Poker has Gottten Really Hard

2. Arnauld Mattern 469,500
3. Konstantin Beucherl 156,500
4. Tommy Pavlicek 266,500
5. Shandoi Demjan 367,500
6. James Akenhead 153,500
7. Markus Ristola 157,000
8. John Kabbaj 448,500
9. Daniel Negreanu 314,500 It’s September 30th today and I was scheduled to do a commercial shoot for PokerStars, but looks like I kind of screwed up that plan! I was also planning on playing the high roller at the EPT but that’s not going to happen now either. When I am done with the WSOPE I’ll be flying straight to LA to film the new FOX show, PokerStars Million Dollar Challenge. We have an awesome group of contestants that will appear on the show, including, no joke, a poker playing Catholic Priest! I’ll let you guys all know when the show airs and make sure you tune in. It’s going to be a pretty cool show. I finally think I’m beating the jet lag. I did get tired last night, but not till about midnight and we only played until 12:30am. I ate a lot better yesterday, and by better I mean more. I have breakfast on the way right now in my room and expect to be ready to go for the noon start time. Last year when I finished 5th in this event, I was the chip leader, or top three for most of the way. It’s been a different kind of run this year, with me hovering around the average for most of the way. I’m hoping, and expecting to make my big push with about 12 players left and then reach the final table in the top three. I’ll keep you all updated via twitter. Speaking of twitter, I just figured out how to link my tweets to my facebook account so they are showing up there now too. ]]>

I had a very blaze day in terms of chip movement, coming in with 89,000, topping out at 127,000 and ending at 113,100 which is where I was for most of the four levels. I never dipped below 90,000 and avoided major confrontations as best I could and am very happy with that decision. I changed clothes like three times! Every break I went to buy something new. I was on one of the feature tables again, which means no massages and very hot, bright lights. I came in wearing a blue argyle sweater and ended up in a dark blue Oxford T-shirt and a funky hat. You can’t wear any logos on your hat, so my PokerStars.net hat was a no go. Today I’ll be more prepared with just a t-shirt and hat. The only reason I need the hat is the lights. I went through the same thing last year and did fine, so I know I can deal with it, it just requires a few adjustments. I couldn’t believe it when I woke up this morning and found my table draw. I sit in 38th place in chips, yet incredibly, I am the chip leader at my table! You just don’t see that very often with less than 100 players remaining: 1. Daniel Negreanu 113,100
2. Jani Vilmunen 65,500
3. Kim Wooka 22,000
4. Men Nguyen 27,500
5. Arnauld Mattern 86,600
6. Jean Montury 25,800
7. Leo Margets 48,300
8. Elijah Berg 91,900
9. Michael Wang 60,700 I know of three of these players. Men Nguyen, obviously, Jani Vilmunen who I played with yesterday and know through Patrik, and finally, Leo Margets “The last woman standing” who I became a fan of after watching some of her interviews online. She really impressed me with the way she carried herself in interviews, not a hint of bravado or arrogance and a really good command of the English language despite it not being her first language.
I’m a bit of a poker geek and watch a lot of the video interviews online and she’s the best newcomer I’ve seen in years. Energetic, intelligent, and humble. The table composition, despite me being the chip leader, isn’t ideal for me. There are too many short stacks at the table to allow me to play a large volume of hands profitably since short stacks are more likely to re-raise you than an average stack is. For example, when I’m in the cutoff seat, the two blinds, Men Nguyen and Wooka Kim both have under 30,000. The blinds will be 800-1600 so my standard raise will be to 3800. Those are ugly situations to be in if you are raising with marginal hands. You get priced into a lot of calls in that spot, but I approach these situations much differently than most online players. Online players lean towards calling in these spots a lot more than I do, and while that might be the right approach in faster paced tournaments, in these deep stacked events I think they are making a mistake, but that’s another blog entirely. If the math is at all close, folding is usually the better option provided that you are one of the better players at the table.
The concept is similar to why you don’t race pre-flop in coin flip situations. Let’s say you KNOW your opponent had AK and you have 55. It costs you 18,000 to win 19,200. On paper, your 55 are a favorite, AND you are getting a price on the call. Calling can’t exactly be “incorrect,” but I’d argue that it’s often not the optimal play, because the value of winning the pot doesn’t compensate for what you may give up by losing the flip in terms of opportunity.
So, if you are getting 2-1 odds on a call, and you feel that your opponent will average out to be a 2-1 favorite against your hand- it’s a fold. It’s an even money bet, and that’s not good enough! In a tournament, there is no need to make even money bets on the flip of a coin. If you are a winning player, you should be looking for spots where you have significant value.
Anyway, time for breakfast, a shower, then heading over to the Empire casino. ]]>

I’ve been trying really hard in the big no limit events, did well on day one in Barcelona, but got crushed early on day two. My starting table was pretty sick in terms of skill level. All day, we had precisely one player who wouldn’t have positive equity playing tournaments for a living. Annette Oberstad played fantastic all day long. Ray D., a very talented cash game player really had his head in the game. He and Annette really butted heads all day long. The kid on my right and the young kid across the table- both sold. Add Barry Greenstien, Chris Ferguson, and another great player by the name of James Keyes and it made for a sophisticated poker game which is a lot of fun. By the way, when we lost the live one, it was Shaun Deeb who filled that seat with a monster stack. I love it, because in order to compete, I know that I need to play my best brand of poker which includes more creativity and more pre-flop aggression. I re-raised before the flop more today than I have in probably the last seven tournaments combined! I also limped in to more pots than I have in that same span, from all positions, with a wide variety of hands. I was really playing within a “flow” that I’ve talked about… maybe being exhausted all day helped me play better. Sometimes that’s the case because in that blaze overtired state sometimes you just go with your instincts and that’s often a good plan. I’m excited to get some much needed sleep and make a run tomorrow. I ended the day among the leaders with 88,925 in chips. I thoroughly enjoyed playing with Annette. It’s the first time we’ve ever played at the same table and I think she’s much better now than she was when she won the WSOPE. She’s got more experience so that’s supposed to happen! She’s added a lot more finesse to her game. I’ve been playing more poker on a daily basis on PokerStars.com in the 8-game mix. While I’m not playing straight no limit hold’em, I am playing against good players which puts you in a different mindset from typical tournaments. I’m pretty hungry right now, and really enjoying the game. I was winning everyday in that game, but hit a slight down slide my last four sessions:
-25k
-25k
+14k
-20k Those are all low variance results for a game that size and I’m not at all concerned. I feel like I have a nice edge in the 8-game mix and am really enjoying it. No PokerStars for me today, though, I’m beat and need to sleep!
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Match #2 Alternate bet format: Daniel Negreanu/Phil Hellmuth vs. Elky/Qualifier In match two Annette threw out Elky and the qualifier for the second alternate bet match. Phil and I had already decided we’d be playing the alternate format match, but when they threw out that team we considered switching it up to the Doyle/Jenn team, but in discussing it with the team, we all agreed that Hellmuth would be able to best exploit the qualifier so that’s how we matched up. My thinking was that I would play it safe vs. Elky and allow Phil to pound on the amateur by being aggressive against him. Hand #1: We won a couple small pots early and then Phil min-raised with 8-9 off suit from the button. The amateur re-raised to 10,000 and Phil said, “Daniel is so good with these hands after the flop.” Since Elky speaks, and understands English that comment would give away the fact that we have some kind of suited connector. I hadn’t seen the hand yet, but was really hoping that Phil was doing a reverse on them and that we had a big hand like KK or something. Phil called the raise.
The flop came 10-8-6 rainbow. Elky bet out 13k. leaving him with about 50k left. Folding is never an option here, so my decision was to call or raise. the standard play, when you are this shallow, is to raise and go with the hand. That is the best play with so much money out there. However, with the qualifier in the mix a case can be made for smooth calling on the flop and reassessing on the turn. I felt calling was too risky here, in case Elky had a hand like A-Q or something, and raised to 41k, Elky moved in and I obviously called assuming I had 9 pure outs.
Elky tabled K-10, a bit of a surprise and a pretty unlucky flop. In this situation, so short on stacks, a hand like this is a cooler essentiially. The only way we could have got away from that was to fold the 8-9 to the re-raise. The team all agreed that considering we should have had an edge in the match, it was a mistake to call with the 8-9 before the flop, because we weren’t deep enough and we could find better spots.
We missed everything and were left with 16k. Hand #2; We’d doubled up at this point with 77 and also with AA and sat at atout 35k before this hand. Blinds at 2000-4000 I limped on the button with 6-7, hoping Elky wouldn’t raise and that Phil would be able to take the pot on the flop against the amateur. The flop was good, J-10-10, and the amateur checked while looking totally disinterested. Hellmuth checked! I was hoping he’d bet 4000 there so we could move on.
The turn was an Ace and Elky checked. I assumed they were weak and couldn’t hit that board, so I bet 4000 expecting Phil to fire again if we missed the river. Elky called. The river was a 7, the amateur checked and Phil checked. The amateur showed Q-7 so we split the pot.
We should have won that pot on the flop. I figured it should be easier for Phil to bluff the amateur than it would be for me to run a bluff through Elky. That only cost us 4000, but that was a decent pick up for us with our stack size and we needed every chip we could get! Hand #3: With the blinds at 3000-6000 and us sitting on about 45k, Phil limped from the button with KJ off suit, essentially “trapping” in the hopes that the amateur would go all in so he could “snap call.” The flop came 3-5-6 with two diamonds and Elky bet 6000. I had no pair, no diamond, and no draw, and not a lot of chips to maneuver with so I folded on the flop. I felt like that was a hand we should have raised before the flop because at that stage the chips were too valuable and we couldn’t afford to give them any free flops. Hand #4: The amateur moved all in from the button, we had 6000 in there and about 42,000 behind. I sneaked a peak of Phil’s cards and was excited to see paint! He had K-J again and studied for a while. I reminded him that we are on a 10 minute clock and need to play fast, because the blinds going up doesn’t help us at all. He then folded the K-J… and his opponent showed A-4 off suit. I would have called with K-J, even knowing that ace rag was a very likely hand for our opponent. We aren’t in bad shape against that hand, and we are in great shape against any K-rag hand. Most importantly, time was not on our side and we needed to gamble a bit to get back in the match. Hand #5 We got down to 26,000 and the button moved all in with A-3… Phil looks at just one card, an Ace and calls. We look at the other card, and it’s also an Ace! The flop came K-2-4… turn 5. Yuk. Bad way to go out.
Now down 2-0 the format switched to alternate hand. For this format the button would stay in the same spot for two hands in a row and the button would play each opponent once. Match #3 alternate hand format: Doyle Brunson/Jennifer Harman vs. Dario Minieri/Annette Oberstad All I can say is, we needed a win! Doyle and Jennifer really played the format very well, pushing back and clawing out a lead which was important, because in their first altercation they’d need it. Hand #1 We already had a decent lead, Dario made it 20,000 on the button and Doyle moved in with A-6. Dario studies for a while and called with A-8. Again, this hand will chop usually. Going into the river they needed a 2-3-5-7 or an 8 to win, we needed anything but that, or obviously a 6-ball. A 5 on the river hit and we were down to 40,000. Not too long after that, Jennifer doubled through Annette with JJ vs. 55 and before we knew it, Team Americas had their first win, so we were down 2-1 and felt like we had some momentum. Match #4 Alternate Hand format: Barry Greenstien/John Juanda vs. Gus Hansen and Peter Eastgate Considering the format, I really liked our chances in this match because both John and Barry know the math and understood that they couldn’t sit on their hands and had to gamble. We got off to a bit of a slow start, being down about 15k early, before the following hand: Barry raised on the button with K-J, Gus re-raised from the big blind, and Barry moved all in. Gus called with A-8 and we lost that one too. Even though we were an underdog in a lot of the all-in confrontations, it was always close to coinflip situation and we didn’t fare well at all.
So now down 3-1 we had to run the table in the straight heads up portion. Since we were losing, team Europe had to nominate first. Team captain Annette Oberstad elected to play. I’d spoke with my team about match ups, and felt like Huck, our ace in the hole had a good style to contrast Annette, not to mention that Huck Seed is the most successful player in history with this format. I was already thinking about who we”d throw out next hoping that Huck would win and was thinking something like:
If they throw out Elky, I’d match with Juanda.
If they threw out Patrik, I’d put Doyle in there.
If they threw out either Peter Eastgate or Dario Minieri, I would play.
If they threw out Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey would be our man. There could only be three total matches so we had all of our bases covered. The match ups were based on past history and playing styles and I really think we had it exactly right in terms of match ups. Match #5: Annette Oberstad vs. Huck Seed Huck Seed got off to a blazing start, playing very aggressively in the early going and seizing a bit of a lead. Hand #1: Huck called 3000 more from the big blind with 10d Jd and the flop came Kd Jc 2d. Huck checked to Annette who bet out. Huck check-raised, and Annette put herself all in. She showed Ad Jh which was a bit of a disaster because it took away three of our perceived outs, the Ad and the two remaining Jacks. We’d need a diamond or a 10, but bleh, blank, blank again. Hand #2: Now short stacked we finally got lucky with K-7 vs A-4. The flop came 9-5-5, but the turn brought a King and Huck doubled up. From there, Huck climbed his way all the way back to about even, with around 93,000. Hand #3 Huck moved all in from the button with A-3 and Annette tanked for a bit before calling with A-7. We had done awfully bad in these spots so far, so we were hoping we were due for a suck out or at least a chop! Never mind that, we were dead on the flop: 9-9-7… the turn brought another 7 giving us a chop out with a 9, but nope, that’s it. A 4-1 drubbing. I’m still very happy with all of Huck’s moves, I think he was the right guy to have as the ace on the team and would throw him out there again. I was very impressed with how serious everyone took it. No one was being a prima donna, no one mailed in their performance, and all seemed genuinely upset when losing despite their being no money on the line.
Hellmuth behaved like an absolute gentleman from start to finish. He was obviously disappointed we didn’t win our match and we both wish we could have that one back, because should have been decent favorites in that match.
Ivey, who as most of you know, doesn’t care too much for “TV events” did everything asked of him and he was clearly trying his best in his match.
Ultimately, though we lost for two key reasons: #1 Luck. We got demolished in coinflip situations and it wasn’t even close. We won with K-7 vs A-4 one time, but other than that we never won a pot when we had say, 45-55. Losing with AA to A3 was also a bit unlucky…
#2 The Americas team, while more experienced, wasn’t necessarily more experienced than the younger online players with short stacked heads up matches. There is little room for creativity when you are playing a 10 blind stack. It’s all about math.
If you are used to playing deep stacked big buy in tournaments with slow structures, there are major adjustments that need to be made when you start with 50 blinds and they go up every 10 minutes. In fact, a structure like this is something you could say is close to a “solved game,” in that, there are plays that are clearly correct and there is little room for reads and stuff like that. I had a lot of fun with it, but was disappointed in the way it turned out. I look forward to the next one, where the Americas team will have a chance to play on home soil. ]]>

D Stefan Elliot, COL.
F Derek Stepan, NYR.
F Zach Budish, NAS.
F Philippe Paradis, CAR. My team is stocked and a favorite to once again win my division in a cake walk. Posted in the order of their salary for this season: DEFENSE:
Scott Neidermayer, ANA.
Cory Murphy, NJ.
John-Michael Liles, COL.
Brent Seabrook, CHI.
Tom Poti, WAS.
Marc-Edouard Vlasic, SJ.
Alex Goligoski, PIT.
Kris Russell, CLB.
Andy Sutton, NYI.
Steve Staios, EDM.
Greg Zanon, NAS. FORWARDS:
Simon Gagne, PHI.
Henrik Sedin, VAN.
Alexander Semin, WAS.
Olli Jokinen, CAL.
Anze Kopitar, LA.
Kyle Okposo, NYI.
Andre Kostitsyn, MON.
Jason Pominville, BUF.
Corey Perry, ANA.
Eric Belanger, MIN.
Ryan Malone, TB.
Steve Ott, DAL.
Darcy Tucker, COL.
Miroslav Satan, UFA.
Jim Slater ATL.
Aaron Voros, NYR. GOAL:
1. Vancouver Canucks (Roberto Luongo)
2. New York Rangers (Henrik Lundqvist)
3. San Jose Sharks (evgeny Nabakov) FARM TEAM (players listed by age) DEFENSE:
1. Marc-Andre Gragnani, BUF.
2. Taylor Chorney, EDM.
3. Mike Ratchuk, PHI.
4. Keith Seabrook, CAL.
5. Ivan Vishnevskiy, DAL.
6. Jamie McBain, CAR.
7. Jonathan Blum, NAS.
8. Jake Gardiner, ANA.
9. Brandon Burlon, NJ.
10. Nick Leddy, MIN.
11. Stefan Elliot, COL.
FORWARDS:
1. Benoit Pouliot, MIN.
2. Bobby Ryan, ANA.
3. Jack Skille, CHI.
4. T.J. Oshie, SYL.
5. Nicklas Bersgfor, NJ.
6. Derek Stepan, NYR.
7. Evgeny Grachev, NYR.
8. Zach Budish, NAS.
9. Philippe Paradis, CAR.
This pool is like the funnest thing in the world for me. I’m a two-time champion and lost in the finals last season. ***************************************************************** I promised a poster by the name of maximose a shout out and here it is. I got an e-mail sent to me claiming that I Carlos Menci’ed him by stealing his jokes for my blog. I was like, huh? He apparently wanted a share in my profit from my parody blog since he had written a post that was a parody of both Roy Winston and Alec Torelli’s blog. The core of his take on both blogs was very similar to mine, but he wrote his first. So I told him he can have 50% of my salary that I’m paid for my blog… which comes to precisely zero dollars and zero cents! Haha. At first I thought the guy was really pissed, but I think it’s all good now. I didn’t see his post when I wrote my blog, but when I did I found it hilarious, because he found some major similarities that I also found. Torelli’s long winded, deep blogs, and Roy Winston’s man crush on a building named Borgata. By the way, I actually like the Borgata too, it’s the only place I’d stay in Atlantic City, but I would not, under any circumstances, hump the side of the building and caress the neatly trimmed bushes surrounding it. ***************************************************************** The Caesars Cup is set to go off in about 2 hours and I’m looking forward to a fun day and a fun format. Our team is a good one, as is the European team. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to announce my last two selections just yet, but here is a hint on one of them: I personally think that when he is playing his best, he’s possibly the best poker player in the world and he also has an incredible heads up record in the format we are playing. As captain of the time, it was my job to help with the selection of the players and it will also be my job to match up my team into two-man teams for this unique, Ryder Cup like format. There will be four matches played as teams. For example, if John Juanda and I were paired together, we would either play as a team playing alternate streets or alternate hands. Alternate streets would mean, for example, I act pre-flop, John acts after the flop, my decision on the turn, and John would take over again on the river. Two teams will also play alternate hand, meaning that they play two hands, both the button and from the big blind, all the way to the river, and then their partner would tag in and play two hands as well. The first team to 4 points wins, so if you sweep these matches it’s all over. After the two-man matches are complete, it will be my job to send in a player to represent the team in a heads up match for one point. If neither team is at 4 points after that, I’ll send in another. A total of 3 players could potentially play the heads up portion.
It’s going to be a fun day, and I’m “guessing” with the likes of Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, Patrik Antonius, and Zigmund all taking part, that there just may be some side action 🙂 I already have all the pairing in mind, but won’t release them until the event starts. You can find all that out by checking my tweets at RealKidPoker. ****************************************************************** My mother is doing better! They have her sit in a chair during the day now, supposedly that helps with avoiding pneumonia. The problem is, she absolutely hates sitting up. When I was there she kept pointing to her bed and essentially begging me to put her back in bed. My brother says she does that every day, but the doctors say it’s important for her development. She isn’t talking yet, but we are definitely communicating. She understands everything I say and will nod or make hand gestures. She tries to talk, and I try to read her lips, but I just can’t make any of it out. Hopefully if she can every get off of life support she’ll have an opportunity to speak. That would be awesome, but things like this take time. She’s been in ICU for almost 8 months now, any every time I go see her I see improvement. It’s exciting, but I’m being careful with my expectations…
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I only read a couple blogs regularly, but I always check in to see what Doyle has to say. He can be funny, opinionated, and sometimes a bit controversial. In keeping up with his recent blogs I’m totally convinced that he’s dun’ lost his mind! Budapest? Are you serious Doyle? This man is traveling around the world like he’s 19 years old and on the hustle looking for a poker game. Now, I’m 35 and pretty used to traveling but it wears on me when I go on back-to-back trips, especially overseas.
Doyle… quit it! You are making us all look bad! Doyle says he’d be willing to pay everything he owns just to be young again, but I think he’d make a fortune bottling up those “Brunson genes” and selling them. he’s gonna live till he’s 148.
Think about it: Doyle is not young. He plays poker all night (and wins against kids), while nibbling on candy and chocolate, chills at night clubs till 5:00am, does book signings, seminars, appearances for his site… there is something inhuman about that man. Seriously. Phil Hellmuth: I can’t miss a Hellmuth blog, they are just way too funny, and now he is video blogging from his I-Phone. One of them was real special. It reminded me of that old Stuart Smalley skil on SNL “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough… and dog gone it, people like me.”
Most of his written blogs go something like this: I’m in a limo with Dom Perrignon and am texting Michael Phelps about hanging out. I’m Phelps’ favorite, he loves me more than his medals. In fact, he told me he’d give me one of his medals if I’d sleep with him, but Phelps is not my type, although a sex tape would probably make me more famous….hmmm? No, wait a minute, I get the ladies baby, they are all over me when I go out. I’ve been working out and I’m pretty buff so I can see why they just pass out when I walk in a room in my Caesar costume showing off my tiny nipples. I just landed in LA to do a show and then go to a “VIP” night spot for celebrities and important people, it’s not for just regular people. You have to be really, really, cool to get in. I hear Ivey tried to get in, but couldn’t. That’s probably because I have 11 bracelets and he doesn’t. I’m by FAR the best NLH tournament player in the world and it’s not even close. Most celebrities and important people know that, I think, and that’s why they all want me to hang out with them and give speeches about how amazing I am and stuff. I mean, I have to give the people what they want right? In fact, I ran into Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie at the airport and they must have been in awe of me. They walked right by me and didn’t say hi or anything. I’m sure they were just trying to respect my privacy, because I get mobbed everywhere I go. They understand what it’s like for people like us. You can’t have a normal life with paparazzi always hounding you. It’s the price you pay I guess… After the club I’m going to stay at the very best hotel in LA. It’s where all the top stars stay so I figured I should also stay there since I’m the greatest poker player in the world. Oh, and I can’t forget to mention every single celebrity I know. I kno how much you guys like hearing me drop some names so I won’t disappoint! People that hung out with me this month: Shaquille O’Neal, McCauley Caulkin, the guy from that Dove commercial that laughs at the end, Gary Coleman, the back up guitarist for the Beatles, Vanilla Ice, New York (from I Love New York), Scott Baio, Tonya (from the Real World), and oh! almost forgot, Tonya Harding and I are doing an event where we teach kids about sports ettiquette and fair play! I am a great guy and like to “give back” to the people less important than me.
Phil Hellmuth…out. A few random blogs: Roy Winston Borgata! Borgata! Borgata! I love me some Borgata! If the Borgata casino was a dude, Roy would perform fellatio on him daily. Ok, we get it. You like the Borgata. You like playing smaller tournaments. You want the buy ins to be lowered… what you fail to realize is that participation in poker tournaments globally is increasing, not diminishing. The difference is that there are more events and more options. Just recently there was an event in Asia, one in LA, one in Russia, one in Cyprus , one in Barcelona, as well as the record breaking WCOOP event on PokerStars.
Would I rather play a 1000 player field for $3500 or a 400 player field for $10,000? You are right, it IS a simple choice… I’d rather play in the $10,000 event. I kinda like a bigger prize pool. As long as there are satellites, $10,000 buy in events will be just fine.
Alec Torelli: Dang bro how deep is you??? You are too young to think so much! I always thought my blogs were too long, but dude, chop off 100 words a week, take it slow, kinda like LifeSign, and get back to under 38,000 words per blog! I can’t keep up. Shannon Shoor: How they picked Zigmund for the NBC invitational over me I’ll never understand.. I’m a better player, have that southern charm ladies love, and I have way better pecks than that little pip squeak! Adam jJnglen: Haven’t written a blog in a while… Haven’t been sleeping well because Shaun Deeb keeps me up with all his late night partying and 42 tabling… Played three tournaments this week: 1. KJ>AA busto, 2. Top set versus bottom pair busto 3. I I 3xed from CU for 14% stack, got reshoved and cold called by BB who had 38 BB’s and is an MTT regular, I insta, sb insta-reshoves. They both show KK… sigh AA busto, bubbled all three events. If they wrote a blog it might sound like this: Patrik Antonius:[ It’s so sick, like, last week I bought moisturizer to make sure my skin stays silky smooth and, like, they discontinue my brand. Now I have to fly back to Finland to see my doctor to make sure I don’t put any bad kind of cream on my face because you can’t trust, like, any brand. I won, like, 5 million last month and broke my mouse because I was so pissed off about running so bad. It’s sick. Like, if the cards ever break even I’m going to win so much money. I could have won like $10 million, so sick, I’m just frustrated. You just don’t understand how tough it can be to deal with. $5 million is not bad for some people, but my face cream is really expensive and I also pay my hairdresser a lo,t because I don’t trust too many people with my hair. It’s not easy to cut perfectly and I won’t go outside unless I look like perfect. So I’m basically screwed right now, a little bit depressed, but whatever, it could be worse… I guess 🙁 I’m going to go to the gym now for another 15 hour workout then eat some grilled chicken and a protein shake. I only worked out, like, 6 hours yesterday and I can already feel like I’m getting fat.
Phil Ivey: Ya. Um, I don’t have too much to say really. I mean, I went to this place and did this and that, but I can’t really talk about it. I can’t actually type this blog myself cause I don’t really know which buttons to press and I’m in 4 heads up games right now, so I have one of my crew doin’ the typing.
OK. That’s about it I guess.
And that wraps up my parody blog… hope you enjoy 🙂 ]]>

I got three players in both drafts: Peyton Manning, Dwayne Bowe, and Greg Olsen. I’m very high on all three guys and they were bargains. I think Olsen is going to contend for the #1 TE in the league fantasy wise this year. So now I’m laid out on the couch for the day to sweat the games and then play online. I’ve been up since about 8:00pm. Last night I ended up partying till about 9:30am. I don’t go out very often at all, but when I do, I often go ALL out. It was fun, but nights like that mess with your schedule. Luckily for me I’m used to chaotic sleep schedules so I’ll fix it tonight. I ended up watching a movie and the end of the Real World. Saw Taking Lives. I set my Tivo to record anything that Angelina Jolie is in… well, because she’s such a fabulous actress 🙂 Best purchase I’ve made in years is the Arkeg! Coolest thing for a bachelor pad you can imagine. It’s an arcade system that is complete with every game made before 2000 on al the platforms. I was playing Techmo Bowl last night, love that game and miss it! Not only is it an arcade, but you can surf the internet, listen to music, watch movies, do karaoke…. and most importantly… get this…. it’s also got a keg of beer in it! There is a handle on the left of the machine that you can just pour straight into a glass for any draft beer you want to fill it with. Now my life is complete!
I’ll leave you with a look at my two teams: WCOFF 20-man roster 12 man league QB: Peyton Manning, IND.
RB: Matt Forte, CHI.
RB: Julius Jones, SEA.
WR: Dwayne Bowe, KC.
WR: Wes Welker, NE.
WR: Nate Burleson, SEA.
TE: Greg Olsen, CHI.
FLEX: Randy McMichael, STL.
K: Stephen Gostlowski, NE.
DEF: BALTIMORE BENCH RB Marshawn Lynch, BUF.
BENCH RB Willie Parker, PIT.
BENCH RB Rashard Mendenhall, PIT.
BENCH RB Edgerin James, SEA.
BENCH RB Sammy Morris, NE.
BENCH WR Kevin Walter, HOU.
BENCH WR Nate Washington, TEN.
BENCH QB: Jason Campbell, WAS.
BENCH K Rob Bironas, TEN.
BENCH D INDIANAPOLIS
Yahoo 12 man league: QB: Peyton Manning, IND.
RB: Ladanian Tomlinson, SD.
RB: Tim Hightower, ARI.
WR: Reggie Wayne, IND.
WR: Chad OchoCinco, CIN.
TE: Greg Olsen, CHI.
W/T: Dwayne Bowe, KC.
K: Kris Brown, HOU.
DEF: NEW ENGLAND BENCH: RB Jamal Lewis, CLEV.
BENCH: RB Donald Brown, IND.
BENCH: RB Jamaal Charles, KC.
BENCH: RB Jonathan Stewart, CAR.
BENCH: RB Earnest Graham, TB. ]]>

I woke up to play the tournament sans my wallet. My green card, drivers license, and about 1300 Euro. Oh well, things happen and I’m not gonna dwell on that, it’s all been taken care of. I was seated at a table with Peter Eastgate and fellow Team PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis. I’d never played with Lex before, all I knew of him was what I saw on the ESPN broadcast where he showed every single bluff he tried, lol. Many of those bluffs were rather “out there” to say the least, but every one of them seemed to work. He started out the day playing as I expected. Re-raising out of position, playing lots of pots and really looking to mix it up. Our styles could not be any more different. He hates my small ball approach, and the feeling is mutual for his tournament strategy! I think he is an excellent no limit hold’em player, but like many great cash game players he doesn’t make some of the adjustments I think are necessary to consistently get deep in tournament poker. Guys like him, Durrrr, and David Oppenhiem often find themselves in situations that I think they could avoid, simply because their edge is bigger at the table then they think. They are usually the best poker player at the table, and could learn from a guy who “thinks” he’s always the best poker player at the table- Phil Hellmuth. All three might be better poker players than Hellmuth (they are), but Hellmuth actually has a much better tournament approach versus amateur players than those players with more no limit skill than he has. He plays a far less sophisticated game, but a typical tournament, especially on day one, simply doesn’t require much in the way of creative, sophisticated play. In fact, playing “above the rim” is often the less optimal approach in the early stages where the percentage of weak players is highest. The safest, and most profitable approach is to take advantage of the mistakes that your opponents will make. Let the game come to you essentially. Anyway, Lex was en fuego in the first 30 min and jumped to a healthy lead of about 90,000! I stayed steady for most of the day in the 35k range. Before dinner I played a hand badly against Lex, where I had Ah Qc on a flop of Qh 10h 8h, and was down to 10,000. After dinner, I started to finally pick up some hands and hit some flops, and ended the day over the 100,000 mark with 106,700. A great finish for me. ***************************************************************** While my poker day got better in the late stages, the best part of my day was getting an e-mail from my brother telling me some really good news about my mother. She’s been infection free for a couple weeks now and that’s allowed her to really make some progress this week. They had her sitting up in a chair for a while OFF of the life support machine, she was more alert than ever, and my brother even said that she was trying to talk and he could read her lips! That’s a pretty big deal. Her mental capacity is starting to make some real progress. He brought in a book with pictures and might say something like, “Point to the apple,” and she’ll do it. Lots of other good stories came in from my brother and I just hope that she continues to progress when I see her on my next trip to Toronto after Barcelona. Sounds exciting. He said he could really see “Mommy” in there and he’s ecstatic. There’s still hope…
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