First off I'm gonna say that I'm pretty disappointed in myself for the totality of the month... I just couldn't get back into a grinding mode like at all, I've played 0 hand since my last graph I posted. Like I said I'm kind of angry at myself for being so lazy, but it's summer and it's nice outside and I'm having a blast and playing a lot of golf so I guess it's okay. I'd have a lot of golf updates to talk about but I'll save those for another time since it probably is boring as shit .

Let's hope that it starts raining poisonous farting snakes in September so I can just sit my ass and grind a bit.

I just realized that I don't feel like writing that much and I don't have anything that important to talk about, so I guess this is it. The morale of this blog post will be : enjoy the rest of Summer guys because it's AWESOME !

EDIT : Actually I just thought about a pretty funny story I want to share.

So since I live in Quebec and I'm Canadian and stuff, I definitely am by default a big hockey fan. But to say that I suck at the game would be a huge understatement... I barely know how to ice skate.

But I kind of always wanted to play, and I've got friends who were starting a team of total noobs (and some non-total noobs let's say) for a garage-league this winter. And they didn't have a goaltender. And I like to play goaltender when we play street hockey.

Sooo I apparently became goaltender for a ice hockey team, all that still without knowing how to skate... well let's just say I can't skate backwards, which is something I assume could be useful as a goaltender. So I went to the store today and had to buy the whole deal since I don't have anything. The salesman didn't really looked like he understood why I'd want to buy all that without knowing how to skate but whatever, he laughed it off and probably was happy with such an easy sale...

"Which skates do you want?"... "which skates should I get?"... those, okay, sold, thank you. It went like that for pretty much every piece of equipment and damn there are a lot of those in such a uniform.

Now I really can't wait to see how bad I'll be in nets, I hope I'll at least be decent enough so that they don't throw me out after 5 games, leaving me with a useless brand new goalie equipment. I'll keep you tuned on that !

Ahhhh poker is so good (wouldn't have said the same thing at hand 3500)... it had been so long since the last one, I have to post it.

Giggy on the keyboard.

Long time no see... haven't blogged much lately well because I don't have much to blog about. I've restarted the grinding (OH YEAH) this week after like 2 months of near-total-absence. Did a lot of thinking, tried to get my motivation back and start playing my absolute A-game everytime I play, which has worked damn well so far. I'm playing better than ever and don't feel any tilt... I def. hope I can sustain that + the motivation for a while now. I actually talk about that kind of shit a lot in a video I just finished recording that should be up on Thursday.

Played a lot of golf lately of course, including a 2-day tournament last weekend. Tournament golf is so different mentally and everything I was eager to see how I'd react and play after not playing any tournaments for like 5 years now. It was a disaster... I was actually dead last in the AAA class after the first round. I got my shit together in the second round and saved my face, but it was still just very disappointing. I was happy with a couple of things though, especially with the fact that I just couldn't get frustrated like I did before (I was pretty much a berserking asshole on the course in my junior years). Looks like poker actually really learned me something useful :). Really looking forward to build on that and on the whole mental aspect of golf in the upcoming months as I still want to become a beast at that game.

The swing is absolutely all over the place for now though, I'm actually probably gonna be looking for a real coach tomorrow ;).

And finally an announcement for all the video watchers... I'm looking for some hand histories about bet-sizing. Questions that you might have considering that specific aspect of the game... Just shoot me hand histories (with as much info as possible on the reads of villain and your image and flow and shit as always) and a quick question about bet-sizing and I'll collect the best ones to put in a video!

Shoot all that to bluefiregiggy@hotmail.com thank you very much. The better the questions the better the video :).

And now random pictures from the Internets to keep everyone happy

Not much to talk about, I've been playing golf for the past 7 straight days and not a single hand of poker . This might be the first time in my life I'm not missing a day in a week to play a full 18... I'm motivated as shit to become a machine at this game, and I feel like I'm very close to really stepping up, gotta keep grinding!

So I'll entertain you with some funny videos.

First one is the new Jon Lajoie, and it's definitely one of his best, I challenge people to find a better absurd humor clip than that :

www.youtube.com/watch

Next ones have all been made at QuadJacks... didn't know the site before but the interviewer is hilarious and it's all been made with good friends from the Québec poker scene (third one is the funniest imo) :

Watch "Jonathan Duhamel Pascal Lefrancois Main Event WSOP 2010"

Watch "Quadjacks Quebecois WSOP Main Event 2010"

And finally Jonathan and Jason you're my heros! Can't wait to get drunk and make noise on ESPN railing you both. And Passs you're obviously an horrible disappointment for bubbling the November 9, I knew you'd never do anything good of your life.

Okay I'm the most ridiculous swapping / staking luckbox ever.

Long story short... I've swapped like 30% total of my Main Event this year. On that, 5% was with Jonathan Driscoll who went out in 39th place (great run ! ).

5% went to Pascal Lefrançois who is sitting with around 16mirrion right now, and 5% to Jonathan Duhamel who has 10.5mirrion.

27 left, tomorrow is the final day before the November Nine. Québec had such a sick WSOP this year it's just so incredible, it HAS to culminate in one of us making it to the November Nine. ONE TIME GUYS, and a double final would just be absurd.

And finally, best of luck to Jason Senti, you're my 3rd favorite out of the guys left! Under normal circumnstances I'd be 100% rooting for you... bahhh just make the final as well and I'll love you just as much!

 Well short blog post here I'm not on my computer and I'm still pretty tilted...

Quick story short I just busted the Main. Starting stacks 30k I got that as high as 100k on day1 but finished at like 25k day1, still lots of room.

Started day2 today with 25k... my day went like this : 25k---15k---55k---12k---45k---20k---busto. All that without ever being all-in?!? Pretty weird day but I feel like I played really good, and I busted in what might be the most tilting way...

Blinds 400-800, first hand after dinner break. I open KQhh early position, 2 calls.

Flop 772r, I cbet like 3k in 6k, 1 call.

Turn T, 2nd barrel around 5k in 12k, call. At that point I'm really confident given my read on the player + the hand that he has a midpair like 90% of the time and is folding to my river shove close to always.

River 3, I ship my last 10k in like 22k, he says "ohhhh I'm pretty sure I sucked out on you" and snaps with 33... I'm like ahhh Jesus were you calling a river shove just for the record? And he answers something along the lines of "of course not".

Anyways I pretty much got 2-outered there, pretty sad way to end. 

That's pretty much it as far as what I remember about specific hands... I lost a big pot in day1 when I got a bit too aggro and flopped top pair in a 4-bet pot I probably had nothing to do in and was outkicked. Apart from that I really feel like I played very very good poker, which is also true for all the events I played.

I'm like 0/5 in big flips too since Vegas so that never helps. I guess the deep run (and a first ever live cash (yeah I suck)) is gonna be for next year. I'm getting a flu too from the A/C-Desert combination + the crappy living style and rythm so I can't wait to be back home and get back on the golf grind!

Vegas certainly was a blast though, see you next year !

Hey !

Haven't updated much in Vegas I know... Couple of reasons for that...

1. I haven't had anything that would ever look like an interesting run or a good stack in any tournament I've played.

2. My stupid laptop officially died... R.I.P. Worst part about it is that I did not even have the pleasure to smash it or destroy it or whatever, it just died by itself. Don't ask me to explain you why, my answer is "because it's a fucking retarded dumbshit machine". So not as much Internets for me.

3. This is not a reason, I just felt like a list of 2 things was too short.

So, with that being said, I have the Main Event left baby! I played like 5 tournaments and did not even make it to a dinner break... Feel like I've played very well in all of those but just never got anything going and didn't win any sort of flip. Guess I'm just keeping all that for the Main, I'll keep you updated on that one for sure! Also if any of you is playing the Main, update me in that blog post if you feel like it, wanna know if any BFPers are making a sick run.

Don't know which day I'll play, probably day 1c.

Apart from that, not much interesting going on... I staked a lot of guys and still have a lot of action on people in the Main Event. So far I think I'm about breakeven or a little down in staking, some of my horses had nice deep runs but they pretty much came up just a bit short. A lot of Quebecers had sick results too, great year for us as we probably have well over 2millions in combined winnings, maybe like 2.5. So overall big success for us as a "nation", whatever happens in the Main. I think that by the end the tournament officials were getting kind of sick of us railing all of our friends' final tables as we always find a way to be as loud and unpleasant as possible .

Outside of poker we did the usual Vegas stuff which were (and still are) a lot of fun. Outside the drinking and partying and playing Poggins, we went skydiving a couple of days ago, was my 2nd time and seriously, if you've never done it, please do it at least once. You seriously have to, the feeling is just ridiculous!

Other nice thing we did is play dodgeball on trampolines, 3 times(?!?) It's a place called SkyZone, where the whole ground is basically made of trampolines and you can play dodgeball (yeah I know, nice description). It looks something like that, minus the 8 year old kids :

I certainly recommend it to any group in Vegas, it is a shitload of fun.

Also a random pic of our house with like 12 bedrooms :

Pretty nice from the outside, but the inside is even better. Not much like baller furniture or whatever, it's just really well disposed and everything is perfectly set up and spacious. Except for that bedroom which also serves as the only hallway to get from a part of the house to another...

Finally on BFP stuff... looks like you guys have liked my Takechip vs. IWinFlips video and that's cool. BUT, Takechip is a fucking retard, and this very morning, like 10 hours before I wanted to make part 2, he thought that I no longer needed the footage and just deleted it from his computer. So it looks like there's not gonna be a part 2. I was probably tilted like 10X more that everyone else who wanted to see part 2 combined, but I guess I'll use that as him owning me a favor for later, so I'll try to work on something else with him .

This is getting pretty long but I have one more nice story to tell that just popped up in my mind:

Couple of weeks ago we go out to XS at Encore (I think)... We get there already pretty drunk and get in the lineup. First guy in front of us : Alexander fucking Ovechkin. You have to understand that I'm Canadian, and that this particular guy is probably the biggest sports idol of any Canadian (even if he's Russian, anways).So I'm drunk and stuff and tell him I have to shake his hand, which he does with a smile even though he did look pretty tired of people like me, and I really don't blame him.

Now he tries to get in the bar but, being Mr. Ovechkin himself, he (rightfully so) thought that he wouldn't need to put classy shoes on to get in a bar. Unfortunately the doormen didn't think the way we did, or any person with half a brain would, so they don't want to let him in. This is obv. retarded as he and his Russian friends are certainly gonna spew like hell in the bar and probably get a bigger party going.

So, we try to explain to the doormen that Mr. Ovechkin should'nt have to wear goddamn shoes to get in, which they don't undertand. So I have this idea... Ovechkin is about to leave and I'm like HEY, come back here.

I tell him : you put my shoes on, and I'm gonna find a way to get other shoes. I offer 200$ to the doorman for his own shoes and he snap accepts... at this point the doorman is basically removing his shoes and he standing there in his socks.

Unfortunately the Great Russian didn't like the plan and decided to politely refuse and go to another bar. I know the ending kind of sucks but this had so much epic potential win written all over it that I still think it's a kind of win.

Cliffs :

We get in a bar where Alexander Ovechkin doesn't, but it sucks because he's not in it.

And I'm gonna use one of my ONE TIMEs for that Main Event... ONE TIME BABY!

Just busted the 25k 6max...

I arrive a bit late at the table. Table draw :

Seat 1 : Takechip

Seat 2 : Old guy

Seat 3 : Me

Seat 4 : luckychewy

Seat 5 : 2eazy

Seat 6 : TheAshman

Might be the very worst table of the whole damn tournament. Funny thing about it is that takechip and me didn't know 2eazy in real life, just knew that he was a French-Canadian from Montreal as well. At the break we meet him in the bathroom he's like "damn there must be 3 Quebecers in the whole event and we're all seated together (in French)". We're like whoooo are you, anyways I thought it was pretty funny, very nice guy as well!

Anyways with that ridiculous table draw I manage to lose 3/4 of my chips to the old guy... Really don't feel like retelling hands right now, I'll just say that I don't think I've made a single mistake for the short time I lasted, ran a couple of successfull bluffs but just didn't flop shit and kept doing my very own speciality : running into the fucking absolute nuts every time I play a hand.

It's insane how hard people hit flop against me I've never experienced anything quite like that since I'm here... let's just say I'm like 0/6 with Aces live since I'm in Vegas, I mean I never even won the blinds with them.

Funniest thing is that I ended up busting to my very own lifelong nemesis (and friend) takechip, with my last 30bb going in on a 3TQQ turn with KQ against his..... QT.

Anyways enough for the whining, sorry for that one I just felt like decompressing a bit. Takechip had a very good stack when he busted me so gl him.

will reblog later, cya !

Okay this one is apparently called "Poggins", in the honor of "Jayggins" / Jason Hallée / the inventor of the greatest game invented.

Quick note on the inventor : he's from Sherbrooke and he made a final table a couple of days ago in a 1,5k event, finishing 7th. You deserved that bracelet more than anyone else in the world (for your invention of course), but we warned you to watch out for the small pockets and you didn't listen.

HERE'S A PICTURE OF THE GENIUS :

Okay now to the actual game (what the fuck is he talking about?)... this is what we've been playing to pass the time while getting drunk for the last 10 days and probably for the next 20 ones as well.

The game is best played 4 or 5 handed, although any amount of people will work (from like 2 to 8).

You distribute 6 cards to everyone playing (no order, no dealer, you can pay a stripper to do that part (preferably (we haven't done it yet))). Every player makes three 2-cards hands out of his 6 cards. Those hands can't be changed.

You deal 3 flops of 3 cards face up on the table (or whatever the fuck you're playing on). The goal is to take your three 2-cards hands and match them with the boards out there, one hand per board. Players turn their hole cards face up once everyone has placed their 2-cards hands, and the turn and river for every board is dealt.

Every hand you win is worth one point. Sweeping the 3 boards is worth a bonus, depending on how many players are playing (normally like 3 points bonus for a 4-5 players game). Every point is worth whatever you want it to be worth... we usually play at 50$ a point. At that price you'll probably end up with guys being from -2.5k to +2.5k in a couple of hours period (maybe even more).

It is actually pretty simple as you can see, but it drives people absolutely mad and it's like the very best gambling game ever invented, trust me. I'm getting raped from all angles so far, but I'm having big plans on pulling a big comeback anytime soon (f me).

You will thank me later.

As a bonus to this post, please enjoy that picture (story might follow in the next blog post) :

Giggyyyy live from Vegas

Quick overview of Vegas so far : we're having a total blast, the house is like a joke just how big it is. There are like 11 rooms and we're about that number I think, just so much fun.

I've played 2 events so far : 2.5k 6max and 1.5k today...

2.5k 6max : Started out well, 7.5k stacks with 25-50 first level. I grind my stack up to like 10-11k and then lose a big flip that would've gotten me to like 22k. JJ vs AK BB vs Button, still not sure if I should've just flatted preflop and tried to play a smaller pot, but our table was pretty good (good players, so a bad table basically) and just felt like playing a bit more high variance. A on the flop I drop to around 3k, fool around a bit with that and bust shortly after, basically the very last hand before the first 20min. break.

Also quick shout to the guys at the table in that event, if you read this it was really nice/fun playing with you!

1.5k today : Arrive 30 minutes late (late reg.) first level blinds 25-50 4.5k stacks I win 0 hand and drop to around 3.8k. One of the first hands of the second level... CO limps, Button makes it 400 I flat BB with AQo, CO folds... pot 950 I have like 3.4k back. Flop Q95cc, I check-raise and obv. get it in, Button has Q9 good game. I think it's actually the first time I won 0 hand in a tournament .

But I'm far from tilted, was feeling great and playing great in both events, picking up tells and patterns and stuff and I'm sure I can play my live A-game easily this year. Feel like I've played great so far for the little I've played. Other than that everything else is lots of fun like I said, don't know when I'll play my next tourney maybe tomorrow I'll keep you posted!

take care !

TheGEEKXIV

Very nice comments guys, but I ended up just drawing the name out of a hat ;). It did entertain me for sure though, which was obviously the only purpose .

I'm still not playing poker but goddamnit I'm getting excited for the WSOP. I know I know, I hate live poker but this year is going to be different! I'm actually so full of hope because of some recent success from a couple of buddies and fellow Quebecers...

First shout to Vince Jacques for setting the tone with a very nice 2nd place in event #5 for around 350k. Great job dude !

And then mad props to Pascal Lefrançois for : 1st SHIIIIIPING event #8 and the bracelet! That was actually pretty sick, especially after Vince's run for him to be able to seal the deal as you English people say. And 2nd (and obviously most important) for taking his champion's picture in chest for some (hilarious) reason.

I was so happy for both as they are both great, fun and genuine guys (as well as excellent players). Couldn't have happened to anyone better, and I have a feeling that it's not over for us this year! Even though I had absolutely no stake in both runs, I was seriously happy and still get some internal feelgood just to think about them banking those scores. To be honest, I'm very often guilty of being at least a bit jealous when someone scores a big donkament (a feeling that I'm pretty sure is shared by A LOT of poker players, just human nature I guess) but not that time for some reason. I do hate my life a lot for not being in Vegas yet though, as both final tables seemed insanely fun to rail and both after-tourney parties looked insane as well.

By chance I'll be there by Saturday and I know both guys will still have a lot of partying left in them, and Québec have great runs left as well. Just can't wait to get there, will be staying in a gigantic house with around 10-12 other Quebecers and this is our year baby! We're seriously getting pretty big as a community too and I sincerely believe that population-wise we might be the best in the world baby... Just throwing it out there .

So yep I'm basically planning on going back to work in those live donkaments and see what happens and Jesus Fucking Christ don't let me bubble the first one that's all I ask.

Meanwhile I'm playing tons of golf to practice for hopefully some drunk Vegas golf betting, if anyone reading this will be in Vegas in the next month and is interested in such a thing leave a word, I might try to organize (or find someone less lazy to organize) some sick happening.

take care !

edit : oh and last thing on my head you might want to take a look at my last video (2 parts 3-6 session with the 2nd part being released later) on playing without the initiative, I think it's one of the best vid sessions I've made in quite some time!

Today, I've finished a lip balm stick before losing it. That is all.

Also the 2 guys who haven't replied regarding the contest for a free session you have to do so before this Saturday or you lose by default. mouhahahahahaha

The Queen and The Eight (Q8 for dumb people).

To be absolutely honest, I never thought any of you would be stupid enough to ever guess that but looks like I was wrong . I actually got 3 and a half good answers :

-julhon

-TheGeekXIV

-ducklove

And also the partial mention to RaisingCain for actually putting on a pretty good deduction but just throwing too many hands in it for him to be eligible.

With that said, I'm gonna have to go ahead and trust you guys on your answer. It would have been very easy for any of you to cheat and ask a guy you know who was at the table to give the answer and I hope you didn't do that. If you did it please come clean as I think it's basically cheating... of course you can lie too but well let's just say I hope you could still look at yourself in the mirror after cheating in such a contest... .

So, if all 3 of you guys guessed that clean well firstly congrats, and secondly you're gonna have to have a contest between the 3 of you. I want you guys to write in ONE SINGLE COMMENT of that blog post why I should take YOU instead of the other 2 fuckers for the free coaching session. I know it's silly, but you have to understand that I'm 100% doing that for my very own amusement . gl !

In other news, my 100k hands month might be the worst fail of my entire poker career... we're May 24th and I've played 10k hands of cashgame so far . I absolutely don't feel like playing and basically make up some new excuses for skipping on it every day, but I guess it's alright, I mean I'll play when I'll feel like it. And I know the willingness will come back, so no big deal.

Good news is... I'm actually having my very best month ever, thanks to a heater in those 10k hands + hitting my tourney + staking a machiiiiine (luckbox (rooooooooo_400)).

Also I've recently made a mental commitment in putting as much effort in my golf game for the next couple of years as I did in my poker game in my first couple of years, as in "a whole fucking lot". I just want to start crushing at that game as much as I do in poker. I actually might quit at any point since it's all about having fun (aside from feeding my competitive drive), and if I feel like I'm no longer enjoying it I'll just take it easier. But right now just thinking about the prospect of intensively training for golf-crushing is getting me super pumped so I hope that will last! I guess I'm just masochist though as golf is pretty much the only game I know that can be even more frustrating than poker, but I guess it's that challenge that I really love in both games.

That and the fact that I have way too much freetime, and it's actually the only sport I could still have any hope of becoming really good.

So I'll try to update you semi-regularly on my golf progress in that blog... right now my handicap is at 3.4 but it's not really accurate since I haven't entered 20 games yet since I'm a member at my new place. I'll update you when it's gonna be an official handicap. My goal for now is to be a scratch handicap on May 24th 2011. Wish me good luck !

Okayyy so in my last vid. (When the doctor gets sick part 3), there's a hand at the end where I get called down but don't reveal what the other guy had. I said I wanted to make a contest but couldn't really do it because of PTR, but now I've realized that the guy mucked so there's no way for anyone to know what he had.

So here it comes : if one of you guys can guess the hand he had (no need for the suits, just the 2 cards), you win a free coaching session from yours truly. Session usually is 1h30-2h and I will make you a 10/20 winner during that time (not (unless you already are one (okay enough parentheses))).

Everyone gets only one guess, must be posted as a comment to that blog... for those of you who already guessed in the video comments just repost here please.If there are more than one good guesses I'll either flip between the winners or just give a session to everyone depending on how I feel. I'll give the answer somewhere around Tuesday next week.

GL !

Okay I think I screwed up my 120k hands goal already... I've once again been lazy putting up the hands, shame on me. I do have a pretty big excuse though : I ran like the sun lately and I've never been able to grind so much when I run good.

I don't know I just feel like riding my winnings happiness for the rest of the day when I log a pretty big session, so that's pretty much what happened this month so far. I am playing very very well too when I'm playing so that part of my resolution is clean (by chance), but yeah I'm up like 25buy-ins in 8k hands, plus I hit that SCOOOOOOOOP for around 50k so yeah I'm having a good month and decided to take it more relax than I had planned, which is not necessarily bad given the circumstances :).

Well apart from that not much happening to be honest, I'm taking it easy before Vegas in a month. HABS are once again in a game 7 tomorrow and yeah this shit is ridiculously exciting once again, they're basically on their best playoff run since 93 on a year when no one had any hope. Let's hope they pull it again tomorrow night against Pittsburgh and Cindy Crosby.

I'm also going to Montreal Friday for the inauguration of my friend's new balla house. He's the guy who made a deep run in the Main Event last year (30th) if any of you remember that, Marc-Étienne McLaughlin a.k.a. Captain Irish a.k.a. thenutspt on Stars. Props for him on that house he got built it looks pretty sick, I'll try to post some pics of that party!

That's it I guess, take care !