Adam Junglen

It’s about time I start blogging more. I’ve been sick and depressed the last few weeks. This winter has been pretty tough on me. I tend to get into these ruts where I don’t do anything for extended periods of time. I feel really isolated in the weather. Luckily that will all soon change. 

Borgata: I did end up skipping Borgata. Nothing against the tournament, I’d have loved to play in it. Just bad timing. I had a root canal scheduled and was very sick as well. I also needed some time to coordinate moving, which i’ll be doing in Mid-March.

WSOP Circuit: I’m flying out of Canton-Akron Airport into Memphis on Friday. The WSOPC $1k is the following day at Harrah’s Tunica. The $5k main event is on the 2nd. One of my best friends from grade school, Andy Webster, moved to Memphis near the end of HS several years ago. We’ve still kept in contact and he’s going to be picking Shaun and I up at the airport. It’s great when I run into old friends traveling. 

LAPC: Leaving Tunica and flying out west on the 4th. I’m rooming with Deeb here as well. Lots of prelim’s, lots of good cash games, just lots of poker. There are over 15 prelim’s I’m looking forward to playing, as well as the cash games. 

Las Vegas/Moving: After LA I’m heading to Vegas to sign my lease papers. I’m finally doing it. I’m moving out of here on March 10th and moving into Panorama on the 15th. I’m renting a moving truck and attaching my car to the back. My father and I (we’ve gone on many road trips together) will make the 2,100 mile trek across the country. 

Bluff Challenge: The dates haven’t been set in stone yet. Last I heard it’d start up in March. BLUFF is hosting an online tournament challenge and inviting a bunch of pro’s to come play and give it a shot. So what exactly is the challenge? Everyone is going to start out with $100 on a cake poker skin site. After 30 days of playing online SNG’s and MTT’s (no cash games) the player with the most money wins. Prizes haven’t been announced yet, but I’ve heard some of the names involved and it sounds like it’ll be a fun challenge. Also, BLUFF is sending everyone in the challenge a webcam for video blogs. We’ll see how that goes. I think it’ll be a pretty interesting competition, it’ll definitely be entertaining to watch. 

WSOP 2009: The schedule was finally released!! I’ve been waiting so long to play in the World Series of Poker in Vegas. I’ll post my detailed WSOP schedule sometime in the near future, but as you can imagine I’m going to be playing in a lot of tournaments. I hope to make a run at the WSOP Player of the Year race. 

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Today I stumbled across an old blog entry I wrote in May of 2005. The subject was Things I Gotta Do Before I Die. It was written two months after having my right leg amputated below the knee. I was a 17 year old Junior in HS. had recently been ripped off on a used car, so I was essentially broke. 

5/​22/​2005
Thing​s I Gotta​ Do Befor​e I Die

Learn​ to Walk Again​
Learn​ to Run Again​
Trave​l to some exoti​c place​
100% Indep​enden​ce 
Go one year witho​ut a surge​ry
Make more than $1 milli​on in one year.​
Live comfo​rtabl​y in “​work-​optio​nal”​ mode by the age of 40 
While​ I’m in the workp​lace be a perso​n of impor​tance​
Becom​e a well-​known​,​ respe​cted poker​ playe​r
Get Marri​ed 
Be able to enjoy​ life
Leave​ Stow OH
Write​ a Book

Hope you guys enjoyed this one. Cya at Tunica and LA. 

-Adam

I’m figuring out my schedule for the next few months. I’m really looking forward to grinding out a TON of tournaments. 

I’m probably going to Borgata to play in their $3k main event ($2mil guaranteed prize pool). Afterwards I’m headin to Tunica (or it may be my first stop if I don’t end up going to Borgata) to play the $1k and $5k WSOP Circuit events. From there it’s to the LAPC, which has prelim’s running from late January til the end of February, wrapping up with a $10k WPT ME. After LA I’m going to stop by Vegas and finalize my move-in details and play in some of the Wynn Classic events. I may or may not head to San Jose afterwards for the Bay 101 WPT. 

Before I leave for almost 2 months I’m going to start packing up my apartment so everything will be ready to go when I get home. 

Lookin forward to gettin out of this weather and back to the tables.

-Adam

I got back home on Friday and wasn’t able to leave my apartment until Sunday afternoon. I felt pretty silly flying from the Bahamas to a big snow storm in Ohio. It took me about 30 minutes to scrape the snow off my car and pull it out. 

What a mess. 

While I was snowed in I finished writing my section (more like a column) of a new book called Everything I know About Business I Learned From Poker. It’s by the CEO of Zappos and I’m one of a handful of contributing authors. It’ll be released over the summer. I’ve always wanted to write a book, so this was a pretty cool opportunity that came up. 

Today I two-tabled the FTP $109 turbo/rebuy and PS $200r. It had been awhile since I made a Sunday FT, but then again I haven’t played too many Sundays lately. I wound up taking 8th in the $200r. I intend on playing more online this year, especially after I move. Speaking of which I’m still planning on moving around Mid-February. 

Ugh, I’m not looking forward to tomorrow. I have a root canal in about 12 hours. 

Later,

-Adam

Day 2 of the PCA was a long grind that ended with me busting during the last level of the day. After maintaining a stack between 60k-100k, Tom Franklin (yea, THAT guy!) opened UTG to 10.5k at 2k/4k/400. I picked up AKo and shoved for 71.8k total with 4 players to act behind me. He counts it out, says he hopes he’s flipping and calls with AQo.

Queen in the door. 

Whatever. Getting the money afterwards was almost worse than busting out of the tournament. Once you were eliminated you were given a card saying what place you came in and had to wait for the staff to call your number. It took them 3-5min per player to record the place they finished in (so that line got progressively longer as players busted). Afterwards there was ANOTHER line that was at least a 30min wait to handle the money. 

It was so brutal. After busting out of a tournament, whether I make the money or not I’m always briskly walking in the opposite direction. Instead I had to wait for about an hour to collect my 1.25x buyin cash. In the meantime, Shaniac – who also dislikes hanging around the tournament area after busting (even more than me) joined me in the loser’s lounge. Least we got a pretty awesome picture out of it.

Disclaimer: In the past 72hrs I’ve gotten a total of 18hrs of sleep. This probably won’t be my best writing, but w/e. 

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I arrived in Nassau for the PCA on Sunday afternoon/evening. I was planning on playing Day 1B (Tuesday) since I hadn’t slept the night before my flight and wanted to get some rest. I ended up making a gametime decision later that night to play 1A. I was just feeling good and thought 10hrs of sleep would be fine. I also had the $25k event in the back of my mind. The high roller event is on Day 2 of the main event, so I’d be more up for it had I busted 1A rather than 1B. 

Anyways, day 1a was kind of a mess. Despite doubling early to around 45k I never could get much traction. I spewed a bit in some marginal situations and wasn’t dealt too much either. I had 14.5k going into the last level of the day (600/1200/100). I finished the day with 61.4k after doubling through (A4 >KQs) and then reshoving QJo against DJ Sensei’s LP open and outrunning his KK. It had been awhile since I got it in really bad for all my chips and got there in a live major. Felt pretty sweet, lol. 

Tomorrow’s day 2, time to get some much needed rest. Hopefully I’m refreshed, focused, and play better than I did on Day 1.

Later,

-Adam

Sorry for the lack of recent updates. The last few weeks I’ve been caught up in a sea of paperwork due by the end of the year along with the holidays. I was also sick for a little while and had a few doctor’s/dentist appointments.

Tomorrow I’m flying to the Bahamas for the PCA and I’m finally feeling good and ready to play some poker. The last time I went to the PCA it was still on the WPT. I was 19 years old, and it was my first live major event. Good times. Since then it’s changed over to the European Poker Tour and grown substantially. For whatever reason I’m a bit more excited this year to play. Maybe it’s the fact I’ll be getting out of the weather in OH.

Speaking of getting out of Ohio, I’m planning on moving to Vegas before the LAPC main (Mid Feb). If I’m not moved out by then I’m just being lazy. I’m going to get home from the PCA, get moving started, then goto either the WPT in Biloxi or EPT in Deauville. Afterwards get home and drive across the country. 

See you all in the Bahamas,

-Adam