An old friend came back to me at the end of March. The 'old friend' was Pokershare. I had participated in the first incarnation of Pokershare when they teamed with UB back in September of 2005. They had a great promotion where the first ten players to accumulate 75,000 'sharepoints' (about $25,000 in rake generated) would receive seats to the LA WPT and travel and expense money. I was 3rd in that promotion and halfway to the prize when UB abruptly cancelled the relationship with Pokershare and I was devastated. I played 5 tables, 12 hours a day, for most of the month of October in order to obtain my position. My plan was to finish the contest before Thanksgiving so I could celebrate peacefully with my family. The 'cancellation' was really disappointing after working so hard.

I heard rumors for the next several months that Pokershare would be back and that they would 'take care' of us high rake generators. At the end of March they did come back. And they DID take care of us high rake generators. A substantial amount of cash was waiting in my account when I signed in on Pokershare. They also offered $5000 worth of buy ins at the WSOP and travel and accomodation money as a thank you for participating in the first contest and to spur me to play on their site for their new contest. The new contest offers a seat to the Main Event to the 10 highest rake generators and a chance for the next 40 highest to play for 3 more seats. Pokershare is also adding many seats to their WSOP ME entry contests. It all sounds like a great deal to me!



From the beginning, I start running BAD on this new Pokershare site. If I have aces, my opponent hits his 2nd pr on the turn to crush me. I get it all in with aces vs AK and he runner, runner str8. Etc ad nauseum for a loss of about $3000 in the first 3 days here. All March, my tournaments seemed to go off in that same manner too and the first Sunday in April seemed like the trend would continue. My AA all in preflop vs 99 loses to a four flush on the board in one Sunday tournament and my AA all in preflop when short stacked in another Sunday was crushed by a garbage straight with 67. (At least I think it was sooooooted!) In the midst of all this chaos and destruction, my buddy calls me and asks if I want to play in a WSOP ME MTT on Pokershare. I am a glutton for punishment and said 'Of course!'

Now this was one of the 'One seat added tournaments' on Pokershare. I get to the sign up page 90 minutes before the start of the $250 + $20 tourney and discover that my buddy and I are 2 of the 3 people signed up so far. He tells me that ten people are needed to start the tourney, so I better help him round up some people or it wont even start. I agree to post on P5s and call the Pokershare people that I know have accounts there. 15 minutes before the event is to start, we have 8 people. We frantically make a couple more calls and get up to 13 people for the start of the tournament. WOOHOO!

The starting chips for this tournament are 5000 chips and the blinds were very small. 10/20 to start I think. The perfect kind of tournament for me. We also start off with 6 on our table and I am loving life since I love to play short handed! After some ups and downs that took a LONG time to play out, I get to the FT with a nearly doubled up chipstack. As soon as we get there, some of the players start talking about a chop. However, getting 10 poker players to agree on anything with blinds still low and everyone with reasonable stacks is well nigh impossible. We play on with no agreement.

After a couple hours and only one bust out, I got involved in a pot with two short stacks with A5d. The flop had two diamonds and I bet my flush as I usually do. My buddy is next to act and he calls. The 3rd player involved raises us both. I call this bet and my buddy now pushes all in. The other stack calls his push. Each of them has about half of my 9000 chips in their stack and I now have the correct odds to call this bet. 9 flush cards gives me a 34% chance to hit the nut str8 and my Ace might give me 3 outs as well. Pot odds say easy call and since it is only half my stack I call. Cards are flipped up and my buddy has a lower flush draw and the other guy has a set! Uh oh, 7 flush outs and no outs from the ace! The set holds up, my buddy is bust and I now have a short stack. Ugh!

2 hours on the FT and we finally have two bustouts! Wow! Luckily, the blinds are still low enough that I can bide my time even though I now have a short stack. We get another bustout that leaves me as the shortest stack by half at least. With seven players remaining, the chop deal comes up again and one guy says lets wait til 6 are left. Great, all eyes are on ME, the short stack, to get busted out! The blinds are finally causing people to make moves and the crux of the tournament is here. Another bust out leaves us with 6 players. We all agree to an equal chop of the money and play for the seat and travel. I am short stack by half and am thrilled with the deal. Fairly soon after that I get lucky and get AA in the small blind. Mid position raises to 4x and I push. I am half his stack size and after little hesitation he calls with QQ. My aces hold up and I am back in contention.

Now that I have a stack again and we are down to 6 players, I ratchet up the agression. I get some good cards, but am only stealing with them. This however builds my stack further. I notice everyone seeming to tighten up but for myself. Perfect! I raise for the umpteenth time with QQ in early position. The biggest stack who has twice my chips pushes all in and I am faced with a tough decision. As much as I have been stealing, this could easily be a re-bully move by the big stack to put me in my place. Also only AA, KK are ahead of me at this point and AK is a coin flip. I call. Big stack shows JJ and my QQ holds up. I am now the chip leader with 6 left woohoo. I continue stealing liberally and maintain my chip stack as the others start to bust out.

After being card dead for the first half the tournament, I am seeing a surfeit of good cards and they hold up time after time. I make some good lay downs when caught stealing with weak cards and call when I have strong ones. My strong cards hold up. When it gets to heads up, I have twice the chips of my opponent and my read on him says he is a weak heads up player. Ten hands later my read is confirmed and I am steadily grinding him down. He even says something to the effect that I am obviously a better HU player than he is in the chat box. He finally switches gears and starts reraising me all in when I raise him preflop. Perfect, now I just need a decent hand. QQ to me in the SB (far more than decent) and I raise for the umpteenth time. He pushes all in for the 3rd time in a row or so when I had raised....easy call. He shows 22 and my QQ holds up. Holy shit I am going to the WORLD SERIES!!!!!

I go hug my daughter, high five her damn cats and call my sister! (Woke her up hehe!) IM some friends and go get some beers. ......I am still on that high 3 days later as I write this. 3 years of hard work coming to fruition feels pretty damn good! April already looks pretty good!