Hey guys. Seems like it's been a year since I last did a blog so I'm going to do one now. The last 3 months have been very crazy for me and I've experienced the biggest swings of my life

December was amazing for me and was my best month to date. Hit a bunch of scores including in a 4 day span when I won the 10r rush for 10k 2 days later I beat paulgees hu in the Saturday $109 rush for over 20k and the following day I got 6th in Ub 200k major for 6k and 5th in the Turbo 200 2x for another 6k and I got very fortunate when I staked this girl that's a good friend of mine and she got 4th in the 20r mini ftops for 24k. BINK! Had a lot more money than I ever had before in my life and almost came to the point of leaving my online backer(I've been backed for over a year online) and going on my own to play 163 50rs and sunday majors on my own dime. Life was great.

Now here's where things started to go very south for me as a result of a combination of things in Janurary. I had by far the worst month of my life. As I previously stated I had a lot more money than I ever had in my life and I started to get careless about my spending and investments. I went on a spree where I just kept buying people's live and online action because I felt I was basically freerolling off the 12k I made from my friends and mini ftops and I got hooked onto it for a while. I probably lost half that money back quickly. Also, at the time my live backer wasn't doing too well so I decided to take a gamble and played the whole Borgata Winter Open Series on my own dime and I staked a couple friends in it too, which didn't work out for me. I hate to complain about running bad but I felt I played really well during the 10+ events I played but it wasn't meant to be. In the $3500 Main Event I flopped the nut flush and someone else flopped a straight flush which ended up crippling me. Although I lost a lot at Borgata I had such a great time hanging out with all my friends and got to meet two of my favorite people Gettin Dazie and My Brim Low. Also a contribution to the awful janurary was the introduction of multi entry week double guarantee week. I just want to say that I am not a big fan of the multi entries as I think it only benefits the best players in the world with endless bankrolls that have a huge edge on the fields. I went on the biggest downswing of my life, just from that 1 week. Before this week I had never gone a huge downswing and was usually very consistent with my results. I think a big reason why I lost so much aside for being in for 3x my normal buyins was that I was just playing too many tables, a lot more than I was comfortable with playing. Was too hard to turn down the opportunity to play each big tournament 4-6 times and I got hit hard as a result of this. Now I don't want this to sound like a rant. I want people to see what can happen after a huge upswing and you get the feeling of being invinsible and getting careless with your money. Bankroll managment is such an important aspect of poker and everyday life.


So then February comes along and I'm feeling at an all-time low, deep in makeup for the first time ever and was really starting to question my game. So I decide to visit one of my best friends, Big Huni, in North Carolina to grind FTOPS with and to also have a good time away from home. My first day there on a Saturday I ended up winning the 50 cubed on Full Tilt for 15k. Such a relief to finally get a big win again. The following day was a big FTOPS Sunday with 120 KO and $322 with multi entries. Now overall Sundays have been very bad for me in 2009. I honestly think I lost on Sundays over 80% of the time in 2009 and I only had 2 5 figure sunday scores which is just embarassing for me. I started to hate Sundays and would start occassionally skip sundays. My biggest score at the time was only 28k. All my friends that I play high stakes with all had a bigger score than mine and it was frustrating. Despite several deep runs in big tournaments I just could not hit that breakthrough score. I always tried to tell myself that the big score was going to come for me sooner or later and tried to stay positive. And then February Sunday the 14th came. I played the 120 ko ftops 4 times and made a deep run in the money with 2 of them. Lost a big flip with one of my entries tt < ak and was down to one more. I was actually top 10 in chips for quite a while in the 23,000 runner 120 ko from like 150-450 left. I then lost a couple flips and had to grind it out for a couple hours. Then with I believe with 30ish people left I open AQ utg with 25ish bbs and an aggro player reshoved 16 bbs from mp and i sighed and called and he had two aces. Flop was Queen high blank turn and then....... Queen river. Probably the biggest suckout of my life deep in a major tournament. Was back in it again and chipped up very nicely as a result of a few coolers. With 13 left I was 2/13 and I 5 bet shoved my kings vs a button opener and he snapped with 9s and he spiked a 9 on the flop for a huuuuge chiplead and ended up putting me down to about 25 bbs and I had to grind it out on the FT bubble. Ended up making the FT 8/9 and was super excited playing for potentially $350,000. I ended up doubling early on at the FT k8> 99 vs SootedJokers and was sitting on a reshove stack until 6 people remained. I opened AK with about 18 bbs from the cutoff and the bb reshoves about 16ish bbs and he suprisingly had 57o and I thankfully hold to back to 35 bbs for the first time at the ft. The following hand I get tens utg and the aggro, Swish13 3 bet me on the button in such a great spot for him to be light, trying to stop my momentum. I decided to just 4 bet shove the tens instead of 4 bet/calling because I wanted to avoid getting hood flatted and being in an awkward spot oop. He snaps with kings the and the flop is 1072. Wow I finally got another big suckout..... 3 on the turn and...... King on the river ughhhhhh. Annoying way to bust but I got over it fairly quickly and was the happiest I had ever been in poker. I finally got that long deaded breakout score and it came on a Sunday too!! 5th for $78,000!!!! Decent 90k weekend :-). Also I don't think I've had more than 2 consecutive winning sundays. Well last Sunday I extended my consecutive winning sundays streak to 4 with a 11th in the Turbo Takedown for 8k and a 5th in the Turbo 200 2x for 6k along with another 3k score. February was by far the best month of my life and I finally accomplished one of my goals by cracking the Pocketfives Top 100 after coming close for 2 months.

Two main things I want people to take from reading this blog. First being, guys be smart with your money. You may feel on top of the world after hitting your biggest score ever or you're on a sick heater and feel as if the upswing will happen forever but there is just so much variance in this game of poker. Just continue to be wise with your money and don't blow it or take too many high stake gambles. Save your money. Second point I wanna make is to all those grinders that I grind hard and put in the volume and have had lots of deep runs without hitting a huge score, just keep grinding and try to work on improving your game. Try not to get too depressed or emotional when you're on a big downer. That breakout score will eventually come if you keep playing and putting in the volume. All you can do is play the best poker you can and hope that luck is on your side. I also want to make a shoutout to one of my best friends, theczar19 on his breakout score when he chopped the ftops 2K 2 day for $270,000. I never saw anyone run so bad deep in major tournaments and happy to see he finally got his huge score. Also congrats to cuteiswhatiaim4 on his 500k+ profit FTOPS. Thanks to everyone that read this. I was never a great writer so thanks for bearing with me. I also would like to thank to all my friends who put up with my Sunday rants about running so bad in major tournaments.


- Francis

Hello everyone. Havnt made a blog in about a month so here we go.

About 4 weeks ago or so I went back to AC for this big Borgata Spring series. I played about 5 events in a week's span buyins ranging from $300-$750. Was pretty much a disappointment overall.

Event 1 I ran kings into aces for heaps. Event 3 a $350 buyin, small field over 20k for first I late reg the event like 10 minutes late. I sit down and the very first hand a guy limps for 50 old guy makes it 200 from the HJ i flat JJ otb(like 10k starting stacks I believe). Flop is J95 rainbow. Old guy cbets I just flat as does the limper. Turn brings a 7 and a flush draw I believe. Old guy bets 700 I raise to 1850 I believe and the original limper tanks and then jams and then the old guy snap shoves himself I sit there for like 30 seconds and I'm like does one of these guys really have 108. But Im not folding there ever so I call old guy has pocket 7s and original limper has 108s obv but 5 on the river to fill me up easy game :-). I run pure. I also got it in JJ on a QJ10hh board vs ak and hit running 6s to fill up again to ship to maintain the chip lead pre antes. Well to sum it up I went the whole tournament without much hands didnt gets queens kings aces or aq once in the mtt and got into the money with a shorter stack(18 pay). Got down to 13 left I had 8s otb with 14 bbs and jam, CL isos from SB with 2s. Board runs clean til the 2 on the river. Not quite as painful as the last 2 outter on the river that I wrote about in the last blog but still sucked. Oh well tho what can I do?

The final event I played was this $750 f/o. 20k starting stacks. Basically get off to a decent start then at 200/400 this kid jams utg for 5500 this old guy otb calls who has the blinds covered. I'm in the sb with ako with 10,250 and I tank cause these old guys are nits and fold aq a lot to that utg jam. Well I eventually jam and the old guy starts to tanks for few minutes. Ask how much more it is even tho hes pot committed to call any 2. I call over my boy Big Huni to let him know I'm allin. Next thing I know the guy calls with pocket aces and he laughs while turning them over too. The guy was like 80 years old too. Everyone at the table including myself laugh and a few people yell slowrollll. kid utg shows pocket 6s. Board goes k235K. weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee justice. The guy did shake my hand after the hand and told me very nice hand, I guess in a way to apologize for the slowroll. Prolly my favorite moment of live poker ever. So after that I was sitting pretty. Few hands after the old guy limps ep with 15 bbs and I iso him with JTcc a kid with a big stack flats otb and we go to the flop 3 handed. Flop is 9c8x4c so i flop the world. The old guy jams so I obv iso jam myself and the kid otb snaps. Instantly knew it was a set and he tables pocket 4s. Turn is a balnk and the river is the 8 of clubs which fills him up for a 60k+ pot at 200/400. sigh. On a side note congrats to my boy Alex "Argentina Boy" Queen who chopped the Borgata Main Event for $275,000!!!! So happy for him.

On to FTOPS. Was a profitable series for me with a lot of deep runs. I rented a house in AC with Big Huni, Jymaster11(whom is one of the coolest kids irl and one of the craziest mofos on the felt that Ive ever met), Jmaster130, Petie Big Stacks and another friend for the series. Also got the privliledge of meeting the infamous Dipthrong and Benson too. My awesome backer gave me permission to play any FTOPS that I wanted even tho I dont play the highest stakes mtt. First sunday of ftops I make a deep run in the Mulligan. End up getting coolered by Vivek and then bust kk < qq hand after for 17th. I made a nice run in one of the earlier events bubbled the 1k and then decided to play 300 rebuy. Was only in for $900 fortunately. I thought I played a very good game. Got a lot more aggro and picking my 3 bet spot wisely and unfortuantely went very good dead deep and got 13th for like $8500 or something. I ended up building a top 10 stack in the 200 cubed and a misclick cost me heaps and ended up getting 70th.

This past weekend I played both the 2k 2 days on FTP and Stars, my biggest buyins ever. The FTOPS 2 day started off smooth for me in about the middle of the day I won a huge flip JhJx vs Cre8ive's AhKx on a 3 heart flop aipf and somehow faded. Had a nice stack most of the day and then we got down to the bubble. Prior to the bubble Novasky and I had been playing a lot of pots together for hours and he was to my direct left. Well anways 2 from the money I get aces from the cutoff make my std 2.3x open and then novasky 3 bets me from the button( we were 45+ bbs deep he has me covered). Right when Novasky 3 bets me a message appears up on the screen "Tables are playing hand for hand". Right then I knew if I made a small 4 bet he would jam on me thinking Id fold cause the bubble. So I proceed to make a really small 4 bet he instantly 5 bet jams the k8o flop AQ3 10 on the turn to bring me a sweat and nice little 8 on the river. Day 1 over Im 9/106 more pumped than Ive ever been before. Well day 2 didnt go as planned. I ran AK into 4s on a A74 board where I really wanted to fold on the turn but went with it. And then like 60 or so left a random new to the table opens from MP i flat aces otb with like 23 bigs which I liked vs the random. Flop comes KJ4. He checks to me I fire out smallish he calls. Turn is a blank, I pot size jam because I figured that would look the weakest and he calls with pocket jacks. Nothing I couldve done besides time the RNG better. Another disappointing deep finish in a big mtt.

To sum up the 2k stars briefly. I doubled up the 2nd hand of the mtt aces vs kings obv? I felt l played really well for the first 5-6 hours and had a top 5-10 stack for a couple hours after winning a couple big pots off The grinder, Mizzerachi and DirtyR1ver. Ended up making some untimely 3 bets lost a big flip and ended up making it in the money but only for like 4k. Overall pleased with the way I played tho.

With all this said and these big runs in these major mtts and unfortuanate endings I still am feeling very confident about my game and I just know the big score is coming soon! I still have a full series of SCOOP in front of me in which I will be playing some of the higher buyins and hopefully the 10k ME if I do well in the series. Lately Ive opened up my game a lot, got more aggro, 3 betting in less obvious spots, and Im getting a lot better postflop. Well done writing time to go out before the 1k on Stars tonight.

GL at your tables everyone and throughout SCOOP. I will try to make a post SCOOP, pre Vegas blog.

- Francis

Hello all this is my first blog on Pocketfives. I've always wanted to start doing blogs and Id had people to write blogs so here we go. FTOPS is over am I'm pretty glad that it is. Dont know the figures but I probably broke evenish during FTOPS. My backer, Phatchoy888, allowed me to play all holdem FTOPS I wanted to but no mixed games. FTOPS #2 was Omaha Hi LO Ko, the only mixed game I feel that I'm good at. So after asking him a couple times he allowed me to play it. This event was such an experience for me. Once I got itm I saw my stack go up and down like a rollercoaster. I don't have a lot of experience with the game either so it was was pretty nuts. One of the highlights of the mtt was kocking out Kleath like 25 left or something. One of the best players in today's game. Well I eventually was 3/11 and was so excited, i was finally gonna FT an FTOPS. In an event I have limited experience in too. Well when it got down to 11 handed stacks were shallow so it was anyone's game. I had to r/f A34x to a shove and reshove and I had QQ26 otb and had to call a shortstack's allin who had KKA3 and I lost both pots. Finally 10 handed big stack opened and I was like 7/10 and had A2K7(King high hearts) and had to reshove and got called by A279(Ace high hearts) and he rivered the nut flush and there was no low draw so gg me 10th place for $2500. I couldve folded to try to make the ft but thats not the way I play poker and a2xx is pretty much the nuts in Omaha Hi Lo. This was probably the lowest point of my poker career especially since I was 3/11. SOOOOO Close to an FTOPS FT but it wasnt meant to be. My backer Phatchoy obv fted it tho and got like 5th for 16,500. Nice life he lives.

So I took off for the 200 cubed following day to set my mind straight and I played the 100r the following day. Was only in for $400 thankfully and made a nice run got like 75th or something. I had a couple other FTOPS runs lost HU in one of the shootouts after having like 8:1 CL, dead bubbled Limit Omaha Hi Lo and I cashed in the 1k FTOPS which was very nice for me. Believe this was like my 6th 1k and first one Ive cashed in. I played the 300r for my first time too. I'm happy FTOPS is over and done with though. Down a lot overall in non FTOPS mtts since FTOPS started but hoping the downswing ends soon. :-) Sorry for going on about my ranting

<span> W</span>hat I really want to do now is give a shoutout to a few of my good friends who made FTOPS FTs for their first time ever. My boy Miguel Santiago got 9th in the $535 Shootout for like 5k. The Jmaster130, long time friend of mine got 2nd in the 100r FTOPS for 82k. Was sooooo happy to see him hit this score. Was so overdue for him and he played great. Lost a7 < a5 hu to CDBR. Chadda2nd, the 33rd ranked player in the world, played Limit poker for the first time in his life during FTOPS. He brought a new game style to Limit. Constant aggression and he'd play and raise almost every pot and it worked very well for him. It was really fun to watch. He dead FT bubbled the Limit Holdem and got 7th. The day after he played the Limit Omaha Hi LO and held the chip lead through the 2nd break but ended up bubbling it with me. Then he plays HORSE for the first time in his life and gets 3rd I believe for 30k. Big props to him. My buddy Whysocereus/metsfan512 got 9th in the Turbo FTOPS. And lastly, one of my best friends Grindtherail got 2nd in the FTOPS 1k for a whooping $225,000. GTR played extremely well throughout the mtt(ran decent too) and was very proud of him. He took control of the table from Gboro at the ft. He ended losing hu in probably the grossest beat Ive ever witnessed 99 < 88 8xxxx in which he lost $125,000 and the coveted FTOPS jersey. Congrats guys

I will be making more blogs in the future. Thanks to everyone for the support and the rail at my tables.

- Francis Anderson