The dream of all serious poker players is to play in the World Series Of Poker. It has been my dream since I was a freshman in college and saw Moneymaker win the main event. At that time I did not know a flush beat a straight, much less anything about online poker. It all started with a $5 game in the kitchen of my dorm 7 years ago, now in about a week I will be playing my first ever WSOP $1500.

The rollercoaster ride poker has taken me on these past couple years has been an amazing experience. Laying in bed after my first 5 figure score pinching myself to make sure it was real. Studying the game with every free second I had. Looking back every few months thinking I am so much better than I was a month ago. Learning bankroll managment after going bust multiple times. The high and lows of this game are not for the weak of heart. Many times I have thought I needed to quit and never look at a deck of cards again. Then when I have been down and out everything would turn around and I would be back on top. When I have been on top I never thought I was coming down.

This Vegas trip is my big dance. No, I dont have a monster bankroll to play all the WSOP events, but Im content with what I have done in my short poker carrer. From playing $1 sngs to being able to take thousands of dollars to play in some live poker tournaments is a dream come true.

Regardless of what happens on this Vegas trip, when I return I will not be playing anymore online poker. I will be starting a carrer with the college degree I have and moving forward with my life. I do not see myself doing this forever and the time to make a move is now.

That being said I have withdrawn every penny from my online account and it is now my live roll. I will be playing in WSOP 1500 event 30 and possibly a WSOP 1k. Most my time I will be playin the 340s and 550s at Venetian. I will also be celebrating my 26th birthday while there so Im looking to have a blast. My brother is going with me and we have 3 buddies also coming out for a couple days.

Poker will always be a part of me and I have enjoyed almost every second of the ride it has taken me on. I plan on being in Vegas for a week every summer during the WSOP for the rest of my life Lord willing and playing in home games around town here and there. But depending on poker to pay the bills has come to an end.

This is most likely my last blog, hope everyone that followed enjoyed it and best of luck to everyone in the future!

The chance to turn 20 bucks and a dream into 50k+ has come and gone, being the mftops. This was a very dissapointing mini series for me, since I was really focused and could almost taste the big score.

I played 13 of the events and had a few deep runs. Starting off with event 1, everything went right from the start. I won some key flips, floped nuts to 2nd nuts early and just played great. One big hand that went down right before the money was, Im in the BB w 87ss, utg+2 min raises a 25bb stack and gets a flat from a 35bb stack. I have about 75bb and flat. Flop 578cc, I lead 2/3 pot and initial raiser shoves and the other guy reshoves. I was pretty sure I was best at the time and call. utg+2 had TT and other guy had QJcc, I somehow dodge the 15+ outer and get a monster stack. Everything just rolled after that. I was taking so many pots on the flop and pre flop I didnt show down any hands but monsters. With a couple hundred left in the 11,000+ entrees I pick up AA in the BB with about 100bbs, CO raises and I make standard re raise, he has about 70bb and just shovels them in the middle and I call, He has QQ and rivers a Q for piles of chips. This left me with about 30bb. I grinded it up some and kept working. The table was so soft and no one was giving me any resistance. With less than 75 left I pick up JJ utg and raise, a guy that almost has me covers makes a huge 3bet pretty much commiting himself to the pot and I decide to go with JJ, He has AK and I hold for a monster key flip that gets me rolling again. After that big pot I dont think I showed down once till last couple tables. We get down to 18 left and Im sitting 7th. The CL was playing great and raising everypot and 3betting everyone as he should have been. I 3bet shoved a couple hands and 2.5 opened and got folds a couple for no showdowns. Everyone at my table had 15-30bbs except the CL who had about 75ish if I recall. Well with 12 left and me sitting 5th with ~25bbs pick up AKhh, CL who raises utg like he has been half the hands played. I decide my best option is to pile instead of 3bet and possible get a flat and then not know what to do with half my stack in the middle. I shove and he has AA... was such a bummer to play for 10+hrs what I thought was some damn good poker and run into a cooler with 12 to go like that. I went for a nice long car ride after that to just think about things on some backroads close to my house. So many ups and downs in poker and even though to most people a 1700 cash is a great thing, its not even about the money you make at times, its all about the win.

Couple nights later I play the turbo fiddy and make a nice run, with all my big hands holding. We get to the FT and im sitting 2/9. I put in about 25% of my stack on a OE draw to the CL on the flop and turn and miss on the rvr and he piles, so I still have about 100k on 2500/5000 sitting 2/7. I get it in KQ to QT w 5 left and guy flops a T and it holds, so im now the shorty, I shove the B w 5bbs and get folds twice. I then pick up 44 on the B and the CL shoves, he had been shoving/raising a ton and I am playing for the win, with chip stacks and all I figured I needed a dbl now and decided to gambol. He had Q3 and hit a rvr Q to go out 5th for around 1400ish. I win a 7/3 at the FT I most likely ship, oh well. I have got 5th in the turbo fiddy 5 times now, with a 2nd and 7th and i think a 9th in therre, but have never won it out right. Pretty frustrating.

On to the mini ftops $50 shootout. We started out the shootout with only 3 at the table and I run it over pretty fast to move onto the 2nd table. This was a 4x shootout so I needed to win 3 tables to get to the FT. 2nd table was pretty soft and I had some good spots, I raise TT lp and get 2 flats, flop T25 I lead half pot and get min c/raised from the BB. I flat to lay out the trap, turn is a A. He bets pot of 1400, leaving about 600 behind. There is no real draws out there and Im thinking he possible has AT so I flat again trying to get max value. River is a blank and he shoves I call he has A3 so I dbl there and take charge of table. I win with the best hand everytime It gets in and I win that table and move on to the last one before the FT. This table actully had a couple of decent players. When we were 6 way I was sitting 5/6 but still had plenty of chips and told my brother it was going to be me and 'paddiewaddie' HU. Well I win 2 70/30s for half my stack both times and we get down to 3 way. I raise QQ on the B after I had been B raising almost everytime and the BB re raises. I 4bet enough to put him all in and he snaps 66 and I hold to go HU 2/1 CL. So me and paddie HU. Very first hand HU he raises and I have AQhh, I pile it in, not thinking im getting a call and he looks me up w A9o, doubt A9 is ever going to have me beat there, but thanks for the call I guess but he flops a 9ball and it holds. I win that hand im sitting at the FT of the tournament I have been wanting to win ever since they have had shootouts. Anyway after that hand he has me 2/1 and I have about 15bbs, he raises I have A7 and shove, he has AQ and he holds to advance to the FT. I was sick to my stomach. Yea I know we all take some sick beats in big equity spots, but something about this one just really got to me bad. Im not one to dwell on badbeats but this one is hard to forget. To make it worse I go out with my buddies right after that and come home to see they did a 8 way chop at the FT with everyone making atleast 10k+. 8 way chop get real. I promise some people would have not of liked me at the FT bc no way in hell I chop until HU maybe. Since my roots go back to 9 mans im so confident I ship that if I win that last key hand.

Very next day, I go to rabron13s place to play the 2day. Everything goes well, I fold AA on the turn on a KK2 Q board, with the 30min levels and nice stacks I was not sure i had the best hand and I think fold was best option how the hand played. Well I played very tight this whole tournament, no real steals, a couple raises in lp with marginals but nothing wild. About 5-6 hrs in I get moved tables. I have about 65bbs and see TT utg on 120/240, and make it 575. I get one flat from a big stack, flop KT9dd i lead 1000 into 1400ish and get re raised to 3500. I have about 14k total and decide a shove is best here. So I pile in 14k after his 3500 re raise for about half his stack and he looks me up KJ, so he is dead to the lonley guterball and what do you know rvr Q for 120bb pot....im not sure if he was playng his tp or the guter draw, either way Im never getting in that many chips on the flop for KJ to be good, guy was tryign to give me monster stack oh well thanks for trying.

Off the virtual felt it has been a great weekend/ start to week. Monday night 2 of my highschool buddies and one of thier sisters went to the Braves game. We meet up with my buddies girlfriend and all her roomates so it was a very enjoyable time. Tailgated and grilled out before the game and it got a little rowdy! Ended up going back to the hotel room I got after the game and played some games and slept 8 deep in that mug. Crazy times. To top that off my 2 good buddies are in a local band called 'The Mason Jars' and they put on a private concert at my buddies parents huge mansion on the river, beside a bonfire last night. To sum up the night we were all singing Kilo- luv in ya mouth to the guitar chorus and even some coolio gansters paridise. My buddy in the band is sickest guitar player I have ever seen and he knows a wide variety of music, it got nutty.

NBA basketball wise it looks like its going to be celtics and lakers. With Magic losing 2 at home to start of the series I highly doubt they will be able to make the comeback and bottom line Kobe is too sick.

Rest of the month, I plan on taking it easy and playing when I feel like it. Im on wk 5 of my workout routine and going strong. Im down 8 lbs and have improved my mile time. Have a couple of T times at the golf course ready and its great because a bunch of my buds are home from college over the summer so we kick it alot. Well this is a long one and overdue. Until next time...

May is here, and miniftops will be cranking up this Friday. After looking at the schedule it looks like I will be playing around 18-20 of the 30 events. Im really going to try and play the 2day this time around, since I have had prior commitments everytime it has ran in the past. I am missing the 6max PLO which is one of my favorite games but my brother is graduating college Saturday and then my high school buddy is getting married that night so it will be worth the miss.

Since April is now behind us, I saw my bankroll drop $425, which isnt a 'bad' losing month. I didnt put in much volume and didnt have any big cashes so I cant be too upset. I did get 2nd in the 20turbo for 800ish at the end of the month which helped my monthly summary.

I plan on grinding hard this month and hopefully hit a nice score before I make the trip to Vegas. I will be pulling out all of my online bankroll and turning it into my live bankroll, so the more the better obv. I have a schedule of tournaments I will be playing but will adjust before I go depending on what my exact bankroll will be at the time. As of right now it looks like Im playin a WSOP 1500 and 1k. Then I will be spending alot of time at the Venitian 300s and 500s. There is also a Golden Nugget Series going on the same time with 200-500s that I will more than likely check out one day. From the website it looks like the structure is the same as the Venitians so we will see.

Off the felt this month Im going to try and make atleast 1 or 2 ATL Braves games. Plan on going up for a night game staying at a close hotel then hit the wkd day game the next day. Also, with the Hawks in the 2nd round of playoffs I am looking for a couple tickets for one of there next home games. They got stomped last night by The Magic, but I hope they were just tired from the long 7 game series before....I hope. Magic are playin great basketball right now though. I really enjoy NBA playoffs and plan on making some bets soon. These early round playoff games with the spreads are pretty tough to call, so Im going to wait them out till it gets down to semis and finals and make some plays.

I am in the middle of wk 3 on my workout regimen and its going very well. I have been eating very clean and working hard so at the end of this 7 weeks It should pay off.

Best of luck to everyone in the mftops! Until next time...