Recently I've been meaning to start writing a journal so I tried to write one last night. But it turned more into a blog than anything and I figured why not see if it's actually worth having a blog on a regular basis. If it's well received I'll start a blog and if it isn't, then I'll just write it for me regardless. So here's my first blog entry. It's a bit long but entertaining so grab some popcorn.

8/23/07

Today I played poker. What�s new? I went to bed at 7am the night before pretty much doing nothing and just fucking around. But hey, I can do that if I want, I have one of the best jobs on the planet. So my desk was getting assembled today between 12 and 5pm. Man, I love anyone installing something in your house. They are always SO exact. Pause----NOT. He conveniently came at 12:30 which would normally be perfect but I had expected him to come a little bit later so I could sleep in. Five and a half hours of sleep sucks. I initially wasn�t going to play poker today so I got out of the dude�s way and went into my roommate�s room with my computer. But obviously while I was waiting there watching some VH-1 about London�s hot spots I ended up playing in some sit-n-gos. I did learn a lot about London though. Did you know they have a store that you can go into and buy literally anything you want? I think Jennifer Lopez bought like 12 peacocks for her wedding or something. I�m dead serious and they got them for her in 2 days. Also, apparently there�s a place where you can have tea that�s made in diamonds. I�m not sure if that makes the tea taste better but who cares? There�s freaking diamonds in the tea!

At about 1PM the guy was done assembling my desk. Deskteam assemmmmmmble!!!!! He must�ve had a team or something to put it together that fast. I mean the dude for sure could�ve competed in some sort of desk building competition. Hell, I�d even back him in it. It's a pretty sweet desk. It�s a corner desk that has ample space for my non-existent desktop as well as a perfect place for my 27 inch tv. The price for the desk was pretty reasonable too. It was $200 and $50 for assembly. I know that hiring someone to put a measly desk together is extremely lazy but in my eyes it was definitely worth it. Picture Tim �The Tool Man� Taylor from Home Improvement and then picture the exact opposite. That�s me. It would probably take me a good day or two. No jokes.

So after Speedy McDesk Guy left I went back into my room and decided that I was in fact going to play some tournaments today. I entered the 100 rebuy, the 50 rebuy, and the 50 freeze out all on Poker stars. I opted not to play the 150 on Full Tilt because sometimes Full Tilt just annoys the crap out of me and it had been doing that a lot lately. I managed to bubble all three of the tourneys that I played today.

The 100r I was the literal bubble, 50r I was like 10 places away from moolah, and the 50F/O the same. The way shit went down in the 100r was pretty brutal. I was in for the minimum, which was a feat in itself (High Five!), and ended the rebuy at 10k. I played pretty TAG for once.

(Sorry, it�s time for a tangent. Tangents come with the territory of having ADD so deal with it.) I know you�re thinking, yea whatever, Roothlus is always a nit. Well not lately. I came back from my long hiatus and started killing it. Then last week out of nowhere I lost all of my discipline. I don�t know what happened in my brain but it was really weird. A lot of it had to do with me being fresh out of Adderol but that�s no excuse for some of the plays that I made. I think also the game changed a lot in the two months I was gone. I had seen all of these maniacs 3-betting with air and 4-betting with slightly better air. So I started doing things like that but it didn�t work too well considering I�m normally the tight player who isn�t going to get played back at too often without a hand. In turn whenever I tried to 4-bet people they always had it. I even tried this one play that I thought was a pretty sick move and still do but busto_soon didn�t even give it a second of thought and snap called. I had 70k in the 2pm Sunday 100r at 1k 2k and it was my first hand at the table. TheChemist, who�s a very solid, good player that isn�t really well-known, opens from the cutoff for 4800 with about 90k behind him. I smooth call the button with 66. I was reluctant about calling. I wanted to fold but that didn�t seem right with such deep stacks by both of us. I could�ve reraised but I wanted to peel a 6 and stack him. Maybe even have the best hand, who knows. So it folds to busto_Soon on the button who makes it 19k to go with 120k behind him. It was a ridiculously stacked table with all three of us in the top 5 in chips. As he reraises a light bulb goes on in my head and I think to myself, if I shove here he literally has to fold almost all hands. I�m a large stack who is getting involved with a bigger stack and then I ship it in on the chip leader of the tourney? C�mon, I�ve gotta have the goods. On top of that, my overall image is pretty solid against him. Of course, he snap calls with 1010, my Roothbox malfunctions and I brick out on my huge 2 out draw. Man, that was a mouthful. I hope that suffices as an example of my impulsiveness/lack of discipline.

ANYWAYS back to the 100r, I played solid and chipped up to about 28k. At 400/800 UTG and UTG+1 both limp. Randers then makes it 4300 to go in mid position. It folds to me in the small blind and I�m looking down at AK. I�m not ecstatic about this spot but a good percentage of the time I�ll just take the pot down preflop and increase my stack by 25%. So, I shove it in Rander�s eye. He thinks for 10 seconds and calls me with AJ!? Whaaat? I hold, double up, and send Randers to the rail. A few minutes after he busts he tells me his reasoning. He remembered two Sundays ago in a 20r when I managed to get like 80BBs all in with top top on an 832 board. I ran into his set of 3s. I didn�t even care. It was my last tourney of the day and I was on that normal Sunday tilt. But, as usual, getting back to what I was saying AGAIN, that hand kept lingering in his head and that�s what got me the call. So who says playing bad is bad? I made a horrendous play in the 20r and it came back around and got me a nice, warm double up in the 100r.

The rest of the tourney was pretty blah. I get repopped a few times and found myself down to 28k again. Then double back up with AA only to run 99 into QQ on the actual bubble. That left me with 7k. I double up with some asinine hold right away. <span> </span>Then TitanTom32, the player who I gave all my chips to, shoves in the small blind on the bubble with 39o and I call with K8ss on the BB knowing it�s well ahead of his range. Flop is a clean A42. Turn is the 2^nd spade and the river is an offsuit 5. I mean it�s not really that brutal; I just wanted to get back to where I was before the 99 hand. Whatever, shit happens.

I actually didn�t cash in a single tourney today and I played about 15 total while bubbling six of them. I know, I know. No applause needed. You know that shit�s impressive. I�m not even worried though because I got my discipline back along with my newly acquired Adderol and managed to play great today. <span> </span>

Oh yea, so about those sit-n-gos that I mentioned I played in� Those started off a little rough but during the day I slowly started running better and eeking out cashes until I legitimately ran hot. Probably the hottest I�ve ever ran in sngs. I racked up 8 cashes in a row between the 300 and 500 sngs. At those stakes I think that�s just sick. I managed to end the day +5k in sngs but -3k in mtts. I�m not cocky but I will say that I do think I�m one of the best sng players playing right now on Poker Stars (BigJoe isn�t playing right now <span><span>J</span></span>).

That�s enough poker for now. I ended my long, hard day of sitting in my comfortable leather desk chair clicking buttons at about 12AM. A good 12 hour day. Sorry, sometimes I can be a bit of a workaholic. So I leave my apartment to meet up with my brother (Roothlus2) and our other roommate Zhen for some drinks at a local bar. The bar was actually pretty hopping. It was graffiti shirt night and there were hotties abound. Orlando really does have some amazing women. The guy to girl ratio was actually in the girl�s favor for once which was very refreshing as well. I ordered up some Jager Bombs and a Goose and Pine(my drink of choice) and went on my merry way. I started dancing a little bit and then they played the Two-Step remix with T-Pain which was the song I danced to in front of the entire camp this summer. I busted out some moves from the dance. Ladies were all over me and guys wanted to be me. Oh wait, neither of those things happened but it could�ve easily escalated into that ;). The song brought back some memories of camp and reminded me just how much I missed it. It�s such a great place to be. I lost 25 pounds while I was there, interacted with plenty of girls (not something that�s easy to come by as a poker player), and made new friendships. It�s just such a great place for your internal and external self. By 1:00AM people started emptying out and things died down but it was definitely an enjoyable night. It�s always good to get out of your house and experience life.

<span> </span>Tomorrow I�m going to Tampa for the weekend for the Styx/Def Leopard/Foreigner concert, which will be insane, and my good friend�s going-away party. He�s moving to LA on Monday for a job as a rocket scientist. No jokes, really, a rocket scientist. Seriously though, who actually goes into the Real World these days? I�m currently having a blast living in the Fake World. That�s really what this lifestyle should be called. It�s just so surreal. And on that note, I hope you enjoyed my first blog entry ever. It actually was a lot of fun to write. Peace.

P.S. SUITS SUCK!

good start. id read it

enjoyed it......good stuff

i read it, also saw def leppard here in va when they came thru last fri

great blog woudl read it again

loved it, I would read for sure

you have a sense of humor i appreciate, never hold back from self derision and you don't take yourself too seriously. I like all this and will probably come on your blog if you make one, not everyday for sure but from time to time.
After all you re one of the 3 names in my favorite online players profile section. If I don't come who will :)

Loved it!!!!!

You're a good writer.....very entertaining. My favorite part, "Ladies were all over me and guys wanted to be me. Oh wait, neither of those things happened but it could�ve easily escalated into that ;)."

Please post the link as soon as the blog becomes official.

TheReader23
PS....Suits suck except for Eric on Entourage

I would also read your blog if you made it. Good work, and I would like to see more

haha so whats the difference between a blog and journal?

good read....I take the Styx...you can keep Def Leopard

good read

1000000% cosign on "The Fake World"

exactly how i feel

ftr i did that on 2or 3 limpers and gave you a not so well deserved "spite call"

thanks for the mention thoj;alskfdgh;

Tomorrow I�m going to Tampa for the weekend for the Styx/Def Leopard/Foreigner concert...

You lost me right here, and I was reading backwards. Call back when you escape 1983.

it's good, if you had a site, i'd bookmark it.