B.C. Poker Championship: I’m headed out for the fourth annual B.C. championship that begins on Nov 20th-24th and is televised. If I’m eliminated from the event then I’ll be doing some commentary which I enjoy doing. The way I’ve been playing, though, they’ll definitely need to have a back up plan because I fully expect another deep run in Vancouver.
It’s fun to get back to Canada and I’ll be sure to have my Luongo jersey with me!
Online Poker: I’ve been trying to play more hours this week and have played a little bit of everything from $1-$2 no limit to shoot a video for www.pokervt.com, $0.50-$1.00 Badugi, $200-$400 2-7 Triple Draw, $500-$1000 HORSE, $5000 sit n’go’s, $25-$50 PLO, etc. When I don’t feel like paying any attention at all and am doing other things I’ll usually be sitting in the 2-7 triple draw game simply because I feel like I can get away with being a bit robotic in that game and it’s slightly less important for me to pay attention. If I don’t pay attention in any of the other games, well, I just lose.
The Real Deal: The show has really been picking up speed and with more marketing being done this last week the seats are really starting to fill up. That, coupled with the lower ticket prices (you can now get tickets for $45 online at venetian.com) has been a big reason for the bigger crowds. It feels good to see people leave the theater smiling after having a good time.
I did the show last night with Jennifer Harman and it was a great show with a good crowd. My next appearance on the show will be with Scotty Nguyen on November 25th so if you are in Las Vegas you should come by the show and say hello! When me and Scotty do the show together it’s always a really good time!
The shows start at 5:00pm which is a bit on the early side, but we are adding a late night show, The Real Deal After Hours at 10:00pm Tuesday nights. Those might just be the best shows because the host, Vinnie Favarito will let loose a little bit more and if you’ve ever seen his show at the Flamingo, you know what that means! Be prepared to laugh hard.
Vegging Out: That’s the plan for the next few days. Three nights in a row during the WSOP main event I was partying it up and the body and mind needs a break. Me and Mushu on the couch, watching hockey, playing a little poker, and maybe doing a bit of writing.
Family: My two aunts are in town. One aunt from Romania I haven’t seen in about 20 years and my other Aunt from Milan, Italy is also here to hang out with my mother. My mother came from a family with 10 kids, one boy and nine girls. These are the only three left and my mother is the oldest of the three.
My two aunts couldn’t be any more different. The one from Milan is very spicy and that often creates fights with my mother who can also be very opinionated. Likely my aunt from Romania is the cool, calm, and collected one so she can keep them from killing each other! I’ll probably take them out to dinner sometime this week.
Fantasy Hockey: My other passion, fantasy hockey is going extremely well this year. I have the best team I’ve ever had in the 13 years I’ve been in the league. In fact, my team is leading the league in most of the key statistical categories thanks to breakout player of the year Alexander Semin, comeback player of the year Simon Gagne, and goalies of the year Roberto Luongo, Henrik Lundqvist, and Evgeny Nabakov. I love this league so much!
Proposition 8: The last thing I wanted to talk about is a little more serious in tone and it deals with gay civil rights (or lack thereof). I have a very close gay friend who is planning to get married herself and she keeps me in the loop in terms of what’s going on with proposition 8 and it all just seems so unfair to me.
It just seems that it’s unfair to ask gays/lesbians to pay their taxes just like everybody else, yet because they were born gay they aren’t given equal rights. Gay marriage is a moral issue for many people, but your personal feelings about whether it’s right or wrong to be a homosexual shouldn’t influence your belief that they should be treated equally in terms of their rights.
The separation of church and state in this country allows people the freedom to choose their religious affiliation, or their life partner, and the government shouldn’t play the role of church.
My friend has been living with her partner for quite some time now and they plan on living together forever. I don’t expect any of you to accept their lifestyle or even condone it as something you deem morally kosher, but we can’t ignore the civil rights they should have in terms of being able to file taxes as a couple, the right to visit each other in a hospital when sick, and the legal rights in the case of death or divorce.
It would be wrong for the government to force churches to accept gay marriages. That should be totally up to the church if they felt comfortable performing the ceremony.
I don’t want to have the debate about whether or not God is OK with homosexuality. It’s not a debate that really applies to what the government should do in terms of giving gays and lesbians the right to marry if they choose to.
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I seriously doubt that most of you truly understand what it took to get this event on TV in less than 24 hours. This is no small feat, it’s incredible and the entire production crew should be very proud of what they accomplished. With over 200 hands to choose from they needed to put together the best show they could using maybe 20 or so of the most exciting hands. They had to edit the show, Norm and Lon had to do the commentary… and no one really slept. These guys worked around the clock to make the deadline and get the show on ESPN. It’s just mind boggling when you have a little understanding of what goes on behind the scenes. The amount of work and dedication it took to make the final show as good as it was is beyond description. Luckily the WSOP has the absolute best crew in the business, hands down.
I hung out with the crew last night and had a lot of fun with them. They all needed, and deserved a few drinks after what they had to go through!
Hats off to Ty Stewart also for having the vision for the delayed final table. There were a lot of skeptics early on, but there is no question that the delay created an atmosphere never before seen in a poker tournament. I’m talking a jam packed theater to watch… poker? It was insane.
As poker players one of the things we are really, really good at it is complaining. Whether it’s food, waiting in lines, dealers, structures, or what have you, poker players are a finicky bunch. Thanks to the creation of a Players Advisory Council, the brainchild of Jeffrey Pollack, our complaints are always heard and things are done about it. Each of the past three years I think we have seen an improved experience at the WSOP and we owe a lot of that to Jeffrey Pollack and his staff.
Jack Effel, the tournament director, genuinely cares too. Each year, months before the WSOP is even set to begin, he is already working on the schedule, the structures, and all sorts of mundane work in preparation for the WSOP. He’s done a tremendous job as tournament director and we are lucky to have him.
For all the things wrong in the country at the moment with the economy, and the perceived decline in poker interest, the WSOP main event showed the world that poker is still very hot and extremely popular.
Congratulations to all the final nine, you guys were part of history. Speaking of history, a special congratulations to Peter Eastgate for becoming the youngest main event champion in history. He played excellent poker, essentially taking the small ball approach to the extreme. He stayed patient, and waited for his opponents to hang themselves. Going in to the final table I predicted that Demidov and Eastgate would go heads up and it was an exciting match to watch with two contrasting styles.
At one point it looked like Demidov was gaining momentum and was going to claw his way back, but then an ill timed bluff took the wind out of his sail. Congrats to Ivan as well, though, for a great showing both in the main event as well as the main event at the WSOPE. This guy is for real and was a credit to his country, handling himself like a true gentleman every step of the way, in victory and in defeat.
So that’s that. The World Series of poker is officially over for 2008. It was such an incredible year all around and I can’t wait to get started again in 2009!
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Based on play and word of mouth I figured the final five would go like this: 5th Scott Montgomery. Hellmuth and I both agreed that he was the most likely candidate to overplay a hand and put himself in a bad spot. He did and he came 5th.
In 4th I felt as though Dennis Phillips may go, with Schwartz coming in 3rd but they flip flopped positions. I actually won some money on the final table. With four left I bet on Demidov and Eastgate to win and laid 3-1 odds. That bet is now a lock.
I originally picked Demidov to win and Eastgate to come in second right from the beginning. At this point, based on the chip count Eastgate should be considered the favorite to win, but it’s a super close call.
The atmosphere was indescribable. It was just like being at a major sporting event with thousands in attendance, many of whom were there in St.Louis Cardinals caps and white shirts just like their guy, Dennis Phillips.
It was a truly historic moment and for those questioning whether the delay was a good idea, the answer is a resounding yes. Ratings were up, and people were literally sleeping outside the Rio in line waiting for seats. No one, and I mean no one could have predicted this.
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I’ve just been falling card dead at the worst time ever- the late stages where you really need to pick up some hands. I fought valiantly again today, but couldn’t get on a rush after losing a key pot to Jonathan Little. I lost 120,000 in chips on the hand but am extremely happy with the way I played the hand as I felt like I saved the last bet against him where I could have easily moved in pre-flop or on the flop, but chose a different line, call pre-flop, check min raise the flop and fold to the all in move.
The day just started off totally dead for me. At the 1200-2400 level my standard raise is to 5800… and I never had even one opportunity to open a pot! About the fourth hand in I limped from the small blind with AK expecting the big blind to raise it. He was looking to push and I totally knew it. He did, and I called. He showed Q-5 and the board came 5-9-10-K-Q. For the entire 90 minute level I folded A-10 and also Ad 2d, both to big over bets, and never even got one hand like J-10, or even 6c 9c! I played one other hand, 88 from the small blind calling a raise and turning a set to win a decent pot. It was so frustrating, but I showed solid patience and waited it out.
The slow roll guy ran into Mr.Karma. I predicted he would finish 54th, just outside the money and take a terrible beat. Well, he finished 70th and did take an awful beat. Jonathan Little, raised with A-7, a late position player called, and slow roller went all in with A-J. Little moved all in behind him and the other player folded. Aside from Little’s play in the hand being absolutely incorrect and bad, the flop came K-10-7… A…. 2. Little should have folded his hand pre-flop, that’s not debatable at all really, but he must have been tapped on the shoulder by father Karma and decided to go bonkers with the A-7 and knocked out the slow roller.
Later I ran into the shove guy again, the Q-5 man. I raised the button to 9500 with Ac 10c and he shoved for over 90,000 from the small blind! It was a brutal spot for me, because there is just no way I could give this guy even an ounce of credit for a legitimate hand. He played his short stack crazy aggressive and I felt like he’d shove there with any random two. I called, and he showed A-6. I was almost upset he did that! It was weird, a nice guy, but he certainly wasn’t there to wait around, that much is for sure 🙂
Yesterday I’d say my patience was at about 61% with my focus at about 68%. My patience number being lower had a lot to do with the table set up. They played a bit tight and weak so I pushed the envelope a little bit.
Today, my patience was high, 97% but I never got that rush I needed. Focus was a bit low, maybe 62% because with a short stack there is little to do but wait and be patient which can take you out of the game a little bit.
Since the WSOP main event where I was eliminated on day 1, my results have been pretty good despite falling short in the late stages:
WPT Bike: 60th place
EPT Barcelona: Day 1 Exit
WSOPE NLH 1500: 24th (cash) $7,985
WSOPE HORSE 2500: 14th (cash) $10,122
WSOPE PLO 5000: Early Exit
WSOPE NLH 10000: 5th (cash) $386,144
EPT London High Roller crap shoot: 15th
WPT Niagara: Day 2 Exit
WPT Bellagio: 50th (cash) $7105
WPT Foxwoods: 35th (cash) $21,3210
My mindset is very solid right now and consistent deep runs does wonders for your confidence. My approach is systematic mostly, using almost exclusively the small ball approach that I teach at www.pokervt.com. It works, and when I have faith in the system results follow. It’s only when I veer too far from that fundamental system do I get myself into trouble spots. With deep stacks, a good structure, and long levels, this approach makes it relatively easy to get deep in these tournaments.
I’ll now be flying back to Vegas to sweat the final table of the WSOP main event. I’d like to see Kelly Kim double up and become a threat because I like his style. I’d also like to see Demidov do well, he is the real deal. I hear Eastgate is quite the player and he’ll be interesting to watch, and of course, the crowd favorite has to be Chino. He better bring his A game because he’s got a pretty big rooting section from what I hear. I won’t be there in time for the start, but I’ll go home, shower, maybe take a quick nap, and be there for most of the evening.
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I started with 70k and on hand two got dealt KK under the gun and raised. I got one caller, the flop was 10-5-2 with two spades and we played for his 35k… he rolled over 55 and that had me back on the grind early, but by the end of the level I was back to 70k. In fact, at the end of every level on the day excluding the final count I sat at about 70k. I ended with 148,900 which puts me above average and about 21st overall going into day three.
The slow roll was comical and started a fun and enjoyable day of completely roasting the guilty party. I raised under the gun with QQ, got one caller, and then the blind made it 11k. He only had 7k more after that so as much as I didn’t like my hand I decided I couldn’t fold it and put it all in. The other guy folded so it was just me and him. He literally sighed, paused for a moment, slammed his chips together, looked away shrugging, and then finally made the reluctant call. I showed my QQ, and he stared at them for a moment, before flipping up.. pocket aces! LOL so funny. He then had the audacity to say, “I figured you had the other ones.”
Anyway, the flop came K-Q-7 so it looked like he was going to get punished for his slow roll, but the turn came a K, and the river came a K so I lost the pot. I explained to him how karma works and how I was certain that his destiny would be to finish exactly four out of the money on a sick beat. We shall see, as he’s still in and at my table tomorrow.
Then later some more news was revealed. Apparently this guy also welched on an agreed bet with another player at the table for $1100. The details of the bet were explained to me, and I asked the defendant if he had anything to say in defense and he came up with this beauty, “I know he is right… but I’m not gonna pay.” What??? I know the guy is right but I ain’t paying? Ok, well, that sounds like welching to me. He then tried some weak defense that essentially said, “Well I didn’t know I was gonna lose the bet.” Hmmm… ya, that’s not such a good excuse now is it?
So then the defendant accused the other player of being cheap and was willing to bet $3000 that he could get 20 people to agree with him. So I chimed in, “What good is that? You didn’t pay the $1100 what makes anyone think you’ll pay off this bet!”
The accused “cheap guy” defending himself by claiming he is NOT cheap, but was willing to admit that he was frugal. Ya, ok, so you are cheap.
Before we crack too hard on the slow roller, I don’t think he’s a bad guy, but he obviously has a very different definition of ethics in certain areas than most of us! I just couldn’t leave him alone though, and we went on:
He says to me, “Aren’t you married Danny?” I show him my fingers and say, “No, I’m a single man.” He then shows me his hands and says, “Hey, I’m married and I don’t have a ring on.” To which I replied, “Not only are you a slow rolling welcher but you also cheat on your wife! My goodness bro!”
We had one last adjective to add to his list near the end of the day when his big blind was approaching. It appeared as though he may have been stalling to avoid paying a big blind at the end of the day which helped coin him the following nickname: A slow rolling, womanizing, stalling, welcher!
He took the ribbing pretty well and even invited me to dinner after play was done… I decided to pass because with the cheap guy on one side and the welcher on the other, it was pretty obvious who was going to get stuck with the bill!
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The plane ride over from Vegas was a good one for me. I flew private along with Howard Lederer, John Juanda, Eli Elezra, Chris Ferguson, Chau Giang, Andy Bloch, and David Levi which meant we could land right near Foxwoods which is SO much better than a connecting flight, then an hour long drive to the casino. It also helped that Chinese Poker was very good to me as I won 76k during the ride. As per our agreement, I (the big winner) had to pay for Howard’s (the big loser) flight which was fine by me! I don’t what it is about Chinese Poker, but lifetime, I run so good at that game it’s incredible and I’m absolutely certain that I don’t play perfectly. It just doesn’t matter that much, the game is all luck if you have half a brain.
We all had dinner that night at the Chinese Restaurant and decided on a plan for the flight home. We tentatively scheduled a return on the night of day 3, unless 5 of the 8 players were eliminated by then. We assumed that most of us would make it through day one, but on hand #1 of the tournament, literally hand #1 Chau went broke on a sick, sick beat. He had Aces, as expected, his opponent had 10-10. The board read 9-6-5-2 on the turn and they were all in. 10 on the river, bye bye Chau Chau.
Soon after that I heard Eli went broke and based on the details of the hand he just gave his last 8000 in chips away. Howard and Andy also went broke, as did Juanda on the last hand of the night. That left me, David Levi, and Chris Ferguson who played at my table the whole day standing. I’m assuming I’ll be booking a flight home, hopefully on the 12th!
It was a steady climb for me today. Focus at about 63%, patience at about 94%. I never really had any big things go wrong and avoided any situations where I might. I ended the day in great shape with 71,275 which is well above the average of about 50,000.
I did have one strange hand come up: I raise to 950 from under the gun with blinds at 200-400 with a 50 ante with Kc Jc. A nitty looking older local re-raised me to a total of 2000. A bad player called and I called tentatively, worried about the size of the re-raise and the type of player that raised. My plan was to try and hit big or go away.
The flop came J-6-6 rainbow with one club. I checked, the raiser bet 6000 and the other player folded. I knew that the bettor only had about 5000 left, but decided to try a bit of a ploy and said towards the dealer, “How many more chips does the guy with Aces have?” He then answered the question by saying 5000 more!
Here’s where things get messy, though, as his body language didn’t seem like it was all that strong. The tells I was picking up were bluffing tells, but when I compared that with the actual data it made the decision super tough:
1. Pre-flop raise size: AA
2. Bet Size on flop: Over pair
3: Comment: AA
That’s what I needed to fade against my physical read. I finally decided to throw the hand away and held on to my 30,000. Risking 40% of my stack here seemed like a bad move. I felt like I made the right lay down for sure. Then at the end of the night, the guy follows me to the bathroom and says, “I didn’t have aces that hand. I was bluffing, I had A-Q.”
Yuk! He seemed like he was telling me the truth, but whatever, there is no way for me to know for sure. If he did have A-Q, he played the hand super bad, but then again, betting 6000 on the flop was pretty bad no matter what he had.
I made precisely ONE “play” today and it would have worked perfectly if my opponent didn’t spike his miracle card to make two pair. I fired a bluff pre-flop, flop, and turn, and he was DEFINITELY folding the turn unless he caught help. Oh well, in the end I am left with my peak chip count.
Me and Chris same table]]>
Aside from the play, I did see a hand come up which involved a pet peeve of mine. Losev pushed forward 3 million in chips, took it back, and then cut out just 1.5 million in chips. The floor was called over and they ruled that the bet should only be 1.5 million instead of the 3 million that was originally pushed forward. It’s a dangerous precedent to set, but the procedure used at Bellagio is by far the absolute worst of anywhere in the world. The set up there is absolutely designed to help cheaters and angle shooters.
At Bellagio there is a betting line. Unless verbally declared, only chips that cross that betting line count as a bet. There are a million ways to take advantage of this rule, but here is one good one:
You are on the river and your opponent bets 100,000. You have a marginal hand and aren’t sure if it’s good. Here is what you do: take four 25k chips, splash them forward but not far enough to touch the betting line. Your opponent will likely turn his hand up. If you can beat his hand, just take the pot, if he shows you his hand and you can’t beat it, just take your chips back and tell the floor he should get a penalty for turning his hand face up in the middle of a hand! If the floor says you have to call the bet you just say, “Nope, my chips did not cross the line and I did not say call.” That’s cold blooded! According to the awful Bellagio rule, though, it would be considered perfectly legal to do that. You can even take it one step further:
A guy bets 30,000 on the turn. You have a calling hand. Cut out 130,000 and push it forward. Just make sure it doesn’t touch the line. If the guy folds, take the money honey!
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Cash Game Players vs Tournament Players
I had a chance this week to play in an exciting poker game against some of the world’s best no limit hold’em cash players. Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius and Tom “Durrr” Dwan.
When playing against a lineup that tough, the truth is, the small ball approach is exploitable. Small ball is the best way to play tournaments, no question about that whatsoever, and it also works extremely well in cash games with lesser players. Against the best, though, you have to raise your level of play and you simply can’t bank on the idea that your opponents will make mistakes against you. More risks are necessary, and you have to take some more chances to stay afloat against great players. The game play is super sophisticated and every value bet, every bluff, every re-raise pre-flop has to be well thought out. Perceptive players pick up on everything.
I’m not foolish enough to think I’m a favorite in a game with the likes of Ivey, Durr, Patrik Antonius, and Gus Hansen. I thoroughly enjoy the challenge, but the truth is that each of them has more experience than I do and play a lot more regularly which puts me at a disadvantage. I am certain that I am a winning no limit hold’em cash game player, but against those four, I’d rightfully concede that I’d be an underdog. Not necessarily forever, mind you, if I practiced, and focused hard on playing more hours, I think I’d be able to compete. I’ll probably never know though…
Tournaments, well that’s a completely different story altogether. In that arena I have the utmost confidence that my approach is ideally suited to most tournament fields which contain those types of players that do make major mistakes. Watching the WSOP main event only reconfirmed that for me!
Tournament poker simply doesn’t require, better yet, should not include overly sophisticated types of plays that are regularly used by the world’s best no limit hold’em cash game players. The best tournament players are more risk averse, while cash game players aren’t concerned with a play causing them to “go broke.” It’s survival versus optimizing value. The best cash players do that very well, but they make major errors in terms of tournament strategy that often knocks them out prematurely.
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The Real Deal
I really had a blast doing out last show at the Venetian. The show has been going nightly at 5:00pm at the Venetian and things are picking up in many ways. The marketing of the show is picking up, the show is getting better each time we do it, and the people that attend seem to really enjoy the concept.
I’d say my favorite guy to do the show with is Scotty Nguyen. I feel a bit bad for Scotty actually after his ridiculous performance in the $50k HORSE. There is simply no excuse whatsoever for his behavior that night. I know he was drunk, but that night is something that he’ll never be able to live down. I truly don’t think the public will ever see that side of him anymore, at least I hope not!
Outside of that one night in the last 20 years on the tour, Scotty has been nothing but a fan favorite and a true showman that really knows how to work a crowd. He’s one of the best we got.
I have good chemistry with him on stage and it makes for a good show I think.
After the show, the host Vinnie Favorito, heads to his other gig at the Flamingo and he invited me to see his show. It was brilliant, exactly my kind of humor. A lot of racial jokes and I’m a fan of that type of comedy. On top of that, he show is loosely scripted, it’s mostly him cracking on the audience. It’s a really funny show, my friends absolutely loved it.
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On that note, today is the election and I’m pretty excited to see how it all unfolds. After that, I’ll head to Foxwoods and see if I can make another run.
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I was in a bad mood when I got there and that certainly didn’t help. The night before I stayed out a bit too late and had a few too many drinks which led to a bit of a hang over which isn’t ideal for playing your A game. I am literally laughing right now, out loud, about how pathetic I played in that thing. It was so ridiculous I’m not sure I can even put it into words. Just so ridiculous, but not in the way you’d think. I just kept… um… er, folding! LOL, when you guys see this on TV you are going to just have a field day with all the bad plays you’ll see me make. Just awful. It’s the worst performance I’ve ever had on a show where I think I’ve actually played some of my best poker ever. My head is a bit of a mess and I didn’t feel like playing today. The hangover didn’t help, and neither did being on the phone till dawn. Tomorrow I’m playing in a super tough cash game with a $100k buy in format and how I play will depend heavily on how I feel and where my head is at. If I don’t feel like I can keep up mentally with my opponents, I may decide to quit early. If I feel strong then I’ll go ahead and play hard the whole way through. Today I just felt “poker’d out” and that’s somewhat understandable considering how well I’ve been playing since Europe. After these next two days of PAD I look forward to a couple relaxed days where I can just have some time to myself and not feel pressured. I love pressure, when it comes to bringing my A game at the poker table, or when it comes to doing something performance related, but this is just a different kind of pressure and it’s wearing on me a little bit. I have some very important decisions to make this week and it’s a little bit scary. I’m sure I’ll figure things out and everything will work out fine, but this is definitely a dangerous time for me to be playing high stakes poker. It’s hard to focus when your mind is distracted. Luckily I’ve been around long enough to know that so I won’t be doing anything stupid! ]]>
OK, so I was doing very well in the tournament, coming into day three as the chip leader and while I didn’t maintain the lead I continued to stay among the leaders for most of the day. I got moved at random from my table, one with few chips, to a different table with better players and more chips. Here is the hand with analysis:
Blinds 3000-6000 500 ante
A guy makes it 16,000 to go and I call with AK from the cut off position. The button also calls. His call means one specific thing that will be important to know in this hand: he cannot have AA, KK, or even AK as he would have certainly re-raised before the flop. Both blinds also called.
The flop came As Kd 7d. It was checked to me and I bet 22,000. The button raised it to 160,000, a very big raise. I looked over at his chips and saw that he still had another 200,000 or so more and that would represent a big chunk of my chips also. Now, because I can rule out completely AA, KK, or QQ from his range, I had to figure out what kind of hands he could do that with and came up with:
77
A7 suited
A-x of diamonds
There is only one hand he could have that is ahead of me and because the Ace on board was not a diamond, nor did I have it in the hole, it has to be considered the leading candidate for what he had. His raise size also lends itself to a hand like Ad Jd. I push the rest in and he had the dreaded 77.
That left me with just under 100,000 and I couldn’t recover, barely squeaking into the money in a three way tie for 50th with Jennifer Tilly and Ted Lawson.
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Last couple nights I’ve been kicking back. Went to a comedy show and had some drinks, then last night hung out at the Bellagio Bar with Jennifer. Today I was up early to be at the Golden Nugget to shoot the opening for the new season of Poker After Dark. Now I’m home just catching up on Saturday Night Live and other television. The week ahead looks like this for me:
Oct 27th: Fly to LA for the day to record some more radio shows. The show, All Strategy on PokerRoad.com, has already aired four times and we’ll probably do about four more which will be aired bi-weekly.
Oct 28th: I’ll be doing a double on The Real Deal at Venetian. At 5:00pm I’ll be a player, but then for the 8:00pm I will be hosting the show as Vinny doesn’t do the late shows.
Oct 29th: I’ll be playing in the $20k buy in Poker After Dark show against Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, and Phil Hellmuth.
Oct 30th: Once again I’ll be playing on Poker After Dark only this time it will be nder the cash game format against the likes of: Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Tom Dwan, Gus Hansen, and Phil Hellmuth.
Oct 31st: My last Poker After Dark shoot along with Johnny Chan, Jennifer Tilly, Mike Matusow, Phil Laak, plus one amateur.
Nov 1st: I have an appearance to do for I-Play, the company that released my cellphone game in France and the rest of the world.
Nov 4th: I may be attending an election party for the big day. So far based on recent polls things are looking good for Barack Obama.
Nov 5th: I fly to WPT Foxwoods for day two of the event there. I’m playing good and enjoying it so I’m excited about getting a chance to play again.
Nov 9th: If Foxwoods doesn’t go as planned then I will return to Las Vegas to be a part of the WSOP main event festivities. I can’t imagine the butterflies these guys must be getting. Oh, I also filmed some stuff for the preview show that airs November 4th. Based on the current chip counts and my experience playing against Ivan Demidov, he is my pick to be the next champ. We’ll see.
The rest of November is a bit sketchy and I’m working on my plans as we speak. I will not be attending the EPT event in Warsaw, but there is still a chance that I may play in a separate event later in November. As for my scheduled dates for The Real Deal show, I’ll release those as I have them.
Tonight I’m going to work on completing my stock of heads up videos for www.pokervt.com. I’ve recorded two of the eight heads up matches I played during the WCOOP events on PokerStars. I won six of the eight matches and if you want to learn how I did it, there is only one way to do that: www.pokervt.com
Once I’m done with those I plan on adding more cash game videos. The site is also adding new pros with fresh content and I’m excited about our newest addition. He is very well spoken and gets his ideas across very effectively. A smart kid, and a very solid player.
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As for my personal life. No golf lately and not looking like there will be much time until I return from Foxwoods. I haven’t hung out with my buddies quite as often recently either. We did one night this week, but I think the next time we will hang is after The Real Deal show on Tuesday. I plan on having my mother come too which will help me out with the hosting as she is a great source of comedy! I’ll make sure she brings sandwiches for everybody.
Aside from that… none of your business yo! There are certain parts of my life that are just off limits blog wise.
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When I say “this way” I’m referring to small ball poker. You’ve heard me use that expression a million times I imagine, but if you aren’t looking into learning what it means or how to play it you are simply not doing everything you can to excel in tournament poker. I don’t care how good you are, or how good you think you are, you can always learn more.
I give away tons of information about how I play the game, but the interesting thing about my approach is that even when people know how I think and how I play… the strategy remains effective, especially when you add a few advanced tweaks here and there.
For those that might not know, I teach small ball extensively at www.pokervt.com. There is that, as well as the books I’ve written. In the “Big Book” that I wrote I cover how to use small ball and what adjustments you need to make when your opponents know you are playing that way.
So while I don’t think I really played all that well in terms of making reads, etc., falling back on the small ball strategy always gives me a chance to win. It’s been a pretty sick run for me since my Europe Trip. I was chip leader deep into four of the five tournaments I played in London, got nothing going in Niagara Falls, and now find myself deep into the WPT Bellagio event with 513,100 in chips. Here is my table for day three:
1. Daniel Negreanu 513,100
2. Kasey Nam 278,300
3. Beth Shak 66,200
4. Nicholas Silwinski 228,800
5. Doug Lee 164,500
6. Bryan Devonshire 99,300
7. William Metz 285,900
8. Freddy Bonyadi 112,800
9. OPEN
Lots of chips at my table and some guys who know a bit about how I play. Again, that doesn’t really bother me much at all.
With the 9 hour days at Bellagio tournaments it’s very easy to stay fresh and focused. Every player I have ever spoken too just loves this no dinner break format. After 9:00pm you get the rest of the night to do what you wish and you don’t have to be back until noon the next day. Fatigue really shouldn’t be a problem at all.
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