Preparing for the EPT Barcelona

Barcelona rocks man. If you’ve never been… go. Come to the EPT Barcelona next year and I guarantee you will love it and come back again and again. Beach, restaurants, night life, architecture, and great golf too if you have time. I got in on the 3rd, vegged for a while then hit the PokerStars welcome party at Shoko. At the party, somehow, there was some wagering going on (whaddya know!), me having a small wager with Roland de Wolfe in rock, scissors, paper, and then William and Elky in a drinking competition. I played Roland a race to five for $5000 with me getting a spot, having to put up only $4500 of it. He won the first two throws, and then BOO YA it ended 5-2 for me. He called me a total fish and said I made so many crucial errors… um, me thinks some people take rock, scissors a little too seriously. William offered Elky 3-1 odds on $5000 that he could out drink him. Elky agreed, and the bartender poured five of the biggest vodka drinks I’ve ever seen. Three with vodka red bull, and two with vodka cranberry. The rules were simple- don’t spill first one to finish all five wins. I got to be the judge and watched, firsthand, William literally inhale his first drink with Elky struggling a bit to get it down. Rather quickly William was more than a drink ahead and started trash talking him and ‘giving him a chance” by resting. In the end, William gobbled down drink #5 and then I never saw either of them the rest of the night? Puking perhaps? I hung out there for a while, then went to dinner, and walked around for a bit after. Got to get at around 4:00am and woke up at 9:30am excited that my sleep schedule seemed to be set for play. I went to the gym and worked out, hit the grocery store to get some essentials, and then vegged mostly. I’m getting the hang of these overseas trips in terms of routine and I think that will help me do better. 1. Welcome Party (don’t drink like William or Elky)
2. Workout if I feel up to it
3. Get interviews done.
4. Get essentials from the grocery store, soy milk, etc. The only place I don’t need to do that is London. London has the absolute, uncontested, best food options for a vegetarian/vegan in the world. It’s just amazing!
5. Veg in my room and try to get to bed at an appropriate time. So today I did good on all fronts. Found a grocery store nearby that had a few things. Oh, one thing you need to know if you walk the streets in Europe. Cars don’t really stop for you. Seriously, lol. Watch out when you walk, it appears automobiles have the right of way and they’ll let you know about it! Everything seemed to be going as planned until… uh oh, I fell asleep at 8:00pm! Ugh, I woke up at 1:30am and it’s now 7:00am and I play at 12:30pm. After this blog I’m going to lay down and try to get a few hours of sleep before play. So when I woke up, I logged onto PokerStars to checkout what’s happening in the WCOOP. By the way, if you want to follow along there are two sites you should know about: 1) www.wcoop.com where you’ll find all kinds of stats, results, etc. and 2) www.pokerstarsblog.com where you can follow the events here in Barcelona as well as more WCOOP news. I checked out how some of the Team Pros were doing. First Andre Akaari who seemed to be killing it, then made my way down the list to say hi to some friends. I was jonzing to play in the 8-game mix and some of the other WCOOP’s, but that will have to wait until after the Barcelona event. So since then I’ve been surfing the net. I listened to Andre’s interview on WCOOP radio and was kinda shocked that he built a bankroll playing freerolls on PokerStars! That’s so sick. Anyway, he claims his English sucks, but I’m sure it’s a lot better than my Portuguese 🙂 After that, I perused the fantasy hockey news and did some research. Then I decided to watch the lasted episode of “Inside Deal” on espn.com. If you haven’t watched, or heard if it, think SportsCenter meets poker. This week they had Victor Ramdin on the show, their 5th episode. I’m looking forward to the tournament. I really got into the swing of things over at the Bike and feel like Iif I’m rested enough I should do well on day one, having faith in the “small ball” system that I use for big buy in NL events. I do best when I have faith in the fact that “my way” is the right way. It’s only when I venture out and explore some of the other approaches to the game where I get in trouble. I’ve been playing tournament poker for over 15 years now, and with all of the changes to the game and the influx of new players, one thing has stood the test of time and held true: small ball works. It’s still the absolute best way to go in big buy in no limit hold’em tournaments. ]]>

Karaoke. Me and my friends are like the biggest nerds ever. We often go to a Korean karaoke place on Spring Mountain, get some drinks, and sing random songs. All of us are awful, but I do OK with the Eminem stuff. Stan is an easy song to sing and I really like the story. These guys have been my friends since I was a teenager, and I feel totally comfortable around them. We play all kinds of dumb games.
Oh wait I almost forgot! We often play this game with Sam and “John Smith.” Sam is Thai and John is Korean and both have issues with English. So we often play “Who can say this” then we come up with a tough word for them to say like “Photosynthesis” or “Parallelogram.”
So the other night we tried a new twist. Tyson’s girlfriend Jieun comes up with a Korean word and then me and Ted the Idiot have to repeat. It should be important to note here, that we are doing Korean words… and Ted is Korean!!! No matter, I absolutely destroyed him on every word, in his OWN language, lol. Yes, I am proud of myself 🙂
It’s a really fun game. Eventually I did Romanian words for them, starting with Mults an tre as ca (my Romanian spelling is awful, doubt that’s right) which is like the Happy Birthday song. We were all drunk, and it was really funny cause by the end of the night “Party John Smith” was singing the Romanian birthday song. LOL, you had to be there I guess. ************************************************************************** I was very happy with my result at the WPT Legends. I got deep, down to about 50 left, without ever being above average in chips. I had good patience and I’m excited to see how EPT Barcelona goes next week. The plan is to go to Barcelona, then if I bust come home for our Fantasy Football draft which is going to be televised this year. On the 11th I’ll also be taking a shot at the WCOFF (World Championship of Fantasy Football) at the MGM. I’ve also got my fantasy hockey team to start managing, so I’ll be busy with tons of unproductive stuff. Love it!
]]>

The flop comes 2-2-6 rainbow and my opponent checks to me. I figured to have the best hand here, so I bet 6000. He check-raised me to 14,000, and I called the extra 8,000. The kid had been paying close attention thus far, so I assumed he knew that I could easily play KK or better exactly like that in this spot.
The turn was an off suit 7 and again, he bet 17,000 which was a bit more than half my stack. I went into the tank. I just didn’t believe him at all and felt like he was capable of trying to move me off a hand like 99 or 10-10 if that’s what he thought I had. He’d seen me fold hands in spots where it appeared I had to call, so I was very suspicious. I took my time on this one. Going over his bet sizing, his past hands, and finally looking for a physical tell. All three led me to believe it was a bluff: 1) Bet size on the check-raise. If he has AA or KK, then it makes sense, but with me having both an Ace and a King, it makes that less likely. If he had QQ or less, the bet size seems to small.
His bet size on the turn felt to me that it meant he was trying to appear as though he was committed to the pot, without actually betting it all. Again, if he has AA or KK here it makes sense, but with smaller pairs I would assume he would make an all-in bet against me. 2) We had history and he never laid off of the lead in any of the hands we played, really, so despite my call on the flop which would freeze most players, him following through again on the turn didn’t mean what it would seem to mean. In fact, if he had AA there I would expect him to check the turn and hope I bet for him. 3) What put me over the edge was when I looked over at him. I saw something (not going to say what) and as soon as I saw that I said, “All in.” He only had to call another 16,100, but decided to fold. I’m not sure what he had, but it felt like a total bluff to me. However, it is possible that he had a hand like 33, and decided to fold thinking he only had two outs. It was a key pot for me, and the only really tough spot I’ve found myself in during the tournament. I seriously have just been playing small ball to a tee, and it honestly even surprises me sometimes how well it works. Now that we are down to the nitty gritty, I hope that tomorrow my focus is better and I can start to really pay attention to my opponents. Up until this point, I’ve spent very little time worrying about what they are doing, and instead solely focusing on what I’m doing. I ended the day with 92,600 and there are 73 players remaining. You can follow me, as always on twitter.com/RealKidPoker.]]>

B) Kathy Liebert
C) Erik Seidel
D) Barry Greenstien 2. Which player has the most WPT cashes? A) Lee Markholt
B) David Pham
C) Daniel Negreanu
D) Barry Greenstien 3. How many players have won multiple WPT titles? A) 6
B) 8
C) 9
D) 11 4. Which Player ranks in the top 10 in tournaments players, but has cashed for less than $10,000 per tournament? (Meaning, for example, 65 tournaments played, cashing for less than $650,000) A) Mark Seif
B) Tony Cousineau
C) Allen Kessler
D) T.J. Cloutier 5. How many players record earning of over $2 million on the WPT? A) 33
B) 17
C 25
D) 41 6. Which player boasts the following stat line: over $2 million in earnings, 1 total cash, and 18 tournaments played: A) Yvgeny Timoshenko
B) Joe Bartoldi
C) Eric Hershler
D) Joe Hachem 7. Of the top 5 all-time money leaders on the WPT, how many are American-Born? A) 1
B) 2
C) 3
D) 4 8. How many women rank in the top 100 in WPT earnings? A) 0
B) 1
C) 2
D) 3 9. How many players have made at least 3 WPT final tables in their career? A) 36
B) 41
C) 57
D) 64 10. Who has the most WPT cashes without a win? A) Kathy Liebert
B) David Pham
C) John Juanda
D) Allen Cunningham OK, here are the answers: 1. Who has played the most WPT events in history? It’s a right race between Barry Greenstien and Erik Seidel, but Greenstien played one more event and stands at 92. Liebert ranks third with 87 events played, and I rank 7th on the list with 80. 2. Which player has the most WPT cashes? Not only has Barry played the most events, but he’s also cashed the most with 19 cashes. 3. How many players have won multiple WPT titles? A) 6
B) 8
C) 9
D) 11 The answer is 11: Gus Hansen
Alan Goering
Barry Greenstien
Carlos Mortensen
Daniel Negreanu
Erik Lindgren
Freddie Deeb
Howard Lederer
Jonathan Little
Michael Mizrachi
Tuan Le
4. Which Player ranks in the top 10 in tournaments players, but has cashed for less than $10,000 per tournament? (Meaning, for example, 65 tournaments played, cashing for less than $650,000) The answer is Tony Cousineau who’s played 79 events, cashed 10 times for $224,637. This is a good barometer for gauging success on the WPT. If a player has $500,000 in earning, but played in over 50 events, you have to assume they are stuck a pretty penny when you factor in travel expenses.
5. How many players record earning of over $2 million on the WPT? 33. Mathew Davidson just misses the list with $1,999,009. There are over 100 players with earning exceeding $1 million. 6. 6. Which player boasts the following stat line: over $2 million in earnings, 1 total cash, and 18 tournaments played. Joe Bartholdi won the WPT Championship and has not cashed in any other WPT event ever. 7. Of the top 5 all-time money leaders on the WPT, how many are American-Born? Michael Mizrachi is the only American-born player in the top 5: 1. Daniel Negreanu
2. Carlos Mortensen
3. Tuan le
4. Michael Mizrachi
5. Gus Hansen 8. 8. How many women rank in the top 100 in WPT earnings? The answer is 2. J.J. Liu sneaks in at exactly 100th place, and Kathy Liebert breaks the top 50 at #46. 9. 9. How many players have made at least 3 WPT final tables in their career? The answer is 41. 99 players have made at least 2. 10. Who has the most WPT cashes without a win? His name is John Juanda and don’t think I don’t remind him of that on a regular basis, lol. John has 16 cashes, tied for 5th on that list but no wins. If you answered 0-3 correctly, then you aren’t paying enough attention to what’s happening in the poker world. If you answered 4-7 correctly, you follow closely enough without being too obsessed. If you answered 8-10 correctly, you are a biggest stats geek than I am and seriously need to get out more! ***************************************************************** OK, so my day one I think I ended up playing my hands well for the most part, but wasn’t focused the whole day. I chatted a lot, nice people at the table, and just didn’t feel all “there.” Made some good plays, a few timely bluffs here and there, but overall I didn’t pay enough attention to hands I was out of. Hopefully I’ll wake up and be ready tomorrow. I ended day one with 36,125 in chips. You can follow my progress at twitter (RealKidPoker)
]]>

The only real no limit hold’em I’ve played recently is 6 hands out of every 48in the 8-game mix at PokerStars.com. Even at the WSOP I played very little, being eliminated early in the main event with my nose running like a faucet. I’ll obviously be a bit rusty today, but historically that’s often been a good thing for me. It makes me a little “scared.” Not weak, wimpy, scared, but more like every move I make feels more important when I’m this fresh. I’m far less sloppy when I take long breaks away from the game. It’s about 11:00am now and the tournament doesn’t start until 3:00pm so I’ll be wide awake for the 3:00pm start time. I’ll be doing the twitter thing, you can follow me there, at RealKidPoker. I had some fun with my tweets yesterday, basically needling Phil Hellmuth. Here’s a few of them: 87 percent. @phil_hellmuth’s name dropping percentage per tweet. Officially good for the Guinness record books Just golfed with Tiger Woods and on my way to Michael Jordan’s house to shoot some hoops before my date tonight with Shakira. PH parody:-) Blowing off Shakira to have tea with Madonna and Elton John at Bill Clinton’s house. Hillary is out of town so I assume tons of babes. Forgot I have to fly to LA for the WPT at the Bike Gonna borrow Beyonce’s jet and catch a ride with Jay Z WillI I Am and Jolie. She wants me Oops. Kanye West is pissed. I took his seat on the plane and Beyonce told him to fly Southwest. She wants me too btw. Angelina just asked me if I wanna do a bump! I don’t know what that is, but it sounds really good! Just landed in LA. Ok so it was me who flew Southwest. Kanye was being a little bitch so I didn’t wanna make a scene. Playing WPT tomm.
I was just having a little fun with Phil, he’s an easy target to say the least. Anyway, my tweets today will be poker tweets, haven’t done that in a while, although, whenever I play on PokerStars.com I usually tweet to let you guys know if you wanna rail the game. I haven’t done a written blog since the one about my mother, but I did do a video blog which you can find at either www.fullcontactpoker.com or www.rawvegas.com. I did that blog after returning home from Toronto, and give an update on how my mother is doing. ***************************************************************** I’ve just been going over my schedule for the rest of the year, and it doesn’t look to bad compared to previous years: Aug 22-26 WPT Bike
Sep 2-9 EPT Barcelona
Sep 10 Fantasy Football Draft (it will be filmed for television)
Mid September Various WCOOP events including the $25 Heads Up event
Sep 23 AHL Fantasy Hockey Draft in Toronto (huge deal for me)
Sep 25 Caesar’s Cup in London
Sep 26 WSOP Europe
Sep 30 EPT High Roller
Oct 2 in Los Angeles to shoot PokerStars show that will air on Fox (more on that later)
Oct 20-26 WPT Bellagio
Nov 3-6 Golf/Poker Academy with Doyle, Dewey, Leadbetter, etc. (more on that later)
Nov 9 Watch Phil Ivey win the WSOP main event
Nov 11-16 Romania (more on that later)
Dec 13-19 WPT Bellagio
Jan 3–14 PokerStars Carribean Adventure (more on that later, tons of events there this year)
Feb 20-25 WPT Commerce
Mar 8-12 WPT Bay 101
Apr 17-24 WPT Championship
There will be more added to that schedule, I just don’t have dates yet. For example, I’m obviously going to attend the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo again this year, as well as a couple other stops on the EPT. First things first… time to try and put in a good effort at the Bike today. ]]>

So I’m in Toronto visiting my mother. She’s still in ICU, in fact, she has been in ICU longer than any other patient at the hospital. The real problem is her breathing- she can’t do it on her own. Doctors gave us the bad news a little while ago that because she can’t breathe on her own… she’ll never leave the hospital. They said never, and they are probably right, but they might also be wrong. I’m obviously hoping they are wrong. Currently she’s on 50% assist, and 50% breathing on her own. She’s in a hospital, so inevitably she had to battle infection after infection, because being in a hospital for an extended period of time is a surefire way to get sick. We had a recent scare. One where the doctors wanted to have that “talk” with us. She was diagnosed with double pneumonia which they deemed was 100% fatal. They asked us if we wanted them to treat the pneumonia, or instead, “let her go.” That’s just brutal. Ick. I hate being in that spot, but me and my brother are on the same page all the way through this which is great. No arguing, no bickering, we both know our mother well and what she would want. We decided to give her a chance, having them give her antibiotics to try and beat the pneumonia. Chances were slim, but she’s been fighting so hard, we had to try. All I can say is that the doctors were shocked and claimed a miracle, because the next day, literally the next day they said the pneumonia was gone. Since then her vitals have been improving. She went from sleeping, to wide awake, moving her left arm a lot, nodding, listening, and even trying to speak. I wish I could read lips so I knew what she was saying. That’s frustrating. She wants to tell me something and I just can’t make it out. It sucks too, because she struggles so hard to try to choke out a word, I can see the effort she puts in and I assume it’s painful. I wish I understood her. Well yesterday I understood her full well. I was by her bed and took a sip out of my bottle of water. Her eyes lit up. She motioned with her hand close to her and was staring at the water. I asked her if she wanted some water, and her eyes opened REALLY wide and she nodded up and down yes. I was about to give her some when my brother informed me that she can’t have any water. She could drown. Apparently with the tube in her throat, she’s unable to swallow anything. He said we could give her a minuscule amount, think what you could fit under a fingernail. I put a drop in a cup and gave it to her to drink. That obviously didn’t do much for her and now she was obsessed with the water bottle. She was pointing to it frantically. I asked, “You want water Mommy?” and this time I swear I could read her lips. She said, “Da vrou,” meaning, yes, I want. That made me crazy. Just the thought of her laying there with a dry mouth… since February. Sure she gets fluids through a needle, but her mouth has been dry since February and all she seemed to want was a glass of water. I just thought it was cruel and was hoping for some answers as to why it had to be that way? My brother is there everyday, and he assured me that’s just the way it has to be for her. We were allowed to swab her mouth though, by dipping a swab in water and letting her suck on it. I can imagine it helped, but still, it’s just like a tease. Anyway, that whole thing just sucked for me. My mother is laying in a bed, begging me, just begging me to give her water… and I can’t give her water. It’s heartbreaking. I just hope she understood why I couldn’t give it to her. I do think she understands, but still, at that point she seemed so thirsty I don’t think she cared too much about the consequences. Ick. That just sucks. Time with her has been good, though, I talk to her about all kinds of things and she listens. She loves to hear about food, so Patty, thoughtfully, put together a cookbook for her of stuff that Patty now cooks for me. It’s beautifully put together with pictures and all. I also told her how I did at the WSOP this year. The five bracelets, and the $4 million dollars I won… just kidding 🙂 I told her the truth, a 2nd, a 4th, etc. and about $350,000. Food is her passion, but she really likes money too! When I was a teenager and would play poker, after a big win I’d bring the money home and let her count it. She loved it. She had to make it all “pretty.” All the faces in the same direction, bills flat not crumpled, and all in order with the big bills on the outside. Actually, I remember from even before I played poker when my dad would come home with a chunk of cash after finishing a job (he was an electrician and all around handy guy) that she’d do the same thing with a big grin on her face. So along with the book I brought along a wad of cash and just kind of counted it there in front of her, putting the heads in order and making it neat like she liked it. She was by no means a women who spent a lot of money. Quite the contrary! When she used to visit me in Vegas I can remember giving her $100 and she’d come home with like three duffel bags full of clothes! She’d say, “How much do you think I paid for these earrings? ” I’d look them over, and figuring they had to be cheap I’d guess lower than what they appeared to cost. Diamonds, had to be fake, I guessed, “Ten bucks?”
She’d look at me like I’m crazy and say, “Noooooo. 50 cents!” with a big laugh. She always knew how to look her best, like a “fancy schmancy woman” without having to buy Dior, Prada, or Gucci. In fact, I think she kind of hated that stuff and felt it was a waste of money! I once bought her a purse after a tourney win. It was an expensive purse that I got for her birthday, cost me like $3000. I swear, she never, ever, not even once used it! I think she was too afraid it would get dirty, lol. Anyway, so yeah. I’m here at my brother’s place for a few more days just kind of reminiscing. If I don’t stop now this blog will turn into a book.
]]>

OK, so this blog was prompted by a tweet I sent out on twitter (I’m RealKidPoker btw). I was playing in the $400-$800 8-game mix on PokerStars.com and listening to music. I was watching BET when a random thought dawned on me: how in the world did they ever get away with naming a network the Black Entertainment Network? Now, the channel caters to blacks and features black entertainers. Nothing wrong with a channel targeting a certain demographic, but is it really OK to just call it Black Entertainment Television? I watch it, I hope that’s not a problem or anything. The thought came to me, because I wondered: what would happen if a guy from Alabama tried to create a channel and call it the “White Entertainment Television” network. My guess is that people would go absolutely ballistic. What is that supposed to mean anyway? A network with white entertainers catered towards white people? I just don’t think that would be acceptable in the least. So why then, is BET considered OK? The arguments include: -Fox News is basically just for white people
-Blacks have been shut out of television for so long they deserve their own channel
-CBS and the majority of networks cater mostly to white people so it’s only fair
-White people already do have their own channel, it’s called CMT (Country Music Channel) The arguments don’t make much of a difference to me. As I said, I watch BET, and don’t think there is anything at all wrong with having a channel catered towards blacks, but the name is just bad. Calling it the Urban Entertainment Television network would still be accurate, but less separatist. I get the double standard when it comes to the N-word, not really cool for a white dude to use that in any context really, but the BET thing… hmmm… not sure this one makes too much sense. **************************************************************** That got me started on another one of my pet peeves that Whoopi Goldberg and several other prominent blacks also don’t seem to get. Who came up with the term African-American anyway? It’s a bad idea, and besides, why would you call a Jamaican-American an African-American anyway? How does that make any sense?
I mean seriously, why do we single out blacks that way, but don’t really do that with any other culture? People with Greek ancestry that are American, are just… American. People from England who become American are not English-Americans, they are just accepted as Americans. Why can’t a black kid who was born in Chicago, with a mother from Philadelphia and a father from Queens, just be considered an American, without the need to hyphenate it with his ancestry? Why the need for added description, only when referring to blacks?
That black kid from Chicago is American. Period. What would be the reverse in that case for a white kid? Same situation, he’s American, not Caucasian-American or Euro-American… just American. What do they call blacks in England? Do they call them African-Englishmen or whatever? In Canada, I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard the term African-Canadian. It’s dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, and stupid. What would TV news anchors call a black guy from Canada? A Canadian, or an African-North American? **************************************************************** Both of these two separate terms are divisive and come from both sides of the fence. The term Black Entertainment Television is separatist, and calling an American, who happens to be black, an African-American paints a separatist picture. Especially because it is the only commonly used term to describe someone’s race or ethnicity by incorporating not only their current nationality, but their origin. Silly.
OK, so this blog has nothing to do with poker… if you’ve been following my blog over the years, you should know by now that I can be pretty opinionated and I’m not afraid to share my thoughts. I don’t really think anything I’ve said here is all that controversial, really, it’s not damning to anyone, it’s just the way I see things. Some of the tweet responses were kind of scary, so I thought I’d write a blog about it to clarify what I’m talking about. Tweets are too short to do that. I didn’t bring these things up to be divisive, but just to question some silly things that rarely get talked about for fear of opening up the proverbial “can of worms.” K, I’m done now.
]]>

The criteria has always been the same, but it seems that some aspects of the criteria are less important than they once were. Back when I started playing poker, unless you played in the big game, you didn’t have a shot. Guys who just played tournaments, but never had any success at pokers highest levels in the cash games- need not apply. When I was a “real professional poker player” my main income source came from grinding in the cash games. Starting out playing $10-$20 limit hold’em and eventually playing $100-$200 limit hold’em. That was the highest limit hold’em game you’d find, and while I could beat it, I wanted to play higher which meant playing all the games. Went from $200-$400 to eventually, at my peak, playing $4000-$8000 mixed games with the best in the world. These days I don’t play much at all in the cash games. Not because I feel that I don’t have an edge, I’m comfortable playing in any mixed game with any lineup, but simply because my heart iss not in it (blame that on golf I guess) right now, and in order for me to succeed, I feel like I need to stay sharp and play regularly. I haven’t done that in years. I’m sure in the winter this year I’ll look to get back to playing, but in the meantime I just play in the $400-$800 8-game mix on PokerStars.com to keep sharp.
Point being, I always wanted to be good at everything, not just no limit hold’em tournaments. It was a personal goal to be a great all around player, which I always figured was the only way to get into the HOF. Not anymore apparently. The criteria is as follows: (1) Must have played against top competition.
(2) Played for high stakes.
(3) Played consistently well, gaining respect of their peers.
(4) Stood the test of time.
(5) Contributed to the overall growth and success of poker with positive and lasting results. I don’t think there are too many players that would qualify for 5 out of 5. For example, you could have a great cash game player, well respected, been around for years, but never done anything “for” poker outside of starting a game or two. I’ll throw out a guy like Ralph Perry for example. He’s played against the best, for big money, his game is respected, and he’s been around a lot of years… but (5), I don’t see how he qualifies there. Not a knock on him, just a fact. I don’t get a vote, but if I did it wouldn’t be a tough decision for me at all. For the same reasons that Doyle believes Mike Sexton should be the #1 guy, I agree 150%. He’s played “high enough” is well respected “enough” for his play, and has been around along time. He simply has no equal, however, when it comes to contributing to the growth of poker. Most of you guys probably have no idea how much Mike did for poker before the boom. He was a visionary for real. He created an awesome event, that today, post boom, would probably be a massive hit, the “Tournament of Champions.” It was a unique event with a barrier for entry. You had to either be a WSOP bracelet holder or win a sanctioned tournament in the calendar year. You don’t, have a win, you sit on the sidelines no matter who you are! I remember them shutting out a prominent name back then who bitched and moaned about it, but I was proud of the fact that Mike stood his ground and didn’t let them play unless they qualified like everybody else. Well before his role as WPT commentator, Mike did countless hours of FREE internet audio coverage of several final tables. I know because I’d often do some of the commentary with him at the WSOP and other venues. Mike just always “got it” about what poker could be, but the key difference with Mike was that he actively went out and tried to make things happen. Mike Sexton just has to get voted in this year, no question about it. As for who should be nominated second, well, I can think of a person or two not on that list of nominations that I’d choose. One in particular, but I’ll leave that one alone. The person I’m thinking about definitely qualifies on all fronts. In fact, I really don’t like the idea too much, that the public gets to nominate the players. It becomes too much of a popularity contest and it’s easy to stuff a ballet to get someone in. Take Tom Dwan for example. I mean really? Don’t get me wrong, I know he is a great player, but he’s 22… a lot can happen in a kids life between 22 and 28. I know, because I was once a great 22 year old poker player, as well as an awful, tilted 24 year old poker player. I bounced back, but not everyone does, and that’s why one of the criteria is “stood the test of time.” I don’t doubt Durrr will continue to excel at the highest levels, but he has to do it first, for a little while longer. As for me, I was flattered to be nominated, but don’t feel at all like I should be voted in. I don’t feel like I have a lot to prove exactly, and I do think I’ll get voted in eventually, just not now. Mike Sexton needs to go in now. There are also a few other older guys who should go in ahead of me. I always kind of figured, back when we used to hang out a lot, that me, Ivey, Juanda, and Cunningham would all go in together, but I don’t see that happening. Whoever gets in, I’m sure it’ll be controversial, but I guess that’s what makes for a good Hall of Fame. Whether it’s baseball or basketball, fans always argue over who does and doesn’t deserve to get in to the HOF. It’s a lot of fun and I think it’s a special honor to be inducted into to the hall with the likes of Doyle Brunson, Johnny Moss, and of course, Chip Reese… ]]>

Birdie: 3 points
Par: 1 point
Bogey: 0 points
Double or worse: -2 points My goal going into the event was to score 0 or better. On the very first tee, after the introduction, it was my turn to hit. Right before I hit my heart was beating so hard, I was SOOO nervous! Golfing in front of a gallery is way tougher than you’d think. Nonetheless I hit the fairway. I ended day 1 shooting 89, 4 double bogeys (-8), 5 pars (+5), and 9 bogeys (0) for a -3 total on day one. Could have been worse, could have been better, but it was a decent start. On day two I had the best time ever. Day two you get paired with guys who are close to you in score, so I was paired with ex-NFL head coach Herm Edwards and actor Bruce McGill. You might not know his name, but I guarantee you know his face and have seen him in a movie. He played Walter Hagen in Legend of Bagger Vance and was also D-Day from Animal House. Great guys, we had a lot of fun. I also shot the lights out! On hole 11 (we started on 10) I hit the two best shots I hit all tournament. A driver, 5 wood just long and on the fringe. I had a long putt and drained it for birdie! Just like that I was back to 0.
It got better, on the back I made back to back birdies! I hadn’t made a birdie all week and now made 3. The second one could have just as easily have been a double bogey. I hit a good drive, but had to carry water on the second shot. I hit 5 wood and hit behind it a little bit. It was headed for water, but barely hit the wood rail and kicked right towards the green. I chipped from just off the green and DOINK, it dropped! I ended the round shooting a ridiculous score: 82! 3 birdies (+9), 5 pars (+5), 7 bogeys (0),3 doubles (-6) for a +8 round! That got me to +5 for the tournament. I hit two greens all day and made three birdies, lol. I ended the day with 10 putts on the back 9, and 23 total putts. That’s pretty darn good. My last round, I was paired with Mike Eruzione, hero from the 1980 winter Olympics for the U.S. team, and the “Great One” Wayne Gretzky. I ended up having my worst round of the week, but luckily made two more birdies. I shot 90, having 6 double bogeys on the day and shooting a -4. Good enough for a +1 tournament, good enough for 67th place. very happy with that and I achieved my goal. Next year… I’m aiming higher. I want to crack the top 45 and score +24 points for the tourney. I left that night, sharing a ride with Jonathan Ogden who also lives in Vegas. He had a rough week and didn’t play well, so we talked golf the whole way there. Another very cool guy who I’m sure I’ll golf with here in Vegas every once in a while. ************************************************************************** When I first accepted the invite, my main concern was feeling like I didn’t belong there. These were real athletes and real celebrities, and I wasn’t sure how my presence there would be received. I left the tournament a bit taken aback and surprised and how popular poker must be. I was also so pleasantly surprised to meet so many cool people out there, not prima donnas, just a fun group of guys who leave their ego at the door and look to have a fun week. I told someone during the week how cool everyone was, and they explained to me why that is. If you act like a dick, you don’t get invited back. I thought about what he said, and wondered how that compares to guys in the poker world. I genuinely feel like poker players act more like prima donna’s then guys who are actually legitimate celebrities. Kind of strange. Tweet of the week: Phil Ivey makes the final table of the WSOP main event and acts like a regular guy. Regular guys make the final table of the WSOP main event and act like they are Phil Ivey. LOL that made me laugh. The organizers seemed happy to have me there and I hope I made a good impression, because I’d love to play in that event every year for the rest of my life! As a sports fan who loves to golf and compete, could there be a cooler event for me? I think not. I was so honored to be invited. I’d love to have a “poker group” come out and play, but the number of poker players who golf, and are also high profile are kind of limited. Phil Ivey is a no-brainer and I told him he should come next year. I think a fun third would be Gus Hansen. Doyle Brunson was the first name that came to mind, but something tells me he might not love the idea of walking 18 holes four days in a row! Erick Lindgren would also be an obvious choice and I know he would absolutely love the atmosphere there. He’s a huge sports fan and would be in heaven. Oh wait, I forgot one other one: Chris Moneymaker! ************************************************************************** Back in Vegas, and back to working out. I lost 6 pounds during the WSOP and plan on gaining the weight back. If I can hit the ball 250+ yards by next year I feel like I have a shot at a top 30 in the event. So, I’ll be working on that, golfing, and also playing online some at PokerStars. I also need to work out my schedule for the next few months. I will be leaving for Toronto rather soon to go see my mother in the hospital (more on that another time). I FINALLY got my Green Card in the mail! That’s a big help for me and opens me up to do some things I’ve always wanted to do… Anyway, I’m going to go hit some balls upstairs and then play some poker online in a little while.]]>

Vinnie Testaverde
Michael Jordan
Kenny Lofton
John Lynch
Tino Martinez
Daniel Negreanu
Maury Povich
Aaron Rogers
Ben Roethlisberger I can’t imagine I’m better than any of those guys. I looked at some of last year’s scores, and they use a Stableford scoring system: -2 for double bogey or worse
0 for bogey
+1 for par
+3 for birdie
+8 for eagle
+10 for hole in one The course, Edgewood, will play about 7072 yards which means I won’t be making any birdies. My goal is end with a score of 0. Last year Jordan finished at -1 and Barkley finished the three day tournament at… um… -91! Wow, that’s really bad. A realistic goal for me is something like -18, but anything worse than that and I’ll be disappointed. I’m so excited I just can’t explain it! For a full list of participants and odds: http://www.tahoecelebritygolf.com/media/2009/2009_celebrity-golf-odds.pdf ]]>