"This is how we do it."

I haven't played online since Wednesday but have played some live. Thursday I went to Riverspirit Casino here in Tulsa, Ok and played about five hours winning one buy-in. Friday I woke up early and drove to Joplin, MO to play in a $250 satellite for a $1100 seat into the Mid-States Poker Tour Main Event at Downstream Casino.

They were awarding a seat for every 5 players and the satellite had fifty entrants so there would be 10 seats. I got off to a slow start but had a nice stack by the time half the players were gone. The structure was pretty fast for 30 min levels as the blinds doubled often. Another odd thing was the fact that the ante didn't kick in until 300/600/100 and then the ante stayed 100 until 1500/3000. Downstream has never been known for running things well. Needless to say I lost AK to TT all-in pre to a rivered T with 15 players left but had the villain covered and held on until shoving A9s from the HJ with 10bbs and the BB woke up with AA leaving me in 13th with no seat. I feel I played well and did what I could.

After busting I went to wish a friend good luck that was playing Day1A of the main that was starting at 5pm right as I busted the satellite. He seemed ready to play and has been having a great year with very few tournaments played and I expected him to do well. As he began the Main I went to eat and then back to the poker room to play some 1/2nl for an hour before entering  the 7pm satellite. As I got chips for 1/2 I tried to sign up for the satellite but they said it was going to be held in the ballroom where the Main is on the other side of the casino. So I play 1/2 for about 45min and the cashed out $10 winner and took my long trip across the casino through very thick carpet and got to the ballroom. Once there I try to sign up and I am told they changed their mind and the satellite is in the poker room. A few months prior I was at Downstream for a satellite and they did the same thing, I was not happy. But, it goes to show what I was saying about them not known for running things well. I have a friend that was furious about some of the shady maneuvers envolving the guy running the tournament and how he was doing table assignments for Day 2 in a closed office alone with friends in the tournament. When confronted his excuse was, "This is how we do it."

After busting two satellites I decided to come home and spent most of Saturday watching College football. Today I thought about playing online but got caught up in NFL Redzone and decided to watch NFL and continue to relax.

I have been a little disappointed in the guarantees since Maximus 2 as they seem to keep slowly dropping. I wish Lock and Merge could have worked things out because when Lock left the player pool took a split that it can barely afford. I will say I am happy that there is a place to play even though it does come with some risk. But it is nice to have a couple sites that still offer service to USA players.

Good luck to all the grinders. I hope several of y'all had a great Sunday.

If you are interested in taking poker lessons or would like any information, contact me at variance101@gmail.com and/or visit http://variance101.com/# and http://variance101.blogspot.com.