The last few events of the WSOP 2008 were not so eventful as I have been unable to get to the money rounds on any events thus far. My play has been solid, but like in any tournament, you have to win coin flips and get lucky in certain scenarios with timing playing an important role on collecting chips to advance and cashing in.

Yesterdays 6 handed $2500 event delivered a whole other kind of milestone I have never encountered in over 20 years of poker; I was out on the first hand. There was a main event (10K) back in 2003 where I was out on the second hand that I played and was actually the first player out of the main event that year; which at the time was a fairly spectacular piece of disappointing news with a record speed of losing 10k, however yesterdays unplanned event tops even that on many levels.

I have been trying to mix things up and decided to be fashionably late (Phil Helmuth style) and arrived about 12:30; 30 minutes after play began. My late entrance plays a key role in this mishap and wonderment of the story, as I ran up to the 6 handed event while the cards were being delt to my empty seat. The rule at the WSOP is that your hand is dead if you are not seated to receive your cards prior to the last card being delt to the button position. Upon seeing the last card not yet delivered to the last position of the button, I raced over quickly to sit down with my back pack attached, sunglasses and jacket still on. The other important note is that you must show your ID to the dealer to prove it is your seat prior to looking at the cards. I was about to muck my cards when I politely asked the players at my table if I could present my license to the dealer and take a moment to get settled, of which everyone grimaced a “fine…go ahead”. I quickly rummaged through my pocket to find my license in the loose leaf filing system I call a wallet (rubber band around everything in my pocket) and presented my license and the dealer a copy of my seat assignment. While the dealer was studying my picture and trying to match my name with the seat assignment card, I decided to take a quick peak to see my good/bad fortune and almost fell off my chair when I locked eyes with two aces. Before I get into the details of the events to follow, I want to explain (hear it again and aloud to myself) what the chances of walking/running up to a table at an arbitrary time and land two aces as a starting hand (220 to 1) with the multiplied odds of at least 10X based on the events leading up to this scenario. With this being described and the fact that I usually raise 90% of the time on the first hand to set tempo on what kind of player everyone can expect to play with (for those who don’t know my play); I am literally dying of joy and happiness on the first hand of event # 31 of the 2008 WSOP.

Now that the table has been set with semantics out of the way, I will begin to describe the emotional roller coaster of happiness, shock, disappointment and sadness at the most intense levels within 5 short minutes, the time it took to play out the hand. With aces in my mits, I slyly look around the table and say “let’s test the waters to see how you guys are” and announce raise. The blinds are 25 - 50, so i just raise to 125 to make it look like a standard raise, not a steal or a protection bet of a good hand (which people often do). Everyone folds around to the button who re-raises to 700, which is a very large, unusual but VERY acceptable re-raise to my two red aces. As the re-raise is announced and I see the chips that equal 6 times my original raise actually hit the felt, I am loving life. However, even with this amazing scenario of trapping a player like a rabbit with a titanium box and a pack of organic carrots, I take a quick moment to reflect and act as if my hand was just caught in the cookie jar. My thoughts of which direction to go of trapping him or just re-raising and taking the pot down, come down to the following:

A. If I re-raise I will certainly take down the $700 right here and now, especially if he is trying to make a move with nothing. However, if he has JJ’s or higher I will certainly get him to call or maybe even re-raise and get more money. With 30 seconds of thought and a some quick confused looks across the table to my opponent I decide that he probably has pocket QQ’s and wants to get me off my hand to avoid a bad beat and I raise the pot to 2100. He quickly makes the call, confirming my original thoughts that he has a pocket pair of JJ’s or better and will call whatever i bet if the flop is all baby cards.

Now I fully aware at this point that I can lose with pocket Aces if a J, Q or King falls even as a 45% or more favorite going into the hand; depending of course on what his cards and the flop are. The flop is 7d 4h 3s and I bet the remainder of my chips (2900) forcing him to call (hopefully) off the rest of his chips with his big pair while not giving him a chance to spike a J or higher on on the turn or river to spike a set. He immediately calls me, as I suspected, and I get ready to see his big pair and smile. He shows me the 7-3 of hearts and my eyes fall off my face onto the table. No need to go into the rest of the hand as the outcome never improved, but I can tell you the WSOP is a lot like the blackjack tables in Vegas; everyone has come to town to take a shot and spin the big wheel of fortune. Guys and gals from all over the planet are coming to take shots in the dark and are prepared to gamble it up with the hopes of taking it all down or go broke trying. The game is no longer poker…its Bingo, and I can’t wait to yell B-R-A-C-E-L-E-T someday soon.

On the enlightening side of things, I figure my luck and ’special’ events are going exactly how they are supposed to be, so after the initial shock (2 hours), I have chalked this up as ridding me from the poker demons of destruction and cleansing my body of all the unlucky anti-bodies prior the final event.  I don’t know how many more of these I can take, however, I’ll keep absorbing the blows till my chin falls off if somehow I can reverse the luck factor and make it happen for me when the final events begins.

Well if bubbling 8 away from the money wasn’t tough enough on event #2, bubbling 4 out of the money wasn’t much fun either. However, I did manage to get through another huge field and get in a solid 12 hour session of “avoid the land mines”. In 12 hours I barely had any hands to work with and most of my maneuvers came from stone cold bluffs. While I didn’t enjoy NOT cashing when getting so close to the money for two events in a row, I feel good about getting back into the groove, long hours of sitting, changing gears, reading players minds and the natural progression towards just playing great poker again.

At the point the deck starts to hit me in my new flat belly, I will be doing back flips in the aisles while I stack towers of chips and get to some final table action in the next few events.

I’ve been mostly eating almonds and sunflower seeds at the table along with my FUBAR drinks and Organic fuel bars. While I look around at what the rest of the players are forced to eat and drink at the World Series, I am truly thankful for for my tasty FUBAR’s. They keep me replenished and focused for the entire day, while my good friend Ed has made me some special brain power water that I have yet to try out. I wasn’t going to break it out until I reached a day 2 or final table, however, I may be busting it out on Thursday’s 6 handed event…the event I took 4th in last year.

Thank you to everyone who believed in me this year, I hope to make you proud.

Today’s $1500 event kicked off at 12pm with over 2000 players on Day 1 and another 1600+ anticipated from tomorrow. I played well and fought my way through most of the day and managed to get down to less than 300 players before running QQ’s in AA’s and getting knocked out of my first event.

Poker News was gracious enough to do an interview with me about last years abrupt departure at the main event. After watching the video clip I realized I didn’t make mention FUBAR or the getFubar.com website!!! What was I thinking? Oh well, I guess I was a bit nervous and I will just have to win a bracelet so i can get some more TV and Video time with the lovely Tiffany from PokerNews.com!

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1564561998/bctid1582123257

I’m finally getting into some tasty food and have been enjoying every bite.  The trick has been to eat every few hours to get my metabolism sped up and I’ve been staying on schedule with almonds, sunflower seeds, peaches, apples, bananas and many other raw fruits and vegetables.

Breakfast has consisted of a drink potion of active greens, Noni Juice, Goji Juice, Mangosteen Juice and Acai.  The combination of all these super fruits have been incredible, as I am getting all the nutrients back into my system through natural food and drink.

Lunch is typically a vegetable salad with almonds and some fruit. Dinner has been more raw vegetables with some seaweed soup and a bit of brown rice.  I am being very careful not to eat anything that is processed, enriched or full of preservatives.

It was a fantastic day of tasty soups and cabbage!  Korea food is by far my favorite choice of food and after not eating for 14 days, it may have been the best tasting meal I’ve had in over a decade.  I managed to get a nice run in this morning and have begun to drink young coconut water (FUBAR), my favorite drink on the planet plus I started taking my vitamin supplements.

I have done a ton of research on many types of supplements over the last month and will be listing all my new discoveries and describing the results.  The other big initiative is my interest in organic foods.  I will be eating organic at least 50% of the time to see how much of a difference it really makes in my body over time.

We took the training wheels of my son’s bike today and he’s not so sure he likes the whole “balance” thing yet.

The last few days have been great as I ease back into liquids and raw food. I’ve mostly been having Orange Juice as my staple meal, along with some Organic Carrot Juice and some probiotics.

Probiotics are really important at this time of the cleanse as my body needs live microbial organisms present in the digestive tract. Probiotics are considered beneficial and are sometimes referred to as “friendly” bacteria. Some of the ways they are thought to promote health include suppressing the growth of potentially harmful bacteria, improving immune function, enhancing the protective barrier of the digestive tract, and helping to produce vitamin K.

As the last 16 days of the cleanse have been beneficial in many ways, I have also removed all the nutrients and “good” bacteria from my intestines. The probiotics will help to fast track the regrowth of the bacteria.

Today is the second week of the master cleanse and the final day for me. I feel incredible, lost some weight and saved a bunch of money on car insurance!

I will have my first glass of OJ today and have fantasized about how good it will taste!

Tonight I went to a dodger game in LA and was forced to sneak OJ into the stadium.  Unfortunately, the choices of beverages in a baseball stadium are limited, so i had to smuggle my juice in.  I haven’t been to many baseball games in my lifetime, but I always imagined eating 6 hour old hotdogs and drinking watered down beer; luckily that wasn’t the case.  It turned out to be a great game, I got to see Jenny Finch of the US National women’s team and watch the Dodgers win a game at home.

Today is the second to last day of the Master cleanse for me, I need to get some nutrients into my body and get some fuel into me. I really want to start running and cycling at longer intervals, and I dont want to risk pushing myself too hard without some internal fuel running through my veins. The cleanse has been going perfect, so I dont want to ruin a great experience.

Two weeks on the Master Cleanse is plenty long enough and I’ve achieved my goals and then some.

Physically - I’ve lost over 10 lbs and should gain back around 3-5 lbs once i start eating again, which will be an ideal weight of 170 lbs.

Mentally - I’ve overcome the 10 days as I originally set out to do and given my will power a whole new set of muscles with some accolades.

Spiritually - I’ve achieved new heights of internal strength and wisdom with a greater appreciation for everything.

I’m starting to get irritable again, similar to day 3 and 4 of the cleanse.  My patience are low and temper is higher than usual.  Interested to know how tomorrow will turn out.  Better get some rest before I blow a gasket.

Yesterday was day 11 of the master cleanse. The day was normal outside of a some unusual bowl movements late at night which I think had something to do with not drinking enough water. I drank over a gallon of Lemon Juice and Maple Syrup, but I didn’t drink any water. I just didn’t seem to have any more room for water.

This morning I woke up without congestion which is a nice change especially this time of year. Usually in the spring my allergies start to kick up and I wake every morning hacking things up. The cleanse has really helped to keep me dry and allergy free in addition to ridding me of all the food allergies I am still unaware of.