Not too much happened? Well, things have happened, I guess, but very few “blog worthy” things have happened. I’m out of the Niagara Falls tournament obviously. I ended up going broke in the first level with KK against QQ. It was a bizarre hand and I’m saving the details for a future CardPlayer column. Rather than hang out in Toronto I decided to take the next flight out and head back to Las Vegas. The next day I played in a new NBC show called “Poker after Dark.” The guys behind the show are the same guys who’ve brought you High Stakes Poker and the NBC Heads Up Championship so you can expect a quality poker show. Not only that… they have Shana Hiatt! No kidding! It was great to see Shana back in the poker world again. She is such an amazing person in so many ways and the poker world really missed her. Aside from her obvious beauty, her personality is very light hearted, funny, and she seems to be genuinely honest. Her role on this show is more involved than what you’re used to seeing on the WPT. The show is like no other show that’s been on television before. Expect to see more of the player chit chat and less of the voice over commentary track. The structure for the show is pretty simple, it’s essentially a $20,000 sit n’ go with six players at the table- winner take all. It’s a sit n’ go with loads of play, though, as they run about six hours long. 20,000 in chips, starting at 100-200 blinds for 40 minutes. In my heat, I played against Mike Matusow, Doyle Brunson, Gabe Kaplan, Jerry Buss, and David Grey. Unfortunately, I don’t have permission to tell you what happened, but I can tell you that I was happy with my play. I did make two mistakes, though, and should have known better. It’s been a recurring theme with me lately as I’ve had stretches of brilliant play followed up by a silly mistake. What else happened… hmmm, oh right- my wife and I hosted an engagement party at the house that went well. After that, it was all about catching up on my Tivo. I spent most of Saturday and Sunday on the couch catching up on some TV. I watched a few episodes of Saturday Night Live… very disappointing. I then switched to 60 Minutes and wasn’t all that interested in most of those topics either. This chick from HP sued for this or that… blah, blah, blah, I couldn’t even follow it. There was one story that was tough to watch. It was a story about the genocide happening in a city called Darfur in Sudan. The Muslim dictatorship there is pretty scary. Villages are being burned. Lots and lots of innocent people are dying. So much of it resembles what happened in Germany during the Holocaust. They won’t let outsiders come to Darfur, obviously they don’t want the rest of the world to see what is happening there. President Bush knows about it and has publicly called it a genocide. Things are tricky, though, since the Sudan government is apparently providing the U.S. government with information relating to Bin Laden and Al-Queada. You see, Bin Laden used to chill in that country. So, they have carte blanche to rape and pillage the villages of Darfur since they know the U.S. government needs valuable information from their government. It’s a difficult situation for the U.S. president and I am in no way judging his reaction to what’s happening there. Catching Bin Laden is obviously a top priority, I just hope that in the process thousands more don’t have to die in the meantime. Andy Rooney, known for funny commentary, wasn’t so funny in his last bit. He was condemning the president for this current war and pleading for the troops to be pulled from Iraq. Rooney feels, as do many in the world, that the North Koreans pose a more immediate threat to the U.S Ok, enough politics. It’s virtually impossible to discuss politics without causing a riot so I’ll stop there… or wait, maybe one more thing. We all know that Bill Frist doesn’t like poker right? Well, on November 7th there is an important election and I’m really hoping that the Democrats take control of congress. If for nothing else, the simple fact that it would be better for poker, and more specifically online poker, if the Democrats made up the majority of congress. Ok, I’m done now, promise 🙂 So now we hit Monday. I watched the Real World/Road Rules challenge and man, is this ever a cool concept this season. It’s not a team format as it usually is. Instead, there will be one male winner and one female winner, every man for himself. If you win a challenge, you are safe from going into the “duel.” Also, you pick a person from the opposite sex who is now safe from the duel. That next person picks a person, and so on, and so on until there is just one person remaining. That person must go to the duel and potentially face elimination. The kicker, is that they can choose anyone they want to face them in the duel. The winner stays, the loser goes home. Each episode is either a male elimination day or a female elimination day. If any of you actually watch the show, how sweet was it when Tina clocked Beth in the face! Nice. It’s 6:00pm right now and I’m about to do a radio show. After that, I’m headed down to the Bellagio to play some poker. There hasn’t been a game in ages, but I got a phone call this afternoon letting me know that there will be a game tonight. It’ll likely be $2000-$4000 mixed games and I’ll probably put in about a six hour session.]]>
The Dealers: No joke, some of the best dealing staff I’ve ever seen as a whole. Obviously there are going to be mistakes made, but the dealers at Fallsview are really paying attention, know how to make change, and seem to have an understanding of the game which always helps.
Humberto Brenes and the “Costa Rican Connection” had great things to say about the dealers.
The Floor Staff: They listen. They really listen. What more can you ask for really? The tournament has been extremely well run thus far and anytime a decision is made that may seem a little bit odd, the tournament director has done an excellent job explaining the reasoning behind it.
The Satellites: They give you more play than any satellite I’d ever seen. The one table satellites generally run from about 3.5 to 4 hours. That’s the good news.
The bad news, is that the wait to get into one of the satellites was excessively long as the facility available didn’t meet the demand. They ran the satellites in the regular poker room and could only make six tables available which meant the waiting lists were often 60 names long.
There was a reason for that and it was out of the hands of the floor staff. They weren’t given clearance to run satellites in the tournament area which is something that will likely be corrected in the future.
In fact, if they were able to run super satellites into this event I genuinely believe that this location has the potential to break WPT records for number of entries. Canada is poker crazy!
Tournament Room: Excellent. Very quiet, the tables are spaced far apart so no one feels crammed. At the back of the room there is a spread of food and drinks available all day and night at no cost to the players. They even had veggie wraps!
Players were given a badge to enter the tournament area, so while there is room for fans to watch the action it’s not intrusive to the players.
Tournament Structure: It is without a doubt, the slowest structure in WPT history. Almost a little bit too slow actually. Each player starts with 20,000 in chips, and unlike the Bellagio event where they start the blinds twice as high at 50-100, in this event, the blinds start at 25-25! That starts players out with 800 bets… wow.
In my opinion, the first level should have been skipped and started at 25-50. While the 25-25 level was added to the structure, there was an important level taken out. A typical tournament goes 50-100, 100-200, then 100-200 with an ante. This one goes 25-25, 25-50, 50-100, 100-200 with an ante, skipping the 100-200 level.
Hospitality: It seems that to a man, every one of the top pros that made the trip out to Fallsview have been treated very well. The rooms are fantastic and I only wish you could see my view. When I wake up in the morning and look out the window, I have a birds eye view of the Falls. Imagine the view you’d get from a helicopter hovering over the falls, and that’s how close I am.
Nightlife: I’ve had an absolute blast! Probably too much fun actually. The night club is hopping and if you are more of a bar person, the Bar 365 is a cool place to hang out. In fact, I think Gavin Smith is hosting a party there tonight. I’m all partied out, though, and plan on getting some rest so I can be fresh and ready for tomorrow.
A couple other random notes that should also be mentioned:
-Satellite wins were transferable. That’s not good for the event. Not only that, if you lose your voucher that shows you’ve paid, you could potentially lose the value of the voucher ($10,000). I’m certain that will be addressed next year.
-Accepting entries after day one. It should be standard practice to close entries after the first two hours of play. Allowing players to sign up after day one could potentially give them an unfair advantage.
-MP3 players and I-POD’s were not allowed in the tournament area. I believe this was a Canadian gaming issue.
Nearing the end of the first day one, it appears as though the leader board is littered with professionals. Notable names doing very well include:
Steven Ambrose (A Canadian WPT champion)
Amnon Filippi
Thomas Wahlroos
John Juanda
Alan Goehring
Liz Lieu
John D’Agostino
Dan Harrington
Eli Elezra
Barry Greenstein
Victor Ramdin
Isabelle Mercier
J.C. Tran
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As for me, I played in the first $2500 tournament and tried by best but made two poor calls after making two good lay downs (both lay downs would have won). So bizarre, really, because if I wasn’t “trying” I probably would have called with one of those hands, but instead I decided to make the correct decision rather the one that was more of a gamble.
Basically, I had Ac 10d and the flop came Jc 6c 2c. I bet the flop, one guy raised, and another guy makes a big check-raise. I figured I had seven outs at best and could be up against a made flush and a set. I was, one guy had JJJ while the other had 9c 10c. The turn was the 7c and I would have won a monster pot. So much for trying to play good!
Before making it out to Niagara, I actually did a little “boot camp” of sorts at George Brown University. It was surreal, as there were about 60 people there with notepads and laptops ready to listen to me teach them poker in a classroom setting for… 5 hours!
I was a little nervous going into it since it’s difficult for anyone to talk for that long, but I made it through the day and I think things went pretty well.
A major confidence booster to do something like that on a grander scale. I have some pretty cool ideas as to how to teach people the game, and maybe when I’m finished writing my book I’ll start putting some energy into something like that.
Speaking of books, I actually have two books set to be released. One book is the one that I’ve been working really hard on. It’s going to be a “big book” with several contributing writers. Another book will also be released soon that is more of a compilation book putting together some of the columns I’ve written specifically on Texas Hold’em. Very different books, but I think both are worthwhile.
What else? Oh yeah, my “Cheap Thieves” fantasy hockey team is really starting to click on all cylinders. If you truly understood how much of a fantasy junkie I am, you’d know that when the Cheap Thieves do well, that makes me a very happy man!
Good night all, time for bed.
(I won’t have a video blog up until I return from Niagara Falls)]]>
Ok guys, so the plan is to keep the written blog and sprinkle in the video blog from time to time as well.
As I mentioned in my last video blog from the speed way, I’m looking forward to playing some poker. I was scheduled to play on the first day of HSP and it was without a doubt the toughest no limit hold’em game I’ve ever been in. Arguably the toughest eight handed cash game in history.
The group I first sat down with wasn’t all that tough, but in the night session it was absolutely as tough as nails:
Seat 1: Daniel Negreanu
Seat 2: Patrick Antonious
Seat 3: Brad Booth (tough, tough, cash game player)
Seat 4: David Benyamine
Seat 5: Antonio Esfandiari
Seat 6: Phil Ivey
Seat 7: John D’Agostino
Seat 8: “Rugby” some awesome online player
There was no weak spot in this game at all. It was a far cry from the lineup scheduled for day two. No disrespect to those players, but it was a much softer lineup headed up by Jamie Gold, Eli Elezra, Sammy Farha, Victor Ramdin, etc.
Headed into the session with the “toughies” was already down 50,000 and it didn’t look like anyone in this game was going to be able to win 50,000. I actually flopped a couple of sets and ended up beating the toughies for much less than I would have against a weaker lineup.
At one point I was actually up close to $140,000 in the session, but then I pretty much anted off about $40,000 playing a very conservative style. I even folded 8d 5d for no raise. That’s not something I would ever do in a game with weaker players that might pay me off big if I hit the hand.
In this game, position was even more important than you can imagine. It was going to be tough to win any pots out of position against this lineup. There was more money on this table than ever before in the history of the show. Close to $4 million with Brad Booth buying in for $1 million, Rugby about $700,000, Patrick $600,000, etc.
Near the end of the night, after playing exactly one hand in the last hour and a half (Aces), I made it $4000 to go from under the gun with 3c 4c. There was a $1200 straddle on the hand, so Brad called, as did Jdags from the big blind.
The flop came 7c 8s 9c. Jdags checked, I checked, and Brad checked. The turn was a 4 and Jdags bet out $7000. I called, and Brad quickly raised it to $30,000. I figured that I was getting a decent price to hit trips, two pair, or a flush, so I called the $23,000 raise.
The river card came the Ac. I figured that Brad could only call me with a very strong hand at that point, so I may as well make a value bet since he was unlikely to bet if I checked. I bet $55,000, and Brad looks over at me and says, “K-J of clubs over there.”
When he said that I felt good about my hand. He obviously didn’t have the nut flush and it looked like he may have actually flopped the straight. He finally called and I turned over my flush. He then turned over the 8c 6c for a slightly better flush.
I think I made a bad play on this hand. For one, I probably should have just folded to the raise on the turn since I was out of position, and then on the river, I should have bet $30,000 rather than $55,000. He was more likely to call a smaller bet with a straight so I could save $25,000 when I’m beat by a better flush.
As the night came to a close I ended up winning a little over $20,000 in the game, plus another $10,000 from a side bet I made while the game was going. It was really strange how it came up:
A young Russian kid named Ilya from New York was in the game playing pretty solid. He raised to 2100 from under the gun at one point, and from the small blind I decided to get creative and re-raised him to $8000 with 7s 8s. He called, and won the hand with 10-10 after a flop of K-K-K.
A little while later, Ilya again made it 2100, this time from late position and this time Mike Matusow re-raised him to 8000 from the big blind. Ilya had 10-10 again, but this time he folded! I was like, huh? You called me after I re-raised you from under the gun, but folded to Mike when he re-raised you from steal position?
Not to mention that Mike is at least five times more likely to make a play like that than I am. Anyway, I decided to say, “I’d be willing to bet that your 10-10 were the best hand.”
I got action immediately! Ilya bet me $10,000 on the side and Antonio wanted to bet me even more. I decided to stick with the $10,000 bet, and Mike let us know that, “I won.” I had to be a big favorite in that bet. The only way I lose is if Mike has AA, KK, QQ, or JJ, but I win if Mike has AK, AQ, 9-9, 8-8, or some other random “Matusow hand.” I suspected a “Matusow” hand and that’s what he had… the old A-6 off suit.
On day two I was given a chance to play for a few hours. I made quads against Victor on one hand scooping a decent sized pot and won another peanut. I got to come back again for a couple hours and won another peanut. All told, I ended up winning over $100,000 for all three sessions.
Even though I won all three times, I was never comfortable. I was basically just “playing tight” and didn’t really do anything special other than hit some flops. I don’t think I played all that well, frankly, but I wasn’t giving away any money either.
The “toughie” game was a little intimidating, frankly (A guy in the forums hates when I say frankly, so frankly, I plan on saying frankly as much as possible from now on) and I felt a little out of shape. My opponents all had their game faces on and mine was a little rusty. I wasn’t up to date on the players, their moves, their tendencies… I was just playing my cards. Pretty weak actually (doh, should have used frankly there).
Confidence is the number one ingredient for success at the poker tables, no question about it. In order for me to get my confidence up, I need to get more hours in at the Bellagio playing in cash no limit games there. The games are not huge, but the players in the game are all improving and getting more sophisticated, leaving the rest of us behind.
A lot of them play high stakes online as well, but I much prefer playing live. I do better when I can see my opponent react to certain cards, watch him throw the chips in, see if he’s steaming, etc. Not to say I don’t enjoy playing online, I do, but I am much better at live poker for sure.
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Tomorrow is the WPT event at Bellagio and I’m actually preparing like I know I should. Watched some poker on TV, avoided people, avoided alcohol, and plan on getting lots of sleep tonight. No worries about missing flights, or buying in late (I’m already in). I’m also going to try my best to focus better than I have been. I don’t know if it’s because I have too much going on in my head right now or what, but I’ve had trouble focusing on the game when out of hands. You just can’t do that and win. Tomorrow I am going to focus on making sure that I really do see everything.
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FCP and the OnGame announcement: As some of you may have heard, the OnGame network has decided that they too will be pulling out of the U.S. While that’s disappointing, this does not mean that FCP will be running away. As of now everything at FCP is business as usual.
Over the next few weeks FCP will look to find a new home using a different software provider. FCP currently has several options available and there is a group of “wicked smart” people working on making any future transition as smooth as possible.
On a personal level, I’ve taken a lot of the suggestions from the FCPer’s in the forums and have conveyed them to the people at FCP. FCP is a cool community, and your input is not only appreciated but also very important to me. I want to do everything I can to get the people at FCP to give you guys what you want.
One last thing, thanks to all of you guys who’ve shown me and FCP support during this turbulent time. I wasn’t sure how you guys would take the news that FCP will be moving to a new network, but so far I’ve received nothing but positive remarks. Thanks again guys.]]>
Co-Captain- T.J. Cloutier
Co-Captain- Dewey Tomko
1) Chau Giang
16) Danny Alaei
17) Carlos Mortenson
32) Linda Johnson
33) Layne Flack
48) Amir Vahedi
Team 2:
Co-Captain- Chip Reese
Co-Captain- Eli Elezra
2) Patrick Antonious
15) Kenna James
18) Lee Watkinson
31) Men Nguyen
34) Esther Rossi
47) David Williams
Team 3:
Co-Captain- John Juanda
Co-Captain- Erik Seidel
3) Annie Duke
14) Antonio Esfandiari
19) Martin deKnijff
30) John D’Agostino
35) Mimi Tran
46) Phil Gordon
Team 4:
Co-Captain- Barry Greenstein
Co-Captain- Phil Ivey
4) David Benyamine
13) Vanessa Rousso
20) Chad Brown
29) Josh Arieh
36) Tuan Le
45) Mike Caro
Team 5:
Co-Captain- Chris Ferguson
Co-Captain- Ted Forrest
5) Gus Hansen
12) Phil Laak
21) Joe Cassidy
28) Jack Fox
37) Clonie Gowen
44) Paul Darden
Team 6: “The Professionals”
Co-Captain- Daniel Negreanu
Co-Captain- Jennifer Harman
6) Gabe Thaler
11) Freddie Deeb
22) David Chiu
27) Nick Schulman
38) Mike Matusow
43) Evelyn Ng
Team 7:
Co-Captain- Mike Sexton
Co-Captain- Cyndy Violette
7) Scotty Nguyen
10) Robert Williamson
23) Michael Mizrachi
26) Gavin Smith
39) Jennifer Tilly
42) Liz Lieu
Team 8:
Co-Captain- Doyle Brunson
Co-Captain- Todd Brunson
8) Hoyt Corkins
9) Isabelle Mercier
24) Humberto Brenes
25) Michael Gracz
40) Chip Jett
41) Tony Guoga
Those are what the final teams looked like along with where they were picked overall. Now, before you wonder how so many great young players were picked so late, it’s important to understand that the players were all grouped together and a team could only pick one player from each group.
Thus, the strategy going into picking your team shouldn’t be based solely on who you think the best player was, but more so, it’s important to pick the player that sticks out in a group. In that sense, I was more prepared for this draft than anyone else. I’ve done pools like this all my life and was totally prepared for the twists and turns. In the end, if you look at the core of six players that we drafted I think we ended up with the best group.
Also important to understand, the PPL game structure will likely be one that benefits those players that excel in cash games, while those that do well in tournaments but poorly in cash games dropped considerably on my depth chart. There were six pools of 8 players in each group. The pools looked like this:
Pool A:
Danny Alaei
Joe Cassidy
John D’Agostino
Michael Gracz
Tuan Le
Michael Mizrachi
Nick Schulman
David Williams
Pool B:
Josh Arieh
Antonio Esfandiari
Layne Flack
Tony Guoga
Kenna James
Phil Laak
Mike Matusow
Gavin Smith
Pool C:
Chad Brown
Paul Darden
Phil Gordon
Chip Jett
Gabe Thaler
Amir Vahedi
Lee Watkinson
Robert Williamson
Pool D:
Annie Duke
Clonie Gowen
Linda Johnson
Isabelle Mercier
Evelyn Ng
Esther Rossi
Vanessa Rousso
Jennifer Tilly
Pool E:
Patrik Antonius
David Benayamine
Humberto Brenes
David Chiu
Martin Deknijff
Gus Hansen
Liz Lieu
Carlos Mortenson
Pool F:
Mike Caro
Hoyt Corkins
Freddie Deeb
Jack Fox
Chau Giang
Men Nguyen
Scotty Nguyen
Mimi Tran
I had a distinct strategy going into the draft and it was one in which we would be reacting to picks being made by the other captains. I wasn’t going to fall in love with any one player, instead, I wanted to make sure we got a player that we felt was above the mean.
Pool A was just so strong that it made little sense to pick from that group early. I mean seriously, which one of those guys sucks? None, any one of those picks were fabulous. We had Daniel Alaei as our number one pick in that group, but if we couldn’t get him we felt like any of the other players were solid. So, here is who I picked and why:
6) Gabe Thaler- Without a doubt, the absolute steal of the draft and getting him allowed our team to have so much leverage. Many of you might not know Gabe, but in my opinion, and I think in the the opinion of most poker insiders who know, he was the class of his group. No disrespect to the other players in the group, but Gabe’s game is tailor made for the PPL. For probably the last 10 years or so he has not only been a professional poker player, but he plays one game: no limit hold’em cash games.
Aside from the fact that I felt like his level of skill was high, he is also well liked by everyone. Easy to get along with and an extremely hard worker. A fabulous first pick in every sense of the word.
11) Freddie Deeb- If there was one player in the world that I would say plays a game most similar to mine, this would be the guy. Freddie and I approach the game in a similar fashion and I’m a fan of his play. Not to mention the fact that Freddie, along with being a WSOP and WPT champion has been cutting his teeth in pot/no limit games across the world for ages.
From a strategic perspective, the Freddie pick was a no-brainer. By the time the 11th pick rolled around Chau Giang, Scotty Nguyen, and Hoyt Corkins were all gone from that group. Getting Freddie was a must.
22) David Chiu- Yet another truly great poker player in every sense of the world. A gentleman that is an absolute team player, David too has been a highly successful cash game player well before the “poker boom.” David is probably better known for his outstanding limit hold’em skills, but hold’em is hold’em, and David’s hold’em instincts are second to none.
The David pick was absolutely 100% forced. I had planned on picking from that group a little later on, but when Patrick Antonious, David Benyamine, Carlos Mortenson, Martin Deknijff, and Gus Hansen were already chosen by then, I felt like David Chiu stuck out like a soar thumb versus the remaining players in his group.
27) Nick Schulman- This was without a doubt the most difficult pick of the day for our team. Since I had to pick David Chiu from the previous group it left me with a dilemma I never thought I’d face. I needed a woman, as well as a player from groups A and B. I’d already decided prior to the draft that we would use our last pick on a woman, so it left me with the following dilemma:
We had Josh Arieh very high on our list. Frankly, the 22nd pick was supposed to be Josh but since my hand was forced with David Chiu I had to put that on hold.
The dilemma we now faced was this: we wanted Nick badly, but we also wanted Josh. It was highly unlikely that we’d get both. Not only that, we had John D’Agostino very high on our list as well.
It was the first time Jennifer and I had any sort of a debate during the entire draft. We changed our minds several times. After much thought, I felt like it was slightly more likely that if we took Nick first that Josh might still be there. If we took Josh, Nick was gone.
It basically came down to either having: Nick Schulman/Mike Matusow or Josh Arieh/either Tuan Le or David Williams. Matusow is a wild card in this sort of thing, but if there is anyone that can control him I figured that Jennifer and I could. When Mike plays well, we all know he is a top player.
As for Nick Schulman, you all know him from winning the WPT event in Foxwoods. What you probably don’t know is that he was cut from the same cloth as everyone on our team. He was a hustler as a teenager, starting and pool and then moving on to poker. Sound familiar?
Nick is 22 years old and has already earned the respect of his high limit peers in the Bellagio top section. Raw talent and oodles of potential. In fact, his peers in the tough pool A all had high praise for him. Many of them feeling he was #2, a close second behind Alaei.
If you see my face when I made the pick it may seem as though I was disappointed. It wasn’t that I wasn’t gung ho about Nick, but I just knew we’d lose Josh.
38) Mike Matusow- As expected, we nabbed Mikey with our fifth pick. I’ll tell you one thing, Mike seemed to be very disappointed that he went so late and that could bode very, very well for our team. Having Mike hungry and wanting to prove something is a big plus for us. He has the potential to play great for long spurts, but obviously, the big worry with Mike is the famous, “Matusow blow-up,” that we’ve seen on TV many times.
Mike doesn’t exactly fit the prototype of our team. For the most part, we have a group of mild mannered players that gel really well. When picking Mike, that’s always a concern, but I KNEW that Freddy, David, Jenn, myself, etc. all genuinely liked Mike. The greatest thing about our team is the Kum Bye Ya atmosphere. We have a great chemistry.
43) Evelyn Ng- Frankly, I had Evelyn ranked in the top end of the group for this particular format, but I did my homework leading up to the draft and was very confident that she’d be available in the last round. I was a little shocked that more women weren’t available near the end because in my opinion the margin of skill from top to bottom is similar to pool A’s.
Nabbing Evelyn, another pool player turned poker player, we ensure that the entire group has nothing but positive chemistry. Aside from that, I believe that the PPL format will be a format that is designed for Evelyn to excel. Her strengths as a poker player are better suited for cash play. Her weaknesses, possibly short stack tournament play, will not be a factor in the PPL format.
Looking at the draft picks now it’s clear to me that some of the captains were not as prepared as they should have been. Several players picked in the first two rounds would have easily been available in the later rounds, but picks were wasted out of panic.
As for me, I had faith in my system and felt like all the hard work had been done well before the draft even began. At that point, it was just about filling in the blanks.
When our team assembled for dinner it was time to decide on a team name. We wanted something that best described as a group. As I looked around the table, one thought kept coming to my mind: we have the only team that is full of professional poker players. Not businessmen turned pro, but grinders and hustlers that made good.
So with that, we thought, what better than simple… “The Professionals.”
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Video Blog is back! Click on the link right on www.fullcontactpoker.com. I’ll be talking more about the PPL in the video blog.]]>
www.pokerplayersalliance.org/ Currently, over 125,000 poker players have signed on to become a member of this important organization. That number needs to get to a million. I know a lot of you guys read this blog, so please, if you haven’t signed up yet do it now. This is no Sally Struthers plea, this is serious. The more people we have behind the PPA the more leverage we could have in Washington. You can become a full member for as little $20. That money will be used to help fight for a very worthy cause. I’m signing up right now, and you should too. Ok, stop reading now… and go sign up.]]>
RB: Brian Westbrook, Phi (Home to Green Bay Monday Night)
RB: Willis Mcgahee, Buf. 9.82
WR: Anquin Boldin, Ari. 4.10
WR: Troy Brown, NE. 0.00
WR: Chris Chambers, Mia. 9.46
TE: Eric Johnson, SF, 2.20
K: Josh Brown, Sea. 6.00
DEF: Philadephia (Home to Green Bay Monday Night)
Total 43.11
GavMasterJam (Gavin’s Team) 0-3
QB: Carson Palmer, Cin. 1.44
RB: Warrick Dunn, Atl. 3.20
RB: Julius Jones, Dal 10.88
WR: Larry Fitzgerald, Ari. 5.00
WR: Chad Johnson, Cin. 6.20
WR: Eric Moulds, Hou. 5.80
TE: Dallas Clark, Dal. 1.70
K: Matt Stover, Bal. 2.00
DEF: Dallas 16.00
Total 52.22
I’m in great shape and am a huge favorite to win. I need a total of 9.12 points to win and have Westbrook going for me as well as the Philly defense. If I lose this one, I’ll blow my lid.
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Tonight, the plan is to stay up most of the night and write. First off, I need to write a column for my syndicated newspaper column (if you want it, checkout www.cardsharkmedia.com), and then I need to spend the rest of my time working away at my book. I’m trying to reach a deadline and it’s going to take a lot of work if I’m going to make it. So on that note…
Oh wait, before I go, tomorrow I’ll be on Off the Record with Michael Landsberg and then also on the Fan 590 with Bob McCown.
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(if you don’t care at all about hockey I’d say that it’s safe to skip this blog)
I love this hockey pool. It is without a doubt the most involved hockey pool in the world. Each year before the draft I spend countless hours searching for that next big hockey star.
Normally in our pool we have five draft picks. In the AHL entry draft you can select any player with less than 10 NHL games under his belt that isn’t already on a team. You can select anyone you want, however if you pick a really young player that hasn’t been drafted by an NHL team yet you have to pay that player more when you call him up to the “big club.” This year, I have 8 draft picks due to a few trades I made last season.
Each team has a roster of 23 players and three sets of goalies. We also have a salary cap. You can’t spend more than $60.00 on your team. Here is what my team looks like going into the draft:
DEFENSE:
Greg de Vries, ATL. 0.50
Tom Poti, NYI 1.25
Brent Seabrook. CHI. 1.50
FORWARDS:
Eric Belanger, LA. 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50
Jason Chimera, CLB. 0.25
Simon Gagne, PHI. 3.25
Mike Johnson, MON. 0.75
Jussi Jokinen, DAL. 0.25
Olli Jokinen, FLA. 1.50 1.75 2.00
Alexei Kovalev, MON. 2.50 2.75
Ryan Malone, PIT. 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50
Corey Perry, ANA. 1.00
Jason Pominville, BUF. 0.50
Henrick Sedin, VAN. 3.25 3.75 4.25 4.75 5.25
Lee Stempniak, STL. 0.25
Keith Tkachuk, STL. 11.75
Raffi Torres, EDM. 2.00
GOALIES:
NONE
Obviously when you look at that team there is a gaping hole on defense, and no goalies. At the draft, I think my hand is somewhat forced in that I’ll need to go after some help on defense and get a couple good sets of goalies. At forward, I expect to call up a couple guys from my farm team. You can have up to 20 players on the farm and can leave them there as long as you like. Once you call them up, they can’t be sent back down to the minors. Here is my farm team:
DEFENSE:
Danny Richmond, CHI. 0.25
Dustin Kohn, NYI. 0.25
FORWARDS:
Nicklas Bergfors, NJ. 0.50
Marcel Goc, SJ. 1.50
Petr Kalus, BOS. 0.50
Anze Kopitar, LA. 2.00
Andre Kosistsyn, MON. 2.00
T.J. Oshi, STL. 1.00
Benoit Pouliot, MIN. 2.00
Bobby Ryan, ANA. 2.00
Alexander Semin, WAS. 2.00
Jack Skille, CHI. 1.50
Stephen Weiss, FLA. 2.00
My farm team is better than any other teams in the league right now. Semin will be a big part of the Washington Capitals and I’ll call him up immediately. Also, it looks like Petr Kalus will make the Bruins so I may call him up as well. Goc already plays in San Jose, but I’m going to wait and see how he develops offensively. As for Weiss, he is a part part of the Panthers, but since I already have Olli Jokinen on my team I doubt he’ll get a call up this year.
If you at all care about any of this you can follow the action at the league’s website www.alternativehockeyleague.com or in the NHL Hockey Forum here at FCP.
Plane’s leaving.. gotta run!
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Ok, this is what all of you guys have been waiting for, seriously. You’ve heard over the last little while that there were rumblings of a new poker league that would really bring poker to a new place.
Well, that time is now. The PPL draft is set for October 7th at the Venetian. There is so much to tell you all that I can’t even think of where to start, but here goes:
The PPL stands for Professional Poker League and will feature 64 of the top poker players in the world playing off against each other each week on television.
The events will be held at the Venetian where a theater has been built specifically for PPL events.
The poker? It’s going to be really good. Some of you are probably as sick of watching all-in fests as I am. Rest assured, the PPL will make for really interesting television with a format that allows for tons of post flop play.
As I mentioned earlier, there will be 64 players playing on 8 different teams (8 players per team). On October 7th you’ll all know what the teams look like. Each team has two co-captains and it’s those captains responsibility to fill out their teams at the draft.
After tons and tons of work on this project, all of the pieces have come together and the show is a go! The casino deal is in place and the theater is being built as we speak. I recently had a chance to check out the theater and get a feel for what it’s all going to look like. Awesome, just awesome. This won’t just be your typical poker show. There are lots of little surprises surrounding the live event, but I can’t spill the beans on that just yet.
So with the casino deal in place, the next step would be getting a network deal. Done. Next, you convince the players that this thing is going to be huge and get them signed on. Done.
The captains have already been signed and the league format has already been decided. Picking 64 players is an extremely difficult task to say the least, but a lot of thought was put into the selection of each player and I think the final result was a good one.
Unfortunately, I can’t tell you who’s in or who’s out. Also, I can’t share the league format with you all just yet. After the draft on October 7th the league details will be available to all of you. I’ll obviously keep you all up to date as soon as I get the ok from the league.
I just can’t wait until the draft, it’s so exciting! The Venetian has truly bent over backwards to help make this happen and have treated the players like rock stars.
The people working on getting the contracts signed, getting a network deal, signing the players, etc. have also spent all of their time on this project and have done an amazing job pulling it all together.
As a player I thank them for their efforts and look forward to being a big part of the PPL. This league is like a dream come true for a kid who used to organize fake leagues for fun as a six year old. Seriously, playing poker just got a lot more fun for all of us.
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Generally when I fly home after a long trip I spend most of my time catching up on Tivo’d shows that I missed. On the slate I had several good shows from Amazing Race, Survivor, 60 Minutes, 20/20, HBO Real Sports, Mad TV (a great first episode), and several poker shows. Let’s get right to Survivor:
I just loved the concept of dividing the tribes my race. I thought it would make for an interesting social experiment, and done right, could actually bring people from different cultures together.
When I saw the cast, though, I was very disappointed. I realize that CBS had to be really careful not to make the cast too stereotypical, but my goodness, they went so far out of their way to avoid stereotypes that they ended up with a cast that hardly represents their “people.”
I’m mostly referring to the Asian team and the Hispanic team. Aside from one elder Vietnamese guy named Cai Bo, the rest of the Asian team all seemed to be born in the U.S. and have virtually no connection to their heritage. In fact, they mock and ridicule Cai Bo, the one guy who happily refers to himself as a “boat person.”
They look at him with such disdain. At one point, he uses an old Vietnamese massage technique to relieve one of his tribe mates headache. When he’s done, the guy has a red mark on his forehead that looks a little silly… but you know what? The headache was gone! They laughed about the red dot, hurt Cai Bo’s feelings, and seem to neglect the fact that his knowledge of ancient medicine and traditions will be a huge asset to the team. Frankly, I get the strangest feeling that the other Asians in the group are ashamed of who they are. That bothered me.
The Hispanic team could have been the white team for all I knew. If there was ever a stereotype in your head about what a Hispanic person acted like or looked like, none of the cast members display any of those traits.
I dunno, I just think they played it way too safe and that’s a shame. MadTV? Now that’s a show that didn’t play it safe! They did a few skits mocking the show and had names for each tribe: Burrito, White Bread, Soy Sauce, and I forget the last one.
In the beginning, each tribe is given a chore: make fire. To the Hispanic team, they game them Flint. To the Asian team, they game them one match. To the African-American team (I hate the term African-American, but don’t get me started on that), they game them a bottle of water. The white team was given a generator, a lighter with extra lighter fluid, as well as a how to DVD on how to make a fire, lol.
On second thought, do get me started on that whole African-American thing. Are they not just American? Do we say Greek-American or Polish-American? No, they just become Americans. What do you call a black person that lives in Italy? Is he African-American? Or no, maybe African-Italian? No, he’s a black dude, plain and simple. I actually think African-American is pretty insulting.
Anyway, back to MadTV. The Jeff Probst character announces a challenge. Swim across the lake, get something from under water, this, that, etc. A very complex challenge. Then, he announces the pirze… a bucket of Fried Chicken. Within seconds, one of the black contestants who is dripping wet says, “Here you go, here is the flag.” Winning the challenge in like, six seconds.
Wait, there’s more. Later in the challenge the teams are down to three each. Except the Hispanic team that’s now at 18…. oh, wait, make that 19 as baby Maria just joined us.
Each group is given some wood to build a shelter. The black tribe builds… a porch. Then Probst checks out the Hispanic tribe and it’s literally, a hotel room. He’s like, “Wow, great job guys you did well with your shelter.”
“Oh, this is not ours,” replied one of the Hispanic tribesman, “We built this one for the white people in exchange for three coconuts.”
All jokes. All stupid, silly, jokes. If they are offensive to some I honestly feel bad. Otherwise, I think they are just funny and we need to be able to poke fun at ourselves. Comedy and laughter is one way in which we, as a society will stop taking ourselves so seriously and celebrate our differences.
MadTV was way better.
Next, was 60 Minutes. I watched several episodes, but the one that was most intriguing to me was the one where Mike Wallace interviewed Iran’s president Ahmadinejad.
Frankly, the guy kind of blew me away. He came off as extremely intelligent and friendly. It was easy to understand why the people of Iran seem to be so supportive of him as a leader.
Anyway, he brought up some solid points condemning president Bush. The whole interview was very powerful. In the end, he even spoke directly to Bush, telling him that he needs to change the way in which he talks to the people of other countries. Stuff like, “Bring it On,” in reference to the terrorists a while back, aren’t the words of a man who knows how to make peace.
He also shared his theory as to why President Bush is so reluctant to allow other countries to have nuclear power. If you still have it on your Tivo, it’s definitely worth the watch.
Whether you are a Republican, a Democrat, or just vote for the best candidate, I can’t imagine anyone feeling good about what the current administration has done since being re-elected. In my opinion, Bush has made some of the biggest and most damaging mistakes a leader could make. He’s absolutely hated by those outside the U.S., but even worse, based on his dropping approval rating, most Americans don’t like him either.
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Today, me and Boston Rob headed over to E-DOG’s house to sweat the football games. His pad is perfectly set up for it, with six plasmas on one wall, a big screen, and a projector screen over the pool table and air hockey table. His house is like a sports bar, frankly, with a basketball in the back to boot.
The early games annoyed me. I’ve been a Bills fan for many years, and they just needed to beat the Jets today. The whole AFC East sucks now, and there defense and running game is so good that I feel like they have a shot at the division.
The Dolphins annoy me too. Not the Dolphins, actually, more so Daunte “You stink so bad” Culpepper. He is getting worse, and worse each week it seems.
In the end, I had a solid fantasy day and despite playing a team that also scored a ton was able to pull out a win to go 1-2 thanks to Brian Westbrook and Anquin Boldin.
After the New England game, I came home and quickly pounded out a column for Card Player as well as a column for my syndicated newspaper column… and a blog! Boo ya.
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Tomorrow, I’ll actually be playing some poker and I’m excited. Tomorrow, we’ll be filming a poker show for ABC called the Equalizer Pro-Am, or something like that. Basically, it will pit 24 pros versus 24 celebrity players.
Each heat will consist of four pros and two celebs. The catch, is that the celebs will start with 300,000 while the pros will only get 200,000. My heat is absolutely ridiculous. Insane actually. Now, this was a random draw, but you wouldn’t believe who I drew in my heat:
Phil Ivey
John Juanda
Erick Lindgren
Daniel Negreanu
Jose Canseco
Cheryl Hines (I love Cheryl Hines!)
Talk about a tough group, wow. The winner of this heat will go directly to the final heat.
I’ve always said that I love a challenge, well, this crew of pro players is the same crew as my Monopoly crew! Creepy, weird, and bizarre. Needless to say, I think I drew the toughest group.
We’ll be playing at the Southcoast early tomorrow morning, but unfortunately, I will not be able to share the results with you all until the show airs. On a bright note, the structure appears to give us a little more play than some of the other made for TV tables:
25 minute levels
3000-6000
4000-8000
6000-12000
8000-16000
12000-24000
15000-30000
20000-40000
30000-60000
50000-100000
It’s still a fast structure, mind you, but it will allow for some good poker for sure. On that note… time for bed.]]>