The Rio was alive with energy today as poker players, fans, and press flooded the Rio for the start of the WSOP 2008. †It was a familiar scene for me as I have been playing cash games and railing my friends there for the past two years, but this year I actually got to play. †I happened to run into my manager Nick Rainey and his girlfriend and my assistant Channing at the valet and we walked in together talking about details of my new website.†

Overall, I love the new site and hope you all do too. †The old site had some hilarious stories but since my bankroll (and my friends bankrolls), have grown since we launched shipitholla.com three years ago I figured it was time for a more professional looking site. †All of the Ship It Holla Ballas remain good friends and are almost sure to take down some bracelets this year as everyone is finally of age to play.†

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I arrived at my table and it was stacked with pros. †Newhizzle, John Jundra, Greg Raymer, my good friend David “Raptor” Benfield were all at my table in addition to my friend Mark who is a doctor in Vegas and a very good poker player. † I got short stacked quickly when I raised to 800 from the hijack with Js9s in level 1 and Greg Raymer called from the call blind. †The flop was As7c6c and he checked and I quickly fired 1k, hoping he didn’t have an ace or a strong draw and would fold. †He quickly called. †The turn came the 10s, a beautiful card for me since I now had a gutter and an inside straight draw and I bet 1800. †Greg quickly made 6000 total with 11000 behind and I called. †He announced he was all in the dark and I smiled inside as I knew I would stack him if a spade hit the river or any eight. †But the river was a blank and I folded. † Greg was a very friendly and down to earth guy, and it was a pleasure playing with him even though he talked about poker hands the whole time. †Having played over two million hands of poker I hate hearing hand stories, especially since I try to avoid talking about poker at the table as it can give away free information about your play.†

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The next big pot happened when a few people limped in with Qc Jc with blinds of 150/300 . †The flop came perfectly for me Tc9s2c and everyone checked to me. †I bet 1000 and the second to last limper called. †The turn was a 9c competing my flush and my opponent checked and I bet 1800. He called and the river was the Kh. †He bet 3600. †This was a very weird line for him to take with this hand and I was confused. †I couldn’t figure out what he could have, but I figured the only hand he would play this way that beat me was K9 and there were many other hands he could have that would call a shove. †So †I went all in and he called with 5c6c for a lower flush and I was back in business.

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I then got all in vs a very aggressive player in a blind battle with 5h7h vs 3s5s on a 9h6h3d board. †He had the best hand at the moment but with double-gutted straight draw, flush draw and overcard I was a 2:1 favorite. †The turn came the Jd and I was sweating the river but the 8s came down making me a straight and doubling me up and giving me 2X the average chips. †That didn’t last long though.

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John Juanda opened UTG to 1500 in 300/500 and I called with black eights in the hijack, and the small blind also called. †The flop came down AsQc8h Bingo! †The small blind checked, J.J. bet 4500 and I just called. †The small blind, who was an older gentleman, made it 11000 total. †J.J tanked for a while and folded and I thought briefly. †I had a strong read that the gentleman had a big hand but I figured he’d almost always re-raise AA pre-flop and normally re-raise QQ pre-flop so I just called planning to get it in after the turn. I figured his most likely hands were AQ, A8 and AK. The turn was the Ks and he shoved all in for 15000 more or so and I called. †He flipped up QQ and I couldn’t hit my one outer. †We then went on break and I went on tilt.

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A few hands after break I got it all in pre-flop for my last 10,000 with AKs vs the same gentlemen’s pocket jacks. †He won the coin flip and my first WSOP event was over way too soon.

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Tournaments drive me crazy because I feel so disappointed afterwards. Only one person really goes home happy. †And since you don’t get to win very often tournaments are definitely bad for the psyche!

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Beside the tournament I’ve been having a lot of fun. †I went out two nights ago with Peter “Apathy” Jetten, to LAX night club at the Luxor. †Peter was the first good friend I made through poker and me and him have had countless out of control drunken adventures, many I wouldn’t retell unless under torture. † Anyways, the two of us got our own table, ordered some bottles and proceeded to relive old adventures, chat up girls and relive more old adventures. †Around 3am we stumbled out of the club and met some young Canadian girls who were degening it up at the slot machines. †We decided to try to win back the money we spent on the table and bankrolled the girls for blackjack; despite their protests telling us “not to gamble for so much money “. †We bought in for $500 and assured them we weren’t going to lose our rent money. †I attempted to keep track of the count (the ratio of high to low cards in the deck), and would yell the deck is hot whenever the count was good. †Apparently, I was too drunk to be counting successfully as they counted to let us play. †When I thought the count was positive (I wasn’t too sure as I was really drunk) me Peter and the girls decided to go all in and we won every bet. †We were $1400 richer and had won back all the table money. †Mission Accomplished.

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We then decided to take all 6 of the girls back to the 10,000sq foot home Peter is renting with 9 other poker players to continue the party. †Me and three of the girls went and jumped on Todd Sicily’s bed to wake him up. †I joked with Todd, that I’m such a good friend I bring drunken girls back from the club straight to his bed. †Unfortunately for the ladies Todd Is a loving and committed boyfriend. †I fell in love with a beautiful Canadian girl named Michelle but unfortunately for me she is a loving and committed girlfriend. †I tried to remind her that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas but she wasn’t having any of it. †Anyways, I taxied it home with the girls around 7am and just fully recovered from the hangover (two days later)! †I can’t go out in Vegas too often because everyone flies in once a year for a weekend and wants to party to the point of near death and I just can’t keep up!†

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My next tournament is going to be Tuesday, we are working on a live update function on my website, so check back Tuesday for that. †

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Thanks,

Andrew