I came into the tournament trying to do my best to focus hard and pick up some patterns on my opponents. I struggled with it, and felt distracted by all kinds of random stuff for most of the day. Yet still, I kept reminding myself, over and over, to pay attention and was at least able to come up with some rough profiles on my opponents. Unfortunately, I simply wasn’t able to pick up any physical tells at all for the entire day.
I played two key hands and they actually happened back to back, in between a fifteen minute break between levels 3 and 4:
Hand 1: With blinds at 100-200 and a 25 ante I raised to 500 and got three callers, all of whom had position on me. My hand was Ks 10s and the flop came Kc Jc 3s. I did a bit of “Hollywood” and checked the flop. The others all checked as well.
The turn was a 5 and I decided to be 1200 hoping to get called by a pair of Jacks or something like that, while at the same time protecting my hand. A loose player called, and then an extremely aggressive player raised an additional 7100. Up to this point I picked up on the fact that this guy re-raised before the flop and also seemed to continuation bet the flop in most cases. Since my hand was somewhat disguised by my flop check, I decided to make the call, looking as though I was very weak when I did it.
The other player folded and the river was a 6. I checked pretty quickly and my opponent went into the tank. Finally, he fired out 23,400. At this point I noticed a tell that I normally rely on pretty heavily, and genuinely believed that this guy was going to have to show me a set of 55’s or I had him beat. I felt like he was more than capable of running a big bluff, but the bet represented a huge percentage of my stack. If I call and lose, I have only 14,000 left. I called, and he tapped the table.
Hand 2: After coming back from break I pick up KK with blinds at 200-400 with a 50 ante from under the gun. I make a pretty sloppy, nonchalant raise to 1000 and it’s called by the same loose player. Matt Keikwon, a player I know and am friends with, re-raised the bet to 3700, 2700 more. He didn’t have a ton of chips, so I decided to just go ahead and make my claim for the pot right there. I re-raised another 6000 investing 9700 into the pot at that point.
The other guy folds and it’s back to Matt. He goes all in for an additional 20,100 more. I kind of hoped to get re-raised and go all in with this hand, but my guy was telling me Matt had to have AA here. Problem is, the pot is laying me a sick price to call. There is already over 20,000 in there so I’m getting over 2 to 1 odds with a pretty good hand! Besides that, after winning previous pot I was in decent chip position. I agonized for ages and then finally dumped the KK. Matt, being a bit of a smart ass, showed me one card, the Ace. Considering I had two of the KK that pretty much confirmed for me that he had AA. I doubt that he would do that with AK, so lifetime, I’ve folded KK pre-flop twice and believe that I’m one for two. The last time I did it years ago at Boragata the guy showed me QQ! Uh oh.
Anyway, tomorrow is a day off, but I’ll be busy. I have some interviews scheduled relating to The Real Deal show and then Phil Hellmuth and I will take center stage along with some other celebrities for the grand opening of the show. I have no idea what to expect, and I like that sort of feeling. I find pressure to be exhilarating and enjoy the challenge of rising to the occasion, whether it be at the poker table or on stage.
I’ve had a lot of loose ends to take care of in my life and have been working hard at getting them taken care of. Wrote my newspaper column for the week, put in some hours at PokerStars, did two online videos for PokerVT, and even wrote the outline and introduction of a new book I’m working on. Don’t expect to see that out anytime soon, though, it’s another big boy!
Speaking of books, I’ve now penned three books. The very first, a compilation called Hold’em Wisdom for all players and then the “Big Boy” Power Hold’em, and finally, a sequel to my first compilation book entitled More Hold’em Wisdom for all players. You can find them all here: www.cardsharkmedia.com/books.htm
On that note, time for some sleep and I hope I don’t waste all of my luck at the Real Deal show and hope I can save it for the WPT event! If I’m going to take a bad beat, I’d much rather it be at the hands of the “PokerBrat” Phil Hellmuth who is no longer in the tournament.
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We’ve already done several preview shows and they’ve gotten better and better each time, with the hand held technology working perfectly and everyone else involved in the show having their responsibilities nailed down.
For those not sure what to expect, well, you should expect to laugh. Vinny the host is hysterical and I just can’t wait to hear him rip Hellmuth to shreds! He adds a lot to the show from a comedic perspective while Kenna James does an excellent job calling the action and keeping the game moving.
The audience is always involved, and if you can pick out a Royal Flush from 52 random cards you’ll win a million dollars. Seriously. Not the easiest task in the world, but hey, a million dollars is a million dollars! There are also loads of other prizes that get rewarded throughout the show.
The poker is fast paced and it needs to be in order to have the show length work into about a 90 minute window. Each show works like so:
Two pros are joined by six members from the audience at random. Each player starts with 100,000 in chips and blinds of 5,000-5,000 which double after six hands. If no audience member is eliminated in those first six hands, the shortest stacked amateur is outta there! That format continues until you have either a pro and an amateur remaining, or one remaining amateur if a pro doesn’t make the final two.
Once that’s done, the last remaining amateur and pro are joined by a member of the audience who scored highest while playing along on his console. The three of them play to a finish, starting with 300,000 in chips and blinds of 10,000-20,000 which will double every round. Yeah, it’s an all in fest for sure, but the show is mostly about entertainment and giving the audience an opportunity to play with the pros.
So far the response has been overwhelmingly positive and those in attendance really enjoyed the preview shows we’ve done. The cast of characters, which will rotate, consists of:
Doyle Brunson
Daniel Negreanu
Phil Hellmuth
Jennifer Harman
Antonio Esfandiari
Phil Laak
Todd Brunson
Eli Elezra
Scotty Nguyen
Gavin Smith
All of these players will be playing day 1A of the Bellagio event this week since they will all be in attendance for the grand opening show which will be slightly different than the other shows, in that, the six amateur seats will be filled by celebrities.
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Home Game: Lately the addition of Christian to the after golf party has gotten us playing poker tournaments at my house. Never no limit hold’em, mind you, it’s usually a random choice. This week they wanted to play a $100 buy in pot limit Omaha tournament with rebuys for the first 30 minutes. I never went broke in the rebuy period, got my double add on and was in for $400. Sam spent $700, and Millie spent $600. Tyson and John Smith (my Korean friend with the funniest accent ever) were nits and didn’t rebuy. There were seven of us:
Me
Sam
Tyson
John Smith
Christian
Mille
Ted the Idiot
Dealing this game was tough, none of these guys knew how to count the pot and when they bet they’d just say, “pot” and stare blankly into space hoping someone would tell them what it was. Especially Ted the Idiot, he never even moved his chips, he’d say pot and then never put his chips in. At one point, and this is a classic, Sam asked how much was in the pot and we told him 3800. The he proceeds to say, “I’ll bet 4200” and no he wasn’t being intentionally funny. Folks, these are my friends, what can I say.
I rarely win our poker house games because I usually run into Ted the Idiot and take some sick beat where he is playing the wrong game, but this time I did take it down and pocketed $1800 for first, $500 in a last longer with the Idiot, and another $5000 from the idiot for winning it all.
I’m going to have PokerStars screen name changed to MyNameisTED!!! Inside joke, but you might get the gist of it.
We then set up a 6 handed 9-ball tournament. We play just one game of 9-ball and everyone gets a spot:
Sam is the one seed
Daniel gets tie 8
Tyson gets win 8
Ted gets tie 7
John gets win 7
Christian gets tie 6
Everyone plays 5 games with those spots. So for example, if I play Ted I give him the win 8. After everyone plays each other the 1 seed gets a bye to the finals. The 3 seed plays the 4 seed, the winner of that plays the 2 seed, and the winner of that is in the finals. The 5 and 6 are out.
Last time we did this I went 0-5, this time I went 2-3 but got the 4 seed and beat Ted the idiot in the finals! More money for me!
These nights aren’t fun because of the money, they are fun because of the company. My friends are really funny and we all have the same, disgusting sense of humor. Lots of “inappropriate humor” but that’s often the best kind.
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200-400 HORSE on PokerStars: When I used to be a “real” professional poker player back in the days of grinding it out at the Bellagio, we often played between 200-400 and 400-800 mixed games, usually some form of HORSE. Those same games have been going on at PokerStars recently, only they aren’t quite the same games. At the Bellagio, the games were pretty tough. Usually when you translate a limit online to live the online game would be tougher. For example, a $30-$60 limit hold’em game online would be much tougher than a $30-$60 limit hold’em game at Bellagio.
Well, that is NOT true of this $200-$400 HORSE. I don’t mean to be insulting to the guys in that game, but the majority of the players in that game make major errors on a regular basis. Their hand reading skills are way below par, and their fundamentals are often just terrible. Razz and Stud 8 or better are the two games that stick out the most, but even the Omaha 8 or better portion is often just laughable.
I play about an hour a day and don’t remember having a losing session yet. I’m sure I will, and have been running lucky, but the truth is, the skill level in that game is very weak. Each of the guys I used to play with at Bellagio back in the day would crush that game, hey, maybe even Matusow! (if he’d ever learn how to play Stud)
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Doyle’s comments: I didn’t say anything in my blog that Doyle was referring to that should make it seem like I think the player of today is so much better and that bracelets of old have less value. I never said that at all.
I do think it’s an interesting topic of discussion no matter what the “sport.” Would Tiger Woods crush Arnold Palmer? Would Kobe Bryant destroy Dr. J? Would Annette Oberstad crush the WSOP events of the 80’s? It’s a fun discussion that you can only theorize.
My thoughts are as follows: the old school players were just much better poker players, but the new breed of player’s knowledge base and fundamentals are far superior. Old school players knew of some great moves and tricks, the new breed knows WHY they work.
If I was looking for a reliable tell on a guy in a cash game, I’d much prefer asking someone like Doyle Brunson than someone like, Tom Dwan for example. Durrr has likely played more hands in his lifetime than Doyle, so in that sense he has more experience, but Doyle has a lifetime of real life experience and people reading skills that you don’t get from playing online.
There are trade offs with age. What you lose in sharpness you may gain in patience in wisdom. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong Mr.Brunson…
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2nd Daniel Negreanu $ 10,874,018
3rd Joe Hachem $ 10,744,616
4th Phil Hellmuth Jr $ 10,681,368
5th Allen Cunningham $ 10,306,817
6th Scotty Nguyen $ 10,017,543
7th Phil Ivey $ 10,007,716
8th T.J. Cloutier $ 9,373,135
9th John Juanda $ 9,330,774
10th Erik Seidel $ 9,294,401
I have a slim lead on the all-time WPT money list and I need to start playing more of those to strengthen that lead:
1st Daniel Negreanu $ 5,491,232
2nd Carlos Mortensen $ 5,260,360
3rd Tuan Le $ 4,490,643
4th Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi $ 4,168,766
5th Gus Hansen $ 4,110,801
6th Alan Goehring $ 3,929,407
7th Joe Bartholdi Jr. $ 3,760,165
8th David Chiu $ 3,615,036
9th Nick Schulman $ 3,127,762
10th Justin Cuong Van Tran $ 3,077,798
The WSOP stats are where I really fall behind and need to put a few good years together in a row to make some moves on those lists. With my three WSOP cashes in Europe that gave me 8 on the year, but just 33 overall in 11 years for an average of 3 a year which is much lower than some others. How about this stat, though, Layne Flack has only cashed 19 times at the WSOP but won… 6 times! That’s pretty sick.
There are 18 people in the world with more WSOP bracelets than me. My 33 cashes puts me 33rd on the list, Juanda has a total of 45 cashes by comparison.
I rank 25th in WSOP earnings with $2,984,419, while Allen sits fourth on the all-time WSOP money list with $7,341,873. Both Ivey and Juanda have also earned more than I have at the WSOP.
Ivey has the most WPT final tables with 8, and an impressive group of players follow him:
1 Phil Ivey 8
2 Daniel Negreanu 7
2 Gus Hansen 7
2 Scotty Nguyen 7
5 David Pham 6
5 John Juanda 6
7 Barry Greenstein 5
7 Erick Lindgren 5
7 JC Tran 5
7 Ted Forrest 5
All-time WPT cashes list is headed by:
1 Alan Goehring 16
1 Barry Greenstein 16
1 Erick Lindgren 16
1 Erik Seidel 16
1 John Juanda 16
6 Daniel Negreanu 15
7 Casey Kastle 14
8 Chau Giang 13
8 Lee Markholt, Jr. 13
10 Kathy Liebert 12
10 Surinder Sunar 12
I surf through all this stuff all the time and have a ton of fun with it. Also helps motivate me to climb the ladder or in some cases maintain a lead. I don’t really care all that much about money, I really don’t. I play poker because I love the competition.
I read Doyle’s last blog and agreed with him in so many ways about the way poker was and how it is for most of the higher profile players today. Doyle obviously loves poker and it seems he can do without the headaches of “all things poker” that don’t include actually playing.
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I spent a couple days at home and now it’s back on the road. I spent as much time with Mushu as possible and he doesn’t hate me which is good. Yesterday I played golf, shot myself a cool 130 or something from the blues at TPC Summerlin. Ok, so the game needs work! It had been a month since I touched a club so it was to be expected. I made a ton of putts, though, unfortunately they were usually for an 8 or a 9.
After golf my buddies all came over and we did what we do. Played a mini-pool tournament, a fun PLO tournament, and I schooled old Teddy boy on the Golden Tee. It was a lot of fun and I definitely missed hanging out.
My personal life isn’t something I can get into too much, but with certain things on my mind recently, hanging out with the boys was something I sorely needed to help get my mind off of “stuff.”
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Obama is not a Muslim! I still get these random e-mails from people and this last one was just special. Essentially they listed like 12 random acts that have been perpetrated my male Muslims. Killing, kidnappings, etc. all dating back to 1968. Then the tag line, “How can Americans vote for Obama?” It’s kind of annoying actually that people still spread this junk around, yet when you ask them for some kind of evidence or proof, they are dumbfounded. Has Obama been seen praying to Allah? Worshiping in a Mosque?
Throwing this around as fact is about as responsible as saying that McCain is a lesbian!
They also throw around this anti-Christ stuff claiming that Obama fits the description of the anti-Christ and that we shouldn’t vote for him. OK, now let me point out how silly this talk is. Suppose for a minute that you can take the Bible at it’s word and that everything written in it will come to pass. If Obama really is the anti-Christ then these people should realize that these e-mail campaigns are foolish since he is destined to win. He cannot lose if he is the anti-Christ! You can’t have your cake and eat it too. If you think Obama is the anti-Christ for whatever reason, then accept the fact that you aren’t going to change what is written by sending out e-mail blasts claiming Obama to be the anti-Christ.
For those that don’t know, here are the facts:
Obama was mostly raised by two white grandparents in Hawaii, they were not Muslim. His Kenyan father that he met twice essentially, the last time at age 10, was an atheist. His grandfather in Kenya, a man he’s never met, did in fact convert to Islam from Christianity.
I sent an e-mail back to the group I got it from with these facts and they didn’t take too kindly too it. I asked them why they thought he was a Muslim, and this brainwashed woman replied, “The name says it all!!!!!!!”
Hmm… voting for a candidate based on his name, ya, that seems reasonable?
I also saw on CNN that there is a parking lot owner that won’t allow Obama supporters to park there. This is just crazy! If you have an Obama sticker on your car, he won’t let you park there. Some seriously insane stuff… how can that be legal? Yikes.
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Coincidence? Of course, but I was amused with the recent political headlines that have switched from talk of the economy to personal attacks on Obama and his links to a man named Bill Ayers.
To make a long story short I actually wrote an entry into my blog forum that has essentially become a political forum where I ask four questions to the posters and then share my thoughts on those questions as well. Then, I go on to say that if I were running the McCain campaign I would change the focus from the economy and look to attack Obama’s character because those attacks have worked in the past. Here is the post in full:
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The Bush Third Term Party Line
The Obama campaign is continuously trying to link the McCain camp to Bush and the last 8 years and is a central focus of their message. With Obama ahead in the polls it’s unlikely that they will change that central message. The McCain camp has been changing their message in an attempt to distance themselves from the Bush years by changing their party line to “Change is Coming” while at the same time calling themselves the Maverick ticket that will get things done in Washington.
1. Do you feel that could alienate Bush supporters?
2. Do you think the Obama camps efforts to pin McCain to Bush has been effective in the eyes of the voters?
3. If you were in the Obama camp, would your political strategy be similar in trying to make McCain and Bush seem linked at the hip?
4. If you were working in the McCain camp, how would you try and deflect those claims while at the same time being respectful to those voters who approve of the current administration?
My answers:
1. I think the McCain camp is doing a good job of avoiding direct attacks on Bush and instead focusing their energy on changing congress. I don’t think McCain has done much at all to alienate the Bush base.
2. I do think it is working. Especially to those voters that don’t pay close attention, and realize that, no, Mcain and Bush are very different on a lot of issues, I think many are being convinced that Bush is McCain and McCain is Bush.
3. Absolutely, and I think you’d be lying if you said you wouldn’t take that approach, it’s really a no-brainer especially with the country’s economic woes as well as the extremely low approval rating of the current president. I think anytime a party president has a low approval rating this is a must-do tactic. In fact, I would try to do more of it.
4. This is where I think Palin did a solid job. Whenever Biden brought up the last eight years she essentially mocked him effectively by saying, “Come on Joe, there you go again bringing up the past. John McCain and I are Mavericks and are looking to the future where we are going to shake up Washington and get things done. McCain has a long history of making things happen and that’s what we are going to do.”
I thought that line of counter attack was brilliant. It’s an obvious tactic being used by Obama/Biden to try and link Bush to McCain, and I think it’s a smart move to make it obvious to voters that they are just putting a political spin on a situation that isn’t entirely accurate. In fact, I’m already pretty sick of the line, “We can’t have four more years of the same eight years we just had.” I would sharpen that message and get way more specific. It’s a weak line when overused and the Obama camp does have a lot of artillery they could use to glue the two together that’s more powerful and effective. The war and the economy being the two key issues.
I do enjoy politics. I am very clear on the fact that I am Obama supporter, but I can definitely appreciate good politics and find it entertaining. It’s a game, and I like games. At this point I feel like it’s getting into the third period and Obama is up two goals. If I were in the McCain camp I’d try to get even more aggressive. I’d also, seriously, change the subject. Attacking Obama HAS worked. Rev Wright- big issue. Tony Rezko, bring it up again. It would be totally transparent to do that, but I think McCain needs a game changer because the Obama camp is happy to play a careful game at this point and protect the lead.
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So while they focused on Ayers they essentially did exactly what I felt they should do at this point. Try to scare the American people into believing that Obama is buddies with a known terrorist. Next, they will likely go back to the connection to Rev. Wright, and finally, I think they’ll sum it up with some ads concerning Tony Rezko.
It’s all politics, but hey, it works. Obama’s camp, and they are already starting to do this, must make it very clear to the American people what is happening here. I do like the party line that, with the economy in crisis and our country fighting two wars, their camp issued a clear statement that they want to change the subject. Rather than focus on the issues that are important to Americans, they’d rather play the same old game of smear campaign politics.
The only way I can see McCain winning this election is if they throw the kitchen sink at Obama and scare enough voters into thinking Obama wants to do harm to America. It’s a strategy that has worked in the past. I’m afraid if they stick to the issues at hand, the economy and the war, this race will be over and Obama will win easily.
McCain has some skeletons in his closet as well, though, and I think it would be wise for the Obama campaign to fight back on that front and paint McCain as a lobbyist friendly politician who has been involved with some shady people himself.
I read Doyle’s last blog and agree with him 100% that people should absolutely get out there and vote, especially if you live in a swing state. Whatever your feelings about who would be best to lead the most powerful nation in the world, how you vote in this election will have a major impact on the future of this country.
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Enough of the politics now, I made another deep run in the high rollers event coming in at 16th I think (it only paid the top 9). I was, once again, chip leader for a long while, but this event was more of a crap shoot and I got unlucky in a big pot with AK against AQ when the board came K-10-9-6…J. We were all in pre-flop on the hand.
In the three cashes that I had, plus this event, I was chip leader at some point in every one of them! I played some really good poker during this European trip, and while I didn’t get a win, it bodes well for my confidence going into the Niagara Falls and Bellagio event. I’m going to be a tough guy to knock out in both of those events, that I can promise you!
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It’s going to take some serious adjustments for me to do well in that event because it’s a two day event which means a fast paced structure that will force the play to go pre-flop rather than post-flop pretty quickly in order to finish in time. For the last 50+ hours I grew accustomed to a very slow place with two hour levels which allowed me to really play within my comfort zone. I’ll need to come out of that comfort zone and conform to a more gambling like approach for this event. Really depend more on my instincts and take a lot of risks when i think I’m ahead, something I avoided doing at the WSOPE.
The event boasts 60 minute levels and 20,000 in starting chips. The goal is to get down from a 100 player field to 8 in a day so some levels had to be omitted from the structure. It’s still going to be a tight squeeze and likely a long day, but here is what the structure looks like:
50-100
100-200
150-300
200-400
200-400 (50)
—————–
300-600 (75)
400-800 (100)
—————–
600-1200 (100)
800-1600 (200)
1000-2000 (200)
—————–
1500-3000 (300)
2000-4000 (400)
—————–
3000-6000 (500)
4000-8000 (1000)
5000-10,000 (1000)
6000-12,000 (1000)
8000-16,000 (2000)
10,000-20,000 (2000)
——————
15,000-30,000 (3000)
20,000-40,000 (4000)
25,000-50,000 (5000)
30,000-60,000 (6000)
The lines represent missing levels and also factoring in the 60 minute levels the average stack will dwindle below 40 BB’s rather quickly, and at that point few flops will be seen as most players will be forced to make the important decision about their hand before the flop.
For those curious, small ball cannot be applied to a structure like this effectively once the average stack dips below the 40 BB mark. Your raise sizing can, and should remain the same as it would with the small ball approach, but no longer can you call raises liberally and see flops instead of re-raising pre-flop with relatively strong hands. The dead money in the pot is already going to be substantial enough to warrant a re-raise.
I’m playing exceptional poker at the moment and will put in my best effort, but this type of a structure will neutralize some of my advantage over the field because it takes away many opportunities to see flops in position. My focus will be to work on a different aspect of my game, one that isn’t as strong as it could be. It’s a less consistent style but this structure may warrant it so I may either be out early, or will amass a decent stack by level 6.
I would expect the online pros to do quite well in this event because it mimics the events they are accustomed to playing with the average stack size being shallow for the most part.
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I can’t wait to go home. I’ll only be home a few days before heading to Niagara Falls, and those few days will be filled with work for The Real Deal show and PokerVT, but I miss my dog Mushu and just hope he doesn’t hate me when he sees me. Chihuahuas are sensitive dogs and when I leave for long stretches I can’t help but get the feeling that he feels abandoned by me. What’s worse, is that just when things will be better… I’m off again to Niagara.
I also miss my buddies. They are a bunch of idiots, but they are my idiots. I miss golfing with them, hanging out and making up a bunch of ridiculous bets that no one has any intention of paying, “I’ll lay you 20-1 on $10,000 that you never shoot 75 from the blues in the next 5 years.” Or something similarly stupid. I miss having dinner at some Sushi place and doing the sake/beer thing and then playing pool, Golden Tee, or even Wii bowling. I’ve worked really hard out here but didn’t really have any fun. Oh well, fun isn’t what I was here for- I was here to win.
My other true passion is my fantasy hockey team and we did our entry draft today. I already had a full team so only picked up four players. I feel great about where I got the players I picked because I had them rated much higher:
1st Pick 17th overall: D Jake Gardiner, ANA. (2nd on my list)
2nd Pick 37th overall: D Brandon Burlon, NJ. (15th on my list)
3rd Pick 57th overall: F Evgeny Grachev, NYR. (19th on my list)
4th pick 77th overall: D Michael Ratchuk, PHI (25th on my list)
Decent work in a draft that was the weakest in the history of our pool. I’m confident that I was the most prepared out of the 20 owners and I am a mortal lock to win my division with the youngest team I’ve ever had, all entering their prime. If you read some of my old hockey blogs, you’d know, that winning my fantasy league championship is on par with winning a WSOP bracelet and no, I’m totally not kidding.
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My body is a bit worn down from the WSOPE. It was a grueling marathon and depleted me of a lot of energy, but man, at that final table I had a full tank of energy, but the cards didn’t cooperate. I don’t know what my energy will be like for tomorrow, but I plan on trying to play my 100% best poker and see if I can get lucky when I need to.
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Several key reasons for that:
1) Fatigue. It’s no joke and it’s making it very hard on me. I have put in a ton of hours recently and the days are extremely long with no down time in between play. Aside from the 40 hours of play in the last four days, I also put in two long days coming 24th in the first No limit event, and another two long days in the HORSE event coming 14th. 8 hours of sleep is essential if I am going to have a chance.
2) They are good.
Seat 1: Robin Keston 849,000
Seat 2: Daniel Negreanu 1,002,000
Seat 3: Chris Elliott 281,000
Seat 4: Bengt Sonnert 385,000
Seat 5: John Juanda 1,349,000
Seat 6: Ivan Demidov 1,006,000
Seat 7: Toni Hiltunen 386,000
Seat 8: Scott Fischman 732,000
Seat 9: Stanislav Alekhin 1,278,000
They are all really good players, not one of them sucks and I’d be happy to stake each and everyone one of them in tournaments and am certain it would be a profitable investment. There is no fluke at this table and there is just a ton of play left. The final table will take at least 15 hours in my guesstimation. With the deep stacks it means that you actually need to be fresh as the decisions are all more difficult.
John Juanda is leading the event and he is tough for me to play against for a lot of reasons. He is much more comfortable playing very large pots in marginal situations and he has more chips than I do. The only blessing here is that he isn’t on my immediate left.
The two Russians are also extremely tough players. The Russians who have begun to dominate the poker scene recently are all excellent games players and they are deep thinkers. They can flat out play and will put me in some tough spots.
All of the other players know what they are doing and rarely get their money in bad. It’s going to be a total grind and if I was in peak shape mentally and from a fatigue standpoint I’d feel a bit stronger about the situation, but in being totally objective based on this situation if I’m not able to be mentally ready for the long haul, it’s going to take some luck for me to win.
I am going to go in there with everything I got, though, and if that means I’m only functioning at 60% then so be it. I’m not going to quit, surrender, or feel intimidated by anyone there.
On that note, I should get straight to bed and avoid reading the Daniels Blog forum on FCP which has essentially turned into the politics forum. For the most part the conversation is enjoyable, but there are two posters in particular that I find to be very rude to others when making their points and also extremely stubborn in that they never bother to see that there is another side to every debate and just because you don’t agree with it, that doesn’t give you the right to be a jerk to those that disagree with you.
There are several posters who I disagree with often, but respect the way in which they share their opinions. Guys lile El Guapo, Balloon Guy, Pot Odds RAC, nutzbuster, brvheart, and a few others.
A guy who I often agree with, vbnautilus, posted the transcript from the CBS interview with Sarah Palin and Katie Couric. The question from Couric was on Palin’s position on the financial bailout plan. She said the following:
“That’s why I say I, like every American I’m speaking with, were ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health-care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, helping the
No time for bloggin’ really. Long days, great structure, and extremely exhausting. We play 10 hours of poker a day starting at 1pm. We get a two hour dinner break and finish after 2:00am. That leaves time for room service, a bit of surfing, and trying to be asleep by 4:30am at the latest for a 12pm wake up, shower, and run to the casino. I’m worn down pretty good. Four events here in London and I’ve cashed in three of them which means long, exhausting days. Need as much sleep as possible. I’ll give you this:
Chip count after each round. I already gave you the first day in a previous blog, here were my day two and day three counts:
Rd 6 154k to 173k
Rd 7 296k
Rd 8 212k
Rd 9 270k
Rd 10 204k
Rd 11 204k to 396k
Rd 12 411k
Rd 13 444k
Rd 14 478k
Rd 15 653k
Through 15 two hour rounds of play I’ve only lost chips in two of those rounds, chipping up in 13 of the 15 rounds. Very happy with my play, but the tough part is about to begin. The players remaining are much better on average and the level of play is totally different which means the strategy must be adjusted as well. I’m not telling, though, what I’ll be up to 🙂
Good night, my bok choi just got here, time to eat.
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2. Jason Gray 23,600
3. Vicky Coren 29,800
4. Isaac Haxton 22,500
5. Daniel Negreanu 203,700
6. Phil Laak 92,900
7. Brian Johnson 95,900
8. Peter Turmezey 132,500
9. Toni Hiltunen 78,600
I finally had two losing rounds, winning three of the five today. I have run extremely well during this tournament, hitting a ton of hands. I went a bit cold late, but that’s to be expected in a tournament, I didn’t expect to be on fire the whole way through.
I did try my first bluff of the tournament with 30 minutes to go in the day. I called a raise with Kc Jc heads up in position and fired three shells at a flop of 7d-8h-9d… 5d… 7h. Guy check-raised the river, lol, oops! I also called a 25k bet against the same guy with a weak hand and he had the second nuts. Bad read on the guy, but I figured him out by the end of the night in case I face him again.
Tomorrow we start with 800-1600 blinds and a 200 ante. An interesting dynamic of players at my table and I’m going to have to make some adjustments for sure. What adjustments I’ll make, is my business! LOL, I can’t say here, don’t want to give away all my secrets for free 🙂 Good night.]]>
It helps when you make a ton of hands, and I definitely did that. In fact, throughout the day I didn’t make ANY big bluffs, not a one, and never lost a pot with 10,000 in it. Not one.
To start off the day, in the first hour I got dealt QQ KK and KK and all three times I was re-raised pre-flop. That’s usually not a good thing, but I quickly realized that the players at my table had a tendency to overplay hands as each time I started with the best hand and ended with it. In all three cases I played very cautiously.
There was only one guy at my table that was a bit of a pain to play with, an overly aggressive player two to my left that re-raised a ton of hands before the flop. The first key hand I played went like this:
A tight player raised under the gun to 300 and the aggressive player called in the next seat. I called form the big blind with 6-7. The flop came 8-5-3 rainbow and I checked. The aggressive player bet 600 and we saw the turn heads up. Turn was an Ace, and I check called 1100. The river was a 6 and I checked. Again, the aggressive player bet 2800 and something did not seem right. The bet was too big, he was unlikely to call a raise from the tight player with Ax making it difficult to put him on two pair, and I didn’t think he’d bet a pair of 99 or 10-10, especially not that much. He was going to have to show me a set, or I was convinced he had a hand like K-Q. I called… he showed K-Q.
I played my hand like such an obvious draw so I figured he was certainly capable of firing the three barrel bluff.
Hand #2 of interest: I raised to 600 with blinds at 150-300 with Kc Jc and got two calls from late position. The flop came Ks Qs 3h and it got checked around. The turn was the Qh and I checked again. The first guy bets 1100, the second guy makes it 2600. I don’t buy it. I didn’t think the first guy had anything and I put the next guy on a hand like 99 hoping to represent a Queen while hoping he had the best hand. The first guy folded and the river blanked. It went check-check and my hand was good.
After a break I did an interview for ESPN and they asked me about my strategy. I said, “There is a guy two to my left who re-raises like crazy and I’ve been letting him run me over a little bit but I’m going to let him fall into a trap and get those chips.”
10 minutes after the break a solid young internet player raises from the cut off position to 800 and I call from the button with JJ- bait for the aggressive big blind. He re-raised 2000 more and we took the flop heads up. The flop came 8s-3s-2c and he fired 3500 at it. I called, half slow playing half playing careful. I wasn’t folding my hand and wanted to let him bluff off his money. Unless the turn came an Ace or something like that, there was no way I was going to give this guy credit for QQ, KK, or AA. As it turned out, that no longer mattered- the turn was a Jack.
To my surprise, the guy ships like 20,000 towards the center and I obviously call… he showed 10-3 off suit! LOL, gotta love it when a plan comes together.
Anyway, it was a day with absolutely no adversity for me, as I chipped up after every two hour level.
Round 1: 20,000 to 54,000
Round 2: 54,000 to 60,000
Round 3: 54,000 to 109,000
Round 4: 109,000 to 128,000
Round 5: 128,000 to 154,000
That’s pretty steady and it wasn’t very difficult as I really didn’t get coolered, flopped some sets, got dealt some big pairs… hit lots of flops.
Tomorrow I hope to have as good a table as I did today, but I’d bet the don’t on that one. Anyway, time for bed, I’m pretty beat.
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I did play in the Pot Limit Omaha tournament, but was eliminated in the second level. That’s actually a good thing since I really needed the rest time after two straight tournaments of getting very deep. Another deep run would have taken a toll on my mind and body and affected my chances in the main event. The two hands I played in the PLO went like this:
Hand #1: I limped with Kh-6h-7h-8 for 100 and a player behind me raised to 450 and I called. The flop came Kd 10h 8h giving me two pair and a straight flush draw. We got it all in on the flop and I lost to A-K-10-9 when a 10 hit the turn.
Hand #2: vs the exact same guy I min-raised with 10-10-6-7 and he called from the small blind as did the big blind. The flop came Q-10-6 with two diamonds and we got it all in again. This time he had Q-Q-9-9 and I was pretty much dead.
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I got back to my room and turned on CNN when not long after, the “Breaking News” banner flashed up on the screen and it was John McCain. He said a few words before declaring, “I’m suspending my campaign to go back to Washington to help deal with the financial crisis.” When he said it, I seriously thought of the Mighty Mouse cartoon when he would say, “Here I come, to save the daaaaay!”
This political race has been so much fun to watch and just when you think there are no surprises left, bam, check this out! The first time McCain started to dip in the polls he threw a hail Mary to Sarah Palin and that worked for a little while. They are doing their best to keep her from speaking to the media, but recently she did her third interview, this time with Katie Couric, who wasn’t nearly as mean and Charlie Gibson was.
In this interview, she defended her foreign policy experience, by essentially reiterating the fact that she can see Russia from her house! After watching this interview, for the very first time, I genuinely felt sorry for her. The confident woman that roared onto the scene was gone and what was left was a confused woman desperately trying not to screw up. I think they have made a mistake by locking her up for 30 days instead of letting her do what other politicians in her position are expected to do and answer to the media. That way she’d have more practice and be better prepared when asked these questions again and again.
As for McCain’s political stunt, I thought it was a stroke of genius! Most people who follow the race on a regular basis see this for what it is, a political stunt, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be effective. There are enough McCain supporters who actually bought it. The funny thing is that it was Obama who called McCain that morning, privately, to talk about releasing a joint statement. McCain calls him back saying it’s a good idea, and then like 15 minutes later McCain calls out Obama on national television telling him he needs to suspend his campaign also and come with him to Washington.
This year, no other U.S. senator has missed more votes than John McCain. Obama ranks third in that category, and the guy who is second, is well, dying. Neither candidate has spent much time in Washington this year and neither is on the committee that is trying to negotiate the bailout deal. There really isn’t much either of them will be able to do aside from injecting presidential politics into a very important matter. Of course, while the Democrats see it as a distraction, the Republicans support McCain’s decision and believe he can be helpful in bringing both sides together.
The real reason I thought this was such a brilliant, yet transparent move for McCain is that he was, in fact, slipping in the polls and it was time to go all in again. McCain would be a very aggressive poker player to say the least. Anytime his stack dips below the average he shoves. It was an effort to make it seem as though he can fix the financial crisis single handed. That he is a leader, more interested in putting “Country First” while Obama is out there pandering for votes with the country in crisis. Hey, it’s worth a shot and some people will actually be convinced that it’s true.
McCain has said he won’t be at the debate tonight unless progress has been made. I think it would be a mistake for him to skip this debate and in the end he will show up. I did find it a little funny that he asked to move his debate to October 2nd to replace, and postpone the Biden-Palin tilt which should be a doozy. If I was McCain’s campaign manager I’d look to delay the VP debate as long as possible to give Palin more time to prepare.
I do find it puzzling that the McCain campaign doesn’t feel comfortable letting Palin speak to reporters yet they feel she is ready and prepared to be president if something were to happen to McCain.
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Aside from watching CNN I also finally finished my hockey research and even made a trade yesterday. If you don’t know hockey, you likely will have no clue what this means, but I traded Jussi Jokinen for a 1st and 2nd round pick in 09-10 and also $3.00 in cap space. I like Jokinen, but also have Ryan Malone in Tampa Bay and in our pool you don’t really want two forwards on the same team. It was my second major trade of the off season. In the first trade I sent Alexei Kovalev packing and got John-Michael Liles in return. The move made sense for my team, Liles is younger, signed to a cheaper contract, and the biggest weakness on my team is defense. Besides, I also own Andrei Kostitsyn and he is ready to start on the Cheap Thieves this season.
I came up with a list of only 60 prospects as this will be one of the weakest NHL drafts in quite some time. Normally I can find 100 prospects, no problem, but this year it’s slim pickings. There are only 8 available players that I would call legitimate first round picks in our pool. Guys like Zach Bogosian, Joe Colborne, and Jordan Eberle. Most of the top picks have already been taken in last years draft (Stamkos, Dougherty, etc).
This is the first season in our pool where we are implementing a new rule to disallow the drafting of players under the age of 18. Otherwise guys like Crosby and Tavares end up being drafted at age 14! That actually makes it more difficult for the bottom end teams to build through the draft since the top picks are usually already taken so they’d either have to go with a younger player themselves, or take a less talented player in that year’s entry draft. For example, next season’s projected top two picks, John Tavares and Victor Hedman have already been scooped up.
I just laughed out loud thinking about non-hockey fans reading this and thinking, what in the world is he babbling about?
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As for poker, I feel like I’m playing ridiculously well and my level of confidence going in the main event is very high. I totally expect a deep run, once again, and then I hope to get lucky in the later stages on the way to a win. It’s funny what trying your best will do for your level of confidence, who woulda thunk?
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