Check please?

According to CardPlayer.com,

Fri Jul 28 12:18:00 PDT 2006
"You've Outlasted One Player"
A tournament director just announced over the P.A. system, "Congratulations players, you've just outlasted one player!" marking under 7 minutes before the first bustout of the tournament.

That appears to be longer than last year, when the son of Goldie Hawn, Oliver Hudson, flopped a full house on the opening hand of the WSOPME at the ESPN TV Table! His opponent, Dave's favorite Sam Farha. Hudson flopped a boat with TT on a board of A-A-T, but Farha flopped a bigger boat holding AT. Hudson got it in and it was over. $10,000 lost.

I doubt the 1st flame out this year will be that good.

What I'm looking to see is Joe Sebok dressed as a superhero for every day he plays in the series. He lost a bet to his on-air buddy Gavin Smith, regarding their performance in the events leading up to the ME. Joe lost and will wear costumes like a Bear Cub, the Joker, Wonder Woman, etc. What happens if you get check-raised by a man in a Wonder Woman costume?

Home game to coincide with the WSOP Main Event?

Since I missed the game last week, I was considering of having a home game this weekend. Friday is the 1st day (Day 1a) of the WSOPME, so why not have a home game? I prefer Friday over Saturday, but either is OK. Please select the comment section below and state yes/no and if yes, your preferred day.

I suspect a 7:30pm start. Please vote. 1st 6-8 to confirm are in (Andrea and I are the other 2).

Are you so bad as to lose to a monkey?

Now this is great. Pokershare.com is entering a live monkey into the 2006 WSOP. If you get eliminated by the monkey, you are offered a free entry to the 2007 WSOP as compensation. Not bad advertising unless the monkey gets pretty lucky.

I wonder if the monkey knows not to make a string bet, can put a chip on his cards to protect his hand, or is prone to go on Monkey-tilt. Imagine getting hit with monkey poop at the WSOP? Doesn't a monkey stick their finger in their butt and smell it? Wouldn't the cards get dirty? At least my cards are 100% plastic.

Mr. Monkey cannot play in my home game. Unless he's staked by a rich monkey-lover.

Love him or hate him, he got to #10

Love him or hate him, Phil Helmuth won his 10th WSOP bracelet yesterday in a $2,000 NLHE event. He had a commanding chip lead at the final table and the only other name I recognized yesterday was "Tony G," that annoying Aussie who can't shut his mouth. Alas, Tony was severely short stacked and busted out first at the televised final table.

The heads up match lasted just under an hour and can be found here. Phil is having an amazing series, as he's cashed 6 times already (he is at or near the lead in lifetime cashes) and has made three final tables so far.

I can't wait to hear what Gavin Smith says about him at the Circuit tomorrow.

There may be more interesting quotes on the ESPN coverage this year, like two of my favorites (paraphrased):

"I can dodge bullets, baby"

and

"If it wasn't for luck I'd be the best damn player in the world"

The Devil Plays Poker?

So, I relented to see a chick flick this weekend, The Devil Wears Prada. Actually, it was not terrible. I relented to see it since Howard Stern admitted to seeing it with his g/f, and it was a reasonably paced movie. At least it wasn't a love story, it was more a remake of a "working girl" type of movie. The guy lead was a dude from Entourage; I hadn't seen him in anything else up to this.

That night, I wanted to invite people over to play some cards, but there was already a game going on elsewhere. So, Andrea and I (at about 11pm), played two heads up tournaments that lasted until 3am. We played for only pride (OK, $5 each), but it was a chance to discuss hands and work on reads. Congrats to Andrea and she was a quick student and beat me in game 2.

Now that I think about it, it was Sat night (from 3-5am) where I may have won the blackjack money.....hmm...uncertain. At least I kept it.

Weekend of cards...

I played a lot of cards (online) this weekend, both tournaments and cash games. I've come to like playing 2 Sngs and 1 cash game at the same time to balance the length of the SnGs and the ability to make a big score in the one cash game. In addition, I had a -$260 loss clearning the bonus last week (net -$160) so I went back to the SnGs to build up some solid play. I did make some decent progress, capturing one 3rd, two 2nds, and one win in about 6-8 tourneys. I made modest amounts ($30-60) in the cash games.

The really amusing thing is that I played the crack machine again (blackjack). I actually won over $700 on BJ this weekend betting $60 per hand on that huge run. I stopped after a bad run, when I was up over $1000 at one point. Still, I ended up with a big score.

The WSOP Main Event...and the Circuit Radio show

The main event begins of Friday. It is still estimated that 8000 people may play in this tournament that I believe has 5 starting days. The prize pool could be nearly $80 million dollars. Sick. If you paid 15% to the winner, that's about $12 million?

Has anyone ever looked at CardPlayer.com? There's a great streaming radio program, called The Circuit, that is recorded every day when there is a WPT event and during the WSOP. It can be found here. The hosts are Scott Huff, Gavin Smith (WPT winner), and Joe Sebok, who is the son of Barry Greenstein. Scott and Joe both work for CardPlayer, and Joe writes a monthly article about his poker development and tutelage under Barry. He eagerly answers questions, as he's responded to me when I found a strategy mistake in one of his articles. The trio is really good.

The initial concept was hosted by Scott and Mike, the Mouth, Matasow; who was a hoot on the air. Did anyone see his plow up on High Stakes Poker on July 24th? He totally blew up, betting all in on the river with Queen high, no pair, and no draw (for about $60-70 thousand!). What a bad bet after he played well for most of the show.

Last item about The Circuit, the show is also available on Sirius Satellite radio on Channel 123.

And then there's Maude....

The WSOP H.O.R.S.E. event has reached the final table...at 9am PST! These guys played for about 15 hours and the final table will convene at 6pm that same day. That's some brutal poker, but for a $50,000 buy in tourney, there are two million dollar payouts.

Big names at the front: T.J. Cloutier, Dewey Tomko, Jim Bechtel, Andy Bloch, Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, and Chip Reese. This table should make for great TV when it hits ESPN (in several months).

[Late revision: Chip Reese won the H.O.R.S.E event]

In other tourneys, Claire Miller won the seniors event at a final table full of 8 other guys. Good going for Claire, but don't you think she looks like Bea Arthur from Maude?

Shut up Stanley.

Speaking of pictures, I saw this one on the CardPlayer.com site. Would you vote for Stupak based on this photo? PaintshopPro anyone?

This weekend, I need to clear a Party bonus, so I have 1,000 NL hands to play over the weekend. I'm leaving for a business trip to the Bay Area on Monday, so I need to get it done to clear the cash. Wish me luck and I wish you luck as well.

H.O.R.S.E.

I haven't made a post in a while since I've been working like a dog and sticking to my South Beach diet plan (lost 10 lbs already in 8 days). However, poker is still on my mind.

Yesterday the $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. event began at the WSOP. To those not in the know, this tourney is a multi-game event, including Limit Hold 'Em, Omaha 8 or better (Omaha low), Razz, Stud, and Stud Eight or better (stud low). Each game rotates in a certain amount of time. The final table will be played as NLH.

You think cell phones are a problem?

I think most people drive like idiots. Everyone is on their cell phone, playing with children, watching DVDs, playing games, auditioning for American Idol, or brandishing their firearms.

It seems even celebrities aren't immune. Wow, that's talent.

The wedding...and a live game we knew was going to be unprofitable...

OK, I really shouldn't be commenting about the wedding. Let's just say it was WEST OF TOMBALL, it was rainy, there were few guests, and there was nary a bottle of alcohol to be found.

On the way back to Houston, we did some shopping, Fry's, The Dump, Academy, Office Depot, etc....we were planning on visiting Cyclone's for the last time before my jump back on the South Beach Diet. On our way in, Randi called to ask us if we wanted to play poker. We did like to play, but it was getting late (8:30) and we really wanted to go to Cyclones. After one quick Cazarita and some Queso, we proceeded to get in the game even though it was late and I had an early tee time the next day.

It was hot, and we were dressed up, so we had to play inside. After taking some time to set up (and I think I was a little "sick" from the Mexican food), we fired up about 10:30pm. We were six handed. This time, the tables were turned on me. Even in 1/3 limit, I couldn't say I couldn't get cards...I did...I hit flops....but they didn't hold up. In six handed play, you certainly need to play a lot more hands, and I did such. I played nearly all unraised pots from the SB (though I was charged to call raises from the BB often), and I played most connectors, small pairs, any Aces, suited Kings, and Broadway cards. I hit top pair, open ended straight draws, 4-flushes, overpairs, but they wouldn't hold up.

No blame to be layed here. I could only bet or raise so much at 1/3. Hands can catch up in limit. I've hit my biggest loss in the live game ever, down $110. Lastly, my new shoes from my trip to San Marcos from the tubing trip got chewed a bit and I can't wear them any more.

At least golf was good on Sunday.

Tomorrow is July 4th. I don't have out of the ordinary plans, as my focus is for the Wednesday kick-off of getting back on the diet. Cooking at home, elimination of convenience foods, no alcohol for two weeks, and no processed starches should get me on the straight and narrow for a while.

Wish me luck.

Quick online session - FRI 30 JUN

I played a quick online SnG session on Friday before going out for the evening (slightly described below). I played two sets of 2 - $33 Sng's. I am happy to report that my shorthanded play (when I get there) is really on target and I was able to place 1st in each of the two sessions. I believe I finished 5th and 1st in session 1 and 4th and 1st in session 2.

In the second session, I was in 2nd place when I contested with the chip leader in a big pot. I do believe in shooting for 1st place because of the money disparity, and my flopped 2pr got run over by either a str8 or a flush (I can't remember).

Of my last 6 cashes, all of them have been for wins (1st place money)! I've come in 1st of 7 of my last 8 cashes. However, the bad runs of 9 and 13 losses in a row didn't do much for me. Hot and cold for sure.

With a win in my pocket, that evening, I hung with Andrea's friends at the Alabama Little Woodrow's and then back to PJs. Later that evening, Andrea and I would get at it at PJs, and my fighting with others would be a common theme for the weekend. Andrea and I didn't fight for long, of course.