FTOPS Update

(Monday) Refer to Sunday's post

Tom 68.87 pts (7 events used)
Chris 47.85 pts (6 events used)
Toph 31.76 pts (4 event used)
Jason 26.69 pts (6 events used)
Nick 0 pts (5 events used)

and in the Pocket 5's contest:

Team AJKHoosier 1658.08 pts

House of Pain (us) 1644.77 pts
Team USCphildo 1564.88 pts
Team Stu Paterson 1466.99 pts
Team The_Dean 1370.32 pts
Team Intervention 877.39 pts

Cold as Ice

(Sunday) Two events today, two sick tournaments. Tom played fabulous but couldn't catch a break including getting allin on a K99 flop with As vs Ts. Jason and I have yet to have much go our way either. While we have had some deep runs, we are stuck on 3 cashes in 27 tourneys. This isn't good enough. Furthermore, the sleeping giant (Team AJK) is now just the giant. We have a small lead currently, but in reality we are trailing them fairly substantially once they get enough scores in.

Tom 68.87 pts (6 events used)
Chris 47.85 pts (6 events used)
Toph 31.76 pts (3 event used)
Jason 26.69 pts (5 events used)
Nick 0 pts (4 events used)

and in the Pocket 5's contest:
House of Pain (us) 1588.11 pts
Team AJKHoosier 1525.52 pts
Team USCphildo 1407.07 pts
Team The_Dean 1269.26 pts
Team Stu Paterson 1231.45 pts
Team Intervention 841.16 pts

FTOPS Update

(Saturday) Disappointing day. House of Pain did have one cash, but we missed out on two near cashes. Also the sleeping giant known as Team AJK woke up. They had 2 cashes with one of their guys getting a 3rd place. So while we have a big lead currently, because we can only use the top 8 scores (24 overall) of each player, it is not as big as it seems. If you only look at the top 8 scores for each team (we are about a third of the way through the contest), we are in a virtual dead heat for first with Team AJK and Team Dean. After tomorrow when we will have played 9 events, I expect teams to start cutting into our lead substantially unless we get some cashes. The question will be can we get same big scores for ourselves, or will our strong base of good scores be enough? In the other contest, both Toph and Jason picked up small cashes to get on the board, but Tom still leads. The following is a link to an article on the contest (the standings in it are outdated). http://www.pocketfives.com/C37CF21D-46B9-4C59-8BF5-4EB6F57823B9.aspx

So here are the (updated) standings:
Tom 68.87 pts (6 events used)
Chris 47.85 pts (5 events used)
Toph 31.76 pts (2 event used)
Jason 26.69 pts (5 events used)
Nick 0 pts (3 events used)

and in the Pocket 5's contest:
House of Pain (us) 1360.68 pts

Team AJKHoosier 1112.33 pts

Team The_Dean 1054.56 pts
Team USCphildo 1009.98 pts

Team Stu Paterson 925.47 pts

Team Intervention 700.51 pts

FTOPS Update

(Friday) Decent but not great day. While none of us got any cashes, we did have 4 deep finishes in the events to extend our lead on Pocket 5's.

(Thursday) So far so good. I cashed in today's HORSE event barely. I got 60th (paying 64). Moon also got 26th in the PLO event.

So here are the (updated) standings:

Tom 68.87 pts (4 events used)
Chris 47.85 pts (3 events used)
Jason 0 pts (3 events used)
Toph 0 pts (1 event used)
Nick 0 pts (2 events used)

and in the Pocket 5's contest:

House of Pain (us) 952.14 pts
Team The_Dean 791.81 pts
Team USCphildo 693.22 pts
Team AJKHoosier 647.16 pts
Team Intervention 549.21 pts
Team Stu Paterson 533.50 pts

FTOPS VII

The FTOPS quarterly series starts today, and I have setup up some fun prop bets.

The first is with Jason (TheMasterJ33), Tom (Gnightmoon), Nick (BlueFlare - I think), and Toph (gcnmoo). We each get to select 10 events to count towards the bet. We are using Pocket 5's point scoring system. The winner gets his main event paid for ($530 value) by the losers plus 10% of each of the loser's main event. As of now the events I am looking at playing are:

Event #2 $240 PLO Bounty
Event #3 $500 HORSE
Event #4 $200 PLH
Event #6 $500 PLO 6 max
Event #7 $100 NLH w/ RBs
Event #9 $300 NLH
Event #13 $200 PLHO (half PLO half PLH)
Event #14 $300 Razz
Event #17 $2500 NLH
Event #18 $100 PLO w/ RBs

My other bet is a team competition on Pocket 5s. It is a 3 person contest (5K per team) using a point system described on Pocket 5s. TheMasterJ33, Gnightmoon, and I have joined forces. Each team uses the top 8 scores from each player to form the team's overall point total. I really like our chances in this format because Jason and I will be playing virtually every tourney, and we both have well rounded games for such an endeavor. Moon likely won't be playing quite as much (14-16 events), but he is very strong in the Holdem tourneys and much stronger than the field in PLO tourneys (of which the FTOPS has 4 events this time around). So far 4 teams have signed up, but I expect as many as 10 will end up doing it. The other teams are - the_Dean221, holla-athca-boy, and dapalma150 - USCphildo, ghettofabulous, and bhanks11 - cmoney3, AJKhoosier1, and buttsauce33. Only the first team has anyone on the alltime FTOPS leaderboard (top 250). They have two guys. However, J, Moon, and I are all on it, with J ranked 2nd. This would be some nice bragging rights for us if we could nail this one down.

I am really looking forward to this series. My personal goals are 5 cashes with 1 final table. I'll try to keep some running updates on how these two contests are going.

Wow!!

Man, the Super Bowl was decent, but how 'bout those E*trade commercials. The little baby had all of us dying.

Anyways, that may not have been the "biggest" upset in Super Bowl history, but it likely was the most significant upset ever. It may have also had the most unreal pivotal play in Super Bowl history when the "fleet-footed" Eli Manning somehow escaped a throng of Patriot defenders to complete a long pass to David Tyree who used one hand and his helmet to incredibly hang onto the ball.

By the way did anyone happen to see the Belichek interview after the game. Classic! Here is the run-down: Generic non-thought out question, short obvious answer............uncomfortable pause, then repeat about 5 times. He has to be the worst interview in professional sports, but because of that you can't help but laugh.

Aussie Update

Nothing big has happened down here, but that's not a bad thing. I am 0-2 in the two smaller tourneys I have played. However, online poker has gone fairly well the little I have played.

The view from our condo is awesome, and with the weather generally being in the low 80s (although today it is going to reach 97 apparently), it is a very relaxing time. We have a 3 bedroom 2 bath apartment in the "Docklands." It is a fairly new trendy area of Melbourne right on a docking area that is fairly close to the huge bay that Melbourne sits on. I wish I could provide a few pics, but I forgot the cord that connects my camera to the computer. Julie gets in next Monday, and I am really looking forward to seeing her and having her get a chance to have some time off from motherhood. She deserves a break, and I think she'll really enjoy this.