Thank You

2012 Results On a personal level 2011 was an extremely difficult year for me. I’m sure it has been a trying year not just for me, but also for those that dealt with the shock of Black Friday and what that would mean for their livelihood. My issues had very little to do with poker. I wasn’t happy with my results for the year, a lack of consistency saw big holes in terms of cashes and wins at certain parts of the year, more specifically, at the WSOP and WSOPE respectively. There is absolutely no question that my personal life had an effect on my ability to focus. I’m only human, and when one is distracted by things going on in their life, poker just takes a back seat at times. I don’t really believe in regret. I don’t really have any, because even the most awful experiences can be a source of great strength for you provided you learn from past mistakes and avoid repeating the same behaviors. I think the hardest thing to deal with is the fact that sometimes you are going to have bad days, but when you are in the public eye, you can’t really afford too many of them without being branded a complete jerk. So, you are kind of forced to bottle things up at times, but an unfortunate byproduct of that is that eventually bottling up feelings can cause you to blow, or lash out in other ways. Rarely does it have anything to do with the petty issue you are so upset about, its just a way of releasing some pent up anger and frustration inside you. I’d catch myself doing that from time to time and feel pretty silly about it. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t realize where the outburst was coming from until it was too late. In early July someone recommended a book to me that helped me realize and understand how the mind works and how to better cope with things. It’s an Eckhart Tolle book (he also wrote The Power of Now) called A New Earth, also on Oprah’s book club list. I can’t, in this blog, do a synopsis of the book justice, but I will say that the key concept of the book relates to ego, understanding that we all have one, being aware of how it affects your decisions, and also helps to understand others who are clearly motivated by their own issues with ego. It makes forgiveness and acceptance easier as well. During the main event this year there is literally no chance I would have been able to make it as deep as I did had I not been reading the book so regularly. It really helped me maintain focus on the game when my mind would continually try to wander off somewhere painful/self destructive. Since July I spent two months straight in Europe, and as I’ve mentioned in past blogs it completely drained me both mentally and physically. It was too long for me to be living out of a suitcase and I won’t take extended trips like that again without at least a few days of rest at home. I haven’t really felt like “myself” in the last couple years, and I’m not talking about my poker game, although confidence is a big part of playing well. My close friends noticed, and while I tried to hide it from the public I think some of you may have noticed as well. I think that’s why the awards actually meant a lot to me. I’ve really turned the corner the last few months and finally feel like I’m completely back to my old self again. Very happy in my own skin, extremely confident, and harboring far less anger than I once dealt with. I’m getting a bit off track here and I could easily turn this blog into a book, so I’ll close with a genuine thank you to all those who voted for me. I appreciate the love. Here is to an awesome 2012. I’m in Vegas now, just returning from an awesome trip to the PCA in Bahamas and have decided to go to Melbourne for the Aussie Millions for the first time in a few years. Looking forward to that, and many other fun trips in the coming months before WSOP, possibly: Melbourne
San Paulo
Montreal
Toronto
Tennessee
Ireland
Italy
Berlin
Los Angeles
San Jose So much for “traveling less in 2012!” Truth is, I’m ready to get out there again and see the world with a new perspective. I haven’t written a blog like this one in a while. I’m debating pressing send… still debating, humming, hawing, OK, why the hell not! ]]>

Poker Goals I did cash for a million, actually doing that in the first week coming second in the $100k Super High Roller. As I write this, I’m once again at the final table of the same event with a good stack. Another goal was to remain #1 on the all-time money list, and I’m taking credit for 1/2 a point here. Hendon Mob tracks 4 different lists with different criteria and I rank 1st in two of them, and 2nd in the other two. I also exceeded 60,000 VPPs on PokerStars, in fact, I went all the way and became a SuperNova for the first time in my life, racking up a little over 100,000 points. The last one I hit was wining $250,000 playing televised cash games in 2011. I actually booked a win in a very short session on High Stakes Poker, and also did OK on the PokerStars Big Game.
Here are my Poker Goals for 2012: 1. $1 million in tournament earnings in 2012 Including the massive $1 million buy in One Drop event at the WSOP this year, as well as going down to Aussie Millions for at least another $100k, I could spend as much as $2 million in buy ins this year! That’s a crazy thought. I’m not planning on putting the whole million up for the One Drop event and am looking to sell probably $600,000 worth of pieces. I am considering doing it via twitter and Full Contact Poker, allowing people to buy a piece of me for as little as $120! If that happens, I’ll obviously post details. 2. Regain the top spot on all four all-time money earners list in 2012 I have publicly stated that I don’t the the $250,000 buy in sit n’ go should qualify for these rankings, as it was clearly not a tournament, but a last minute sit n’ go to appease three Asian businessmen in Australia.. Had this been a $1500 buy in event, I am certain it would not have counted. The event was not on the Aussie Millions list of events, and was thrown together in a few days and saw 20 runners play an event that lasted about 6 hours. That catapulted Seidel’s totals, adding $2.5 million to his all-time total.
Having said that, it is what it is, and I’m now behind by about $2.2 million on one of the lists, so I’ll be looking for a huge year to catch up.
3. Regain the #1 spot on the WPT all-time money list going into last year my goal was to retain that spot, but Carlos Mortensen forged ahead which means I have some work to do there. I’ll be playing the WPT stops at Bay 101, WPT Commerce, and the WPT Championship for sure, but don’t know exactly where else just yet. We’ll see. 4. Win a WSOP Bracelet In the past I’d set this goal as TWO bracelets, but I haven’t won one since 2008 so I’m making a more modest goal of just getting back in the winners circle with one. 5. One Major Tour Win outside the WSOP I’m going to play a few EPT’s, WPT’s and possibly some LAPT’s and APPT’s depending on my schedule. Any “major win” counts, and since I only really play major events, pretty much any win outside of a WSOP bracelet counts. 6. Move into 11th place on the WSOP All-Time Cash List I have 51 lifetime cashes at the WSOP which puts me in 13th place, one cash behind both Barry Greenstien and Miami John Cernutto. In 10th sits John Juanda with 57 and that seems like an unrealistic goal to pick up 6 cashes on a consistent player like John. 7. Move into 31st on the WSOP All-Time Money List I dropped to #34 with a poor year last year, but I hope to head back in the right direction this year and move up. It’s hard to set a goal much higher than that, because the main event jumps lots of people up the list quickly, so I’m going modest once again. I need about $500,000 to pass Chris Ferguson who now sits in 31st and I’d be shocked if he or Howard Lederer show their faces at the WSOP after the scandal that they helped contribute to that’s caused so many in the poker world to be out of pocket. Shame on you both, as well as your ring leader Ray Bitar! 8. Have a better year than Jason Mercier He is simply the standard today in terms of consistently, routinely cashing for over a million dollars year after year. He is a grinder, he is young, and he cares. There is no one in poker today that reminds me more of myself when I was 25 than Jason. He is a winner at poker and life. His consistent success has motivated me to get back on top of the game I love. 9. Crack the top 10 of both the Card Player of the Year and Bluff Player of the Year List It’s been a while since I’ve been in contention for either, but I plan on adding in a few more events in 2012 in the hopes of putting together a competitive year reminiscent of the days when I was in the top 5 consistently. 10. Follow my personal tournament rules religiously That means no drinking or socializing the night before a tournament. I partied a bit too hard towards the end of the year and that’s just not how I succeed. I gave a poor effort in Cannes due to fatigue and sloppiness. Not going to happen this year.
Time to do a late night interview then rest up for the final table tomorrow where I hope to get an early start on my 2012 goals!]]>

In the last Bellagio 100k, I felt similarly to the way I do now. I wasn’t going to play unless they got at least 27 players. The event started at noon, and at about 3:30pm they hit that number so I showed up at 4pm and ended up finishing 3rd. If they get 22 players for tomorrow I’ll be there. I often do things in a very extreme fashion and have all my life. As mentioned, I was “living right” doing Bikram Yoga everyday, etc. but this last week, while I’ve been having a blast, I’ve kind of been living in the fast lane. I invited my friend Maria Ho to go see the new Michael Jackson Cirque du Soleil show on Saturday, and somehow it ended up turning into a three night binge of “clubbing” with her and her friends. Haze, Marquee, and Bank, with dinners and drinks mixed in a long the way. I had a lot of fun, but that is definitely not the best way for me to prepare for a tournament! I have “rules” when it comes to playing tournaments, and I definitely broke them this week. I’m not disappointed in myself to be honest, I just felt like going out.. so I did. Today I’m being a good boy vegging on the couch watching some NHL Hockey. I started betting again this November and have done pretty well so far. I rarely every lay a price on any game, and I’ve been hitting a lot of underdogs pretty consistently: November: 11-8 +4.93 units
December: 5-2 +4.25 units
Total: 16-10 +9.18 units There is no chance I can keep up that pace all season, but I do think I can pick in the 50% range, and since I’m always being laid odds as opposed to laying a price, that will be a good result by the end of the year. If you feel like gambling on some hockey, I tweet my picks before the games when I do bet @realkidpoker. I finally made the switch from Blackberry to IPhone, but sadly, I’m with Sprint and it doesn’t look like that company is capable yet of hosting the product. I’m dropping calls habitually, texts barely go through, and the 3G network connection fails me regularly here in Las Vegas. I think I’m going to be forced to switch providers, and after doing some research it looks like Verizon is going to win my business. I’m going to be heading to Toronto for Christmas, and I’m likely going to take in a Leafs game on the 17th, 19th, and 22nd, while also playing in the Sunday Million on PokerStars.com with a ridiculously big 10th anniversary guarantee. After that, the only thing I’m looking to plan is NYE this year, likely in Vegas again, and then it’s off to the PCA, with hopefully, renewed focus and determination for a better 2012.
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Sometimes what I say publicly creates controversy. To that I say, “Oh well.” If someone asks me a question, I’m going to answer it honestly. Recently as I was running up the stairs I was interviewed about the Poker Hall of Fame. I mentioned that my vote would go to Bruno Fitoussi who isn’t even nominated, and went on to explain that I think the process doesn’t weigh heavily enough the influence of European players like Bruno, who’ve helped grow the game globally. I mean, they are now giving away World Series of Poker Bracelets in France! I have to think that part of that was due to Bruno’s early efforts to convince Americans to come to the Aviation Club in Paris, and also holding a WPT event there. Bruno, with pamphlets in hand would play high stakes poker at the Bellagio, and let people know about what was going on overseas and was very effective in helping poker grow in France. None of that made the interview, but this did: Later I was asked about Annie Duke’s nomination. So I said something like,

People have asked me, “Are WSOPE real bracelets?” and the answer is yes. The majority of the big name players will be in attendance, the fields are tough, and it only make sense that we acknowledge that Las Vegas isn’t exactly the “world.” Having a few events in Europe levels the playing field a little. Europeans who want to do well at the WSOP have always had to come overseas for up to six weeks, or in some cases more to play a full WSOP schedule. The WSOPE is 7 bracelet events, plus a ladies event. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, I full support women’s rights to hold ladies only events, and the truth is, no “man” has ever entered a ladies event. A real man wouldn’t do that, and I hope we don’t see that happen here in Cannes. The WSOPE has always taken place in London, and this is the first year it’s being played in Cannes. A few random notes from my perspective: -Better facility. Day 1’s happen on site in the hotel, day 2’s and further take place in the casino.
-Plenty of room between the tables, the Empire was often a bit cramped.
-Hotel is very nice, rooms are good.
-View is better than in London. Selfishly, I prefer the food in London. Being a vegan, there were plenty of options in the Soho area to choose from, but options here will be limited for me. I’m sure the food for “normal people” is excellent.
I’ve always done very well at WSOPE, back-to-back main event final tables, coming 5th then 2nd, then last year in the heads up event I cashed, losing in the quarter-final to Andrew Feldman, and just missed cashing in the main event. The one year I played a lot of prelims, I cashed 4, or 5 times I think, I don’t remember exactly. The crew is anchored by Ty Stewart, and he’s brought over plenty of familiar faces from the WSOP. Jack Effel is the tournament director, and as far as rules and structures go, they are on the ball across the board, so you shouldn’t expect too many surprises if you’ve played in the WSOP Las Vegas edition. I’m sure I’ll find something to complain about, I always do, because I’m not exactly a sane person in that regard. I’ve been described as anal, and can’t deny that its a decent description. So far, everything seems to look good. I took the tour, and I like what I saw and hope this three week stay is a successful one. I’ll be tweeting chip count updates from my @RealKidPoker account, but if you use any kind of twitter app, then you’ll also need to follow @dnchips to see the updates. I do this, so that I don’t clog everyone’s feed with chip counts, unless they actually want to see them. Also, I can be a little more detailed with hand updates, etc. Twitter is an interesting phenomenon, and I want to use this form of social media in such a way that I personally like seeing it. I usually unfollow a lot of poker players during the WSOP, unless I have bets against them, because personally, I don’t really enjoy reading all the chip count updates. So no actual tweets come from @dnchips. It’s funny, because the account has made 0 tweets and has about 20,000 followers I think. The system DOES work, but invariably, I’ll get followers tweeting at me to let me know, “Hey Dan, there are no tweets coming from @dnchips it’s not working.” One of my followers, God Bless her soul, explains to them that it does work, and how it works. Today is the 2500 6 max NLH at 5pm. I have a bit of a sore throat, but nothing that should hinder me. Jet lag is not an issue, I woke up around noon, as I’ve been in Europe for a month now. I stocked my fridge with snacks I’ll try to get to on breaks, so I’m about as ready as I can be for the WSOPE. I’m really jonesing to play poker after the WCOOP. All I did was play, and that’s really all I want to do for the next six months. I felt a WCOOP hangover, but now I have the juices flowing again and am ready to make some deep runs here in Cannes. I hope to win a bracelet, or two…
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768 WCOOP-03: $215 NL Hold’em
107 WCOOP-06: $215+R NL Hold’em
72 WCOOP-08: $215 Triple Stud
89 WCOOP-11: $320 NL Hold’em
362 WCOOP-14: $265 NL Hold’em
62 WCOOP-25: $215 PL Omaha
95 WCOOP-30: $530 NL Hold’em
4 WCOOP-41: $10,300 NL Hold’em
17 WCOOP-44: $320 NL Hold’em
23 WCOOP-50: $215 NL Hold’em
21 WCOOP-51: $320 PL Omaha H/L
104 WCOOP-52: $320 NL Hold’em
34 WCOOP-53: $530+R NL Hold’em
183 WCOOP-60: $215 NL Hold’em
5 WCOOP-61: $10,300 8-Game I ended up in third place in the race for the WCOOP player of the series: Place Player Country Events Points
1-2 2FLY2TILT Spain 44 295
1-2 Big_Nemo Canada 48 295
3 KidPoker Canada 52 255
4 ImaLuckSac Canada 53 245
5-6 Donald Norway 50 240
5-6 gboro780 Canada 41 240
7 ImaLucSac Canada 53 235
8 goleafsgoeh Canada 49 230
9-10 MiPwnYa Brazil 12 220
9-10 Vingtcent Netherlands 36 220 I actually had a chance to win it all, and my destiny was in my own hands. At the final table of the $10k 8-Game event, if I was able to win, I’d lock up first place. I was so devastated and frustrated with my fifth place finish. I got brutalized by the “Mad Russian” who played insanely aggressive, and frankly, really spewy! Two hands stuck out that drove me a bit bananas: Omaha 8 or better: I raised in first position with AKQ6 he called, as did the small blind. The flop came J-T-4 with two hearts, I bet, and the Russian raised me with A237, no front door or backdoor flush draw. That’s just not a very good play. The turn was a 7 and he bet, the river came a 5 so I made a backdoor low and paid him off. Razz: This one is way worse. I raise with (3-5)8 and he re-raised me with (J-2)4. On fourth street: (3-5)8 T
(J-2)4 K I bet and he called. AHHHH! That’s just completely bonkers to call me on fourth street! Anyway, by sixth street: (3-5)8 T 7 4
(J-2)4 K 3 5 I bet, and he raised me again. He ended up catching an Ace on the river and making a wheel. That was a crushing blow to my stack at that stage. I ended up going broke in the PLO round, something I was really trying to avoid since my edge in the limit games was far bigger, but short stacked, I felt like I didn’t have much of a choice. J966hhcc for me vs
AJT7hh Flop was: T52cc and I shipped less then a pot sized bet and he called. It was a coin flip, but I couldn’t catch and suddenly my WCOOP was over and I was left with a pit in my stomach. I really wanted to win that event. So the next day I woke up feeling a bit lost. Similar to the WSOP hangover, I was at a loss for what to do, since my daily routine was altered and all I had was time. I vegged most of the day, and today I’m writing this blog here in London. I’m staying, since the EPT London is just days away and I can’t wait to play, especially since I’ve been carving through 2000+ player no limit hold’em fields regularly in WCOOPs. I’ve always been a streaky player, and I always seem to heat up the last few months of the year, from September through December. The WSOPE is next up after EPT London, and I expect to once again play a full series there and fly home with a bracelet…or two. ********************************************************* In preparation for this years WCOOP, I did a bit more homework than normal and really planned on taking the events seriously, regardless of the prize pool. I just wanted to win. If I’m being completely honest, my online tournament results have never been very good, and the main reason for that is that I just never really cared too much, but since the WCOOP has become such a prestigious event, I wanted to do the best that I could, which meant preparation. 1.Stats I’ve always been a numbers/stats geek as a child, but applying that to online poker isn’t something I’d done until recently, but I found it really helpful in reading opponents. In the past, I just played pretty ABC and didn’t differentiate between my opponents at all, since I always found it hard to maintain focus while playing online. Accumulating stats on my opponents, helped immensely. 2.Notes I had my stats program set up a while ago, but somewhere in the middle of the WCOOP I also began taking notes on my opponents based on how they’d play certain hands. The idea came to me while listening to an episode of WCOOP Radio, where one of the more successful online players talked about detailed note taking and how that’s helped him. I realized it was something I should definitely do, so used the PokerStars Notes tab and would write details of any hand I found interesting. Often something as simple as:
“UTG R 2 C I 3B B SB 4B all F I jam he folds”
In English, “The under the gun player raises, two people call, I three bet from the button, the small blind four bets, everyone else folds, I go all in, and the small blind folds.” Hey, it makes sense to me, and frankly, that’s all that matters in the end. Player Research Not until the last few days of WCOOP did I realize that there was plenty of information online that you could find about your opponents. For example, what they’ve won, what tournaments they normally play and how they do overall. I’d type in their online results under the notes tab, then also color code the notes with either “Winning Tourney Player” or “Losing Tourney Player.” All these tools helped me make better reads in marginal situations. For example, lets say I raised with AJ near the money bubble and a player went all in on me. First I look at his stats and see that he’s played pretty tight throughout. Then I look at a note that says something like “Checked back QQ 9642 then checked K river” which lets me know he plays a bit on the scared side. Finally, I look at his online results and notice that he normally plays $8 events and is in the $215 WCOOP, which means that he’s likely to care about cashing as it’s a big buy in for him. What does that all equal up to? An easy fold. Sleep throughout the events was a concern, since I was in Europe which meant that on some nights I’d be playing until 7am. My original plan was to grind in Toronto, but that changed at some point. Next year, I plan on grinding from Toronto since schedule wise that will allow for the most healthy lifestyle with me not sleeping days and playing nights. So next on the schedule: EPT London
WSOP Europe
EPT San Remo Short trip to Las Vegas in early November, then likely going to be at the Air Canada Center in Toronto for a Leaf game on November 5th. After that, I have a few options that I haven’t figured out yet, but when I do, I’ll let y’all know. ]]>

Brazil
Thailand
Israel
South Korea There is an EPT event in Greece this November but I don’t think I’ll make it out there this year. Brazil I’ll make it to eventually, poker is continuing to boom there and I should definitely make an appearance at some point.
Thailand I hear is beautiful and one of my good friends is Thai so he could show us around. Israel is a must for me. My two best friends from high school, more like bothers really, are Israeli and spending weekends at there place most weekends allowed me to pick up a decent amount of Hebrew. There is so much I’d want to see in Israel, so much history, so much I’ve read about that I imagine would only sink in if I saw it in the flesh.
One of my other best friends moved back to South Korea and it would be fun to visit him and see him again. He actually moved there to help run a poker club. I won’t be going there to play, most likely to drink beer and sing Karaoke horribly! Being in Budapest is a bit surreal. Normally I’m completely independent no matter where I go, but not much English is spoken here and my Hungarian isn’t sharp enough to carry me on my own. They don’t take Euro, so Krisztina is essentially my sugar momma while here, paying for everything! I’m not sure exactly how long I’ll be here, but my next stop will be EPT London. Some really big WCOOPs on the way this coming week. I’ve had 6 cashes so far in 22 events, but haven’t been able to run good late and make a final table. I will, and I’ll bet on it!
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Many of you have asked me why I have chosen not to support, or participate in the Epic Poker League, and while I have a laundry list of reasons, I’d point out that I chose not to take part in the World Team Poker event for one sole reason: I didn’t think it would be a success. The same holds true with the Epic Poker League. Not just because of the bizarre choice in name, but because I don’t believe this product will resonate with the public and based on my intimate knowledge of how these types of things work, I don’t think it’s possible to bring in enough revenue to survive. The only legitimate chance the league has to survive is if regulation happened in the U.S. and they were able to create an online poker site. Jeffrey Pollack wouldn’t admit that to you publicly, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to do the math here. Millions of dollars being given away to players, money spent on a TV time buy, money spent on staff, etc. with no way of recouping those funds through licensing or sponsorship. Networks aren’t going to pay you for poker programming because the necessary ratings just aren’t there. The WSOP is the world’s most prestigious brand at this point with hundreds of hours of poker programming on TV, and yet they have been unsuccessful in bringing in major money from mainstream sponsors. Ty Stewart, a straight shooter/great guy, and the man behind all of the sponsors the WSOP has been able to bring in over the years, struggles to entice mainstream sponsorship. We have Jack Links and Dearfoam slippers, but there isn’t a Lexus, or Caddilac type brand that’s stepped up to the plate at this point. The Epic Poker League has 7 hours on CBS and 13 hours on a network that is yet to launch. That pales in comparison to the hundreds of hours of coverage on ESPN. Does anyone really believe that Jeffrey will be able to pull in enough money from sponsorship to sustain the amount of money going out the door? I’m always careful about what I attach my name and likeness to, and after doing my due diligence on the “business plan” I don’t think this league can succeed. Of course I could be wrong… but I’m not. The WPT and the WSOP both have a social media site, which EPL also launched. Cool idea bro, but these things don’t really make money, certainly not enough money to cover the operational costs of this league. So, as I said previously, any and everyone involved behind the scenes knows full well that the league is depending on creating a brand in the hopes of entering the U.S. market with an online poker site. That’s the business plan. The best thing that happened to the EPL to date was Black Friday. If Black Friday didn’t happen, the first event wouldn’t have gotten off the ground. People talk about another boom in the U.S., but the more realistic view sees poker as a popular niche sport followed religiously by die hards, that will never quite regain the popularity it once enjoyed… and that’s OK. Many parts of the world are experiencing a boom much like the one we had here in the U.S., but there is no reason to think that the EPL will be able to create a boom in the U.S. that rivaled the original Moneymaker boom. To this day, while the die hards may be in awe of names like Galen Hall, Randal Flowers, Matt Hawirlenko, Sam Stien, and Isaac Haxton, when the mainstream audience thinks of poker they think of names like Chris Moneymaker, Phil Ivey, Scotty Nguyen, Johnny Chan, Mike Matusow, Gus Hansen, and Doyle Brunson (none of whom played in the first event). It will be the EPL’s job to make stars out of these younger players really quickly. They have 7 hours of network TV time to show the all in hands, a few others, and then do background pieces on these players to get the audience invested in these people. In some cases that will work, and in others it just won’t. There are only so many “I dropped out college because I was making more money 24-tabling online” stories you can do. There are certainly some really great, interesting young players in the game that the public will be drawn to, but that’s the exception not the rule. While the 2+2 crowd may love a featured table with online pros they adore, the mainstream public wants to see Sammy Farha bluff Phil Hellmuth and watch him go on a tirade! The only real difference I see between this league and something like the WPT is: -much tougher field in the EPL means that even with $400k added most of the field will still be -EV, while the truly elite players, like a Vivek Rajkumar or a Sam Trickett will feast on the bankrolls of lesser skilled pros.
-no real Cinderella stories at the final tables. Like I said, I could be wrong and they could create something I’m not seeing here in terms of a televised product that captures the mainstream audience and brings in mainstream sponsors, but I’m not. I get the enthusiasm, and understand why the hype has convinced people otherwise, but the league’s financial structure is fundamentally flawed from a revenue standpoint and is doomed to be an #epicfail. For the truly elite players, this is free money for them in terms of EV, but the vast majority of entrants are just not good enough to show a profit against this super tough field. The saddest fallacy at this point is that a lot of these players believe that the ‘exposure” they might attain from being on TV could land them some kind of endorsement money…unfortunately, after Black Friday, that ship has sailed in the U.S. If a random player with a less than interesting story/personality wins the first TWO EPL’s, that isn’t going to get him any closer to a lucrative sponsorship deal of any kind. I don’t want to call anyone out, or hurt anyone’s feelings, but there are ample examples of absolutely incredible poker players involved in this league that will simply never make any endorsement money from poker, no matter how good they are, or no matter how much they win.
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“I can only beat a bluff.”
“Gosh, I’ve had like 10 big pairs today and get screwed every time.”
“I can’t beat a flush but you might be betting top pair here.”
“I can’t beat a set, but I have a pair of deuces crushed.”
“I had the best hand before the flop for sure.”
“I have the same pair I started with.” In these cases, the player never reveals the exact hand that they have, but they do give information away about their range of hands. Which one of those statements warrant a penalty?
A player is thinking about calling you and you say:
“I either have a set of Kings or Queen high. It’s 50/50 you should flip a coin.”
“You don’t seriously think I’d bet ace high in this spot do you? Ha, I know you have like deuces and are trying to be a hero. You silly boy.”
“Don’t be silly son, you can live to fight another day. Muck that piece of trash.” Slightly different scenario, where a player may be coaxing his opponent into either a call or a fold. Which one of these statements warrant a penalty? This rule is supposed to protect players, but I gave Matt another scenario where I was shocked by his answer. It’s so obviously unjust: 65 year old man, tournament newbie has pocket aces. River comes a flush card and his opponent goes all in. The man mumbles to himself, “Oh man every time I get these stupid aces I always lose!” Now he thinks for a bit, then makes the call. I asked Matt Savage if he would penalize this guy and Matt’s response? “Absolutely, he deserves a penalty.” I can’t believe Matt, or anyone really feels this guy genuinely deserves a penalty. He’s clearly not colluding, and his comment, out of frustration, is clearly innocent. I can’t believe Matt would actually penalize this guy, but this rule would rightfully allow him to do so. ****** Is revealing your range of hands considered revealing the contents of your hand? If so, is that OK? If it’s OK, then how narrow can you reveal your range to be? Is it OK to say, “I can beat bottom pair but I really think you have top set.” Is it OK to say “I can beat JJ but I can’t beat AA.” In the first case my exposed range is between bottom pair and top set. In the second example I am exposing the fact that I have QQ or KK.
Matt seems to be OK with some of this stuff, but not all. If I bet the river and say, “I either have a set of Kings or Queen high” Matt says that’s a penalty, however, all I’ve done is revealed my RANGE of hands. Of course, I could be lying. In not one of the example mentioned is collusion ever an issue. Over 99% of table talk is completely unrelated to collusion, which appears to be the one and only reason that the TDA added this rule. The biggest lie that’s being told is that if you get rid of this rule, you make collusion legal. That is just not true. Collusion and soft play is illegal. It was before this rule was implemented, and I imagine it always will be. If the players at the table and/or the floor staff suspect two players are colluding either with signals, verbally, or by blatantly soft playing each other, they should absolutely be penalized. The other point they try to make is that if you allow table talk, everyone is all of a sudden going to start colluding with each other. Huh? I never colluded before this rule was implemented, and taking away this rule isn’t going to make everyone feel like they have a liscense to cheat. Verbal collusion is illegal. Table talk, and revealing information about your hole cards doesn’t equal collusion. In fact, verbal collusion is by far the least likely way two legitimate cheaters would ever cheat because it brings more attention to what they are doing. The proper procedure for dealing with collusion was in place long before the existence of this rule. If two players are suspected of collusion, either the players at the table, the dealer, or the floor over seeing it, would investigate. The tournament director would take a look at both hands and either issue a warning, or if it’s blatantly obvious, and a repeated offense, penalize the players involved in the collusion. An example of blatant collusion would look something like this: Blinds 1000-2000 (300 ante) everyone folds to the small blind who has 200,000 in chips. The big blind has another 400 in chips after paying the 2000 big blind. The small blind folds! In this case, the players at the table should be VERY suspicious. The floor should be called. The floor then should take a look at the small blind’s cards. It hardly matters in this case as he should put him all in even if he has 7-2 off suit. If the floor now sees a hand like A-10 he can remove any doubt whatsoever. This is pure collusion. If it’s a more marginal case, the floor issues a stern warning and lets both players know that if anything like this happens again, they will be penalized. The rest of the players at the table will now have their eyes on any future suspicious behavior between these two players. Matt also asserted that it’s impossible to know the relationships between the various players in a tournament, but in fact, that is completely irrelevant. In the previous example, their relationship doesn’t make a difference. They were colluding. Which brings me to my next important point: it is NOT OK for a player to collude with another by telling him he has AA, and then his opponent folds KK preflop. Fixing this awful rule would not change this fact.
If this happens, “Let it go man I have AA for real. Throw it away.” Then his opponent folds, the players at the table should call the floor immediately. The floor should take a look at both hands. If it appears as those these two players may be colluding verbally, either a stern warning or a penalty should be given. Once again, these two players would be put on notice, and any future banter would be heavily scrutinized. ********************************************************************** Years ago I tried to explain the various scenarios where this rule crosses the line, but Matt doesn’t want to understand it. There are times where certain table talk could be collusion, however, there are other times where revealing the strength of one’s cards is clearly, and undeniably unrelated to collusion. For example: Phil Hellmuth moves in on the river and it’s up to me. Hellmuth isn’t saying a word. Then I start yapping, “All in Philly boy? Why so much? Can you beat two jacks? Feels like you are getting greedy here man. I would have called 8000 with jacks in a heart beat but now you have me confused.” So I’ve revealed that I have jacks. Please TDA, please someone on the TDA please explain to me how this disclosure could in any way, shape or, form, be considered collusion? Can we not see the difference between the innocent table talk here that reveals my hole cards, and a guy on the money bubble saying, “Fold your hand I have aces and I’ll show you. I just want to make the money.” Can we really not see the distinction here? Surely you can. ********************************************************************** What We Lose as Players Part of what makes poker interesting is the ability to look at your opponent and gauge whether or not they look like they are bluffing or not. It is undoubtedly a poker skill. This rule infringes upon a skill that’s been used since poker’s inception and is one of the sexier aspects to the game, not to mention the viewing public. I’d like to share three examples from my past: In the WPT Championship years ago Russell Rosenblum raised under the gun and I called on the button with AQ. I was worried he had a strong hand since he raises from early position, but felt like I should at least see a flop. The flop came A-A-6. He made a small bet on the flop and I called. The turn was a 3 and he moved all in. Immediately, I said, “Ugh I’m so stupid! That’s why you aren’t supposed to call raises with this stupid hand!” I looked over at Russell and he was giddy, almost giggling at me while I tortured myself. Then I pondered further, and said aloud, “I guess he could have AJ…” I looked over at Russell and he clammed up! He stopped breathing! It finally dawned on him that I had AQ and he was in trouble. He went from giddy thinking he had me beat, to instant panic mode and I could see it. I called and he showed A-T. He hit a 10 on the river but that’s besides the point LOL. For those assuming I was going to call anyway, they don’t know what poker was like 7 years ago. I had a good stack and didn’t have to call here at all. I called solely based on the physical tell that my “shtick” provoked. Was I colluding? Was I cheating? Was I harming anyone else in the tournament? Of course not, unless you believe in the merits of this TDA rule. Next example: I’ve played with Sammy Farha a million times and he talks a lot. In a typical hand, he may look me straight in the face, after betting $40,000 and say, “I’ve got you beat, throw your hand away.” I’d ask, “What do you have Sammy?” and he’d reply, “I have the nuts of course, you know I only play the nuts.” It’s up to me to decide if Sammy is telling the truth. Are we colluding? Of course not! If he was soft playing me he certainly wouldn’t have bet $40,000! Verbal collusion in a heads up pot NEVER EVER EVER happens on the river after a bet has been made. If two players were colluding, they wouldn’t bet all in and then say, “Fold your hand man I have the nuts.” If the two players were colluding, they just wouldn’t bet. The most controversial example is a hand I played in the NBC Heads Up vs Jerry Buss. In this event, you are allowed to show your opponent, one card, or both cards any time you want during a hand. Jerry Buss bet the rest of his stack against me and I found myself sitting with two pair. I confirmed with the floor staff that I could show my hand, and then I turned my cards over and looked over at Jerry. He didn’t flinch, looked completely comfortable, and even smirked a bit. It wasn’t a huge river bet, I had a good lead, but I folded my Queens and Nines because I knew Jerry had it based on how he reacted to seeing my hand. He was at ease. He showed Queens and Tens. I’m not going to bother advocating for being able to show your cards in tournament poker or Matt will throw a hissy fit, but the point of this example was to show, and explain to people that these river decisions, and what you do to elicit information about your opponents hand is a poker SKILL that’s been stripped from a players arsenal to protect against a completely unrelated issue: collusion.
The Compromise I think it’s clear that players have no way of feeling safe saying anything during a hand, so the way the current rule is written, it is precisely a NO TALKING rule. The only way to ensure that a floor man won’t enforce this rule based on what you say, is complete silence. Anything you say could possibly be construed as revealing the contents of your hand. A simple. “I didn’t like that card,” could warrant you a penalty if an argument is made that it reveals to your opponent that you don’t have the nuts. So, while I’d like to see this rule abolished, as it should be, Matt has publicly stated that, “There is nothing Daniel or Phil Hellmuth can say to get this rule changed.” The TDA’s goals are to standardize rules and protect players, yet in this particular case they are completely ignoring the concerns of the overwhelming majority of poker players. The best option is to completely eliminate this rule, but I’d accept a compromise that would still make it a penalty to disclose the contents of your hand in some cases, but not in others. I offer an amendment to the rule that would actually give it some clarity, and allow players the freedom to clearly understand what is OK to say and what is not: “When a player is facing a bet in a heads up pot, he is free to say anything about the contents of his, or his opponents hand.” If you add that amendment to the already existing rule, it would make crystal clear to the players playing in TDA sanctioned events, that verbal collusion will NOT be tolerated, but they will have the freedom to use table talk to help them make important decisions throughout a tournament. Deal? ********************************************************************** I’d like to point out that I genuinely like and respect Matt Savage. He is a good guy and I agree with him about 92% of the time. I think he created the best tournament structures in the world, and being a structure geek, that’s saying a lot. Those sctrucutes are a model for tournaments around the world to copy.
On the radio show I absolutely lost it! I’ve been trying to explain this to Matt for 5+ years and he has some kind of mental block on this issue, and that frustrated me to the point where I got heated. I genuinely apologize to Matt for the delivery of my points. I certainly didn’t handle myself well during that discussion, but that doesn’t negate the fact that I’m clearly on the right side of this debate. The vast majortiy of the poker world agrees with me, both fans and players, and thanks to mediums like twitter, and poker forums, more voices can be heard to support changing this rule and the way it’s currently being implemented. My next blog will cover my two month trip overseas… I’ll write that in a few days. I leave you with this video of hands I’ve played, with table talk, and wonder if ANY of it was “legal” based on this rule: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO8k47_lP0M]]>