First of a few updates

WOW, lots of updating to do here, so let's get right to it.

Had the chance to play the Friday night deep-stack over at Taylor Lanes two weekends ago, and just missed the final table of 9 when I finished 12th out of just under 60 players. 100K chips to start, which is 500 BB, and the structure allows a good 3 hours of play til it becomes push or fold mode for most players. Mostly an older crowd, with a few drinking younger donkeys mixed in. At 3rd hand of 500/1000 level (after first break an hour in), this hand happened:

Sitting at 150K or so here, and was easily the most active player at the table, which lended itself to some serious ups and downs the first hour, and look at pocket 3s in the big blind. With 4 limpers in, decided to bump up to 4K and narrow the field - which I managed to get 1 person out.

Flop was a beautiful 3-3-A rainbow for quads - remembering my flopped full house fiasco from earlier in the week, I led out with a small bet of 6K, which got 3 callers. Turn put an 8 (second heart) on board, so next bet was 16K (about 1/3 of pot), which got 2 callers. River was a 4, and also put a flush board out there - with 93K in the pot, what to bet....a bet of 50K seemed like a good value, and was proven to be correct when I got called down by both players with A-J and K-Q hearts - a huge nearly 1/4 million pot at this stage of the tourney! Both idiots were left with under 30K, and busted within the next 2 levels.

Guy on opposite side of table with A-J tries telling me what a horrible play I made on all streets, even though he (and whole table) didn't come close to putting me on quads (4th limper who got out after turn thought I boated with 8-8)...then shut up when I dropped the "I'm sorry, I was too busy stacking your chips" line on him. Well, of course it was a shitty play getting paid off by 2 players or more on every street :-\

Went a spectactular 0 fer 5 in races in the last 3 levels I played to fall short of the final table and ultimate the last 6 spots that paid the money, but was very happy with my play...live poker is so much easier to read than online, I tell ya.