I'M GONNA BE ON TV!!!!!!!!!

[2005]

I just returned from Tunica and wanted to update you guys on my trip while also replying to some of the posts to this thread. I had a semi-successful trip this week. I finished one table out of the money in the $500 w/ rebuys NLHE tourney. The next day in the $1000 LHE tourney, I played a short stack for most of the day and was then able to pick up a large amount of chips late in the tournament and went to the final table 2nd in chips. Unfortunately though, I lost a very big pot to the chip leader and was crippled. I finished 9th and if I had won that pot, I would have had a very good shot at top 3 or 2. In the main event, I was short again late in the tourney and got 2 aces at the right time to double up with about 70 people left. 36 were paid, and by the time we made it to the money, I was in the top 5 in chips. I was playing well, accumulating chips, and we made it to 17 players. I had 56,600 in chips, which was above average at this point, and I was still one of the bigger stacks left. I lost a huge pot at this point and was left with 1 black chip. I turned it into 9 chips the next hand, but couldn't parlay the next hand and was out in 17th place, a very disappointing finish because I could have avoided losing all of my chips in that one pot. I stayed to watch the rest of the tournament though so I could sweat one of my very good friends and one of the best players I know. He and 3 others split the top 4 money and he took home 83,000, minus the 5% he traded with me and the other 2 of our friends who played in the event. So, it was a profitable trip, but I should have probably finished much higher than 17th in the main event. If enough of you guys are interested in specific hands, I'll post them seperately.

As for this thread, I'll respond to as many individual posts here as possible:

First I want to say that I appreciated all of the posts. Yes, I tried to play with as much class as possible. I know how it feels to bust out of a tournament and I don't think it's necessary to celebrate in front of someone who just went broke.

Eric5148: I'm wsop2005 on Party and PStars, imrunninbad on Empire, and Gavin_Griffin on UB

deacsoft: No, it wasn't my first live tournament, but it was a very surreal experience and one I will obviously never forget.

TheSheath and Niagrapoker: I've actually never read SuperSystem, but I do believe that when you have alot of chips in the situation I was in, you should put constant pressure on the other players. That is what I tried to do and it worked very well, I had the other players at the table psychologically damaged.

Top2Pear: You're right, I did not intend to confuse Gabe and Gary when I limped with 89o, but after I saw their reactions, I knew I could use that against them.

LozColbert: I had 350,000, Gary had 250,000 and Gabe had 200,000, the blinds were just going up to 10K/20K.

BeerMoney: I have a girlfriend that I have been with for almost 3 years now, we will be getting married eventually, she's a wonderful girl, very beautiful, and very supportive of me, even before I made money. She's a very talented ballet dancer and we are very happy together(sorry for the mushiness!).

wiredpear: I don't mind that they portrayed me as being very lucky, because that's the image that people will have when playing against me in the future and I'm sure I'll be able to use it to my advantage.

Thanks again to everybody who posted/PMed me. If any of you ever see me around at tournaments, etc. Please introduce yourself, I'd love to meet some more 2+2er's.

Gavin Griffin

[italianstang]

Thanks for the update, hope to see you around somewhere.