Vegas, WSOP, Toronto, AND Costa Rica

It's been way too long boys and girls. I miss each and every one of you more than you know. Life has been a blurr since Black Friday but certainly a fun blurr. After spending a few days after April 15th sulking and watching the life we had known for the last few years crumble before us, we decided it was time to make some life decisions.

For each one of us, the decision was different. There was a lot of pros and cons to weigh with heavy financial implications. Jon Rash on the eve of excessively priced Duke Law School, CZ with a previously successful but now useless tournament stake on FullTilt, 'Ass' Hatley nearly half way through the supernova elite pursuit, and yours truly; grinding away on PokerStars and still hanging on to a college graduation dream.

It really was an odd time in life. Time stood still for at least a week after the DOJ shit on all of our incomes. I remember on Friday going to play golf with all the boys and jokingly contemplating suicide after every hole. A combination of how bad we are at golf and the disarray of our poker livelyhood. What will we do now? How will I pass the days away if not grinding? How can we go out and spend excessive amounts of money on lavish food and alcohol every night without an income? But most importantly, what will we do if we cant get the large percentage of our net worth stuck online?

Luckily, the last question was answered fairly quickly. As 3/4 of the StandardBull crew had money nearly exclusively on PokerStars, we had the bulk of our nest eggs back within a couple weeks. With my last exam completed, I decided what better of a time to go visit my favorite city in all of the world, Las Vegas.

I was planning on going in June and staying for a couple weeks to play my first World Series of Poker tournaments since I was finally turning 21 at the end of May. It's been a long road to finally being able to do what I've been doing since I was 18, legally. I was able to remove the 25 year old's ID I had been using from my wallet and take Mazin Khoury out for a spin. As always, I spent my entire Vegas stay with the infamous Mike Finn, better known as Grampa Finn. What started out as a trip for a few weeks ended up spanning nearly three months. I arrived on May 3rd and didn't look back until July 20th. I had only brought somewhere in the neighborhood of $10k with me. I had sold 20% of action for a tournament package including some Venetian Deep Stacks and various WSOP events.

I kicked off my first big (ish) live tournament with a bang. I played the Day 2 of the $340 Ventian DSE opening event. It drew a little north of 1300 entrants and was in the books as the largest tournament in Venetian history. Although somewhat disspointing at the time, it was nice to start my live tournament career with a 7th place finish for ~8k. From there my confidence was high and I never looked back. I final tabled another Venetian event this time finishing 3rd for ~24k, and then made a deep run in the 1500 6max WSOP event finishing somewhere late in day 2. After busting a few ventians inbetween, I asked the investors if we could add the 2500 WSOP 6 handed event since I was already showing a nice profit, they agreed, and we were off.

Before I knew it, I was sitting at the secondary featured table in the Amazon Room at the Rio under the shining lights at my first ever WSOP final table. We went to the final table 7 handed (ironically in a 6max event) and we were each introduced by a friendly tournament director. Some of my friends were able to watch the coverage streaming on WSOP's website this year and that was also really cool. I came in pretty short to the final table and never could really get anything going. Finally after the worst player at the table opened, I jammed AQ for 20bb only to be shown AA and watch the dream of winning a bracelet fade away with a 5th place finish for 121k. For those of you who don't play poker, I'm sure you don't feel bad for me. You'll point out that I made a lot of money and that's true but to anyone whos ever been deep in a tournament, especially on such a large stage, anything less than 1st place is absolutely devastating.

I remember right after it happened joking with Nick and Rash on the phone about how dumb poker can be. I had just won six figures and all 3 of us wanted to jump off a bridge from depression. Tournament poker is a crazy, crazy game. Hundreds of thousands of dollars can all be decided over the flip of a coin, the bad luck of the deck, or one small marginal mistake. The only consolation I had (besides the money of course) was that I felt I had played my best the entire event. When viewing poker in the long run, thats all you can hope for.

After this score, I became a bit complacent. I made a new schedule but skipped many of the events. I was really enjoying grinding 5/10 live at the Venetian and making my own schedule. Plus, I would be lying if I didn't admit to paying hefty sums in Rhino Tax and other club/partying adventures. But hey, I'm young, I'm dumb, and I truly had something to celebrate. With my biggest poker score yet behind me, it was time to focus on a new opportunity; the chance to play in the World Series of Poker 10k Main Event for the first time I was eligeble.

I had decided to play and registered for Day 1c; the 3rd starting day out of 4 available choices. I made the mistake of staying out late the night before and rolling into the Rio a few hours past the start. No harm done though, I started chipping up quickly and aggressively. I was fortunate enough to have built a decent stack before running KK into the AA of Steve Gross (gboro), a well respected online tournament pro. I bounced back and finished day 1 with almost double my starting stack. From there, it was off to the races. I quickly cruised up the leaderboard finishing higher and higher every day. Finally at the end of Day 4 I found myself 9th in chips going into the 5th day of such a massive event, deep in the money.

It was surreal. Never had I dreamed of having this good of a chance of winning the main event on my very first try. I had a chance at the youngest player to ever win record too and with a final table already under my belt, a chance at becoming well known. My friends tease me constantly that I care more about my reputation than any of the money in poker and though it's a gross exaggeration, they have a point. I do care about building myself up and someday being known for being great at poker. I'm super passionate about the game and think about it and ways to improve almost constantly. There aren't many people as obsessed with their job as I am.

Unfortunately, my main event came to a screeching hault when I made a questionable iso with TT over a short stack's shove only to run into David Bach's aces. Unfortunately, this is the only hand ESPN decided was worthy of their world series coverage so I'm sure I'll be forced to watch it over and over again for the rest of the year. Also, they butchered my name, but thats another story for another day. It was half way through Day 5, and all of a sudden I found myself out of the main event and devastated. In fear of sounding like a complete and total bitch, I wanted to cry. It was horrifying. I was sitting there in the lobby of the convention center at the Rio staring at the four dedicated railers I had the whole event dumbfounded. There truly were no words for what had just happened. Especially when it was a marginal shove that will haunt me for several years to come. Time heals all wounds though and I'm already pretty much over it. As my Dad has always wisely said "this too shall pass" and he's right.

It was time to take a break from Vegas. I had given it a hell of a run but it was time to return to my regular life. Well, sort of. While I was in Vegas, Nick had subleased an apartment in downtown Toronto and taken off to Canada to continue his grind. I was pretty excited about joining him in Canada and getting back to my life of grinding online poker. I hopped on a plane within a week of visiting my family and friends and home and was off to start a new life. We were only planning on staying in Canada for a month and a half more and then re-evaluating our location. I'd be lying to you if I said that Canada was a complete blast. We both grinded so hard all day that we really forgot to enjoy the city. I hope to go back sometime when I have more free time to troll around the city and ball out a bit, but at the time, working hard and maximizing our time out of the US seemed to be the priority.

When Nick finally reached supernova elite (on the last day of our lease) his family came to help him move out and begin the long journey home. With WCOOP just beginning, I needed to stay somewhere out of the US for the rest of the month. I had already finished 10th in the High Roller event (puke) and I was hungry for more. When I realized that all of the hotels had been booked in Toronto for the film festival and leasing a place for 2 weeks was going to cost me over 1100 per week, I decided it was time for a change. I had been speaking some with a nice lady from Pocket5s named Kristin who had been living in Costa Rica for several years. She's been working with P5s to create a program called Poker Refugees, helping US based poker players find their way to new countries to continue playing online. I asked her if she could find me a place on super short notice and she said yes. I booked my flight and the next day I was off to a new country I had never seen before. This isn't intended to be some type of long drawn out advertisement for Poker Refugees so I'll keep it brief: I don't think I could have come to Costa Rica and gotten set up as fast as I did without Kristin. She was extremely helpful in finding me a place, getting my cell phone, and meeting people here to aid with all my needs.

I arrived in Costa Rica on Sept 12th at night and checked into my hotel. I met up with Kristin and a few other poker pros who had also moved to Costa Rica for the WCOOP (World Championship of Online Poker). We talked a bit about the flight and Costa Rica as a country but I was way too tired. I practically sleep walked to my hotel room and passed out for what felt like days. When I woke up the next morning, I moved into my new apartment for the next two weeks and let the WCOOP grinding begin. The weather here is amazing (70-80 degrees all day everyday) even now during 'rainy' season. It only seems to rain for an hour or two a day though so it doesn't bother me. I wish I could enjoy my surroundings more but I haven't let myself forget that I'm here to play poker. I'm planning on coming back to Costa Rica half way through October after a brief trip the states so I'll have more time to enjoy it then.

Unfortunately this series hasn't gone particularly well for me yet besides the High Roller so hopefully the break through will happen in the $5200 Main Event this sunday. I am really excited about playing it because it is the first year I've been properly rolled to take such a shot. Also not to brag too much, but I did finally win 2 Main Event Seats today so things are looking up.

I can't tell you how much I miss hanging out with all the boys in NC and I hope that you're all doing well. I can't wait to come home and visit but you should all do the same in October-Dec. Costa Rica truly is an amazing country. This has already dragged on for way too long so I'll pause here but I'm sure I'll have more word vomit at a later date.

Till then, do it to it.

Love,
MAZ-IN (NOT MAZE-IN)