I came back to stay with my Mom for a few months during the holidays. Ive been here for about a month now, and have been battling my toughest opponent, the freezing cold! It has been unusually rainy too, so that adds to the mess. On a sunny, happy note, I have already hung out with many past friends of mine that I have lost touch with over the years, which has been very nice. Also, now that my Mom is retired, we have had a chance to get to hang out a bunch, and that has also been nice.

I am off to AC in a week to play in a few events at Harrahs. I feel good about my game, like I am on the cusp of a big win. I took 89th out of 8001 in the Sunday million yesterday, which was close to being a nice day!

One Time!!!!!

Usually, when election time comes around, I have equal disdain for both party’s nominations, pay little attention to the campaigns, and generally feel the same as I did before it was over. This election was different for me. In my mind, there was one choice, and we made the right one.

I respect McCain greatly as a man, as an American, and as a Soldier who was willing to die for us. In fact, there is nothing more beautiful then finding a cause you believe in so much, that you are willing to die for it. Unfortunately, I felt I could not respect him as a President. Sadly, much of that was not his fault directly, as I have fallen out of love with the Republican party. It is one thing to be for Capitalism and free markets, but that doesn’t mean that everything has to be about money. I really feel that the Republican party’s days are numbered, atleast until they re-invent themselves.

I adore Barack Obama. I watch him in awe. A guy who really fucking cares about people snuck through all the political red tape without compromising his views of the World. Watching him win the election really restored my hope in America. We have Come a long way in the last 200 years, but we still have more work to do, and he understands that. Most importantly is the fact that the rest of the World will look at America in a different light, they will see that every four years we don’t just offer more of the same, that our ideas of what is right and just evolves with our experiences, and that we too can learn from mistakes. I have never been more proud to be an American. Barack Obama, my President!

It’s been a while since I posted last, and I blame it all on San Diego. I love this place. It makes me want to be healthy and have fun! Everyday for the last 2 months I have biked atleast 5 miles, with some days biking as many as 15. Most of the biking is to and from the beach, where I body board and boogie board most of the trips. Some days, I even bike to the beach twice and swim twice. Obviously those are great days! I have had fun hanging out in SD with my brother and his wife the last couple months. Today the weather here was 86 and Sunny, and its October. I’m Stoked!

Join Annie Duke, Tiffany Michelle, Gavin Griffin, and myself for an awesome night of partying, poker, and fun all to benefit a great cause, homeless youth.

Many celebrity faces will be in a… Read Morettendance and have included:
Mira Sorvino ,Chris Backus,
Brooke Burke, David Charvet,
Henry Simmons, Nia Vardalos,
Kathy Najimi, Christopher Knight,
Adrianne Curry, Barry Williams,
Estella Warren, Tina Yothers,
Roger Cross, Blu Cantrell, Joe
Reitman, Shaun Toub, George
Gray, Annie Duke, Matt Cedeno,
A.J.McClean, Men “The Master”
Nguyen

Event Description:
3rd annual Celebrity Poker Tournament to benefit Homeless Youth
Music, Dancing, Silent Auction & Vegas Style Entertainment
Location: Crystal Casino
Date: September 20, 2008
Located off the 91 freeway- 20
minutes from Hollywood, CA
Cost: $250.00 Buy-In
$50.00 cover if your not playing in the tourney
All Proceeds Benefit Homeless Youth

Tickets and/or donations can be made in advance at www.LAYN.org

What can I say, I have great poker genes. I had figured that most of my poker genes came from my dad(who has two 2nd place finishes in WSOP events as well as having beat Chip Reese heads up in the 1st Super Bowl of Poker main event), but apparently I was wrong. My mom, who has been quoted as saying that she is the best player in our family, set out to provide some proof this past week in Las Vegas. Making Planet Hollywood home for the week, she played in 5 daily tourneys their, making 4 final tables, including 1 win in the $70 buy-in with 45 entries, winning over $900. Awesome Job Mom!!!!

Obviously I am coming up with a new life plan that will include me playing a lot less poker and just backing my Mom in future poker events!!

So I have been thinking about backpacking Europe for a few months now, and after the WSOP ended, it really felt like the right time to pursue this. Now Eorope travel poses a slight problem for me, since I do not fly. So I checked out some transalantic trips, and basically the only run from April to October. I need to be in LA on September 20th for the 3rd Annual LAYN.org Poker Charity tournament that I help create, which leaves only 2 cruises that I could take. Unfortunately they are sold out at any reasonable rate($9600 would be the cheapest I could get at this point). So now I am looking into alternative boat travel. There are a couple of Freightliner travel companies out there, and there is a shot I could get lucky and find a spot somewhere, but it is not looking to good at the moment. So I may be waiting till March or April, which would kind of suck since I would have to be back in June for the WSOP and I was really looking to do 4-6 months just backpacking from hostel to hostel all over Europe. So, if anyone is taking a Yacht or hovercraft over to Europe anytime this winter, definitely hit me up!

I’m happy to announce that on July 27th at 9:00pm eastern time there will be a poker tournament held on Pokerstars to benefit the Scott Kowalske fund. Many of you have seen the recent posts regarding Scott. Here is a link from a Cardplayer article talking about his disease, click here.

If you can’t play, you can still register and blind away or please try to spread the word. The more people who know about Scott and this tournament, the better his chances will be. The tournament can be found under the Private section and is titled Scott Kowalske Fund. The password is scottw.

Atleast 1/2 of all winnings need to be transferred immediately after the tournament.

Sigh……. After a long, hard fought tourney, I hit the rail with about 800 players left. I was alling preflop for about a 160k pot with KK vs AA. Tough hand to go down, and I am obviously a little bummed, but overall happy with my play for all 3 days. On a side note, I started the day at the same table as my Dad, but he busted during the 1st level of play today. GG WSOP 2008.

What a long day! I started the day with $22,575 in chips. I played my heart out today, and ended the day with $72,300. That has to be below avg a bit, but not in bad shape, especially compared to my Dad who is still in with 23k(GO DAD!). Obviously I need some stuff to go my way tomorrow, but I feel good and am very optomistic! About 1200 people left and 666 are getting paid. ONE TIME!

First off I would like to congradulate my Dad, Art Young, for finishing 16th in the $1500 HORSE event.

And here is my recap for Day 1 of the main:
What a long day! The first hand I played crippled me, as I had to fold a set to an obvious flush on the turn, which left me with 14k. I battled hard all day, ending the day with 22.5k. Not a mountain, but plenty to work with as we head into day two! I am happy with my play and look forward to making some moves on Wednesday.