Ship me that FTOPS jersey!!!

I had my first winning day of poker in the last 30 days on Friday. Not only is that pathetic, but it is definitely the worst stretch I have ever been on.

I had my biggest score of the year in online tournaments, which again, this is pretty pathetic: I got 3rd in the 50k on ftp for about $9k.

It was a disappointment getting 3rd because I feel like I should have won the tournament, and was unfortunate in a few spots.

Now let me clarify that I am, in no way, shape, or form, an ONLINE tourney grinder. I would have to guess I've cheat poker played around 200 tournaments online this year (most of which were either on Sundays, or scoop/ftops events), and I have run pretty awful.

Granted, I have probably not been playing my best game either. It felt good to at least go deep in an online tournament for once. So I felt like I had some positive energy and momentum going into Saturday. I was planning on playing everything on Saturday; all the big tourneys and ftops.
I started the day off with a 5th place finish in the 215 PLO on stars for like 1800$. Was fairly upset with my finish as I had a big chiplead when we were 12 handed.
I kept on grinding in the other tournaments, and got to the point where I only had 4 left.

I was fairly deep but not in the money yet of the 55R on stars, ftops 2500, ftops mini 250, and ftops 100R PLO.
I ended up cashing in the 55R busting in 23rd place, and busted the mini ftops shortly after. So i was left with just the 2500 and the 100R PLO. I was really focused and felt like I was playing really well in both tourneys.
When the 2500 reached the bubble (90 get paid), we were down to the final 10 players on the PLO. The 2500 is a 2 day event, which will resume tomorrow, I finished day 1, 56th of 87 in chips, and then was ready infrared ink to focus solely on the PLO final table.
I played really well, and was fortunate to have most of my hands hold along with making some very good plays and took down the whole thing. GIMME DAT FTOPS JERSEY!!!! It's my biggest online score by far: First place, $86,602.50!!!

Hopefully, I will have a good showing in day 2 of the 2500 tomorrow along with all the other tourneys I will be playing. Online tourney grinding is fun when u win lol.
This score couldn't have come in at a better time as we are approaching the WSOP and it's always good to have momentum going into that.
In closing, I would just like to say one thing: I'M GOING TO WIN A BRACELET THIS SUMMER! Just wanted to let all of you know! I will be posting updates and results from my events at the WSOP frequently while I'm out there, so stay tuned in, should be a fun summer.

Jason Mercier VLog: NAPT Mohegan Sun $25k Final Table

Jason Mercier made the final marked cards table of the $25k High Roller event at NAPT Mohegan Sun but before he took his seat he knocked out a quick video blog to bring us up to speed.
Check out the video and tune in to http://www.napt.com/tv/ to watch the action live.

Jason Mercier VLog: WSOP Main Event Day 1

Jason Mercier is back with another exclusive video blog for PokerListings.com. The WSOP Main Event is pretty much the only tournament Jason's never gone deep in and he's looking to marked cards change that this year.
He's playing Day 1 so check out what he's got to say about playing the biggest poker tournament in the world.
Keep track of all Jason Mercier's progress right here on the PokerListings Blog.

Jason Mercier VLog: Grinding WCOOP in Oklahoma

Jason Mercier was in Oklahoma playing in marked card tricks a live event but he still had time to log some serious hours in the WCOOP on PokerStars. He's getting ready for the World Series of Poker Europe and EPT London but before that he's going to go kick it in NYC for a few days.

Australia Part 3: Patience Is a Virtue

After the hand I blogged about in Parts 1 and 2, the remainder of Day 1 of the Aussie Millions main event went pretty smoothly for me.

I got paid off on a couple big hands, and picked up some chips at the end of the day by raising and re-raising a lot of pots on the artificial bubble.

Although we were far from the money at the end of the first day of play, many inexperienced players, as is their wont, tightened up considerably because they didn't want to play infrared ink all day and go broke.

Others simply wanted to be able to say they made it through the first day, regardless of their stack.
However, there is no reward for making it through Day 1 since "the money" is usually not reached until the third day of major events. It's important to identify and exploit players who are afraid of going broke before the day ends when you have the stack to do so.
I ended the day with a stack of nearly $70k, with blinds of $400/$800 to start Day 2. I was far ahead of the average stack of $45k, and had a pretty good table draw for the second consecutive day. The only names I recognized were those of two solid online players, StuMan123 and MattG1983.
Fortunately for me, both of these players were eliminated early in the day. This left me with a pretty soft table, mostly comprised of Australian and European amateurs. However, they were a very active, loose-aggressive group overall, so I would have to sit back and pick my spots.
Two or three hours later, I was still sitting back waiting for my spot. This table was not going to let me run it over, and I wasn't going to lose my patience and try to.
I kept building my stack with small pots while waiting for my opportunity to double up. I remember saying to a reporter and a couple friends, "Either this table is going to break me, or I'm going to end the day with a quarter-million plus marked cards."
The overall chip leader of the tournament was two seats to my right and was raising, check-raising and three-betting anyone who got in his way. I was practically daydreaming of picking up a monster against him when the following hand came up during the last level of the day.
Eight-handed, with the blinds at $1,200/$2,400 ($300 ante), I raised to $7k from second position with A♠ J♣. The chip leader called from the big blind, and the flop came K♣ Q♠ 10♠.
I resisted the urge to dance a jig similar to Michael Flatley's "Lord of the Dance" as he glanced at his massive pile of chips before checking to me. On this type of flop there's little reason to slow-play, especially against this type of opponent.
I bet $12k into the pot of $17,600. He instantly flicked in the chips to call, and quickly checked as the 8♥ hit the turn. With the pot now at $41,600, I bet $24,000.
The chip leader gave me a smug grin as if he had trapped me perfectly and announced he was all-in. As I declared "I call; I have the nuts," his smug expression quickly faded to disgust.
He meekly showed the Q♥ J♠, and the 8♣ hit the river as he counted out the $117k to pay me off.
I finished the second day with $333k going to $1,500/$3,000. I was in for quite a ride on Day 3, which I will talk about in Part 4.
Until next week...
-- Matt Stout
"All In At 420"

Stout's Sunday Report: September 5, 2010

Matt Stout's back with another excluive Sunday Report. Each week Stout gives us a full rundown of his Sunday online poker tournament schedule, complete with full profits and losses.
Check back every week to see what it's like to play a full roster of online Sunday MTTs!
This Sunday's session was eerily similar to last week's, but on a larger scale. Last week I was able to squeeze out a win in the $109 2 rebuy 1 add-on for $8,600 to end the session only -$19.52.
This week helped me dig a deeper hole to get out of, thanks mostly to the World Championships of Online Poker High Roller event. It was a $10,300 buy in, and I doubt I won a single pot of more than 50 big blinds the entire tournament LOL …
I made a slow and steady nosedive for several grueling hours before being eliminated in far-from-spectacular fashion marked poker.
In fact, I managed to do about $17k in buy-ins on Stars that day without a single cash!
Fortunately for me Tilt was a much different story. I played a very limited schedule on there so I could focus on the $10k and all the juicy stuff happening with WCOOP. I made runs in their two biggest tournaments of the day, but couldn't break the top 100 in either.
I did, however, manage to parlay my smallest buy in of the day (besides the $53 super turbo 300 chipper), $75, into over $18k and nearly get me out of the red for the day! Weeeeeeeee!!!
I got ridiculously lucky nine-handed at the final table when I turned top two against Broadway holding A-Q against K-10 on a rainbow board. I was all in and facing elimination and a -$17k day, but managed to pull the miracle four-outer boat on the river in standard "sick life" fashion. =)
In continuing with that fashion, I picked up A-A against K-K and 10-10 with seven players left to bust two people. I had over 1.5 million and about half the chips in play five-handed after that. The second stack was about 400k.
I never looked back from there, and managed marked cards lenses to only be down $280.97 for the day. Considering what I was able to make up for with a $75 tournament, I doubt I've ever been so happy to almost break even for a session in my life!

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Total tournaments played: 31
Total amount of buy-ins: $20,073.71 (new record!)
Total number of cashes: 3
- 193/2820 in Sunday Brawl, $451.20
- 119/3397 in Tilt $750 gtd, $750
- 1/1,203 in Tilt $75, $18,261.54
Length of session: 12:47
Total amount of cashes/bounties: $19,792.74
Net win/loss for the day: -$280.97
Net win/loss in online tournaments on Sundays since the start of the Sunday Report (February 7, 2010): +$187,938.32
Matt Stout