Welcome to the gambling ramblings of Pauly... a writer, traveler, and degenerate

 
Second Annual WPBT Holiday Classic in Las Vegas

I was going to wait until Monday to write about this, but since Poker Stars made their huge announcement about their WPT Bahamas exclusive satellite for bloggers only, I figured the timing was right.

Bill Rini has been hard at work trying to nail down the final details for the next blogger get together in Las Vegas. It will be in December. And here's the skinny...

What: 2nd Annual Holiday Classic
When: Saturday Dec. 10th
Time: 10am (tentative)
Where: Imperial Palace poker room
Buy-in: $50 + 15 (juice plus dealer's tip)

Stop by Bill's blog to see who's going to be playing and how you can get a discounted room! Also make sue you shoot him an email telling him your info like blog name, real name, and contact info. I am trying to see if I can upgrade to a suite like last time at the Plaza. Some of the highlights of last trip happened in the wee hours in the morning in our suite that Derek and I shared with Eva and AlCantHang. We had a few SNGs, watched Drizz play on Full Tilt, and the Poker Geek passed out on our couch after trying to run with the big dogs.

I'm looking forward to playing in this event at Imperial Palace. It should be fun and we can take over the casino for the weekend. Of course, we'll find time to storm the Castle, gamble on football on Sunday morning at Mandalay Bay, and possibly go beer bowling or hit up some strip clubs.

In last year's event at Sam's Town, Felicia Lee won it! I made the final table as the chip leader and bubbled out when Julie from the Blue Parrot rivered me. In June, Chad issued a Minnesota bad beat on me when his 9-9 beat my 10-10. I am seeking revenge!
posted by Pauly at 9/30/2005 09:47:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Thursday Pimp Day - Truckin and Top 15 Referrals

I recently published a new issue of my literary-blogzine Truckin'. We were a little late this month but that's par for the course for Truckin'! This issue might have one of the funniest stories to date from Daddy. Anon Hammurabi returns with Part 2 of his trip to the Sudan. The Human Head makes his debut and Joe Speaker returns with a story about... being young and vulnerable. And there's another installment of Subway Stories for you including something about my most recent trip to Amsterdam. Take a peek!

Truckin' - September 2005, Vol. 4, Issue 9

1. September Subway Story by Tenzin McGrupp
The homeless man wore a NY Mets t-shirt and black dress shoes three sizes too big. He wasn't wearing any socks. He stood in the middle of the subway and pleaded with everyone... More

2. With the Lights Out by Joe Speaker
The last thing you want is to be thought "different," so you check your childhood impulses and guard your secrets... More

3. Crushing Omaha by Daddy
I knew my wife would be sporting her new Victoria's Secret lingerie, and I had a secret of my own. A little blue secret. She didn't know it yet, but she had a date with the Vanilla Gorilla... More

4. A Million Miles in 20 Steps by The Human Head
The very thing that affords him a decent lifestyle is a sea of nothingness in which he must swim, and as he looks towards the entrance he is filled with a sense of hopelessness that is difficult to describe... More

5. Khartoum-Nyala (Sudan, Part 2): Domestic flights in Sudan by Anon Hammurabi
The Sudanese desert also has a very distinct colour of red, which looks really great from an airplane. But a killer shark also looks beautiful from safe distance... More

6. Red Light City by Tenzin McGrupp
The better looking ones are on the side streets and you have to navigate the narrow alleys while following the aroma of cheap sex in the air to find the doorways with the girls... More

Do you want to write for Truckin'? Feel free to shoot me an e-mail if you are interested. Make sure you read the guidelines for submissions.

Moving on...

15 Top Referrals

Why 15? Why the fuck not? Thanks to the following folks for the hits over the last week or so.

1. Las Vegas and Poker Blog
2. Iggy's Guinness and Poker
3. Card Squad
4. CJ, Otis & G-Rob's Up for Poker
5. Al Cant Hang
6. Aaron Gleeman
7. Wil Wheaton
8. Joaquin Ochoa
9. Odd Jack
10. Tao of Pauly
11. Derek's Poker in the Weeds
12. Bad Blood
13. Double As
14. Grubby
15. Poker Twitch

That's it for now. Sorry for such a crappy post today. I have too much writing to do and have to stop blogging. Besides Blogger has been kicking my ass all week (e.g. "The blog you were looking for was not found"). I'm till working on the Vegas book and a new project which takes a few hours of my time every day. Plus I have lunch in the city with my lovely assistant Jess, followed by a string of necessary errands that I'll be running around town trying to do for this weekend. I have a bachelor party to attend to on Saturday and I'm the guy who got stuck trying to score the drugs and the hookers. Shows you what my friends here in NYC think of me. Now, if I can only find a hooker who sells blow, then I'd kill two birds with one stone.

Tomorrow I'll write about my last two months of playing poker and the transition from a cash game player in Las Vegas back to an online grinder.
posted by Pauly at 9/29/2005 06:43:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Purple Humpback Whales, Johnny Fuckin' Chan, and Other Useless Crap to Distract the Masses

I'm swamped with catch up work. Or call it bitch work for you non-PC folks. That's OK. It keeps my mind off of other things and definitely keeps me humble. I'm happy to be home again. Being back in NYC is a good thing since I'll be on the road a lot over the next several months so I'm enjoying the little things about this city that make it great. I've been eating bagels almost every morning. In Europe, Briana got me addicted to croissants. There are not as filling as a bagel and I usually have to eat two to get the same morning bread fix. In Las Vegas, they had no equivalent to bagels and croissants. The closest thing within walking distance to the Redneck Riviera was a McD's and a Wendy's. Since I was crashing at 6 or 7am every night that by the time I woke up, it was the lunch rush hour. Yikes. I just realized that I spent most of my time in Las Vegas eating fast food for breakfast. No wonder I put on 15 pounds. It was my poor eating habits and all the beer I was drinking at the Hooker Bar with Otis during dinner breaks.

Speaking of Las Vegas, I watched the most recent two episodes of the WSOP on ESPN last night with my brother. And fuck, I saw my ugly mug plastered all over the Johnny Fuckin' Chan episode. Originally ESPN was scheduled to tape the $2,500 NL event. That night there were two final tables, the $2500 NL and the $2500 PLH event. There were a lot of unknown online players and newbies at the $2500 NL TV table and the PLH table featured Johnny Chan, Humberto Brenes, and Phil Laak. It seemed they had more railbirds and media sweating them on the outer tables than the other event on the main stage. Even ESPN's second unit was all over Chan's table. I recall that Dan from Pokerati got yelled at for standing on a chair by one of the ESPN producers.

Last night I got a few comments from readers about seeing me in the background. I got several emails and a few voicemails. My friend Julie even sent me a text message, "I just saw you on ESPN!"

Man, I was just a few feet from the table when Johnny Chan cracked pocket Aces with the Hilton Sisters (see photo below). The suits at ESPN took note of the significance of Johnny Chan's run. As the players were being eliminated at the PLH table and Chan got closer and closer to winning his 10th bracelet, they gave the PLH table more coverage. When it got down to two, an executive decision was made to postpone the heads up match between Chan and Laak and shoot it on the final TV table after the $2500 NL event was complete. They waited for almost two hours before Chan and Laak played heads up. During the break, I wandered out into the casino to find some ginger ale to drink. I spotted Phil Laak sprinting at top speed. He was running right at me in the long corridors that connect the Convention Area to the rest of the casino.

"Slow down Phil, you got plenty of time!" I yelled.

He kept running.

There were plenty of media folks who got face time during that epic episode. As soon as someone wins a bracelet, you can see Flipchip in the background snapping a photo. I also saw Sharla from Poker Pages, Jay Greenspan, and Heather from Poker Wire. BJ was in the background in media row and I know Otis was back there too. During the Chan-Laak heads up match, I was seated in the front row with Earl from Poker News, Rick The Voice, and Doyle Brunson.

How the fuck did that happen?

I'm still in shock almost three months later. Watching Johnny Chan win his 10th bracelet was my favorite moment during the six hellacious weeks I covered the 2005 WSOP. It might have been one of the coolest things I got to see in my life.


Chan & Laak on the outer tables: a view from my seat


Johnny Chan -- the first 10 time WSOP bracelet winner

That's it for now. If you haven't seen that epsiode, set your TiVos and VCRs and check your local listings for when ESPN will rerun that episode.

****** ******

More Boathouse Bash stories are trickling in. Be sure to read: Derek, AlCantHang, StB, Bobby Bracelet, Spaceman, F Train, Joaquin, Helix, Carter, and Bad Blood. And yeah, and Eva too!

Update: Ah... I forgot that Steph had a blog! Check out her take on the events over at Clareified. She might have one of the best recaps that I've read. She also had this hilarious post on her site about playing with bloggers for the first time:

TOP FIVE SIGNS YOU'RE IN OVER YOUR HEAD...

5. Everyone else at the table is re-raising pre-flop with 27o.

4. Half the people at the table get paid to write about poker.

3. One player starts live-blogging the action out loud during the game.

2. Small Blind, thinking everyone has folded to his raise, turns his cards face up. You protest that you're still in the hand, he apologizes and agrees to play the hand with his cards face up. He proceeds to beat you anyway.

1. The guy sitting next to you has Phil Gordon's cell phone number.

Yeah, I got Gordo's digits. I'm gonna sell April his phone number... one number at a time. By the way, don't forget to check out Clareified.
posted by Pauly at 9/28/2005 09:03:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Catch Up

I'm still feeling the effects of the Bash at the Boathouse, a long week of covering the WPT at the Borgata, and a week long bender in Europe. My goal is to try to get some rest this week which is tough to do with a hectic schedule. Monday morning was catch up day for me. I figured out that it takes me two whole days per week that I'm out on the road to catch up with all the work that lags behind. I was away for two weeks, so that means I should be caught up by Friday. That won't happen of course because something always comes up. Plus I just picked up a new project to undertake and that's going to need some of my attention over the next upcoming weeks. It has the potential to be pretty cool. Stay tuned for that annoucement.

I spent most of yesterday afternoon writing two freelance articles. If you would like to read some recaps of recent tournamentsthat I covered, check out:

EPT Barcelona Open - Final Table Recap (Poker Player Newspaper)
WPT Borgata Open - Final Table Recap (Poker Player Newspaper)

In between hands on Party Poker, I bought a present for a friend's wedding which is going down in two plus weeks. Gotta love online wedding registries. I picked the most expensive item still left on the list. Why? Because I finally paid off my credit card. Time to run that fucker back up to the max. By the way, my buddy's bachelor party is this wekeend in New York City, and I forgot if it was my job was to get the strippers or the cocaine and horse tranquilizers. Or both.

I also spent some of yesterday feeling like a New Yorker again. I rode the subway and ate three slices of pizza. I finally sat down and watched a bunch of stuff that Derek had TiVo'd for me. I saw the last two episodes of The O.C. and I'm convinced that Summer loses 4 pounds every episode, or one pound for every fifteen minutes of programming. I also saw all the epidoes of the WSOP that I missed including TJ Cloutier winning a bracelet. Talk about a special moment.

Speaking of which...

2005 WSOP Coverage

Don't forget to tune into ESPN tonight to see the latest installments of the 2005 WSOP.

I think that tonight is when ESPN will air Johnny Chan versus Phil Laak where Chan made WSOP history and won his 10th bracelet. They originally were going to air the $2,500 NL event, but that table was boring compared to seeing history be made by Chan.

Feel free to read my live blogging coverage of Event #24 $2,5000 NL.

They are also airing the $5K PLO w/ Rebuys which featured Phil Ivey, Allen Cunningham, Phil Hellmuth, Allen Cunningham, and Surinder Sumar all at the final table!

Feel free to read my live blogging coverage of Event #27 $5,000 PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table.

I dunno where or when they'll splice the Jen Tilly win for the Ladies Only event. Stay tuned to find out. But in the meantime, go revisit Flip Chip's 2005 WSOP photo galleries.


Boathouse Reprise

The trip reports are slowly trickling in. I forgot about so much stuff which is due to my short term memory lost during soused binges with your favorite internet celebrities. Be sure to read what everyone thought about the Bash at the Boathouse.


WPT Aruba

Ah the next stop on the WPT is Aruba. I had a choice of assignments between Aruba or Barcelona and picked Spain because I've traveled extensively in the Caribbean and I've been to Aruba, whereas I've never been to Barcelona before. Anyway, Double As is currently down there trying to make the TV table along with his buddy and NL tournament expert Curzdog. Day One is complete. Check out BJ's coverage of the WPT Aruba over at Card Player and let's hope Double As can cash in another major event. I also know that Amy Calistri is blogging the event. I don't see Double As anywhere on the list of players who made it to Day Two. Let's hope he made it and I'm just an idiot who forgot his real last name.


Recent Poker Playing Music...
1. Galactic
2. Jerry Garcia Band
3. Greyboy All Stars
4. Thelonious Monk
5. Flaming Lips
posted by Pauly at 9/27/2005 12:59:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Bash at the Boathouse 2005

"Put that coffee down! Coffee is for closers." - Blake, Glengarry Glen Ross

Call it an omen. Or foreshadowing. Or a gut feeling. After a handful of us polished off three bottles of the Nectar of the Gods on Friday night, I sensed it was going to be a long weekend bender of wickedness and depravity. Perhaps it was hearing Derek violently puke in the parking lot outside the diner at 1am late Friday night that reminded me of the seriousness of partying with professional alcoholics. Kids don't try this at home. AlCantHang and BigMike are machines that run efficiently on heavy quantities of Southern Comfort. To try to keep up with them is liquid suicide. However, once a year people come from all over the world to make a valiant effort to hang with AlCantHang. Shit, no one even comes close to hanging with EvaCanHang. Everyone always fails miserably and in the wee hours after the Bash at the Boathouse is over, you could see the carnage spilled out all over the vicinity of the Boathouse. Bodies are randomly passed out in cars, in ditches, and on bathroom floors.

One of the side affects of attending the Bash is amnesia. After the 13th shot and your brain pickled in SoCo, you begin to lose time. Huge blotches of your memory are a blank and that's when you slip into the depths of utter helplessness and stupidity. Just ask Otis.


Poker?

Before we headed to the Boathouse, Derek, StB, Bobby Bracelet, and myself played a quick SNG in my suite. We used Good & Plenty as chips. I busted out first followed by Bobby Bracelet. Derek went heads up with StB, and StB ended up winning the Good & Plenty Championships. Congrats!

The afternoon at the Boathouse began with poker. There were two tables going on the deck. One table was spreading 2-4 Horse (Featuring Otis, Bad Blood, Joaquin, Mike, Helix, and Bobby Bracelet) while I started up a NL table. I ended up dropping $80 or two buy ins.

My table:
Seat 1: Spaceman
Seat 2: F Train
Seat 3: Pauly
Seat 4: Carter
Seat 5: Stephanie
Seat 6: StB (and later... Mike)
Seat 7: Landow
Seat 8: Derek
Seat 9: Mrs. Spaceman

3:50pm... Derek defend his blind to my preflop raise and flopped wo pair with 3-6. Ughhh.

3:54pm... Derek and Mrs. Spaceman were involved in a ahuge hand. Derek raise, Mrs. Spaceman re-raised. Derek moved all in and she called. He had A-K and she flipped over the Hilton Sisters! The flop was Q-J-8. She flopped a set but Derek flopped a gutshot Broadway straight draw. The turn was a 10, and Derek hit his gutshot. The river paired the board, to give Mrs. Spaceman a full house. Wow! What a hand.

4:00pm... Bar officially opens and I start to lose most of my stack right around the same time. Coincidence?

4:05pm... Deek rebuys.

4:20pm... Spaceman rebuys.

4:27pm.. StB drops the Hammer.

4:34pm... StB rebuys when his 10-10 loses to Landow's set of 3s.

4:37pm.. Landow drops the Hammer.

4:445pm... I rebuy.

5:07pm... I went on a drink run upstairs. You gotta love Pennsyl-tucky. What would have cost me over $100, only ran around 1/3 the price. For the rest of th enight, I'd be drinking on AlCantHang's tab. I would love to see that bill.

5:26pm... I won the only hand of the night when my Q-Q held up against Landow's 505.

6:20pm... I busted out against F Train when my Hammer is no good against his 4-7o. I flopped a open ended staright draw and he flopped the straight!

6:21pm... I stopped recording poker and started drinking heavily. Stephanie end up the big winner along with Carter and Mrs. Spaceman. I think F Train and Landow both finished up.


Pennsyl-tucky

Derek went to school in central Pennsylvania and calls pretty much everything outside of Philly and Pittsburgh... Pennsyl-tucky. There are a lot of rednecks scattered all over the state and the crowd at the Boathouse was a nice mixture of people from all walks of life. I'm not complaining about the skanky girls in attendance. I think skanky chicks always add flavor and zest to any social gathering. After five weeks of traveling through Las Vegas, Colorado, South Carolina, New York City, Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Atlantic City, I found myself in the middle of Pennsyl-tucky swapping cheap Mardi Gras beads for a glimpse of a random woman's breasts. I hadn't seen that much skin since Grubby and I went strip club hopping in Las Vegas. I heard that Derek even got to see someone's beaver.


The Lewey Award

This year I have to present a special award... the Lewey Award for Public Intoxication. It was a close race, but F Train edged Otis out.

If you don' know, F Train is 90 pounds soaking wet. And he was pounding drinks all afternoon. By the time the night rolled around, he was hammered. He even walked up to Derek and punched him in the ribs. It was more comical than anything else, but Derek didn't think it was funny and calmly walked away. Congrats to F Train on winning such a prestigious award. If you don't know, Lewey had a huge spill after he sprinted down a steep hill and suffered some serious road rash when he slipped and tumbled onto the concrete.


Quotes

Here are some random things I overheard over the night:

"Don't you guys stop drinking for five fuckin' minutes?" - The bartender

"What's the spank bank?" - Mrs. Spaceman.

"Whiskey dick? I'm all about the whiskey dick!" - F Train

Random Girl (shunning Joaquin's advances): "My boyfriend is in the band."
Joaquin: "The band sucks. He'd never make it in New York City."

Bobby Bracelet aka the Ladies Man

Bobby gave his best to get his micro penis some action. We admire him for that. I was highly entertained watching Bobby Bracelet work his magic and spread his mojo around the Boathouse. He had been working a particular chick for two days and he finally got her to go home with him less than one hour before last call. And you call yourself a Varsity letterman, Bobby? I seriously expected better results from the 860th best poker player in America. He couldn't close the deal. As Joaquin phrased it best, "He's just like Chad Pennington. Three and out." There were a few props bets going on whether or not Bobby Bracelet could close the deal. At least Bobby got to have his junk felt up on Friday night and he got to suck face in the corner of the Boathouse with a local girl.


Otis Falls Down?

Mrs. Spaceman looked like she was having good time. And Otis stumbled around the Boathouse late night. A few of us were on Otis Watch, just to make sure he didn't fall down. He came close several times, but always managed to keep his balance. I nearly lost my shit when an incoherent Otis sat down at a table filled with people he didn't know and started talking, which was more like a form of babbling. He eventually trailed off into making hand gestures before he stood up and staggered away. At one point, Otis went from behind moderately drunk to propelling himself up to the chiplead for "drunkest guest." That's when the question on everyone's mind was not if Otis would fall down, but rather, will Otis puke?


I wish I had more time to write up a longer post. I might add more later inlcuding some pics and possibly some video clips. For now, thanks to Al, Evanne, and Big Mike for throwing another successful event. Carter didn't pass out this year. The food was great. The booze was free. BigMike raised good money for a great cause. I got to hang out and chat with Mike, who's a big fan of my blogs. And the bands were pretty good... both Petey and the Bandcampers and the AlCantHang Experience. I think one of the other bands was the same from last year, the one with the semi-chunky female lead singer with huge jugs that BG and I tried to hit on at the bar and she blew us off.

The only bad thing about the Boathouse this year was... no running of the Lewey. Maybe next year.

****** ******

Carter posted some pics of the Boathouse Bash... here.

F Train posted some pics.... here. (newly added!!)
posted by Pauly at 9/26/2005 01:14:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Pre-Boathouse

I'm about a few hours before game time. Al Cant Hang is hosting is annual Bash at the Boathouse. You can read all about last year's bash... here. Be sure to scroll down and read all the other posts about that crazy weekend last year which included a trip to the Borgata.

Anyway, here's a run down of the events in the last 24 hours:

1. Derek, Mrs. Spaceman, and I watched Jason Spaceman bust out in the $300 + $40 US Poker Championships at the Taj in Atlantic City. I had a piece of Spaceman!
2. Derek & I got caught in Philly traffic. Not pretty.
3. We arrived at the Boathouse at 4:20pm for pre-party.
4. Watched StB drink 17 different kinds of beer.
5. I drank 2 Lagers, 1 Red Stripe, and several SoCos. I told myself I was "taking it easy."
6. EvaCanHang flashed us. Yes, I saw boobies.
7. Bobby Bracelet gets erections. It was "thrice confirmed" by a lovely young lady who willingly rubbed up against the junk of the 860th greatest poker player in the world.
8. BigMike tipped $130 on a $270 tab.
9. Bobby Bracelet made fun of the generic ketchup aka Red Gold at the diner.
10. Derek pulled off another successful "puke and rally" in the parking lot at the diner.
11. I almost hit a deer.
12. Bobby Bracelet and StB sang Footloose on the way home from the diner.
13. Two words: chipped beef.
14. I lost a prop bet with Al andBigMike. They bet me $100 I couldn't eat 6 crackers within 60 seconds. I could barely get three down.
15. AlCantHang danced by himself in a protest for the crappy music the DJ at the Bathouse was playing.

Later today we'll find out an answer to the eternal question... Will Otis fall down? Scholars, scientists, religious leaders, and oddsmakers have been baffled for decades trying to come up with proper scenarios.
posted by Pauly at 9/24/2005 10:42:00 AM | Permalink |

 
WPT Borgata Open - Final Table

This is a special day for me. I've covered the World Series of Poker, Ultimate Poker Challenge, and the European Poker Tour. But this is my first World Poker Tour final table. Despite the lack of sleep, I'm bursting with excitement. They are testing the lights as we speak at the Borgata and we are twenty minutes away from game time.

You can rea da recap of Day 3 over at Las Vegas and Poker Blog. It's called: World Poker Tour - Borgata Down to the Final 6.

Today's final table should be great for TV. Kathy Liebert has one WSOP bracelet and two WPT final tables (not including Ladies' Night). She's looking for her first WPT win. More importantly, no female has ever won a regular WPT event, so we could be seeing history tonight. Also at the final table are a few pros like John D'Agostino and David Singer. In 2003, David Singer made the final table in the main event at the WSOP and made one final table at tis year's WSOP. Plus any table is going to be fun if you have an Action Bob at it! Yeah, there are four Jersey natives at this final table.

Here's who made the final table including chip counts:

Seat 1: Robert "Action Bob" Hwang (Clark, NJ) $1,795,000
Seat 2: David Singer (Mamoreck, NY) $3,200,000
Seat 3: Al Ardebili (Jersey City, NJ) $1,425,000
Seat 4: Kathy Liebert (Las Vegas, NV) $1,045,000
Seat 5: John D'Agostino (Egg Harbor, NJ) $2,295,000
Seat 6: Richard Festejo (Margate, NJ) $540,000

I'll be back blogging live very soon. Stay tuned! Here are some early photos of the final table:


Linda Johnson WPT announcer


Behind the scenes on the WPT set
****** Live Blogging Updates ******

5:11pm... Linda Johnson is prepping the audience and she said that today is Mike Sexton's birthday. I spotted Matt Matros in the crowd and bumped into Chris from 21 Outs. He's here rooting on his buddy Action Bob.

5:30pm... The production crew is doing audience shots and bringing the players in one by one. They had to do a few extra takes. Action should be starting soon.

5:37pm... Cards are in the air! Blinds are $25K-$50K with a $5K ante. The average chip stack is at $1,716,666. I have Kathy Liebert in the last longer bet with BJ who picked Al. (Thanks to BJ for the Courtney pic!)

5:44pm... Here are the final table payouts:

1st: $1,498,650
2nd: $799,280
3rd: $427,115
4th: $349,685
5th: $299,730
6th: $249,775

5:45pm... We have our first flop!

5:48pm... John D'Ag (so much easier to type D'Ag that D'Agostino) raised and Ricardo Festejo just moved all in over the top. John called. Ricardo Festejo had A-K and John D'Ag showed K-10. The flop was J-5-3 and Festejo was still ahead. The turn was a blank and an ace fell on the river to give Festejo the pot. He doubled up and has about $1 million in chips. Singer is the chipleader with over $3 million. Kathy is the short stack.

5:58pm... Kathy Liebert just won a pot with A-A. No one called her though.

6:13pm... We had a big hand. All the money went in on the turn. David Singer flopped a set with 10-10. However, Ricardo Festejo had a staright and a flush draw on a board of 10d-Jd-3h-9h with Qh-Jh. The river was an 8 and Ricardo Festejo doubled up again.

6:18pm... Kathy Liebert is getting too many jucied hands early. She just had K-K and won a small pot!

6:22pm... We've got a full house in media row. The usual suspects like BJ from Card Player and Jen & Heather from Poker Wire are here in addition to Danny from Poker Pages, Larry (from Bluff & Gutshot), and Papergrrl, who I met for the first time. There are some local media types here who are idiots and even a documentary film crew, who pretty much parked their asses here and are taking up space in the crmaped area they gave us to work in.

6:50pm... Players are back from a quick five minute crew break that lasted twenty minutes. Here's the updated chip count:

1 John D'Agostino $ 2,245,000
2 David Singer $ 2,105,000
3 Richardo Festejo $ 1,800,000
4 Robert "Action Bob" Hwang $ 1,740,000
5 Al Ardebili $ 1,355,000
6 Kathy Liebert $ 1,055,000

Yeah, BJ and my picks are running last and next to last! By the way, my brother Derek is in the building. He's in the poker room playing $6/12.

6:55pm... We're on a new level. The blinds are now $40K-$80K with a $10K ante.

7:20pm... Nothing new to update. Action Bob just bluffed at a pot with A-2.

7:26pm... Kathy Liebert moved all in with A-Q. John D'Ag called with J-J. Classic race. Al said he folded a Queen. Kathy flopped an ace and all her railbirds went wild. The turn and river didn't help John D'Ag and Kathy doubled up and now has $1.4 million.

7:32pm... Action Bob moved all in and the pro-Action Bob crowd cheered. He picke dup the pot and his stack is now at $1.2 million.

7:33pm... This is the "Action Bob Show." He moved all in again and the crowd let out an "Ooooooh!" He had 9-9 and John D'Ag called with 9-9!! And they chopped the pot.

7:45pm... Updated chip count courtesy of Poker Wire:

1 Robert "Action Bob" Hwang $ 2,550,000
2 Richard Festejo $ 2,300,000
3 David Singer $ 2,100,000
4 Kathy Liebert $ 1,275,000
5 John D'Agostino $ 1,100,000
6 Al Ardebili $ 1,000,000

7:53pm... According to super poker statistician BJ, we reached a milestone on the WPT. We went the most hands without an elimination. Currently we're on Hand 59, which broke the Legends of Poker at the Bicycle Casino record of 58 hands without a bust out.

7:55pm... We're on a new level. $15K antes. Blinds are $60K-$120K. Action Bob has $2.2 million in chips.

8:02pm... We had another big hand. Both Al Ardebili and Richard Festejo moved all in with A-Js. They chopped the pot.

8:07pm... TV time out. They have to change the tapes in the camera. Be back in five minutes. I gotta piss! Here's a chip count:

1 Richard Festejo $ 2,580,000
2 Robert "Action Bob" Hwang $ 1,870,000
3 John D'Agostino $ 1,850,000
4 Kathy Liebert $ 1,620,000
5 David Singer $ 1,450,000
6 Al Ardebili $ 930,000

8:24pm... We're back. Al Ardebili moved all in with 3c-3s. David Singer called with Js-9h. Al flopped a set when a 3 fell. On the turn David picked up a straight draw but the river didn't help him. The case 3 fell and Al Ardebili hit quad 3s. He doubled up and Singer is now the short stack.

8:39pm... On Hand 73, David Singer was eliminated in 6th place by Action Bob. Singer had A-8 and Action Bob showed 6-6, which held up. David Singer won $249,775. A new WPT record was set for the most hands played before the first elimination.

8:51pm... Al Ardebili moved all in and picked up the pot.

8:55pm... Kathy Liebert moved all in with A-8. John D'Ag's called with K-Q. Kathy flopped an ace and turned two air when an 8 hit. She doubled up and had $1.5 million in chips. Al Ardebili and Action Bob both had $2.4 million in chips.

9:02pm... Richard Festejo doubled up against Action Bob. Festejo had 5-5 and Action Bob showed Qs-Js. Both players moved all in on the flop of 4c-4s-8s. Action Bob didn't catch a flush or an over card and Festejo doubled up.

9:06pm... Action Bob and John D'Ag were all in preflop. Action Bob was short stacked and had 10h-9s while John D'Ag showed 10-10. They both flopped straight draws on a board of J-9-8. The turn and river didn't help Robert "Action Bob" Hwang. He was knocked out in 5th place and won $299,730.

9:13pm... New level. $100K-$200K blinds with $20K antes. Here's an updated chip count:

Ricardo Festejo $4M
Al Ardebili $2.15M
John D'Ag $1.9M
Kathy Liebert $1.5M

9:21pm... John D'Agostino was knocked out in 4th place by Ricardo Festejo. Both players were all in on a flop of Q-3-4. Festejo had Q-8 and D'Agostino had Q-2. The turn and river didn't help D'Agostino and he won $349,685. Rocardo Festejo amassed a hige chip lead. He had over 85% of the chips in play.

9:31pm... Al Ardebili doubled up against Ricardo Festejo. Ardebili had Q-Q and his Hilton Sisters held up against A-J. Kathy Liebert aid she folded A-J.

9:36pm... With a short stack, Kathy moved all in with A-7. Al Ardebili called with Qs-10s. He flopped a ten and a flush draw. Kathy's hand did not improve and she was eliminated in 3rd place. She played excellent poker for four days and held on with a short stack at the final table. She won $427,115 for third place. Al Ardebili had a tiny chip lead with $5.2 million to Richardo Festejo's $5.1 million. We're on a break while they prep for the money presentation.

9:55pm... The Borgata Babes who brought out the money are pretty hot! Still cleaning up the stage. Stay tuned.

10:03pm... Cards are back in the air. On the first hand of heads up play, Al Ardebili raised to $600K. Richard Festejo did not hesitate and he pushed all in. Ardebili eventually folded and Festejo took the chip lead.

10:13pm... I just saw one of the craziest hands since I started covering poker tournaments. On a borad of K-7-2, Ardebili checked, Festejo bet $1 million, and Ardebelli moved all in. Festejo thought for several minutes and called with A-2. It was an unbelievable call! Ardebelli showed 3d-2s and was domianted until a 3 spiked on the turn to give him two pair. Festejo still had outs but the river didn't help him. He doubled up Ardebelli. Festego's stack dropped to $1.1 million to Ardebelli's $9.2 million.

10:17pm... We have a new WPT champion after four hands of heads up play! Al Ardebelli won $1,498,650 and a seat in the WPT Championships at the Bellagio. Richardo Festejo won $799,280 for second place. Richardo Festejo moved all in with 8h-7h. Al Ardebili showed Ah-9c. The flop was: K-5-2. The turn was a 5 and the river was 6. Al Ardebili won the WPT Borgata Open win Ace high. Congrats to Al and Ricardo! Both players won satellites to get into this event. And Kathy Liebert made history with the highest finish ever by a female on the WPT.


We have a winner! Al Ardebili the new WPT Champion
posted by Pauly at 9/22/2005 04:20:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WPT Borgata Open Day 3

I'm back at the Borgata in Atlantic City, New Jersey for day three of the World Poker Tour Borgata Open. It's a $10,000 buy-in event. Action was moved down to the poker room for the final seven tables. 62 players remain with Franklin Caldwell as the chipleader. The final 62 are all trying to win the $1.5 million first place prize. The top 45 players make the money. We're going to be playing until we get down to 6 players. I expect to be here until the wee hours of the morning.

This morning, I ate at the Denny's next to my no-tell motel. I'd prefer Waffle House, but there are none north of the Mason Dixon line. I ordered the French Totast special with two slices of bacon and two sausage links. My waitress was estatic when I left her a 30% tip. I got addicted to eatin croissants for breakfast in Europe.

Here's an updated chip count (as of last night) courtesy of Poker Wire:

1 Franklin "Dee" Caldwell $ 485,000
2 Mike "The Mouth" Matusow $ 472,500
3 John D'Agostino $ 471,000
4 David "The Dragon" Pham $ 355,500
5 Robert Hwang $ 339,500
6 Tom Coan $ 335,500
7 JC Tran $ 304,500
8 Karlo Lopez $ 304,000
9 Surinder Sunar $ 291,000
10 Josh Arieh $ 282,000
11 Eric Haber $ 267,000
12 Evelyn Ng $ 263,500
13 Clonie Gowen $ 252,000
14 Sidney Miller $ 251,000
15 Jukebox" John McCann $ 246,000
16 Luke Chung $ 222,000
17 Doug Johnson $ 206,500
18 Chuck Furey $ 196,000
19 Barry Greenstein $ 193,500
20 Eddie Ting $ 181,500
21 Steve Zoine $ 177,000
22 Carmine Tirone $ 173,000
23 Robert Chasen $ 169,500
24 David Singer $ 166,500
25 Neal Gersony $ 165,500
26 Tex Barch $ 162,000
27 Richard Festejo $ 159,000
28 Herbert Cheng $ 157,000
29 John Whiting $ 156,000
30 Mike 'Stoney' Stonehall $ 151,500
31 Jon Gordon $ 146,500
32 Steve Dannenman $ 146,000
33 Ari Abramowitz $ 145,500
34 Al Ardebili $ 145,000
35 Tom Martelli $ 132,500
36 Greg Fondacaro $ 130,000
37 Erick Lindgren $ 114,000
38 Mark Matheys $ 113,000
39 Steve Rosen $ 106,000
40 Wooyang Lin $ 105,500
41 Denis Ethier $ 104,000
42 Rich Kirsch $ 104,000
43 Steve Kingsley $ 101,000
44 Richard Devito $ 92,500
45 Paul Snead $ 90,000
46 Mohamad Kamalzadeh $ 90,000
47 Thomas Schreiber $ 88,000
48 Fritz Stoner $ 86,000
49 Thomas Koral $ 85,000
50 Robert Winters $ 80,000
51 David Levi $ 75,500
52 Robert Ozello $ 64,000
53 Kathy Liebert $ 63,000
54 Steven 'Lev' Leveson $ 54,500
55 Kevin O'Brien $ 48,500
56 Dennis Summers $ 43,500
57 Leonard Santangelo $ 38,500
58 Richard Anthony $ 38,000
59 Eric Fessler $ 32,500
60 Mark Schaech $ 32,000
61 Chris "Armenian Express" Gregorian $ 30,000
62 Brian Powell $ 28,000

***** Live Blogging Updates *****

11:01pm... In the first funny moment of the day, Mike Matusow walked over to WSOP main event runner-up Steve Dannemann and yelled, "You ruined my life!"

11:07pm... Cards are in there air! We're on Level 15. Blinds are $1500-$3000. Antes are $500. 17 players until the money. The avg. stack is 166,129

11:10pm... Here are a few photos:


Barry Greenstein and Mike Matusow


Clonie Gowen stares down the opposition


Steve Dannemann aka WSOP runner up


Erick Lindgren in deep thought

11:40pm... 7 players have been eliminated already. We're down to 55. 10 more players until the money. WSOP bracelet winner Dennis Ethier was busted by David Singer. His 9-9 lost to Singer's K-K. I can see the bubble on the horizon and it looks dandy.

12:01pm... Erick Lindgren survived an all in with J-J versus Wooying Lin's 9-9.

12:24pm... Just saw Kathy Liebert's A-A hold up against A-J. She doubled up. Chris Grigorian was just busted when his A-K lost to J-J. "Two jacks," he yelled over to BJ at Card Player. "I lost to two Jacks!" 52 players remaining with an average stack around $190K.

12:30pm... Luke Chung knocked out Paul Snead when his AKs beat Snead's A-Ko. Chung caught a diamond flush to eliminate Snead.

12:46pm... Bouncin Round the Room: The poker room is cramped with spectators on the rail. At least the Borgata has done a good job roping off the area and posting security guards. We actually have wifi here which is amazing since the poker room is located in the basement. A lot of the players are aware that the media is writing about them. A few players have come up to BJ to see what he's writing about them. BJ was working on a photo that Clonie Gowen was in when she wadeed over during the break. She said, "Why do I always have a goofy look on my face in every picture I take?"

12:50pm... Players are back from a break. Blinds are $2K-$4K. Antes are $500. 51 players are remaining. Franklin Caldwell is still your chip leader.

1:00pm... There are three females remaining and Kathy Liebert, Evelyn Ng, and Clonie Gowen are all sitting at the same table in Seats 7, 8, and 9. Here's the proof:


Three Queens (click on photo to enlarge)

1:13pm... Steve Dannemann was knocked out. Barry Greenstein just knocked out Mike "The Mouth" Matusow. Barry flopped trips with 10-4 and Matusow flopped top pair with A-9. All the money went in on the turn. 47 players remain. We're near the money bubble.

1:30pm... We're on the bubble! Play is hand-to-hand. Steve Zoine was just busted in 47th place.

1:40pm... Fritz Stoner was just eliminated on the bubble. We're in the money!! The remaining 45 players are guaranteed to win at least $12,489. They are currently redrawing for new seats. Here's the payout list:

1st: $1,498,650
2nd: $799,280
3rd: $427,115
4th: $349,685
5th: $299,730
6th: $249,775
7th: $199,820
8th: $149,865
9th: $99,910
10th-12th: $64,942
13th-15th: $49,955
16th-18th: $34,969
19th-27th: $24,978
28th-36th: $14,987
37th-45th: $12,489

2:08pm... David Levi was just knocked out in 45th place when his K-K lost to Robert Hwang's A-A. Ouch. Levi won $12,489. There are 41 players remaining. Average stack is $239,534.

2:11pm... By the way, thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes. And thanks for playing in the WPBT event last night on Titan Poker. Congrats to "PI45" for winning it all. Too bad Maudie bubbled out!

2:15pm... Clonie Gowen knocked out Josh Arieh in 41st place. Josh had 9s-3s and moved all in on the flop with a flush draw. Clonie had A-A and they held up.

2:35pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I wandered over to the Italian deli and got a cannoli. Those rock. I also saw Josh Arieh walking through the casino with a dejected look on his face after getting busted by Clonie.

Last 5 Pros I Took a Piss Next to:
1. David Williams
2. David Pham
3. David Singer
4. Gavin Smith
5. John D'Agostino

2:40pm... Players are back from a break. Blinds are $3K-$6K with $1K antes. 39 players are left. Average stack is $264,102. Richard Festejo is the chipleader with $608K. Sid Miller is second with $600K. John D'Agastino is third with $582K. Barry Greenstien and Erick Lindgren have under $100K are are among the short stacks.

2:55pm.... Barry Greenstien was just eliminated in 38th place by Wooying Lin. Barry moved all in from the big blind with Ks-5s and Wooying had 7-7 which held up.

3:08pm... We're down to 36 players and there was a redraw for new seats. 4 tables left and action is nine handed. 30 players to go before we stop for the night.

3:45pm... Action has slowed down. 32 players remain. Average stack is $264,102. Kathy Liebert doubled up.

4:00pm... David The Dragon Pham cracked the Hilton Sisters when he turned a full house with 6-6.

4:20pm... Clonie Gowen was knocked out in 31st place when her A-10 lost to A-Q. She won $14,987. Kathy Liebert and Evelyn Ng are still alive.

4:31pm... Tex Barch busted out in 30th place. Tex had A-Q but lost to Wooying's K-9 when two Kings flopped.

4:40pm... Erick Lindgren was eliminated in 29th place by Greg Fondacaro when his A-J could not win against 8-8.

5:02pm... 27 players remain on three tables. Average chip count is $381,481. Blinds are $4/8K with $1K.

5:15pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I heard that Phil Ivey was down almost a million throwing dice the other night. Someone spotted him cashing out $500K at the cage a little while ago.

5:30pm... 26 players remaining. Evy is one of the short stacks. Kathy Liebert has over $500K in chips.

5:48pm... David Singer knocked out Luke Chung in 25th place. Singer's A-J outflopped Chung's A-Q. Singer now has over $1 million in chips along with John D'Agostino. 23 players left after Ari Abramowitz was just busted.

6:15pm... 22 players left. John D'Agostino is the chipleader with $1.225M. Players are on a dinner break. Action will resume at 7:15pm. Time for a quick liquid dinner upstairs at B Bar. Here's the top 5 chip counts according to Poker Wire:

1 John D'Agostino $ 1,225,000
2 David Singer $ 981,000
3 Carmine Tirone $ 710,000
4 David "The Dragon" Pham $ 685,000
5 Richard Festejo $ 660,000

Some Notables:
7 Kathy Liebert $ 625,000
10 JC Tran $ 460,000
13 Evelyn Ng $ 355,000
17 Surinder Sunar $ 258,000

7:15pm... Cards are back in the air. Blinds are $5K-$10K with $1,500 antes. Level is 90 minutes long.

7:26pm... Steve Rosen was eliminated by Wooyang Lin. Rosen had A-Q and lost to 8-8. Rosen is out in 22nd place and won $24,978. Wooyang then doubled up the sort stack a few hands later.

7:30PM... Bouncin Round the Room: VVP Sighting! WPT announcer Vice Van Patten has been seen walking around the tournament area. Kathy Liebert got some chocolate gelato from one of the places upsairs. It looked very tasty. I might have to get some for myself.

7:36pm... Thomas Schreiber is out in 21st place. 20 players remain on three tables.

7:42pm... Robert Chasen is out in 20th place when his A-K lost a coinflip to Richard Festejo's 8-8. There seems to be a trend that after a dinner break: players losen up and there's a bunch of all-ins in the first few orbits. Three players are out inside a half an hour.

7:50pm... John D'Agastino added to his stack after he knocked out Dee Franklin Caldwell in 19th place. We're down to the final two tables and the players are going to redraw. D'Agastino's stack is now over $2 million.

8:24pm... Action has slowed down. The Dragon lost a big pot though. BJ is doing a phone interview with a Philly newspaper. I'm trying to catch up on all my email that jammed my inbox while I was away last week.

8:50pm... Kathy Liebert's stack grows. She busted Tom Coan in 18th place. Coan won $34,969. By the way Kathy Liebert won her first WSOP bracelet in 2004. She also made 2 final tables on the WPT and has earned over $2 million in prize money.

9:05pm... Players are on a break. Blinds are $6K-$12K with $2K blinds. John D'Agostino is the chipleader with $1,985,000. 17 players remain.

9:20pm... There was a JetBlue flight that had busted landing gear and everyone in the poker room was watching the news as the plane was landing. Courteny Friel was captivated by the events and had her eyes on one of the many plasma screen TVs in the poker room. Anyway, as the plane landed the poker room broke out in applause. Then the front wheel caught on fire and everyone gasped for a few moments until the fire went out and the plane came to a halt.

9:25pm... Surinder Sunar caught a lucky card on the river to double up against David Singer. With A-9 Sunar rivered a 9 against Singer's 8-8.

9:35pm... Surinder Sunar doubled up again when his J-J held up against 8-8.

9:50pm... Tom Martelli's Q-J was knocked out in 17th place by Evelyn Ng's K-5.

10:25pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I decided to get some Gelato upstairs. So far today at the Borgata, I've drank three iced teas, one OJ, ate a canoli, one small portion of Cherry gelato, and a Panini sandwich with marinated chicken, mozarella, and a tasty tomato sauce.

10:30pm... David The Dragon Pham was knocked out in 16th place by Wooying Lin. Pham had 7-6s against Lin's A-J. Pham won $34,969. We're down to 15 players.

Here's an updated chip count:
1 John D'Agostino $ 2,250,000
2 David Singer $ 1,200,000
3 Wooying Lin $ 830,000
4 Al Ardebili $ 795,000
5 Richard Festejo $ 795,000
6 Sid Miller $ 660,000
7 Robert 'Action Bob' Hwang $ 600,000
8 Karlo Lopez $ 596,000
9 JC Tran $ 500,000
10 Greg Fandacaro $ 440,000
11 Carmine Tirone $ 400,000
12 Kathy Liebert $ 385,000
13 Robert Chasen $ 275,000
14 Evelyn Ng $ 195,000
15 Surinder Sunar $ 140,000

Here's who made the money so far:
45th David Levi ($12,489)
44th Mark Matheys ($12,489)
43rd Douglas Johnson ($12,489)
42nd Robert Winters ($12,489)
41st Josh Arieh ($12,489)
40th Michael Stonehill ($12,489)
39th Thomas R. Koral ($12,489)
38th Barry Greenstein ($12,489)
37th Edwin Ting ($12,489)
36th Eric Haber ($14,987)
35th Mohamad Kamlzadeh ($14,987)
34th Jonathan Gordon ($14,987)
33rd Charles J. Furey ($14,987)
32nd Herbert Cheng ($14,987)
31st Clonie Gowan ($14,987)
30th John Derick Barch ($14,987)
29th Erick A. Lindgren ($14,987)
28th Neal I. Gersony ($14,987)
27th John A. Mcann ($24,978)
26th Steven Kingsley ($24,978)
25th Luke Chung ($24,978)
24th Ari Abramowitz ($24,978)
23rd John Whiting ($24,978)
22nd Steven Rosen ($24,978)
21st Thomas Schreiber ($24,978)
20th Richard Kirsch ($24,978)
19th Franklin D. Caldwell ($24,978)
18th Thomas Coan ($34,969)
17th Thomas Martelli ($34,969)
16th David "The Dragon" Pham ($34,969)

11:00pm... Players are back from a break. Blinds are $8K-$16K with $2K blinds. John D'Agostino is the chipleader with $2.137M. Average stack is $686,666 with 15 players remaining.

11:20pm... Surinder Sunar and his A-K was eliminated in 15th place by Al Ardebili's K-K. Karlo Lopez was knocked out in 14th place by John D'Agostino. With K-J, Lopez flopped top pair and moved all in but D'Agastino flopped a set. Both Sunar and Lopez won $49,955. 13 players remain. Average stack is $792,307.

11:34pm... Evelyn Ng doubled up against Al Ardebili with K-K. She's still the shortstack. John D'Agastino has $2.6 million in chips.

11:48pm... John D'Agastino is on a rush and has over $3 million in chips. He just knocked out Carmine Tirone in 13th place. Trione flopped TPTK with A-10, but D'Agastino had the Hilton Sisters. Tirone won $49,955. 12 players are left. 6 more have to get busted, then I can go home and sleep.

12:01am... Evy Ng doubled up with A-K against Greg Fandacaro's Q-Q. She is no longer the short stack!

12:45pm... Players are back from a break. We're at a new level. Blinds are $10K-$20K and antes are $3K.

1:00pm... Robert Chasen's Q-J was busted by Wooying Lin's A-Q. Chasen took 12th place and won $64,942. Kathy Liebert is the shortstack.

1:05pm... G-Vegas celebrities "The Mark" and his lovely wife "The River Queen" just arrived at the Borgata to play some poker.

1:41pm... Evy Ng was eliminated in 11th place by David Singer. Her A-9 could not beat Singer's 4-4. 10 players remain and they are redrawing for seats at the final table. 4 more to go before play is stopped for the night. Average stack is over $1 million.

Here's the final table chip count:
1 John D'Agostino $ 2,500,000
2 Robert "Action Bob" Hwang $ 1,750,000
3 David Singer $ 1,571,000
4 Al Ardebili $ 1,108,000
5 Richard Festejo $ 923,000
6 Greg Fandacaro $ 650,000
7 Sid Miller $ 538,000
8 JC Tran $ 521,000
9 Wooying Lin $ 390,000
10 Kathy Liebert $ 300,000

2:08pm... Wooying Lin was knocked out in 10th place by David Singer. With a Queen on the flop, both players moved all in. SInger had A-Q while Lin showed Q-9. Lin won $64,942.

2:30pm... JC Tran doubled up against John D'Agastino.

2:30am... I've been here for 16 hours now. 3 more players to go. I hope I can leave by 4:30am!!

2:45pm... JC Tran doubled up against Greg Fandacaro. Tran had A-Q and Fandacaro showed A-J. Fandacaro flopped a Jack, but Tran turned a Queen.

3:00am... Sid Miller was knocked out by Robert "Action Bob" Hwang in 9th place. Miller had A-Q versus Hwang's J-10. Hwang flopped trips and that's all she wrote for Miller, who won $99,110 for 9th place. 2 more to go. I keep falling asleep, I'm so exhausted.

3:30pm... Been here for 17 hours. Ughhhhh. 2 more to go. John D'Agastino lost a big pot to David Singer when he missed a straight draw. Singer had Q-Q and took over the chip lead.

3:53am... Kathy Liebert doubled up with A-A versus Al Ardebili's J-J. She moved up to 4th in chips.

4:06am... Players are on a break. I spotted a few high priced hookers lingering around upstairs. I could use a stiff drink.

4:14am... Gavin Smith sat down at the same table as the River Queen and the Mark. It's a $1/2 NL table but it's late and Gavin had been drinking. Anyway, the River Queen sucked out on Gavin! She spiked a flush on the river.

4:20am... Players returned from a break. Blinds are $20K-$40K with $5K blinds.

4:30am... I've been here for over 18 straight hours. We're down to 7 players and reached the TV bubble! David Singer knocked out Greg Fandacaro. Singer had 3-3 and flopped a set. Greg Fandacaro showed A-7 and pushed all in with the nut flush draw. He caught running aces for trips, but that gave Singer a full house. Singer is the chipleader. Greg Fandacaro won $149,865 for 7th place. I can put my impending suicide on hold. David Singer is the chipleader with over $3 million. JC Tran is the shortstack with $320K.

4:50am... JC Tran was eliminated in 7th place in a three way pot. He had Q-Q. Al Ardebili showed A-A. And John D'Agostino said "I should fold this," and called anyway with Ac-Jc. He flopped the nut flush draw but his hand did not hold up. Al Ardebili won the main pot and side pot and JC Tran was busted. Tran won $199,820. Players will return tomorrow at 5pm for the final table.

Final Table Chip Counts:
1 David Singer $ 3,200,000
2 John D'Agostino $ 2,295,000
3 Robert 'Action Bob' Hwang $ 1,795,000
4 Al Ardebili $ 1,425,000
5 Kathy Liebert $ 1,045,000
6 Richard Festejo $ 540,000

See ya tomorrow. I need to write for an hour then it's off to sleep.
posted by Pauly at 9/21/2005 11:10:00 AM | Permalink |

 
WPT Borgata Open

I'm blogging live from the Borgata Casino in lovely Atlantic City, NJ. I'll be here over the next few days covering the WPT Borgata Open. Buy-in is $10,000 and players start with $20K in chips. I'm sitting in press row with BJ from Card Player along with Heather and Jen from Poker Wire. It's a mini-WSOP reunion.

I can't tell you how much I missed working along side those cool folks. We seriously bonded during our six weeks together and spent many moment working until sun up. They are some really great people and make the insanity of covering a tournament a lot easier with their comedic skills, their professionalism, and their willingness to share information.

When I walked into the huge ballroom upstairs, I found myself standing next to Courtney Friel, the new hostess of the World Poker Tour. She's stunning! Her episodes won't hit the air until March 2006.

I missed Day One of the action because I was flying from Amsterdam to New York City. You can head over to Poker Wire or Card Player to see what happened. This year's WPT Borgata event started with 515 players. The prize pool is over $1.5 million and the top 45 players are getting paid. Action will end tonight when there are 45 players remaining.

Here's the payouts (thanks to BJ):

1st: $1,498,650

2nd: $799,280

3rd: $427,115

4th: $349,685

5th: $299,730

6th: $249,775

7th: $199,820

8th: $149,865

9th: $99,910

10th-12th: $64,942

13th-15th: $49,955

16th-18th: $34,969

19th-27th: $24,978

28th-36th: $14,987

37th-45th: $12,489

Over half the field was eliminated on Day One which inlcuded a ton of big name. Here are some notable bustouts on the first day: Johnny World Hennigan, Mel Judah, Chris Bigler, Liz Lieu, T.J. Cloutier, Edward Moncada, David Williams, My Main Man Freddy Deeb, Johnny Bax, Paul Darden, Andrew Black, John Myung, Miami John Cerruto, Antonio Esfandiari, Jennifer Tilly, Harry Demitriou, Mike Wattel, Phil Ivey, Toto Leonidas, Mimi Tran, Hoyt Corkins, Padraig Parkinson, Brad Kondracki, Dan Heimiller, Phil Unabomber Laak, and Amnon Filippi.

At the end of Day One, only 285 players survived out of 515. Tom Coan emerged as the early chip leader with over $280K in chips. David Benyamine was a close second along with WSOP runner-up Steve Dannemann is among the chipleaders with Chip Jett and David Pham.

Early on Day Two Chris Jesus Ferguson was knocked out when his Big Slick lost to A-9. Ouch. Even Jesus gets kicked in the junk every once in a while. Also eliminated were: Tim Phan, Mike Gracz, Quinn Do, Tony Cousineau, David Benyamine, Erik Seidel, Bob Stupak, Chip Jett, Carlos Mortensen, Cyndy Violette, and Steve Brecher.


New WPT Hostess Courtney Friel (click to enlarge)


Erick Lingren (for Heather & the April Sisters)

****** Live Blogging Updates ******

4:54pm... Bouncin Round the Room: In the corner they have a pretzel and root beer stand. They sell root beer floats and two cute Russian girls are working the booth. I was trying to see if they wanted to go up to BJ's room and party later tonight. Next to the pretzel stand, they also have a Dunkin Donuts booth! I spotted the WPT camera crew doing a few promos with Courtney Friel. I chatted for a few minutes with Barry Greenstein. He wanted to know a little bit more about the EPT.

5:15pm... Recent Eliminations (courtesy of Poker Wire): Allen Cunningham, Minh Nguyen, Mickey Appleman, JC Tran, Farzad Bonyadi, and Jean-Robert Bellande.

6:08pm... Alan Goehring has been knocked out. Players are on a dinner break until 7pm. 11 tables are left or about 110 players. Luke Chung is our chipleader with about $440K. Time for me to do my football pool picks!

7:09pm... Players are back from dinner break. Blinds are $800 and $1600 with $300 antes.

7:30pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I went downstairs to the Italian deli and I just devouvered one kick ass cannoli. The room is quiet right now, which is odd after a dinner break. Usually players losen up and there a lot of all ins. Steve Zolotow and Blair Rodman are out. However, Kathy Liebert, Josh Arieh, Erick Lindgren, Surinder Sunar, Layne Flack, Kristy Gazes, Clonie Gowen, John D'Agostino, Steve Dannemann, Evelyn Ng, Ted Lawson, Barry Greenstein, Mike Matusow, Tex Barch, Russell Rosenblum, and David Singer are still alive. I just had a quick conversation with Andy Bloch. He suggested that they go to 9 handed tables to speed up the action, even 7 or 8 handed. That way, it forces players to play more hands and the tourneys don't last forever.

7:50pm... Russell Rosenbloom has been eliminated.

8:00pm... I posted pics of me annoucning the final table in Barcelona over at the Tao of Pauly. Take a peek!

8:05pm... We're down to 10 tables. TJ Cloutier is standing in front of us near media row. I wonder if he was playing craps earlier?

8:30pm... Syracuse Chris has been busted out.

8:35pm... How about some more pics?


The remaining players


Evelyn Ng


John D'Agastino
8:50pm... Bouncin Round the Room: It's been a long time since I did this installment! Back by popular demand...

Last 5 Pros I Took a Piss Next to:
1. Erick Lindgren
2. Josh Arieh
3. Steve Dannemann
4. Tex Barch
5. Andy Bloch

9:12pm... Kristy Gazes was busted by David the Dragon Pham. Bill Gazes was also eliminated.

9:25pm... Layne Flack has been eliminated.

10:59pm... I just got busted from the Titan tourney. Derek had his A-A cracked. Ouch.

11:08pm... We're down to 72 players. Franklin Caldwell is the chipleader.

11:30pm... Quote of the Day (courtesy of Jen from Poker Wire): "Of course I knew what a blowjob was, I was in junior high school for God's sake!"

12:17am... Action has completed for Day 2. There are about 62 players remaining. Mike Matusow and John D'Agastino are among the top chip leaders. Franklin Caldell is the chipleader. There were some other notable players still left including Clonie Gowen, Kathy Liebert, Evelyn Ng, Tex Barch, Josh Arieh, Erick Lindgren, David Pham, JC Tran, Barry Greenstien, David SInger, Steve Dannemann, and Chris Grigorian. Play will resume at 11am on Wednesday. Tomorrow we'll play all the way down to 6. So we'll have two bubbles... the money bubble and the TV bubble.
posted by Pauly at 9/20/2005 04:20:00 PM | Permalink |

 
New WPBT Tournament Tonight!

Just a reminder... Iggy set up a new WPBT tournament for us on my birthday of all days. Everyone's been bitching all summer long about having another blogger tournament, so where is everyone? There were only 17 people signed up so far. That's not impressive numbers.
What's the deal? Iggy worked pretty damn hard to set this up and I'm skipping out on work coverign the WPT just to play.

So what's your excuse? Sign up and fund your Titan Poker account now! If you don't like Titan, then tough shit. I'd prefer to play on Poker Stars or Full Tilt but if we do, that means some of our closest friends cannot play in the WPBT events because they work for those online sites. Titan is the best alternative.

I'll be running up a Hilton Sisters Challenge during the tournament, if that's incentive for you to play. If you crack A-A with Q-Q, I'll give you an autographed copy of one of my novels and I'll throw in a $10 gift certificate to Blockbuster.

Sign up today. Don't wait until the last minute!

What: WPBT No Limi Tournament
Where: Titan Poker
When: Tuesday, September 20th at 9pm ET
Buy-in: $20 + 1
Password: thehamma

This event is open to everyone... bloggers and readers!

posted by Pauly at 9/20/2005 12:02:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Some Pics

I posted a few pics over at the Tao of Pauly including one of Gus Hansen sleeping on a table. Go see for yourself.
posted by Pauly at 9/19/2005 10:44:00 AM | Permalink |

 
New WPBT Tournament on Tuesday

Just a reminder... Iggy set up a new WPBT tournament for us, on my birthday of all days. And yes, I'll be running up a Hilton Sisters Challenge during the tournament! If you crack A-A with Q-Q, I'll give you an autographed copy of one of my novels and I'll throw in a $10 gift certificate to Blockbuster.

Sign up today. Don't wait until the last minute!

What: WPBT Tournament
Where: Titan Poker
When: Tuesday, September 20th at 9pm ET
Buy-in: $20 + 1
Format: No Limit
Dress Code: Pants are optional
Password: thehamma

I'll be in Atlantic City covering the WPT Borgata Open on Tuesday, but I will sneak off to play in this event. See you there!

Yeah, I leave Spain in less than twelve hours and I'm pretty sad to go. I must say that I kinda like it here... a lot. Man, if I didn't have the Borgata Open and the Boatyard Bash, I'd stay here in Europe for a few more weeks. Did I happen to mention how I'm slowly falling in love with Spanish women?

Anyway, I stayed up all night after I wrote until sun up. I wandered around Barcelona all morning taking a few pictures and thinking about everything that went down this past week. I decided that I am the Forrest Gump of the poker bloggers. I'm the luckiest person I know. I'm just a dumb ass who somehow gets fortunate time after time.

While I was announcing the final table last night, I had one of those moments... how the hell did I get here?

One year ago just a few days shy of my 32nd birthday, I was broke, losing my hair, kicked out of my studio and without a place to live, and unemployed (unless you count playing Party Poker as a job). You all know what's happened to me since then. Un-fuckin-believable.

Stupid is, stupid does.

Next stop... New York City.
posted by Pauly at 9/18/2005 07:31:00 PM | Permalink |

 
The Barcelona Open - Day 2

Well, I'm back at the Casino de Barcelona for the second and final day of action on the EPT. It seems like I only left here a few hours ago! I'm pretty excited. The bubble time is always fun. And today we have two bubbles... the money bubble and the TV bubble.

As the conclusion of my first EPT event is underway, I must say that I was impressed with how everything was set up. Sure, they weren't prepared that so many people would want to play, but overall everything was very professional. If it wasn't so damn expensive to travel through Europe, I'd love to be on the road follwoing the EPT on every destination. Alas, I have other obligations and tournaments to cover over the remainder of this year. But I'll be back in 2006 to cover at least one or two EPT events.

It's raining in Spain today. I didn't think it rained in Spain. Oh well. Last night it was pouring when I left around 5am. I caught a cab with Howard from Poker Stars and Brandon Schaefer. In order to catch a cab, we had to fight off a crowd of drunks who were kicked out of the casino. Yeah, casinos are not 24 hours here.

This afternoon, I ate lunch at the mall next to the Princess Hotel. Man, it was jam packed with hot women on a Saturday afternoon. Talk about leaps and bounds from the skinny toothless crack whores who roamed the hallways at the Redneck Riviera.

Moving on...

44 players are left. Here's an unofficial chip count courtesy of TK from Blonde Poker. The Great Dane appears to be the chip leader.

Gus Hansen 219.2k
Mika Puro 207k
Anders Gidgon 205.8k
Peter Gunnarson 192.8k
Nicholas Martin 173.9k
Feriould Romain 167.5k
Jan Slavik 103.9k
Luca Pagano 101.2k
Peter Ohlson 96.9k
Mike Luumi (?) 94.6k
Joachim Geigert 92.7k
AnbJorn Hagd (?) 87.5k
Kirill Gerasimov 85.1k
Richard Redmond 83k
Carlos Mortensen 73.4k
Jemil Butt 70.5k
Bueno Patrick 67.9k
Dario Alioto 64.5k
Patrick ?? 62.8k
Richard Ashby 62.6k
Fougeron Thomas 62k
Jan Boubli 61.6k
Greek Jack Dionysiou 60.1k
Christer Johannson 56.7k
Ben Callinan 50.5k
Alex Bowler 49.8k
Eskillon Hans 49.4k
Thomas Gunderson 49.1k
Ranigal Simms 45.2k
Iwan Jones 43.1k
Robert Binellii 42.7k
Richard Baldwin 42.7k
Patrick Martenson 39k
Luke Smith 37.7k
Anton Berstromm 37k
Hakon Warstead (?) 36.3k
Michael Zasdenberg 34.6k
Michael English 30.8k
Steve Day 28.7k
"Smokin" Steve Vladar 26.1k
Richard White 20.2k
Edik 19.8k
Liam Flood 18.3k

I will be posting the payouts as soon as they are relased. Stay tuned for some live blogging updates! And there's a small chance that I will be doing some annoucning/emcee'ing today. Action was supposed to resume at 3:30pm local time, but that's a few minutes away and it looks like that's not going to happen.

***** Live Blogging Updates *****

3:37pm... Cards are in the air! Blinds are 3000/6000 antes are 600. 43 players are starting Day 2. They are not taping anything until the final table, so my short-lived European TV career has come to an end. David Hasselhoff can breathe a sigh of relief. Although, I hear I'm huge in Belgium. (I love that "line" from the 1990s flick Singles when Matt Dillon played the stoner lead singer of Citizen Dick, which also included actual members from Pearl Jam, and he told a music reporter that his band was big in Europe.)

3:44pm... Here are the payouts. Top 27 pay. EPT final TV tables are 8 handed.

Final Table Payouts:
1. 416,000 Euros
2. 228,000 Euros
3. 117,000 Euros
4. 91,000 Euros
5. 78,000 Euros
6. 65,000 Euros
7. 52,000 Euros
8. 39,000 Euros

And the rest:
9. 26,000 Euros
10-12th 15,600 Euros
13-15th 13,000 Euros
16-18th 10,400 Euros
19-27th 7,800 Euros

3:55pm... We have a writer's pool going on the time the final table will end. Here's who has who:

Matt from Gutshot 12:45am
TK from Blonde Poker 3:15am
Howard from Poker Stars 2:30am
Tom from Antes Up 2:31am
Pauly 4:00am

4:00pm... Here are some random pics:


The final 5 tables


Media Row


Moving all in
4:20pm... I was having coffee with a few folks from Poker Stars and Isabelle Mercier sat down. I asked her about what she thought of the tournament structure at the EPT. The levels are 45 minutes and she said they were too short.

4:35pm... We're down to 29 players!

5:01pm... We've reached the bubble. 28 players are left. Gus Hansen's stack is now almost 290K.

5:08pm... Former WSOP champion Carlos Mortensen bubbled out in 28th place when his 10-8 ran into A-J. All remaining players made the money and will win at least $7800 Euros.

5:10pm... The best name at this year's EPT has to be Jemil Butt from Norway.

5:13pm... Players are on a ten minute break while the player's color up. I spoke to Christer Johansen for a few seconds. He started the day with 47K and now he has over 137K. He was involved in the huge hand yesterday when his A-A held up against Gus Hansen's A-7s (Gus flopped a nut flush draw and a gutshot straight draw) and the wild Finnish kid Ilari's Hilton Sisters.

5:25pm... Blinds are 5K/10K with 1K antes. 27 players remaining.

5:35pm... I can't keep up. Everyone is going all in right now. Richard Ashby from England was just elimnated in 25th place when his Hilton Sisters were cracked by J-J. 24 players are left. Mike Luumi took 27th and Peter Ohlson busted out in 26th place. They all won $7,800 Euros.

5:45pm... Christer Johansen doubled up. He now has almost 300K.

6:00pm... I spoke to John Duthie, creator of the EPT and he said some positive things about my annoucing stint yesterday. "It's good to hear an American voice do poker. It's proper." His feelings were echoed by one of the guys in the "truck." He explained, "When you hear a documentary, you expect to hear a British voice. With poker, it's natural to hear an American voice. It sounds right." Maybe I can parlay this into a gig! Ah, probably not. They were all being nice. I'm glad I didn't fuck up as a pinch hitter.

6:11pm... Were down to 21 players. Thomas Gundersen finsihed in 23rd and Ben Calliman took 22nd. They both won $7,800 Euros.

6:20pm... We're down to 20. Luca Pagano was eliminated when his K-J ran into K-Q. Who say's the Kournikova doesn't win? Gus Hansen is over 400K now. Gus with chips is a dangerous thing.

6:45pm... I had a quick bite to eat at the bar with Tom Murphy. We had a great discussion on the different styles of play from the different Europeans as compared to how Americans play. It could become great material for a future article. In short, the Scandanvians/Nordic countries are hyper-aggressive. And most Europeans think Americans play too tight.

7:00pm... We're down to 12 players. Gus Hansen has over 700K in chips right now. Andreas Hagen was 19th, Richard Redmond took 18th, Joakim Geigert busted out in 17th, Peter Gunnarsson was 16th, Nicolas Martin finished in 15th, Iwan Jones busted out in 14th, and Thomas Fougerou was out in 13th.

7:35pm... We're down to 9 players. Michel Zajdenberg was out in 12th, Patrick Bueno took 11th and Jemil Butt busted out in 10th place. We've reached the TV table bubble!

8:00pm... We're down to 8 players when Mika Puro was knocked out in 9th place. Everyone is on a dinner break while they set up the TV table. Action will resume at 9:15. Here's who's left: Gus Hansen, Patrick Martensson, Jan Boubli, Romain Feriolo, Christer Johansson, Patrick Antonius, Anotn Bergstrom, and Dario Alioto.

9:55pm... After a huge delay, the final table is ready to begin. Cards are in the air! Here's who made it:

Seat 1: Gus Hansen (Coppenhagen, Denmark) $743K
Seat 2: Patrick Martensson (Stockholm, Sweden) $281K
Seat 3: Jan Boubli (France) $292K
Seat 4: Romain Feriolo (Marabella, Spain) $282K
Seat 5: Christer Johansson (Holliken, Sweden) $885K = Chipleader
Seat 6: Patrick Antonius (Helsinki, Finland) $331K
Seat 7: Anotn Bergstrom (Lund, Sweden) $338,500
Seat 8: Dario Alioto (Palermo, Italy) $87,500

Seat 1: Gus Hansen (Denmark) 3 time WPT Champion


Seat 2: Patrick Mortensson (Sweden)


Seat 3: Jan Boulbi (France)


Seat 4: Romain Feriolo (Spain)


Seat 5: Christer Johansson (Sweden)


Seat 6: Patrik Antonius (Finland)


Seat 7: Anton "Doogie Howser" Bergstroem (Sweden)


Seat 8: Dario Alioto (Italy)

10:15pm... We have our first elimination from the final table. Romain Feriolo was knocked out in 8th place by Christer Johansson. On a flop of K-10-9, Feriolo moved all in with 10-2. Johansson called with 10-9 and he turned a full house. Romain Feriolo won $39,000 Euros for 8th place.

10:33pm... Holy shit!!! John Duthie asked me if I could announce the final table for a level or two later on tonight to give Thomas Kresmer a breather.

10:40pm... Dario Alioto was shortstacked and moved all in with KQ. Patrik Anontious called with A-10 and it held up. Dario Alioto was eliminated in 7th place. He won 52,000 Euros.

11:11pm... Gus Hansen had been getting beat up by the three Swedes at the table. he lost a lot of his stack to them. He moved all in with A-8 versus Patrik Antonius's pocket threes. He caught his ace and doubled up.

11:13pm... Anton Bergstrom was knocked out in 6th place by Gus Hansen. Anton had Q-10 and Gus had A-4. Gus caught trip 4s and Anton was eliminated. He won $65,000 Eruos for 6th place.

1:30am... I'm back after annoucning the final table for the last two plus hours. We're down too three players. Christer Johanssen is the cipleader. Jan Boulbli is second and Patrik Antonious is last in chips. I need a stiff drink after the two most stressful hours of my life and collect myself. Be back in a few minutes after I get my shit together.

1:48pm... OK, here's the run down so far. Gus Hansen lost a big pot with Ks-7s to Patrick Mortensson's A-Q. Patrick Mortensson was the short stack and moved all in. Gus called. Both players caught a runner runner straight but Patrick's was higher. I incorrectly called the hand and announced that Gus won to the crowd. Gus corrected me and said that he lost. I thought he was pissed at me, but I just spoke to him and he was cool with that. Gus Hansen's stack took a big hit. He eventually was eliminated in 5th place when his Ks-Qs lost to Jan Boulbi's J-J. Gus Hansen won $78,000 for fifth place.

In the battle of the Patricks... Patrick Mortensson was eliminated in 4th place when his 8-8 ran into Patrik Antonious' Q-Q. The young Patrick Mortensson won $91,000.

Patrik Antonious was eliminated in 3rd place when he missed a flush draw with Ks-3s on a board with As-4s-Ah. Jan Boubli flopped two pair with 3h-4h and it held up when Patrik failed to catch his flush. Patrik Antonious won $117,000 for third place.

2:15am... We have a new champion. Jan Boubli from France won the Barcelona Open! With K-Q he caught a Queen on the river to beat Christer Johansson's As-2s. Christer flopped two pair on a board of 8-2-8. Bother players got their money all in on the flop. The turn was a rag and the river gave Jan Boubli the win. Christer Johansson won $228,000 Euros for second place. Jan Boubli won $416,000 Euros for first place and a seat to the EPT Grand Finale in Monte Carlo in March of 2006.


Jan celebrates his victory


Jan Boubli the 2005 Barcelona Open Champion


Jan's check


I was filling in for Thomas Kresmer
That's it for now. See ya in Atlantic City in a few days where I'll be covering the World Poker Tour and the Borgata Open.
posted by Pauly at 9/17/2005 09:12:00 AM | Permalink |

 
The Barcelona Open - Day 1

Yesterday, I bumped into Marcel Luske getting out of the elevator. He's staying in my hotel, the Barcelona Princess. Last night, I headed over to the Casino de Barcelona to survey the scene. You need to show your passport to get into the casino. You also have to pay. I got in for free because I'm with the media and help from the Poker Stars crew. I must say that everyone at Poker Stars has been extremely accomodating to me. They really made life easier in Spain and are allowing me unfettered access to everything. So thanks to Mad, Tamar, Marta, Conrad, Howard, and everyone else I forgot to mention at Poker Stars. Yeah, even Otis too!

The poker room is located downstairs and they had 25 tables spread out. They were setting up the "TV table and stage" while a satellite for today's event was ongoing. The relatively small room was super crowded. I spotted Mike "Lucky Blind" Lacey who was trying to win a seat in today's $4000 Euro main event which begins at 4pm local time or 10am New York City time. His buddy Tom Murphy was around as well. They will be providing coverage of the EPT for their Irish readers over at Antes Up. I met both guys at the WSOP. The Irish guys are always buying me beers at a faster pace than I can drink them. Lacey continued this tradition on one of his breaks. Yeah, there's a bar like five feet from the poker room. I spent a lot of time there getting to know my good friend... Senor Cerveza.

I also chatted with John Gale for a little bit. He's a good guy and will be playing a mixture of EPT and WPT events during the remainder of the year.

Otis told me that I needed to hang out with Brandon Schaefer. He's the best player under 26 that you never heard of. He was the runner up in the Grand Finale at Monte Carlo last year and he also won another event on the EPT. He's a cool guy too. He got even more respect from me because when I introduced myself he said, "Man, I love your blog." Yeah he's reads the Tao of Poker. Pretty cool. I ended up having dinner with him and several members from team Poker Stars, including Mad.

For lunch today, I got to crash the Poker Stars luncheon for their players. On a big screen in the center of the room, they showed clips from last year's EPT Barcelona event, which was cool because I never saw any of the episodes. Brandon told me that most of the episodes from Season 1 are available for download at bit torrent. I also got to eat another meal with Brandon and two of his friends from Seattle. It's hard not to root for such a nice guy.

Conrad spoke for a little bit and he even introduced me as a reputable member of the American media. He's obviously never read any of my clips. Ha! I've been eating fish at every meal since I arrived in Spain and lunch was no different. I also got to catch a glimpse of the stunning Caroline Flack, who is the hostess for the EPT. She's the Shana Hiatt of the EPT and was conducting random player interviews during the luncheon.



Any pictures and live blogging updates will appear below.

***** Live Blogging Updates *****

2:45pm... There was only one snafu I encountered at the Casino. There was no wifi access near the poker room. Tom Murphy said that you can get a faint signal if you sit outside the disco on the other side of the bottom floor. So that means I don't think I can do a ton of live blogging like I anticipated. If the connection problems clear themselves up, you can expect frequent updates and photos. If not, you can always follow Howard who will be blogging for Poker Stars in place of Otis for this event.

3:25pm... Wifi access problem has been solved! I rode over to the venue on the shuttle bus with Dan Roth, an American qualifier from Seattle, and Isabelle Mercier. I chatted with both for a bit. I spotted Tony G, Barny Boatman, Marcel Luske, and Gus Hansen waiting in line to get into the Casino.

3:45pm... Guess what? Tamar from Poker Stars asked me to emcee the TV table today. I will be taking turns with tournament director Thomas Kremser and Howard from Poker Stars. We'll be alternating levels. I have no idea what I'm doing, but it should be fun. Basically, I'll be doing my best Johnny Grooms imitation announcing raises and all ins on the TV table. I highly doubt that I will be on the broadcast because they usually cut those bits out. So I'll be doing some live blogging in between. Good thing I'm only midly hungover today.

4:20pm... The tournament was scheduled to start at 4pm. We're running late and will begin at 4:35pm. I'll be starting my announcing duties at the beginning of level 2.

4:48pm... Cards will be in the air shortly.

5:00pm... Blinds are $25/50 to start with 45 minute levels. 294 players are in with a waiting list of 90 players deep. First place should pay well over $400,000 Euros. Last year 227 players enetered the first ever EPT event in Barcelona. Play will begin shortly. On the feature table is Brandon Schaefer, Gus Hansen, Pascal Perrault, and Daniel Larrson.

5:05pm... Cards are in the air!

5:17pm... On the feature table, Gus Hansen's A-A held up against Daniel Murelius' K-K.

5:41pm... 8 minutes until show time for me. I hope I dont royaly screw up!

6:41pm... Well I'm back. I announced level two of the featured TV table and I was super nervous. Here's who was there:

Seat 1: Pascal Perrault
Seat 2: Christer Johansen
Seat 3: Theo Jorgenson
Seat 4: Frederick Ostervald
Seat 5: Peter Eichardt
Seat 6: Gus Hansen
Seat 7: Daniel Larrson (and later... David O'Callahan)
Seat 8: Brandon Schaefer
Seat 9: Ilari Shames

So I tried to act calm, but I wasn't. Before this all went down, I went to the production truck and talked to one of the producers and directors. The production crew is all British. They were pretty cool and gave me some guidelines. Again, I have no clue what I'm doing and only pitched in because I was asked by Tamar from Poker Stars since the normal TD is overwhelmed with the huge turnout at this event. The PA was a nice gal named Francine and she told me not to worry. When I finsihed she said that everyone in the truck thought I did a good job. Oh the best thing out of all of this... I got to wear a Poker Stars shirt. I think I get to keep it too.

Anyway... it was awesome to watch Brandon play. I was going to sweat him at some point today anyway and he was surprised to see me up at the TV table with a microphone in my hand. I watched Gus Hansen hit quad queens. He cracked Daniel Larrson's pocket aces. Gus raised preflop and Daniel reraised. Gus called. The flop had one Queen. Gus bet, Daniel raised, and Gus called. The turn was a Queen. Gus checked and Daniel checked. On the river another Queen fell. Gus bet $4000 which covered Daniel, who called. Gus showed Qd-8d for four of a kind which beat Daniel's A-A. I put Gus on a Queen too after I saw his hand shaking when he went to count out his chips. He joked afterwards, "It was hard to get away from flopping top pair."

It's one thing to cover tournaments from media row or the sidelines. It's a whole other world be that up close and watching several top notch players go at it.

9:12pm... I'm on a dinner break. Half the field goes on dinner break while the other half plays. Anyway... Brandon Schaefer has about 11K in chips. We chatted at dinner. He's waiting for good hands. I got some positive criticism from the roducers about my announcing skills. They wanted me to give more information on the sizes of the pots. Counting up chips is harder than I expected!

9:40pm... Marcel Luske told me he has $13K in chips. Peter Roche has about 17K.

11:00pm... I just announced for a third time. The blinds are now 200/400 with 50 antes. Gus Hansen has $46K. Brandon Schaefer has $9K. Dan Roth has about $15K the last time I checked.

11:05pm... 324 players bought into this event. Top 27 players will make the money and $416,000 Eruos goes to the winner. This event has the most entrants of any EPT event.

11:11pm... Here are some random photos. I'm no where close to being as good as Flipchip, but here's my best efforts.


David O'Callahan (left) and Brandon Schaefer


American Dan Roth (center)


Isabelle's eyes wander


Marcel Luske's peeks at the flop

11:12pm... The guys at Gutshot told me some news about Isabelle Merceir. She was short stacked and moved all in with A-5. She flopped two pair and tripled up. She has about $7K plus now.

11:21pm... Bouncin Round the Room: It's been a long time since I did one of these updates. Here's the deal. People smoke everywhere in Europe. The small downstairs floor of the Casino de Barcelona sits under a thick veil of second hand smoke. Since it's Friday night, there are people here at the casino who are dressed up in their most fancy clothes. The men are wearing tuxes and expensive suits and the ladies are wearing stunning cocktail dresses. Damn. Hot. European. Chicks. Aye Carumba! And some of them have seen me announce the TV table. Media row is underneath the grand staircase. I'm sitting at a table with Howard from Poker Stars (when he's not announcing the TV table), the Brits from Gutshot, and the Irish guys from Antes Up. Rolf Stolbloom is in the corner too. Tom Murphy agreed to buy us a round of drinks in media row. There is open seating for $10/20 Hold'em. It's in Euros and that's the lowest limit they have.

11:31pm... Brandon Schaefer was eliminated. He had 7-7 and was heads up with Gus Hansen. The flop was 10-3-2. Gus checked and Brandon bet. Gus check raised and essentially put Brandon all in. Brandon reluctantly called and Gus hsowd J-10. Damn. Brandon played well all day and night. He endured a difficult table including Gus Hansen to his right and some Finnish kid Ilari Sahamies to his right, who was raising every pot.

11:35pm... I heard that Devilfish is out.

12:40am... Isabelle Mercier is out. Her K-K lost to 9-9 when her opponent caught a four flush on her. Dan Roth has about 22K. 163 players are remaining.

12:44am... I just completed my level of announcing. The levels were 300/600 with 100 antes. Christer Johansen tripled up with A-A against Gus Hansen's Ad-7d and the Finnish wunderkid Ilari Sahamies's Q-Q. Gus flopped a nut flush draw and gutshot straight draw. However, Christer's A-A held up and he tripled up his stack. Ilari was eliminated and Gus Hansen lost a big chunk of his stack.

2:00am... My European TV career is over for the time being. The TV table will no longer be taped, so I am free to drink at the bar with the Irish guys. The TD made a decision to end pla at 4:30am and resume tomorrow at 3:30pm and play it out then. 108 players are left.

2:10am.... Dan Roth has about 50K in chips!

2:30am... Marcel Luske, Noah Boeken, Tony G, and Barny Boatman have all been eliminated. 90 players left according to Mike "Lucky Blind" Lacey. Carlos Mortensen, Liam Flood, and Gus Hansen are still in.

3:00am... Bouncin Round the Room: I headed to the bar about thirty feet from where I'm sitting in media row for a few late night cocktails. Service is awful in Europe but the drinks are cheap. Three beers cost $7.50 Euros. I saw producer for the EPT TV series. He told me I did an excellent job and might need my services again tomorrow if the TD is still busy since there will be another event tomorrow starting. By the way, both production assistants are cute British chicks. And they are both blondes. They both told me I did a great job. Alas, I can't tell if they are being honest or doing that polite British things.

3:30am... 64 players remaining on 7 tables. American Dan Roth is still in the mix.

4:20am... 46 players remaining. Action will end in 10 minutes. Then I get to stay up until dawn writing recaps!

4:30am... Play has been stopped. 44 players remain. Action will resume at 3:30pm local time. That's 9:30am NYC time or 7:30am Las Vegas time. By this time tomorrow, I hope that we will have a new EPT champion!
posted by Pauly at 9/16/2005 08:27:00 AM | Permalink |

 
New WPBT Tournament on Sept 20th!

Are you guys ready? Iggy set up a new tournament for us, on mybirthday of all days. And yes, I'll be setting up a Hilton Sisters Challenge during the tournament!

What: WPBT Tournament
Where: Titan Poker
When: Tuesday, September 20th at 9pm ET
Buy-in: $20 + 1
Format: No Limit
Dress Code: Pants are optional
Password: thehamma

I'll be in Atlantic City covering the WPT Borgata Open, but I will sneak off to play in his event. See you there!
posted by Pauly at 9/16/2005 04:20:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Welcome to Spain

Hola folks. I arrived in Barcelona yesterday via KLM around 7pm local time and was greeted by Mad. She's British and was Otis' assistant at the WSOP and we got along great in Las Vegas. She lives in Sitges, a tiny coastal town about 30 minutes South of Barcelona. She agreed to let me crash at her flat on my first and last nights in Spain if I let her read two of my novels Jack Tripper Stole My Dog and Sweet Nothing. I brought two manuscripts with me and Mad was delighted to have them both. For now, I'm crashing in Sitges and that town is amazing. A lot of people who live in Barcelona have holiday and summer homes in the resort town of Sitges.

On the way from the airport to Sitges, Mad pointed out all the hookers who lined up on the highway! She noted that was excellent fodder for my blog. Some of the prostitutes actually have a lounge chair and a few have umbrellas to protect them from the sun. It's well know that the hookers are populating that stretch of highway. A quick glance insured me that the Spanish hookers are way better looking than the Amsterdam hookers.

I got wicked wasted again last night and I'm hungover for the third consecutive day. I drank red wine, Mojitas, and beer. Mixing wine, liquor, and beer will do horrible and dreadful things to your head and stomach. I also have another story which I cannot blog here. Shit, I got at least a dozen stories so far that I can and will never blog about. You'll have to wait to read the novel.

Mad introduced me to her friends. Most of them were Brits living here, some were Americans. Everyone was laid back and extremely welcoming. I also met a slew of hot Spanish girls thanks to Mad. She introduced me as a famous American writer. They give you a double kiss when they meet you, even if it's the first time. A few of them laughed as I tried to extend my right hand to shake hands. I looked like a total dork.

We played pool and drank Mojitas at a nice place called Magma. By the way, Spanish rules at pool are much different from what I'm used to. Slop counts and you have to sink the 8 ball in the opposite corner of the last ball you knocked in. I know, it's weird. I thought maybe they were trying to hustle me. They just had odd rules. By the way, Mad is a pool shark. She's got skills at the table.

Mad was giving me shit because I was gawking at one woman in particular. She was blonde and she happened to be an American ex-pat. Alas, I told Mad that I was gawking at all the women in that bar, not just her. Sitges is known to have a high gay population. When we walked down one street in particular, Tamar joked that all the guys were ignoring her and Mad and were all checking me out instead. Even though my package is designated for the ladies only, it's always flattering to have anyone check out my crotch.

We ate dinner at a nice place. I had sea bass and drank wine. We hit up two different bars in Sitges. So far, my Spain experience has been amazing. We stumbled home after 2am and had to get up early to go catch a train to Barcelona.

The train cost a little more than 2 Euros. It sped along the coast and I caught magnificent views of the Mediterranean Sea. The sun sparkled off the water and although I was hungover pretty good, I had one of those moments you get sometimes when you are a long way from home. I couldn't believe what I was getting to see and do. Not so fond memories of all those weeks, months, and years of struggling as a writer came to the front of my mind. Gazing out to sea I reminded myself to enjoy every waking second I'm here.

We caught a cab from the train station to the Princess Hotel. I got to see a little bit of the city and from what I saw it's magnificent. From my room in the hotel, I can see the water a few blocks away. The pool is two floors down but no topless sun bathers so far.

The $4,000 Euro buy-in Barcelona Open begins tomorrow at the Casino de Barcelona. So tonight, I have nothing to do. I expect to catch up on some reading and writing. Man, I have so much to write down. I'll wander around the city and get lost which I like doing. That's how you discover stuff most normal tourists don't get to see.

I have run into two somewhat serious problems here in Europe. The first one is the hardest. My ATM card won't work! I usually take cash with me but for some reason, I only took a few hundred Euros and luckily I have some of my bankroll with me which I converted that to Euros. The exchange rate killed me and I'm now on a tight budget the rest of the trip. That's probably a good thing. Me running rampant through Barcelona with a wad of Euros is -EV.

The second problem is that I fucked up and didn't bring the correct USB cable that connects to the camera Flipchip gave me. I have several hundred pics that I cannot upload! That particular plug is about half the size of the one my digital camera uses. So for now, I only have a handful of pics that I took with my small camera. All the good pics are in limbo. I'm going to try to find a small plug today. Otherwise, I really fucked up badly. I'm kinda miffed at myself. I made a checklist and I thought I took the correct plug.

That's it for now. Have to go write and look for a USB plug. More to come.

Here are some random pics from Amsterdam:


Random sign


Fat kids are funny in any language.

Fries with Dutch mayo


Vee-Dub along the canal near Holland Casino


I think it says, "No pissing!"


No comment
posted by Pauly at 9/15/2005 07:34:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Amsterdam Part II

I left the windows open before I crashed. When we awoke, the room was filled with cool Amsterdam morning air. It was a cloudy day and you smell the rain coming. The previous two days have been sunny and pleasant. Today it's dark and chilly. The weather fits my mood on the day I'm about to leave.

I didn't think I was going to make it on Monday night. After one hour of sleep on my flight, I was exhausted. I almost passed out three times over the course of Monday evening. All three times we were back in the room, but at the last second, I'd rally and find that extra burst of energy to go back out. It's the energy. Amsterdam has plenty of it and it's the type of city that gets me fired up afterwards to go write.

When you cross the street, you have to look both ways and pay attention or you're gonna suffer a collision with one pissed off person who's gonna curse your ass out in Dutch. I almost got hit a bunch of times by a cyclist. I figured that once every hour I almost walk right in the path of a bike lane. Beware the bikers. They have right of way over cars. I'm a New Yorker and we jaywalk everywhere. I almost saw some Dutch suit bite it yesterday when he nearly walked into a tram and some random guy saved him.

Museums in Amsterdam are kick ass. I've been to both the Rijks and the Van Gogh before and it's always fascinating to return to see amazing art. A walk through the galleries is always inspiring. We ran through both fairly quickly. I took a crap load of pictures of church steeples and hot Dutch girls on bicycles. I know Daddy wanks off to both.

In Japan, you'd see these tiny Japanese school girls in their tiny outfits get onto the most crowded subways. They looked adorable. In Holland, the private high schoolgirls trip me out. They all wear funky outfits. One group wears a black jacket, white shirt, black tie, black knickers, and pink knee high socks. I did a double take when I saw a group of ten peddle right by me. When we walked around the other day, I spotted another group of high school girls. That outfit was just a white shirt, blue skirt, and blue and white striped knee high socks. The third group were signing in a circle in Vondel Park. They had regular clothes on, but for some reason they all wore an over garment that resembled a chekered red and white picnic table table cloth. I wanted to take a picture, but I didn't know if immigration would be fond to find hundreds of shots of underaged Dutch girls on bicycles. I know Daddy likes to rub it out to those images.

Briana found a small pastry shop that sells kick ass croissants. They cost $0.80 Euros and I can eat three they are so tasty that they dissolve as soon as you bite into them. She went shopping yesterday. Amsterdam gets a bad rap for the hash bars and the hookers, but there's some pretty good shopping here. I'm oblivious. Usually, I'll go write or check email and Briana would go shopping. We wandered through the tulip bulb market along side one of the canals. Centuries ago, people used tulip bulbs as actual currency.

Spent more time in various cafes and hash bars and wandered back over to Vondel Park. We made more of an effort to talk to random people. We didn't want to say we were Americans, so we pretended that we were Canadians. I'd add, "eh?" to the end of my sentences and Briana said, "aboot" a lot. Ah, Europeans don't hate Americans as much as we think. They like us, they just hate our leaders. And the French hate everyone especially Lance Armstrong.

I ate fries with Dutch mayo. That stuff is better than ketchup. Miracle whip it is not.

Late night, I saw two Amsterdam bicycle cops pedal over to one guy walking down the street. When they yelled, "Hey, stop!" he should have darted through one of the alleys. He just stood there and tried to throw away a needle. One of the cops was a female and I realized that when some Europeans talk to one another, they use English as their common language. The junkie was Russian, as I noticed by his passport. The male cop detained him while the female cop made fun of the guy. "Do you think we are stupid? You did not even try to hide the needle."

The cops were laughing after their bust. Now you have to fuck up pretty hard core to get arrested in Amsterdam.

We tired to stay up very late and hit up various cafes, bars, and coffee shops. We played pool with a couple of Americans and I won about $50 Euros in different side bets. I was in much better shape on Tuesday and last until 6am while Briana passed out around 4am. I spent my last waking hours talking to drug dealers and drunk vagrants near Dam Square and the rest of the time writing. Most of the cafes and hash bars close at 1am.

Check out time is right about now and Briana has a train to Paris to catch and I have a few hours to kill before my train departs for Shipol Airport. I fly to Barcelona in a few hours. I was going to take the train to Barcelona, but the flight was cheaper.

It's time to go and it feels like I just got here. Man, I don't want to go either. I have that ill feeling I get in my stomach when I leave a place I really really like.

"Who says we can't move to Amsterdam?" was something Briana said as I sipped on my beer last night. It made sense to me.

I'd like to wander around the city some more and take photos, but it's raining. This break away from everything has been spectacular. No cellphones and no poker. But the poker hiatus is about to change...
posted by Pauly at 9/14/2005 04:20:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Amsterdam Day 1

I first visited Amsterdam almost a decade ago with Senor. One of the first things I scribbled into my notebook was, "Amsterdam is like another planet."

I rank Amsterdam up there with other carefree cities like Las Vegas, Old New Orleans, San Francisco and even New York City to some extent. In these places, there's a high tolerance factor for freaks and the freaks know this. They come out of the woodwork from all over the world it seems, waving their flags high and proud. I guess that's why there are so many hookers and hash bars and weirdos roaming the streets of Amsterdam. Indeed, the Dutch and specifically Amsterdam is one of the most tolerant cities you can ever visit. Amsterdam is diverse with people from all over the world, not just Europe. Thank God that summer is over and the hordes of backpackers have trickled off.

My flight from JFK to Amsterdam was nothing special except that the flight attendants on KLM wear these turquoise uniforms. They are super polite. I sat next to two Dutch sisters. One was incredibly smoking while the other was not. KLM has TVs embedded into the seats, so you can watch from a huge selection of new and old movies. I watched Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy and Ocean's 11. I started watching The Godfather, but fell asleep. I wish I slept more, but I only passed out the last hour of my six and a half hour flight.

I arrived early just after Noon and hopped on a train to Central Station for $4 Euros. Briana booked a room at the Victoria Hotel. Talk about the complete opposite of the Flying Pig hostel. The swanky Victoria is the nicest hotel in Amsterdam and is located a few steps outside of Central Station. You can't miss it. Briana was standing out front waiting for me and my eyes nearly melted because I had not seen her in so long. She arrived the night before via Paris. She looked stunning. The two biggest changes... her hair is much shorter and she chain smokes like a champ.

We hadn't seen each other in a few months and aside from a few phonecalls (and one lengthy letter from Briana), we gave each other space and distance and freedom to do what we both had to do this summer. Over the next 24 hours we'd take turns visiting different cafes and hash bars. We'd alternate telling stories about this summer. I told Briana all about the Redneck Riviera, working with the Poker Prof, Flipchip's Vietnam stories, drinking during dinners at the Hooker Bar at the Rio with Otis and Amy Calistri, and playing poker in Las Vegas with Grubby. Briana's summer was relatively boring compared to mine. She smoked and read constantly and managed to finish a decent sized manuscript. Our favorite malcontent elevator button heiress penned a novel. She said that I inspired her. I read a few pages on the shitter this morning. It's interesting, kind of like The Bell Jar meets The Devil Wears Prada. The girl has potential.

She's been living in France since May and told me that the French found someone they hate more than George Bush.... and that's Lance Armstrong.

Yesterday we rented bikes and rode all over the city. Amsterdam is bicycle crazy. Nothing is hotter than seeing a smoking hot chick riding a bicycle. And they are everywhere. Everyone rides bikes. Businessmen, kids, old ladies, and hot chicks. Late at night, people still ride bicycles with cool head lights. Occasionally, you'll see one very drunk guy peddling home after too many beers at the pub. Late night, every few minutes or so, someone drunk cycles by screaming.

We spent some time in Vondel Park. I was content to be able to sit and enjoy life in a park. It's one of those moments when you feel the luck rushing through your veins. I listened to one of the best pieces of live music ever... the Grateful Dead's 5.8.77. (The few of you Deadheads know how sensational that show is!) Yeah I fired up 5.8.77 and watched Briana take a nap on the grass in the warm Netherlands afternoon sun.

Here's an actual conversation that happened around 3 o'clock yesterday:

Briana: Take me to go see the hookers.
Pauly: It's in the middle of the day. Only old hookers work the day shift.
Briana: Then let's go see the old hookers. I'm sure they have great stories to tell.

No one weaves a better tale than an old hooker. To hell with Hemingway. If he chugged 50,000 cocks in his day, I'm sure his writing would have a slight edge to it. If anything, it could become a new book idea... Existentialist Conversations with Hookers.

Briana walked away from the Red Light district a little depressed. Like many people she had a romanticized image of the world's oldest profession. She felt sorry for the old whores. In the highest trafficked area, you will see old and ugly hookers. They have been turning tricks since the Carter administration. The better looking ones are on the side streets and you have to navigate the narrow alleys and follwing the aroma of cheap sex in the air to find the doorways with the girls. And for $50 Euros, they can be yours for 15 minutes. It's weird to see a group of Japanese old ladies walk through soaking in the scene. You see scummy looking guys walking around the same block several times, circling for an available hooker.

The girls stand inside these rooms with glass doors. Most of them are wearing their underwear or other lingerie. Some of them try to get your attention and they knock on the window. Other's will wink at you or blow kisses. Some will actually touch themselves. On the day shift, I spotted several girls yapping on their cellphones. One was reading the paper. Another was watching TV. No matter what, do not take pictures of them.

Briana and I estimated that a prostitute there averages 2,500 Johns a year. That's $125K Euros a year after taxes and fees to rent the space. But even if they are clearing $60K a year, that's almost twice as much as teachers in NYC make. What does this say about us? Seriously, 2,500 tricks a year? That's gotta start to hurt after a while?

We spent the late night sitting in a few cafes drinking beers near Dam Square. I found one bar that I've been to in the past with Senor. They had drafts for $1.90. We'd sit around and play "Guess what country I'm from?" For $20 a pop, we'd pick out a person or group and try to guess their country of origin. Americans are the easiest to spot. I got killed. I dropped about $200 Euros in that -EV game for me. Briana's been living in Europe for almost four months so she has home field advantage. I'm already down bigtime gambling in Europe and I haven't even set foot into a casino.

Anyway, I don't have too much time. We're fixing to see a few museums today and take photos. I leave for Barcelona tomorrow.

*****

By the way, congrats on my brother Derek, who finished in 5th place (not 4th as I previously reported) in the Poker Stars Hurricane Katrina charity tourney! I also heard Wil took 10th and Helix finsihed in 14th. Congrats guys.
posted by Pauly at 9/13/2005 04:20:00 AM | Permalink |

 
The Day Before

I've been writing, partying, and traveling all of my life to prepare for the next two weeks. I'm leaving for Europe in a few hours. I'll be in Amsterdam until Wednesday morning and then I fly to Barcelona to cover the first event (the Barcelona Open) on this year's European Poker Tour. I have never been to Barcelona before and that adds to the excitement of this trip. Plus I get to see a lot of European media and press (and players) whom I worked with during my stint in Las Vegas covering the EPT like the Irish guys from Antes Up... Mike Lucky Blind Lacey and Tom Murphy and the crew from Blonde Poker. Not too mention the folks I met through Otis at Poker Stars, especially his lovely asistant Mad, who lives just outside of Barcelona. She offered to let me crash at her flat before the event begins and I move into the swanky Princess Hotel.

Amsterdam is a city where I've wrecked havoc in the past. I always like going back. My time there will be dedicated to rest and relaxation, oh and I get to see Briana for the first time in four months. I even got a haircut. I'm assuming we're going to be spending a significant amount of time swapping stories about our summer while sitting in cafes, taking long walks through Vondel Park, while trying to score a bottle of Absinthe.

After Barcelona is over I have to fly back to NYC. That day will be one pain in the ass. I fly Barcelona to Amsterdam via Paris. And then Amsterdam to NYC. I wish I found a cheaper direct flight from BCN to JFK, but no such luck. When I arrive home in NYC, it will be after Midnight. I'll have a few hours to collect myself, write, shower, get a fresh batch of underwear and the remainder of my bankroll before I pick up a rental car and drive to Atlantic City to cover the WPT Borgata Open. Talk about a hectic traveling schedule. Ah, but that's why I get paid the big bucks. But of course my entire two week trip ends with the Bash at the Boatyard courtesy of Al Cant Hang. I can't think of a better week to end a two week trip than to celebrate it with Al and his crew.

I'm still shocked that a degenrate psychopath like myself is getting to cover poker tournaments. As always, thanks to the Poker Prof for the giving me this amazing opportunity to write and travel. Keep that bail money handy.

Depending on internet access, I will be updating my blogs as often as I can. In addition, Flipchip hooked me up with a new camera. So unless I fuck up things completely or it gets stolen by a hooker in Amsterdam, I should have some quality photos to post here and on Las Vegas and Poker Blog.

Before I head to the airport, I wacthed Jets play their opening game. I have a feeling it's gonna be a long season for Gang Green after their awful first half. It's all about how well Curtis Martin rushes this year. And if Chad Pennington can hold onto the friggin' football. Damn, I miss football. Wait, I meant to say... I miss gambling on football.

I haven't packed yet. I did a rare pre-pack the other night and realized I was taking too much shit. So I condensed everything to my laptop case and one carry-on bag. I will pack after the Jets game. I got my passport, $400 in Euros, some of my poker bankroll in Benjamins, a camera, seven pairs of underwear, my laptop, and a map of Barcelona. I'm ready for my European excursion.


Upcoming Blogger Events

In some quick news, Iggy announced that there will be an upcoming WPBT event. Stay tuned for more details. And I will try my best to play.

Also, Bill announced the date for the next blogger get together in Las Vegas. It will be on December 10th and held at the Imperial Palace. Stay tuned for more details.

Yes, I'll be there in December for the second annual Holiday Classic. I already bought a ticket on JetBlue, the offical airline of the Tao of Poker. I'll be in Las Vegas for three plus weeks in December. I'm gonna do a roadtrip with Grubby and crash an LA Bloggers Hollyweird homegame. Perhaps we'll make a trip over the border and score donkey tanquilizers in a Tijuana pharmacia for our favorite donkey fucker? Man, we need to have a blogger event in TJ. Where else can you buy three bottles of Tequila, a fist full of pills, a tattoo, and a statue of the Virgin Mary for $12?


Final Thoughts

I've been running awful in September. My bankroll took a hit. I know 1/3 of the losses has been playing in Katrina Relief tournaments, so that money went to a good cause. However, I had a bad run at the $5/10 tables on Party Poker and that's why I'm down this month. I always like to be running good before I go away on a trip. I will try to play in Barcelona or in Atlantic City. Talk about two contrasting gambling scenes... from the uber-rich to the uber-desperate.

Last night I hung out with some old friends. I've known Senor and Gitty for fifteen years, since college and I've known Girtz for almost a deacde. We had a few drinks in the Village and caught up with each other's busy lives. In the mid 1990s we used to hang out all the time together and now that we're all in our 30s, we all are on different paths in life. We sat at table in the back of Dublin (near the Whire Horse Tavern) and Girtz wanted to play cards. He ran outside to the bodega a few doors down and found a deck. We played $1/2 hold'em in the back of the bar for a few hours. A table of trendoids next to us played Connect Four. I lost a little bit and Senor cleaned up. I hate a late night slice of pizza and that soaked up all the SoCo I consumed furing the course of the night.

I taped an episode of the Lord Admiral Card Club with Sean on Friday night. Stop by his site and download this week's episode. It should be up by Sunday night.

That's it for now. The next time I post, it will be in Europe.
posted by Pauly at 9/11/2005 06:46:00 PM | Permalink |

 
In Memoriam


Jason Defazio
James Riches
Scott Hazelcorn
Matthew Burke
Charlie Heeran
Steven Schlag
Nigel Thompson



posted by Pauly at 9/11/2005 08:40:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Saturday Blog Dump: Derek's Borgata Run, Top 15 Referrals, and Pauly's Pub

First of all, congrats to my brother Derek, who took second place in a MTT super satellite on Full Tilt last night. He won a seat into the WPT Borgata satellite, which will be running today at 3pm ET. Stop by Full Tilt today and sweat him! I'm already scheduled to cover that tournament, it would be cool if he wins a seat.


Top 15 Referrals

I'd like to take time out and personally thanks everyone for sending me traffic:

1. Las Vegas and Poker Blog
2. Guinness and Poker
3. Up for Poker
4. Card Squad
5. Joaquin 'The Rooster' Ochoa
6. Wil Wheaton
7. Double As
8. Aaron Gleeman
9.Professional Poker Player aka Chris Halverson
10. Poker in the Weeds
11. Joanne
12. Bad Blood on Poker
13. Life, Universe, Poker
14. Grubby
15. Poker Nerd

Are You Ready for Some Football?

The rosters are set. The fifth annual Pauly's Pub Football Pool is underway. We have a record 32 teams (plus Mrs. McNabb) vying for the prestigious "Pauly's Pub Cup." Who's gonna win it this year?

big papi (Brad S.) *** 2004 Champion ***
Oyster Bay Moore (Joe Moore) *** 2003 Champion ***
Chico's Bail Bonds (Derek)
Speed & Weed (Armen)
Marlboro and Lungbutter (A. CantHang)
Coach's Picks (Coach)
Running Back Ribs (Schanzer)
I Like Pie (Drizz)
Well Tank's for Nuttin' (Jerry)
Austin Drunk (Matt S.)
Acrobatic Ass Assassins (Flopbot)
Chumpon Chum (Senor)
2 Knuckles Deep (Daddy)
Fat Man in a Trench Coat (BigMike)
What the deuce? (Landow)
jonbenet's panties (Iggy)
World of Dorkcraft (Poker Geek)
Spasmodic Reindeer (Poker Nerd)
Big Ole Good-ens (Mas)
El UnderGARmenTE (Ugarte)
Danger Bees (Joe Speaker)
BigBoobsMcGee (April)
Area Residents (GRob)
Buckeyes (Ferrari)
CornRowsNCrunkJuice (Spider)
Professional Poker Player (Chris Halverson)
Jetsetters (Gil)
Sycophantic Sheep (Boy Genius)
Reedy River Cards (Otis)
SweetlyRetarded (Bobby Bracelet)
JustaDrunkCanuck (Joanne)
Killer Beas (JK)
LetMeHearYourBattleCry (W. McNabb)
The Redneck Riviera (Pauly)

I want to thank everyone for participating. Best of luck this year. 2004 champion Brad S. is back to defend his title. His team Big Papi is technically the team to beat. If you have not paid me yet, then what the fuck are you waiting for?


A Word From Our Sponsors

By the way, Titan Poker is full of awful players. Take advantage, especially in those soft MTTs and SNGs. I have lurking around those shallow waters all week. I know that a few other sharks like Joanne and Spaceman have also been feasting on the fish on Titan Poker.

You really should consider signing up today. Titian Poker is offering a sign up bonus of 100% up to $500. That's a kick ass deal.

They also run a special promotion. If you win 6 "Rio" SNGs, then you win the progressive jackpot. Right now it's at $40,000. If you win 5 "Maui" SNGs, then they give you a jackpot of $18,000. That's not too bad considering its a $5 SNG and the juice is only 75 cents! I won two in a row the other day then bubbled out of the third.


Updated List of Online Charity Poker Tournaments

Where: Full Tilt Poker
When: Sunday Sept. 11th at 4:30pm ET
How Much: $20 + $10
Note: Full Tilt will match your $10 entry fee and that will be donated to the Red Cross' Hurricane Relief Fund.

Where: Poker Stars
When: Monday Sept. 12 at 9:30 ET
How Much: $5

Where: Poker Stars
When: Wednesday Sept. 14 at 9:30 ET
How Much: $20

Where: Poker Stars
When: Thursday Sept. 15 at 9:30 ET
How Much: $50

Where: Poker Stars
When: Friday Sept. 16 at 9:30 ET
How Much: $100

Note: Poker Stars is only adding one cent per player to the prize pool and the remainder of the money collected will go to the American Red Cross. For more information visit Poker Stars blog.

I signed up for the first two Poker Stars ones and will be posting and folding my blinds.

That's it for now.... I'll be leaving for Europe in 36 hours.
posted by Pauly at 9/10/2005 09:36:00 AM | Permalink |

 
WCOOP Event #5

The World Championships of Online Poker have been going on all week on Poker Stars. Both Wil Wheaton and the Poker Nerd have been live blogging it. I also know that Chris from 21 Outs and Jan from 50 Outs have been playing. Otis has been regularly updating Poker Stars Blog with all the WCOOP action.

Thursday's event was a $200 NL rebuy tournament. I was offered a free roll thanks to Nolan Dalla who handed a few passes out to media types. A bunch of other bloggers played like CJ, G Rob, Iggy, Poker Nerd, and Wil. Some bought in and others also got the free roll. 2146 players entered WCOOP event #5. There were 1825 rebuys and 1235 add-ons in the prize pool. 225 places paid with over $218K going to the eventual winner. Some notable pros were playing such as Scott Fischman, Fossilman, Dustin "Neverwin" Wolf, Marcel Luske, and Noah "Exclusive" Boeken.

So how did I do? I got knocked out early. Hey, at least it wasn't my money, right?

Here's my notes from the WCOOP:

3:05pm... I was refreshing Card Squad to watch Wil do some live blogging. I saw that Jan from 50 Outs was one of the first players eliminated.

3:06pm... Iggy flopped a set and lost half his stack when some guy turned a straight.

3:11pm... I folded AKs on the button when the gal UTG raised and she was reraised in MP. Tight fold, eh? I made the mistake and should have pushed because I decided not to rebuy for this event. I would try to amass chips early to have a decent chance against anyone who took advantage of the add-on. I forgot my gameplan and folded. From that point on, I looked for any coinflip opportunities, something I never do so early in a tournament. Again it was different circumstances. Chip accumulation was my goal.

3:18pm... I won a small pot with 10-10.

3:29pm... I was about 1217th place with 2042 remaining.

3:49pm... With 7-7, I flopped a set and won a small pot.

3:53pm... I reraised a guy all-in with J-J. He called with AKs and flopped a friggin' flush. I needed a runner-runner straight flush to win and it didn't happen. I was eliminated in 1914th place. Not impressive at all.

4:15pm... Wil was eliminated when he made a move with QJ. He finished in 1848th place.

At that point I logged off and wrote. Here's how everyone else did:

Pauly 1914
Wil 1848
Poker Nerd 1561
G-Rob 940
CJ 799
Iggy 684
Marcel Luske 124
Exclusive 74
Fossilman 32

****** ******

Around Midnight, Daddy called me drunk from a bar in Indiana. He took me there in May and I played poker against a guy with no teeth. Anyway, he called to say how he enjoyed what a wrote about him. He's still a pussy ass pansy for walking away from his blog and needs to come to his senses.

I told him I knew how he felt about ending his blog. I've often contemplated pulling the plug on this poker blog and all of the other ones I write. Several times in the past few months I've had that internal discussion. In the end, I write about poker not because I love poker. I write about poker because I love to write. Poker happens to be one of my many interests. And when you stop by the Tao of Poker, you experience the full meaning of this site. Tao means "the way" or "the road." This blog is a means for me to share my experiences with poker in my daily life, or how poker follows me through my life's journey. There will come a time when that long strange trip ends.

All journeys end at some point.

But even if you quit a blog, unless you erase it, it will always exist. In many ways, this is how you achieve immortality. If the internet is around for the next century and the words you write are still stored for free on Blogger's server... then you will be heard in future generations.

And maybe one hundred years from now, someone will stumble upon this blog and discover that I know a guy who has fucked a donkey.
posted by Pauly at 9/09/2005 02:36:00 AM | Permalink |

 
The Rooster and Charity Wednesday

New York City is a pedestrian city. While walking around you most likely will encounter a "bump into." That's just local slang for, "Guess who I bumped into today?"

The more random the person, the more weirder or uncomfortable the situation. Like that one night stand you had with that woman from accoutning after too many happy hour Margaritas. Or some guy you went to high school with, whose name you forgot. Sometimes it's a welcomed bump into and you happen to randomly see someone you haven't seen or talked to in a while. The longer you lived in New York, the more likely you will see casually someone from your past. Sometimes you can bump into a celebrity. Or an old classmate. Or a former co-worker. Or an old teacher. Or some old guy that smelled like radishes that used to live in your apartment building. Thes bump ins can happen any time or any place. In the bathroom of a Knicks game. Crossing the street in the Village. On an uptown subway. Sitting on a bench in Central Park. In line at the Angelika movie theatre. At a hipster bar in SoHo. It's like having an acid flashback without the acid.

The more time you wander around outside, the better the chance you will bump into someone you know. In the mid 1990s, when we went out bar hopping looking for drunk Jewish chicks to dry hump, my buddy Senor and I used to make prop bets on which one of us will bump into someone we knew. I usually won since I lived in the city most of my life. One night we bumped into one of his friends Igor. Yes, Senor knew a guy named Igor who was drunk and eating falafel at 3am near Washington Square Park.

One of my most embarrassing bump into involved me and my buddy Gitty. This was back when he was in law school and I was just starting out as a writer, which meant I was perpetually unemployed living in Brooklyn with all the other tortured souls. We were getting drunk all afternoon at a bar when we decided to check out one of the local porn shops near Penn Station. On our way out of one of the XXX video stores, we bumped into a some girl we went to college with. Her name was Laura and she was working for a financial start up company. She was getting off of work and heading to the subway. And there we were... drunk as a skunk and holding a bag with freshly purchased porn. Gitty liked German bondage films. I preferred the Girl Next Door Cherry Poppers stuff. We all know Laura went home and emailed all her friends and sorority sisters from school, "Pauly and Gitty were buying porn and I busted them."

One of the most satisfying acts of revenge happened to be bumping into an old girlfriend (let's call her Sabine) with someone I just started dating (let's call her Betty), who incidentally was a hundred times cooler, better looking, and had a much higher tolerance for my vices such as gambling and the occasional foray into alco-narco substances. The current flame embodied everything the old flame detested. And the old flame dumped my ass hard and fast without any semblance of remorse. You should have seen the blood flush out of her face when I introduced the two.

"Pauly's told me so much about you," Betty said as she smiled and graciously shook the old flame's limp hand.

Women understand each other better than guys. That was code for, "Yeah, the good old doctor told me how you were an ultra-psycho cunt and were awful in bed. It's gonna take me at least one more year to get his head unscrewed from the damage both you and his mother inflicted upon him."

The old flame, Sabine, mustered up some courage and said, "Good luck."

That was code for, "Just wait until that asshole cheats on you, steals all your prescription pills, and sells your pubic hair on the internet for $35. Then who's gonna be smiling? You blonde bitch!"

So wait, where is this all going?

Today I decided to walk from Times Square to Grand Central Station. It takes about ten minutes and I sauntered past the crowd filled with office workers on their lunch hour and tourists. Along the way, I purchased some Euros from my bank and refused to accept the 50 Eruo bills he had counted out for me. Fifty dollar bills are bad luck and I'm not taking my chances with Euros. He grabbed me twenties and tens and I had a nice Eruo roll that could choke an ostrich.

So I'm reaching Grand Central Station, on my way to meet my lovely assistant Jessica for lunch, when all of a sudden I heard, "Hey Pauly!"

I looked over and there's the Rooster! Yeah, Joaquin himself was standing there. He was rushing to the West Side to meet a friend for lunch, while I was truckin' over to the East Side to do the same.

He wanted to know if I was going to play in one of the card rooms in Chinatown. Supposedly the owners think I'm sort of celebrity and offered me a free roll into one of their tournaments. I respectfully declined. I'm supposed to play in a freeroll for the WCOOP on Poker Stars Thursday afternoon and with the new season of The OC on at night, I was all booked up.

So after I said good-bye to Joaquin, I called my brother and said, "Guess who I just bumped into?"


Party Poker's Charity Tournament

Derek, Iggy, and Daddy (the blogger formerly known as SnailTrax) all played in the Party Poker charity relief tournament for Hurricane Katrina. 494 players were in and 90% of the $30 buy in went to charity. I also two-tabled a Titan Poker MTT. Those recaps appear in red.

9:06pm... Iggy eliminated.

9:20pm... Daddy typed, "You stole my nutsack!" into the chat.

9:33pm... I had pocket Aces. I was up against A-T and pocket 8s. I won and tripled up.

9:50pm... I had T3160 at the break with 251 remaining.

9:52pm... Derek doubled up with a short stack.

10:05pm... Both CprHou and Mas were at my cash game table.

10:07pm... Derek was knocked out when his set of Queens lost to a river suckout. He finished in 207th place.

10:10pm... I doubled up against the table chipleader when my AJs beat out 35s. I had T7200.

10:11pm... I found pocket Aces and they held up. I had almost T9000.

10:18pm... On my cash game table, Mas hit quad 10s.

10:31pm... I found pocket aces again and they win a small pot. I had T11300.

10:32pm... Big Slick on the very next hand win another pot.

10:36pm... Daddy was eliminated in 101st.

10:50pm... I was moved to table #1. It seemed like I was constantly getting tables changed on me. I was about 7th out of 76 remaining with about $13K in chips.

11:00pm... My MTT on Titan Poker began. I had a last longer bet with Joanne. I was in the hole 24 beers and wagered 12.

11:01pm... Back on Party Poker, my 8-8 ran into a small stack with K-K. Small hit but I still had a lot of chips.

11:03pm... I won a small pot with J-J against A-10.

11:05pm... Joanne was knocked out in 80th place out of 81. Ouch. She lost the last longer and now I only owe her 12 beers instead of 24.

11:30pm... KK ran into AA. Thank God he was a short stack.

11:34pm... I was eliminated from my Titan MTT when my 8-8 ran into a guy who slowplayed A-A. I came in 49th out of 81.

11:35pm... KK held up and I had over $16K. I was 14 out of 42.

11:55pm... With almost $18K, I lost a coin flip when AKs lost to J-J. I was crippled and had less than $3K remaining.

11:56pm... With AJs on the next hand, I moved all in UTG. Pocket Kings called and I flopped an ace and he turned a set. I was eliminated in 24th place. No money for me. But 90% of my buy in went to charity so it was all good.

Later today, I'll be playing in a WCOOP event on Poker Stars. I dunno if I'll have the time to live blog it. Check in tomorrow for a recap.
posted by Pauly at 9/08/2005 02:04:00 AM | Permalink |

 
He's Gone... Snail Trax Fades Away

The bad beat jackpot on Party Poker was hit during my Lamont Jordan Fantasy Football League draft. Bastards! I play in a pretty competitive fantasy league with 14 teams. $2200 goes to first place. The guys who play are mostly from Long Island. They all grew up with Jay Fielder and went to high school with him. Anyway, I had the second pick and went with Shaun Alexander. I feel lukewarm about my draft. I felt that I could have done a much better job. But picking players is like picking stocks. Somedays things go so awry, that you're better off betting on whether a monkey could fuck a football.

I've been in the writing zone. It usually takes me at least a day sometimes two to write a freelance article. On Monday, I wrote two back to back. I was on fire and today I cranked out more stuff. I kinda wish I didn't have to go travel because these writing rushes don't come along too frequently. It's like poker. You never know when they are going to come, but as soon as you think you're about to go on a rush, you have to do everything possible to maximize your potential during those rushes. Hence, right now. I'm gonna throw up a half assed post so I get get back to writing.

Since I got back home to NYC after living at the Redneck Riviera for almost three months, I've taken a hit in my online bankroll. I've been doing extremely well in live cash games and tournaments, but online has been a disaster. I cannot recall ever suffering from so many brutal beats. It's happening on different sites. Party Poker. Full Tilt. Noble Poker. Inside of five days, I lost a buy-in at a limit table three times. That's never happened to me before. It's one thing to lose a lot of hands when you are a clear favorite. I didn't receive an extraordinary amount of bad beats. It's just that the four or five most brutal beats were in some of the biggest pots. I didn't flip out or anything. I only went on moderate tilt once. The rest of the times, I lost my buy in, so I couldn't go on tilt. That's part of my stop-loss strategy. If I lose a buy-in, I leave. Pretty simple. In my hit and run days, I try to win half my buy in and then leave the table.

The bad beats are something that will always happen. So I sucked it up and kept playing. I won a little bit of that money back, but we'll see how much I can recover before I hit the road.

Moving on...

Daddy said he was going to pull the plug on his blog Snailtrax, or Snailshit as his old man refers to it. I had just one word for Daddy... Pussy!

It's a shame. He has one of the most unique voices I've come across. The blogging community lost a powerful personality. Whale pussy burritos. Deep fat fried bacon-wrapped butter sticks. Donkey fuckers. Molestation by old men over tree stumps. Damn, I'm gonna miss Daddy.

In homage to Daddy, you must read Three State Bender Part I: Donkey Fuckers and Hill Jack Boys. It's about hanging out with Daddy in Indiana this past May and my quest to learn more about the subtle art of donkey fucking. That might have been one of my favorite trip reports. Ever.

You know what, I pretty fuckin' sad today. I've only felt this atrocious feeling in my stomach a few times.... on 9.11, when Patrick Ewing got traded, when Jerry Garcia died, and when my ex-girlfriend died in a car accident.

Daddy not blogging is like watching Seinfeld without Kramer.

Daddy not blogging is like eating fat-free ice cream.

Daddy not blogging is like drinking O'Douls.

Daddy not blogging is like having sex with a dead cat that's not really dead.

I might have to start calling Daddy the Trey of Poker Bloggers. If you don't know a lot of Phish conspiracy theorists think that the lead singer and guitar player, Trey, sabotaged Phish and is the reason why my favorite band broke up. Now half of these people have been spun out on ecstasy since the Bush Junta took control, and the other half of those neo-hippies adored Phish in a fanatical and cultish way. When you take away something that's sounds so fuckin' good and is truly one of the few cool things out there... well people are going to be pissed and freak out. Now, I know why Phish broke up. It's hard to do something for twenty years and not being able to evolve as artists. Their lives were changing. Their needs were changing. Their art was stagnant. Something had to give.

Life is about cycles. And those cycles represent change. So if Daddy needs to change so be it. But I'm going to miss that donkey fucker. I don't know about you, but this is one of the saddest days in bloggerdom in a very long time.

He's gone, gone, nothin's gonna bring him back.
posted by Pauly at 9/07/2005 04:20:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Bonus Whoring, Card Squad, and the Fat Guy

Obviously by now, you know that my brother is blogging over at Card Squad in addition to his own poker blog Poker in the Weeds. Derek got a job with them several weeks ago thanks to the lovely and talented Jen Leo. So far, he's been doing a kick ass job. Joanne just started writing for Card Squad as well and is off to a great start too. And if having Derek and Joanne on the same poker blog isn't enough... they added Wil Wheaton to their roster. He's going to be posting the majority of his poker entries over at Card Squad instead of on WWdN. Wil will be live blogging from the WCOOP, which started the other night on Poker Stars. He's expected to play in 11 more events. I'm playing in one WCOOP event on Friday. Wil also mentioned me in a recent post. Thanks dude!

Anyway, take a peek at Card Squad. They got some pretty good writers over there. For more info about the WCOOP, stop by Poker Stars Blog.

By the way, the Fat Guy is doing something great that I have to bring attention to. He's helping set up temporary housing in Texas and needs your help! Stop by his site Buck's on the Brazos to find out how you can help Hurricane Katrina victims.

Over the weekend, I spent most of my time writing freelance articles, working on a few other projects, and answering email. I played a two online charity tournaments on Full Tilt that raised over $38K for Hurricane Relief and lost my shirt on Party Poker. Just when I finally get close to catching up on everything work related, I have to get ready for being on the road for two straight weeks ending with AlCantHang's infamous Bash at the Boathouse or "Boatyard" as Bobby Bracelet likes to refer to it. This upcoming week will be filled with trip preparations and more writing before I embark on some European misadventures. Living in Las Vegas was epic and a lot of fun, but I'd rather travel from city to city then be in one place for too long.

I have some good news. I've decided upon a selection for an upcoming book on travel stories edited by Jen Leo. She was cool enough to ask me to contribute to her book. I have two stories that I'm going to submit. One is about a bender in Amsterdam with my buddy Senor in 1996 involving a bathroom and two underaged French girls. The other, which I hope gets selected, is a short piece about my trip to Japan in 2000. I went there with Senor to follow Phish and we ran rampant through four Japanese cities in one week, partying it up and raising hell, along with meeting Japanese hippies that knew the words to every Beatles and Grateful Dead song.

I also watched a little TV this weekend a caught an episode of Entourage. That show is freakin' hilarious. Favorite moment: when Johnny Drama stole the TV from his agent's office. Fuckin' priceless. When is Wil Wheaton going to make a cameo? I watched the Yankees win 2 out of 3 against Joe Speaker's A's. I saw the Ring 2 and Naomi Watts is pretty hot, but the sequel was horrible. I really dug the first one but wasn't thrilled with the second one. She wasn't naked, not even one gratuitous nipple shot. Zilch.

Moving on...

For all you bonus whores out there, you have four interesting options.

Full Tilt has a reload bonus of 50% up to $300 ($600 deposit required for max bonus). It will be running for the entire month of September. You have 60 days to clear your bonus and to earn 16.6 points for each $1 in bonus money.

Poker Stars is running a rare reload bonus of 20% up to $120 ($600 deposit required for max bonus). It's only valid until Thursday, September 8th at Midnight ET. There is no expiration date for this bonus. In order to clear it, you have to must earn 5 FPP for every $1 in bonus money.

Titan Poker has a 100% sign up bonus up to $500. Deposit $500 and they'll give you a free $500 and have to play a certain number of hands to clear that bonus. Titan Poker is a brand new poker room that is part of the iPoker network. If you don't like Noble Poker, then stay away because Titan is one of their skins. However, if you like playing against a collection of bad players, then Titan Poker is the place for you since you're playing against the same pool of awful players on Noble Poker. Plus I like the blue tint instead of green. Look for me, I'm playing under the screen name: DoctorPauly.

Party Poker is full of friggin' fish. Iggy reminded me about the Bad Beat Jackpot Tables. I only play them when it hits $250K. It's over $325K when I last checked. In less than 16 minutes on Sunday night, while on the phone with the Poker Prof, I won back 1/3 of my weekend losses. I was shocked to see AA and KK hold up on Party Poker with 5 other people in both times! OK, Party Poker is running a short term reload bonus and you have until tonight at Midnight to take advantage. Use code: USETOWIN to get a 20% reload bonus up to $100. So you have to put $500 back into your account to get $100.

Recent Poker Playing Music...
1. Widespread Panic
2. Beck
3. John Coltrane with Thelonious Monk
4. The Flaming Lips
5. Karl Denson
posted by Pauly at 9/06/2005 01:31:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Full Tilt Charity Tournament, WCOOP, and a Noble Free Roll

Since I came in 3rd place in a Noble Poker MTT last week, I was eligible to play in their $1K Winner's Free Roll. Joanne won a MTT this past week and she was invited to play too. I did awful. Joanne made the money and to the final table... again! She got pocket aces like ten times in that tournament. It was unreal.

Today marked the first day of the World Championships of Online Poker at Poker Stars. Both the Poker Nerd and Wil Wheaton live blogged during Event #1. Wil will be live blogging all of his WCOOP appearances over at Card Squad. The Poker Nerd took 662 while Wil finished 518th when his AJ ran into A8.

Full Tilt Hurricane Relief Tournament #2

Plenty of pros signed up to play on Full Tilt, including Aaron Bartley, David Grey, Kristy Gazes, Steve Brecher, Howard Lederer, Andy Bloch, Erik Siedel, Rafe Furst, Allen Cunningham, Perry Friedman, and John Juanda. There were some of your favorite bloggers there too, like Derek, Daddy, Heather, Gracie, Maudie, Iggy, Bobby Bracelet. Along with a few readers like Landow, Pablo, Tapin42 and Bobbie Lover who also played. On_thg, Ryan, and the April Sisters were hanging around.

Over 1210 players signed up which meant that over $24K went to Hurricane Relief. Since Friday, Full Tilt raised over $38K.

9:20pm... Daddy was the first blogger out in 1176th place. Derek followed soon after in 1167th.

9:31pm... I won a monster pot with AKs. I raised preflop and got 5 callers. The flop had two clubs. One player underbet the pot, another moved all in. I decided to gamble and called. The first player also called. I was up against second pair and top pair. I turned the flush and more than tripled up. I was 3rd overall at that point.

9:38pm... Rafe Furst ws eliminated in 1059th place.

9:39pm... I'm spotted by a few fans. Here's some of the chat:

hacker59 (Observer): is there a bounty on your head, pauly?
DrPauly: lol
DrPauly: no
hacker59 (Observer): you're the biggest freakin' celeb in the tournament, after all
DrPauly: Perry Friedman is a bigger celeb
hacker59 (Observer): faithful reader

9:44pm... Howard Lederer eliminated in 979th.

9:47pm... David Grey was out in 878th place.

9:48pm... Perry Friedman was busted in 865th.

9:59pm... Maudie was out in 767th.

10:03pm... Bobby Bracelet doubled up with the Hilton Sisters.

10:08pm... Maigrey was knocked out in 616th place.

10:12pm... I found AKs for the fifth time in less than an hour, and for the second time I chopped the pot with another guy with AK.

10:13pm... Erik Seidel was eliminated in 581st place.

10:14pm... I won a pot with KK and was 86/568 at the break.

10:31pm... Bobby Bracelet was eliminated in 484th place.

10:41pm... Andy Bloch was busted in 435th.

10:44pm... I got no action with my Hilton Sisters. I was 112 out of 420.

10:45pm... Kristy Gazes was eliminated in 405th place.

10:55pm... Gracie was knocked out in 350th place.

11:08pm... I'm eliminated in 261st place when my 88 loses to A8. Iggy, Landow, and Pablo remained.

11:10pm... Landow was knocked out in 256th place.

11:19pm... John Juanda was knocked out in 220th.

11:35pm... Iggy was knocked out in 172nd place.

1:08am... Pablo slugs his way to a 25th place finish. He made the money. Great job!
posted by Pauly at 9/05/2005 12:38:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Top 10 Referrals and Hurricane Relief Charity Tournaments

Just a quick reminder that Full Tilt is running another special tournament for Hurricane Katrina Relief tonight at 9:15 ET. Entry is $20 + $10 and Full Tilt is matching your entry fee and all of that will go to the Red Cross. On Friday they raised over $14K. I signed up for tonight's event and so did Derek. There will be pros playing in this event as well. So far Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, Howard Lederer, John Juanda, Toto Leonidas, and Steve Brecher have all signed up. Hope to see you there!

Updated List of Online Charity Poker Tournaments

Where: Full Tilt Poker
When: Sunday Sept. 4th at 9:15pm ET
How Much: $20 + $10
Note: Full Tilt will match your $10 entry fee and that will be donated to the Red Cross' Hurricane Relief Fund.

Where: Party Poker
When: Wednesday Sept. 7th at 8:50pm ET
How much: $30
Note: Party Poker is donating 90% of the prize pool to charity.

Where: Poker Stars
When: Monday Sept. 12 at 9:30 ET
How Much: $5

Where: Poker Stars
When: Wednesday Sept. 14 at 9:30 ET
How Much: $20

Where: Poker Stars
When: Thursday Sept. 15 at 9:30 ET
How Much: $50

Where: Poker Stars
When: Friday Sept. 16 at 9:30 ET
How Much: $100

Note: Poker Stars is only adding one cent per player to the prize pool and the remainder of the money collected will go to the American Red Cross. For more information visit Poker Stars blog.

Moving on...

I would like to thank the Top 10 Referrals to the Tao of Poker over the last week!

1. Las Vegas and Poker Blog
2. Wil Wheaton
3. Iggy's Guinness and Poker
4. Up for Poker (CJ, G-Rob, and Otis)
5. Chris Halverson
6. Aaron Gleeman
7. Double As
8. Card Squad
9. Joaquin Ochoa
10. Bad Blood on Poker

posted by Pauly at 9/04/2005 11:01:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Full Tilt Hurricane Relief Tourney: Derek 2, Phil Gordon 0

First of all congrats to Full Tilt for running the tournament last night. 718 players entered which means that over $14K was raised for the Red Cross. Plenty of the biggest names in poker played along with us including Chris Jesus Ferguson, Howard Lederer, Kristy Gazes, Phil Gordon, David Grey, David Singer, Steve Brecher, and Erick Lindgren.

Thanks to all the bloggers and readers who particpated. We had plenty of your favorite bloggers who signed up including Derek, Iggy, Boy Genius, Heather, Bill, Daddy, Al Cant Hang, and CprHou (sorry I forgot your URL!). We also had several readers who played like Tapin42 and Mattazuma. Thanks to Joanne who sweated all of us! Derek has a good write up over at Poker in the Weeds. He even mentioned it on Card Squad.

So let's get to a half-assed recap of the night's events. 718 Players. First prize was $3446. Top 72 players got paid prize money. I was listening to Jerry Garcia Band and Galactic for most of the night.

9:16pm... Derek moved all in on his first hand with AKs. He cracked the Hilton Sisters when he flopped a King.

9:21pm... I found AA and did not get any action with them.

9:31pm... BG's AA were cracked. He lamented his losing hand in the group chat.

9:35pm... A faithful reader, Mattezuma, stopped by my table to say hello!

9:39pm... Iggy was eliminated in 579. Refill!

9:53pm... I never chase early in a tournament and I did just that. With a nutflush draw I moved all ina gainst a guy who flopped a set. I knew I was way behind, but decided, "What the fuck? Let's gambooool!" I mssed my flush and was knocked out in 495th place.

9:59pm... Bill was busted in 435th place.

10:01pm... Daddy was knocked out in 422nd. He was cracking me up all night with his IM banter. Here's a sample: "the avatars have emotions. my avatar is now officially 'the confused donkey'..."

10:09pm... One of the first pros was eliminated when Kristy Gazes was out in 402nd place.

10:11pm... AlCantHang was knocked out in 378th when his Hammer did not hold up.

10:15pm... Jesus was out soon after in 369th and David Grey followed him at 363rd.

10:35pm... Derek won a monster pot after moving all in preflop with the Hilton Sisters. He was behind when he found himself against AQo and pocket Kings. He flopped the case Queen and scooped the pot.

10:39pm... BG finished in 293rd place after coming from behind with a short stack.

10:50pm... David Singer was knocked out in 229th place.

10:56pm... Heather aka Mai Grey had been sitting at Phil Gordon's table for a while. The chat was unreal. It seemed that a lot of people were asking Phil questions, most of them were just plain moronic. After Phil won a big pot from Heather and move dinto the overall chip lead with a monster stack, one guy wrote, "Hey Phil what bank did you rob?"

Phil quickly replied, "The Bank of Mai Grey."

Ouch. I was hoping Heather would get Phil on Tilt!

11:01pm... I decided to play a MTT on Noble Poker with Joanne. We've been playing those all week with a last longer bet. The loser pays the winner a six pack of their favorite beer. I was down 12 beers already and wanted to go double or nothing. On the first hand I had 10-10 and moved all in against Kournikova. The guy flopped both a King and a Queen, but I flopped a set to double up on the first hand!

11:05pm... Heather was eliminated in 167th. Steve Brecher was out in 160th and Paul Wolfe took 155th place.

11:25pm... Cprhou was knocked out in 135th place.

11:29pm... I was eliminated from my Noble Poker MTT when my AKs lost. I flopped top pair but two guys moved all in after me. They both flopped sets! Joanne won the last longer and I owe her 24 beers,w hich is a case here in America, but it's two cases in Canada. I think we lose something in the conversion.

11:34pm... Erick Lindgren was eliminated in 110th.

11:40pm... Tapin42 was busted in 95th place.

11:45pm... Derek doubled up.

12:03am... Phil Gordon got moved to Derek's table.

12:10am... Howard Lederer was knocked out in 68th place.

12:12am... Derek found A-A. Phil Gordon had a ginormous stack and he called Derek's all in bet with QJ. Derek was also up against 8-7s and A-K in a four way pot. Derek had the second most chips behind Phil. Anyway, the guy with 8-7s flopped two pair and Derek ended up winning a small side pot against Phil.

12:18pm... Derek got Phil Gordon all worked up when Derek moved all in with A-10s. Phil had pocket fives and Derek caught a gutshot straight on the river to win. Phil typed: "RIVER!" into the chat.

12:39am... Derek was finally eliminated in 33th place when his A-9s lost to A-J. He made the money and outlasted all of the bloggers and every pro with the exception of Phil Gordon who would end up in 30th place I think.

Thanks again to everyone who played. Full Tilt is hosting another tournament for Hurricane Relief this Sunday at 9:15 ET. The buy in is $20 + $10. I'll be playing in that one too! See you there.
posted by Pauly at 9/03/2005 12:13:00 PM | Permalink |

 
New Orleans Memories and Katrina Relief Tournaments

Sometimes you feel so fuckin' helpless and ashamed. To combat those dreadful feelings that have been lingering around inside my head the last few days as I soak in every desperate bit of footage from New Orleans, I decided to donate 10% of my September bankroll earnings to some organizations that will best help one of the worst disasters in U.S. history. Since I'm not that good of a poker player and I'm already down this month, I'm also donating 90% of my September affiliate revenues to Hurricane Katrina relief as well. In the past, I have donated all of May affiliate revenues towards the blogger get together in Las Vegas. I bought everyone drinks and party favors all weekend long. That was worth every penny I spent, however the money I donate this time will go towards a just cause that will help boost my soiled karma out of the gutter.

There are at least 5 ways you can help out and give aid to Hurricane Katrina victims. Full Tilt is having one special tournament tonight and Poker Stars is having four in the upcoming weeks thanks to Wil. Here are the details:

Where: Full Tilt Poker
When: Friday Sept. 2nd at 9:15pm ET
How Much: $20 + $10

Note: Full Tilt will match your $10 entry fee and that will be donated to the Red Cross' Hurricane Relief Fund. (Editor's Note: As of Noon on Friday, Howard Lederer will be playing in tonight's event. More pros are expected to appear.)

Where: Full Tilt Poker
When: Sunday Sept. 4th at 9:15pm ET
How Much: $20 + $10
Note: This event was recently added.

Where: Poker Stars
When: Monday Sept. 12 at 9:30 ET
How Much: $5

Where: Poker Stars
When: Wednesday Sept. 14 at 9:30 ET
How Much: $20

Where: Poker Stars
When: Thursday Sept. 15 at 9:30 ET
How Much: $50

Where: Poker Stars
When: Friday Sept. 16 at 9:30 ET
How Much: $100

Note: Poker Stars is only adding one cent per player to the prize pool and the remainder of the money collected will go to the American Red Cross. For more information visit Poker Stars blog.

So you have five chances to doing something good. I signed up for the Full Tilt event tonight and I signed up for the first two Poker Stars ones. I will not be able to play in either of the Poker Stars events since I'll be on holiday in Amsterdam. I will be posting and folding, soo feel free to raise my blinds if you are at my table. I'm hoping that I'll be able to play in the one of Sept. 15th or on Sept. 16th. I'll be in Spain by then and if I can get internet access, I'll play.

Moving on...

A lot of my favorite bloggers have been posting New Orleans memories. Unfortunately, my three best New Orleans stories are too incriminating for me to blog. You'll have to sit down and by me a beer to hear one of my many psychedelic Big Easy tales. Seriously, it's better I don't talk about some of the things that went down there. My attorney advised me to issue only this comment which is the same thing I said to the police interrogator: "She told me she was 19 years old."

However...

I spent a lot of time in New Orleans when I was in college. Too much time. Atlanta was Jan compared to New Orleans and Marcia. I attended Mardi Gras every year during college. I also went again in 2000 and it was as wild as ever. I've soaked up Jazz Fest four times too. Some of the best music and some of the biggest episodes of my own personal debauchery occurred on the streets of New Orleans. I'm devastated to think that there might never be another Mardi Gras or Jazzfest, at least not any time soon.

I saw one of my favorite bands, Galactic (a local New Orleans groove/funk band), play one of the best live shows I've ever seen in my life at Tipitina's in December of 2000. It definitely makes my top 10 list of greatest concerts that I've ever attended. Daddy can attest to how powerful a band like Galactic can be on any given night. I've seen them play all over the country and you know what? They bring New Orleans right to you, whether it was in New York City or Vail, Colorado, their shows are like a N'arlins party. Plus Tipitina's is a historical place for music. It's like Yankee Stadium or Lambeau Field.

I've seen almost every one of my favorite bands (with the exception of the Grateful Dead) in New Orleans. I've seen The Allman Brothers Band, Phish, Galactic, Widespread Panic, Garage-a-Trois, Oysterhead, Medeski Martin & Wood, String Cheese, Karl Denson, Charlie Hunter, Soulive, Rebirth, Ani DiFranco, Phil Lesh and Friends, the Funky Meters, the Radiators, and Santana. I even saw James Taylor put on a horrible show at Jazzfest one year.

Here's what some New Orleans musicians had to say about the hurricane, including a few words from the bass player from Galactic.

Flashback time.

The first time I was in New Orleans, I was an 18 year old frat boy. I showed up with $98, a Hawaiian shirt, and three condoms. I also wore my oldest pair of jeans that were ripped to shreds and an old pair of sneakers. Doolan, who was a Senior in my fraternity and veteran Mardi Gras attendee suggested that I bring clothes that I'm going to leave behind. He was right. I left three days later with just three dollars in loose change, no socks, with a ring of beads around my sore neck that a Haitian lady gave me for sucking on her left nipple while her boyfriend watched and took pictures, and most sadly, I only used up one of the condoms during an unimpressive two and a half minute romp in an alley off of Chartes Street with a really, really, really intoxicated sorority girl from my college.

Man that was fourteen years ago. Right now there's a soccer mom living in Georgia thinking, "I can't believe that fucker Dr. Pauly blogged about that! And it was more like thirty seconds, y'all. That was the worst sympathy fuck of my life."

At least I got off.

I have so many stories about New Orleans that I don't know where to begin. I guess I'll save those for another time. But for now all joking aside, there are a lot of people suffering in New Orleans and in the surrounding areas. Here's an opportunity for you to do some decent with your bankroll.

I encourage everyone to do something to helpout.

****** ******

Here's a link to the Wall Street Journal's live NOLA blog.
posted by Pauly at 9/02/2005 01:16:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Wicked Chops Blogfiles: Tao of Poker

Chops over at Wicked Chops Poker recently posted an interview with me called Blogfiles: Tao of Poker. It's a Q&A session and it turned out pretty good. Here are some sample questions:

WCP: You've traveled across the country playing in other people's home games. What are some of your best stories from the road?

WCP: Were you ever even a little tempted though to "make friends" with one of those hookers at the motel?

WCP: Finally, you pull up a seat at a live 6-person SNG. Who would you fill out the remaining seats with (can be living, dead, or fictitious)?

Wanna know my answers? Then check out... Blogfiles: Tao of Poker

Moving on...

I got several comments from readers and emails from Maudie and Gracie. They all saw me on Tuesday's episodes of the WSOP! In the Cyndy Violette/Erik Seidel event, I was spotted towards the end. I happened to see plenty of shots of Flipchip even one where you could see him in the background taking photos! I also spotted Amy Calistri and me talking at one point. Damn, that really made me miss the trenches at the Rio! I also got to catch glimpses of Heather from Poker Wire, BJ from Card Player, Jay Greenspan, and even John from Poker News... all in the background.

I guess I'll be buying the 2005 WSOP DVD as soon as it comes out!

****** ******

You should be checking out... Flipchip's 2005 WSOP Photo Gallery.
posted by Pauly at 9/01/2005 09:57:00 AM | Permalink |