When the Yanks Go Marching In
I just returned from a fun little trip with a few poker players. On Monday, I flew into Philly and was picked up by Ray "Exitonly" Coburn and his friend Cris who live in Jersey. We made the five hour drive to Pittsburgh to spend the night at Luke "IWEARGOGGLES" Staudenmaier's townhouse where Matt "mlagoo" LaGarde was staying for the FTOPS series.
When we arrived, Matt had a laptop full of online poker tables going and Luke was playing a couple of tables himself. Each of these guys have enjoyed quite a lot of success in the poker world. Matt won the Sunday Million once when it was a $1,000 buy-in and Luke finished 3rd in a WPT event last year for nearly half a million.
Ray fired up a bunch of tables himself while Cris showed his truly sick prowess for Jeopardy. You would have almost thought we were watching a re-run listening to him answer probably two-thirds of the questions correctly.
We all got to witness Matt pull off a once-in-a-lifetime online poker accomplishment. He won not one, not two, but three online MTTs that night. First was a PLO rebuy event with 110 players, so not a huge deal. Next was a NLHE freezeout on Full Tilt with 450 players. When he won that, he was pretty much cemented as a god for the night despite being down to the last few tables in a huge $50 freezeout on Stars (1,150 players).
Sure enough, a couple hours later Matt was heads-up in that event. He had to survive a flush draw at one point, but I don't think any of us doubted that the river card would be a diamond given how he was running. In all, he won about $21k on the night, a score we all agreed came nowhere close to providing a feeling of accomplishment that winning three tournaments did.
Due to being really tired and low on funds, I only played one event, a $216 turbo FTOPS event that had over 2,000 players. It was going really awesome until I lost a 40 big-blind all-in preflop pot with Jacks versus some guy's Ace-Five when an Ace hit the river with about 200 players left. That relegated me to the same sour mood Ray was in from washing out of every tournament he played.
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The next day, Ray, Cris, and I left Luke's in Pittsburgh for the three hour drive to Columbus to attend the US vs. Mexico World Cup qualifying match. I've developed a casual interest in soccer after becoming addicted to Fifa '09 on PS3. Cris is a huge soccer fanatic. The long car rides gave me a chance to learn a ton about the sport from picking his brain.
At the game, we sat in the Sam's Army section behind goal. Sam's Army is a huge group of US soccer supporters that dress in red, stand for the entire game, and shout/sing chants non-stop (including during halftime while in line to use the restroom). It was without a doubt the most fun I've had at a sporting event. When the US scored its first goal (they went on to win 2-0 in a game where Mexico never looked like they stood a chance) the elation in the Sam's Army section could have been cut with a knife.
At some point, I found myself in possession of a colonial-style American flag with '76 written in the middle of the stars. I'm not really big on nationalism, but it was pretty fun waving that thing in the air as we marched out of the stadium high on beer and pride.
Badass double-rainbow following downpour in parking lot before game
Sam's Army greets the US Team
Sam's Army after victory
When we arrived, Matt had a laptop full of online poker tables going and Luke was playing a couple of tables himself. Each of these guys have enjoyed quite a lot of success in the poker world. Matt won the Sunday Million once when it was a $1,000 buy-in and Luke finished 3rd in a WPT event last year for nearly half a million.
Ray fired up a bunch of tables himself while Cris showed his truly sick prowess for Jeopardy. You would have almost thought we were watching a re-run listening to him answer probably two-thirds of the questions correctly.
We all got to witness Matt pull off a once-in-a-lifetime online poker accomplishment. He won not one, not two, but three online MTTs that night. First was a PLO rebuy event with 110 players, so not a huge deal. Next was a NLHE freezeout on Full Tilt with 450 players. When he won that, he was pretty much cemented as a god for the night despite being down to the last few tables in a huge $50 freezeout on Stars (1,150 players).
Sure enough, a couple hours later Matt was heads-up in that event. He had to survive a flush draw at one point, but I don't think any of us doubted that the river card would be a diamond given how he was running. In all, he won about $21k on the night, a score we all agreed came nowhere close to providing a feeling of accomplishment that winning three tournaments did.
Due to being really tired and low on funds, I only played one event, a $216 turbo FTOPS event that had over 2,000 players. It was going really awesome until I lost a 40 big-blind all-in preflop pot with Jacks versus some guy's Ace-Five when an Ace hit the river with about 200 players left. That relegated me to the same sour mood Ray was in from washing out of every tournament he played.
----------
The next day, Ray, Cris, and I left Luke's in Pittsburgh for the three hour drive to Columbus to attend the US vs. Mexico World Cup qualifying match. I've developed a casual interest in soccer after becoming addicted to Fifa '09 on PS3. Cris is a huge soccer fanatic. The long car rides gave me a chance to learn a ton about the sport from picking his brain.
At the game, we sat in the Sam's Army section behind goal. Sam's Army is a huge group of US soccer supporters that dress in red, stand for the entire game, and shout/sing chants non-stop (including during halftime while in line to use the restroom). It was without a doubt the most fun I've had at a sporting event. When the US scored its first goal (they went on to win 2-0 in a game where Mexico never looked like they stood a chance) the elation in the Sam's Army section could have been cut with a knife.
At some point, I found myself in possession of a colonial-style American flag with '76 written in the middle of the stars. I'm not really big on nationalism, but it was pretty fun waving that thing in the air as we marched out of the stadium high on beer and pride.
posted by Cory Albertson at
1:00 PM
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