Whewww! That Was a Jam-Packed November!!! Tales from the road...

Well, we're coming to the close of another month. It's been an insane one for sure. I'm tellin you... these weeks, months, and years grinding away at poker all seem to flyyy by.

A lot of cool stuff happened this month. I started off with my trip to Jacksonville, Florida to play the WPT Jacksonville Main Event. It seems like the deck and I were at war throughout this tourney. Despite the cards not going my way, I still really enjoyed sitting at one of the toughest tables I've had this year...

                                     Seat 1: Tony Dunst Seat 2: Me Seat 3: Matt Stout Seat 4: Jonathan Little Seat 5: Chad Batista Seat 7: Todd Terry Seat 8: Nick Grippo

Despite being entertaining, it wasn't a fruitful trip. And so I headed back to Atlantic City to play in the Borgata Fall Open. The deck continued to slam me there. I ran up a very healthy stack in the 1k 6max event there, getting it up to about 100k at 800/1600. It was around then that I got into a massive pot when I got in KK vs JJ in a 3bet pot on a 572dd flop. He rivered the jack to bust me from the event.

After the close of Borgata Fall Open, I finally got a few days off to spend with my family for Thanksgiving! We had an amazing home-cooked meal, and our annual Gingerbread House Contest among myself and my sisters. Here are the cute houses we came up with this year!! My sisters' house ended up beating us. The winning house is the one with the cute ice skating rink out front!

That very evening, as soon as I could get the icing rinsed off of my hands, I was out on the road again, this time heading to Montreal for the WPT Montreal Main Event. I left my family's home at 6pm for the 8.5hr drive. After a long haul, I finally saw my way though the US-Candian border. 

For the past few years, I have these occasional moments... when I'm laying in bed...when I'm driving the car from stop to stop... where I become deeply introspective/retrospective about my life to this point. It's a moment where all the things I feel blessed for culminate into one strong emotional punch and I just randomly burst into tears in complete and utter thankfulness. It's overwhelming. My heart skips. I lose my breath. It's euphoric. It's absurd. Moments like these bring me to a place where I am just so grateful for the ways of the universe that have led me down my path, and have molded me into the person I am today. Can't wait for all that is to come!  Ok end rant.

Pulling into Montreal, I could tell this would be a city that had a vibe I'd love. I had one of these moments as I came into town, feeling a sense of overwhelming thanks for having the life that I have. Such a beautiful city but not so far from home that you feel out-of-touch or out-of-place necessarily. Such a unique experience!

  We even got some snow while up there...

 

The casino in Montreal where they held the WPT event was called Playground Poker Club. It was a really nice establishment. Great food, comfy setting, and amazing staff!

As you guys n gals may have read or seen, I did run deep in the Main Event in Montreal. First place winner received a massive $750,000! I ran pretty absurd this tournament, with a ton of ups and downs, and a lot of grinding a shortstack and waiting for good spots. I ran up a stack...

....but ended up busting in 14th place for 25k when I lost ak vs t5s for a stack good for 2nd in chips with 14 players left. I'm still happy as always to have made a great run, and to have had a chance to play for such serious money! And of course, always happy to have a 5-figure score to add to the resume!