It’s hard to believe we’re already through week 5 of PLIVE! Since we’ve started  we’ve seen a major CEO assassinated and a wild manhunt ensue, Hawk Tuah scamming a bunch of poor chaps, Belichick blacklisted from the NFL and now coaching a college team, and possible Iranian drones flying all over NY and NJ. Shit has been crazy and it’s not even Christmas yet! Buckle up folks, we’re in for a wild ride. 

The Winner’s Circle

Congratulations to Walnuts on winning the 2024 Gobbler for $710! A few notes about Walnuts’ epic win:

• I played the Gobbler while up at Moosehead Lake in Maine on the annual hunting trip I take with my Dad and 2 brothers. In past years I skipped PLIA the week we go away but for some reason this year I decided to play. Anyway, I was playing more aggressive than I normally do (which definitely helped) because I had to wake up the next day at 4AM but I kept winning hands and staying alive while losing time to sleep…I was fired up when I won, took me over an hour to get settled down and get to sleep haha.
• I was also pumped to finally get the better of Black when we were heads up at the final table, his poker game has been living rent free in my head since he auto-raised every one of my big blinds at a final table 2 seasons ago, he did everything but take my lunch money, give me a wedgie and stuff me in a locker that day
• I don’t remember all the details but I remember getting really lucky at one point on the Gobbler final table with a hand where I had AA, flop came out Q -10 – something, I went all-in after the flop and whoever I was going against had Q-10, I ended up catching an A on the turn or river to win it, finally a site hand that went my way haha!   

Congratulations to Sitting Out for his Week 4 win of $828! This is Kyle’s 2nd PLIA win and catapults him passed Black and into solo 2nd place. Kyle is having arguably the strongest season of anyone by making 4 final tables and having the highest dropped score of 11pts. Even if he were to have an off week, he’ll still likely maintain a top 3 position entering the second half of the season. 

As a fun side note, he and Rosstradamus have a weekly $50 last longer bet. Looks like Kyle is earning some nice cash on his side hustle! 

Lastly, I don’t want to congratulate myself on winning Week 5 but holy Jesus I really needed that win. Up until last week I just haven’t found my mojo and I thought that curse would continue after drunk Tanker was playing like an asshole and sucking me out. It got to a point where I even quit my role as commish and gave it to him. I was done and in a very dark place. That is until I finally got some hands and was able to chip up to a comfortable stack. I think that was the poker gods saying “you’re not done yet, Shades. Go win this thing.”

Alright that’s it for now. We got The Kringle freezeout this week. I took Thursday and Friday off so I’ll be coming in hot and loaded and looking for some action. See you all on the felt!