Leading up to the WSOP

Leading up to the WSOP we have welcomed Morgan's parents, her sister and fiancee, and then a bacholorette weekend for her friend Amanda. Its been exciting and a bit hectic. Then unfortunatley last Wednesday Morgan's aunt passed away. We flew to Indianapolis and then rented a car to go to Bedford, Indiana to attend the services. I had only met her a half dozen times or so, but what I know of her is that she was full of energy and love and wore them both on her sleeve for everyone to see. Though I was sad for her passing I told myself I was going to support the family. To be honest I was a bit worried about how the weekend would go, but yet again Morgan's family impressed me. They celebrated her life and spent more time laughing than crying. The most important thing to them is family and nothing was more apparent this weekend. I consider myself very lucky to have people like them in my life. And even though this is not the ideal circumstances I always look foward to spending time with time.

We will miss you Linda Lee Montgomery

Poker has not gone well for me this month. The scoops were a bit of a bust with a few minor cashes. On the upside though I went with Cody and Eric to Casers to earn our diamond card for the series. The diamond card allows you to skip all the painful lines of the WSOP. We played optimal video poker for about 3 hours. We managed to turn a profit and had a few cocktails. Also I did a interview for Cardplayer TV. The show is called "Under the Gun" and is hosted by Jon Friedberg. Brandon Cantu joined me and we covered some interesting topics in poker.
One other piece of exciting news for me is that I was drafted in a WSOP draft. Basically 12 writers and players had 8 rounds to draft the players they thought would do the best in this years WSOP. Even though my buddy Eric was the one who drafted me I went with the 63rd pick. It is extremely flattering and motivating to know people respect my game. I obviously want Eric's team to win and for me to pull my weight, but if you want to follow here is a list of Eric's team:
Scott Clements, Matt Hawrilenko, Justin Bonomo, James Mackey, Shannon Shorr, Justin Young, James VanAlstyne, and Mike Katz.
So everyone pull for everyone on the list, but mainly me.

Justin "robert07" Young

In-Laws and SCOOP

My in laws came to town this past weekend. They drove in from San Diego on Friday and we caught up and grilled out for dinner. The next day we had tickets to go see the Lion King. We showed up early so we could watch the Derby in the sports book. It was super crowded and a fun atmosphere. We all just drafted horses and put in $7 into a kitty. That way we had a sweat and did not have to fight the lines at the casinos. Morgan and I did not do very well as none of our horses got in the top 5. Lion King was really good. The costumes and set production were amazing. After the show we went to the M for a steak. It was a beautiful night so we ate way to much outside. We were all pretty tired when we got home, but we jumped in hot tub first before calling it a night. The next morning we had brunch before they left.
I hopped in the Sunday tournaments at noon, which means I only missed 2 big tournys. My slate was kinda bare when I first jumped in so I decided to add a couple early tournies to the list. One was a $5 turbo. There was 20K grtd so I jumped in. I managed to win the thing in a total crap shoot. I got just over 5K for my effort. The score allowed me to break about even on the expensive day. I also played on Monday and Tuesday becasue of pokerstars SCOOP events. I did not have any real success in those, but I did manage a 2nd in the short handed $100rebuy and a first in the short handed $100. The scores gave me some much needed confidence and funds for the rest of the SCOOPs.

Justin "robert07" Young