Hurricane Hitting our House!!!

  Well, as it turns out, the house I rented for the winter down in the Atlantic City area is smack in the middle of where this upcoming hurricane is supposed to hit.

We went out on an evening drive around the hood to check out what was going on as far as storm-prep around here. 

The Voice in My Head Leads to a Ring on My Finger!!! OMG WEEEEEE!

      Well, as you all may have read in my previous entry, I had a ton of drama this past month. I had a planned trip to WPT South Africa that got canceled at the absolute last minute, which led to my ending up at the Hammond WSOP Circuit Series. Read about all the drama in my previous post, "Didn't See Lions. But LOOK .. it's a RANTelope!!"

It was an insane experience deal with all that craziness with Mr Lentin of ShuffleUpPoker.com. After that roller coaster ride, and after some motivation from those closest to me... I decided to, last-minute, trek out to Hammond(right outside of Chicago) for the circuit series.

Didn't See Lions. But LOOK .. it's a RANTelope!!

 ***Guys n Gals... before you read the story below, I'd like to take a moment to reflect on this community that we love so much. Now, while "we" love the poker community, much of the world views poker as gambling, and most of the world doesn't agree with "gambling." We are a minority in a global sense. But hey, we love the game!

As lovers of the game, we must be aware of the image that the poker industry puts forth to the rest of the world. The world thinks that our community is over-ridden with ethical issues, bad financial management, and addiction/mental health problems. The story I am about to tell luckily will remain isolated from the mainstream(IE you won't be seeing a story on this blog on CNN ;)). It really is only for the eyes of those concerned... that being the poker community. 

I feel that the man mentioned in this blog is a threat to a major leg to the poker community... The WPT brand. If something bad were to be associated with the brand or something really shady went down... it would not only hurt WPT but the entire poker community. Luckily this issue I had with Gary Lentin is manageable and fixable before more damage is done. I'd feel awful if I never told people about this and heard down the line that more corruption was occurring. But if something bigger or worse were to occur as this man continues to work his way into the poker community... I honestly fear of what may happen. Gary Lentin has shown me his true colors.. and I feel unsafe like I may be inviting a burglar into my own home. After reading this blog, I hope you guys understand why I feel like I must protect my home... the poker community. 

Looking Forward to an African Safari Experience!!

  My itinerary for South Africa is starting to come together! I'm psyched for Cape Town, and the chance to play some WPT events while in the area... but the thing I'm looking forward to the most is the once in a lifetime opportunity to go on an African safari!

Cape Town with Melanie Weisner for some R&R pre-WPT

          The more we have discussed this trip, the more excited we become. Thanks to our mutual friend, Ronit Chamani, we've both been made aware of how cool of a trip we could make out of this WPT stop to Emperor's Palace in South Africa. Ronit has a lot of experience with South Africa and has given us the scoop on what we can expect there. She's been super helpful in filling us in on all the cool activities, sights, tastes, and memorable experiences that we can look forward to in South Africa.

We haven't 100% confirmed all of the fun things we are going to do, but here are a few things that I found that seem like amazing experiences in Cape Town that I would love to do. I my research, I've come to find that Cape Town is actually atop many top 10 lists of Best Places to Visit. Maybe we will go to the African Dance Theater and try to pick up on some new moves....

Weeeeee!! ...Running Good Again: Passport FOUND!!

Soooooo relieved. After all the stressing and absurdities, the passport has been located... with birth certificate!!! Thanks to Mom n Step-pops for the scour back at home, as it was sitting on my desk under some mail.

Looks like I'm still on for South Africa!! Lesson learned though... keeping birth certificate at home from now on as my back-up for last-minute passport needs.

South Africa WPT Trip DERAILED?!?!?! FMLLLL!

OMGGGG FMLLLL!!!! So, I'm supposed to be heading to South Africa this upcoming weekend. Today was supposed to be a laundry/pack/organize details day. As such, I have to book my flight out, and remembered about that little "you need to know where your passport is" detail.  I CANNOT FIND MINE!!!!!!  How have I waited till this last minute to locate my passport?! I'm an idiot :(

I travel around so much, and I always bring my passport with me just in case I lose my I.D. I've scoured my entire house. My darling mother has scoured my room at her house... and to no avail.
Maybe I left it somewhere?! Maybe it got thrown out somehow?!

My Next Poker Trip Announced! WPT South Africa

I'm psyched to let you guys know that my next poker trip will likely be one of the most amazing trips I've ever taken. This year's latest WPT schedule brought about a new addition with the stop at Emperor's Palace, in Johannesburg, South Africa, which will be running from October 19th through October 26th, 2012. This is one of those stops where I'll have the rare opportunity to actually make a vacation out of a poker trip. BONUS!!

For those of you who have followed me this past year and a half on my live poker grind, you know that I've had to grind in some not-so-amazing locations. I go to places in the middle of nowhere sometimes to play poker simply because that is where I feel I find the best value. In the middle of nowhere, you get to play against more recreational home-game type players, and less pros tend to travel to such locations.   

WPT Borgata...September 2012

 After an amazing and emotional summer, I got to come back to my old stomping ground at The Borgata for their annual WPT Open. I always love coming back to The Borgata. This is one casino that knows how to treat and listen to their players. It was obvious that they'd heard our pleas, as this most recent Borgata schedule was jam packed with tons of amazing re-entry style tournaments. These tournaments are so nice because they allow for a bit more wiggle room to play more creatively and aggressively in the early stages of the tournament/s.

As per usual, I found a comfy rental home not too far from the casino, unpacked my life, set up Boozer's(the cat) kitty bed, and rested up for the big series. I came into event #1 feeling great and ready to go! The Borgata pulled in a record-breaking field of just over 3,700 entries in their opening $500 re-entry $1,000,000 guaranteed prize event. I built up a sick stack on my second bullet in the event, running my initial 25-30k starting stack up to over 300k by night's end. I came into day 2 with 310k at 2500/5000 blinds.