A Writing Machine

Two pairs of 10-10, one pair of 5-5, one pair of 6-6, one A-K, one A-Q, and a pair of Q-Q late. That was it. Worse, I NEVER got 2-3, 3-4, 4-5, 5-6, 6-7, 7-8, 8-9, 9-10, or J-Q suited… I survived on “bread and water” playing trash hands like J-10 and K-10 off suit. I was trying my best to fade the boredom and I did “ok.” I know that I got sloppy on two hands, calling on the river with trip aces and a nine kicker when I knew I was beat, and one other hand where I played a hand I might not have if I’d gotten a decent run of cards. Other than that I played ok. I made one good call on the toughest player at my table, a kid named Shane from NY. It was a multi-way pot where Shane had position on a board of Ks Qs 4s. I checked with pocket 10-10 with a spade, and Shane bet the button. The turn came an Ace and I checked to him again. He bet it again, but I just didn’t believe him at all. I didn’t think he had anything, frankly, and was debating what I’d have to do if I missed on the river and he bet again. Luckily, the river was a Jack making me a straight. My next dilemma was whether or not to bet out or just check and call. Considering the fact that I sensed a “play” I decided to check. Shane bet $6000 and I said, “Wow, you either flopped a flush or you have squat.” As soon as I called he said, “Squat,” and I got back to $50,000 on the day. From a pure poker playing perspective the day was an absolute bore, but the day wasn’t a complete waste. I enjoyed talking with Shane and the young man on my right who is a Cricket player born in India and now plays Cricket in Southern California. He seemed like a good guy, and overall the table banter was good. There was a “blow up” at the table next to me between Freddie Deeb and Haralabos. It looked like Freddie was going to clock him. For Freddie to get that hot, Haralabos had to do something to tick him off. Freddie just isn’t that kind of guy at all, he is generally a fun loving guy… unless you piss him off! I went over to the table and the people at the table said that Haralabos was riding Freddie all day long. Freddie then told me that he hasn’t got mad at a player in a game once in the last two years. The last time he got angry at somebody… well, it was Haralabos! I don’t think Haralabos is a bad guy, but he has a way about him that can definitely rub people the wrong way. Based on the descriptions the table shared with me it sounded like he rubbed all of them the wrong way. Oh well, no harm done I guess. I actually had a “run in” of my own earlier in the day that really annoys me. I was on my break and enjoying a massage when a fan from the rail asked if he could take a picture with me. I said, “Sorry, I’m right in the middle of a massage but I’ll be happy to take one with you later.” “You’ve been getting a massage for an hour!” he replied, “I’ve been waiting for an hour. It’ll only take 20 seconds!” What the guy didn’t realize was there were at least 30 other people waiting with cameras also. What, was I supposed to JUST take a picture with him and then turn everyone else away? Again, I told him I’m sorry, but it’s not a good time to which he replied, “You just lost me. You lost me as a friend.” A friend? I didn’t even know this guy! He went on, “I used to think you were good, but you are just crap.” As he walked away I asked him, “What did I do to you?” to which he said, “It’s not what you did, it’s what you didn’t do.” What an absolute jerk. All of the other people were patiently waiting and respectful of the fact that I was enjoying a massage. In fact, a few of them asked me, “You want me to go knock that guy out for you Daniel?” No need for that. A couple others asked to take a picture with me while I was getting a massage. I figured, if they didn’t mind a pretty masseuse in the picture they could come sit next to me until the break was over. I took a few pics and signed a few autographs. Deanna, the masseuse, has known me since 1999. After the break was over she was a little bit taken aback by the whole ordeal asking, “How do you put up with all of that?” Normally it’s fine. It’s just today we had one bad apple. When my day was over I ended up with 56,725 in chips and am looking forward to a fresh start tomorrow. On my way out, I made sure to sign some autographs and take some pictures with some fans. That probably took about 20-30 minutes, but I didn’t mind. As long as I’m not in the middle of playing, eating a sandwich, or getting a massage I’m fine with it! Tomorrow I’d like to end the day at around 200,000, but will be happy with getting to the 100,000 mark. So again, while 200,000 is the goal, since the structure is so good, 100,000 would be plenty. ]]>

Last night I went down to Bellagio to buy in for the WPT Championship. I decided that if I was scheduled to play in flight A that I’d go home immediately, but if I was in flight B I’d play another session of poker. I drew flight B and sat in a $4000-$8000 mixed game for a while. I was a little “off” during the short session and made a bad play against Ming, and another against Lyle. Against Ming, I lost a pot with a board of A-9-7-3 rainbow in pot limit Omaha. Ming had A-9-10-5 and I had A-J-7-3. He bet the pot on the turn and I capped it drawing slim. Later, playing 2-7 NL single draw Lyle made it $10,000 to go, and in the big blind I capped it with 3-4-5-7-10. Lyle was sweating out his last card, claiming to have a “free look” at a big hand. When he finally looked at the card, he called immediately. That should have rung a bell in my head to break my hand, but I had an ugly draw needing only a 2, 8, or 9 to improve. I thought for a while and stood pat as did Lyle. Lyle made an 8-6, and I looked at the card I would have drawn… it was a 2! I would have made a wheel, doh! After a 2.5 session the game broke up and I basically lost what was in those two pots, losing $204,000. I wasn’t ready to go home yet, though, so I sat in the $2000-$4000 game. At one point I was winning about $130,000 in that game, but after three hours I won $34,000, for a net loss of $170,000 for the evening. Could have been better, could have been worse. *************************************************************** Today I slept in very late, waking up at about 5:00pm. Most people would be worried about their “clock,” but I think I’ll be just fine for tomorrow. I’m doing nothing strenuous at all today. On the computer mostly, checking the tournament updates, reading the FCP forum, and watching some poker on TV to get me prepared.. My goal tomorrow is to end the day with 100,000 in chips. I won’t do anything crazy to reach that goal and am not too concerned even if I end the day with 50,000, but 100,000 would be an excellent start to the tournament and it’s an achievable goal. *************************************************************** FCP NEWS: The Final table to crown my prot

The High Stakes Poker show was another bust for me, but I was lucky enough to get out of the weekend ahead a little bit of money thanks to props and a blind poker session at Bellagio. The next night I went into Bellagio and noticed a seat open in a juicy $1500-$3000 game. Kirk Morrison, back in the U.S., was down there sweating me for a little while after we celebrated his and Carlos’ birthday over and Shintaro. Kirk is actually keeping my mother company while he is in town staying in one of her spare bedrooms. I think he was a little surprised at just how good the game was. I was playing very well and don’t think I made even the slightest mistake during the entire session. After a 4.5 hour session I won $90,700 and headed home. There was one interesting hand I played in Stud 8 or better that Kirk disagreed with as far as how I played it. It was an interesting enough question that I decided to turn it into Quiz Question #15 in the forum. *************************************************************** The next night I headed back to Shintaro to have dinner with my agents, Grinder, and his crew. At dinner I was telling them all about this book called Freakonomics. I can’t wait to read it, because from what I saw on 20/20 it seems amazingly interesting. The one thing that really blew me away was the author’s findings for the key reason why crime in New York city has gone down 39% over the last 18 years. Politicians like to claim that it’s an increase in the number of police officers, and several other factors, but I think the author figured out the most pressing factor. Now, it’s important to note that the author offered no opinion on abortion at all. Frankly, his study shouldn’t lead anyone to think abortion is ok because of his findings. Anyway, he found that the most likely reason for the drop in crime is that the people with the highest propensity to become criminals- never made it. He claims that children born out of unwanted pregnancies are more likely to become criminals, and that people ages 18-25 are the most criminally active group. How does that relate? Apparently, laws were passed to allow abortions 18 years ago, meaning that a lot of those unborn children who were more likely to become criminals than the average person- never made it. Personally, I’m pro-life, but I thought this study was very interesting and I don’t really want to debate whether or not abortion is a good thing or a bad thing. I do believe that the author is likely correct, though, in his findings. Anyway, that’s just one of many interesting findings in the book. He also explains why beauty pageant participants have a lot in common with crack dealers, and how Asian males have to make more money in order to marry good looking white women. *************************************************************** After dinner I headed into the poker room and noticed a $4000-$8000 mixed game going with a seat open. I jumped right on it, excited to play something other than hold’em. I’m running terrible in hold’em and frankly, it’s causing me to play the game poorly also. So many cold decks, one after the other, makes me wonder what I have to flop to win a pot? Playing hi-lo poker, it seems like you have so much more control over “bad luck.” Plus, I think I’m just better at it than I am at hold’em. Most of you would probably be surprised to know that I consider my best game to be Stud 8 or better followed by Omaha 8 or better. I don’t suck at hold’em or anything, but a lot of guys are good at hold’em these days. It was such a pleasure playing the game. I enjoy it so much, it made me realize that I just don’t play enough. It’s even more enjoyable when we get guys like Hamid Dastmalchi to join us. Hamid won the main event of the WSOP years ago and doesn’t play much poker these days. If he does, it’s just cash games. He is a really bizarre dude in so many ways. He could go from happy go lucky smiles, to a cursing psycho in the matter of seconds. He could be up a million dollars, but even the slightest bad beat will set him off a la Phil Hellmuth. I love putting beats on him, I absolutely love it, “You are so dumb. What a stupid idiot you are. All of these —- idiots can’t beat me with these —- hands. How can I lose to these mother —- with the best —– hand every time. You have no clue,” Hamid will often say after I suck out on the river. Nothing, and I mean nothing is more fun that setting him off. Clearly, Hamid thinks I’m a complete idiot and we played heads up years ago. I beat him back then, and I think I would absolutely crush him today. I don’t dislike him at all, he makes me laugh so hard with his tirades. He has said to me point blank, though, that he predicts I’ll be broke soon and that I have no clue how to play poker. It doesn’t bother me or “hurt my feelings” if you will. He talks a lot of smack which makes me comfortable giving it back to him. Similar to me and Mike the Mouth. I’ve called Mike a complete idiot on live television. I’ve looked him in the face and told him he was flat out stupid. He comes back at me with his jabs and we exchange punches. You’d never know that we were actually really good friends! My trash talking rules are simple: I only dish to those that I KNOW can handle it and will dish back. I can smack talk Mikey, Hellmuth, and guys like Hamid because they are obviously comfortable dishing it out and taking the blows. So on that note: Mikey, you are a complete donkey! Hellmuth, do you even play poker anymore movie star? And lastly, Hamid, what do you do for a living again? Man, it must be a good job the way you play, yum-yum! Anyway, for most of the night we played four or five handed. It was me, Barry Greenstein, David Benyamine, Gus Hansen, and Hamid Dastmalchi. Not surprisingly, if you asked any one of those players (including myself) who the best player was, I think each and everyone of us would have said themselves. The only person I wouldn’t be 100% certain would say that would be Gus. He might, but I’m not sure. All of these guys are world class players, but I feel comfortable in that game and think I’d do just fine in the long run. If I had to pick a game where I’d have the most difficulty reading my opponents, it would be a six handed game with the following players: Chip Reese
Doyle Brunson
Phil Ivey
Ted Forrest
John Hennigan Now, I’m not saying these are the players that I think make up the best five players in the world, but these are the five players that I have the most difficulty playing against. Anyway, I was running well in the game and was playing well also (unless of course you ask Hamid 🙂 LOL. I ended up playing until 10:00am, a 12 hour session and won $591,000. My peak was close to $700,000, but I lost a few pots late and felt like I was getting sloppy. Besides, I had to get home in time to change clothes, pick up Lori, and then head to church. As much as we both want to make it every Sunday, frankly, we haven’t been very good about it due to various reasons. Before I left the game, though, Lyle Berman sat down in the game and told us a funny story that had us all on the floor cracking up: Lyle was on a cruise recently and stopped by a blackjack table where a lady was playing. He noticed that she was dealt A-5 (for 6 or 16) and decided to stand. “Why didn’t you take a card,” Lyle asked? “I don’t want to bust,” she replied. Lyle then explained to her that she couldn’t bust if she took just one card. Her reply was priceless, “Yeah but if I take one I’ll want to take another.” LOL LOL LOL. C’mon, that’s pretty funny, no? *************************************************************** After church I finally took a nap before having dinner at Paymon’s, an awesome middle eastern restaurant we recently found, along with a couple friends. Dinner was awesome as usual, as was the conversation. In fact, I added a new weapon to my goofy repertoire that came from the conversation: The next time I go to a Walgreen’s or something like that, I’m going to pull the following prank just for giggles. If the bill comes to say, $8.56, I’m going to hand the person $12.13 and say something like, “Here, I actually have some change. Let me help you out.” The look on that person’s face when they are trying to figure out the correct change should be priceless, lol. Hey, what can I say, I’m a child at heart 🙂 *************************************************************** What else… oh, the NBC Heads Up Poker Championships just started airing on NBC. I swear, watching that show I feel like a giddy fan boy. It’s so much fun to watch I’ve actually seen the first episode twice. I thought Paul Phillips

The start of season two started off very differently for me than season one. In the first four to five hours I was dealt 9-3 every other hand! I wanted to play lots of pots as I normally do, but I was a total non-factor in the first part of the day. I lost a few pots in the meantime and was down about $200,000 without really even getting into the game. By about 6:00pm, though, I started to turn up the heat and actually started hitting some flops. The game was short handed for a little while and at that point I really started putting the pedal to the metal. I got a little lucky in a pot against Todd Brunson when my A-Q out flopped his AK and that pot got me even. From there I continued to cruise and by 2:00am was in complete control of the game. We finished up at 3:00am with me ahead $175,000. I woke up for day two a little bit late and missed the first 10 minutes of the game. It was a totally different crew of day two with the exception of Antonio. Early on, I won a few nice pots and was up about $100,000 within the first hour, up $275,000 for the two days. That’s the end of the good news. A surprise player jumped into the game and sat to my right with $300,000 in front of him. No one even knew he was even in town, but Gus Hansen sat to my immediate right. By that point I had about $600,000 in front of me. Gus made it $2100 to go and I decided to put in a VERY tricky re-raise to $5000 with 66- Gus called. The flop came 9-6-5 rainbow and I was hoping to win a big one against Gus. He checked the flop to me and I bet $8000. Gus check-raised me $18,000 more and I hesitated, trying to represent an over pair and finally called. The turn card came a 5 which gave me a full house. This time Gus bet $24,000 and it was time to do a little Hollywood. I wanted to convince Gus that I had a hand like QQ and I think it worked. I just called. The river came an 8 putting a four card straight on the board. Now Gus checked so it was time for me to figure out how much he was willing to call. I bet $65,000. Gus said… all in! He raised me another $167,000. Are you serious? If he had 99 or 55, would he REALLY check the river after putting me on an over pair? I called, and Gus turned over 55. A little later, Eli raised to 2000 and I called from the small blind with 3h 5h. The flop came 2-4-6 with two diamonds and one heart. Eli had 66. That one cost me another $120,000. Once again, I raised to $2000 with Js 8s and got four callers. The flop came J-5-5 and I bet out $6000. E-DOG called. The turn came a 7 and I decided to check over to Erick. I actually felt like Erick had a smaller pocket pair and it made sense to let him bet the turn. He did, betting $14,000. The river was a 9, and surprise, surprise, Erick turned over 99. It wasn’t over yet. I raised to $2000 with 9h 10h and got four callers. The flop was Q-J-8. That one cost me another $120,000 when I ran into E-DOG’s four eights. So in a short span I ran into quads twice. The first time I was full and the second time I flopped the nuts straight. I also flopped another straight and lost to top full. That, along with a two outer to Erick. I’m not going to be able to fade that and win. All the beats sent me off a little bit and I ended up paying off Erick when I shouldn’t have with the straight. It was just so sick. How many straights and I gonna flop on that show? Am I ever going to have one win? Luckily for me I went on a sick run in the props. I was down $240,000 in the props at one point, but I ended up going on a sick rush, winning $500,000 straight. After the show was over I headed over to Bellagio and planned on blowing off some steam. There was a $200-$400 blind NL hold’em game going with no ante. That’s about half the size of the High Stakes Poker game. I sat down with $30,000 and the very first hand I decided to just go all in. I did it again the next hand and was up $1200. After that I decided to play in the dark. I informed everyone at the table that I was going to do the following: -Never look at my cards unless someone else bets
-Raise the minimum every hand before the flop
-Bet the minimum on EVERY street without looking This sounds like suicide, but it’s nowhere near as bad as you might think as a strategy. Several of the players were amazed with how well it appeared to work and we broke into a full scale strategy discussion about the merits of using the strategy. Phil Laak, Danny Alaei, Arron Katz, and several other very tough profiessionals were in the game along with Sammy Farha and the owner of the Cirque de Soleil. I have played in the dark before and frankly, I’m amazed with how well I’ve done with it. Danny, one of the best young NL players in the world also shared with me that he used to practise playing tournaments online without looking at his cards. He tapes over the cards on the screen and plays the tournament totally in the dark. He could have AA before the flop, fold, and not even know it! I ended up beating the game for $97,500 in three hours. To give you an example of how a hand was played, let’s look at this one: I was in the big blind and five people called, so I made it $800 as promised. Everyone called. The flop was J-10-8 with two hearts. I bet $400 (in the dark) and got two callers. The turn came a 5 and I bet $400. Sammy called as did the other player. The river came an 8. I bet $400, Sammy made it $3000, and the other player made it $7000. Now it was time to sweat my hole cards. I looked at the first one and it was 4 across (a 9 or a 10). I looked at the second one, and it was 3 across (a 7, 8, or a 9). That was a pretty good sweat. When I finally looked at the cards, I saw that I flopped a straight with 9-7. I raised $20,000 more and was called by K-8. On another hand, I bet all the way and was called on the river by Jack high. I had King high and won another. It was a lot of fun and a good way to blow off some steam. The whole weekend ended up being an up and down affair. I won $278,000 playing props, won another $97,500 at the Bellagio, but ended up losing $331,500 in the poker game. *************************************************************** I woke up the next day and decided to play in the “Negreanu Open,” a tournament run by the forum regulars that is a lot of fun. It’s a $10 buy in with about 130 players. When I play it, in addition to the money added to the tournament by FCP, I also put a $1 bounty on my head per entrant. There were 139 players, so whoever knocked me out would get $139. I happened to run really good in that tournament, making the final table as the chip leader. Then I ran into cfinn and we got it all in on a K-J-4 flop. I had AK, she had K9. It came diamond, diamond, and I ended up in 8th place. *************************************************************** Tonight I’ll be going to a drawing party for a new event for CBS. It’s called the Inter-Continental Poker Championships and will pit one player from each of 21 countries. I’ll be representing Canada obviously. I will NOT be able to discuss ANY of the details from that show. (I am running late and don’t have time to proof read this blog, please excuse the spelling errors)
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the Subaru flung open and Adam added some much needed fertilizer to the yellow grass just outside of Boca Park. Thankfully, he was done puking by the time he got over to my place. We played a freeze out that came down to Jean Gluck and Blake Steph. Jean is a professional poker player who does well in the 100-200 games at the Commerce. Recently, she’s taken up no limit and appears to have some good instincts to say the least. Heads up, though, Blake took her down. Blake is actually an ex-Gonzaga player who was drafted by the Timberwolves and has played some in Europe before hurting his knee in ways I couldn’t even understand. He threw some Latin words at me that went right over my head, “Well I tore my maximus gluteus femur receptor bone in two places, have a laceration of the ceaserus nemous andrameous gland, and on top of that lost cartilage on the backside of my kneecap right underneath my cornepius muscle that’s connected to my exterior and anterior quadrilateral amphibious tendon.” What I got from that, was that his knee was messed up y’all! Blake and I schooled E-DOG and Nathan, another Gonzaga boy with knee issues, at the NBA Showtime. Blake and I just drilled them with our inside outside game. I had him go to the hole, and they could never deal with our sweet give and go’s. Frankly, it was a total mismatch and they never really got it close. ***************************************************************
It’s 2:00am now and I’m ready for bed. Tomorrow, I’ll be at the Palms ALL day from noon to 2:00am playing in season two of High Stakes Poker. I won’t be buying in for a million this time, but I’m prepared to go as deep as need be. I’m thinking about buying in for $200,000 and then rebuying depending on WHO doubles up, as most of the players will be buying in for the minimum of $100,000. I’ll be giving you all a report of the goings on in my next blog…]]>

(tournament details in the General Forum)]]>

I feel terrible. I feel dirty. I felt like I was being cheated in a four handed game and couldn’t quit or couldn’t do anything about it. When I was a teenager I used to play in a game with some shady people in a private club. Two of the guys used to signal each other when they were in hands, but frankly, I didn’t really care that they were cheating since they were such awful players. Besides, I picked up on what they were doing pretty quickly. If one player bet the turn and the other raised, the first player always had a marginal hand and was trying to force the other players off the hand. If the first player bet and his partner just called, then the second player always had the nuts and was looking to suck in more callers. I had a defense for their tactic since I knew what they were up to. I’d make it three bets when player #2 raised and fold if player #2 just called. Still, though, the whole ordeal was ugly and I was happy when I knew that I wouldn’t have to face that anymore once I made it as a pro in Vegas. I can honestly say that since I became a professional poker player in Las Vegas that I don’t think I’ve been cheated even one time. Not once. I could be wrong, obviously, but I don’t think I’ve ever been cheated. Fast forward to last night. I was honored to represent my country in a event that would pair two pros with a soccer player. Our first match was against team captain Tony G. and Australia. Just days before I arrived in London I was informed that the format would have all six of us playing at the same table and who ever won the table would earn the victory for their country. There was little to no incentive to play the game straight up, yet there was tons of incentive to ensure that you kept your teammates alive. How they planned on avoiding collusion was a mystery to me. Then I was told the following, “The only thing that would be considered a penalty would be if a player folded with the nuts.” Wow, how comforting. There was little to no rule in place, though, to deter us from informing the soccer player to dump off his chips to me in a hand. There was no rule in place that would deter countrymen from middling an opponent from the other side. Further, there was NO RULE to deter players from using signals! There was no rule forcing a player to bet his opponent, even when he had the nuts! It was the most poorly designed concept I’d ever seen for a poker tournament. They took such a potentially beautiful idea of pitting country against country in an Olympic style event, and tarnished it by turning it into a cheating expose, or a “how to” on playing partners in a poker game. How did this happen? I asked them if they’d spoken to some poker players about the format prior to the event and they assured me that they did. Who did they speak to? I asked Mike Sexton, who invited me to the event, and he was made aware of the structure when I was. I then asked Padraig Parkinson if he had something to do with it. He told me no. I was already in London and changing the structure at this point wasn’t an option. The dilemma I now faced as team captain was whether or not to devise a “legal cheating” strategy for our team. One in which we would either LEGALLY soft play each other, or worse, dump chips to one another. I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t be a part of that even though I knew that our decision to play the game straight up would put us at a big disadvantage. Tony G. was very open with us about the fact that they were going to play a team game. I respect him for that, and I genuinely have no ill words for him and his team. It wasn’t their fault that the best way to play this thing was to use team play. Tony had his team trained very well and they used some excellent team play to win the event. They didn’t play hard against each other. Tony G. had free reign to do what he pleased when they were in a pot. They put me in the middle beautifully. Tony developed an excellent team strategy that put us in a hurt locker. It’s a crying shame that the most crucial skill set to succeed in this event was one that would get you barred from any poker room in the world. I want to make this clear, the Australians didn’t cheat at all. In fact, they exploited the rules in such a way that simply enhanced their chances of moving on to the next round. Early on our soccer player, Jason de Vos went broke with 10-10 versus KK. Then later, Evelyn went broke on a Q-7-4 flop with A-Q against QQ. That left me as the meat in the Australian sandwich. I was totally handcuffed. I couldn’t get to a flop because Tony did a fantastic job of teaching his teammates to not let me see flops. If I called a raise pre-flop, the player to my left would re-raise to shut me out of the pot. It’s an excellent ploy and the only defense for it was to set a trap for them. Unfortunately, for that to work I’d have to get a strong hand. I didn’t. The best hand I got the entire time was 7-7 followed by A-J. No AK, no AQ, no KQ, no other pocket pairs. Normally there might be a way for me to hang in there by chopping away with trash, but playing against a team made that feat difficult. I finally was all in with the best hand on the flop, calling with A-6 on a flop of A-8-8 with two spades. Tony moved all in, I looked at him and said, “Tony, you have the K-9 of spades. I’m sure of it.” I was wrong, he had the K-3 of spades and made his flush on the turn. I was almost glad to be gone. I felt a little bit like the players on Survivor who know that they are up against a strong alliance and there is nothing they can do to stay on the Island other than win every immunity challenge. I knew that the ONLY way I could win that thing was to knock each and every one of them out all by myself. They were NEVER going to knock each other out as that would be foolish. Can you even believe I’m writing this? I’m still in shock and it’s the next morning. I’m talking about a tournament in which collusion is king as though it’s a ho-hum occurrence? How can this have happened? There were so many options for a team concept that would be totally void of any collusion. With 16 teams, you could have three heats where one member of the team plays in an event and is allotted points for their finish. You tally up the team’s points and maybe the top 8 teams qualify for the finals. Then you could do a best 2 out of three heads up match. That’s just one of thousands of clean ways to run an event like this. You simply CANNOT hold a team style tournament where two members of the same team are at the same table. It can’t work, it won’t work. In closing, I left totally embarrassed about being a part of an event that will undo a lot of the work that’s been done in the past 20 years to clean up the image of poker. An event like this one, simply cannot happen again. I love poker so much, you have no idea how much it hurts me to write this blog. I totally understand that the organizers had good intentions and didn’t mean to promote collusion in any way. I just wish that they would have really consulted with someone like a Mike Sextion, for example, so that he could have rectified the situation before it was too late. *************************************************************** In a few hours I’m getting on a plane back to the U.S. on my way to Foxwoods. Hopefully I’ll get enough rest to put in a good effort there. Frankly, right now my head is still spinning about what happened in London. I’m very disappointed in myself for not walking out. On the other hand, I’m also proud of the fact that the Canadian team chose to play the game straight up, despite the fact that it might have cost us a chance to win the event. In hindsight, it

Evelyn and I landed in Toronto at 9:00pm EST and went our separate ways. She got a ride from an old friend Talya and my brother was there to pick me up and take him back to his place. When I got there his wife Ornella started with the old, “Are you hungry? Are you thirsty? What can I make you,” routine. “That’s ok Ornella, I’m really not hungry,” I replied. Then she took a page out of my mother’s book by asking, “Ok, I’ll make you some stir fry? How about some orange juice? Do you want a water? How about some almonds? You want a salad? How about a bagel? You want peanut butter and jelly? How about a beer.” If you ever saw the movie by Big Fat Greek Wedding you’d have a glimpse into what it is like to be raised in a European household. There was a funny line in that move that might as well have been my mother saying it, “You want something to eat?” The mother asks the husband to be. “Oh, no thank you, I’m not hungry thanks.” “OK, I make you something.” If you haven’t seen the movie, go get it… right now. C’mon, go already! Anyway, I truly appreciate the hospitality. As annoying as it may seem to those that don’t understand the culture, it’s generally the way people show love. There is love in the food. Whether it’s my mother or Ornella, you can feel it, taste it, and appreciate it. *************************************************************** The next morning I headed down to the Elephant & Castle to help get things kick started for the Red Hot Poker Tour’s Tournament of Champions. There were 140 entrants from anywhere from Toronto, Hamilton, or even Ottawa. The Red Hot Poker Tour has been spreading pretty quickly and they are picking up steam. After we kicked things off I did a quick interview and then headed back to my brother’s house to sleep before the evening’s final table. I recognized only one face at the final table: Jimmy Herrera. I think the last time I was in town Jimmy attended a party that the Red Hot Poker was throwing for some of it’s valued customers. Jimmy works in Toronto as a Security guard but was born and raised in El Salvador. Not long after the party, Jimmy’s wife had a baby! Anyway, he seemed like a genuinely nice guy. Soft spoken, kinda like a teddy bear. I didn’t want to be impartial when watching the final table, but I couldn’t help but root for Jimmy a little bit. Let me tell you, this final table was insane! I am now thoroughly convinced that live poker is rigged. I’ve never seen so many action flops and brutal beats in my life. On one hand, Jimmy was all in with QQ vs. 99. The flop came 10-5-2. The turn was a 9! Jimmy used his patented ploy and stood up to put on his jacket. He’d done that all night and it worked every time. Bingo, Queen ball! There were tons of other sick hands like that, that I won’t bore you with. Jimmy finally got heads up with a young player from Ottawa named James. James was probably the only player at that final table that didn’t make a crucial error. I watched the entire final table and these two were the most deserving of being heads up. On the final hand, James got tricky and limped in from the button with As Ac. Jimmy checked his option and the flop came Qd 9d 5d. Jimmy checked, and James, worried about the flush draw moved all in. Jimmy quickly called and turned up pocket fives for a set. A diamond came on the turn, but a blank hit the river and Jimmy won the Tournament of Champions along with seat #10 in the Daniel Negreanu Prot

I booked another five hour session at Bellagio the night before last. I won another “peanut” but it was just a frustrating session overall. We were playing 12 games which I loved: Hold’em
Omaha Hi-Lo
Stud
Razz
Stud Hi-Lo
Stud Hi-Lo Reg
Pot Limit Omaha
No Limit Hold’em
No Limit 2-7 Single Draw
2-7 Triple Draw
A-5 Triple Draw (Yummy! I love that game!)
Limit Omaha In the third hand I was dealt we were playing 2-7 NL and I made it $10,000 to go drawing at 2-3-4-8. The button made it $40,000 which scared me a little bit, but I called anyway. I squeezed out a 6 making a very powerful 8-6-4-3-2 and bet the cap. My opponent quickly called and was dealt a 7-6-5-4-2! Yikes, stuck $100,000 right out of the gate. In the Stud 8 or better round I scooped a bunch of pots and got out of the hole and ahead about $100,000. Things went smoothly from there and I was really playing fantastic. I did get caught on one bluff, which interestingly enough was a result of the blog! Eli read about that bluff that I pulled off against him in a recent blog and this time made a very close call with a weak hand in a spot where he might not have. Oh well, I thought it was pretty funny anyway and in the long run I don’t think it will cost me. After about 4 hours I was ahead about $225,000 and it looked like the game was breaking down. It was three handed, with the other two players being stuck at the time so I felt like it was a good spot to continue playing. In the next 30 minutes I lost every hand I played! I took some really tough beats that I won’t bore you with. That anti-rush cost me all of my win, and I was now stuck $90,000 myself! “Oh brother,” I thought to myself, “This is so frustrating.” Luckily the Stud 8 or better portion came back and once again I was able to scoop about three consecutive pots. The third player quit and I ended the session +$43,000 after 5 hours. That’s kind of how my sessions have gone this year so far. It’s a small sample mind you, but I seem to be ahead a little or down a little most of the way. I haven’t had a monster rush at all, but at the same time, I’ve been fortunate to not lose a big number either. It feels a little bit like a grind, but it could be worse I guess. I really wanted to put in a long session, but the games seem to be breaking up a little bit earlier than normal recently. Unfortunately, it looks like the games will be going round the clock in the coming week but I’m on my way out of town.
*************************************************************** Yesterday, I was running around town doing errands. Had to go to the bank, had to go to the Geek Squad to fix my lap top, etc. While at Best Buy, I also decided to pick up s PSP for myself. I’ve bought like 20 of them in my lifetime but those have always been gifts. On a recent flight with Carlos Mortensen, though, I noticed that he was playing this game called Exit. That game rocks! So I picked up a few games to go with it and while there I decided to add to my collection of X-BOX and X-BOX 360 games. Uh oh, we are boarding right now