The Legitimate Businessmen's Social Club

Omaha drought at pechanga & Fishing at Barona

2008-02-28T00:36:55Z

Had the opportunity to play lots of poker over the last couple of days...unfortunately, my results were abysmal.

Saturday night I got on the Omaha game at Pechanga and blew through my entire buy-in in a few hours...-$120

Monday night I played 2 different $3-$6 Hold'em sessions at Barona Valley Ranch. +$80 & +$70 respectively. This place is the biggest fish pond in San Diego. The players are so bad, it sends the variance through the roof.

I had one donkey call me down with 4-4 on a board of K-9-6 6 10. I raised pre-flop with A-Q and led out on every street. After I bet the river, he kind of shrugs his shoulders as if to say "oh well, i guess i'm beat, but i'll call 'cause i'm the last asshole in the pot" Fucking idiot.

I did manage to get to bed up $150 for the night. The rooms at Barona are nice...nothing special, just nice. Above average bathroom with soaking tub, glass stall shower and a nice marble sink.

We headed out to the golf course the next morning...I played awful on the front 9. Shot 46 from the tips (7100 yds.) which included a penalty for playing a wrong ball out of their unusually high rough. The wind was up all day and with only about 5 trees on the entire course, there is absolutely no protection from the elements. The back 9 was different though. I played much better, shot 40 which included 3 clutch putts to halve holes where my partner was in his pocket. We ended up losing three bets, pressing, and winning two back on 17 & 18.

After dinner, Barona has an above average buffet, I decided to try and take another small withdraw from the Barona Poker Room. The first three hands I pick up A-10 suited under the gun, J-10 suited in the big blind and A-K in the small blind. I raised all three hands and never saw the turn once. A player two seats down from me says "we got a no-limit player who can't get a seat on the NL game". What a fuckin' asshole. It really made ma want to tell the guy to stfu and mind his own business, but cooler heads prevailed...for a while. This game was a train wreck too. Players calling two bets under the gun w/ Q-2 offsuit and flopping two pair. Player in a raised multiway pot shows down 4-2 suited to pick up a huge pot when he flopped a set of 4's. Players acting out of turn, players calling $3 in a Kill pot instead of $6. It was miserable and I was stuck $120 before you know it. I reached for another 10 Big Blinds and eventually walked out of the room down $180 for the day, -$30 for the trip.

The coup de grace was my final hand. I am under the gun in a Kill pot with my patience dwindling right along with my chip-stack. I make it $12 to go with pocket 6's. Players fold around to big mouth two seats down and he calls the $12, then the Killer, to my left says "i have a pocket pair, might as well call". Flop comes down 4-3-2. I make a continuation bet of $6 and the guy to my left raises to $12, big mouth calls and i call. The turn is another 4. I guess at this point I am a bit optimistic, hoping he has pocket 5's with the open ended straight draw. I check, he bets $12 and big mouth calls and I call. Last card is another 2 and even though I only have $2 left, I check. My left bets the 12 and big mouth lays it down and i huck my last $2 in the pot. The old man turned quad 4's. Good for him. Big mouth yells out, "I made a great laydown, saved myself $12, I had A-K." I looked at him and said, "great laydown, what do you mean great laydown?" He says "yeah, I was drawing to the 5 high straight...you had A-K too, right?" I told him that I had pocket 6's and if the 5 came down he would have been dead to my 6-high straight. Now he's EVEN MORE CONVINCED that he made THE LAYDOWN OF THE YEAR! What a moron...so I told him in plain English, "you had the third best hand, third best draw, yeah, GREAT laydown on the River."

What an idiot.

so, anyway...-$120 at Pechanga and -$30 at Barona.

-$44 for the year.

Last Saturday at Ocean's 11

2008-02-22T17:22:25Z

I had a brutal $3-$6 Hold 'em session at Ocean's 11 last weekend. Got into the room at about 10:30 pm and there's about 7 names on the $4-$8 Omaha list and the $4-$8 hold 'em list was twice as long. So, i sit down for $3-$6 hold 'em. As Mike McDermott would say, for me, $3-$6 hold 'em is "like wiffle ball". I can typically take $100 off of any $3-$6 game i've ever sat at w/in a few hours, be social, laugh, joke, break balls, get creative with the cards, make some bluffs (stupid or calculated) and have some fun just being at a card table. No grinding.

Well, that night was not a typical session. It was brutal, file under anything that can go wrong, did go wrong. Just some real bad luck with the cards. One hand I was in the big blind w/ 4-2, flop a set when the board comes down 5-4-4. I'm stuck about 10 big bets at this point so i'm jamming the pot with this total fish hanging on. Finally, he pops me back on the river and all i can think of is that he played pocket 5's like a champ. This donkey tabled 5-4 off-suit that he played from the cutoff. Brutal. If I had top pair with a King, I got beat by top pair with an Ace. I hit an open ended straight in a Monster (well, monster for $3-$6) Pot and ended up having to chop. I was all in for three bets pre-flop with pocket 10's, flopped a set, and barely got paid on it. That kind of nonsense.

It was good to be in the cardroom though after being in the house most of the day, with the exception of hitting a large bucket of balls at Encinitas Ranch in the late afternoon.

I have a pretty exciting couple of days ahead of me. Tomorrow night i'm taking Maureen back to Pechanga and then on Monday I have two clients coming into town from Oregon. Monday night we're going to West Bistro for dinner, staying at the resort at Barona, playing some cards, and then Tuesday Morning we're teeing it up at Barona Creek for some on-course product testing.

Should be exciting.

-20 Big Bets for the Ocean's session leaves me at a measly +$106 for the year.

Saturday Night at Pechanga

2008-02-12T17:17:35Z

Took Maureen to Pechanga on Saturday night so I could get an Omaha session in. I got to the poker room and to my dismay, there were 9 names ahead of me on the Omaha list with only one game running. I sat down and played some hold-em until my name was called an hour later. (exactly even, to the dollar, which, minus tips on the pots I won, i'm actually ahead by a very small amount) They called off the entire Omaha list (12 names by this time) and we only managed to field 5 players on the second game. This is not a problem though because they were only dropping $1 & $1 ($1 for the house and $1 for the jackpot) and a 5 man ring game still qualifies for the bad-beat jackpot. I ran the game over for about an hour and then cooled off a little. By the time the must-move game broke and I got on the main game, I was up $50. I took a little hit in the main game and got my stack cut in hal in the first 30 minutes. I had to work at getting back into black figures before that game eventually broke at about 3am. All said and done, I logged a very small profit for the evening. (+$31) I am nursing my bankroll back to health a little at a time I guess.

+$226 for the year

NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship

2008-02-08T02:23:36Z

It's that time of year again. The end of this month will mark the 4th annual running of this event at Caesar's Palace. Last year, I shared my thoughts on the invitees and even got on my soapbox about how Paul Wassicka was snubbed by not getting an initial invite. When Phil Hellmuth had to bow out due to another commitment, Wassicka was given the nod and then goes on to win the thing. How about that for prognostication? I want to give my thoughts on the this year's field and lets see if I can't just pick myself another dark horse this year.

By the way, I didn't watch a single episode of this last year, or any year for that matter. I follow it online as it happens, but when they air it a month later it makes for very bad television.

Here we go:

Category 1 - Past Champions (No brainers)

Paul Wassicka
Phil Hellmuth
Ted Forrest

Category 2 - WSOP Main Event Champions (winning this thing is like becoming the Pope, automatic invite to any event for life, imo.)

Joe Hachem (2005)
Scotty Nguyen (1998)
Greg Raymer (2004)
Huck Seed (1996)
Jerry Yang (2007)
Doyle Brunson (1976-1977)
Johnny Chan (1987-1988)
Chris Ferguson (2000)
Jamie Gold (2006)

Conspicuously absent from this category:

Chris Moneymaker (2003)
Carlos Mortenson (2001)
Dan Harrington (1995)

Category 3 - The hottest names in poker today. (Varying ability levels) All of the following players are rising stars in poker and all deserve to be invited to this tournament. These are the guys 90% of all poker enthusiasts tune in to see.

Patrick Antonious
Bobby Bellande
David Benyamine
Allen Cunningham
Bill Edler
Antonio Esfandiari
Gus Hansen
Phil Ivey
Phil Laak
Erick Lindgren
David Singer
Gavin Smith
Brian Townsend
Mike Mizrachi
Daniel Negraneau
Mike Matusow
J.C. Tran
Kenny Tran

But what about?:

Brad Booth - more of a cash player, but not bad heads-up from what i've seen won two matches last year.
Gavin Griffin - just won a WPT Event at the Borgata
Joe Sebok - had a solid '07
Dutch Boyd - out of the gate strong with 3 cashes already in 2008
Nick Schulman - best young player to come out of NYC in years.
Jeff Madsen - oh how the mighty have fallen out of favor with the poker muckety mucks
John D'Agostino - 3 words...WTF?
John Hennigan - captured a WPT Title in 2007
Andy Bloch - who developed computer software specifically to help his heads-up abilities
David Oppenheim - what's a guy gotta do to get an invite buddy?
Nam Le - very solid all-around player, lost to Wassicka last year in the Semis

Category 4 - Old School Pros. These guys have been doing it longer than anyone else in the business at the highest level. Definitely worthy of invites.

T.J. Cloutier
Freddy Deeb
Eli Elezra
Sam Farha
Barry Greenstein
Sam Grizzle
Erik Seidel
Howard Lederer
Chad Brown
David "The Dragon" Pham

Invites lost in the mail?:

Men the Master
Chau Giang
Hoyt Corkins

Category 5 - The Ladies

Annie Duke - couldn't shake an invite for Joe Reitman?
Clonie Gowen - steet cred is easy to come by when you're tall, blonde and thin.
Jen Harman - best player in the world with ovaries.
Vanessa Rousso - Poker Stars loves it.

But no room for:

Katja Thater - Poker Stars other lady pro
Erica Schoenberg - a.k.a. Mrs. David Benyamine
Isabelle Mercier - bitchy French Canadiens need love too
Kathy Liebert - poker isn't pretty
Brandi Hawbaker - just kidding
Kristy Gazes - who won 3 matches last year

Category 6 - Who the f*ck is __________? Here's where we start losing a little traction. These guys have the resume, they have the game, but they don't have the name.

Scott Clements - competing at the highest level for 3 years...but really broke through when he got a WPT Title last year in Canada.
Tom Dwan - Think he's Asian? Think again. Relatively new to the scene. Conclusion: he must ne the Tournament Director's nephew or something.
Jonathan Little - another young tournament star who captured a WPT Title last year at the Mirage.
Tom Schneider - journeyman (read: older) tournament player, good stud hi/low player, let's see how he does head's up.
Daniel Schreiber - Korea's best kept secret? Last years Heads-Up Bracelet winner at the WSOP? Maybe BOTH!

Category 7 - Falling Stocks. I wouldn't say these pros are on the top of their game, but they were good enough to get the nod from NBC.

Todd Brunson - too grumpy for HSP
Scott Fischman - didn't he loose to Kristy Gazes last year?
John Juanda - I envy his ability, but not his personality
Gabe Kaplan - I still love this guy.
David Williams - snore

Category 8 - Just because you have $20K doesn't mean you should be playing televised poker.

Jason Alexander - great improvisational comic, mediocre poker player.
Don Cheadle - good philanthropist, great actor, below average poker player.
Shannon Elizabeth - gets to prove to the world that last year was a fluke. Good luck.
Brad Garrett - more novelty comedic figures hanging around making a mockery of the poker world. (see also, Jason Alexander.)
Orel Hershiser - great pitcher, poker ability unknown. If anybody has seen this guy hanging around Commerce sweating Johnny Chan, get your money in now.
Jennifer Tilly - one LADIES ONLY bracelet does not a poker champion make.

How about celebs who can actually play good poker? Like:

Sully Erna
Ben Affleck
James Woods
Tobey McGuire

And finally:

The following players were all denied Visas (a la Amy Winehouse) on the grounds that they are annoying poker players:

Tony G
Dario Minieri - It's July, in Las Vegas, and I brought a scarf on my trip to America
Devilfish Ulliot
Andrew Black - ther's no crying in poker pal
Humberto Brenes - you loose to Shannon Elizabeth and you're off the list forever!
The entire Hendon Mob

I haven't picked a winner yet but i'm tempted to handicap this event at a later time and make a few friendly wagers on the event.

If anyone disagrees with my assessments, please, let me hear it.

-scpj

WSOP Circuit Event #6 - O8b - Harrah's, Rincon

2008-02-05T00:39:55Z

I just want to say up front that I did lousy in this tournament and I have a few gripes that I hope are not viewed as excuses. I busted out on the last hand of the 4th round last Tuesday night and was pretty disappointed with the overall experience, but like I said, I'm not making excuses for bad play, just wanna get a few things off my chest.

Format was awful. I paid $200 + $25 and the best they could do for me is $2000TC with 30 min. levels? Everyone I have spoken with, including 2+2ers and other, more experienced players who were there, agree that this is a -EV crap shoot. We may have seen between 12-15 hands per level, and at the end of the 4th level the blinds were headed to $200-$400. I only won 1 hand in the first level and got dead carded through most of the 2nd & 3rd levels only to find good cards in the 4th level with not enough chips to play them. I busted on the last hand of the 4th level when I flopped 2 pair with a low draw and lost to a better 2 pair with a better low.

I just walked away from the experience feeling like Sycuan put on a better tournament at a cheaper price and without the WSOP Brand Name.

anyway...

-$225 on the session puts me at +$195

more later.

cardplayer.com

2008-01-29T21:28:58Z

Since I had the 3rd highest chip stack at last week's Omaha Event at the Sycuan Super Bowl of Poker, I am now a perminent resident in the cardplayer.com Player Database.

Here is the actual results report from the Event:

http://www.cardplayer.com/tournaments/results/14377

And here is the link to the Cardplayer.com Player Datebase:

http://www.cardplayer.com/players

I am looking to add to that tonight at Harrah's WSOP Circuit Omaha Event #6.

Tournament Report - Enter Omaha

2008-01-25T01:39:58Z

I'm super stoked today because last night I played in & cashed in my first ever B&M Omaha 8/b Tourney. I'm not only excited about cashing, but I'm excited about how i did it. I didn't just barely slime my way into the money by getting rockey around the bubble, I went to the final table with the third largest chip stack.

Let's back up a bit.

After much encouragement to play from both my wife and my buddy joepro, I decided I was definitely taking the drive down to Sycuan yesterday. In my opinion, this was the perfect barometer to give me an idea where I stood as far as my Omaha ability in a Tournament environment. I have been preparing mentally for the Harrah's $200 + $25 Omaha Tourney all month.

6:30 pm - We started the tourney with 72 players situated (I believe) at 8 tables. 20 Minute rounds and everyone started with $5K in TC. I started off pretty good, not afraid of getting involved in some pots with decent starting hands. No big scoopers but chopping some moderate sized pots. I blew it bit time when i got a sixth of a pot with the nut low. what was even more pathetic was that a measly pair of sevens took the high. At the first break (between rounds 4 and 5) i was nickel-and-diming it to $7,100 TC. There were a few players at the table who managed to get themselves short stacked but there was no real dominant chip leader.

I went on somewhat of a tear over the next few rounds, got a little lucky once or twice and at the end of level 7 I had accumulated $19,800 TC. Blinds were now at $700 - $1500. The specifics of the hands are a little blurry. I do recall one pot in particular where I had the nut low and hit a set of nines on the river to scoop a very nice sized pot. Level 8 was brutal, I don't think I made it to the turn once during the whole level. I was card dead, getting a lot of hands with no scooping potential. I was playing pretty tight but still managed to donk off a few pre-flop calls. At the second break, with the blinds going to $1000 - $2000 I was sitting on $17,500 TC.

After the second break I gave myself a little pep talk in the bathroom. I decided that with half the field gone and a better than average chip stack, I was gonna make myself a force to be reckoned with from here on in. The cards tried to cooperate but things didn't go exactly as planned. Twice I had an opponent all-in with better scooping potential; better low hands, better high draws, counterfeit insurance...once i got quartered and once I got scooped. It didn't deter me though. I kept getting my money in with good hands, trying to recover some of those chips. Keep in mind, player are dropping like flies at this point...three tables...now two tables...19 players...now 18. I finally got a hand where I really drew a line in the sand for my tournament life. I raised to $6,000 under the gun (it was my third pre-flop raise in a row) with A-2-5-10 double suited. The player to my left, who was about evenly stacked with me was furious at all my pre-flop raising. He re-bumps it to $9,000. it comes back to me and I cap it to $12,000. (at this point I only have about another $3,500). side note: there are other callers in the hand here, but I'm totally focused on this guy and getting all of my chips in the pot. Being first to act anyway, I fired out $3,000 before the flop hit and showed the guy my last $500 chip. He obliged me and put me all in. The flop came down a miraculous 10-10-A. after the turn bricked his back-door low draw I scooped a monster pot to put me in the cat-bird seat.

17 players...16 players. I played aggressive but smart from there on out...14 players...13 players. Play really tightens up around this point, I get involved in only a few pots and let my stack do the work for me...11 players...10 PLAYERS! When the bubble burst, I was quite pleased with my $55,000 TC. (Average stack size at this point is $36,000 TC) I was running 3rd out of 10 remaining players!

Unfortunately, the ending is a little anti-climactic. With the exception of one short stack, there wasn't a huge difference in the chip positions. Before the first card had been dealt at the final table, and as the tournament was about to enter its 5th hour, we collectively decided to chop the prize pool 10 ways guaranteeing every player 3rd place money, $288. I was happy. 3rd place money was twice as much as 4th place money and much better that 5th through 10th place money. Also, every player at the final table got a $50 Voucher for Sycuan's Super Bowl Sunday $10K Guarantee.

Finally, I was notified that the results of this tournament, and the other tournaments Sycuan is running as part of their Super Bowl of Poker promotion, will be published in a future issue of Card Player Magazine. Check that off the list.

What's the bottom line? I'm really excited to play in next Tuesday's Harrah's Omaha event and I'll have a few familiar faces there that I met last night. Give me a rooting interest, "as best as their interests don't conflict with my interests". And my poker figure for the year after a net gain of $240?

+$420

Tournament Report - Borgata Winter Open - Event #3

2008-01-23T00:33:10Z

I am extremely please to report that my good friend and fellow Live Journal-ist Joepro has finally broken through with his first live tournament cash. It happened last week at Event #3 of the Borgata Winter Open (NLH - $750 + $70) in Atlantic City, N.J. I was driving home from work last Thursday when I got a text message from joepro: "$85,000 at the dinner break". I knew it was on.

You can go to Joepro's site (http://joepro.livejournal.com/) to read his blow-by-blow account of the action but I'll give you the cliff notes:

Battle with a stomach virus pre-tourney

Start w/ $7K in chips

Down to under $2K in no time

Survive a few all-ins and battle back to $85K by the dinner break

Take a major hit to the stack when opponent's A-10 spikes a 10 on the river against his A-K.

card dead

bubble nears, play tightens

bubble bursts, play becomes increasingly more aggressive, still card dead.

blinded out in 40th place (out of 569 players)

$673 Net earnings in 14 hour session (less dinner break) It should also be noted that Joepro picked up 2.1 BLUFF Magazine Player of the Year Points for his troubles. That puts him approximately in 1,256th place, trailing Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier by 467.9 points

There were a handful of notable players in the field. They included 2007 WSOP 6th Place finisher "Rain" Khan who finished 4th for his largest cash since the WSOP. Also present, L.A. rounder Ut Nguyen and Philadelphia's Matt Glantz.

Congrats Joepro, keep 'em coming!

On a side note, I'm about 50/50 to participate in tomorrow night's Omaha Tournament at Sycuan. This is Event #2 in the 2008 San Diego Super Bowl of Poker. Although I pretty much hate Sycuan and I think it's kind of a dump, I am hoping to use this as a nice warm-up session for Event #6 of the WSOP Circuit Event at Harrah's N. San Diego where I'll be playing in their $200 + $25 Omaha next Tuesday night.

Back to Poker

2008-01-15T23:55:20Z

Over the last 6 months, I've been playing some of the best golf of my life. This past summer I shot 76 at Arrowood in Oceanside. I haven't shot a round worse than 85 in recent memory, and every time i tee it up, I'm 1 or 2 bad holes away from shooting a sub-80 round. I shot 83 at Pauite in difficult conditions, shot 82 at Aviara on the 2nd and I have a nice little test at Barona Creek on the horizon. I can't wait until it starts staying light untill 7:30 again.

OK...I'm looking to have a big Poker year this year. I really want to grow as an Omaha player and participate in some Omaha tourneys. My first strike will be Event #6 at the Harrah's-San Diego WSOP Circuit Event on Tuesday, January 29th. $200 entry fee. I think that being on a Tuesday night and the fact that it's Omaha, the field probably won't be huge, but you gotta play 'em 1 table at a time anyway. I'm hoping for some favorable results.

I've only played 3 live poker sessions thus far in 2008 and I'm starting out in black figures:

New Year's Day @ Harrah's SD: -$5
01/05 (am) @ Harrah's LV: +$100
01/05 (pm) @ Mirage: +$85

So my figure for the year so far is $+180...time to build it up!

If i'm still in black figures come summertime and i'm playing well, I will try, for the 3rd year in a row now, to enter a $1,500 WSOP Event. Last year I had planned on doing it during a scheduled vacation with buddies from back East. This turned out to be a rather anti-social idea, as I discovered that I was having way too good a time hanging out with those guys than grinding my way deep into a three day tournament. This year, I think I'll just make a special trip for the expressed purpose of playing in the WSOP.

The even that I think best fits my schedule/bankroll/ability level:

EVENT #6
06/03 - Omaha h/l 8o.b. - $1,365 buy in + $135 entry fee

Starting the Year Off Right

2008-01-15T23:14:53Z

Here's the bomb-shell...Maureen and I got married at The Chapel of the Flowers in Las Vegas on Saturday night, the 5th of January at 8:30 pm.

<< REWIND <<

We decided on Friday the 4th that we were gonna stop talking about it and finally do it. We got in the car at about 8pm Vegas bound. We rolled into Harrah's Valet at around 1am, checked-in and were upgraded to a Suite on the 23rd Floor of the Carnival Tower. Maureen wanted to get some gambling in and I was too tired to walk over to the Mirage so I headed off to the $3-$6 game in Harrah's poker room. Got off to a real rocky start marred by rags after rags. Don't think I saw a 10 or better for a half hour. Patience paid off and I cashed out of the session around 4 am, exactly $100 to the good.

The next morning I made an appointment for Maureen at the Spa so I could get across the street to the Mirage for some $5-$10 Omaha. there was a list with a half-a-dozen names on it so I decided to play some more $3-$6 while I waited. I never did get onto that Omaha game. By the time Maureen was done her Spa treatment and came over to meet me for lunch, I was ahead $85. +$185 for the trip.

We split a Corned Beef with Swiss on Rye Toast at Carnegie Deli and then it was off to City Hall to get the license. In-and-out in about 10 mins. & $62. After that was done, it was time to pick a place. I have since learned that there are 109 places in Las Vegas where you can legally tie the knot. There were some really bad ones; Some places that advertised $25 drive-thru weddings, theme weddings and of course, Elvis weddings. We looked at about 6 and it seemed that each one was worse than the last until we found The Chapel of the Flowers, a very nice looking facility in a not so nice looking neighborhood just a few blocks north of the Stratosphere.

We sealed the deal on the venue and they picked us up from Harrah's in their limo. I did, she did, take a few pictures, and it was back in the limo and off to Bellagio for dinner. I had made late dinner reservations at Circo for after the ceremony. They have an incredible wine list and the food was awesome. Maureen and I shared the grilled Calamari with roasted bell peppers and lemon chive vinaigrette appetizer. When it came out and it wasn't breaded and fried like pub-grub calamari, I though Maureen was gonna die, but she actually liked it. I had the Penne and (huge)Prawns with Brandy Sauce and Maureen loved the chicken dish she had.

The next day, Maureen and I ventured over to the new Palazzo Hotel & Casino, between the Wynn and the Venetian. more on that later...

Last Omaha Session of the Year

2008-01-15T21:37:56Z

Had to pick up Maureen at LAX on the 29th so I decided to take some extra time and get up the 405 early so I could put in a session at Hollywood Park, which is only 10 mins. from the Airport through beautiful downtown Inglewood. The LA Forum is right across the street. It's often dark and abandoned looking, except for the occasional concert. It reminds me of the old Spectrum in South Philadelphia.

Walking into the cardroom, I was un-deterred by my previous hold'em session at Bellagio. I knew that i could get an Omaha game at HP. The timing couldn't have been better. I got seated at a $3-$6 Omaha table in the 5 seat which afforded me the luxury of watching the second half of the Giants/Patriots final regular season game on a 60" screen that was directly over the dealer's right shoulder. Perfect. And speaking of perfect, how good are the Patriots? Undefeated Regular Season, Most points by a team, Brady has the most single season TD's throwing, Moss the most TD's catching. If I were Tom Brady, I would win Super Bowl XLII, retire, save the wear and tear on my body and spend the rest of my life trying to spend all that freakin' cash. My point is, how the hell do you get motivated to go back to training camp in July after coming off the perfect season? There's no where to go but down. That would be the biggest Seinfeld move (going out on top) of all-time. Anyway, back from my football tangent. The Omaha session went very well. I cleared a profit of 15 BB's in an hour and a half.

I have a question about Omaha, and part of it is because I am still kinda new to the game and the other part is that I'm trying to get my head around the mathematics of the problem. I want to preface this question by saying, there is nothing in Omaha that makes me feel like more of a Donkey that getting quartered with the nut Low.

Here goes: I pick up A-2-x-x in a hand and the flop comes 8-6-4. I check under the gun to disguise my strength and the woman to my immediate left bets out. It goes call, call and I call. The turn is a high card and I bet. The woman to my left raises and I am now about 99% sure she also is holding A-2. However, there are still two other players in the hand (assumingly going for the high). it gets back to me and, even though I was sure I was getting quartered, I re-raised. all three other players call. The river is another rag and again, holding the nut low, I bet. Three more calls and it's showdown time. Of course, I have a quarter of the Low with the old lady and one of the other two gentlemen takes the High.

So, what happened here? Every time more dollars went into the pot, neither me nor the old lady were benefiting. If both players were drawing to their High hand and came up with squadoosh, there might have been an outside hand that one of us (me and the old lady) could wind up with three quarters, but that was pretty unlikely. for every $6 of mine that went in, I could only get $6 back. No good. Now, what if there were 5 players in the hand instead of 4? every betting round, $30 goes into the pot ($6 per player x's 5) with an expected return of $7.50 if the result is a quarter. So, if that's the case...pump it up even if you know you're getting quartered. Is that right?

Christmas with Steve & Bill

2008-01-14T23:57:02Z

It was decided a few months back that Maureen would spend Christmas with her mom in Philadelphia. I decided, in lieu of this, that it would be a good chance to spend a few days in Vegas with my buddy Steve.

We left around 4am on the 22nd because we were expected at the Las Vegas Pauite Golf Course for a late morning tee-time. The course was unbelievable and the weather really cooperated. Sunny and bright with relatively low winds, but definitely a nip in the air. We played one of the three Pete Dye design courses on the property, The Snow Mountain Course...all 7,146 yards of it. We both played rather well. My only major hiccup on the front 9 came on the par 5 third hole where i went for the green in 2 and pushed my second shot into the pond. I took the drop but failed to get up and down for par, settling for a bogey 6. Two other costly mistakes were off-line drives that caused me to take un-playable lies at one penalty stroke a piece. Double bogey on the signature 445yd par 4 finishing hole and i finished with an 83.

After golf, we checked into red-headed step-child of the Las Vegas Strip, Bill's Gambling Hall & Saloon. (Formerly The Barbary Coast) All in all, this place is actually a great bargain for its location. You are a very short walk from some of Las Vegas' premier properties like The Bellagio, Caesar's Palace, Paris LV & PH. There is a 42" LG plasma television in every room and the place smells and looks very clean. (even for a smoking room) Bathroom is tiny (and if you've read this, you know how much i like my big bathrooms like the Hotel at Mandalay and PH) I'm glad i got to stay here at least once because the word on the street is that w/in 18 months, Bill's, along with The Flamingo and IP, will be a huge pile of rubble to make way for the newest mega-resort.

Saturday night we ventured over to the buffet at the Palms and I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. (i believe it cost $17.99) Better than average selection that included pizza, sushi, BBQ short ribs, good size crab legs and a carving station with prime rib. I was so content after dinner that I didn't even check out the desserts.

On the gambling front, I had an awful trip...lost every bet I made including, but not limited to, Blackjack at the Sahara, Craps at the Riviera, Let it Ride at Bill's, Star Wars penny slots at the Venetian and a $4-$8 Hold'em session at the Bellagio.

On the plus side, I made a resolution to never, ever gamble north of The Wynn ever again. Those properties (The Sahara & Riviera especially) are dead to me. At one time or another, I thought they were cool throwbacks to the old days but now they are havens for scumbags and lowlifes. Pass. Sunday afternoon was such a tease. after hearing horrible weather reports, Steve and i had decided late Saturday night to skip golf on Sunday. Well, not like anyone should be surprised, but Sunday afternoon was absolutely gorgeous, with temperatures AT LEAST 10-15 degrees warmer than the previous day. Bummer. We decided to get close to golf the next best way we knew how, drinking Coronas on the porch overlooking the 18th hole at Wynn Las Vegas and watching the privileged few who were out playing that day. Not a bad place to get a burger/kill an hour or two.

Christmas Eve Dinner at The Rosewood Grill was a meal for the ages. Steve and I split a 7lb lobster accompanied by a 5 oz. Fillet Mignon.

The trip was a blast, I rarely ever have a bad time in Las Vegas. I figured my gambling losses to be just south of $500. Couldn't wait 'til the new year so I could wipe the slate clean again on my gambling figure.

Harrah's Releases 2008 WSOP Schedule

2007-12-14T22:08:03Z

It's that time of year again, Christmas comes a few days early for Poker enthusiasts with visions of tournament poker dancing in their heads.

The 2008 WSOP will run roughly from Memorial Day to the middle of July. Like last year, 55 Events are on the books. I wanted to talk abut a couple of highlights and lowlights on the schedule.

We start with a bang again this year with the $10K Entry Pot Limit Hold 'em Championship.

Follow that up a few days later with a brand new event for 2008, The World Championship Mixed Event. Are we taking this mixed-game thing a little too far? We already have H.O.R.S.E. & S.H.O.E., now this. It seems like a lot to keep track of. The $10K buy-in tourney will feature 8, count 'em 8 different disciplines of poker:
Limit HOLD 'EM
OMAHA 8/ob
RAZZ
7 Card STUD
STUD 8/ob
No Limit HOLD 'EM
Pot Limit OMAHA
LOWBALL 2-7 Triple Draw

As that event is wrapping up, the World Champ 7 Card Stud Event will be kicking off. Also a $10K Buy-in.

June 11th will be the first of 3 H.O.R.S.E. Events. This one, in particular features a $3K buy-in.

This years Heads-Up World Championship will be capped at 256 players vying at 128 tables to get the bracelet. I speculated this time last year that from a logistics standpoint they would have to cap the number of entries. Turns out, i was right. I wonder, though, how they arrived at that number. Number of available tables? Number of available dealers? Maybe it's because 256 is perfectly divisible by 64 and there will be 4 super-brackets with 64 players each. Sort of like March Madness on steroids. Will it be first come first serve? or will there be spots reserved for big-name players who maybe didn't get to the tellers window on time? we shall see.

There will be a $10K World Championship of Limit Hold 'em. This is Poker's equivalent to the Grey Cup in my opinion. I'll quote Rick Reiley when I say that "it's like finding out your kid won an NCAA championship...in male cheerleading."

The World Champion of STUD Hi/Lo Eights or Better will be decided over a $5K Event

However, the World Champion of OMAHA Hi/Lo Eights or better will command $10K per participant.

June 22nd will be one of the marquee events for 2008. The $50K H.O.R.S.E. Event which will officially be dubbed the David "Chip" Reese Memorial. I'm sure it will be an extremely emotional event, especially if it is captured by someone who was a friend of Reese.

There will be another H.O.R.S.E. Event that carries only a $1,500 buy-in. With the Mixed Game craze becoming more popular, i'm sure that event will draw a huge field. Good for Harrah's, offering a high-profile competition with a reasonable buy-in. Good for the sport and good for the players.

Between H.O.R.S.E. Events, we will crown a World Champion of Pot Limit OMAHA in a $10K contest.

Of course there is a full Royal Sampler of other events ranging from $1,500 to $5,000. These events will include 20 No Limit Hold 'em tourneys, the obligatory Ladies Only & Seniors Only Events and a nice smattering of Limit & Pot Limit Hold 'Em, PLO, Stud, Stud 8, Omaha 8, Razz & 2-7.

Thursday, July 3rd will be Day 1A of the Main Event. It looks like for the first time, Harrah's is making a statement about field size. The way the schedule is written, Harrah's wants you to know that they can acomodate up to 2,500 players a day for four days. Also very important, your seat is guaranteed to be in the controlled climate of the brick & mortar Amazon Room, and not in a Poker Tent serving as a makeshift poker room in the Rio's back yard.

Now the question becomes; how many players will they get? Last year, the WSOP ME experienced the first rescesion in participation in its 37 year history. The ME took a giant step back from 8,773 players in 2006 to 6,358 players in 2007. (>25%) (This was the result of the banning of third party entries, i.e. seats won on American internet gaming sites like FTP & UB) It will be interesting to see what big overseas sites like 888 & betfair will do.

Will there be another step backwards or slight resurgence? I'd like to think that after last year, with another cinderella story of an unknown amateur bagging the elephant, we might see a larger field than 2007. I'm an optimist. I will place the over under right at 7,500 players. Who wants action?

What's the Rule?

2007-11-19T21:33:15Z

Any and all feedback welcomed on this one...

...Ok, so, i'm playing Omaha at Pechanga on Saturday night and I'm half tilted but not so bad. I've already had one incident with this woman who's husband or boyfriend or whatever is sitting behind her and it's almost like they're playing "poker by comittee". Nothing illegal, but he's looking at her cards and they're discussing hands ad nauseum after the fact, they're just a really annoying couple.

So, now it's later in the session and i'm involved in a multiway pot with the second nut low. It should be noted at this time that i am in my least favorite seat, the #9 Seat. that being said, the player in the #1 Seat has acted out of turn on several occasions already; folding out of turn, betting and raising out of turn. Part of the reason is that being in the #1 Seat, it's not really easy to see if the #9 seat still has cards or not, but the other reason is that he's kind of an idiot. Back to the hand, I am very low on chips and have decided that i'm going to get all of my money in with my second nut low. On the river, he is first to act and when he bets out, three players in front of me fold and after he watched them fold, he very weakly tossed his cards toward the muck, not remembering that I still had a hand and had not acted. The dealer put his left hand over the player's cards and I could have sworn that they touched the muck, which was situated close by, on the dealer's left. I perked up immediately; "did they touch the muck?" I asked. The dealer shook his head no, and is now in the process of pushing the cards back to the player in Seat #1. Not a word more was spoken, but i could tell by the uneasyness of his body language that he knew something was not cool.

So, I have a few questions:

Is the lobbing of cards, face down, in a forward motion, enough to consider a hand mucked?

do the cards have to actually hit the muck pile to be considered mucked?

would you have made a bigger deal out of it if you were me? I think i would have been well within my rights to call the floor there. In the end, i did nothing.

I know it's kind of a scum-baggy way to scoop a pot, but the rules are the rules and they're there for a reason.. Also, maybe this brain-dead donkey would have learned a valuable lesson about acting out of turn.

More Lessons in Omaha II

2007-11-19T20:20:14Z

Ok, so I know that my out of the gate success in this game was due to catch up with me. I had an absolutely brutal session at Pechanga on Saturday night. Nothing was going right for most of the session and the result was -$125 in a little under two hours. Here's how it broke down:

STARTING HANDS:

My discipline was tested early, i played very few hands in the first few orbits unless i was in the blind. Either my starting hands were dirty and raggy like 5-8-9-Q or I was being tempted by beautiful Omaha Hi hands that had no low draw like K-Q-9-10. I am trying to follow Bobby Baldwin's adage of only entering an O8/b pot when my intention is to scoop, especially in a 9-handed game. I did stay away from problem hands like that and I thought this was the only aspect of my game that went well for most of the night.

GETTING COUNTERFEITED:

I had a couple hands that were ready to take down big pots on the turn but got crushed by the river. One in-particular set up like this:

Called a bet with A-3-Q-J, suited Ace.

Flop comes down 3-3-9 and I bet, get a few callers

Turn is a Q which gives me 3's Full of Queens, I bet again and get only one caller.

River is a K and I instinctively check even though I though my hand was good. He mutters "the King did it" and after taking another quick peek at the board i'm thinking that maybe he held J-10 for the King-high straight. No such luck, as he turned over a hand that contained K-3-x-x.

GETTING QUARTERED:

There were a couple of hands that just baffled me. There was one woman at the table who was just getting hit with the deck on low cards. it seemed that if the flop was A-2-x, she had 3-4...if the flop was A-3-x, she had 2-4...if the flop was 2-4-x, she had A-3, etc...it was getting a little rediculous. There was one hand that she and I got involved in where:

I had a decent calling hand 2-3-9-9

The flop comes down A-4-10...lots of interest there. It goes check, check, check, bet, call, call, call.

The turn is a 7 so I bet out with the nut low and it goes call, call, call.

The River is a Q and since there are still 4 players in the pot, I bet out my nut low figuring i was in for half of this nice size pot. after player "A" called, the woman/villain raised making it 2 bets, player "B" calls and i re-raise figuring that she made her Broadway and we might be able to get these other guys to call. Player "A" folds and the woman/villain comes back over the top. After much consideration, player "B" lays his hand down. Figuring we were going to chop this monster pot, I called the fourth bet and fully expected the woman/villain to turn over the nut straight.

Turns out, she also had the 2-3, but with a pair of Queen's that represented a better high hand than mine. Quartered. Awful.

Player "B" was furious because he also put her on the nut straight and folded his set of Aces. He was yelling at the woman/villain "that's the second time you made me mis-play my hand". It was kinda funny, despite the fact that i had just been punched in the stomach by that quartering.

All-in-all it was a lousy session with very few highlights if any but it's still poker and it still beats not playing at all. I believe it was Nick "the Greek" Dandalos who said "The next best thing to gambling and winning is gambling and losing".

I have noticed that I am taking my beats at the table much, much better than in hold 'em. Maybe it's because i've properly prepared myself for the kind of momentum swings that are much more likely to happen in Omaha thank in hold 'em.

More Lessons in Omaha.

2007-10-30T22:24:15Z

Back at Pechanga on Saturday night, and what a madhouse the place was. Waited almost an hour to get on the only Omaha game going. Once i got in the game I was back in my element. Very exciting. I have no formal training in Omaha but I think I'm doing a really good job of recognizing what constitutes poor, average, premium and superpremium starting hands, and all the junk in between. Also, I think my post flop play has drastically improved from the old days, as I am releasing hands that should go into the muck and not doing a ton of chasing. It should be noted that through my losses in this session, I did learn a ton about why it's not a good idea to draw to the SECOND nuts and why your pre-flop intent should always be to scoop, rather just focusing on the high or the low. Also, there was some constant shelling in this session by live straddles, steam raises and some actual strategic aggressiveness. All said and done, I came out with red numbers but I wasn't disappointed by my play save for a few stupid calls and one missed river bet in a KILL pot, in late position, holding a low boat. Down about $75 when the game finally broke somewhere in the 5th hour...not a bad learning session though for $15/hour. I've also dedicated myself to re-reading Bobby Baldwin's chapters on Omaha in Super Systems II. It's a slow read but if you can pull just one little nugget from each section, it's worth it.

My next big thing is going to be getting up to L.A. to test the Omaha waters of The Bike and Commerce.

Somewhere on the not-too-distant horizon (January) is the Omaha Event in the 2008 LA Poker Classic at Commerce.

Then, god willing, maybe a $1,500 or $2,500 Omaha Event at the 2008 WSOP in June/July.

FIRESTORM 2007 a.k.a. The Great Omaha Marathon

2007-10-25T21:52:55Z

Well it certainly has been an interesting couple of days here in Southern California. I remember driving eastbound on Encinitas Blvd. on the way to the gym on Sunday and seeing a thick plume of smoke over the mountain tops of Rancho Santa Fe. I didn't think anything of it at the time and, in fact, when I left the gym, the smokey odor in the air had somewhat subsided.

Monday morning started out as a regular day. I was up at about 5:15 because I had a client from Colorado coming into town and I had some tours planned for him at Callaway, then we were going to play golf in the afternoon. When the sun came up after 6, i could tell the fires had gotten significantly worse over night. There was thick, dark smoke covering the southwestern skyline. At around 7:30 there were rumblings that some people might have to leave because their homes were in areas that could potentially be evacuated. At about 8 am it was pretty apparent that we were shutting down for the day, which we did at exactly 9:10 am Monday morning. Headquarters wasn't in any immediate danger of burning, but the Santa Ana Winds were pushing the smoke from fires raging to the north-east of us.

My fiancee was stuck at work, so I was left to my own devices for the remainder of the day. With air conditions listed as moderately unsafe to really unsafe, playing golf was out. All i could think about was the $4-$8 Omaha 8/b game at Ocean's 11, what a great idea! There was no game going when I arrived at ten 'till ten, so I decided to play in the $35 NLHE tourney that was about to start. Long story short, I was short stacked at the first break, had about 15 Big Blinds at the second break and with about 40 players left (out of 110) i lost a crucial hand with 9-9 vs. 10-10. I was out shortly after. However, the good new was that there was a full Omaha game going by that time. I played until about 2:30 when i got the call that my fiancee was getting let off work an hour early because she is considered a "non-essential" employee of Scripps Hospital in La Jolla. (I netted a $25 loss for the Omaha session) The weather in Oceanside was picturesque: hot, bright & sunny with a big blue sky. However, as i made my way south into Encinitas, things looked much different. The sky was a greyish brown and there was ash falling from the north-east like a light drizzle. We were under an optional evacuation advisory and decided it was safe enough to stay in our place with the windows and doors shut. None of the smoke penetrated the building but the flip side was that we couldn't run the air conditioner on this balmy 80 degree October night.

Maureen and I both had off on Tuesday due to the worstening conditions of the three major fires that continued to punish San Diego County, most noteably, The Witch Creek Fire that blew through Rancho Bernardo and Poway and was now threatening Rancho Santa Fe and Escondido. With all that going on, we decided to get out of town and head north to Temecula, safely above the Poomacha Fire. Temecula, of course is the home of The Pechanga Resort and Casino. After a great lunch, I made my way to the Poker Room to sit in their $3-$6 O8b game. I had and unbelieveable run of good luck where i was getting good starting hands, favorable flops with multiple outs towards scoops and I netted about a $250 take for the day. Great session!

Sidebar:
So, you might be asking, why am I so high on Omaha all of the sudden? Well, i've always enjoyed Omaha, but for the sake of my bankroll I stayed away because I had a tendancy of playing much too loose. Recently, after continued frustration with both Limit and No-Limit Hold'em, I have re-dedicated myself to being a better, smarter Omaha player. The main difference is that I think that you find a better class of people playing Omaha. There is a definite lack of young, brash, 21 year old hotshots who think they know everything because they've been logging hands online since they were 17, and play like they have a huge chip on their shoulder. There is no where near as much passive-aggressive behavior, the games seem friendlier and bad beats roll off the player's like water off a duck's back. I really think that Omaha is to Hold 'em like Chess is to Checkers. Thinking man's Hold'em. By the way, this is not meant to be an edict against anyone I know who is a Hold'em enthusiast, i'm just saying, i was looking for something different and I found it in other games like Omaha High/Low & Stud (which I still try to get to the Stud Game at the Mirage every time i'm in Vegas) And while I'm on the topic, I've really enjoyed ESPN's recent coverage of the $50K H.O.R.S.E. Event from the 2007 WSOP. I love seeing games like O8b, Razz & Stud High/Low on TV. It's a little harder to follow, but it is a welcome change from NLHE.

Wednesday my fiancee was back at work but I was on the shelf for one more day. I called up Stevie "the Saint" and we decided to head back to Temecula in search of those clear blue skies and 18 holes of golf. The Poomacha Fire, however, had grown in size and ferocity and a shift in the wind got us off of the course after about 12 holes. So it was back to Pechanga for more Omaha.

No game going when we arrived so I sat in the $4-$8 Hold'em game untill we could get 8 players for Omaha. After a little over an hour and donating about $75 to the game, the O8b game finally started. Omaha was again, good to me and I recouped about $45 of the $75 i lost playing Hold 'em in about an hour.

So, I had a favorable week of poker:

Monday - -$35 Tournament Entry + -$25 Omaha losses = -$60
Tuesday - +$250 Omaha session
Wednesday - -$75 Limit Hold'em losses + $46 Omaha winnings = -$29

Total = +$161

Back at work today after three sessions in three days. I gotta say, I'm glad. Had a great time, or, as good a time as I could have knowing that there were over a half-a-million people throughout San Diego who were displaced by these fires. I gotta say though, the poker room was a great place to get information about everything that was going on. Lots of different people from lots of different places in San Diego sharing their stories and experiences. And lots of TVs to watch CNN & Fox News. I haven't watched this much news since 9/11. Not even during Hurricane Katrina.

I hope anyone reading this in the Southern California area is safe and back at home. Even though the fires are still burning, there seem to be less and less reports about damaged or destroyed property. Be safe.

Random Topics

2007-08-13T22:36:50Z

The end of the WSOP was somewhat anti-climactic. I suppose it was because I was out of town in Central Oregon on business and I was also out of the running for the Fantasy League prize money which paid $180 to first place and $40 to second. David Levi would have had to win the whole thing for me to get first.

I have been playing very aggressive poker as of late, with mixed results. 3 Saturdays ago I went to Harrah's in Rincon and ran well, but got involved in two hands that I should have won, and got sucked out on. Both hands I was roughly 3-1 before the flop (A-K both times) and both hands I was roughly 9-2 before the river. Both hands these idiots hit a 4 outer broadway on the river. The pots were worth roughly $100 a piece. Both of these idiots were trying to give me their money and backed into the best hand. The $4-$8 game at Harrah's is so soft, I can't believe I don't dominate it every single time I play.

Went to Vegas 2 weekends ago. Made the decision last minute when I got "an offer I couldn't refuse" from Binion's. $39.99 a night for Friday and Saturday night. Going to Downtown Vegas is completely different that going to The Strip. When I'm Downtown I feel like a big fish in a small pond. Not in a poker sense, just in general. There are so many corn-fed hicks from the Mid-West, I feel like the city mouse surrounded by all of these rubes. It's great. And I'll tell ya, Binion's is a great place to play. You can walk in there any time and play any game you want for a $5 minimum bet. Craps, Let-it-Ride, Baccarat & Pai Gow. I don't play any of those games on the strip because often times they carry a $25 or even $100 minimum, especially on a Saturday night.

I played in 2 tournaments, cashing in neither. The first was a $100 buy-in at Binion's. Right before the second break I found myself short stacked with under 10 Big Bets and went all-in with Pocket 3's. The Big Blind, who was a good player, woke up to the smell of Pocket Queens and insta-called. I'm finished, probably in the top 50% of the field, but nowhere near the $.

There was a buzz in the room because the BARGERS were in town. For those of you who don't know, B.A.R.G.E. is the Big August Recreational Gambling Excursion. This is a collection of the countries biggest gambling geeks, nerds, dweebs and dorks who, once a year, get out from behind the keyboard in their mother's basement, go outside in the sunlight, and travel to Vegas for a week and takeover a cardroom. I hate BARGERS like Jake Blues hates the Illinois Nazis. Gavin Smith and Jesus Ferguson were both there. I knew Jesus was a BARGER, along with Greg Raymer and Andy Bloch, but i thought it was kinda weird to see Gavin there. Me thinks he's a little too cool for that. Also on hand, child actor turned poker player turned poker blogger, Wil "oh shit Chris" Wheaton. The only good thig about having the BARGERS in the poker room at Binion's is that they insisted that there be a $4-$8 H.O.R.S.E. game going. I got listed but lost patience and never did get a seat.

Anyway, the second tournament was accross the way at the Golden Nugget. Althought I understand it is not owned by Tim Poster and Tom Breitling anymore, I think that the Nuggett is a great spot if you're Downtown. I stayed there about a year ago, it was the first time that I stayed Downtown. The room was a decent size, modern and very clean. The bathroom was very clean and spacious. I'd have no problem staying there again. That tournament was at 1 a.m. and only sold 33 seats. I got into the top ten and was playing really solid poker. There was a guy who was decently chipped-up, but his friend was at the final table at the 8p.m. Binion's $10K guarantee. A third friend kept going back and forth giving updates on the Binion Tourney. Anywho, this guy is looking like he's really anxious to get over to Binion's so every single time he entered the pot, it was for all of his chips, making a rediculous overbet and killing the action. Finally, after seeing this go on for about 10 hands, I caught a hand I could call with, A-Q suited. OF COURSE, that happened to be the hand he had A-K. Unbelieveable. I can't even count how many times i've been knocked out of a tournament holding A-Q against A-K. It's laughable.

Well, Saturday night my girlfriend and I enjoyed a great meal at Binion's Ranch Steakhouse on the 27th floor of the Horseshoe. It's an amazing restaurant that's been in business since 1951. I love old joints like this for the same reason that I wanted to actually stay at the Horseshoe. I love old hotels and restaurants. For the nostalgia more than anything. I mean, Frank and Dean ate at this place, Doyle, Slim, Puggy, Sailor and all the boys ate there on many occasions. It's just neat, ya know?

There are a ton of other old hotels that I want to stay in. Most notably the Chateau Marmont on Sunset in North Hollywood. The place is legendary. Belushi bought the farm there, Dylan, Zepplin & Jim Morrison crashed there on multiple occasions, The Stones hole-up there, and I heard a rumor that Keanu Reeves actually lived there for like 6 months in the 90's, or maybe it was Johnny Depp. Anyway, that one's on the top of my list. Now i'm off the subject so I'm gonna stop.

Watkinson comes up big for Soroka

2007-07-17T05:57:27Z

It looks like Lee Watkinson's impressive performance at The Main Event at the WSOP is going to be enough to get Soroka into the big money. The Omaha specialist will be locked in for no less than $525K when play resumes at tomorrow's final table. Other League players cashing at the Big One were:

Scotty Nguyen: $476,926
Daniel Alaei: $333,490
David Levi: $58,570
Hasan Habib: $39,445
Gavin Smith: $20,320

UNOFFICIALLY:

Soroka: > $1,479,449
Saint: $990,623
JTL: $986,817
Loomis: $878,581
SCPJ: $857,280
Ken: $779,192
Mole: $761,124
House: $717,806
Mendenhallerballers: $699,932
Jersey Joe: $675,870
Maureen: $275,530

I forget who did and who didn't have Gavin Smith, but I think at this point it matters not.

I am at an internet kiosk at a Marriott in Portland, OR right now with limited time so I'll be back over the weekend to wrap this whole thing up and report on any poker that gets played over the week.

Thanks to everyone who played and we'll see you next year!

BIGGER DEAL by Anthony Holden

2007-07-13T21:20:20Z

If you haven't read 1990's Big Deal: A Year as a Professional Poker Player by Tony Holden, stop what you're doing, go to the bookstore and buy it. Drive home, sit down and read it cover to cover taking only the occasional break to eat, sleep and poop. On second thought, read it while you poop too.

After you're done, drive back to the bookstore and purchase BIGGER DEAL by Holden. You might even consider buying both at the same time, what with the cost of gas these days.

Big Deal is one of those classic Poker narratives of which there are too few scattered on the shelves among the many, many how-to's in the Poker Section. You'll find it right between "Beating Pot limit Omaha" and "Chip Tricks for Dummies". Holden is a diciple od Al Alvarez, who wrote one of the best poker narratives of all time, The Biggest Game in Town.

Big Deal takes you on a year-long, multi-continent poker journey in the late 80's that examines lessons learned in poker and how it applies to the bigger picture, life. It is peppered with great stories about the history of poker and the personalities that had made it what it was prior to the "Poker Boom". That's right, BEFORE the boom. There was no internet poker, players played in cardrooms, and they smoked their weight in Pal Mals. There was no poker on TV, no WPT, no 12 part series on ESPN, no hole-cam for that matter. Freemont Street was still a meaningful location on the poker map, like Pompeii BEFORE the volcano. The book is a lot of fun and you should blow through it in 2 or 3 sittings because by that time you'll be bursting with anticipation to crack open that brand new hard-cover copy of BIGGER DEAL that's still in the Barnes & Noble bag like a gold fish that you won at the county fair and you can't wait to get home and put it in the bowl.

BIGGER DEAL picks up the action on the eve of the 2005 Main Event. Some years older and wiser, Holden is ready to get back in the poker arena and get back on the road with his old buddy Al Alvarez and everyone's new pal, writer Michael Craig. (and a few other family members, peers and colleagues too) The book gives you amazing insight into the underworkings of the Poker Boom that has happened all around you for the last few years. (Internet cardrooms, televised poker, the amazing growth in prize pools, etc.) BIGGER DEAL is a MUST read if you play, watch, follow or care about poker and the poker lifestyle in any way.

I can only hope that the clever title has left Holden a loophole to follow this book up with a third installment, Biggest Deal. (perhaps Summer 2010 Tony?)

Amnon Fillippi + Leif Force = Geico Caveman

2007-07-13T20:40:16Z

+

=

Day 4 Preview...We're in the Money!

2007-07-13T19:38:42Z

It's a lot easier to keep track of the field now that it's down to a more reasonable size. I share the sentiments of my buddy Paul Doc whos is routing for Gus Hansen. I think it would be good for poker to see him, or any marquee pro for that matter, win the big one.

337 Players take the next step today.

Chip leader Dario Minetti: $2,398,00
first player to $1MM Kenny Tran: $1,175,000
aggressive pro Gus Hansen: $1,044,000
WPT runner-up Isaac Haxton: $791,000
*Lee Watkinson: $737,000
Bill Elder: $673,000
1996 Champ Huck Seed: $5344,000
2002 runner-up Julian Gardner: $471,000
"Hollywood" Chad Brown: $454,000
veteran pro Jason Lester: $439,000
2002 Champ Robert Varkonyi: $424,000
"Blind" Hal Lubarsky: $409,000
veteran John Spadavecchia: $402,000
Thor Hansen: $342,000
1998 Champ Scotty Nguyen: $321,000
*Daniel Alaei: $299,000
2001 Champ Carlos Mortenson: $284,000
poker radio personality Diego Cordovez: $284,000
*David Levi: $262,000
Michael Binger's brother Nick Binger: $226,000
Darrel "gigabet" Dicken: $215,000
perennial WSOP ME short stack Humberto Brenes: $210,000
Mimi Tran: $144,000
bettering his cash for 713th place in 2006 is Sully Erna: $135,000
this will be the second cash of the series for Tobey Maguire: $131,000
*Hasan Habib: $127,000

Some Scenarios:

If Lee Watkinson can take it for at least $40K, Soroka will be projected ahead of The Saint and Johnny Tight Lips. At the start of Day 4, he will be the biggest chip stack of the remaining "League" Players, so it should be a fore-gone conclusion that it will happen.

If Daniel Alaei can outlast Watkinson and get the puck in the net to the tune of $500K or better, he could pump Mole all the way back from 9th place.

If David Levi can manage to get it in there nice and deep (no less than $250K), there might be a chance left for SoCalPokerJoe.

Finally, Hasan Habib has the power to carry Team Ken to victory. He would probably have to go for at least $300K to get the job done.

Good Luck to everyone else, remember, 2nd place is in the money

Shuffle up and Deal...

Day 3 Preview

2007-07-12T19:09:12Z

349 players from Day 2A and 459 players from Day 2B will all meet under the same roof of the Amazon Room for the very first time today. The first 170 players out the door will all make just as much money as Matt Jansen. (look it up)

808 Players Remaining
Blinds at $1,200 - $2,400 w/ $300 ante

I've listed most "Players of Interest" and starred the League Representatives.
Also, with the help of a few websites, I gathered chip counts and deltas from their figure going into day 2. Enjoy!

Gus "the Great Dane" Hanson: $622,300 (+$522,200)
Heads-up Champ Bill Elder: $486,700
Cliff "jonny bax" Josephy: $346,400 (+$228,700)
"Downtown" Chad Brown: $320,000 (+$248,300)
"Blind" Hal Lubasky: $307,900
Huck Seed: $280,500 (+$213,000)
Ted Forrest: $268,200 (+$117,700)
Carlos Mortenson: $254,700 (+$167,900)
Min Ly: $253,200 (+186,200)
Thor Hansen: $220,600
*Daniel Alaei: $205,800 (+$18,100)
Chip Jett: $201,400
Julian Gardner: $190,600 (+$69,700)
J.C. Tran: $184,800 (+$84,600)
Robert Varkonyi: $182,700 (+$126,200)
Jason Lester (4th place in 2003): $166,300
Chris Ferguson: $160,900 (+$105,900)
*Lee Watkinson: $160,600 (+$42,500)
Tobey Maguire: $152,900
circuit veteran John Spadavecchia: $151,500
Milwaukee's Best Light Bronze Medalist Robert Mizrachi: $144,500
H.O.R.S.E. runner-up Bruno Fitussi: $141,100
Amnon Filippi: $122,100
*Scotty Nguyen: $107,200 (-$21,800)
Darrell "gigabet" Dicken: $97,200 (-$58,200)
Leif Force (finished 11th last year): $96,700
Humberto Brenes: $94,700 (+$46,800)
Pam Brunson (Doyle's daughter): $91,300
Todd Brunson: $90,600 (+$39,000)
*Gavin Smith: $87,700 (+$37,000)
Chris "the Armenian Express" Gregorian: $79,000
Upper Darby's Matt Brady: $70,500
Tony Hachem (Joe Hachem's brother): $65,300
Mimi Tran: $60,500
*David Levi: $56,200
Godsmack's Sully Erna: $32,300

For more information, go where I go to get my information. Special thanks to these great sites:

www.cardplayer.com
www.worldseriesofpoker.com
www.pokerpages.com
www.fulltiltpoker.com/poker-blog/
www.taopoker.blogspot.com
www.joepro.livejournal.com

OK, it's 12 o'clock...shuffel up & deal!

WSOP Main Event Day 2(s)

2007-07-10T19:41:19Z

Still some heavy hitters left in the field. Plenty of "League" players that are capeable of moving the needle. (indicated with a *)

among today's Day 2A participants are:

David "The Dragon" Pham - $140,000
*Scotty "Best in the World" Nguyen - $129,000
2002 Runner-up Julian Gardner - $120,900
Cliff "jonnybax" Josephy - $117,700
Hendon mobster Joe Beevers - $97,400
*Barry Greenstein - $93,600
*Jeff "Mad Dog" Madsen - $76,100
Evelyn Ng - $70,800
Everyone Loves Raymond's brother Brad Garrett - $69,400
1996 Champion Huck Seed - $67,500
Minh Ly - $67,000
Tom McEvoy - $62,600
"Mr. San Antonio" Rich Lee - $55,200
*"Action" Dan Harrington - $43,600
Tony G - $42,400
"Cowboy" Hoyt Corkins - $42,000

Tomorrow, Day 2B participants will include:

*Daniel Alaei - $187,700
Darrel "gigabet" Dicken - $155,400
Ted Forrest - $150,500
*Lee Watkinson - $118,100
J.C. Tran - $100,200
Gus Hansen - $100,100
2001 Champ Carlos "The Matador" Mortenson - $86,800
"why didn't Jamie pick me this year?" Chad Brown - $71,700
2002 Champion Robert Varkonyi - $56,500
Chris "Jesus" Ferguson - $55,000
*Allen Cunningham - $53,700
Todd Brunson - $51,600
*Gavin Smith - $50,000
Prahlad Friedman - $49,800
2003 Champ Chris Moneymaker - $48,900
Costa Rica's man of the Year 1977-2005 inclusive, Humberto Brenes - $47,900
**Patri Friedman - $47,200
*Daniel Negraneau - $43,100
actor Jason Alexander - $41,000

THEhotel at Mandalay - A Review

2007-07-09T18:56:42Z

I have been back for over a week now and I am just getting a chance to put this in.

THE Hotel at Mandalay is probably the nicest room in Vegas that I've ever had to pay for. (Last Summer I booked the Excalibur for a last-minute deal and the room was so bad that I complained to the front desk and got upgraded to a 900 sq. ft. Suite.) The towers are connected to the main casino vis-a-vis a hallway that gives you great access to the sports-book and poker room.

The rooms at THE hotel are 725 sq. ft. and feature a living room area with a 42" plasma screen, wet bar, floor to cieling windows and a nice desk for your lap-top with internet access.

The bedrooms have a 36" flat screen TV in a huge cherry wood armoire. Beds are extremely comfortable. One great feature that I found in the room was that the curtains overlap. There is nothing worse than going to bed at like 6 a.m. and you can't get the curtains to close all the way so that wicked Vegas sun is peering in the room while you're trying to fall asleep. Not a problem here.

The master bathroom is quite large with a soaking tub, separate, glass-enclosed stall shower, his & her sinks and 13" flat screen TV.

Mandalay Bay is one of the nicest properties on the Strip, the only strike against it is its location, being the southern-most property on the BLVD. When you stay there, you almost feel confined to that corner of Las Vegas that includes inferior properties like The Excalibur, the Luxor and the Tropicana. Get uptown to the Wynn, the Mirage or the Bellagio by cab, but don't take the strip during peak hours.