Scott Diamond

Time is going by at record speed this year. Tomorrow is my two year anniversary of playing tournament poker as the Legends of Poker Media event starts at Noon.

It seems as it was just yesterday I was taking down last years Christmas decorations and in just a short few months I will be taking them out to put up again.

This is where I had my first taste of a REAL poker tournament as Kelly O'hara, the Bikes wonderful marketing Director allowed me to play, because I wrote articles for our Department magazine.So if you want anyone to blame, it would be Kelly!

I'm still thinking about my blunder from the other night. I have talked to a few close friends I have made in the Poker world and they all agree I am stupid for not shoving when I looked at two tens,but as Long as I learn from those mistakes I should be a better player in the future.

The funny thing about that hand, I had listened to that little voice in my head all night. The one that tells you don't do it and we usually do. After the flop the voice told me to shove and I did not listen, so I let my opponent catch up when I was getting greedy and trying to trap him.

One good thing came out of this tournament is that I know I can play with the Big Boys and that gives me more confidence as I grow as a player.

I watched the 50k H.O.R.S.E. Event last night on ESPN and was amazed at Scotty's demeanor.The show was not good for poker last night as ESPN was beeping half the conversations and we saw the worse of three very respectable guys come out last night.

Eric, who as an athlete learned along time ago how to curb his emotions even told Scotty he was not a fan of his. Demichele,whom I have never met but seemed like a pretty nice kid when he was doing well in the USA Poker Championships a few years ago on ESPN, lost his patience with Scotty and was biting his tongue I am sure because this event was being filmed.

The guys at PokerRoadradio.com are going to be talking about this in the next few days on one of their shows.They also talked about the same thing I wrote about a few weeks ago when Norman Chad bashed Justin Bonomo on ESPN.

I believe this is not good for Poker. People getting interested in Poker, as I did by watching it on ESPN, are going to think only morons and degenerates play Poker and are going to stay away.

I think ESPN should have not shown the 50k event on TV even though it was the premier event for professionals at this years WSOP. I, personally was disappointed in Scotty who I met several years ago at Legends and who gave my girls Chips with his likeness on it at this years WSOP. My girls were so excited to see him on the TV last night,they came in from riding their new Razor scooters I bought them yesterday to watch along with my wife.

We were so disappointed, we left and went to Chili's for dinner.

I will be playing for only the first hour tomorrow at the Media Event as I have to go to court at 2pm.

I wish I could play the Main Event it would be a goal of mine,but I have to work this weekend and I did not play any super satellites to try and gain enetry.I forsee myself playing a 10k event in the near future though, so I will be patient.

Good luck to all who enter and play, there should be around 400 entries or so as there were last year and Dan Harrington should be in town to defend his title of a year ago.

I am waiting for the California State Championship Series to start in Two weeks, so I will be giving the cash games a shot. I played $200.00 NL yesterday and won $645.00 which is good because my truck registration is due next week..LOL

Take Care...Be Safe...

Today was the 1000.00 Nl event at the Bikes Legends Of Poker. I have been playing very well as of late and tonite was no exception.

I won a 120.00 satellite and chopped another Sunday night and I entered todays Event. This is the biggest buy in I have ever played with exception of The Seniors Event at the WSOP.

Early on I was up to 15,000 in chips as we started with 6,000 and 45 minute levels. I went card dead and could not make any moves and was down to 8200 when I was moved to another table. I picked up some blinds and antes to keep me right around 8200 when I was moved to another table.

The chip leader was to my right and he was raising every pot. I had 99 in the Small blind when he raised to 4200 chips and I went all in. He called with A9 and I doubled up as no Ace came.

Later I had 10-10 after he made a big raise and he called me with A6 and I am now at 36k. I get blinded down to 17,000 chips when I look at JJ and again the chip leader had raised. It was only 12,000 more for him to call and he did with 9-7clubs..The Flop 5-8-6 giving him a straight. Now we were on the bubble at the time. 272 players started todays event and only the top 27 were going to be paid. First place is 97,000.00 and 27th paid 1845.00. There were 28 players left and I was sick when he called me. I had been a thorn in his side all night and he said he was getting pot odds to call.

Well the turn was the 5diamonds and the river....5 of hearts to give me a Full House and keep me alive.

The next hand I have 55 and call his raise again and the flop was J-J-K he bet 4000 and I called the turn was a 4, I bet 4000 he raised to 8,000 and I called. the river was a Jack and he checked as I did with a full house and he folded.

So Ihave 60,000 and in the Small blind and we are re-seated and another big stack to my right raises to 12k when blinds are 3000-1500- and a 500 ante.

We are 11/12 hrs into this tournament and 25 people are left. I look down at pocket tens and only call his raise. The flop is Queen high and he bets 20k...This is where I make my mistake..I should of shoved here but I did not because I put him on A-10 or A-J.. The turn is a K and now I go all in and he calls with K-3 spades . What a mistake I made pre flop or even after the flop. I am still kicking my self as I leave with an $1845.00 payday when I could have been at the final table.

One lousy misstep tonite and I am really mad at myself.

There were some big name players there tonite. Vinny Vinh,Mark Seif, Max Pescatori, Tiffany Michelle, Men the Master Vince Burgio, Robert Turner, David Pham, John Pham, Crispin Leyser and his wonderful wife Jules and I outlasted all of them.

I am playing well and I am just going to have to shake this off..

Take care...be safe...

Today was the 1000.00 Nl event at the Bikes Legends Of Poker. I have been playing very well as of late and tonite was no exception.

I won a 120.00 satellite and chopped another Sunday night and I entered todays Event. This is the biggest buy in I have ever played with exception of The Seniors Event at the WSOP.

Early on I was up to 15,000 in chips as we started with 6,000 and 45 minute levels. I went card dead and could not make any moves and was down to 8200 when I was moved to another table. I picked up some blinds and antes to keep me right around 8200 when I was moved to another table.

The chip leader was to my right and he was raising every pot. I had 99 in the Small blind when he raised to 4200 chips and I went all in. He called with A9 and I doubled up as no Ace came.

Later I had 10-10 after he made a big raise and he called me with A6 and I am now at 36k. I get blinded down to 17,000 chips when I look at JJ and again the chip leader had raised. It was only 12,000 more for him to call and he did with 9-7clubs..The Flop 5-8-6 giving him a straight. Now we were on the bubble at the time. 272 players started todays event and only the top 27 were going to be paid. First place is 97,000.00 and 27th paid 1845.00. There were 28 players left and i was sick when he called me. I had been a thorn in his side all night and he said he was getting pot odds to call.

Well the turn was the 5diamonds and the river....% of hearts to give me a Full House and keep me alive.

The next hand I have 55 and call his raise again and the flop was J-J-K he bet 4000 and I called the turn was a 4, I bet 4000 he raised to 8,000 and I called. the river was a Jack and he checked as I did with a full house and he folded.

So Ihave 60,000 and in the Small blind and we are re-seated and another big stack to my right raises to 12k when blinds are 300-1500- and a 500 ante.

We are 11/12 hrs into this tournament and 25 people are left. I look down at pocket tens and only call his raise. The flop is Queen high and he bets 20k...This is where I make my mistake..I should of shoved here but I did not because I put him on A-10 or A-J.. The turn is a K and now I go all in and he calls with K-3 spades . What a mistake I made pre flop or even after the flop. I am still kicking my self as I leave with an $1845.00 payday when I could have been at the final table.

One lousy misstep tonite and I am really mad at myself.

There were some big name players there tonite. Vinny Vinh,Mark Seif, Max Pescatori, Tiffany Michelle, Men the Master Vince Burgio, Robert Turner, David Pham, John Pham, Crispin Leyser and his wonderful wife Jules and I outlasted all of them.

I am playing well and I am just going to have to shake this off..

Take care...be safe...

Today was the 1000.00 Nl event at the Bikes Legends Of Poker. I have been playing very well as of late and tonite was no exception.

I won a 120.00 satellite and chopped another Sunday night and I entered todays Event. This is the biggest buy in I have ever played with exception of The Seniors Event at the WSOP.

Early on I was up to 15,000 in chips as we started with 6,000 and 45 minute levels. I went card dead and could not make any moves and was down to 8200 when I was moved to another table. I picked up some blinds and antes to keep me right around 8200 when I was moved to another table.

The chip leader was to my right and he was raising every pot. I had 99 in the Small blind when he raised to 4200 chips and I went all in. He called with A9 and I doubled up as no Ace came.

Later I had 10-10 after he made a big raise and he called me with A6 and I am now at 36k. I get blinded down to 17,000 chips when I look at JJ and again the chip leader had raised. It was only 12,000 more for him to call and he did with 9-7clubs..The Flop 5-8-6 giving him a straight. Now we were on the bubble at the time. 272 players started todays event and only the top 27 were going to be paid. First place is 97,000.00 and 27th paid 1845.00. There were 28 players left and i was sick when he called me. I had been a thorn in his side all night and he said he was getting pot odds to call.

Well the turn was the 5diamonds and the river....% of hearts to give me a Full House and keep me alive.

The next hand I have 55 and call his raise again and the flop was J-J-K he bet 4000 and I called the turn was a 4, I bet 4000 he raised to 8,000 and I called. the river was a Jack and he checked as I did with a full house and he folded.

So Ihave 60,000 and in the Small blind and we are re-seated and another big stack to my right raises to 12k when blinds are 300-1500- and a 500 ante.

We are 11/12 hrs into this tournament and 25 people are left. I look down at pocket tens and only call his raise. The flop is Queen high and he bets 20k...This is where I make my mistake..I should of shoved here but I did not because I put him on A-10 or A-J.. The turn is a K and now I go all in and he calls with K-3 spades . What a mistake I made pre flop or even after the flop. I am still kicking my self as I leave with an $1845.00 payday when I could have been at the final table.

One lousy misstep tonite and I am really mad at myself.

There were some big name players there tonite. Vinny Vinh,Mark Seif, Max Pescatori, Tiffany Michelle, Men the Master Vince Burgio, Robert Turner, David Pham, John Pham, Crispin Leyser and his wonderful wife Jules and I outlasted all of them.

I am playing well and I am just going to have to shake this off..

Take care...be safe...

I was at home most of the week with the girls going to school now so I played a few games on Pokerstars. I had a good week winning and decided to try the Legends $545.00 event on Friday Night.

I was playing well early and my reads were right on. The first hand of the night I had 66 and called this guys all in on the river with it and it was the winning hand so i doubled immediately to 9,000 chips. This was a one re buy event so it was good to get some extra chips early.

I then was as usual completely card dead and I got AA in the big blind and had one caller when I raised to 450 chips. The flop had an ace and I checked and my opponent tossed in 800 chips . There was a gut shot straight on the board so I did not want to mess around and I doubled the bet and he folded. I showed my pocket Aces so the table could see I had a hand and to be careful when I am in the pot. I found showing big hands periodically with my tight play gives me advantage sometimes and this night I won two pots with big bluffs.

Just before the end of level three I had 99 and raised to 650 and a new player at the table who had a lot of chips really early raised me to 1600. I saw how he won those chips and he beat two sets on the board with a flush and he re bought at the beginning so I am guessing he had 18000 chips already.

I called the extra 950 in chips and a 7c-2c-9h flopped. he bet out 2000 and thinking he might have AQ or AK and or two clubs I went all in. He thought for a minute and asked me if I had Aces or Kings. I thought he was going to fold but he said call and turned over two Queens. When he saw my set he started to say something but the turn card came out and it was a Queen giving him a bigger set and sending me home.

I did have a nice conversation with Mark Seif who was in town and played and busted about the same time I did.

Monday I was offered a spot in the 1000.00 NL event and its a 50-50 deal and I do not have to pay back makeup if i do not cash. I am probably going to take this person up on it after all its a free roll or me and the caliber of player should be so much better.

I won about 1700.00 dollars this week so I have some extra money for Septembers tourney at the Commerce and hopefully after Monday i will have money for the next years worth of tournaments. Take care ...Be Safe...