If everyone limps to me in the big blind I generally like to just check it to disguise my hand. In this case I should have raised. I hate playing jacks. You never feel safe because someone is almost guaranteed to have overcards. This time the flop was ace high, Archie checked and bet. Same on the turn. The river was a third spade. Archie bets about 2/3 pot. It wasn't a very big pot, but still. It was great bet because I felt like I had to call even though I was sure I was behind. Sure enough he had rivered the flush with q2. Its my own fault. A raise pre-flop and I probably win that pot without the drama.

The next few hands were also multiway limps where I felt like I had to call. And I kept getting good pieces of the flop, but not good enough to stand up to the raises that I was getting. Before you know it I'm short stacked. and in trouble of going out real early.

I managed to stay alive long enough to finish in fifth, one spot ahead of Rich, but unfortunately Mark made it to XXXX place so my chances are pretty slim.

My final hand I had 88 in the big blind. Aaron min raised under the gun and I pushed all in. He had Aces and despite his claims that he never wins his aces held up. The frustrating thing about that is that I had 88 in the big blind earlier on when I had even less chips. Mark and Archie were both in a raised pot and while I contemplated pushing, I chickened out. Mark was also short stacked and I was hoping Archie would bust him. The flop was 89T and Mark ended up winning a big pot with a pair of tens. Not that I think I would have tripled up, but I would have at least won a decent amount of chips and prevented Mark from doing so. Second night in a row I let one of my top rivals stay alive.

Here are the standings after tonight

1. Aaron
2. Mark
3. Shane
4. Archie
5. Me
6. Rich
7. Jason
8. Cookie
9. Noah (DNP)

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WSPL Goes to Vegas episode 2/10

Date: Sun, Apr 21, 2013

Both glorious and terrible things happened in this week's tourney.

We'll start with the glorious.

Actually no we'll start with some background. Mark is currently in the lead for ourleague with Rich in second. I'm in third, tied with Rich overall and a point behind after dropping our worst two.

The tourney goes more or less as usual. Jason goes out first, then Noah and Shane and Aaron. Mark and Rich are both short stacked for most of the early going, but keep battling back. I'm comfortably sitting second behind Archie with the chip standings.

I'm playing really tight and getting bad cards so I'm getting chipped away while Rich and Mark slowly get back into it. Mark is impossible to eliminate early on. He's so patient when shortstacked and never seems to lose an all in until late in the game.

Anyways, I was worried that my image was starting to look weak passive, so I was looking foropportunitiesto raise when I get good old 72o. I raise and Mark calls. The flop is seven high. Mark leads out and I push all in. He thinks a bit, then calls with AJo. The turn pairs the board and the river is another seven, so I managed to knock out the league leader with the worst hand in the game. Good times.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to capitalize on it as much as I would have liked. And I had a greatopportunitytoo. Rich was short stacked again and pushed all-in pre-flop. I had ATo. Archie called ahead of me though and I chickened out. Archie was the chip leader and I didn't want to get into a pot with him that was already that big. I figured he must have something good, so I let him try to knock Rich out. In hindsight Archie probably would have let me check it down so I should have take the chance. Plus the flop was AAT and there was another ten on the turn. Terrible play, and not just because I would have won the pot. I played that hand scared and it cost me big time.

Rich then went on to finally get a win. I came in third losing to Jason. Three handed, Jason started as the chip leader and I just could not get a read on him. He would check/call just about anything to the river, whether he had something or not. Sometimes it worked to my advantage, other times not so much.

The had I lost I had pocket eights and made large bets pre-flop and post flop. He called. The board read JTX. The turn was a rag and I pushed in my remaining chips. He calls with AK and rivers the queen to knock me out.

So here are the new standings:

1. Rich
2. Jason
3. Me
4. Archie
5. Mark
6. Aaron
7. Shane
8. Noah
9. Cookie

Overall:

1. Rich (82 Total 79 Dropping the worst two)
2. Mark (83/74)
3. Me (75/71)
4. Noah(61/60)
5. Aaron (62/57)
6. Archie (58/56)
7. Jason (56/53)
8. Cookie (35/33)
9. Shane (33/32)

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WSPL Goes to Vegas Episode 2/9

Date: Sun, Apr 14, 2013

And things get a little more interesting...

I had just about resigned myself to the fact that Mark and Rich were going to be the top two finishers in the league. They are in the lead now, and both too solid to have enough bad performances to let anyone else in. Or so I thought.

Rich is on vacation this week, out of the country. He was planning on still playing but apparently wasn't able to make it, or most likely found something better to do. This is why we get to drop two games.

For me this week things started out pretty poorly. With one exception. In my third or fourth hand I found myself with good old 27o. Two players called my pre-flop raise, but they both folded to my continuation bet. That was the only hand I won for the first three or four orbits. I was playing tighter than usual in an attempt to keep myself out of trouble, and the few hands I did play I missed completely.

Just as I was starting to get frustrated I find myself with the small stack and AKs under the gun. I make a standard 3xBB raise and get two callers, Noah and Cookie. Noah has been on a tear lately. If he makes it to the ante levels (which we are in) he wins.

The flop is jack high with two of my suit. Cookie bets, and Noah raises. I push all in. I'm guessing neither has anything, and that Noah is trying to steal the pot. Even if they do have something I have a ton of outs. Jason goes all in behind me and Noah calls, which initially doesn't make me too happy. Cookie has QJ and Noah AJ. I still have a bunch of outs, but I'm in trouble. The turn is a ten, which gives me some more outs, and I river a King. Cookie is eliminated, Noah is still OK. I don't remember what he started with, but he may have come out ahead in the hand.

A few hands later Noah gets all in with Shane. Noah again has AJ on a Jack high board, but Shane sucks out on the river. Noah is finally eliminated when he again goes all in with the best hand and Aaron catches runner runner to make trips and beat him. I think that is the most angry I've heard Noah after a game.

I was the chip leader after my triple up above and I never looked back. I didn't jump into super aggressive bully mode because that has gotten me into trouble before, but I was able to push my way around when I needed to. I was also able to sit back and watch the others knock each other out.

With Rich not playing and Noah out early this was my big chance to gain ground. Mark ends up going out in third so there is a little amount to be made there too.

Aaron and I get heads up before we are even an hour into the tourney, which I think is a first for this league. I had about 7500 to his 4500. We played to a stalemate for about half an hour. Then Iwhittled him down to just under 2000. He went all in with 22 and I called with AJo. His two's held up and he got a new burst of confidence. Suddenly he wasn't folding to my post flop raises, he wasreraisingme. He ended up taking the lead and getting me all in, but this time my hand held up which seemed to put the game back to where we started. I gradually ground him down to take my third win of the season.

So here are this weeks results.

1. Me
2. Aaron
3. Mark
4. Shane
5. Noah
6. Cookie
7. Jason
8. Archie
9. Rich (DNP)

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WSPL Goes to Vegas episode 2/08

Date: Sun, Apr 7, 2013

Mark and Rich are pulling further and further away from the pack, and I have to admit I'm getting pretty frustrated. I've been playing real poorly lately and I think I'm starting to get into my own head.

Things started off OK. Noah who is currently one spot above me in standings went out first and both Mark and Rich were fairly short stacked. I was getting terrible cards again, and not feeling any sort of confidence at all, but I figured as long as I played tight and smart I could at least make up some points. The only hands I played were out of the blinds, and I didn't play many of them past the flop.

Before I knew it I too was short stacked, and Rich kept rivering cards to stay alive. Somehow Archie accumulated more chips than the rest of the table, which worked out OK for me because he called just about anything, including my pre-flop all-in with TT.

That doubled me up and put me comfortably in second. I could have just played tight and waited for some spots to chip up, but no, I had to get aggressive and it didn't turn out well. I feel like whenever I try to push people out of a pot they hit something and raise me, and whenever I let it get to the river, they catch something to suck out on me.

I was back down to middle of the pack when I got AQs Mark was short stacked and limped. I popped it to 4x BB and he called that too. Our table normal preflop raise is probably 2.5-3. The flop is 5T8 and he pushes all in. Its about half my stack to call him. I put him on a missed hand, hoping that I too missed, and I call. He had KTs and it held up for him.

A few hands later I pushed with KT preflop and Mark called with AJ. Again his hand holds up and I'm out in third with a wasted opportunity to make up some ground. Only three games left. I need to win at least one and finish in the top 4 in all to even have a chance.

Here are the results for week 8

1. Archie
2. Aaron
3. Rich
4. Mark
5. Shane
6. Cookie
7. Me
8. Jason
9. Noah

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WSPL Goes To Vegas Episode 2/7

Date: Sun, Mar 31, 2013

Week 7 was interesting. For the first hour or so, the short stack couldn't lose an all in.

It took over 35 minutes before our first casualty. Aaron and Shane went out around the same time, then it was another 45 minutes before we lost another player.

At one point Jason lost an all-in, leaving him with 7 chips. The antes at the time were 10. He won the next four or five hands in a row, and went up to over 1500; A few orbits later and he was at over 4000.

I went out in sixth place. I was short stacked for a while then by the rules of the night doubled up a few times to get beconsistently2nd in chips. I lost a reasonably big pot chasing a flush draw, then lost everything when I though I hit a big blind special. I had J6 and the flop was 55J. Unfortunately for me Mark had Q5 and over an hour into the tourney and I only got 4 points to show for it. Archie and Rich dropped out shortly after I did. Leaving Mark, Jason and Noah. At this point it looks like Mark is taking one of the spots, so I'm rooting for him , or Jason to win. Jason is near the bottom with little to no chance of competing. Noah on the other hand could get back in the chase with a strong finish.

Noah and Jason teamed up to take Mark down, and then Noah ground out the win. Earlier on Noah made a comment that he had won every time he made it to the antes stage of the tourney. Unfortunately that is still the case.

Here are the standings for today, and overall

1. Noah
2. Jason
3. Mark
4. Rich
5. Archie
6. Me
7. Cookie
8. Shane
9. Aaron

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WSPL Goes To Vegas Episode 2/6

Date: Sun, Mar 24, 2013

Much to say this week. Not that I have much to say most weeks, but I was watching the Illini/Miami game while this tournament was going on, and I'm a bit disappointed that Illinois didn't pull it out so I'm going to make this short and sweet.

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WSPL Goes to Vegas Episode 2/5

Date: Sun, Mar 17, 2013

To say week 5 went poorly for me would be an understatement. My computer crashed just before the tourney kickoff so I started out alone at the second table. Shane, then Jason that Archie got added one by one, and each of them took a bunch of my chips. I played a bunch of pots and missed hitting every time. I tried pushing people out of hands but no one would fold. Nothing went right. And then when I decided to switch to super tight only ultra premium hand mode I would see the flop hit the hands I folded nine times out of ten.

The only thing that went right for me is that Cookie managed to bust out before me. He wassimultaneouslyplaying poker, sim city, and doing a major system update for a client.

I made my final push with JTs and ran into Rich's KK to make it a quick night. The worst part is that Mark, who was in second place at the start of the day lost a huge hand just before I went out. And I told myself that I could wait him out. At least for an orbit or two.

Bad Impatient Poker today. Angry.

Time to fill out some NCAA brackets.



Here are the standings for this week.

1. Noah
2. Rich
3. Jason
4. Archie
5. Aaron
6. Mark
7. Shane
8. Me
9. Cookie

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WSPL Goes to Vegas Episode 2/4 - The curse of Daylight Savings Time.

Date: Sun, Mar 10, 2013

So week four was weird. I don't know if it was the daylight savings time switch that threw everyone off, but something wasn't right.

First off, only five of us made it by the tourney start. Archie and Shane didn't make it all. Cookie was a few minutes late and Mark just barely made it before the first blind and late registration period was up. By the time he did make it, Rich and I were already in bad shape.

I've mentioned before that Noah hasseverelyunder performedmy expectations. Well if it was because he was card dead these last few weeks (seasons?) he made up for it tonight. I think that he was hitting at least a straight on every hand he played. If he had less than A6 as a starting hand the entire time I'd be amazed.

Speaking of A6 the hand that crippled me early on was against him. I had QQ and made my standard raise. Noah called. The board was 6AA and I figured he probably didn't have another A, so I played it kind of hard, but he didn't fold. The turn was another 6 and the riverinconsequential. We checked down on the river and he turns over an ace. I don't know why he didn't make some sort of bet on the river. I'm pretty sure I wasn't going to fold.

That left me in bad shape, but I was able to hang around while other players knocked each other out. Mostly I mean Noah knocked people out. He had pocket aces at least two more times, and managed quads on anther hand.

Down to five players, Aaron is short stacked and raises, Noah calls. I have AQs and the second most chips at the table so I push. Both call. Aaron has JJ and Noah AA. I think I hit a queen but it doesn't matter. I end up in fourth place.

On the plus side, Mark goes out next when his AA fall to Cookie's KXo. Cookie caught a king on the flop, and the turn, and then again on the river just for good measure, so I'm still a point up on Mark.

This weeks's results are:

1. Noah
2. Cookie
3. Mark
4. Me
5. Aaron
6. Jason
7. Rich
8. Archie (DNP)
9. Shane (DNP)

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WSPL Goes to Vegas Episode 2/3

Date: Sun, Mar 3, 2013

Game three is in the books, and I have now one two of them and sit atop the leaderboard. It looks like it is going to be a three way battle for the top two spots, although it is still pretty early.

I played a fairly vanilla game tonight. I was about third in chips for almost the entire way, except for a few minor hiccups here and there. Once we got down to three players, I jumped out to a lead and never looked back. Its the other two players that I want to talk about.

First is Mark. Mark is the new guy in the group and I hadn't played more than a few hands with him before the league started. After three games, I think I have a good read on him. He's a pretty solid player especially when the table is full and there are few fish for him. He plays fairly loose and pretty aggressive. It seemed like he was in just about every pot, and no one ever seemed to pick up a hand against him. He had a big chip lead early on and maintained it for much of the tourney. His downfall is that no one ever seems to play back at him, at least early on. Once we get deeper into the tourney the passive players have been eliminated, or forced into all-in or fold mode, so the pots that he normally steals he ends up having to fold, or lose.

For the most part I avoided hands with Mark. I'm getting used to his style but plays a wide range of hands that I don't want to have to try to figure out, especially when he is the big stack. Much better to bide my time and wait for him to either get into trouble or knock other players out for me.

Once we get down to four or five players, I don't have much trouble with Mark. He tends to over value his hands if he hits anything, but I can also get him to fold a fair amount of the time. He'sdefinitelya force to be reckoned with, and may be filling the role of Smack this year, but I'm not nearly as intimidated.

Next is Rich. I think Rich may be the best player in the group. At least until we get to two or three handed. Once there he turns into this weak overly passive player which I just don't understand. I'm even more confused because I think he plays or played a lot of heads up online, so I think he should be really good at it.

When I play heads up, I will raise with just about and two cards, unless I think my opponent thinks I'm doing that and is likely to push back. Against Rich I get him to fold 3/4 of the time. On the other side, he flat out folds about half the time.

He survives for a while because I end up taking five or six minimum sized pots from him, then he reraises me big and wins a big enough pot to cover the ones he lost. I think if he would play a few more pots he would steal them from me and better disguise his big hands when he get him.

This marks the third time in two seasons that we've met heads up, and I've won all three. The first time I may have sucked out on him pretty bad, but who's counting?

Other notable performances for this week.

Noah was a no-show.

Aaron got short stacked early and battled to stay alive, placing in fifth.

Archie busted out first (but he still gets two points thanks to Noah). I still think Archie should be contending for a top spot, but he just doesn't seem to do well online.

here are the standings:

Week 3

1. Me
2. Rich
3. Mark
4. Shane
5. Aaron
6. Jason
7. Cookie
8. Archie
9. Noah (DNP)

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WSPL Goes To Vegas Episode 2/2

Date: Sun, Feb 24, 2013

Round two of season two was my worst showing of either season. Things started off well as I won a few small pots, then pushed Jason off of a rather large pot to get a comfortable amount of chips. This week was turning into a haves vs have nots as four of us had over 2500 chips early on and the rest had at around 1000 or less.

I got a little loose with my hand selection and and threw away a bunch of chips hoping to hit a sneaky monster hand, or just bully some small stacks. My big downfall was playing 83s in four way pot. The flop was 38T and Rich made a half pot sized be which I called, and then so did Archie. I should have raised there but I got greedy. The turn was J. Looked innocent enough. I made a decent sized bet and Archie raised. I figured he thought I was trying to steal a garbage pot so I just called, hoping to get more from him on the river. The river was a queen and now I'm in trouble. I bet and he raises. What are the odds he has a nine? He isn't the type of player to chase a straight like that. And I was right, he doesn't. He had 97 and caught the straight on the turn. That left me with less than 5 BB. I tried to steal the next pot to start chipping up, but got two callers and no help from the board.

Terrible play by me. Booooourns.

Archie and Mark did manage to play heads up for at least half an hour before Mark finally won. Archie had a huge chip lead for most of it, but just couldn't finish him off. Mark kept getting beat down, then he would go all in and double up, then finally Mark go the lead and finished him off a few hands later.

This weeks finish:

1. Mark
2. Archie
3. Aaron
4. Rich
5. Shane
6. Noah
7. Cookie
8. Me
9. Jason

And the standings so far:

1. Mark (21)
2. Me (17)
3. Rich (17)
4. Archie(16)
5. Aaron(16)
6. Noah (7)
7. Shane(6)
8. Jason (5)
9. Cookie (5)

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Online Poker is Legal...

Date: Sat, Feb 23, 2013

... In Nevada.

Just in case you haven't heard by now, Nevada has become the first US state to legalize online poker. Once they saw that New Jersey was poised to legalize it Nevada fast tracked their bill so that they could be the first, lest someone confuse New Jersey with the gambling hub of America. Personally I find ithilariousthat these two states have some sort of feud going on.

I didn't think we'd see online gambling in the US for many years to come. With so many other pressing issues, I didn't thingpoliticianson the federal level would be interested in a potentially controversial law until it had overwhelming support. Honestly, It probably has overwhelming support now, but those against can be loud enough to scare away mostpoliticians.


When the Poker Player's Alliance recently decided to abandon their efforts federally to focus on state by state, I didn't really pay much attention, but I think that's the way to go. Follow the model Gay Marraige, and Marijuana legalization where you get a few states to legalize it, then let the public see that the end of the world doesn't occur, and then add more and more states, until the federal law is practically a moot point.

Now I just have to hope that Illinois gets in line soon. Or for Nevada to allow out of state participants.

Here's an article on the law. I'm sure google has more, but I'm too lazy to look for them for you.

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WSPL Goes To Vegas Episode 2/1

Date: Sun, Feb 17, 2013

Week one is in the books. Amazingly we managed to have everyone show up on time. Things started off pretty well for me. I had KK on the very first hand and won a decent sized pot. I won a few more early on to go out to a early lead before going card dead for a long time. I dropped slowly down in the standings until I was just about at the bottom before things started to turn around. There weren't any real dramatic hands that I remember, but eventually we got down to four handed, all of us with relatively even stacks. We were four handed for about half an hour before Mark went out, followed by Aaron and Rich, leaving me as the last one standing in the inaugural event for season two. Now that I've played again for the first time in about a year, some observations on the rest of the players.

• Mark - Mark did reasonably well, he's very loose aggressive. He also likes to chase hands which gets him into trouble. I think he'll do well, but I probably not great, unless he works on his fold disipline.
• Rich - Rich played really well. I would put him as my top pick to win the league. The exception being short handed play. He seemed overly conservative when we were down to three handed play, even when he had a monster chip stack.
• Aaron - Much improved. He's close to or in the top tier of players in the league now.
• Archie - He's still a good player, but I don't think his game translates well to online. He's much better at reading people live. He may have also just gotten unlucky.
• Jason - I didn't get a good read on Jason. He went out early, and I don't recall anything significant that he did wrong. It might just have been one of those nights.
• Shane - Didn't play well. Lost a lot of chips with a weak flush early on. Then seemed distracted and made a bad call to bust out.
• Noah - Noah also went out early. I'm not sure what happened to him.
• Cookie - Provided the entertainment. He was playing Sim City while playing poker with us, and giving us full backstories on the citizens of his town who he was making miserable. Its nice of him to finance our entry in the WSOP.

Here are the standings so far.

• Me - 15 pts
• Rich -11
• Aaron -8
• Mark -6
• Archie5
• Jason - 4
• Noah -3
• Cookie - 2
• Shane - 1

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WSPL Goes To Vegas Season 2

Date: Sun, Feb 17, 2013

After a bunch of slacking and general laziness, and a some false starts, we're finally ready to start season two of the West Suburban Poker League's WSOP adventure. Assuming no one backs out in the next 12 hours or so we'll have nine players again this year.

Entrance for the league is $600. There will then be 12 tournaments, on Sunday nights, starting tonight. The top two finishers of each tourny will get $150 and $50. The remaining money will go to the top two winners of the league to enter one of the $1500 WSOP events. Their winnings at the WSOP will be split amongst the group 20% for the player, 10% for everyone else. I think the winner should get a higher percentage, but not everyone agreed, and rather than delaying the start of the league while we argued over it, I gave in. Chances are it won't matter any way.


Here is a list of the players.

• Greg AKA Smack. Greg won last year. I think he had his spot locked in by week 9. He week he would either win, or go out early. Most often it seemed, he would win. Greg did not fair too well in the WSOP, getting bounced in the first couple hours. His is play is such that if he gets chips early he's very difficult to get rid of, but if things don't work out well early on, he can get himself short stacked pretty quick. Unfortunately ( or maybe fortunately). Greg is out this season. His wife is pregnant and due around the time of the WSOP so he has to take a year off. Him not being in increases my odds of winning a spot by a great deal, but I think it also decreases our odds of cashing in the WSOP.
• Mark. Mark is the new guy in the league. He's been in a few of our live games, but I don't think I've ever played with him. I think he's a decent player just from conversations we've had, but I'm not really sure what to expect. Odds of making the WSOP: 1/5
• Me. Your hero and the person we all really want to win this thing. Odds 3/7
• Shane. Shane came in third place last season. He's definitely one of the more improved players in the league, but I'm not real impressed with his skill. He plays a pretty conservative passive game. Odds 1/12
• Rich. Rich plays a lot of heads up online. I did manage to beat him heads up last year, but I think I had to hid a one or two outer to do so. He came in just a point behind Shane last year, and I expect him to do well again this year. Odds 2/7
• Archie. Archie doesn't play online, other than this league and I think that cost him last year. He also ran into smack a number of times at the end of tournies and it just didn't work out for him. He was one of my picks to win last year, and if I had to pick anyone to win this year it would probably be him again. Odds 1/3
• Jason aka Cookie. I'll probably still refer to him as Cookie this year since there is another Jason in the league. Cookie the random aggressive non-caring belligerent crazy that you either love or hate to have at your table. He did real well early on in the league when no one gave him credit for anything. He also managed to win hands in which he was way behind more often than not. At one point he complained that the game was moving too fast because the poker client kept popping up over his Star Wars Galaxy game that he was simultaneously playing. He went on to win that tourney. He faltered in the second half of the league so we luckily did not have to rely on him in Vegas. Depending on his interest levels he could do pretty well. I don't think he'll be able to maintain the required level of interest for the whole season. Odds 1/8
• Aaron. Aaron is the most likely to leave the table in a tilty rage. He won back to back weeks last year and got super cocky, only to finish the league in 7th place. He has gotten way better though. Last year I considered him dead money. This year he has a reasonable chance at making a run. He's also been playing a lot of live poker so hopefully that will help. Odds 1/5
• Noah. Noah is probably the most competitive amongst us, and usually a pretty good player. I think he ran into bad beats at the hands of Cookie more often than anyone last year. He's getting married shortly after the league ends though so I expect him to get distracted towards the end. Especially if he doesn't get off to a great start. Odds 1/4
• Jason. Jason likes to gamble. I think most of us in the league do, but I think Jason probably does it the most. Unfortunately for him, sports betting, and not poker is his strong suit. I haven't played with him outside of this league, but I get the impression that he hasn't played much outside of friendly dealer call it type games. I don't think he's studied the game as much as the rest of us and that will be his downfall. He's not a bad player, and would probably do well against a random guy on the street, but the competition in this league is a little better. He did have a newborn during last season, so that may have been a distraction as well. Odds 1/12

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