Scott Diamond

I took my girls to the LA County Fair Wednesday and we had a great evening. My wife and I are just so blessed to have such wonderful girls. They have no fear when it comes to any ride and they just loved the animals.

We watched how the cows get milked and they also saw bee's making honey and they were truly interested.

So today I was getting some odds and ends done around the house and my friend Jorge Pineda called and asked if I was playing the $335.00 NL event at Commerce tonite.

Jorge offered to put me in because he said I am due and I have been playing well.After several minutes of talking we agreed I would pay $180.00 and he would pay the $165.00 and I would get at least $10,000.00 if I won.

We figured there would be a first place prize of around $18,000-$20,000.00 tonight and we were right it turned out to be just under 18k at $17,490.00.

With 2000 starting chips and 221 entries I started fast and good as usual and was winning some pots and had about 3600 just before the end of level 2.

As two players left the table seat 10 was filled with a guy who had accumulated some chips also.He put his rack on the table and left to go get some red bull.

I look down at Pocket 10's and raise to 125 chips when the blinds were 50-25. There are 4 callers and the new guy sits down just in time to look at his hand.

He surveys the table and raises to 500 chips on the button. It is only 375 more for me to call and there is about 1150 in the pot, so I call.

The flop is 4-10-J rainbow and I hit my set of tens.I check he bets 500 and I put him on AA or KK before the flop. With just a third bet into the pot I am thinking he has KQ suited and is open ended so I go all in and he insta calls with.............JJ...Set over F...IN....Set and once again after fighting traffic to get there at 6:00pm, I am on my way home from Commerce at 7:20 in heavy heavy LA traffic.

Once again disappointed, upset, and with all the positive thinking and not letting these beats get to me...they are starting too. Thanks for reading...

Take Care...Be Safe....

I spoke with Ron Kramer today from the Bicycle Casino. Anyone who has played at the Bike knows Kramer! I think he is a Legend in the Poker World and I enjoy all of the stories he tells me.

Anyway, he told me the management at the Bike approved my Fallen Heroes Event for February 22nd 2009. This event and one other are the only two Charity events to be held at the Bike next year.

The Bike is going to remodel its tournament room and the construction starts in January and will not be complete until July.I am sure it will be worth the wait.

So MARK IT ON YOUR CALENDARS people.....February will be upon us very fast.

We will have pre registration on our website..FallenheroesLA.org and also on the Bicyclecasino.com site...Hope to hear from all of you soon. It is going to be a fantastic evening of Poker, just ask those who attended last years event!

Last Night the Commerce Casino had its $120.00 Deepstack Event for its California State Poker Championship series.

What a turnout!!! There were 866 people who showed up to play and Cherri Dokken and her staff accommodated all of them. This was a huge accomplishment for a Sunday afternoon.

Me...well I doubled up very early and was rolling along until I had my AK beat by KJ on the river by one of the late arrivers. Then my A-8 was beat on the turn by A-5. I went completely card dead and when the blinds went to 600-300 I had 3500 chips left and pushed with 55 only to run into KK.

I watched the final two tables from the night before multiple re buy tournament.My good friend Jorge Pineda again made another final table as did another friend Minh Nguyen.

Minh has fallen on some very tough times lately and has kept his composure and is always a gentleman at the tables. Minh ended up knocking Jorge out in 6th place and the final 5 ended up making a deal which took about 20 minutes. Robert Chip Burner Turner was also at the final table and I found it very amazing how many people lent some of these players money and were waiting around for their percentage.

I felt really bad for Minh, he agreed to take around 69,000 and the trophy with the first place prize at 81,000. Minh had three quarters of the chips in play and watched as the other players argued over there amounts.

After it was all over and the backers were paid and the money owed to others Minh walked away with only 5K..

I hope this is a turnaround for Minh and he goes on a streak to get his life back in order. I am sure there are still more people owed, but at least he paid off some of his debts last night.

Another class act was my friend Jorge who gave a lot of his friends 10-20.00 each before heading home. It may not sound like much,but to me it's just the thought that counts and those guys are having a free meal on Jorge today.

Jorge played a short stack very well last night and when Minh raised in front of Jorge for about 45,000 chips, Jorge moved all in for about 92,000 and Minh Called. Minh showed QJ diamonds and Jorge had AK.. The flop was 8-3-9 and the turn was a 10 giving Minh a straight.

Poker can be cruel so very often. I know I am an expert in this cruelty field. I have a remedy for those demons at Commerce, However I am not going to share it with you at this time. I am hoping to play Either Tuesday or Wednesday, so until then...

Take Care...Be Safe...