Then it was my turn to take the stage for the live auction. Several other items had already been auctioned off, and then “I” was auctioned off in a package that included airfare for two to Las Vegas, three nights at the Palms, including a one hour poker lesson from yours truly. When I got up on stage I decided to sweeten the pot a little bit. I added, “After the lesson, if you are able to beat me in a heads up freeze out, you’ll win yourself $5000 in cash. That got the bidding moving and we were quickly up over $4000… then $5000… then $6000! The bidding finally stopped at $6600. Later, the organizer of the event, Natalie Cook, dropped by and asked me if I would do her a favor. The lady who lost out on the bidding was saying that if I’d do another hour for her, that she would donate another $6000 to the Special Olympics. I, of course, agreed to do it so our package raised $12,600 for the Special Olympics Canada. Up until that point, after the auctions, the event raised over $1.2 million! Wow, that’s impressive. The whole evening was a blast and a good reminder of why I enjoy being a part of these types of events. They inspire me. Tonight, I’m headed to a hockey game between the NHL Alumni and the “Bay Street Bullies.” I’m super excited about this game because it will feature my favorite hockey player of all time, Wendel Clark, along with guys like Gary Leeman, and Bill Derlago. I’ll be coaching the boys which will be fun, and then we’ll be having a poker tournament afterwards. Anyway, the game starts at 6:00pm so I gotta get going! ]]>
Bob and I got down to the Air Canada Centre at about 6:00pm to meet with Pat and Greg (not Grant) by Gate 2. Greg knew a guy so we were able to get tickets, which are impossible to get for a Leafs/Habs game. The tickets cost us $400 a piece, but we ended up with perfect seats right on the centre red line. (I’m in Canada now and we spell it Centre not Center)
Before the game started we decided to make a few fun prop bets. The first one was simply, $100 a man pick the winner and the final score. Greg picked Toronto 4-2, Pat P. picked Toronto 5-3, Bob picked Montreal 4-3… and yours truly picked 4-3 Toronto.
Pat and I also made a side bet on penalties, I had Montreal penalties and he took Toronto. That was like stealing, and I won that bet 6-3.
Now for the craziness. The four of us also bet on how many total shots there would be in the first period. Bob picked 22, Pat picked 28, Greg picked 25, and I picked 23.
With 40 seconds left in the game I was on the number! A few pucks flew by the goal crease, but I ended up picking the exact shot total! Not like that’s impossible, but wait, there’s more.
We made the same bet for the second period, and this time I chose 26. With 1:06 left in the second period there was already 26 shots on goal so I wasn’t looking good to win that bet.
Somehow, both teams managed zero shots in the last 1:06 and I hit it again!!! People around me couldn’t figure out why I was so excited about the second period ending? They must have thought I was loony!
I was crushing Pat in so many side bets that I gave him a shot to get even. First a 50/50 proposition that went like this: who holds the Leafs record for consecutive games with a goal, John Anderson or Bill Derlago?
He was going to say Derlago, but then he said that he picked up a tell on me and switched to Anderson- that was the right answer.
We then made a bet on the age of the guy in front of us. We asked him to stand up, I checked the back of his hairline to see how much was there, examined his wife for any clues, and then finally made an over/under of 37.5. I felt like I should say 36.5, but something about him seemed mature so I figured he was older.
Pat went under in a heartbeat and the guy said he was 34- his wife confirmed.
Going into the last period I picked 24 shots but immediately realized I should have said 18. It landed on 19 and nobody hit that one, but Pat won a few more skill less bets from me when he had goals scored on odd seconds to my evens… I knew I should have went odd!
So anyway, the Leafs score in overtime so not only did I pick the EXACT shot total in the first and second period, I also picked the EXACT final score of the game! Pretty strong.
We then met up with a couple of Greg’s friends, Adam and Avery and headed over to East Side Mario’s for a bite to eat.
We got on the subject of pool, and these guys were all pretty good so we decided to head over to Shooter’s, a place I hadn’t been to in maybe 10 years.
I walked in with Bob and was telling him that the last time I came here I got hustled by this guy playing 9-Ball. As I’m telling him, the same dude walks up to me and asks me if I want to play! I was thinking to myself, “Does this guy live here!” What are the odds of that?
I gladly accept the challenge but explain to him that I’ll need a little spot. Something like 16 points playing 6 red snooker. He quickly agrees, so I further explain to him a few of my “rules.”
He can’t use his own cue… oh, and that right hand there, that has to stay behind your back, you can’t place it on the table. What else, oh yeah, he also has to shoot by putting the cue under his leg. It seemed like a fair bet to me, but whaddya know, the guy didn’t go for it.
When the rest of the guys got there we played a round robin 6 player tournament for $100 a man. One game of 9-ball where Greg and Avery had to spot the field the 8-ball since there were better than us.
In the first set I went 2-3 after Adam made some sick bank against me. Pat P. went on to beat Greg in the final so for the next round both of them would have to spot the field an additional ball.
This time I went 3-2 and got in on a tie breaker game where I had to beat Avery and Greg.
I made it to the finals against Adam who went 4-1, and we were set to play even. I made the absolute sickest shot on the 8 ball and drained it with perfect shape on the 9.
Before I shot the 9 I did a victory lap around the pool room. Slapping hands with complete strangers. Rubbing it in as deeply as I possibly could, lol.
Then, justice prevailed. The cocky little punk got what he deserved as karma came back to bite me… I missed it! I might miss that shot about once in 500 attempts. Hey, serves me right and everyone got a good laugh out if it.
On the way out the door Adam and I went at it playing Roshambo. Apparently he won some tournament in Toronto and thought he had skillz. I figured I’d school the youngster, but he played it awesome! Opened with rock, what a strong move!
He then played scissors, and at that point I knew this kid was for real. I couldn’t get a read and never felt good about any of my throws… kid was in my head, what can I say. I will have revenge though, as I have been practicing my Roshambo skillz all afternoon. I’ll get that kid!
All in all it was a great time. Being at a Leafs/Habs game is such an experience. It makes you really feel the Canadian pride in the air. The last time I’d seen a Leaf game, it was the last game played at Maple Leaf Gardens between the Leafs and Habs. I got shivers then, and I got shivers last night.
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2. Zvi Grossman
3. Tyson Lee
4. Steve Gin
5. Chris
6. Travis Scott
7. Marcello Degrassioso or something like that!
8. “Ice Cream” Mike Halua
9. Daniel Negreanu
10. Jeremy
Not exactly a table that would scare you, but it should. Many of these guys are top players with loads of talent. Just because you haven
7-8-9
2-3-6
3-5-7
5-7-8
3-4-5
2-5-9
When you flop trips, that pays double also, so this prop was worth:
4 x $7000= $28,000
1 x $10,000= $10,000
x 2 for trips= $76,000
Now, if I was on for triples and hit this prop playing four handed, it would pay me a cool $684,000!
Unfortunately in this case, I was only on for singles and my opponent was on for doubles and had a 5 in one of his props. He owed me $76,000 but I had to pay him back $28,000. Still, a $48,000 profit.
Then, to my surprise I hit my second biggest prop when I was on for doubles. The flop came 7-7-7 and I have three 7’s in my props, so that one paid:
3 x $7000= $21,000
x 2 for trips= $42,000
x 2 for doubles= $84,000
He was on for singles and has a 7 in his big boy and another 7, so this prop netted me $50,000.
Y’all confused yet? Lol. Once you get the hang of it, it all starts to make perfect sense.
It was nearing the morning and I was in a race trying to win more in the poker game than I was losing in props! Finally, at about 8:00am after a 10 hour session I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. I ended up winning $207,500 in the poker game. As for props, I lost $136,000 there, so I netted $71,500 on the evening.
It is kind of strange that after a 10 hour session the only interesting hands I can remember are the props flops! Oh well, next time I promise to post a hand or two in the blog.]]>
Mike Matusow
Ted Forrest
Greg Raymer
Erick Lindgren
Unfortunately, I can’t tell you who won, but I can tell you that I think I am more prepared for the Superstars than any other player. I have watched every episode and studied the strategy religiously.
It’s a “pre-flop” tournament, and while many may question my ability to adapt to such a structure, I am very confident in my ability to perform in this thing. It’s all about the points, and my approach in the first two events was to aim for third place and see what developed from there.
November 10th: Day two of the Superstars event had me facing off against:
Cyndy Violette
Jennifer Harman
Greg Raymer
Gus Hansen
Phil Ivey
Again, I can’t tell you what happened, but I can tell you that tomorrow I’m playing twice:
Antonio Esfandiari
Cyndy Violette
Greg Raymer
Phil Ivey
Chris Ferguson
and then:
Mimi Tran
Phil Ivey
Chris Moneymaker
Mike Sexton
Barry Greentstein
The next day I’ll play my last match against:
Todd Brunson
Barry Greenstein
Mimi Tran
Joe Hachem
Cyndy Violette
Unfortunately, it’s going to be a long while before everyone finds out who wins…
Now to the good stuff: At 6:00pm this evening I met with Jeffrey Pollack- Vice President of Sports Marketing for Harrah’s and also in charge of the WSOP- at Bradley Ogden.
I had heard good things about Jeffrey, that he was a reasonable guy and really wanted to do things right. He has only been with the company for a couple of months so most of the problems we’ve seen haven’t been things that are related to him.
He has an extensive background in sports marketing, from the NBA to Nascar, and stressed that he feels it’s extremely important that the players should be treated like customers.
It’s a unique situation, as with the NBA the players are being paid, while the poker players actually put up their own money. He fully understood that difference and from what he said he seems committed to protecting the WSOP brand.
The first topic of conversation was the TOC and the three player exemptions that were added late in the game. He gave me a genuine apology for the way it went down. He agreed that the players should have known from the get go that they may add player exemptions. He also guaranteed that something like that would never happen again.
We then talked more about creating relationships between the players and the WSOP so that we can fix these issues before they happen. He seemed very interested in hearing feedback from me and other players on how to improve the WSOP next year.
One of my suggestions, of course, was improving the schedule. I understand full well that the $1500 no limit hold’em events pack the place, but if what they say is true, that they want to protect the brand of the World Series of Poker, it means they’ll have to sacrifice some of that revenue to ensure that it doesn’t turn into a hold’em only series.
He actually had some good ideas on how to improve upon the schedule by possibly adding some interesting events. He gave me no promises that the schedule would in fact change, but he did say that he is going to rip it apart if he had to.
Personally, I would love to see the following event: H.O.S.E all the way down to the final table where the game would then become no limit hold’em. This would satisfy the players who are all around good players, increase the likelihood of a final table with star power, while maintaining the core television audience by giving them what they want- no limit hold’em.
Dinner was great, and I left feeling really good about writing the previous blog. Jeffrey obviously read the blog and didn’t seem offended by it in any way. In fact, if anything, he complimented me on being outspoken.
I’m big on forgiveness and am more than willing to wipe the slate clean and see what develops over the next year.
One other interesting fact about Jeffrey that surprised me- his brother is NHL commissioner Gary Bettman! Who woulda thunk?]]>