The wedding went well and both manage to say ”I do” once they recived the question if they wanted to endure the pain of being with eachother for the rest of their life. Congratz Arash and Moa!

Now I am back in Sweden and the trip back was tooo long and I will never fly with USAirways again, I prefer flying with SAS to be honest. I manage to get my new golf set back to sweden without any problem along with all the other new things I bought over there. I purschased seven new PS3 games, among those were Civilization which I can warmly recommend. I also bought Haze and looking forward to team play this game with Bergstorf. Me and Maria are just stopping in gothenburg for a day to do laundry and then we will head up to northen sweden Ornskoldsvik to visit my parents and to play some golf.

I did not reach any final tables this year in vegas but there is always a next year. The next tournaments for me will be Malta Poker Tournament and WSOPE in september. I am also planning to move back to Umea since I miss my friends up there and also its not fun having a long distance relationship between Umea and Gothenburg as Maria and I have right now.

For the rest of this summer i hope to be able to play alot of golf. My goal is to lower my handicap from 36+ (yeah just started) to atleast 20-25.

To Josip and Ana i hope you have a great time in croatia and looking forward to your wedding!

See you soon again on the tour!

Okey some quick recap of the past week here in vegas.

Mattias and Jens both got knocked out last of the team BAR guys. Jens manage to survive until day 3 where he had about 90k stack when he got his money in with AA on K94 flop vs TT when a T hits the river and the main event was all over for him. It was just before the dinner break and he was once again close to ITM in the main event.

I myself i played two other tournaments Venetian tournament $1k buyin where I really play badly and deserved to get my ass kicked. I made the wrong moves at the wrong time and just felt out of synch completly. Just before day 1 dinner break I had been shortstacking for the last two levels more or less when I got my money in on the button with AQ against early raiser who responded to show KQ. The turn and the river both came K and I was out.

I then played Ceasars Championship event $1k buyin 25k chipstack where I had alot of fun and had Dan a guy who had 5 ITM this wsop with 6th place as best and two 12th places, so a great run for him this year. All in all we both complained about the problem when you travel in a big company and try to arrange things to do so everyone can be together. Its just ment to fail and i will never recommend anyone to travel to vegas in a party bigger then 6 ppl its just ment to fail, it becomes even more difficult if you have your girlfriends with you. Anyhow this event had a very steep blind level even though you start with alot of chips. Saw Jamie Gold playing this event aswell he didnt look too happy, probably from being knocked out from main event and insted had to play this tournament. Anyhow i got my balls crushed after the dinner break when I had about 24k and blinds were 500/1000. Early raise to 3bb and I repop to 8k with QQ when button moves all in for 70k and early calls and I decides to call. I figured that button was either playing AK or JJ and the early was a shortstack so his handrange could be very big. I was wrong and both flipped up KK and I never improved.

I have seen a few shows with Maria here and I can recommend both La Reve on Wynn and Phantom of the opera at Venetian.

Now I have to run becuse Arash are screaming ”we have to go!!! im getting late to my wedding!” Yeah he is getting married today in about…hmm 50 min dont see the rush

Will be fun to see a wedding here at vegas for the first time…i wonder if elvis will show up

5th July

Entered the tournament along with Mattais Torme and was placed at the featured table. On the table we had Christian a poker pro from sweden who won WPT Paris and Ian a wsop bracelet winner from PLO event in 2007 along with another guy who taken a two WPT final tables, i dont remember his name but he was from England. We started with 6000 chips and blinds at 25/50.

I didnt get much action throughout the whole tournament I ended up having a shortstack and not able to get any payoffs when I held any premium hands. I only regret playing my AA a bit too hard preflop, UTG raises and I 3 bets him. We have about even in stacksize and my 3 bet was about 1/5 of my stack he decides to fold preflop. When I get some other good hands but i never manage to get people to dubble me up. I end up being shortstacked when we reach 5th level and from there on its all in game and stealing and out of the 208 entering only 52 where left when we reach 6th level.

Some other swedes playing the tour were Christians wife whos name i forgot and Tomas Brolin a former swedish soccer player. Hmm yes Hans Eskilsson also played…im sure there were more but those where the once i noticed since i sat by their tables throughout the tour.

I spoke some with Christian and he had survived day 1 with 65k in stacksize, congratz to hime. Hope he takes himself deep into ITM this year. Both he and his wife seems like really nice people.

Meenwhile we are playing the tournament they are playing the final table from yesterdays 5k tournament. At the final table i noticed The Dragon, JJ Tran, and Je Liu (hope i spelled her name right), 250-270k something to the winner.

When I am card dead and in bad shape with about 6bb left when everyone folds to sb I was in bb, I had already peeked at my cards and saw K6s and decided to push no matter what he did becuse look over my should new level where about to hit in 5 min and i even a dubble up i would be in bad shape. The guy in sb had a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig card range of hands he would push with if everyone folded to me. He pushes and I call, he shows JJ and even though I pick up a flushdraw on the flop i never improve and are knocked out at place 38th.

Mattias continues and reaches 20th place in the tournament.

I hope Christians wife made it to the final table she had quite a good stack, i will cheer for her. I also met this really nice guy from south korea, whos name was hard to remember he shortened it down to Lee He had some really cool glasses which gave the word PIMP a whole new meening. They had only red and white diamonds on the glasses. Dont ask me how much they costed, but wearing that along with a ultra pimp pink hoodie he gave me a laugh. He was very shy and kind when you spoke to him, i hope he also reaches the final table.

Tomorrow we are thinking about either playing the 3k series event at bellagio or the 1k event at Venittien.

5th July

Jens, Mattias both survived the main event day 1.

I have decided not to play the main event becuse i dont think with the way ive been feeling and the jetlag that i will survive mentally for so many days. After my 16th place earlier in WSOP i feel its okey to let go of main event this year. Therefor I will be playing the bellagio, venettian and ceasar series. They are runnign 1-5k tournaments and all of them being 2 days event. This is the kind of structure i like and you have lots of chips to play with. Many of the pros are playing the bellagio series so it should be fun going head to head with some of them

The table i recive at day 2 is very aggresive and i try to find my spots to dubble up. Things are not going that well and im down to around 19k stack after trying to steal some blinds without success. When I find QQ and the guy to my right has gone all in, I call ofcourse and he shows TT and I get to dubble up through him. I was then moved to another table next to Vanessa Russou from Team Pokerstars and she was a bit easier to handle, not too aggressiv and plays very patient. I thought people looked so tired and unhappy at the table so I tried to cheer everyone up and started to sing ”allways look on the bright side of life” after a little while everyone was whistling along to the song, and we got a nice laugh. I manage to take down two unseen pots preflop and then its time to be moved again. Next table I have MiMi Tran on my right and farzad rouhani on my left. Since the blind are climbing so fast and the ante are litterly killing your stack im about half avg stack size the whole time here. I manage to get a dubble up through MiMi tran when she raises with AJ and i pushes all in with 88, she has to call due to potsize and my 88 holds up. I try to steal rouhanis blinds with rags but he reads me well and i have to lay it down when he repops me preflop. All in all its a funny table with Scott Siton being the shipleader at the table. We talk alot throught the day and he explains the reason why he is so tired is becuse he stayed up playing grand theft auto 4 all night long. Everyone laughs when he explains he went into a strip joint at the game to celebrate he survived the first day ”hey its cheaper then going to a real one!”. Maria my girlfriend has been watching me during Day 2 and its always good to have someone to support you when you are deep in a tournament. In her eyes im already a winner , she is very cute in that way ”but baby you are at worst 50th out of 2700 people!” my comment is ”yeah 49 more i have to knock out”.

When Im moved to my fourth table of the day we are 27 players left in the tournament and i get to meet up with my friend from table one from day 2 and that is Elliot Smith he is about mine and Scotts age so we are the three young guns at the table. We have alot of fun playing together at the table and cheer for eachother even though we are still trying to knock eachother out if we are in a pot together. Elliot recives a really nasty hit when he picks up AA late postion and goes all in against UTG raise from a guy who has about 2/3 of Elliots stack. The guy calls with 99 and spikes a 9 on the river. I have never seen anyone as calm as Elliot when he pushes over his chips to the guy and actoully laughs about it. Now that is a good mindset. I give him alot of props for not breaking down after a hand like that. When we are 18 players left and 2 tabling i find myself shortstack i manage to dubble up once through Elliot with KK but since im shortstacked the dubble up gives me about 14BB and not much to play with. I saw mostly 94o and 87o and its hard to push with those when you always have someone raising infront of you, you have such a small stack that they have to call your all in. The second swede left in the tournament Petter Fransson is knocked out on 19th place just before we break for 2 tables. When we are two tables I have about 8-12bb going back and forth from there when I mange to steal the blinds twice. Two more players are out and we are getting closer to the final table when I pick up A8o on the button everyone has folded to me and I have about 9bb. I push and sb folds when a norwiegen Joachim Berg Jensen in the bb wakes up and calls, he has about 10bb. Joachim shows 77 and we have a raise, i never improve and are knocked out on the 16th place.

It was a good run and im happy with my play and being best swede in the tournament is quite a good an accomplishment when the tournament had 2700 entries.

I also have to congratz my friend Scott for taking a notable second place in this tournament and manage NOT to play grand theft auto 4 the whole night before the final table.

The first three levels was very boring i couldnt get anything going and you start with 3k stack that finaly was down to 1,1k. I managed to dubble it up with 44 preflop vs AK. I spoke some with Daniel Bergstorf and Nils Nilsson from NoiQPoker about lack of sleep and if i could let anyone of them play the rest of the tour . Unluckily the tournament rules ofcourse wouldnt allow somehting like that. They cheered me on and I manage to get some nice hands before dinner break.

JTs on board 489 in a three way flop where i call a early raise from middleposition and guy to my left calls preflop. On the flop early raiser checks and pot is about 4k and i have 5k left in my stack, so i go all in. Guy to my left instant calls and the early raiser goes out. My friend to my left shows 88 and I need to hit my straight to improve, I smile when I see a Q hit on the turn and the board doesnt pair on the river.

With about 16k I am then moved to another table. When I sat down a swede to my right said when I sat down to his left ”thank god a smaller stack to my left”, I replied ”You really sure you want me to your left with this stack?”, he then points out that the guy to my left has a huge stack and its heavy to play against him. I only smile cause if its one thing I am good at its playing shortstack-middle short stacks, I wouldnt want myself to the left of me. First hand I pick up are AKo and we have one limper and then its up to my new friend to the right (I later got to know this nice guy, his name is Simon) he makes a raise to 6bb making it 3k to go when I pushes all in. Everyone folds back to Simon who sits for a long time staring at me trying to make me talk. I do what I always do, I think about something else then poker, like how damn good it would be to be back in my bed sleeping! He finally shows AK and fold. I shows his my AK and smiles.

About three hands later i pick up 99 when Simon limps and so do i and the another guy two seats to my left raises to 4bb and both me and simon calls. The flop is 7c8cTs everyone checks on the flop and turn is a 6d, simon bets pot and I go all in. The other guy folds and Simon starts to curse and finaly makes the call for 19k total. I show him my pocket pair and the made straight he shows KQc and when he deosnt improve i get to dubble up through him.

From there I went into the money and in the last hand of the day I pick up KK vs KQ who is pot commited after his raise from early position when I go all in. This guy folded QQ on the bubble just to make it into the money which was a funny scene when 35 tables where waiting for this guy to make his move and the tournament director picks up the mic and says ”no rush you are only holding up 35 tables and me from getting to bed” everyone starts to laugh. Anyhow I tell the guy not to call, ”if you call its all over baby” My kings holds up and I am off to day 2 with about 37k stack.

This event had all of us from team BAR in it except Jens Thoren who was still too jet lagged in order to play. We landed in vegas june 29th around 6pm with 9 hours time zone difference this is quite a big change for your body. We had to drag ourself to Rio and register ourself for the NL $1500 event played at june 30th.

I almost felt asleep in the registration line waiting for my turn to pay the buyin. I went straight to Bellagio after the registration to get some sleep. Didnt get much sleep since I woke up around 5am then 7am and finally i gave up and just decided to take a shower and go down and grab some breakfast. I met Jens and his father at the buffe here at Bellagio, I can warmly recommend the buffe its really excellent. After that I headed off to the WSOP at rio to play the Event 52.