So I’m back from vacation and wanted to take a few minutes to give everyone some updates. First we will start with vacation. This was one of those family vacations where you rent a house at the beach for a week and just mostly relax. The only stress is created by the fact that you are trying to relax while 1) entertaining your children (2 little girls – 4 and 10 yrs old) 2) living with your parents again (even if only for a week) and 3) trying not to fight with your older brother (like you did when you were little kids.) Despite all these factors working against me, I had a great time and my kids were satisifed with their summer vacation. Because as any of you with children know, the last thing you want to see after putting in all this effort to have a good time is see a sad face on one of your kids.

I had not planned on playing any poker since the house did not have internet access. But once I got there I realized I could access the neighbor’s wireless network. So after I put the kids to bed a few of the nights and finished off some beers with the family, I logged on a few times to play some cards. I made 3 FTs but could not close the deal in any of them takign 5th, 5th and 8th. Normally this would leave me disappointed at missing the big money but since I didnt expect to play at all and had actually made a few bucks while on vacation I wasn’t going to get too upset.

I returned home feeling rested and ready to go. With big online events like FTOPS and WCOOP coming up, I’m hoping to make a big score in the next few months.

Now on to the HH Contest. Thanks to all those that responded. I selected 2 winners (Dusty and Millman) and to anyone that submitted an entry I offered to give one fee hour of coaching as well as a 50% discount on additional lessons with any purchase during the month of July. The results of the hand were as follows:

Dealt to mscell [Kc Ks]
Simbaku folds
AKALEFTY folds
mscell raises to 600
schwags33 folds
Nut Insider folds
THE GODFATHER folds
Francix calls 600
RAWilson folds
PearlJammed folds
*** FLOP *** [3s 5d 7s]
mscell bets 1,100
Francix raises to 3,200
mscell ?

I ended up shoving and he called. He turned over pocket 3s for a set and I lost a good portion of my chips.

Good luck at the tables!

- Mark

The HH contest is over and the winners have been notified. I’m going on vacation and don’t have time for a long blog entry so I’ll give a full update when I return.

- Mark

I have received a bunch of responses for the HH contest. I will accept submissions through 7/11. Then I will review everything and announce the winners hopefully by the end of the week.

Now back to the grind!