The gambling ramblings of Pauly -- a writer, traveler, and degenerate

 
Desolation Angels

I've been busy the last few days and I have not been able to write at the great lengths which I'm used to. Now that I have some time, I'm gonna riff on some thoughts that have been festering.

When I walked into the emergency room at the hospital on Sunday, I saw my grandmother hooked up to all these machines. She was stuck in the ER because her room in the ICU wasn't ready yet due to some red tape. She was in a coma and the first thing that came to mind was "this is no way to die."

I've been a different frame of mind ever since. Whenever I'm confronted with death, all I want to do is live life. Right now, I have an attitude that... I'm not gonna take shit from anybody.

I was about to head out on the road for a month and do some living, working, and celebrating. However, for the last few days I was on the verge of not only canceling my trip to LA this weekend, but also canceling parts of my Las Vegas trip altogether. The situation with my grandmother in the first 24 hours was very grim and I had a heavy knot in my stomach. My gut told me that she wasn't going to make it and that I wouldn't be going anywhere for a while.

I haven't slept much this week. I went from 3-4 hours a night to barely an hour. I've been slipping into serious moments of self-reflection, confronting those lowlights in my life when I let my family down in more than one instance. I heard that I broke her heart when I walked out on Wall Street to selfishly seek out fame, glory, and the bohemian lifestyle as a writer. I rejected all the hard work and values that her generation tried to instill into their children/family. I know that it was the best thing for me, but she was about to go to her deathbed knowing that I failed to live up to her expectations. That dark cloud has been hanging around me the last few days. Here's the thing... aside from my brother, my family has no knowledge that I'm a blogger. They've never read any of my sites. I have no intentions of telling them either. I don't think I could fully explain to them what's happened this past year or what I exactly do for a living. They just wouldn't understand.

But what do I say? I was alone for a few minutes with my grandmother on Monday. I leaned over and spoke into her ear. I told her who I really was.

"I'm just a junkie. I drink too much. I gamble too much. And I spend way too much time in strip clubs. I treat women poorly with my brash insensitivity. I'm a selfish asshole who only thinks about himself. Everyday I say that I'm gonna improve my shortcomings and we know how that's never going to happen. But people pay me to write and send me all over the world. I make money doing something I love. I'm passionate about writing and that makes me happy. I've done more traveling than I ever imagined I would. I've swam with sharks in Jamaica. I chased the Northern Lights in Iceland. I've ridden bullet trains in Japan. I've climbed mountains in Colorado. I even got to shake hands with Jerry Garcia."

I told her sharks. I meat to say baby sand sharks.

In a completely selfish way I figured out what was the last possible day she could die without me having to cancel Vegas during the blogger weekend.

One week.

That's what I gave her. I secretly hoped that she'd die sooner than later. I'm such an asshole for wanting that. I could bullshit you and say that it would be easier for her and the rest of my family if she died sooner, but he truth was that I didn't want to miss seeing a lot of my friends. Hurry up and die so I can do shots with Al and go to strip clubs with Grubby. Yeah, I told you I'm an incorrigible fucktard.

Here's the good sappy part that you were waiting for.

The good news first bubbled up from something I heard Derek say, "Dude, I saw her open her eye."

And she did. She opened up both eyes. On Tuesday when I saw her last she recognized that I was there. She was sacred shitless and she was probably like, "Why the fuck is the tube shoved down my throat?" But I could see a soothing tone in her eyes when she saw me and Derek standing there.

Grandma's out of a coma and I'm going to Las Vegas!

There was a time in my life where I was paid insane amount of money on Wall Street to make crucial decisions everyday under the some of the highest amounts of stress possible. That's something you can't teach. Either you have it or you don't. Some days I'd have to make ten difficult decisions all day. Other days it was a hundred. Sometimes I had less than a minute to make six vital decisions with several millions of dollars on the line. I can sit back now and marvel at the insanity of what I used to do for a living. Thinking about it night makes me nervous. Every decision I made affected the reputation of my firm. If I made a mistake, I was pissing away someone's retirement fund or some kid's college fund. I was one trade away from going to prison and another trade away from going completely broke. Talk about a rush. I had no clue how I did what I did aside from the fact that I was thinking, just reacting.

I was grappling with a tough decision for the last few days. Stay in NYC or hit the road. It was driving me crazy that I had no control over the situation. I wanted to make a decision and was about to cancel my plans to go to LA this weekend. Then I got a small miracle. Grandma's not 100% but she was good enough for me to hit the road. As soon as she opened her eyes, the decision was made for me.

Now I am fortunate enough to spend the last month of the year mostly on the road. It's fitting too. 2005 was filled with plenty of travel for me this year. Most of it was business related and some of it was for pure pleasure. But I definitely was on the road more of this year than in the past five.

In 1999 and 2000 I did my most traveling both domestic and abroad. What I'm about to tell you is pretty much the material that I'm going to draw upon to write a book... someday. Some of the tales have become Truckin' stories. I was dating a hippie chick (we'll call her "Angela") from Texas and we crisscrossed America several times seeing Phish almost fifty times on different tours. One particular stretch of time involved a period of 100 days in 1999 where I was all over the place seeing Phish concerts. Sometimes we'd camp out. Other times we crashed with friends of ours. Our last resort was staying in a hotel, which I'd throw on my credit card. In the first thirty days, I flew from NYC to Dallas and drove to Kansas, Tennessee, Atlanta, Charlotte, and back to Dallas. Then I flew to NYC and drove to Philly, Boston, Northern New Jersey, upstate NY, Toronto Canada, Buffalo, NYC, Deer Creek Indiana, and back to NYC. I'm pretty sure that Daddy went to those same Phish shows in Deer Creek. Of course, I didn't know him then.

After a short rest in the city, I flew back to Texas and began another epic journey that would last 40 days. Angela and I drove from Texas all the way to Seattle, through New Mexico and Colorado to attend a music festival. After were spent a few days in Seattle, we crossed the border into Vancouver to see Phish. After a wild late night in Vancouver, we came back to America and saw concerts in central Washington (The Gorge) and a night in Portland before I headed to Boise, Idaho. Here's where it gets freaky. Human Head's wife, the lovely Mrs. Head, lived in Boise at the same time I was there. Of course, we didn't know each other and I wouldn't get to know the future Mr. Head until 5+ years later. Anyway, I ate in the restaurant she worked in. Pretty freaky, right? That's just an odd reminder that I might have crossed paths with many of you before. It's just that we didn't know it.

After Boise, we had to head to San Francisco but stopped off in Reno, NV for the night. Here's the gambling content. Angela's parents were religious hippies. They were also Baptists from Texas and frowned upon gambling. That did not deter their little angel from getting a crash course in blackjack from yours truly on the way from Boise to Reno. She end up almost $200 at the blackjack tables and I dropped a few bucks playing Stud. We should have been getting some rest but we stayed up all night gambling. The drive to San Francisco the next morning was rough. Angela yaked at the Califonria-Reno border. We saw two more concerts at Shoreline (one featuing Phil Lesh) and then drove down the Pacific Coast highway. We caught one more concert in San Diego and that night have been one of the 15 best Phish shows I've ever seen. We skipped a show in Los Angeles and headed to Mexico instead. It was my birthday and we wanted to go camping on the beach in Enseneda, drink tequila, and watch the sun rise. We drove back over the border and got back on tour in Arizona, followed by Las Cruces, New Mexico. My friend Molly was at that concert but we didn't know each other yet.

Once again, in some weird way, I've spent time in the same room/area of some people who I never knew or spoke to that would become my friends at a later date.

We got back to Texas and saw shows in Houston and Austin before we headed to New Orleans for a few days. I wanted to hit the riverboats in Biloxi, but we went to Pelham, Alabama to see a show instead. I know. Next up was Memphis and then we drove back to Texas where we saw a few Widespread Panic concerts. I flew home to NYC and saw the four final shows of their tour on Long Island and in Albany. At the end of it all, I ran up my credit card but had a few of the most amazing roadtrips in my life.

30+ cities in 100 days. Unreal.

The travel this year was not as intense but in many ways I look back on the places I've been and think... unreal. But the year is not over yet. The next stop on my journey is Las Vegas. On Friday, I depart Sin City and head to the City of Angels.

Here's where I tie everything down in the last few paragraphs and tell you that the last few weeks have been one helluva a mind fuck for me. I'm happy to be alive. One of the reasons I travel so much is because there's too much stuff out there in the world that I want to see and experience. Watching my grandmother struggle with severe health problems in the last chapter of her life reminded me that I still have a lot more I want to see... to visit... to do... to write... man, especially to write. I have at least five or six books and two screenplays in me (beside my Las vegas book which may never get done at this rate) and I have to get them out now before it's too late... before I'm hooked up to some machine and shitting myself in a diaper and regretting that I never got off my ass to write the Japan book, or paint again, or the write the sequel to Jack Tripper Stole My Dog.

I made poker such a huge priority in my life in 2005 and I'm blessed to have every second of it. But next year, I have to make some serious changes in my life. I realized that personal travel and writing (non-poker and non-freelance) is something that I want to pursue in addition to poker. I don't know if I can find a healthy balance for all three. One thing I learned about my time on Wall Street was that I had the ability to make big decisions fairly quickly and the majority of them were good. I'm going to be making a very big one pretty soon.

Like The Kurgan said, "It's better to burn out than to fade away."
posted by Pauly at 11/30/2005 07:28:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Meet Bobby iPod

Last night the anticpated tie-breaker heads-up match to settle the Saturdays with Dr. Pauly Champion took place. It was the battle of Michigan as on_thg took on Bobby Bracelet after they both tied for first place on the leader board. In many ways it was the most anticpaed heads-up match in the history of bloggerdom. The winner would get bragging rights, an engraved iPod Nano, and a free bikini wax job at the salon of their choice.

After encountering a minor problem finding an available heads-up SNG on Poker Stars, the two guys chose Titan Poker since they knew they'd get the table of their choice.

The match didn't last too long, probably due to the scalting blind structure. Bobby Bracelet got out to a quick chip lead and at one point had on_thg outchipped 1500 to 500. But on_thg won a big pot to get back most of his chips to even the score. He took the chiplead for a few moments before Bobby Bracelet stole it back.

On the winning hand, on_thg and his Kournikova outflopped Bobby Bracelet's A-J. Alas, Bobby rivered a straight to take down on_thg and become the first ever Saturdays with Dr. Pauly Champion.





Congrats again to Bobby and all of the prize winners.

First place: Bobby Bracelet = iPod Nano + free wax job
Second Place: on_thg = Big Lebowski DVD
Third Place: CJ = phonecall from Daddy
Boobie Prize: LifesaGrind = mystery gift (shoot me an email!)

Thanks to everyone who particpated in any of the tournaments and especially those of you who pimped them on your blogs! Extra special thanks to Poker Stars for allowing me to host Saturdays with Dr. Pauly. I think we have a good thing here and I'm excited about trying to set up more events in 2006. Stay tuned!

*****

You should be reading: HDouble's The Cards Speak and Derek's posts on Card Squad.
posted by Pauly at 11/29/2005 08:32:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Bloggers in Vegas: The Short Film

I couldn't sleep so I whipped a little short film featuring your favorite bloggers in Las Vegas from our trip last June. It's about 2.5 minutes long (it's an 8 MB .wmv file) and features a montage of still photos taken by me (and from Spaceman). The soundtrack music is from Galactic, one of my favorite New Orleans bands. Thanks to Al Cant Hang for hosting the file on his server/site. He wanted me to warn you that it's a "big friggin' file" and that I might "kill the server."

So here it is: Bloggers in Vegas (right click and save as)
posted by Pauly at 11/28/2005 02:59:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Bloggers Invading Las Vegas Tips 3.0

I will be cutting and pasting excerpts from two previous posts and rewriting parts of them on tips on surviving Las Vegas, meeting bloggers for the first time, and advice for Vegas newbies.

Feel free to print this up and hand out copies to your entourage.

I do not want to disappoint anyone who is meeting me for the first time, but I want to warn you that I am not as wild and crazy as every thinks I am. For the record, I will not be showing up in Vegas with two nymphomaniac teenage gymnasts (from a Eastern European county that no longer exists), along with an eight-ball of Colombian Snow Flake and a brick of Moroccan hash the size of Herve Villechaize. Believe me, if I had access to those kind of drugs and were able to woo nimble nymphets like that, the last thing I'd be doing would be hanging out in Vegas with a bunch of degenerates gamblers.

So here we go... my Tips on Surviving Las Vegas:

1. Cut back on sleep immediately.

As of right now, cut back on your sleep by 30 minutes every other night. Inside of two weeks, you'll be down to about 3.5 hours of sleep per night. The average Las Vegas visitor gets around 3 hours of sleep and the average poker blogger gets substantially a lot less. Cutting back on sleep right away is an easy way to get adjusted to sleep deprivation by following my simple routine. Seriously, if you are used to getting 8 or more hours per night, you're in trouble, I'd cut back 30 minutes everyday between now and Vegas.

2. Sip, don't chug.

Pace yourself with your alcohol consumption. Al Cant Hang is a machine. His blood type is 180 Proof because Al is really an alien. He's not of this world. Don't succumb to the frission of being in a casino bar with all your favorite bloggers and foolishly attempt to keep up. If you do, you'll end up clutching the porcelain God at 4am wondering why the hell that cab driver punched you out after you yaked up your dinner and a half a bottle of Southern Comfort in his back seat. Surviving the Sherwood Forest bar at 9am on the morning of the blogger tournament was a moment I'll never forget. It's a badge of courage like a soldier who managed to get through D-Day without a scratch. I'm glad that we made it through an entire weekend of partying in Vegas last December and another bender in June without anyone getting their stomachs pumped at the hospital or landing themselves in the drunk tank at the Clark County jail. Let's keep it that way. Moderation is the key to happiness.

3. Water is your friend.

Las Vegas is in the middle of the fuckin' desert. Drink water. Lots of it. I used to try to drink one glass of water per alcoholic beverage consumed. In Vegas I do my best to double that amount. Sure, I'm pissing every eight minutes, but you're head will thank you the next day when you're experiencing a hangover-free morning. One of my biggest expenses in Vegas is my water tab, well that and trips to strip clubs with Grubby.

4. Bring a cell phone charger.

Don't forget one. Since you will be staying up from anywhere from 20-36 hours straight, you might want to make sure your cell is charged before you begin your gambling session. With bloggers in town, having a phone will be necessary to arrange meetings or if you need someone to post bail money. Besides, you should throw your loved ones at home a bone every 12 hours and send them a drunken text message or get someone on the horn for a Dial-a-Shot. When you are sleeping, charge up your phone during the few hours that you're crashed out.

5. Take pictures.

Come on, I know you geeky bloggers can't wait to spice up your Vegas trip reports with pictures. I encourage it, especially if you have never been to Vegas before. Don't be afraid to go camera happy and take more pictures than a menagerie of Osaka businessmen. Bring a camera, even if it's one of those disposable ones for $7. You have to leave Vegas with at least one good story and at least one good picture.

6. Ask before you post pictures on the internet.

If you are a person who thinks they look awful in photos or is just camera shy or they want to keep their identity a secret, then by all means please tell everyone now. Conversely, if you are going to post pictures of bloggers, make sure you get their consent with the exception of anyone who passes out in my room like the Poker Geek, Bill Rini, and that freakish moment when Eva "Icey Toes" CanHang crawled into my bed and passed out after an all night bender. My ugly mug is all over the internet so snap away. And no Mr. Ten Mile, I will not be wearing any of my pestiferous shirts that I wore last December or June at the blogger tourneys.

7. Speak your mind and stay in the moment.

I never got to really hang out with Bill Rini last December and I barely had anytime to talk to Chilly or April in June. That was one of my regrets... not making enough time for everyone. I simply assumed that I'll have time later in the trip to shoot the shit and play cards with Bill, April, and Chilly. That never happened. Don't make that crucial mistake. If you have the chance to talk to someone, take advantage of that opportunity. If you see Iggy at the pisser, seize the moment to talk shop with him. You never know what might happen during your time in Vegas. With such a big group, you won't have time for "quality one-on-one time" so whenever you cross paths with a fellow blogger, whether it's Otis sitting by himself at the Pai Gow table at 4am or running into Bad Blood at the Bellagio at 2am or shooting craps with Obie at the Plaza... stop by and shoot the shit. You won't regret it.

And don't feel shy or intimidated about saying what you want to me or anybody else. Our time is limited, so speak up! If you want to ask me questions, feel free. If you want blogging advice, just ask. If you want to buy me a drink, let's do it. If you want to go to strip clubs, then hold on a second and let me call Grubby.

8. Understand that it will be impossible to spend quality time with everyone.

I have already accepted the fact that I will not be able to hang out with everyone, even my friends and even Derek. With the huge number of people inovled with this event, it will be impossible to find blocks of unfettered time to spend with everyone. Expect splintered conversations that last about five minutes or ten minutes if you are lucky. Use meals and time at the poker tables as an opportunity to get to know your fellow bloggers.

So please understand ahead of time that I'm gonna feel horrible that we didn't get to spend quality time together. However, whatever time we do spend, it's going to be special and meaningful for me... so let's just have fun and live in the moment. I'm sure we'll all get together in a smaller setting at sometime in the future.

9. Table image is a factor in real life.

A lot of us play the majority of our poker online. Some of you haven't played extensively in casinos, so here's my quick tip... image is important. How do you want to be portrayed? Like a dipshit tourist from Hootersville, Indiana who's playing poker for the first time? Or a punk-ass kid with wraparound sunglasses at a low limit table who watches too much WPT? Or a know-it-all table captain who tries to take charge of the table full of drunks? Or do you want to blend in and become a blur to your table mates? I usually cut my vocabulary in half and talk about topics like Celebrity Poker Showdown. I make sure I drink heavily in front of them, refer to women as "broads" and play one really awful hand like a donkey in the first orbit that I showdown to the river. Too bad that I'm just being myself.

10. Don't be Gigli.

If you don't know Bill was the first blogger knocked out in December's tournament and the Poker Nerd was busted first in June. They were both awarded the infamous Gigli DVD for coming in last place. I bought a new copy of Gigli (how sad is it when the postage costs more than the actual DVD?) which I will be giving to the first blogger out of the Holiday Classic tournament. Will it be you? And rest assured I will torment you for the rest of the year with chants of "Gigli! Gigli!" in your chatbox every time you play on Party Poker.

11. Never underestimate the importance of a $20 tip.

Do you wanna get shit done in Vegas? Tip the hell out of every person you see. I'm from New York City and we tip everyone. In a town like Vegas, most of the people working in the service industry are not paid extravagantly. They rely on tips to supplement their wages. You would be surprised how much attention you can get with a simple $20 tip. Heck that's like one big bet for some of you.

Example #1: I call this move The Grubbette. When you check into a hotel and they ask for your credit card, carefully place a folded up $20 bill underneath your card. As the front desk person is picking up the cash and card, quickly ask them if they can bump you up to a better room. It never fails. But then again, Grubbette is a lot cuter than me!

Example #2: When I was in Vegas last March, when I called around to find a reservation for dinner on Easter Sunday, I found out that every place was booked. Grubby, Senor and I made plans to meet Flip Chip and Poker Prof at Ceaser's Palace. I decided to pop into Palm to see if they had any open tables. The hostess checked her reservations book and said she didn't have any open spots for us. When I spotted two open tables, I slipped her $20 and said "Did anyone every tell ya that you have beautiful eyes? By the way, can you check again? That's Dr. Pauly, for a party of five." We were seated within five minutes.

There is only one instance where I will tell you to save your tips... and that's in a strip club. Never, under any circumstances give a stripper a tip. If I find out you did, I will smack you personally.

Now if you think $20 gets you a long way... try tipping $40 or $100.

12. Food is fuel.

If you have the opportunity to eat, do it because you never know when you might never have another chance to get some grub. Last December, I never saw Iggy eat one bite during our last trip. He was on the ciggies and Guinness gambler's diet.

13. Wear comfortable shoes.

As a native New Yorker, I walk everywhere and I'm used to trudging along for five or six miles in a day. If you are a lazy fuck who's a slave to their vehicle, then start walking a mile or two everyday to get yor legs in shape. The entrance from the Rio to the actual place where the WSoP is being held is a hike. Plus if you want to walk the Strip, everything appears much closer in the desert.

14. Bring a watch.

There are exactly six clocks in the entire city of Las Vegas and you won't see any of them in an actual casino.

15. Keep your gambling bankroll separate from your other cash.

I think this one is self-explanatory. Don't bring more cash to Vegas than you are willing to lose. Always keep your bankroll separate from your strip club money. You'll thank me later.

16. $50 bills are bad luck.

Don't feel weird about asking to change in your $50 bills. That is one superstition I've been following every since Grubby clued me in.

17. Avoid the slots.

Grubby will try to turn you over to the dark side of gambling and get you to hit the slots with him at 3am. Resist the temptation!

18. Don't tell people at your poker table that you have a poker blog.

Please for the love of God, do not tell anyone you're in town for a poker bloggers convention. Why don't we just slap the loser mark right on our foreheads and walked around with Bonus Code Iggy tattooed on our asses? I never tell "civilians" that I'm a blogger. If they recognize me, then that's fine. But never reveal who you are. Because if you do, then you can't talk about them or make fun of them in our blog!!

You're in Vegas. It's a surreal place. Make shit up. Pretend you're a fish. I lie to dealers, strippers, cab drivers, and my tablemates all the time when I'm in Vegas. During previous trips, I've told random strangers that I was a marine biologist, an aquarium salesman, a trumpet player in a Latin jazz band, a radiologist, and my favorite... that I've just got out of prison. The ladies seem to like that one. Bottom line is this: if you can't successfully lie to the people at your table and if you are unable to convince them that you are in fact an astronaut, then you shouldn't be playing poker in Las Vegas. Go home and fire up Poker Stars instead.

During this trip I intend on telling folks that I'm a proctologist or I'm thinking about being the malcontent heir to the "Spork" fortune. A spork is not a fork, but not quite a spoon. One of my fraternity brothers in college used that line to try to pick up girls in bars. He even convinced a few that he had a spork shaped swimming pool. And if I happen to stumble into a strip bar, my cover story will be that I'm the tour manager for a metal band called The Al Cant Hang Experience.

**** Newly Added ****

19. Bring a jacket and sunglasses.

Sloshr suggested that I tell everyone to bring a jacket or sweater. It gets cold in Las Vegas in December so pack something warm. It's cold in parking decks and most card rooms have high powered A/C.

***** *****

Here are some random pics that I took this past June:



Al and the Fat Guy playing video poker


My Bounty courtesy of Al Cant Hang


Poker Geek minus the light saber.


Tanya's card cappers


The Poker Prof moves all in...


Joaquin flexes while Spaceman calculates pot odds


Flip Chip in action


The Final Two: G-Vegas vs. LA



Al does a huge shot.


Bobby Bracelet's shirt


Al wears Heather's tiara

***** *****


Ok that's it for now. Those were my half-baked ideas on how to survive Las Vegas. If you can remember half of these, then you should make it home in one piece. I'm scheduled to leave for Vegas on Wednesday. And it's 12+ days and counting until the Holiday Classic at Imperial Palace....
posted by Pauly at 11/27/2005 07:09:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Saturdays with Dr. Pauly Event #4: Joanne Wins; Bobby Bracelt & On_thg Tie for First!

(Editor's Note: Full post pending... for now here's a quick update.)

Congrats to Joanne for winning Event #4!

Right now, there's a tie for first place between Bobby Bracelet and on_thg. They will play heads up at 10pm EST on Monday. Winner gets the iPod and the loser gets a Big Lebowski DVD. CJ won a phonecall from Daddy for 3rd place! Bobby also busted me and he won the bounty. Life's a Grind won the "Boobie" prize. Shoot me an email and we can discuss.

Event #4 Results
1: Joanne1111 (Calgary), $153.00 (30%)
2: dietlime (Mechanicsville), $102.00 (20%)
3: HeyKidsItsBG (Grand Haven), $61.20 (12%)
4: bob labah (Brooklyn), $51.00 (10%)
5: BobRespert (Farmington Hills), $40.80 (8%)
6: crazfn (Racine), $33.15 (6.50%)
7: Meanhappyguy (Portland), $28.05 (5.50%)
8: Timinator99 (Toronto), $22.95 (4.50%)
9: tml10023 (New York), $17.85 (3.50%)

PokerStars Tournament #14328957, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $10+1
51 players
Total Prize Pool: $510.00

Tournament started - 2005/11/26 - 13:00:00 (ET)
Tournament finished - 2005/11/26 - 15:58:43 (ET)

Updated iPod Leaderboard

Top 3 Winners:
1 Bobby Bracelet 3-25-15-5 (48)
1 On_Thg 8-1-19-20 (48) = Winner Event #2
3 CJ 5-44-1-10 (60) = Winner Event #3

The Rest:
4 Joanne 25-43-9-1 (78) = Winner Event #4
5 Philly63367 12-10-6-51 (79)
5 Jen Leo 10-24-24-21 (79)
7 Sir Waffle 1-58-12-18 (89) = Winner Event #1
8 TML10023 (Terry Lane) 29-17-53-9 (108)
9 SarahBellum 23-34-43-12 (112)
10 Timinator 31-46-29-8 (114)
10 JoeSpeaker 76-3-22-13 (114)
12 Drizz 19-40-37-27 (123)
13 RickLang 63-6-38-25 (132)
14 SgtDanko 9-68-28-28 (133)
15 BG 16-79-36-3 (134)
16 Boobie Lover 50-71-8-11 (140)
17 Gary634 2-20-72-49 (143)
18 Shane Big Pimpin Nickerson 24-29-61-29 (143)
19 Maudie 21-75-7-47 (150)
20 Slimerface 93-15-26-23 (157)
21 Wyndigo 52-4-66-36 (158)
22 Mourn 98-35-14-31 (178)
23 Katitude 4-78-54-46 (182)
24 Whaaaa? 47-33-70-43 (193)
24 Derek 53-86-21-33 (193)
26 Pauly 26-77-67-37 (207)
27 Bddide 66-49-56-41 (212)
28 April98 92-92-17-15 (216)
29 BobBlahBlah 83-84-40-4 (221)
30 LifesaGrind 73-73-60-26 (232)

I would like to take the time out to thank Poker Stars for hooking me up with four Saturday tourneys in a row. And thanks to all of you who played in the tournaments. The 29 other players listed above get extra special props here because they played in every week. You guys rules. Seriosuly thanks to everyone who took the time out to play.

Based on the feedback I have gotten from readers and bloggers, I get the general feeling that everyone had a blast and that they'd like to play in more events in the future (at a much later time of course). I'll still keep the buy-ins at $10 and push back the starting times.

I'm in the process of figuring out some dates for the next series of Saturdays with Dr. Pauly afternoon tourneys in 2006. The only problem is finding time. I'm all booked in December and I'm looking at sometime in January. I don't have my schedule set, but I'm trying to get an assignment to cover the WPT-PCA in the Bahamas. If that doesn't happen, I might be taking a trip to Costa Rica. But for the most part, I wanted to take a hiatus/vacation from blogging in January to finish up my book. I was planning a trip to Thailand/Nepal for February, but that has been shelved. However, Senor wants to go to South America... somewhere... so like I said, it's gonna be hard finding out some available time. No worries. I'll make it happen. I had too much fun tis time around, so stay tuned for more details!

Thanks again for playing.
posted by Pauly at 11/26/2005 04:20:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Rough Waters

After I finally published the latest issue of Truckin', cranked out two freelance articles, finished a project for All In Magazine, penned a poem about Keira Knightley's nipples, and worked on my Vegas book... I made an effort to play a ton of tournaments on the day after Turkey Day. The results? Not impressive whatsoever. I cashed in only one of my last 10 MTTs and I only cashed in 3/8 SNGs. If that wasn't bad enough, the junk kicking spilled over into cash games. I dropped a buy-in at the $5/10 tables on Party Poker and got my arse kicked playing $3/6 on Full Tilt with Daddy. My balls are still swollen.

MTTs Results:

• $1 NL on Poker Stars: 843/1123 (with Drizz)
• $3 NL on Poker Stars: 155/1569 (with Drizz) = MADE THE $$$$
• $3 NL WPT-PCA with Rebuys on Poker Stars: 19/233
• $20 PLO on FullTilt: 29/65 (with Drizz, Derek, Daddy, Bad Blood, and Chad)
• $20 NL on FT: 129/169 (with Derek & Daddy)
• $24 NL $9K Guaranteed on FT: 208/583 (with Clonie Gowen)
• $30 NL on Party: 56/145
• $33 NL WPT-PCA with Rebuys on Poker Stars: 37/172
• $50 NL on FT: 21/168
• $100 NL on Party: 36/81
  

SNGs Results:

• $25 NL Turbo on Poker Stars (5): 4, 5, 3, 6, 2
• $6 NL Turbo on PokerStars (3): 4, 3, 4
  

Recent Poker Playing Music...
1. The Funky Meters
2. Medeski, Martin & Wood with John Scofield
3. Beck
4. Jerry Garcia Band
5. Widespread Panic with Trey Anastasio

Let's hope I play better in my tournament today and in the GPC satellite on Sunday.
posted by Pauly at 11/26/2005 09:06:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Truckin' - November 2005, Vol. 4, Issue 11


Editor's Note: This is a repost. I prematurely published this month's issue of Truckin' by accident. This is the actual issue! I also apologize to Jaxia for omitting her from the original publication. Because Jaxia is a Texan, and a heavily armed lesbian, I offer up my most humblest of apologies. I don't want to have a Valerie Solanas/Andy Wharol situation when Jaxia attempts to knock me off in Las Vegas next month. I'm afraid that she's a much better shot than Valerie. Anyway, here's my "final cut" or the November issue including Jaxia's poem(s) Gemini. Thanks again! McG

Yes, I finally published another issue of Truckin'! Thanks to everyone who particpated this month. It looks like it turned out to be one kick ass issue. After all, anything from AlCantHang is a bonus!

1. Las Vegas Blvd. Hookers by Tenzin McGrupp
The Joker wanted me to teach him how to spot a hooker in Las Vegas and I gave him a quick tutorial. We identified the ladies as they walked right next to us... More

2. Dead of Night by Joe Speaker
I shade my night eyes toward the floor, groping with my left hand for the chair I know is there somewhere, cradling my pen and pad in my right. Sleep has eluded me again, pushed aside by the wall of thoughts stacking impenetrably in my head... More

3. To Be Determined by Human Head
The only two people he had ever been exposed to with that name came in the form of a television show about a retard named Bill, and his grandpa, who smelled like a mix of body odor and dirt... More

4. The Shit House by Al Cant Hang
I think I recently killed my new co-worker and friend. I'm not saying that I murdered him, but I think my actions led to his demise... More

5. Walk by Scuba Steve
After getting bleary-eyed on Buddha, nothing is better than a Marlboro and a Mountain Dew. Man, what I wouldn't do for a Mountain Dew right now... More

6. Me, Bob and the Blonde by Tom Love
We walked a couple of more blocks, eyes bloodshot, eyelids puffy. In front of a pharmacy, we were approached by two cute British girls in miniskirts who started a flirting conversation with us... More

7. Gemini a poem by Jaxia Kiley
To pulverize a living, beating heart... More
posted by Pauly at 11/25/2005 08:40:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Saturdays with Dr. Pauly Final Event

Don't forget that tomorrow is the final event of Saturdays with Dr. Pauly.

11.26.05 @ 1pm EST
Poker Stars
Tournament #14328957
$10+1 NL Hold'em
Password = hiltons

The first place winner gets a copy of Phil Gordon's new book. Whoever busts me gets an itunes gift card.

We will also find out who wins the overall prizes:

1st place = iPod Nano
2md place = Big Lebowski DVD
3rd place = phone call from Daddy
Last Place = Mystery Gift

Top 10 on the iPod leaderboard:
1. On_Thg 8-1-19 = 28 (Event #2 Winner)
1. Philly63367 12-10-6 = 28
3. Bobby Bracelet 3-25-15 = 43
4. CJ 5-44-1 = 50 (Event #3 Winner)
5. Jen Leo 10-24-24 = 58
6. SirWaffle 1-58-12 = 71 (Event #1 Winner)
7. Joanne 25-43-9 = 77
8. Gary634 2-20-72 = 94
9. Drizz 19-40-37 = 96
10. TML10023 (Terry Lane) 29-17-53 = 99

I hope to start up a new series of tournaments in January or February. Stay tuned for more details. See ya tomorrow.
posted by Pauly at 11/25/2005 07:56:00 PM | Permalink |

 
A Day of Thanks

Sometimes the hardest things to say are the most simple. Thank you everyone... for everything.

Just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone in the community... bloggers and readers alike. This has been a sensational year for me and a lot of my success has been inspired, spurred on, and fueled by you. Whether you are a friend, a reader, or a blogger... please note that this amazing run could never have been possible without your support.

I am eternally grateful to have crossed paths with so many of you. I have met some amazing people this year. I do not have the time to personally mention and thank everyone, but you guys know who you are. There's also a someone in particular out there who I've spent a lot of time getting to know and I'm super lucky to have developed a friendship with her.

There are 10+ people that I have to take the time out to recognize.

To "my entourage": Special thanks goes out to my brother Derek for all the love and support and to my close friends from college, Senor & Jerry, who have been cheering me on for almost half of my life. I could not have gotten where I'm at without the help of my assistant Jessica who gets the thankless job of editing all of my work. Also thanks to Haley and (her mom) who have been extremely helpful with giving me career advice and reminding me to maintain a healthy balance of hard work, play, and friendship in my life. Extra thanks to Briana who made some serious sacrifices this year and allowed me to put my writing first. This year has been special for us and all of you are an integral part of all of this. In the words of Johnny Drama... "Victorrryyyyy!"

Thanks to Otis and everyone at Poker Stars for all their help and generosity, especially in Barcelona. I also want to thank Wil for all his help and support this year. He saved me during the WSOP when I was losing my shit with some advice that I still use to this day.

Lastly, special thanks to the Poker Prof and Flipchip. The Prof took a chance on me and gave me one of my first jobs in the poker industry with Poker Player Newspaper. Without his friendship and confidence in my writing ability... I would never had gotten to where I'm at today. And thanks to Flipchip and his wife who took me into their family when I lived in Las Vegas. I definitely would not have survived the WSOP and living at the Redneck Riviera without his help, guidance, fatherly advice, and Vietnam war stories.

I am sincerely inspired by everyone who has been a part of my life prior to this year along with everyone new that I got to meet along the way. I've developed plenty of new friendships this year and strengthened old ones. When I look back at what's happened to me this past year, I do not look at the huge leap in my career, or the money, or the accolades. What makes 2005 special has been the people in my life that I am fortunate to call my friends. An excellent testament to a person's character is to examine the circle of people they consider their friends. I look around and I am blessed that I stand in the middle a gigantic circle of greatness. I'm where I'm at today because of my friends. I'm the luckiest person I know.

Before I go, I would like to thank the folks who send me traffic, especially Iggy!

Here are the Top 10 Referrals in November:
1. Wil Wheaton
2. Poker Prof's Las Vegas & Poker Blog
3. Iggy
4. Aaron Gleeman
5. Up for Poker (CJ, Otis & GRob)
6. Jeff Pulver
7. Tao of Pauly
8. Steal the Blinds (Jaxia & Beck)
9. Double As
10. Card Squad

Here are the Top 10 Referrals in 2005:
1. Las Vegas & Poker Blog (Poker Prof & Flipchip)
2. WWdN (Wil Wheaton)
3. Guinness and Poker (Iggy)
4. Up for Poker (CJ, Otis & GRob)
5. Aaron Gleeman
6. Tao of Pauly
7. Chris Halverson
8. 2 Hole Cards (Nick)
9. Double As
10. Al Cant Hang

Thanks again everyone. Have a great holiday.
posted by Pauly at 11/24/2005 10:14:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Spaceman in the City and the Rooster Flies at Midnight

A few things...

Firstly, thanks to Otis and Poker Stars who added some cool stuff to the Holiday Classic. $2000 added to the prize pool is a generous donation from one of my favorite online poker sites.

Secondly, I won a MTT at Full Tilt the other night. I forgot to blog about it. It was a super-staellite and the top two won seats to the GPC satellite on Sunday. It's for the Global Poker Challenge that Andy Bloch told me about when we were hanging out at Foxwoods. And if I win on Sunday I get to play in a televised event at the Palms in December. I always welcome railbirds, so if you are bored Sunday night, stop by and sweat me! Anyway, when it got heads up the other guy wanted to play it out for real, so I got some extra practice playing heads up. I came from behind to win. The funny thing is that I was supposed to meet Briana and instead I was playing in the satellite. She kept calling me saying, "Where are you McFucker?" She was kinda pissed that I was two hours late but was thrilled I won a tournament. I came in 2nd in a MTT on Party a few weeks ago, but this was my first big win since chopping the Brad-o-Ween tournament with Wes.

As always a hearty thanks to Wil, who dug the intro to my last post. He linked it up in his most recent post called Eveything we need to know. Of course, Briana is going apeshit over getting her name blogged on Wil's site. I blog about her all the time and she doesn't even blink an eye. But as soon as Wil blogged that excerpt, she called everyone on her speed dial and emailed the link to every poor soul in her email address book... even her parents... who hate me even more.

Moving on...

Four bloggers walk into a bar... sounds like a punchline to a bad joke, right? But it's what went down last night, except we walked into several bars. I had not gone drinking with bloggers in NYC since Otis came to town for the Poker Stars party when I drank fruity rum drinks in plastic coconuts with Isabelle Mercier. I got wicked sick that night and puked in the middle of the street. I have not drank that much since then.

Derek and I hung out with Spaceman last night after his Millionare interview. Joaquin suggested Brother Jimmy's which was funny because it's a Southern BBQ place. I think he wanted Spaceman to feel at home. Our waitress copped an attitude right away with us. I hate that. She didn't even give us a chance to piss her off! That's where we started our bar hopping run that would span several bars on the Upper West Side. We pretty much followed Joaquin around and I got to catch a glimpse of where he goes to troll for drunken NYC chicks. The guy loves women and he hit on a ton. We walked into one bar in particular and he started chatting up the cute bartender.

Pauly: So did you hit that?
Joaquin: No.
Pauly: Not even a blow job?
Joaquin: She gave me a handjob.
Derek: Totally useless. Why do women do that? You're better off stroking yourself.

I'll let Joaquin write up his sexual conquests, but I had to share that conversation we had. We also stopped off at Yogi's near the Beacon Theatre. They play a ton of country & western music and Joaquin sang along with almost every tune. We drank PBR out of a can, and it might be one of the cheapest bars in the city. I used to drink there sometimes with Haley.

Anyway Joaquin tried to chat up a table of women from South Africa and then he zeroed in on he two drunkest chick in the bar. The blonde and her ugly friend. He gave the ugly one a certain blogger's email address. I won't say which one. But if some random chick emails you in the next day or so... please let me know. The blonde was playing darts. Drunk people should never be around sharp objects. She nearly took one guy's eye out with a throw.

Joaquin: Do you know who this is? (Pointing to me)
Blonde: No? Maybe? He looks familiar.
Joaquin: He's a celebrity. Do you watch poker? (He pointed to the TV with had ESPN and the WSOP final table on)
Blonde: Sometimes.
Joaquin: That's Dr. Pauly.
Blonde: Awesome! (as she shook my hand) I thought I recognized you. Didn't you play in the WSOP, right?
Pauly: Yeah in two events... and I made the final table in one.

That's right. I used the WSOP final table line to pick up a soused chick in a dive bar in NYC. It's not really a line... because it's true. At least I didn't waste that line on her friend.

At some point AlCantHang called for a dial-a-shot. He won a feeroll at the Boathouse. I think the Spaceman got sick of having to step outside to smoke ciggies, especially since it's been friggin' cold as fuck in the city.

At Bourbon Street, Joaquin and I ordered drinks. After I told the female bartender what we wanted, Joaquin added, "And your phone number." You gotta love seeing The Rooster in action.

Spaceman had a rough night and spent some time in the bathroom. I walked in to check up on him and he was clutching the porcelain god. When he got out he muttered, "BG pukes and passes out. Spaceman pukes and keeps partying."

Yeah not only did Spaceman reference the infamous Brad-o-Ween incident involving BG (which we'll dub "Nap-gate") but Spaceman also referenced himself in the third person.

It's not a real trip to the big city unless you blow chunks in a random bathroom, while the Rooster milled around outside trying to pick up chicks waiting in line for the ladies room.
posted by Pauly at 11/23/2005 10:05:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Spaceman and the Blue Parrot

"Yous fellas gonna be playin' Texas Hold'It?" - Ferrari's doorman

Wow, Derek scooped me on the Blue Parrot post! I was up until 6am writing the Vegas book and then I forgot I had to go eat lunch with Briana and her mother, who hates me. She's suspicious that I'm just after her family's money. "I'm not," I told her, "I just like sleeping with your daughter." No wonder the woman loathes me. Rich people hate it when you tell them the truth. Briana's father likes me only because he knows that her mother doesn't like me. I'm just a pawn in their world. The good part is that the old man has taken an interest in my poker career and I even got him to sign up for a Poker Stars account. I'm trying to get him to stake me in the Wall Street game which is a juicy $5K buy-in 10/20 NL game, which he admits he drops two or three buy-ins a week. But that's a post for another time.

Moving on...

Check out Derek's recap of where he specifically mentions his love for public urination. I have a sneaky suspicion that he and Spaceman are gonna piss in Joaquin's stairwell tonight.

If you don't know, Spaceman is in NYC for his Who Wants to be a Millionaire? interview. So what better way to prepare for that big moment than to play some poker at the infamous Blue Parrot? Ferrari got a game together at the last minute in honor of Spaceman's arrival in the big city. This was Spaceman's chance to play some cards against some of the best legal minds in the city along with the collection of other hipsters, bohemians, degenerate gamblers, and yuppies that often fling chips around the Blue Parrot. We had some regulars including a few first timers like Joaquin and Mike. We have not played since I got back from Vegas in August. With everyone's busy schedule and the recent busts in NYC card rooms, the felt at the Blue Parrot had not seen any action.

Here's the lineup:

Seat 1: Spaceman... Shit, you guys know about him! He rules and is one of my favorite bloggers.

Seat 2: Diane (early) then Joaquin (late night)... Diane is a former resident of the East Village. She's a slam poet, musician, singer, writer, blogger and has played plenty of times at the Blue Parrot.

Seat 3: Mike... a financial analyst by day and he's a devoted reader of my blogs. He even showed up at Al Cant Hang's Boathouse Bash! He regularly plays in the clubs around NYC.

Seat 4: Marie... Meet the entrepreneur. She adds a tinge of class and grace to the Blue Parrot. I think it's her British accent but she's often dropped a C-bomb or two at the table, which makes her just one of the gang.

Seat 5: Ferrari... a legal eagle by day and the owner and proprietor of the Blue Parrot by night, our awesome host let's his cats roam around freely and even leaves the windows to his 19th floor apartment wide open. And yes both his cats love to sit on the edge. Don't we all?

Seat 6: F Train... the a former teen idol pop singer in Norway quit the music industry and went to law school instead. Every once in a while a thirtysomething Scandinavian female (and former fan) sends him a pair of her unwashed undies. Sometimes he let's me sniff the dried pussy juice.

Seat 7: Om... Meet the Helmut Newton of the Blue Parrot. He's got the one job we all want (even me). Om is a fashion photographer and gets to be around hot, scantily clad women all the time. Dammit. I have to pay big bucks to get the action he gets everyday. Lucky fucker.

Seat 8: Derek... the self-admitted "Don Swayze" of poker bloggers. You guys also already know my brother Derek who spends most of his free time cranking out material for Card Squad when he's not lurking at the Razz tables on Full Tilt.

Seat 9: Joaquin (early)... Meet the Rooster. Joaquin is known to many as the "Rooster." If you don't know Spaceman actually has a rooster named Joaquin. No bullshit. Anyway, the Rooster is really a pimp and that's how he is able to purchase an unlimited supply of NY Yankees hats and fund his 75/150 Stud sessions in Atlantic City. He keeps encouraging me to hang out with that hot Puerto Rican chick I met at Jury Duty last year. She's the one that bitched to me that she got called for a "fuckin' murder trial." She was hotter than Jessica Alba and she stole my copy of Wil Wheaton's Just a Geek after she admitted she used to have a crush on Wil.

Seat 9: Ugarte (late night)... Meet the Comedian. Ugarte is a former attorney who walked out of his job and started a career as a stand up comic. He's funny. Seriously. The next time you are in NYC, you have to see one of his shows. He's also a stickler for the rules, so if you have poor poker etiquette, you're gonna catch a mouthful from Ugarte. He keep all of us slackers in line.

Seat 10: Pauly... I've actually stopped writing all together about six weeks ago and moved to a secret location on a papaya farm in Negril, Jamaica with Briana. I've hired 6 college students as writing interns and outsourced 3 more from Malaysia and they are the keeping up all my 32 blogs and writing articles for eight different publications. I love sub-contracting. I get to keep 95% of the pay for doing none of the work. I am paying off the broke and easily impressionable college kids with Oxycontin and free iPods. I've been sending autographed pictures of F Train to the Malaysian kids. Who knew he was such a big star in the Pacific Rim?

It was a full house at the Blue Parrot and Coach was noticeably absent. He was on a rare vacation with Mrs. Coach. The shaggy version of Ugarte (who's in his "hippie let's grow my hair out and start growing British Columbia dank on my roof" phase) arrived late and has lifted his personal exile from the Blue Parrot. It seems like ages ago since he and Ferrari decided it was best for the Blue Parrot that he not play there anymore. But I'm a big draw and Ugarte makes exceptions once in a while. He's good like that.

The buy-in at the Blue Parrot is $100 with the games being dealer's choice. The games get a little wild and it's not uncommon to leave with $300 or $400 after a few hours of play. Raises get very little respect at the Blue Parrot and most of the time, the betting is capped preflop. We usually play $2/4 Hold'em and Omaha 8 with $1/5 spread limit for Stud games. Since we had 10 players, we were limited to Hold'em and Omaha 8. After Midnight when the game gets shorthanded, it gets very wild and the other random games like Anaconda gets called or the limits get bumped up.

I started a new rule last night. If you get your Pocket Aces cracked... you get a hug from F Train.

7:00pm... Spaceman, Derek, and I participated in my normal Blue Parrot tradition of me eating at the Cheyenne diner. The pre-game 1 lb. cheeseburger with sauteed onions, mushrooms, and bacon helps soak up the impending booze and bad beats.

7:23pm... It was pouring out in the city, which sucked because neither of us had an umbrella. It always rains when I play at the Blue Parrot. Nothing is worse than having to walk back to the subway in the hard, cold, bitter rain after dropping two buy-ins and not having enough money for cab fare, so you have to take the subway with all the drunks, freakazoids, homeless people, and other forms of crazy people who wander around the city at 4am.

7:57pm... Cards are in the air! Diane got the button and she called Hold'em.

More updates and pics coming...





I flopped Quads with this Omaha hand


The Rooster's view


My chips: red (quarters), black ($1), green ($5), blue ($10), white ($25)

8:03pm... Diane's Big Slick beats my Kournikova. Diane 1, Pauly 0. That would be the beginning of several heads up battles I would have with Diane. I'm not saying she's a calling station, but she's gonna call every bet I make down to the river no matter what each of us have. We actually had good cards that instance.

8:25pm... Battle with Diane, Round 2 was won by me. With the Jackhammer I rivered a four after we both flopped a Jack. She had J-10. Diane 1, Pauly 1.

9:29pm... Om didn't have to wait until Midnight to get Ferrari on tilt. With K-5, Om rivered a full house to crack Ferrari's straight.

9:31pm... Joaquin was to my right so I did a live straddle during his big blind. I had Q-7 and it was capped. F Train didn't look ay his cards and raised it up. I took down a big pot from the Rooster.

9:56pm... Ferrari had a tough night and finally won his first pot.

10:05pm... Pauly 2, Diane 1 with my new favorite hand Q-7, and again who doesn't love four gappers? I turned a straight on Diane. She had 2-3s and the board was 4-5-6-8.

10:07pm... Derek won his first pot.

10:09pm... "I'm a total donkey," I admitted to Spaceman. At that point I was up over $200. I had $300 in chips on the table in two hours of play. Joaquin also had a hefty stack. He scooped a few monster pots in Omaha. Diane and Mike were playing in a lot of pots and were even. Om took an early hit and bled through his stack in the first hour. Ferrari, F Train, and Spaceman couldn't catch any cards. Derek and Marie were either playing super tight or they weren't catching cards either. I on the other hand was playing superb donkey poker. I was up $200 without one high pocket pair. Grubby and I have been developing a strategy that will not only tilt some of the psychological inept players at the table, but also pick up some big pots against any form of donkey, fishy tourists, Southern California players, online maniacs, and calling stations. Sir Waffle witnessed me putting that to use at Foxwoods and Grubby and I had been testing it out at Sunset Station and the Excalibur in Las Vegas.

10:10pm... With Q-7 (this time it was soooted), I took down another pot from the Rooster when the flop was 7-2-2.

10:14pm... I lost a monster pot to Diane. She flopped quad aces. I flopped a boat. Diane 2, Pauly 2.

10:35pm... During Omaha Hi, I flopped a set of Queens with K-Q-Q-9 double suited.

10:40pm... +140 after Seven-card Stud, I had split Kings to start A-K/Kand caught trips by fifth street.

11:05pm... +178. The Rooster might be the best Stud player (aside from Coach) to set foot in the Blue Parrot. But I took a nice pot off of him with Kings up versus his Queens. +178.

11:35pm... After a nice run in stud, I was up +190 after catching some cards in hold'em.

11:39pm... Marie got her aces cracked and she got a hug from F Train. He made ou on that deal more than she did!

11:40pm... The Hand of the Night! The pot was three way between Mike, Ferrari and Derek. The flop was 10-8-5. The betting was capped on the flop with Derek rerasing twice. At that point I put someone on a set and someone with a high pocket pair. The way Derek was betting it looked like he had a set. Mike folded on the river, but Ferrari turned up 8-8 and Derek showed 10-10. It was by far the biggest pot of the night and Derek went from being down a buy in to being up $50.

11:46pm... Ferrari dropped the Hammer! But it didn't win. He lost to Diane's A-Q.

11:47pm... Ugarte arrived. I forget when but sometime around this time. Diane and Marie left early.

11:50pm... Diane had been slowly morphing into the Tiffany Williamson of the Blue Parrot because she kept taking forever to make calls. At one point, Om got frustrated and started eggging her on. He wasn't even in on the hand. Derek and her were heads up and Derek made a raise on the river. After Diane kept pondering a call, Om snapped, "What are you taking so long for? This is not $20/40 at the Bellagio. This is $2/4 at the Blue Parrot. Derek is going to show his hand no matter what," as he pointed to Derek's cards and picked them up (without showing her the actual cards). She called and Om showed the table Derek's pocket aces.

12:20am... I hate Omaha 8. +160.

12:55am... I hate Omaha 8. +115

12:59am... I flopped two pair with 9-7. It was sooted. Anyway Ferrari had 4-4 and Joaquin dealt the turn before Ferrari could act. The 4 of spades was exposed and would get killed. Ferrari mucked. Om and I were still in the hand. We reshuffled the 4 of spades into the deck. F Train joked, "I've seen the card come back out before. It's happened." And instantly, the four of spades was dealt in the river.

1:13am... After five hours of play, Spaceman finally got to call a round of Omaha Hi. That's how long it took for the deal to make its way around the table once. Play was slow last night at the Blue Parrot.

1:15am... +155 after Omaha Hi.

2:10am... +95. I hate Razz.

2:40am... +130 after Stud Hi/Lo. I scooped a big pot with a flush.

2:42pm... Mike rivered a royal flush in Derek during Stud! He got one at Foxwoods last month.

That's it for now. It was another fun night at the Blue Parrot and although Spaceman didn't catch any cards, he still had fun and sample a Blue Parrot game. They are rare these days, which make them even more fun. When it was time to cash out, the bank was short, which has never happened. We think Joaquin and Diane made a mistake when they cashed out/cashed back into the game.

Here's the final tally:

Pauly +135
Ugarte +105
Diane +77
Joaquin +50
Derek +11
Om +8.50
F Train -35
Mike -54
Marie -80
Ferrari -92
Spaceman -130

posted by Pauly at 11/22/2005 03:49:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Las Vegas Bloggers Prison Pact

I won't be talking about the 60 Minutes piece on internet gambling. My stance is pretty clear. We should legalize online gambling, marijuana, and prostitution... then tax the hell out of fit.

Moving on...

The bloggers in Vegas trip is coming pretty soon. Heck, I'll be in Las Vegas in less than 10 days! I think it's time to start talking about the upcoming trip. Here's the deal. So far we've been a well behaved bunch of bloggers in Las Vegas. Two trips resulted in zero arrests. A few of us have passed out but no one has gotten tossed into county lock up... yet.

I propose that we honor the first blogger who gets arrested by bailing him/her out of jail. It's the prize for winning the prop bet: First Blogger Arrested in Vegas. Before you decide, you might want to take a peek at possible situations that could happen.

Potential Blogger Arrests:

• Iggy (public intoxication and you have to be really fucked up to get thrown in the drunktank in Vegas)
• Daddy (Beastiality, sodomy, necrophelia & sexual misconduct with a donkey)
• Bobby Bracelet (indecent exposure)
• AlCantHang (illegal gaming activities on a casino property without a permit)
• Gracie (detained indefinitely by Homeland Security)
• Bad Blood (assault and intent to maim with furniture)
• April Texas and Heather (breaking & entering into Phil Gordon's house)
• Maudie (grand theft auto)
• CJ ("lookout" for a crack dealer at the Redneck Riviera)
• JoeSpeaker (prostitution - selling himself)
• Pauly (prostitution - trying to pick up hookers at MGM)
• Poker Nerd (shoplifting batteries)
• HDouble (possession of an illegal firearm)
• Travis (draft dodging from the Canadian Air Force)
• Otis ("Peeping Tom")
• Boy Genius (removing a wine steward's left eye with a corkscrew after he accidentialy brought BG the house Merlot)
• G-Rob & Shelly (robbing a liquor store)
• Drizz (disorderly conduct: starting a food fight at the Bellagio buffet)
• Grubby (fraud: sliding a pinky finger into his Wedny's chili)
• Alan (stalking Celine Dion)
• California April (intent to distribute narcotics: setting up a meth lab in her hotel room)
• Felicia (marijuana possession)
• Derek & the Poker Geek (illegally importing spider monkeys from Brazil)
• Joanne (wanted by Mounties for "moose-icide" after running over sixteen moose with her car in the last 18 months)
  
• -EV (imitating Phil Hellmuth at Cheetah)
• Wil (public urination for pissing in the pool at the Bellagio, the Mirage, the Hilton (twice), the Flamigo, the Venetian...)
• Jaxia (excessive groping of dancers at Olympic Garden)
• Spaceman & Joaquin (running an 3 card Monte game on Las Vegas Blvd.)
• Big Mike (executing a bartender on the spot for running out of SoCo)
• Bill (tresspassing after trying to scuba dive in the Bellagio fountain)
• on_THG (pickpocketing toursists during the Fremont Light show)
• Dr. Jeff, Chilly, Marty & Brian (selling Oxycontin and Viagra to Catholic high school kids)
  
• Human Head & Chad (busted as couriers for a Shanghai/Las Vegas illegal organ snatching scheme)
• Poker Prof (hacking into Party Poker)

Sorry if I didn't get to mention everyone. I ran out of time.

So if we all take note of each other's vices and weaknesses and help everyone stay clear of trouble, we should have another arrest free weekend in Vegas. Best of luck to everyone. And here's the best part... the winner gets their mugshot posted on everyone's friggin' blog. So who's gonna get busted by the pigs first?
posted by Pauly at 11/21/2005 02:11:00 AM | Permalink |

 
En Fuego: Congrats CJ!

Editor's Note: I apologize for the delay in posting this recap. I've been on the road all week and finally got back to NYC.

CJ won Satudays with Dr. Pauly Event #3 on Poker Stars! If you haven't been paying attention, or just started your poker blog last week and have no clue about CJ... he's been on a rush playing MTTs. Last week I dubbed on_thg as one of the best blogger tournament players. This week, I'm going to call CJ the "Most Improved Tournament Player" among us. In a short time span he's gone from admitted "dead money" to a top notch tournament threat. He's proof that if you become a student of the game and work on your play, while taking the advice of your fellow bloggers, you can achieve great things at the tables. Congrats again to CJ on a job well deserved. By the way, I can I borrow $2K?

I played in the third Saturdays with Dr. Pauly event in Rhode Island in Senor's basement, with his two-year old running around like bonkers. We were planning on leaving at 4pm to drive to Wallingford, CT to see a concert, so I hoped that the tourney would end as quickly as possible. It last about 15 minutes longer than I could stay, so I apologize that I missed the last 4 or 5 bustouts at the final table.

This tournament was big because it would set the tone for the few remaining players trying to win an iPod (1st place), The Big Lebowski DVD (2nd place), or a Christmas phone call from Daddy (third place). I'm also giving out a special "Boobie Prize" to last place overall. As of now, here's who has the best shot at the iPod:

Top 5 on the iPod Leaderboard:
1. On_Thg 8-1-19 = 28 (Event #2 Winner)
1. Philly63367 12-10-6 = 28
3. Bobby Bracelet 3-25-15 = 43
4. CJ 5-44-1 = 50 (Event #3 Winner)
5. Jen Leo 10-24-24 = 58

Best of luck everyone next week and thanks again to everyone who played this week and in previous events. The next tournament is this upcoming Saturday on Poker Stars! It will be the last one this year. Although I am trying to organize a New Year's Eve tournament on Poker Stars. So stay tuned for those details.

Here are some random notes from event #3:

1:00pm... I found Wil Wheaton at my table to start, but he was sitting out so I assumed he was still sleeping. Here was my first table:

Seat 1: Rod
Seat 2: Pauly
Seat 3: Wil
Seat 5: Mofo888
Seat 7: JenLeo
Seat 8: SoxLover
Seat 9: GCox25

1:05pm... I was quickly moved to a new table. Here's that lineup:

Seat 1: JHartness
Seat 2: GCox25
Seat 3: BG
Seat 4: BadBlood
Seat 5: Bddie
Seat 6: Pauly
Seat 7: JoeSpeaker
Seat 8: Lifesagrind
Seat 9: Whaaaa?

1:22pm... I'm 24th out of 72 remaining players.

1:25pm... I dropped the Hammer at my table with an Ace on the board. JoeSpeaker said he folded K-K.

1:33pm... I raised preflop with 10-9o. I was the first player in the pot. On the button, JoeSpeaker called with 10-10. The flop: J-8-3. I bet out, Joe raised and I moved all-in. He thought for a while and called. I had the open ended straight draw and Joe did not have any of my outs which was good, but it still didn't help me. I was busted in 67th place. Congrats to JoeSpeaker won won a free iTunes gift card!

1:45pm... I started packing for my trip and logged on to play a cash game with Wil Wheaton, Rod, Joanne, CJ, BobbyBracelet and DrChako. I let Senor play for me for a while and he won a few hands.

The Final Table

PokerStars Tournament #14328938
Buy-In: $10.00/$1.00
78 players
Total Prize Pool: $780.00
Tournament started @ 13:00:00 (ET)
Tournament finished @ 16:18:43 (ET)

Money Winners for Event #3:
1: Up4Poker (Lafayette), $234.00 (30%)
2: Crossroads9 (Middleton), $156.00 (20%)
3: SoxLover (Jersey City), $93.60 (12%)
4: TraumaPoker (LaGrange), $78.00 (10%)
5: jerge88 (Ames), $62.40 (8%)
6: phily63367 (lake saint louis), $50.70 (6.50%)
7: Maudie (kebzweb.com), $42.90 (5.50%)
8: Boobie Lover (Vale), $35.10 (4.50%)
9: Joanne1111 (Calgary), $27.30 (3.50%)

CJ: Saturdays with Dr. Pauly Event #3 Champion

That's it for now. Thanks again for playing. See you all on Saturday!
posted by Pauly at 11/20/2005 12:41:00 AM | Permalink |

 
iPod Leaderboard

Updated thru Event #3

Top 10:
1. On_Thg 8-1-19 = 28 (Event #2 Winner)
1. Philly63367 12-10-6 = 28
3. Bobby Bracelet 3-25-15 = 43
4. CJ 5-44-1 = 50 (Event #3 Winner)
5. Jen Leo 10-24-24 = 58
6. SirWaffle 1-58-12 = 71 (Event #1 Winner)
7. Joanne 25-43-9 = 77
8. Gary634 2-20-72 = 94
9. Drizz 19-40-37 = 96
10. TML10023 (Terry Lane) 29-17-53 = 99

The Rest:
11. SarahBellum 23-34-43 = 100
12. JoeSpeaker 76-3-22 = 101
13. Maudie 21-75-7 = 103
14. Wes Big Pirate 91-2-11 = 104
15. SgtDanko 9-68-28 = 105
16. Timinator 31-46-29 = 106
17. RickLang 63-6-38 = 107
18. Donegal (Chad) 67-7-35 = 109
19. Shane Big Pimpin Nickerson 24-29-61 = 114
20. Human Head 6-62-51 = 119
21. Blink182 20-37-64 = 121
22. Wyndigo 52-4-66 = 122
22. Seadog46 41-65-16 = 122
24. Boobie Lover 50-71-8 = 129
25. BG 16-79-36 = 131
26. Mofo888 14-87-32 = 133
27. Spaceman 11-54-69 = 134
27. Columbo 62-9-63 = 134
27. Slimerface 93-15-26 = 134
27. Iphist 35-74-25 = 134
31. Katitude 4 78 54 = 136
32. Mattazuma 51 16 71 = 138
33. Presdlee 7 56 76 = 139
34. John1984 46-64-34 = 144
35. Mourn 98-35-14 = 147
36. Whaaaa? 47-33-70 = 150
37. Derek 53-86-21 = 160
38. Arcon 49-41-74 = 164
39. John Shecky Caldwell 82-55-27 = 164
40. Skitchorama 48 45 75 = 168
41. Pauly 26-77-67 = 170
42. Bddide 66-49-56 = 171
43. Rod 86-31-59-176
44. April98 92-92-17 = 201
45. LifesaGrind 73-73-60 = 206
46. BobBlahBlah 83-84-40 = 217
47. Change100 74-93-55 = 222
posted by Pauly at 11/20/2005 12:10:00 AM | Permalink |

 
WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals - Final Table

Foxwoods is my home casino. It's not just the birthplace of poker-porn-funk, it's also where I developed into a real card player. It's also been the original source of material for my poker blog. Without Foxwoods, the Tao of Poker would never exist. I used to blog my trip reorts on my main blog, the Tao of Pauly. My non-poker-playing friends staretd a mutiny and begged me to move my poker stuff onto a different blog. Thus, the Tao of Poker was born in August 2003 and the rest has been history.

When I first started to play poker seriously two summers ago, this was the place where I spent many hours improving my low-limit Hold'em game and witnessed the poker boom shake up Foxwoods. I eventually moved up in the ranks from 2/4 to 4/8 to 5/10 to 20/40, while the players in those middle limits got fishier and fishier. I also played dozens No Limit tournaments at Foxwoods including live SNGs satellites to try to get into the main event at the World Poker Finals. I eventually introduced Foxwoods to Derek and again this was way before either of us played online at Party Poker or Poker Stars.

Yeah, it's been a long strange trip.

Two years ago, I was so broke that I'd buy a Greyhound bus ticket on my credit card or borrow $26 for a bus ticket from my ex-girlfriend (and part-time soap opera actress) Haley. I had no concept of bankroll management and I would buy-in my entire bankroll and sit at a 4/8 table. This was way before I started playing online, so I took weekly trips to Foxwoods and slowly built up my bankroll while grinding away in the underground clubs in New York City or at home games like the Blue Parrot. I never once expected that two years later, I would walk into the poker room at Foxwoods, be spotted by regular readers of my blog, then pick up a copy of Poker Player Newspaper to discover my article on the front page.

All roads on my poker journey lead back to Foxwoods.

There was a time, many moons ago, when I first played $1-5 Stud at Foxwoods. That's when they allowed smoking in the poker room, and it looked like London on a foggy evening. Back then the room wasn't as crowded because you also had the option to play at Mohegan Sun 15 minutes down the road, which also had a poker room. In fact, Senor and I prefered playing at Mohegan Sun (the $3/6 game was excellent) but the tribal commission closed their room due to a slight scandal involving cocaine and hookers (and I'm not making that up or exaggerating) and we're still waiting for them to open up their poker room.

And now I get to live blog the final table of the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods. Sure I've covered the last ever WSOP main event final table in Benny's Bullpen, blogged the UPC at the Plaza, done WPT events at the Borgata and Bellagio, and even announced a final table on the EPT in Barcelona... but this has been the most special week for me as a blogger, writer, and poker player. Foxwoods is a homecoming of sorts.

In many ways the past year of success has flown by so fast and after living out of a suitcase and traveling all the time, it's been extremely hard for me to adjust to all of this and fully live in the moment to soak it all up. This past week, I was very conscious of how lucky I am and how cool it feels to return to the place where it all began. It didn't sink in until I stepped back into the poker room for the first time and a wave of humility bombarded me.

Just a quick note, there are a few tournaments over the next three days:

Friday @ 4pm ET
Poker Stars
WWdN: HeyKidsItsBG! Invitational
$10 + 1
Tourney #14992726 (check under private tournament tab)
Password = monkey

Saturday @ 1pm EST
Poker Stars
Saturday's with Dr. Pauly
Tournament #14328938 (check under private tournament tab)
$10 +1 NL Hold'em
Password = hiltons
Winner #1: SirWaffle
Winner #2: on_thg

Sunday @ 3pm EST
Full Tilt Poker
WPBT Shootout
$10 +1 NL
Only open to people who will be attending the Dec. 10th WPBT event in Vegas. Email Bill for password (for those who played last week, same password). This is the last one so if you miss out, you miss out.

Moving on...

We're at the Grand Pequot Ballroom at majestic Foxwoods Casino in Ledyard, Connecticut for the final table of the main event of the World Poker Finals. I'll be sitting in press row on the set of the WPT providing some live blogging updates and a picture of two.

Here are some quick stats:

Entrants: 783
Remaining Players: 6
Chipleader: Nick Schulman $3.5M
Current Level: Blinds $15K/$30K with a $5K ante
Average Stack: $1.3M

Top 6 Chipleaders:
1. Nick Schulman (New York City) $3.502M
2. Anthony "Tony" Licastro (Long Valley, New Jersey) $1.412M
3. Allen Cunningham (Las Vegas, NV) $795K
4. Lenny Cortellino (Lewiston, Maine) $773K
5. Bill Gazes (Old Westbury, NY) $693K
6. Lyle Berman (Las Vegas, NV) $659K

Payouts:
1st $2,142,000 + $25K Seat in the WPT Championships at the Bellagio
2nd $1,035,000
3rd $759,000
4th $483,000
5th $345,000
6th $276,000

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

3:30pm... Arrived early and set up in press row. Sitting in between Larry Kang from Bluff and Heather from Poker Wire. I got Lyle Berman in the media pool. Here's who has who:

Sharla: Anthony Licastro $1.412M
Jen: Allen Cunningham $795K
Larry: Lenny Cortellino $773K
BJ: Bill Gazes $693K
Pauly: Lyle Berman $659K

4:01pm... I signed up to play in Wil Wheaton's tournament since we are running late. I got seated at the same table as my brother which always sucks.

4:11pm... Wil Wheaton won a pot with A-A.

4:20pm... This is Bill Gazes and Allen Cunningham's second WPT final table. Lenny Cortellino won a $5K event last week and is the WPT World Poker Finals Player of the Year. Tony Licastro cashed in a WSOP event this year and also finished 11th at the WSOP Circuit in San Diego.

4:24pm... I was busted early in Wil's tourney when my A-Q lost to WhoisPain's J-J.

4:25pm... Cards are in the air.

4:30pm... Here are some pictures of the players from today's final table:

Allen Cunningham

Lenny Cortellino

Anthony Licastro

Lyle Berman

Chipleader: Nick Schulman


Beind the scenes at Foxwoods


The Final Table
4:37pm... After picking up a few early pots, Allen Cunningham reached the million dollar mark.

4:48pm... On Hand #14, Tony Licastro moved all in preflop with 10-10 and Lenny Cortellino called with 8-8. They both flopped sets! Alas Lenny's hand did not improve and he finished in 6th place. He won $276,000. Tony Licastro now has about $2.1M in chips.

4:54pm... Bill Gazes doubled up against Tony Licastro when his K-K held up against Q-Q. Bill now has about a million in chips. Nick has $3.6M.

5:14... On hand #25, Nick Schulman had A-K against Lyle Berman's A-J. Lyle Berman's hand did not improve and he was eliminated. He won $345K for 5th place.

5:26pm... Players are on a break. Here's an updated chipcount:

1 Nick Schulman $4.6M
2 Tony Licastro $1.2M
3 Allen Cunningham $ 1M
4 Bill Gazes $930K

5:40pm... Play has resumed. Blinds are $25K/50K with $5K antes.

5:49pm... On hand #38, Allen Cunningham moved all in preflop for $970K with J-10 against Nick Schulman's K-K. Cunningham's hand did not improve and he finished in 4th place winning $483K. So far Jen, Larry, and myself are out of the pool. Three players remain and Nick has well over $5 million in chips.

5:59pm... Updated chip count:

1. Nick Schulman $5.92M
2. Tony Licastro $1.05M
3. Bill Gazes $650K

6:00pm... BTW, if you want to download the curent issue of Poker Player Newspaper, you can click here to snag the pdf. I wrote the cover story.

6:15pm... Bill Gazes doubled up when his 3-3 held up against Tony Liscastro's Ah-Jh. Tony turned a nut flush draw, but it didn't hit. Bill moved up to $945K. Tony slipped to $850K. Ad Nick has all the remainder of the chips.

6:30pm... Bill Gazes moved all in with A-A and Tony Licastro called with K-10. Bill had him covered. Tony flopped a straight when 9-Q-J fell. Bill's aces got cracked and he doubled up Tony. Bill has $1.1 million. Tony has $1.3M and Nick has about $5M plus.

6:48pm... Players are on a break. When the resume, we will be on a new level. Blinds are $40K/80K with $10K antes. Nick had $5.36M. Tony has $1.35M and Bill has $1.12M.

6:54pm... The biggest pot of the day so far just went down. Nick Schulman raised and Tony Licastro moved all in for over the top of Nick for $1M with A-9. Nick called with A-5s. Tony's hand held up and he doubled up against Nick. Tony has $2.1 to Nick's $4.3M. That was the first big hand that Nick lost today. He had stayed out of trouble and avoided playing big pots and won several small ones until he doubled up Tony.

7:20pm... We were om a short crew break as they changed tapes. Here's an updated chpcount courtesy of Poker Wire:

1 Nick Schulman $4.11M
2 Tony Licastro $2.75M
3 Bill Gazes $980K

7:35pm... On hand #85, Nick Schulman just busted Bill Gazes in 3rd place. Bill had K-8 and Nick flipped over A-Q. Nick flopped an ace and his hand held up. Bill Gazes won $759K for third place. We have reached heads up play. Nick has about a 2 to 1 chip lead over Tony Licastro.... with $5.1M to $2.6M.

7:50pm... Play was paused for the money presentation. Three Native American women were dressed up in the traditonal Pequot garb and presented the money in three hand woven baskets.




7:58pm... On hand #89 and the fourth hand of heads up play, we have a winner! Nick Shulman turned a flush against Tony Liscastro's two pair to knock him out in second place. Tony $1,035,000 for second place and Nick took home $2,142,000 and a $25K Seat in the WPT Championships at the Bellagio! Congrats Nick!






Nick Shulman: 2005 WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals Champion

8:44pm... That's it from Foxwoods. It's been a fun week, one of the best assignments that I've been on this year! Thanks to the WPT, Foxwoods, and everyone in the media. Thanks for reading and stopping by all week. You can read a final recap on Las Vegas and Poker Blog in a few hours. Now I'm going to Amy Ruth's with BJ for some fried chicken, waffles, and sweet tea.

The next poker tournament I am covering will be the WPT Five Diamond Classic at the Bellagio in Las Vegas in mid-December. See ya then.
posted by Pauly at 11/18/2005 02:03:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Rare Day Off, Foxwoods, Sir Waffle, and Online Poker

Since Hemmingway would insist that brevity is the key, no word noodling from me.


Wednesday:

• Junking kicking session at the 20/40 tables at Foxwoods. Q-Q lost to J-8. Balls still swollen.
• Mr. Sublimial witnessed me suck out & double up on a Full Tilt NL table. I flopped a set with Q-Q on a board of Q-J-10. Guy had A-K. I rivered a 10.
• He typed "Fucking Hiltons!" into the chat. He's hilarious.
  

Thursday:

• Played NL on Full Tilt with Jaxia. I donked off one buy in. Also got ass handed to me at $3/6 tables. Balls still swollen.
• Al CantHang called for a dial-a-shot. A Phish song was playing in the background.
  
• Met SirFWalgman at Foxwoods and at the same $1/2 NL table with him.
• Here's what he had to say about meeting for the first time:

  I was a little nervous about sitting down and playing by myself so I just watched until the good Doctor arrived and took charge. As many of you know Pauly is an average looking guy. He does not dress fancy. His appearance might even be called a little disheveled, much like my own, but I have to say there is something special about him. Call it an aura or a sense of hidden power. A force that flows out from him, making you instantly comfortable in his presence. It has nothing to do with external appearance or what he says or does, it just emanates from his being. He has done a lot of remarkable things so far and I predict much greatness from him in the future.

• Sir Waffle is very normal in real life. I know everyone was expecting me to tell you tales of Sir Waffle going on mega-tilt and flipping over a table or bitch slapping a blackjack dealer for catching a five card 21... but none of that happened. We had a great time at the tables.
  
• I have the dubious distinction of being the only blogger to have met both SirWaffle and Lord Geznikor.
  
• I also made a final table at the 2005 WSOP. (Completely irrelevant and shameless ego stroking.)
• A cute chick sat in between us. I would have hit on her more, but she wore a pink Red Sox cap. SIr Waffle was chatting her up.
  
• Saw Sharla from Poker Pages in the room along with my friends from NYC, Michael and Roy.
• I was spotted by a reader... cool guy named Roman at the table next to me. Always nice to meet fans. He had one guy there with over $1500 in chips ($100 buy in).
  
• Raised 10x BB preflop with the Hammer. Thought everyone folded. I flipped up my cards and Sir Waffle had yet to act. He called and I had to play my hand face up. On the flop he moved all in. I knew he had nothing but I had to fold. The entire table thought I was a fish the rest of the session.
• Biggest hands: 4-6o and 4-7o. I limped on one and limp-called a 2.5x BB raise on another. Both times I flopped open ended straight draws and turned straights both times. I blame the porn funk. I told you I was a total fish.
  
• Sir Waffle battled it out with super loose Asian guy in Seat 10 with a stack of $100 bills in front of him. He lost a big pot with A-10 to A-2.
• Sir Waffle got A-A during his first session ever in a casino and they held up. That's like hitting a HR in your first MLB at bat.
• Kid sitting next to us looked like Eminem. He wore a hoodie the entire time. He said he'd like to smoke blunts at the table. I grinned then raised his blind from UTG.
  
• I spotted a tell on Sir Waffle (which I won't reveal). He flopped trip 3s. He bet out and he won uncontested. I said, "A-3 is good." And he flipped over A-3. I felt like I could almost fly.
• Walked away up $80. Sir Waffle was up too.
  
• Fun to play with him live since we used to play online every night together.
• Got a free Ben & Jerry's chocolate shake.
• Drove 90mph back to Outside Providence in order to play in Wil Wheaton's Poker Stars tourney.
• Chilly, Dr. Jeff, Brian, Marty & Co. called me for a Dial-a-shot all the way from Missouri. Man, I really miss Canada.
  
• Had April (CA) and JoeSpeaker at my table (and I forget who else, I'm sorry, I wasn't taking notes!)
• Upon my arrival April mentioned, "Drive faster next time."
  
• Shortly after the break, Mike from Crooklyn busted me when he flopped the Wheel with 4-5. I flopped top pair with an awful kicker and moved all-in on the turn. I turned to Jodd (who's two years-old) and I told him "If he's got 5-4, I'm fucked." He replied, "Grrrrlsssh!" which is Thai for "You fuckin' fish."
• I finished 31 out of 72.

Friday (just added!! early morning update):

• I returned to Foxwoods and attempted to avenge my 20/40 losses.
  
• My table broke up after 80 minutes, but I won a few $$$ when I flopped quads with 8-8.
• Jumped on a 2/5 NL table and got my aces cracked by Jacks on the third hand I played (Thank God it was a small stack).
• Guy who looked like Bull from Night Court tilted away $1200 in three consecutive hands. He put $450 into a $30 pot with Ace-rag. Skanky girl in Seat 3 called him with 3-3 and busted him.
  
• Around 4:20am, I doubled up my buy-in when I flopped a nut flush and K-rag suited bet into me the entire time.
• My weekly Foxwoods losses went from $1K to $100 in one day.
  
• Ate a free breakfast buffet. Viva la bacon!
  

I will be back live blogging the final table of the WPT, which begins at 4pm on Friday. See ya then.
posted by Pauly at 11/17/2005 11:54:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WPT Foxwoods Day 4: Busting Out the Porn Funk

"I guess I'll go home and fuck my dog." - Young Phan after a bad beat

Wednesday is hump day which means that it's time to discuss the importance of porn funk and poker. Everyone has a porn funk phase in their lives. Even me, which I'll get into in a few moments.

Some of the best eras of my favorite bands and artists were during their porn funk experiments. The two best years of Phish were 1997 and 1998. That's when they introduced cow-porn-funk to a gaggle of spun out neo-hippies. Since four white guys from Vermont could not properly play funk, the guys in Phish dubbed it "cow funk." Even most recently, Beck had his porn funk phase. And those are the songs I listen to over and over again.

So what is porn funk? It's the kind of music you hear in porno movies back in the 1970s. As soon as that bass line kicked in, you knew someone was going to get fucked. Turn on some porn funk at a party, and your guests, especially the ladies, will get down and start shakin' their asses. It's the combination of subtle brainwashing and Pavlov's dog that when you hear a heavy bass line, you anticipate a gratuitous sex scene.

The WPT should mix porn funk into their soundtracks, just before someone suffers a bad beat. If you've experienced any sort of ugly two-outer suckout, you know the awful feeling of getting fucked... in a bad way. Just ask Young Phan about his bead beat yesterday. He was so disgusted from a bad beat that the second most humiliating thing for him to do was to go home and have intercourse with his dog. Yeah, Young Phan gets my vote for Best Poker Quote of the Year.

Somedays you get to hump the dog. Other days, the dog humps you.

So, my porn funk phase? When I first left my job on Wall Street, I began a series of menial, dead-end, service related jobs. One of which was managing a porn shop on Long Island called The Booty Shack. Yes, and that's when my porn funk phase began. Most of the clients were well-to-do professionals like Mercedes driving doctors and lawyers who loved German bondage pissing videos or bored housewives that were addicted to odd fetishes like midget porn or gonzo-lesbian-gangbangs. Although I was never in an actual film, I've acted as a cameraman on more than one occasion when my Iranian boss wanted me to film his internet conquests with desperate women he plucked out of AOL chat rooms. Some of them were downright nasty and I still have nightmares of one photo shoot in particular. But hey that was the mid-1990s, when sex and the internet collided and everyone's inner sex freak sprinted out of the closet. Hence, the porn funk revival began.

Right now, poker is gaining more and more popularity everyday. The boom is overwhelming and after finding myself in the middle of the poker scene for the past six months traveling all over the country and the world covering poker tournaments, I am sensing the beginning of poker's porn funk phase. We are witnessing the collision of gambling addictions and sexual aggression. Throw in celebrity status and insane amount of money, then mix it up with the underbelly of American society and culture with a pinch of Las Vegas weirdness along with degenerate gamblers and white trash strippers... you have an unhealthy mix of deviant sex, designer drugs, and old-fashioned rock and roll. I am swimming in a sea of poker-porn-funk.

Welcome to Foxwoods, the largest casino in the world and the birthplace of poker-porn-funk.

Moving on...

I wish I could ramble on incessantly about porn and my days at The Booty Shack. But if I did, then you wouldn't buy any of my books (if and when they are ever published). Alas, I'm here to cover a poker tournament so let's get with it.

We are on Day 4 of the WPT World Poker Finals in the Sunset Ballroom at Foxwoods casino. We are not going to stop playing until there 6 players left. Here's some interesting stats:

Entrants: 783
Remaining Players: 31
Chipleader: Lenny Cortellino $589K
Prize Pool: $7.855 million
First Place: $2.167 million
Money Winners: Top 120
Current Level: Level 15 blinds $3K/6K with $1K antes
Average Stack: $252,581

***** Live BLogging Updates *****

11:56am... After playing catch with Senor's kid this morning, I came to the conclusion that he's got one wicked arm. I told Senor to start having him throw lefty. I ate breakfast at Denny's on the way to Foxwoods. Same thing as yesterday except I got cheese on my hash browns. The price was $1 more than Cracker Barrel and my waitress was 312 times better looking.

12:00pm... Cards (or Cahhhh-zzz as they say it up in New England) are in the air.

12:01pm... Here's the end of Day 3 chipcount and the list of players who started today:

1 Lenny Cortellino $ 589K
2 Allen Cunningham $ 573K
3 Lyle Berman $ 562K
4 Samir Shakhtoor $ 519K
5 Bill Gazes $ 501K
6 Josh "Don't call me Patrick" Ewing $ 491K
7 Bryan Veach $ 369K
8 Eric Haber $ 347K
9 Loi Phan $ 347K
10 Tony Licastro $ 284K
11 Steve Fiorentini $ 261K
12 Nick Schulman $ 253K
13 Alex Jacob $ 221K
14 Jim Pechac $ 208K
15 Anthony Santich $ 188K
16 Paco Fabian $ 187K
17 Joseph Cappello $ 175K
18 Benjamin Kim $ 174K
19 Feming Chan $ 162K
20 Minh Nguyen $ 158K
21 Abraham 'Avi' Gray $ 156K
22 Steve Jacobs $ 151K
23 Mark Zulkiewicz $ 151K
24 Larry Barns AKA Ken Selby $ 142K
25 Tom Schreiber $ 122K
26 Erik Seidel $ 120K
27 Pete Giordano $ 119K
28 Vinny Curry $ 101K
29 Eric Sonnenstuhl $ 95K
30 Felton Raphael $ 58K
31 Avdo Djokovic $ 50K

12:55pm... Shortstack Avdo Djokovi doubled up two times in a row. He now has $195K after he beat A-Q wih 3-3 and then cracked J-J with A-Q.

1:05pm... Recent Elimination: Erik Seidel feels the funk. He's the first player to go home when his A-2 lost to Loi Phan's 7-7. Seidel took 31st place and won $20,700.

1:30pm... More Eliminations: Bill Gazes and his pocket Kings knocked out Mark Zulkiewicz's A-9 in 30th place. Mark Z. won $20,700. Felton Raphael took 29th place and won $27,600 when his A-Q lost to 8-8. Yeah Eric Haber spiked quads too. Feming Chan was busted in 28th place when his A-K lost to Minh Nguyen's 6-6. Chan won $27,600.

2:01pm... More Eliminations: Alex Jacobs (27th) and Paco Fabian (26th) are both out and won $27,600 each. Jacobs had the Hilton Sisters and lost to Samir Shakhtoor's A-K when Samir turned a King. Paco Fabian A-J lost to Tony Licastro's A-7 when a 7 spiked on the river.

2:20pm... One More Bustout: Cue up the porn funk for Benjamin Kim who has just been bounced in 25th place. Allen Cunningham had 10-10 to Kim's Big Slick. Kim flopped an ace, but Cunningham caught a 10 on the river to send Kim to the rail. He won $34,500.

2:25pm... Bouncin Round the Room: "You fly and I'll buy!" offered Bill Gazes who wanted a sandwich. It was a generous offer, but I had to take photos of some of the players and finish up my thoughts on poker-porn-funk for an article I'm writing for an upcoming issue of Jugs magazine. I chatted with Oklahoma Johnny Hale. Foxwoods hosts his Senior's Event and this year they got a record number. It was maxed out at 420 players and there were over 50 alternates!

2:35pm... More eliminations: Jim Pechac (24th place), Kenneth Selby (23rd), and Abraham "Avi" Gray (22nd). They all won $34,500. Avi's K-Q lost to Bill Gazes A-Q.

2:45pm... One More Bustout: Vinny Curry is out in 20th place. He won $34,500.

2:46pm... Players are on a break and when they come back they will redraw for seats. Here are some quick stats:

Entrants: 783
Day 4 Starting Players: 31
Remaining Players: 20
Chipleader: Samir Shakhtoor $860K
Current Level: Level 17 blinds are $6K/$12K with $1K antes.
Average Stack: $391,500

Top 5 Chipleaders:
1 Samir Shakhtoor $860K
2 Bill Gazes $760K
3 Allen Cunningham $710K
4 Nick Schulman $660K
5 Lenny Cortellino $600K

3:00pm... Random Day 4 picture dump:


Media Row: Melissa, BJ, Scott, Sharla, and Heather


Allen Cunningham


Lyle Berman with Oklahoma Johnny Hale


Our current chipleader: Samir Shakhtoor


Action on Day 4 with Josh "Don't call me Patrick" Ewing and Joseph Cappello


Minh Nguyen and his Golden Buddha


Jen from Poker Wire's huge turkey sandwich
3:30pm... Recent Eliminations: Eric Sonnenstuhl went out in 20th place. He won $41,300. Sonnenstuhl had the Hilton Sisters against Avdo Djokovic's 6-6. The flop is all diamonds and only Djokovic had one. The turn and river were both diamonds. Sonnenstuhl played the board, but Djokovic's played and he eliminated Sonnenstuhl.

Steve Fiorentini's 10-10 knocked out Joseph Cappello's A-J in 19th place. Cappello won $48,300 for 19th place.

Allen Cunningham sent Loi Phan to the rail in 18th place. Cunningham had the Hilton Sisters and Phan had 7-7, which did not improve. He won $55,200 for 18th.

3:55pm... Two players were knocked out at the same time. We now have 15 players left. Anthony Santich & Pete Giordano both tied for 16th place. They both won $65,550. Lyle Berman's K-2 busted Anthony Santich's Q-10. Minh Nguyen's A-Q cracked Pete Giordano's Big Slick when he flopped a queen.

4:17pm... Recent Eliminations: Steven Fiorentini was busted in 15th place when his Jack hammer (J-4) lost to Samir Shakhtoor's 8d-7d when Samir turned a flush. Steven Fiorentini won 75,900 for 15th place.

4:20pm... Time for my mid-afternoon smoke break.

4:45pm... Players are on a the break. Here are some quick stats:

Entrants: 783
Day 4 Starting Players: 31
Remaining Players: 14
Chipleader: Samir Shakhtoor $1.296M
Current Level: Level 18 blinds are $8K/$16K with $3K antes
Average Stack: $559,285

Top 5 Chipleaders:
1 Samir Shakhtoor $1.296M
2 Nick Schulman $1.025M
3 Bill Gazes $837K
4 Allen Cunningham $812K
5 Minh Nguyen $710K

5:05pm... Recent Elimination: Tom Schreiber moved all in with 9-7o and lost to Allen Cunningham's 10-2o when Allen flopped two pair with "The Brunson." Tom Schreiber won $82,800 for 14th place.

5:30pm... Dinner break! Time to get drunk and use my food comps!

6:32pm... Back from dinner. I went to Amy Ruth's which is southern style cooking with BJ & Scott from Card Player, Heather & Jen from Poker Wire, Larry Kang from Bluff and Andy Bloch. I got today's special... Jerk Chicken with a side of mashed potatoes and macaroni & cheese.


6:34pm... Recent Elimination: We're playing hand-to-hand. Eric Haber's A-3 was just knocked out by Tony Licastro A-J in 13th place. He won $89,700. BJ insists that we'll be home by Midnight at this pace. "You can quote me on that," he added.

7:10pm... Recent Bustout: We're down to 11 players after Bryan Veach was just eliminated in 12th place. Veach had K-J and Minh Nguyen knocked him out with A-A. Veach flopped a great draw when he caught top pair and three cards to a flush but he didn't improve his hand and he finished in 12th. He won $96,600.

7:40pm... Players just returned from a break. We're now on Level 19 with $10K/$20K blinds and a $3K ante.

7:45pm... SirFwalgman called and we're gonna try to meet up for cards during my day off tomorrow!

7:55pm... We're down to 10 players and action was paused while players redraw for the final table. 4 more bustouts to go before I get to go home. Nick Schulman found A-A and busted Josh Ewing's 8-8. Ewing won $103,500 for 11th place. Nick Schulman took over the chiplead with $1.59 million.

8:01pm... We have reached the final 10 players and the final table. Here are chipcounts:

1 Nick Schulman $1,59M
2 Samir Shakhtoor $ 1.57M
3 Bill Gazes $ 928K
4 Minh Nguyen $ 778K
5 Allen Cunningham $ 769K
6 Steve Jacobs $ 583K
7 Lyle Berman $ 542K
8 Lenny Cortellino $ 497K
9 Tony Licastro $ 491K
10 Avdo Djokovic $ 194K


And here are the payouts for the final 10:
1st $2,142,000 + $25K Seat in the WPT CHampionships at the Bellagio
2nd $1,035,000
3rd $759,000
4th $483,000
5th $345,000
6th $276,000
7th $207,000
8th $172,800
9th $138,000
10th $117,300

8:13pm... Bouncin Round the Room: The railbirds are 6 and 7 people deep here in the Sunset Ballroom as they are catching a glimpse of the final table. All of the Absolute Poker girls have left the reservation, so I have no fake breats to ogle at during the down time. I assume they returned to their local strip clubs and porn shoots. Skanky girls in slutty outfits are the best way to sell any product... from Viagra to online poker... tits and ass sells.

8:38pm... Recent Elimination: Steve Jacobs' A-K ran into Lenny Cortellino's A-A and he was knocked out in 10th place. He won $117,300.

9:00pm... Play has slowed down. Still have 9 players left. Samir Shakhtoor moved back into the chip lead with $1.6M to Nick Schulman's $1.5M.

9:30pm... Recent Eliminations: Avdo Djokovic was just knocked out in 9th place by Nick Schulman. Avdo Djokovic's Q-J did not hold up against Nick Schulman's 3-3. Avdo Djokovic won $138,000 for 9th place. 8 remain with Nick Schulman as teh chipleader with $1.85M.

9:45pm... During the break, Lyle Berman handed me a copy of his new book I'm All In. He signed it and it read, "Pauly, Good luck. Enjoy the light reading." Book review pending!

9:46pm... Venerable writer Jay Greenspan stopped by to say hello! I haven't seen him since Vegas. It's funny, I have never seen Jay outside of a casino... well once we went to lunch outside the Rio last summer. Aside fromt hat, all our conversations have taken place on a casino floor.

9:47pm... Cards are back in the air. We're on Level 20. The blinds are $12K/$24K with $4K antes.

9:50pm... Mike Sexton came over to the media table to shoot the breeze.

10:04pm... Recent Bustout: We've reached the TV bubble. 7 players remain after Minh Nguyen was knocked out by Nick Schulman in 8th place. Nguyen had 10-10 to Schulman's 8-8, but Schulman turned a set to bust Nguyen. He won $172,800.

10:20pm... I almost thought I was going home! Anthony Licastro doubled up against Samir Shakhtoor when he won a race with K-Q against 8-8.

10:28pm... We're down to 6! Nick Schulman knocked out Samir Shakhtoor in 6th place when his 10-10 held up against Samir's A-Q. Samir won $207,000 for 7th place. He went from 2nd in chips (with 7 remaining) to the bubble. Ouch. Nick Schulman is the chipleader.

10:45pm... Here's who made the final table including seat assignments and chip counts:

Seat 1: Lyle Berman $659K
Seat 2: Nick Schulman $3.502M
Seat 3: Anthony Licastro $1.412M
Seat 4: Lenny Cortellino $773K
Seat 5: Allen Cunningham $795K
Seat 6: Bill Gazes $693K

Play will resume at 4pm on Friday. See you then for live blogging update.
posted by Pauly at 11/16/2005 11:56:00 AM | Permalink |

 
WPT Foxwoods: World Poker Finals Day 3

Well, I'm back for another day of live blogging at the World Poker Finals. It's day 3 at Foxwoods for the World Poker Finals and I should be here all day and late into the night. I skipped Sunday and slacked off most of last night, so today will be a much more concentrated effort on my part.

Last night was one of those interesting nights. At a place like Foxwoods, you are contained to the actual casino, which is the largest in the world. There's zero off-campus activites and Foxwoods is located in the middle of nowhere in Western Connecticut. You have to find your own fun. I crashed the Absolute Poker party in the Presidential Suite. The layout wasn't too impressive and had thirty-five times more beer guts than boobies.

I wandered down to the poker room after Brandon Schaefer called me. He and his buddies were playing drunken-donkey low-limit poker after Carl busted out of the tournament yesterday. He got crippled when his A-A were cracked by rags. I blew $190 in about 90 minutes but it was some of the best fun I had at the poker tables in a very long time. Plus I got to play with three pros... Brandon and his buddies Carl Olsen and Justin.

If you don't know, Brandon and Carl went 1 and 2 at the EPT Deauville in France last year. And yes, they were drinking up a storm like Tara Ried on a weekend bender and playing like maniacs and hooligans at a $2-4 limit table. Since we don't get coverage of the EPT in America, the majority of this country has no idea who Brandon and Carl are. Ironically, they are rock stars in Europe and Canada (where the EPT is aired) but at Foxwoods, no one knew who they really were, especially the other players at the table.

Seat 6: Brandon
Seat 7: Carl
Seat 8: Justin
Seat 10: Pauly

Here's what happend pre-flop every time... bet, raise, re-raise, and then a re-raise to cap it. The other players couldn't figure out what was going on. One guy in Seat 3 accussed Carl & Justin of colluding.

"It is shitty what you are doing!" the confused guy said.

Brandon snapped back, "Yeah we're colluding at a $2-4 table. Look, we're trying to give our money away."

The table hijinks ended up getting an old guy in Seat 4 on mega-tilt. An old lady in Seat 5 got up and left. And me? I got killed.

I found the Hammer. Brandon was the big blind and Carl raised. Justin did the standard re-raise. I capped it with the Hammer and tossed out four yellow $2 chips. The flop was Q-J-2. I caught a piece! Betting was capped on the flop and the turn. On the river a 2 fell. I figured the Hammer and trips were good. Justin turned over the Hilton Sisters for a full house. Ouch. Time for a rebuy.

I lost another monster pot with 5c-6c. I flopped an open ended straight flush draw and was heads up with a guy who had A-7 and flopped trips. Since we were heads up on the turn and with unlimited reraises, I wanted to go all-in. He agreed and I missed all of my draws!! It was time for me to go and finish of my recap of Day 1B for the Poker Prof's Las Vegas and Poker Blog.

Here are the curent details of the tournament at the start of Day 3:

Entrants: 783
Remaining Players: 240
Chipleader: Lyle Berman
Prize Pool: $7.855 million
First Place: $2.167 million
Money Winners: Top 120
Current Level: Level 8 blinds $400/800 with $100 antes
Average Stack: $32,625

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

11:41am... I got up early and watched cartoons with Senor's kid before I headed back to work. I ate breakfast at Crackel Barrel this morning. It's about halfway between Providence and Foxwoods on I-95. My friend Molly used to work at one in Texas and I used to give her shit all the time about working in a cracker factory with Milhouse's dad. Anyway, it's southern style country cookin' and the breakfast rocked. I got my standard Fremch Toast with extra crispy bacon. I love bacon that's so crisp that you hear a cracking sound when you bite into it, yet melts in your mouth immediately. The hashbrowns were near perfect. Plus they serve sweetened ice tea. I was in heaven for 35 minutes. I think the waitress was hitting on me. She had a nice smile, but her hairy upper lip and the fact that she was bigger than David "Big Popi" Ortiz was a complete turn off. She must have been pumped I left a $3 tip on a $7 meal.

11:45am... I arrived downstairs at the Sunset Ballroom and an unshaven Minneapolis Jim Meehan was sitting in press row. He slowly took turns dragging on his cigarette and sipping a Heineken while he scanned the list of remaining players and chip counts. He was scribbling on a piece of scrap paper. He drew a circle and started writing down the names of players at his table. By then I had my laptop fired up and logged into Poker Wire, which had all the seating assignments. I showed Jim that and he was happy that I'd save him a few minutes of research. He had Chip Jett, David Benyamine, and Thomas Fuller at his table. Fuller ended Day 1B as one of the chipleaders.

"Listen kid," he said in his raspy voice with a tinge of a Minnesota accent, "Eight and a half minutes is the over/under for me today. I got $8,600 in chips and I'm definitely gonna play a hand in the first orbit. It's not like yesterday when I had $600 in fuckin' chips left. I'm anticipating an early exit."

That's why Minneapolis Jim Meehan is one of the most colorful characters in poker today. He's tells you the raw deal with no bullshit and is highly entertaining in the process.

11:56am... There are some intersting tables that I will try to follow today:

Table 2: Young Phan, Mark Seif, and Richardo Festejo
Table 6: Amir Vahedi, John D'Agostino, Donna Blevins, and Julian Gardner
Table 7: Marsha Waggoner, Minh Nguyen, Paul McKinney, and Ted Forrest
Table 10: Dan Heimiller and Jean Gaspard
Table 11: John Myung and Bill Gazes
Table 12: Bradley Berman, Hasan Habib, Dennis Elder, and Peter Campo
Table 13: Cliff 'Johnny Bax' Josephy, Steven Zoine, and Tab Duchateau
Table 18: Chip Jett, David Benyamine, and Minneapolis Jim Meehan
Table 20: Timothy Sweeney, Steve Zolotow, Lyle Berman, and Kathy Liebert

Here are the Top 5 in chips:
1 Lyle Berman $153,300
2 Loi Van Phan $122,500
3 Mark Seif $107,600
4 Thomas Fuller $103,200
5 Benjamin Kim $95,400

Check the post below to see the start of Day 3 chip counts.

12:00pm... Cards are in the air! We are on Level 8 with $400/800 blinds with $100 antes.

12:30pm... Recent Eliminations: John D'Agastino was busted when his A-J lost to 4-4. Minneapolis Jim Meehan was also just busted.

1:05pm... Recent Eliminations Ted Forrest, Craig Hartman, Abe Mosseri, and Johnny Bax. Ted Forrest had Q-J and lost a coin flip to 10-10.

1:23pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I wandered over to the buffet in the mini-buffet at back of the Sunset Ballroom. They have yellow bananas today. I ate a few pastries and chatted with Paul McKinney's daughter. She told me the story about how he came from behind with just $75 in chips in the 1997 WSOP main event and still made the final table. He's won one pot today and has about $30K. I also spotted the Absolute Poker girls. Theya re decked out in ultra-tight black wife beater t-shirts and red mini-skirts that are up jacked up so high you can see which girls have bad wax jobs.

1:40pm... Players are back from a break. We are on Level 9. Blinds are $600/$1,200 with a $300 ante.

1:50pm... Recent Eliminations: David Benyamine, Ricardo Festejo, and Dan Heimiller.

2:01pm... Kathy Liebert just doubled up against Ronnie Bardah when she cracked A-K with A-Q. She flopped a Queen. Kathy now has about $80K.

2:15pm... Kathy Liebert 2, Ronnie Bardah 0. With A-Q Kathy busted Bardah's A-J.

2:50pm... Here's an updated chip count:

1 Loi Phan $190,000
2 Jeff Paquette $170,000
3 Lyle Berman $168,000
4 Hasan Habib $152,000
5 Kathy Liebert $152,000

2:55pm... Sorry for the lack of updates. I was doing all my football picks for the week and updating all of my fantasy pools.

3:10pm... Recent Eliminations: Local Jeff Calkins was busted when his J-J ran into Q-Q. David Levi was knocked out when he ran into A-A. Tim Sweeney was also knocked out. So was Jean Gaspard when his 10-10 lost a race to A-K. There are 15 tables left and less than 150 players still in.

3:14pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I've been hanging out in the hallways hearing bits of conversations with players who were just busted. Like I said, some know I am in the media (and the big ass red WPT badge makes it pretty obvious) and come up to me and spill their guts about their bad beat stories. If I had $2 for every bad beat story a tournament player and blogger told me since the WSOP, I'd be a trillionare. Anyway, Scott from Card Player told me a great bathroom bad beat story, which he wanted me to post on my blog. He was taking a leak and an old game came over to piss and told him his bad beat story. The guy got so into his story that he did not realize that he was pissing on the floor. I think the old man pissed on Scott's feet, but he's a little too embarassed to tell me.

3:15pm... Players on a break. 144 players remain. When play resumes, we'll be at Level 10. Blinds are $800/$1600 with $200 antes. The chipleader is Lenny Cortellino with over $235K.

3:30pm... Paul McKinney doubled up with A-J against A-K. He flopped a Jack and turned trips.

4:01pm... Random Day 3 Picture Dump:


Bill Gazes stares down an opponent


Paul McKinney schools the young whipper-snappers


Lyle Berman: Round 1 Chipleader and WPT founder


The railbirds behind Erik Seidel


Day 3 of the World Poker Finals in the Sunset Ballroom


It's a race!


Donna Blevins from Poker Player Newspaper


We're close to the bubble!


One tough table: Kathy Liebert, John Myung, Mark Seif, and Bill Gazes


The action never stops

4:10pm... Recent Eliminations: Bernard Lee and Steve Brecher have both been busted.

4:15pm... 125 players left. We're approaching the bubble!!

4:20pm... Time for a smoke break.

4:36pm... Jaxia wondered which women were left. There are 5: Kathy Liebert, Marsha Waggoner, Amanda Baker (who qualified online at Full Tilt), Donna Blevins, and Joanne "J.J." Liu. I'm pulling for Kathy to make another final table.

4:39pm... Here is the Top 5 chipleaders:

1 Lenny Cortellino $235K
2 Lyle Berman $208K
3 Jeff Paquette $172K
4 Mike Pascullo $154K
5 Marco Savoni $153K

4:40pm... Recent Eliminations: Steve Z is out. John Myung was knocked out by Kathy Liebert. He was shortstacked and moved all in with A-8. Kathy called with 10-9 and flopped a 10 to send Myung to the rail.

4:57pm... We're officially on the bubble with 121 left. Mark Seif cracked Aces with pocket Jacks. He rivered a straight against Matthew Szymaszek. Kathy Liebert turned to me and said, "Wow!"

5:27pm... Players are back from a break and still on the bubble. 121 players left. We're on a new level. Blinds are $1K/$2K with $300 antes.

5:28pm... Erik Seidel doubled up with 2-2 against A-K. He flopped a set of 2s.

5:30pm... We're on a dinner break. Action will resume at 6:30pm. I got a $10 food comp thanks to the poker room guys!

6:36pm... Bouncin Round the Room: On dinner break, BJ & Scott and I headed to the Absolute Poker suite. I had a liquid dinner and noshed on mozzarella sticks and the infamous Foxwoods chicken fingers. They had Buffalo wing sauce and I dipped both the sticks and the fingers in it. There were more Absoulte Poker girls helping people get drinks and doing idle chit chat. Here's an excerpt of a conversation with one of the better looking gals who had a Southern accent.

Pauly: Lemme ask you a question, Sweetie. Are you from North Carolina?
Absolute Poker Girl: Georgia.
Pauly: I went to school in Atlanta. I played hockey there. BJ grew up near there.
BJ: What part are you from?
Absolute Poker Girl: Macon.
BJ: Cool. I'm from Duluth.
Absolute Poker Girl: Oh, great. I go up to Atlanta all the time for work.

As soon as she walked away, BJ turned to me and said, "She's a stripper." If you don't know Atlanta has a slew of strip clubs. And this girl definitely had advanced stripper pole tricks highlighted on her resume.

6:39pm... Chip Jett is the bubble boy. All he had left was $300 which was the antes. He had J-J and figured he would survive the first hand back. One guy called with Q-5 and flopped two pair! Jett finished in 121st place. The remaining 120 players will all win at least $11K. Here's a list of payouts:

WPT Foxwoods Payouts (Top 120):
1st $2,142,000
2nd $1,035,000
3rd $759,000
4th $483,000
5th $345,000
6th $276,000
7th $207,000
8th $172,800
9th $138,000
10th $117,300
11th $103,500
12th $96,600
13th $89,700
14th $82,800
15th $75,900
16th $69,000
17th $62,100
18th $55,200
19th $48,300
20th $41,300
21-25 $34,500
26-30 $27,600
31-35 $20,700
36-40 $17,200
41-50 $14,000
51-70 $12,000
71-120 $11,000

7:10pm... Recent Elimiantions: Whenever we get past the money buble, there's a flurry of bustouts. Also, right after the dinner break, players losen up and there are bustouts increase in frequency. With post-dinner break bubble, a bunch of players have been knocked out. Paul McKinney was just knocked out. Minh Nguyen min raised and McKinney moved all in with 10-10. Minh showed A-A and sent McKiney to the rail. Kathy Liebert was knocked out by Bill Gazes. Kathy had A-K. Bill had K-K. There was a short stack all in with A-Q and that killed oneof Kathy's outs. Her hand did not improve and she was knocked out. Bill Gazes has a stack that's over $280K. Anthony Nader, Mike Pascullo, Ryan Buckholtz, and Ken Myers have all been eliminated as well.

7:22pm... Hand of the Day: Without a doubt it goes to Ilya Liviz who defended his blind with The Hammer! Alex Jacob raised on the button with 2-4o. The flop was 7-2-3. On the turn an 8 fell. Liviz bet and Jacob moved all in over the top. Liviz quickly called. Both player sshowed their monsters... 7-2o vs. 4-2o. The river didn't help Jacob and Liviz doubled up winning a pot worht at least $160K. Behold the Hammer! And never underestimate the power behind defending your blinds.

7:30pm... Recent bustouts: Marsha Waggoner was eliminated when her A-Q lost to Eugene Ji's K-K. Arnold Spee and Mark Seif are also out. Seif was busted by Bill Gazes who now has a "shitload of chips" according to Scott from Card Player.

7:54pm... All in all, it's another brick in the wall. Hasan Habbib likes Pink Floyd. He was walking around singing inaudible words to a song. Hasan asked Scott from Card Player if he knew the song he was singing because Scott was wearing a Pink Floyd shirt. "I used to listen to them when I was a kid," Hasan confided. "Dark music."

8:00pm... Players are on a break. 83 players remain.

8:55pm... Recent elimiantions: Amir Vahedi, Farzad Bonyadi, Jack Disandro, and Amanda Baker.

9:00pm... Here's an updated chip count:

Top 5
1 Bill Gazes $550K
2 Loi Phan $360K
3 Eugene Ji $250K
4 Allen Cunningham $248K
5 Lenny Cortellino $245K

9:21pm... More Eliminations: Bill Edler, Jason Zausmer, and Spiro Mitrokostas are all out.

9:30pm... Here's an updated list of bust outs thanks to BJ and Aimee from the WPT!

The following players won $11K:
120 - Christopher Loveland
119 - Daniel Sommer
118 - Andrew Wallach
117 - Matt Smith
116 - Frank Cruess-Callaghan
115 - Anthony Nader
114 - Mike Pascullo
113 - Paul McKinney
112 - Mike Ramsey
111 - Eric Hutchens
110 - Ken Myers
109 - Joe Peruti
108 - Kathy Liebert
107 - Mark Awalt
106 - Massoud Nikjouian
105 - Ronald Kirk
104 - Frank Meaney
103 - Richard Cairo
102 - Ralph "Rep" Porter
101 - Ryan Buckholtz
100 - Anthony Camillery
99 - Kyle Bowker
98 - Mark Ader
97 - Roy Thung
96 - Walter Williams
95 - Marsha Waggoner
94 - Chris Karagulleyan
93 - Mark Seif
92 - Sam Haddad
91 - Arnold Spee
90 - Donna Blevins
89 - Jerry Young
88 - Andrew A.K. Kelsall
87 - Dean Hamrick
86 - Jeffrey Henry
85 - Howard Elfant
84 - Wayne Burgess
83 - Jerome Saunders
82 - Peter Campo
81 - Wililam Krackomberger
80 - Stafford Woodley Jr
79 - Amir Vahedi
78 - Temp Hutter
77 - John Disandro
76 - Steven Dilliard
75 - Farzad Bonyadi
74 - Robert Wittman
73 - Brian Batt
72 - Amanda Baker
71 - Williamd Edler

The following players won $12K:
70 - Spiro Mitrokostas
69 - Scott Wilson
68 - James Campbell

9:40pm... Players are on a 10 minute break. 64 remain. They are racing off $100 chips. When play resumes, we'll be at $1500/$3000 with $500 antes. Here's the most recent chip leaders:

Top 5
1 Bill Gazes $557K
2 Loi Phan $385K
3 Eugene Ji $310K
4 Steve Jacobs $300K
5 Allen Cunningham $277K

10:40pm... Bill Gazes lost the chip lead to Loi Phan who also topped the half million mark. Action has slowed down wth 52 players left. We won't stop tonight until we get down to 36 players.

11:01pm... Recent Eliminations: Joanne Liu (A-J lost to A-Q), Mike Menard (K-Q lost to K-10), Dan Yanofski (6-6 to Bill Gazes' 7-7), Willie Tan (A-10 lost to A-A), Barry Berger (A-Q lost to A-K), and Sean Scott. 48 players remain.

11:11pm... Young Phan was just busted on a brutal beat by Samir Shakhtoor. phan flopped a set with 2-2 on a board of J-8-2. There were two diamonds out there. Shakhtoor had 5d-6d. Samir Shakhtoor bet aroudn $12.5K and Young Phan doubled his bet with a raise. Samir Shaktoor moved all in for all of his chips, around $300K. Phan quickly called. Shaktoor caught his flush on the turn and he eliminated Phan. Shaktoor's stack is just under $500K.

"I guess I'll go home and fuck my dog," Phan said matter of factly as he walked off after that vicious beat. That is without a doubt, that's the quote of the tournament and gets my vote as Top 10 Poker Quotes of 2005.

11:19pm... Recent Eliminations: Hasan Habib's J-J ran into Steve Jacobs' pocket Kings. Minh Nguyen busted Steve Diamantes. Tom McCormick, Tom Coan, and Glyn 'Ratchet' Banks are also out.

11:20pm... Players are on a 10 minute break. 43 players remain. We will be on Level 14 with the blinds at $2K/$4K and a $500 ante. Here's an update of the most recent bustouts:

The following players won $12K:

67 - Jason Zausmer

66 - Mark Carlson

65 - Michael Mella

64 - Hyon Kim

63 - Erik Cajelais

62 - David Thompson

61 - John Sousa

60 - Carmen Menechella

59 - Thomas Fuller

58 - Joanne J.J. Liu

57 - Michael Menard

56 - John Lakatosh

55 - Mohammad Berenjinatuaj

54 - Daniel Yanofski

53 - David Scharf

52 - Barry Berger

51 - Willie Tann

The following players won $14K:

50 - Sean Michael Scott

49 - Young Phan

48 - Hasan Habib

47 - Stephen Diamantas

46 - Tom McCormick

45 - Glyn Banks

44 - Tom Coan
43 - Chris Barbeisch
42 - Marco Savoni
41 - Mike May

11:53pm... Here's an updated chip count:

1 Samir Shakhtoor $600K
2 Bill Gazes $600K
3 Loi Phan $480K
4 Alex Jacob $345K
5 Bryan Veach $340K

1:20am... Some more bustouts include Andy Black in 36th place when he moved all in with 3-3 and his short stack only to get busted by 10-10.

The following players won $17,200:
40 - Jason Decker
39 - Vinny Lambiase
38 - Matthew Sahagian
37 - Eugene Ji
36 - Andrew Black

The following players won $20,700:
35 - Jeff Paquette
34 - Steve Wong
33 - Ilya Livis
32 - Ed Pelham

2:01am... Play is complete for Day 3. Action will resume at Noon on Wednesday. 31 players remain and they will play down until 6 players tomorrow.
posted by Pauly at 11/15/2005 11:39:00 AM | Permalink |

 
End of Round 1 (Day 1a & Day 1b) Chip Counts

Thanks to Poker Wire for the chip counts! These are the players who are beginning Day 3.

1 Lyle Berman $ 153,300
2 Loi Van Phan $ 122,500
3 Mark Seif $ 107,600
4 Thomas Fuller $ 103,200
5 Benjamin Kim $ 95,400
6 Ralph Porter $ 90,700
7 Alex Jacob $ 85,600
8 Willie Tran $ 84,800
9 Amir Vahedi $ 83,100
10 Stephen Jacobs $ 82,800
11 Massoud Nikjouian $ 82,200
12 Ilya Liviz $ 81,200
13 Michael Pascullo $ 80,900
14 Joanne Liu $ 77,900
15 Andrew Black $ 77,200
16 Ryan Buckholtz $ 74,800
17 Eugene Ji $ 73,100
18 Jeffrey Paquette $ 71,900
19 Barry Berger $ 70,600
20 Michael Menard $ 70,000
21 Spiro Mitrokostas $ 70,000
22 Abraham 'Avi' Gray $ 69,400
23 Edward Myers $ 67,200
24 Mohammed Berenjinataj $ 66,200
25 Glyn Banks $ 62,600
26 William Edler $ 62,200
27 Adam White $ 61,600
28 Eugene Leader $ 61,300
29 Amanda Baker $ 60,000
30 David Scharf $ 58,500
31 Robert Stoppard $ 58,500
32 Sam Haddam $ 58,200
33 Joshua Ewing $ 56,100
34 Michael Mella $ 54,100
35 Nicholas Laudano $ 53,700
36 Anthony Nader $ 53,700
37 Ronnie Bardah $ 53,400
38 Chip Jett $ 53,300
39 Erik Seidel $ 52,800
40 Steven Zoine $ 51,500
41 Vincents Curry $ 51,100
42 Samir Shakhtoor $ 50,400
43 Anthony Camillery $ 50,300
44 Paul Fisher $ 48,500
45 Brian Batt $ 48,200
46 Steven Dillard $ 47,900
47 Minh Nguyen $ 46,700
48 Hasan Habib $ 46,000
49 Howard Elfant $ 45,900
50 Eric Hutchens $ 45,800
51 Chad Moore $ 45,600
52 Tom Coan $ 45,200
53 Jean Gaspard $ 43,700
54 Anthony Santich $ 43,700
55 Stafford Woodley $ 42,700
56 Allen Cunningham $ 41,900
57 Young Phan $ 41,800
58 Lenny Cortellino $ 41,500
59 Kyle Bowker $ 41,200
60 Dean Hamrick $ 40,800
61 Joe Brooks $ 40,500
62 Randall Clarke $ 40,200
63 Anthony Licastro $ 40,200
64 Walter Warot $ 39,800
65 Jason Decker $ 39,500
66 Peter Campo $ 39,400
67 Joseph Peruti $ 39,000
68 Temp Hutter $ 38,500
69 Duc Huynh $ 38,500
70 Keith Block $ 38,100
71 Patrick White $ 37,900
72 Scott Wilson $ 37,900
73 James Frangoulidis $ 37,700
74 Bryan Veach $ 37,200
75 Hyon Kim $ 36,000
76 Joseph Cappello $ 35,900
77 Erik Cajelais $ 35,400
78 Steven Fiorentini $ 35,300
79 John Lambiase $ 35,300
80 Sean Scott $ 35,200
81 Josef Monro $ 35,100
82 James Felitsky $ 35,000
83 Chris Karagulleyan $ 34,900
84 Robert Miller $ 34,600
85 Nick Schulman $ 34,600
86 John Myung $ 34,300
87 Kenny Chanthamala $ 33,300
88 Jason Zausmer $ 33,200
89 Roy Thung $ 32,700
90 William Jones $ 32,600
91 Mark Awalt $ 32,300
92 Daniel Yanofski $ 32,300
93 Andrew Wallach $ 31,100
94 Timothy Sweeney $ 31,000
95 Daniel Gordon $ 30,600
96 Mike May $ 30,600
97 Mona Montal $ 30,600
98 Thomas Schreiber $ 30,600
99 David Levi $ 30,500
100 Emanuel Failla $ 30,300
101 Timothy McDonald $ 30,300
102 Edward Pelham $ 29,900
103 Steve Zolotow $ 29,900
104 Christopher Loveland $ 29,700
105 Jesse Martin $ 29,500
106 Arnold Spee $ 29,300
107 Mike Meskin $ 29,100
108 Ted Forrest $ 28,900
109 Gary Bremer $ 28,500
110 John DiSandro $ 28,400
111 Jing Tian $ 28,100
112 Timothy Anders $ 27,800
113 Andrew Asnes $ 27,500
114 Frank Cruess-Callaghan $ 27,500
115 Mark Carlson $ 27,400
116 Tony Rangole $ 27,400
117 Felton Raphael $ 27,400
118 Frank Meaney $ 27,300
119 Ryan Powell $ 27,300
120 Bradley Berman $ 27,200
121 Richard Cairo $ 26,800
122 Stephen Diamantas $ 26,400
123 John Sousa $ 26,400
124 Walter Osband $ 26,300
125 Jerome Saunders $ 26,300
126 Steve Brecher $ 25,500
127 Matthew Sahagian $ 25,100
128 Marco Savoni $ 25,100
129 Corlan Chinn $ 25,000
130 Eric Haber $ 25,000
131 William McKinney $ 24,800
132 Mike Ramsey $ 24,600
133 Craig Hartman $ 24,500
134 Bernard Lee $ 24,300
135 Hilbert Shirey $ 24,200
136 Avdo Djokovic $ 24,100
137 Robert Wisiak $ 24,100
138 Matthew Milliken $ 24,000
139 Rod Kannon $ 23,900
140 Dennis Fabian $ 23,800
141 James Pechac $ 23,800
142 Gregory Dollarhide $ 23,500
143 Paul Paris $ 23,300
144 Julian Gardner $ 23,100
145 Robert Wittman $ 23,000
146 Kenneth Selby $ 22,900
147 Kelly Patrick $ 22,800
148 Chris Barbeisch $ 22,600
149 Jeffrey Whisnant $ 22,600
150 Kathy Liebert $ 22,500
151 Dennis Elder $ 22,200
152 Gregory Alston $ 22,000
153 Thomas McCormick $ 21,800
154 John Lakatosh $ 21,500
155 Eric Sonnenstuhl $ 21,500
156 Timothy McGowan $ 21,300
157 Von Kachittavon $ 21,200
158 Jerry Burgess $ 21,100
159 Stephen Crockett $ 21,000
160 Jared Davis $ 21,000
161 David Thompson $ 20,800
162 Matthew Szymaszek $ 20,600
163 Liu Kei $ 20,500
164 Eric Buchman $ 19,700
165 Jeff Lassaris $ 19,600
166 David Weisberger $ 19,500
167 David Fox $ 19,400
168 James Paddon $ 19,200
169 Cliff 'Johnny Bax' Josephy $ 19,100
170 Mark Tenner $ 18,900
171 Mark Zulkiewicz $ 18,700
172 Mark Ader $ 18,600
173 Walter Williams $ 18,100
174 Michael Nye $ 18,000
175 Ron Kirk $ 17,900
176 Jeffrey Henry $ 17,500
177 John D'Agostino $ 17,400
178 Richard Stoeckmann $ 17,200
179 Goldie Watts $ 17,000
180 Bill Gazes $ 16,800
181 Bryan Bevis $ 16,300
182 Michael Appel $ 16,200
183 Steve Wong $ 16,100
184 Vu Ly $ 16,000
185 Haym Suissa $ 15,800
186 Marcus Versterlin $ 15,800
187 David Inselberg $ 15,700
188 William Krackomberger $ 15,600
189 Jarrell Puryear $ 15,500
190 Steven Weinstein $ 15,500
191 Vincent Aloi $ 15,000
192 Tab Duchateau $ 14,800
193 Mark Forrester $ 14,600
194 Mark Schaech $ 14,600
195 John Womack $ 14,500
196 Chan Feming $ 14,200
197 Andrew Kelsal $ 14,000
198 Dan Heimiller $ 13,900
199 Kenneth Sinkiewicz $ 13,800
200 Carmen Menechella $ 13,600
201 Stephen Sommer $ 13,400
202 Harold Burnham $ 13,300
203 Todd Bourgault $ 12,900
204 John Heaney $ 12,800
205 Jesse Rivera $ 12,800
206 Michael Ripka $ 12,700
207 Marsha Waggoner $ 12,600
208 David Benyamine $ 12,200
209 Wooyang Lin $ 11,900
210 James Campbell $ 11,800
211 Barbara Cardin $ 11,600
212 Christopher Ranaudette $ 11,600
213 Peter Giordano $ 11,400
214 Farzad Bonyadi $ 11,300
215 Peter Buttenweiser $ 11,300
216 Concetta Rinaldi $ 11,000
217 Kevin Adam $ 10,800
218 Jeff Calkins $ 10,800
219 Bill Rothstein $ 10,200
220 Paul Snead $ 10,100
221 Jerry young $ 10,100
222 Richard Festejo $ 9,800
223 Harrel Hardin $ 9,100
224 Alexander Porter $ 8,800
225 Minneapolis' Jim Meehan $ 8,600
226 Donna Blevins $ 8,500
227 Denis Lisica $ 8,500
228 Jordan Morgan $ 8,500
229 April Zwick-Friedman $ 8,500
230 Jerry Rich $ 8,300
231 Jose Sanches $ 7,600
232 Matthew Smith $ 7,600
233 Arthur Tamasi $ 7,500
234 David Duncan $ 7,300
235 Hampton Weston $ 7,300
236 Abraham Masseri $ 7,200
237 Ping Lok Chan $ 7,100
238 Vadim Trincher $ 6,600
239 Jonathan Bradley $ 5,400
240 Paul Delaney $ 4,600

posted by Pauly at 11/15/2005 11:02:00 AM | Permalink |

 
WPT Foxwoods: World Poker Finals Day 1B

Well I made it to Foxwoods in one piece. I arrived in Rhode Island yesterday afternoon. The rental car agency did not have any compact/econcomy cars so they gave me a sporty convertible. And the fucker is fast. So fast in fact that I arrived outside of Providence in record time. I was whizzing down the Hutch at 90 mph as the colorful leaves flew right by.

We're currently on Day 1B. I skipped Day 1A of the event. The other day Jen Leo told me, "Pauly, you work too hard!" I took her advice and blew off Day 1A and hung out with Senor and his two-year old. We watched football and cartoons on a lazy Rhode Island afternoon. Late night, I downloaded a few poker sites to Senor's computer and played micro NL with Jaxia, Eva, April (TX), Scott McM, and Change100. I didn't do so hot overall. Maybe I should let Senor's kids play my hands for me in the future.

This morning I ate several donuts for breakfast and took a stroll through the poker room at Foxwoods to find a copy of Poker Player Newspaper. And I didn't even take five steps into the room when I was recognized. A surly guy wearing sunglasses and a Boston Red Sox hat stood up from a few tables away and shouted in a thick New England accent, "Doc-tah Pauly, yah Yankees suck! But I love yah pok-ah blog!"

Welcome back to Foxwoods.

Man, I missed this place. There is no other casino in the world like Foxwoods. First of all it's ginormous. My grandmother stopped going to Foxwoods because she kept getting lost. This used to be my "home casino" so I'm lucky I know my way around. Two years ago, way before I ever considered playing online poker, I found myself renting cars or hopping on buses to Foxwoods to play poker at least once a week. The past two years I've tried dozens of times trying to win a seat in the World Poker Final main event. I never made it. I came was a second place finish in an Act II (I flopped trip 9s with A-9 and K-9 called and turned a boat on me). I also took second another time when my K-K ran into A-A. Now I'm here as an official media member. I even had to check in with Foxwoods security, who issued me a special badge. I hope to sneak off to play some cards later today.

If you would like to read a recap of Day 1, Card Player has one up which was compiled by BJ and Scott. Stop by Poker Wire to hear some audio clips of your favorite pros and to get up to the minute chip counts.

Here are some noteworthy bustouts from Day 1A: Liz Lieu, Mike Caro, Evelyn Ng, John Phan, Mike Gracz, Brad Daugherty, Lee Watkinson, Denis Ethier, Olga Varkonyi, Robert Varkonyi, Alan Goehring, Jim McManus, David Singer, Tony Ma, Brian Haveson, Amnon Filippi, Jean-Robert Bellande, Joe Sebok, Ted Lawson, Melissa Hayden, J.C. Tran, and Johnny World Hennigan. Last year's WPT FOxwoods champ Tuan Le wa sbusted early on Day 1.

WPT big wig Lyle Berman is the chipleader after Day 1A. Mark Seif, who won two WSOP bracelets in 2005) is in second place Here's the end of Day 1A chip count according to and courtesy of the hard work from Heather & Jen at Poker Wire:

1 Lyle Berman $ 153,300
2 Mark Seif $ 107,600
3 Benjamin Kim $ 95,400
4 Ralph Porter $ 90,700
5 Alex Jacob $ 85,600
6 Willie Tran $ 84,800
7 Ilya Liviz $ 81,200
8 Michael Pascullo $ 80,900
9 Joanne Liu $ 77,900
10 Andrew Black $ 77,200
11 Eugene Ji $ 73,100
12 Jeffrey Paquette $ 71,900
13 Barry Berger $ 70,600
14 Michael Menard $ 70,000
15 Abraham Gray $ 69,400
16 Adam White $ 61,600
17 Eugene Leader $ 61,300
18 David Scharf $ 58,500
19 Sam Haddam $ 58,200
20 Michael Mella $ 54,100
21 Nicholas Laudano $ 53,700
22 Anthony Nader $ 53,700
23 Vincents Curry $ 51,100
24 Samir Shakhtoor $ 50,400
25 Anthony Camillery $ 50,300
26 Paul Fisher $ 48,500
27 Brian Batt $ 48,200
28 Howard Elfant $ 45,900
29 Chad Moore $ 45,600
30 Thomas Coan $ 45,200
31 Stafford Woodley $ 42,700
32 Allen Cunningham $ 41,900
33 Young Phan $ 41,800
34 Peter Campo $ 39,400
35 Joseph Peruti $ 39,000
36 Temp Hutter $ 38,500
37 Keith Block $ 38,100
38 Patrick White $ 37,900
39 Scott Wilson $ 37,900
40 James Frangoulidis $ 37,700
41 Joseph Cappello $ 35,900
42 Chris Karagulleyan $ 34,900
43 Robert Miller $ 34,600
44 Roy Thung $ 32,700
45 Daniel Yanofski $ 32,300
46 Mark Awalt $ 32,300
47 Andrew Wallach $ 31,100
48 Mona Montal $ 30,600
49 David Levi $ 30,500
50 Timothy McDonald $ 30,300
51 Edward Pelham $ 29,900
52 Steve Zolotow $ 29,900
53 Christopher Loveland $ 29,700
54 Jesse Martin $ 29,500
55 Arnold Spee $ 29,300
56 Mike Meskin $ 29,100
57 John DiSandro $ 28,400
58 Jing Tian $ 28,100
59 Timothy Anders $ 27,800
60 Ryan Powell $ 27,300
61 Bradley Berman $ 27,200
62 Richard Cairo $ 26,800
63 Stephen Diamantas $ 26,400
64 Walter Osband $ 26,300
65 Steve Brecher $ 25,500
66 Matthew Sahagian $ 25,100
67 Craig Hartman $ 24,500
68 Bernard Lee $ 24,300
69 Hilbert Shirley $ 24,200
70 Robert Wisiak $ 24,100
71 Matthew Milliken $ 24,000
72 Rod Kannon $ 23,900
73 James Pechac $ 23,800
74 Julian Gardner $ 23,100
75 Kenneth Selby $ 22,900
76 Kathy Liebert $ 22,500
77 Dennis Elder $ 22,200
78 Gregory Alston $ 22,000
79 Thomas McCormick $ 21,800
80 John Lakatosh $ 21,500
81 Von Kachittavong $ 21,200
82 Jared Davis $ 21,000
83 Stephen Crockett $ 21,000
84 David Fox $ 19,400
85 Mark Tenner $ 18,900
86 Walter Williams $ 18,100
87 Ronald Kirk $ 17,900
88 Richard Stoeckmann $ 17,200
89 Michael Appel $ 16,200
90 Vu Ly $ 16,000
91 Marcus Vesterlin $ 15,800
92 Haym Suissa $ 15,800
93 John Womack $ 14,500
94 Chan Feming $ 14,200
95 Kenneth Sinkiewicz $ 13,800
96 Harold Burnham $ 13,300
97 Todd Bourgault $ 12,900
98 Michael Ripka $ 12,700
99 David Benyamine $ 12,200
100 Wooyang Lin $ 11,900
101 James Campbell $ 11,800
102 Christopher Renaudette $ 11,600
103 Farzad Bonyadi $ 11,300
104 Concetta Rinaldi $ 11,000
105 Jeff Calkins $ 10,800
106 Kevin Adam $ 10,800
107 Bill Rothstein $ 10,200
108 Jerry Young $ 10,100
109 Richardo Festejo $ 9,800
110 Donna Blevins $ 8,500
111 Denis Lisica $ 8,500
112 Jerry Rich $ 8,300
113 Jose Sanches $ 7,600
114 Arthur Tamasi $ 7,500
115 David Duncan $ 7,300
116 Hampton Watson $ 7,300
117 Ping Lok Chan $ 7,100
118 Vadim Trincher $ 6,600

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

12:31pm... Players begin with $10K in chips. 783 players bought in.

12:41pm... I have arrived in press row. I'm sitting next to Sharla from Poker Pages and Jen from Poker Wire. We are set up out front of Sunset Ballroom, which is also the smoking section so a nice flow of second hand smoke is hovering over my head.

12:5opm... John Juanda is one of the first players eliminated today. He flpped a set of Jacks and was busted by a guy who had a set of Aces.

1:12pm... OK, here's who I spotted here today: Chip Jett, David "The Dragon" Pham, Andy Bloch, Paul Darden, Paul McKinney, Fossilman, Mark Gregorich, Minneapolis Jim Meehan, Men the Master, Clonie Gowan, Marsha Waggoner, Richard Brodie, Tony Cousineau, Ted Forrest, Victor Ramdin, Matt Matros, Chris Fargis, Johnny Bax, Jean Gaspard, Gavin Smith, Gavin Griffin, Martin DeKnijff, Minh Nguyen, Tab Duchateau, Dan Heimiller, Bill Gazes, Pat Poels, Jason Lester, Vinny Vinh, Tex Barch, Hasan Habib, Joe Cassidy, Dewey Tomko, Amir Vahedi, Erik Seidel, and John Myung.

1:30pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I spent the last twenty or so minutes walking through the Sunset Ballroom. Clonie Gowan has a flock of horny railbirds. I think one huge Clonie fan was rubbing one out in the corner after he caught a glimpse of his favorite female pro. I got stopped by two not-so-famous players who stopped me to tell me their bad beat stories. I told them they each owed me $5. Usually I charge $1, but when I'm covering a WPT event, m time is priceless so my rate goes up. Now here' everyone's favorite installment of....

Last 5 Pros I Took a Piss Next To...
1. Neverwin
2. Paul Darden
3. John D'Agastino
4. John Myung
5. Men the Master

1:40pm... Chris from 21 Outs came over to shoot the shit during the break. "I got $10,025. Blog that!" he joked. He's sitting at the same table as John D'Agastino. When I asked him if he'd rather sit at a table fileld with pros or no-names, he said, "No-names."

1:45pm... Random picture dump!


Men the Master


John Myung


2005 WSOP Senior's Champ Paul McKinney shows me his bracelet


Spying on Clonie


One of the hot chicks from Absolute Poker
2:15pm... I forgot to mention that Ted Forrest doubled up early with A-K against A-J.

2:30pm... Bouncin Round the Room: In the back of the Sunset Ballroom, there is a buffet set up with chicken wings and cookies and chips and green bananas. I was hanging out there listeing to the railbirds talk smack. One lady fell asleep and Gavin Smith told me to take a photo. The Absolute Poker girls are dispersed throughout the room. I took a picture of Richard Brodie and he joked that he was still in. I incorrectly said he was busted from the Bellagio event last month when he was still around.

2:45pm... Here's parts of an email exchange that one of my readers Erik B. from Connecticut sent me. He played in Day 1A. Here you go:

How about an article about Foxwoods incompetence vs. Vegas rooms?

BTW, I am fully responsible for my play and the results of this tournament. I am not blaming them, but people should be aware. I was playing in the 10K event today and I had a nut flush draw in the face of some horrible players, and it comes down like this... I have Ks-10s, the flop comes 3s-5s-blank. First to act bets the min., I raise, next player raises, and the original bettor raises, and I go all-in. With the best draw (these 2 were re-raising each other with crap for the first 2 hours of the tourney) and 2 overs and 2 over aggressive players. Well the dealer says "you can't raise, it's capped."

I said, "This is no-limit hold'em, the NO implies that there is NO limit to the raises or amount of the raise."

We debate for a moment and I ask the floor to be called over. The floor comes over and agrees with the dealer. I was embarrassed that there was a rule that I was not aware of, and so fundamental to the game, but I can't recall ever seeing this come up and I was just astonished. So I ask if I can take my money back and fold. They allow this and I do it. About 10 minutes later the floor guy comes to our table and says that unlimited raises are allowed, "no shit" I said. Well as it turns out I was against a set of 3s and set of 5s, and a spade hit on the end. I decided to gamble with my last chips at this point I would have tripled up to about 15,000 but instead I was left with about 4,000. This was a big swing, I assumed that the floor was authoritative in matters like this, but instead of asking someone he gives mis-information and it changed everything for me. I knew I was right and I guess that I should have had the tournament director called over.

You ever hear of things like this at other casinos? Every other place I've been, has been much better. How does the dealer AND the floor get this call wrong?

This was a million dollar decision that this floor person made based on no knowledge whatsoever. Another Issue were the hotties hired by absolutepoker.com to pimp some party that they were having in room 823. There was a gaggle of these things standing directly behind me, and they would not stop talking, it was like having Paris Hilton stand behind you for an hour talking about the rich guy that she fucked the night before. They are nice to look at, but stupid women shouldn't talk, especially behind me and during the biggest tournament I have every played. They just let these ladies mill around like they belong there, kick these bitches out, the tournament room is no place for people to be pimping their shit. I don't care about out in the lobby, but in the actual room, is just not appropriate, I complained to the tournament director after an hour and they didn't come back after the break. I hope they keep them out today.

BTW, I subscribed to your blog after hearing you on the Lord Admiral podcast, and my friend Dan and I contribute to Sean's show once in a while. I enjoy reading your stuff, keep it up.

3:30pm... Players are on a break. Syracuse Chris Tsiprailidis and Nam Le have both been eliminated.

4:15pm... Tim Pham is out.

4:20pm... Time for another picture dump before I take a "smoke" break:

Vinnie Vinh


Chris from 21 Outs


Action at the World Poker Finals!


Smooth! Clean cut Andy Bloch


BJ from Card Player hard at work in press row


What is wrong with this picture?
(First person to figure it out wins a special prize!!)

4:40pm... Congrats to BJ (not BJ from Card Player) who won the special prize, a deckof WPT playing cards! Great job, buddy! Thanks for all your repsonses.

5:25pm... I chatted and hung out with Brandon Schaefer for the last 45 minutes. He's one of the coolest pros I met and even has been playing in my Saturdays with Dr. Pauly tournaments. He's not playing in this event but sweating his good buddy Carl Olsen when he wasn't playing upstairs in the poker room. Brandon and Carl went 1 and 2 last year at EPT Deauville. Anyway, Brandon said he wanted to play druknen donkey $2-4 poker later. I told him it sounds like fun.

5:30pm... Here are some recent bustouts: Clonie Gowen, Tex Barch, Victor Ramdin, and Fabrice Soulier. Clonie flopped a set of 9s against the Hilton Sisters. Unfortunately, her opponent caught a Queen on the river to knock her out.

5:35pm... Players are on a dinner break until around 6:30ish. Time to hit the bar. See ya later.

6:01pm... I just had a chat with Vinnie Vinh, who is one of my favorite players. Anyway, during the last level, Vinh folded a straight against Bill Gazes. Vinh had the bitch end with 5-7 and he folded after two check raises from Bill Gazes (on the turn and river), the second one for $7K. "He doesn't mess around with me," Vinh said. "I had to fold." Wow, talk about the Lay Down of the Day. The only hand that had Vinh beat was 10-7 and he was positive that's what Gazes had.

6:15pm... Here are the payouts! 783 entrants. Top 120 players win prize money.

1st place $2.142m + a $25K seat in the WPT Championships
2nd place $1.035m
3 $759K
4 $483K
5 $345K
6 $276K
7 $207K
8 $172.8K
9 $138K
10 $117.3K
11 $103.5K
12 $96.6K
13 $89.7K
14 $82.8K
15 $75.9K
16 $69K
17 $62.1K
18 $55.2K
19 $48.3K
20 $41.3K
21-25 $34.5K
26-30 $27.6K
31-35 $20.7K
36-40 $17.2K
41-50 $14K
51-70 $12K
71-120 $11K

7:30pm... I'm back from dinner break and I am sad to report that Rich "The Quiet Lion" Brodie has been eliminated. The players are on a 10 minute break with about 240 tables or roughly less than 240 players remaining. Ted Forrest and Men the Master are among the chipleaders.

8:15pm... I had an excellent conversation with Paul McKinney's daughter. She told me some awesome stories about her father icluding the fact that he had been playing poker since he was 10 and how he cleaned up in games when he was fighting in the Pacific theater during WWII.

8:25pm... Carl Olsen lost a huge pot when his aces were cracked by 6c-3c. The big blind defended and flopped an open ended straight draw on a board of 4-5-8 with two spades. He checked, Carl bet, and the big blind moved all in. Carl thought for a long time and called after he put the guy on a semi-bluff flush draw. Sadly, his opponent caught a 7 on the turn for a staright.

8:30pm... Jason Lester was just knocked out. And Men the Master lost some of his stack when he doubled up Chip Jett. Men had the Hilton Sisters and Chip flopped trip aces with A-K.

9:10pm... Greg Raymer, Vinny Vinh, and Andy Bloch have both been eliminated. Andy had A-Q and flopped a Queen, but Massoud Nikjouian had K-K to send Bloch to the rail. Raymer was busted by Amir Vahedi. Vinny Vinh was busted by Crolan Chinn.

9:15pm... Minneapolis Jim Meehan is on a rush! He was shortstacked with about $600 and moved up to over $10K. BJ called him the best shortstacked player he has ever seen. "Long way from six fuckin' hundred," Jim told BJ.

9:50pm... Paul McKinney doubled up with 6-6 against A-3. Paul Darden was busted.

10:12pm... Two Tales of A-Q vs. K-K. Gavin Smith was busted by Minh Nguyen when his A-Q lost to K-K. Jeff Lazzaris' K-K cracked David The Dragon Pham's A-Q.

10:15pm... I got invited by the skanky girls from Absolute Poker to a party upstairs in a suite. Since Blogger is under going maintenance for a few hours tonight and I won't be able to blog, I'm gonna bail and go drink. See ya guys tomorrow. For updates visit Card Player or Poker Wire!
posted by Pauly at 11/14/2005 12:40:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Circles and Poker

"If you don't want to get famous for drawing circles... then don't draw circles." - Trey Anastasio

I've spent the majority of the past 20 days avoiding poker even though I played it, wrote about it, made money through it, blogged about it, and even whored it. But for the most part, I was completely sick of poker. There was no specific reason. I started to spin out of control because I was completely lost inside. I couldn't escape from poker because everywhere I turned it was there and everywhere. I even hailed a taxi the other day and saw a Party Poker ad on the friggin' cab. I had one of those existentialist moments like, "How the fuck did I get here?"

My poker writing career has taken off especially in the print realm (I wrote the cover story for the current issue of Poker Player Newspaper and I have an article in the most recent issue of Poker Pro magazine). All of my poker and writing projects are flourishing. I've been running well at the tables. And some of the strongest friendships that I have today have been cultivated through poker. So why the hell did I have a bad taste in my mouth and a disdain for the game, concept, and notion of poker?

Too much of anything is a bad thing. That's the moral of this story. Stay fresh and take frequent breaks. Moderation is always the key to a healthy life.

My schedule through the end of the summer of 2006 is jam packed with poker. So I desperately needed a break to catch my breath. To throw out a sports analogy, this is halftime. Luckily Vegoose was scheduled just about the time I was headed for a nervous breakdown and ended up disappearing from my blogs for five weeks and resurfacing in brothel in Calcutta with a maxed out credit card, a poorly treated stab wound, and an unidentified STD.

Yeah, thank God for music and Vegoose. In many respects I'm more passionate about music than poker. I'm a failed rock star. When I was 18, I wanted to be the next Duane Allman or Jerry Garcia. In college I followed the Grateful Dead all over the country for 46 concerts. That's when I first experienced my love for the road and traveling from one city and town to the next. Without music I never would have seen America. And there's something invigorating about being 20 years-old, having $17 and a bag of mushrooms in your pocket, and hitching a ride to Florida from Bumblefuck, Alabama with a bunch of whacked out hippies from a Rainbow colony in Oregon, in order to see The Dead one last time before I had to get back to school for my Southern Politics final exam.

Following bands around on tour gave me the rare chance to combine two passions: traveling and music. Since college, I've made a half a dozen trips to New Orleans for Jazzfest and I also racked up 151 Phish shows (including 7 in Las Vegas, 6 epic shows in Japan, 2 in Canada, and 1 in Idaho), almost 100 Widespread Panic shows, and at least 50 or so Galactic concerts (almost 20 in New Orleans). In the last three weeks, I have been on a music binge and it's been sensational (Beck, Flaming Lips, Widespread Panic, Galactic, G'ovt Mule, Ween, and Trey Anastasio Band). I rediscovered a sincere passion of mine, especially seeing live music. I also reconnected with friends of mine who are also heavy into the music scene.

Right now, being a tournament reporter has afforded me the opportunity to combine traveling and poker. And everytime I get off a plane in a different city, I remind myself how lucky I am to get to do what I do. In a few hours I'm hitting the road again to drive up to Foxwoods casino to cover the World Poker Finals and catch another WPT final table. I needed a break away from myself for a few days to get perspective and to realize once again that I'm one of the lucky ones.

It seemed that just when I thought I was drawing dead I caught a one outer, and now I've been pushed the biggest pot of my life. I had to take a step away to see that.

During my mini-break I watched a lot of sports with Derek... football, hockey, and basketball. One of our favorite things to do together is watch our favorite NYC sports teams. Too bad the Knicks suck horribly right now but at least the Rangers are winning. And the Jets? The Jets are still the Jets.

I also spent some time rekindling a relationship with everyone's favorite malcontent elevator button heiress who has fled riot-torn France. As the peasants have siezed control of Paris and are currently beheading the royal family, she quietly settled back into the big city. We've always been on-and-off and trying our best to avoid defining our status. Our mutual friends will tell you it's certainly one of the weirdest relationships they've seen. It's not quite Sid & Nancy but somedays it comes close.

Nancy: I hate my fuckin' life.
Sid: This is just a rough patch. Things'll be much better when we get to America, I promise.
Nancy: We're in America. We've been here a week. New York is in America, you fuck.

I've always liked her more than I ever let on (I have a good poker/relationship face) and when she pressed me about it I did the typical male thing and acted like an aloof tough guy. Most recently we had an intense discussion about the future of us. Some of you knew that I was thinking about moving to Las Vegas in early 2006. I've been mulling over that decision for several weeks. Now that Briana is back in New York, there's that added extra incentive to stick around here in NYC.

"McFucker, you can't move to Vegas," she pleaded. "It will kill you."

The line from Peewee's Big Adventure came to mind, "I'm a loner Dottie, a rebel." As soon as I uttered it she began to cry. Crocodile tears too.

Was she bluffing? Was she being overly dramatic? Was she being honest? She didn't quite issue an ultimatum, but it was close. All I kept thinking was, "Could you have picked a worse time to have this talk? Especially because I think I've fallen in love with a lesbian."

It was like being in the early rounds of a tournament and someone putting you all in for your entire stack while you hold a good, but not great hand. Do you muck and return to fight another time? Or do you take your chances and try to double up?

And before anyone thinks I'm a total asshole, which I admittedly am, I'm not saying Briana is a good hand. She's a great hand. She's pocket Aces all the way. But if any of you saw me in Wil Wheaton's tournament on Thursday, you know how horribly I play A-A.

Anyway, there's no set time for me to make a decision. Right now I have work in addition to a book to finish. Those are my two highest priorities. In esscense, the decision has already been made. Just because a hot blonde waltzes back into my life doesn't mean I'm gonna throw away everything I worked hard to accomplish as a writer during the past decade and more specifically this past year. It's going to take a ton of time and emotional energy to make everything work out between us. I don't think I'm capable or willing to devote either.

Thank you World Poker Tour!

Lucky for me I'm off to Foxwoods where I can escape from this newly added drama. Now that I am back from my much needed break and having a tough time with my personal life, I feel ready for a huge poker binge again. I got my head on straight and I'm ready to head back to work and have tons of fun with poker. I'm skilled at blocking things out and for the next week I can jump into poker and writing. Plus I get to spend time with my buddy Senor and his wife in Rhode Island (where I'll be commuting to/from Foxwoods) and hang out with my "nephew" who just turned two. I promised to take him to Friendly's for a birthday sundae.

Like a character out of a Bob Dylan tune, it's time for me to hit the road and leave my lady problems behind. See ya at Foxwoods.
posted by Pauly at 11/13/2005 10:36:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Saturdays with Dr. Pauly Event #2: on_thg Shanks a Big Pirate

Editor's Note: To view the current iPod Leaderboard standings... click here.

It's was another brisk autumn Saturday afternoon in the big city and time to shake off that hangover to play a little poker. After catching one of my favorite New Orleans based bands in concert, I was up partying to the wee hours and my lackluster 77th place finish reflected upon that. One week after SirWaffle won Event #1 and began his glorious comeback, 93 devoted bloggers and readers gathered for Event #2 of the Saturdays with Dr. Pauly series. The top 9 players won prize money and the winner got a free copy of Phil Gordon's Little Green Book. Players actually set their alarms to insure that they would not miss the event. After all, an iPod is at stake. We had 66 players return from last week and they are all eligible for the iPod. Thanks again to everyone who played!

It was tough final table featuring two bloggers (Wes & Joe Speaker) who won 2005 WSOP seats along with on_thg, who might be the greatest (and most humble) tournament player in blogger history. Here are some highlights from his resume:

• Made more final tables in blogger events (WPBT and non-WPBT) than any other blogger in history
  
• Most career MTTs wins in blogger events
  
• Made consecutive final tables on the Saturdays with Dr. Pauly tour
• Currently sitting in 1st place on the iPod leaderboard
  
• Currently the career money leader on the Saturdays with Dr. Pauly tour
• At the last WPBT points leader update, on_thg was in first place
  
• Finished 2nd to Russell Fox in the WPBT WSOP Satellite #2
  

I must say that his numbers are pretty impressive. Keep up the excellent work, on_thg!

Here's some random things from my notes:

1:03pm... I didn't get enough time to write down everyone who sat at my first table. I was moved fairly quickly to Sarah Bellum's table. I know BG started at my initial table. Derek was at a table with Wes, but CJ, the Poker Nerd, and Brandon Schaefer were all sitting out at the table. Derek joked that he would have been at the TV table had those guys actually showed up!

1:04pm... Change100 aka Pot Committed was the first player busted. She won the "boobie prize" which was a free roll into next week's event! Congrats... I transfered you $11 to your Poker Stars account.

1:23pm... Derek was busted in 86th place when his Hiltons ran into Wes' K-K. Not only did Wes flop a King, but he also rivered quads! Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

1:30pm... I was out in 77th place when my 10-10 ran into A-J. AcesFull2221 ended up busting me and won the bounty this week. Congrats!

1:32pm... StB's A-A held up against Frankl's K-K.

1:34pm... Maudie turned a straight with A-Q but she happened to run into StB's flopped boat. She was out in 75th place.

1:40pm... I started playing several cash games; 3/6 on Full Tilt with Boy Genius, Chad, Maudie, and Spaceman; $25 NL with Jaxia on FT; and micro limit NL on Poker Stars with Rod and Joanne and a few readers.

3:35pm... The final table began and poor Philly was the bubble boy this week. Wes was the chipleader with 37K and Joe Speaker sat in second with 23K. Everyone who made the final table, made the money. Congrats to all the money winners.

The Final Table:
Seat 1: Joe Speaker (Moreno Valley)
Seat 2: Systems2005 (Strafford)
Seat 3: on_thg (Grand Haven, MI)
Seat 4: Kelli1977 (Anderson)
Seat 5: Columbo777 (Farmington Hills)
Seat 6: Rick Lang (Chicago)
Seat 7: Wyndigo (Victoria)
Seat 8: Donegal aka Chad (Minneapolis)
Seat 9: a10419 aka Wes aka Big Pirate (West Columbia) = chipleader

Welcome to the final table!!

3:39pm... Columbo was eliminated by on_thg in 9th place.

3:42pm... Systems2005 was eliminated in 8th place by Wyndigo when 6-6 lost to A-9 via an ace on the river.

3:43pm... Chad's K-Q was busted in 7th place when Wyndigo's A-4 held up.

3:44pm... Rick Lang finished in 6th place when his 2-2 lost to a flopped flush by Wyndigo's Qc-9c.

3:47pm... on_thg was shortstacked and doubled up against Wyndgio. His 7-7 won a coinflip against AQ.

3:50pm... Wes dropped the Hammer against Wyndigo and doubled up against A-10s. The flop was 10-7-x and Wes caught trips 7s on the turn to double up. He had 67K and was the new chipleader after that hand.

3:59pm... Kelli1977 took 5th. A-K lost to on_thg's 3-3.

4:00pm... Wyndigo's K-7s was knocked out in 4th place by Wes' A-4s.

4:04pm... In the hand of the tournament, on_thg tripled up when he flopped a set with K-K. He moved into the chiplead and never looked back.

4:06pm... Joe Speaker lost a chunk of his stack when his K-J lost to Wes' Big Slick.

4:07pm... on_thg busted Joe Speaker in 3rd place. Joe was leading preflop with A-3 against Q-J, but on_thg caught a Queen in the river to send Joe Speaker to the rail in 3rd place.


The Last Hand: The Pirate walks the plank
4:08pm... On the winning hand of the tournament, Wes and K-7 ran into on_thg's pocket Aces! Congrats to Wes for second and to on_thg for first place!!

Saturdays with Dr. Pauly #1 (Tourny #14328904) Money Winners:
1: on_thg (Grand Haven), $279.00 (30%)
2: a104l9 (West Columbia), $186.00 (20%)
3: JoeSpeaker (Moreno Valley), $111.60 (12%)
4: Wyndigo (Victoria), $93.00 (10%)
5: Kelli1977 (Anderson), $74.40 (8%)
6: RickLang (Chicago), $60.45 (6.50%)
7: Donegal (Minneapolis), $51.15 (5.50%)
8: Systems2005 (Strafford), $41.85 (4.50%)
9: Columbo777 (Farmington Hills), $32.55 (3.50%)

First Place Bonus (Phil Gordon book): on_thg
Dr. Pauly Bounty Winner (iTunes gift card): AcesFull2221
Boobie Prize (freeroll into Event #3): PotCommitted

93 players
Total Prize Pool: $930.00
Buy-In: $10 + 1
Tournament started @ 13:00:00 (ET)
Tournament finished @ 16:08:00 (ET)

Winner of Saturdays with Dr. Pauly event #2: on_thg
See everyone next Saturday for Event #3.
posted by Pauly at 11/12/2005 04:36:00 PM | Permalink |

 
iPod Leaderboard Update

Thanks to Easy Cure for the help with compiling the stats. Only 66 of you played last week and this week. You are the lucky 66 who are eligible for the iPod. Yes, it looks like on_thg has taken over first place.

iPod Leaderboard Top 10 (thru 11.12.05):
1. On_Thg 8-1 9
2. Philly63367 12-10 22
2. Gary634 2-20 22
4. Bobby Bracelet 3-25 28
5. Jen Leo 10-24 34
6. EasyCure 27-13 40
7. TML10023 29-17 46
8. CJ 5-44 49
9. Shane "Big Pimpin" Nickerson 24-29 53
10. Wyndigo 52-4 56

The Rest:
11. SarahBellum 23-34 57
11. Blink182 20-37 57
13. KevinHo 33-26 59
13. Sir Waffle 1-58 59
13. Drizz 19-40 59
16. Maureen73 18-42 60
17. Presdlee 7-56 63
18. Spaceman 11-54 65
19. StB 38-28 66
20. Mattazuma 51-16 67
21. Human Head 6-62 68
21. Joanne 25-43 68
23. RickLang 63-6 69
23. Amadeus99 57-12 69
25. Columbo 62-9 71
26. Chad-arama 67-7 74
27. Gracie 58-19 77
27. Timinator 31-46 77
27. SgtDanko 9-68 77
30. JoeSpeaker 76-3 79
31. Whaaaa? 47-33 80
32. Brandon Schaefer 34-47 81
33. Klopzi 64-18 82
33. Frankl66 22-60 82
33. Katitude 4-78 82
36. Acerbicone 60-30 90
36. Arcon 49-41 90
38. WillytheWise 40-51 91
39. Wes Big Pirate 91-2 93
39. Skitchorama 48-45 93
39. Barr-B2 13-80 93
42. Chev9 68-27 95
42. BG 16-79 95
44. Maudie 21-75 96
45. Mofo888 14-87 101
46. Pauly 26-77 103
47. dankhank 54-52 106
47. Seadog46 41-65 106
49. Slimerface 93-15 108
50. Iphist 35-74 109
51. John1984 46-64 110
52. acture 65-48 113
53. Bddide 66-49 115
54. Rod 86-31 117
54. Alan 42-75 117
56. Peanut56 70-50 120
57. Boobie Lover 50-71 121
58. ObieVIP 97-32 129
59. Mourn 98-35 133
60. John Shecky Caldwell 82-55 137
60. The Poker Nerd 71-66 137
62. Derek 53-86 139
63. LifesaGrind 73 73 146
64. BobBlahBlah 83-84 167
64. Change100 74-93 167
66. April98 92-92 184

Overall Prizes:
1st place: iPod Nano
2nd place: The Big Lebowski DVD
3rd place: Daddy calls you on Christmas!
Last Place: Special Boobie Prize!

posted by Pauly at 11/12/2005 04:20:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Reminder: Saturdays with Dr. Pauly

Saturdays with Dr. Pauly
Poker Stars
$10 + 1 NL
Saturday, November 12th
1pm EST
Password = hiltons
Tournament #14328904 (look under the private tournament tab)

• Bust me and win a $15 iTunes gift card.
• Saturday's winner gets a copy of Phil Gordon's Little Green Book.
• Defending champ = Sir Waffle
• iPod Leaderboard = click here

If you played last week, you must play in this event to still be eligible for the iPod!

Also, Wil Wheaton has his Friday night tourney, tonight at 7pm. His password is monkey. I won't be able to play because I'm going to see Galactic. Have fun everyone. See ya tomorrow.
posted by Pauly at 11/11/2005 08:41:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Super Monday, Online Poker Stud Boys, and Vacation Time

And I keep waiting for the time when I can finally say,
That "this has all been wonderful but now I'm on my way."
But when I think it's time to leave it all behind
I try to find a way to, but there's nothing I can say to make it stop - Phish

I played in the $150 Super Monday on Party Poker and talked Iggy into playing in it with me. I won my entry on Saturday via a $9 satellite. The prize pool was well over $200K with 1344 entrants. First place would win $42K. Not too bad for a non-rebuy tournament. As I told Iggy, most Americans don't make $42K in a year, and Party Poker is giving that away for first place.

Nothing happened for me in the first level. I folded while I played a $3/6 table trying to hit the 3 Billionth hand bonus, which passed me by. Iggy won two monster pots early on. With the Hilton Sisters he cracked K-K and busted A-Q when A-Q-x flopped. Unreal. Later on with A-J he flopped two pair against Q-10 who flopped a Broadway straight. Another ace fell to give Iggy a boat and he was one of the early chipleaders.

Iggy would eventually get busted in 637th place. His Hiltons ran into pocket Kings and he was crippled. I was eliminated in 651st place when 4-4 lost a race to K-Q. Although there are some excellent tournament players in those higher buy-in events, like ZeeJustin, for the most part there is still a decent amount of nimrods to pick on.

Stud Boys

Afterwards, I played a $5 Stud tourney with GMoney on Party Poker. He ended up getting busted out early 545 out of 632. I was short stacked most of the tourney and played super tight until Level 5 when the levels were 100/200. I doubled up on a flush and then ended up catching great door cards. Since my table was full of short stacks, when I completed with my ace showing, people actually folded. I picked up a few small pots and added to my stack and busted two guys in the process. My stack went from 800 to 4000 in ten minutes and I was by far the table chipleader. That's when the suckouts started coming. Even with trips showing one guy chased a straight and ended up with a backdoor flush. Runner-runner-runner. I ended up finishing 203 out of 632.

The other night I played in a $7K guaranteed Seven-card Stud tourney on Party Poker. I took 45th out of 342 and just missed the money by a few spots. I had rolled up aces cracked by a guy who caught runner-runner quads on me. If you can't handle bad river beats and suckouts in Hold'em then don't play Stud. So many suckouts.

Oh well. I had been running well in tournaments especially on Party Poker and I made the decision to make an effort to play in 4 or 5 a week. That's nearly impossible with my crazy schedule. During a conversation with Double As a few weeks ago, he talked me into playing one big tournament a week ($150 or more buy-in). I need to grind it out more during the week at the cash game tables to generate the tournament buy-in fees and I'm willing to put more hours in to do that. So now I'm trying to fleece the fish in order to pay for my impending expensive tournament habit.

The lovely Jaxia called me on her way home from a live tournament. She was excited because it was her first big cash after she took down a second place finish. Those Dallas tournaments aren't easy either. Nice job, Jax! Talk about a perfect way to pad your bankroll for Vegas. (Oh, and she's also running a contest on her regular blog where you could win the chance to see her boobies.)

Vacation Time

Now some bad news for all you hard core Pauly-junkies. I'm going to take a few days off from blogging. I'm losing the enthusiasm to blog everyday and I'm starting to lose the passion to write about poker every day, which is not good because that's what pays the bills. I need some more time away so I can get refreshed. The 5 day bender in Las Vegas was great, but I need a few sober days away from the freelance and professional grind. I have two concerts to see this week (Trey tonight and Galactic on Friday) and everyone's favorite malcontent elevator button heiress is back home in NYC a little earlier that expected. Anyway, looks like I'll be spending some time with her this week admiring the foliage during leisurely strolls through Central Park. Briana had been living in France and unless you have your head in your ass, there's a civil war breaking out in cities and towns all over France. With riots going on everyday for the past two weeks, you start to get that impression that France is gonna be asking for our help pretty soon. C'est la guerre.

I also want to take a few days and crank out a few major sections to my Las Vegas book. I can't seem to find more than two hours in a row to do that. I wanna get a few 10-12 hour intense writing sessions done, like I used to undertake during previous atempts at writing novels or screenplays.

On Sunday, I drive up to Rhode Island and will be at Foxwoods starting Monday all the way through Friday. I'll be doing a ton of blogging/writing/picture taking while covering the WPT event and will try to find some time to play some $5/10 Kill in the poker room.

See ya on Saturday on Poker Stars! I have to skip Wil Wheaton's friday tournament and I'll be back here with an update on Sunday for the iPod Leaderboard and the Saturday's with Dr. Pauly event. Don't forget... this event is open to readers and bloggers. If you played last week, you must play this week to maintain your eligibility for the iPod.

Saturdays with Dr. Pauly
Poker Stars
$10 + 1 NL
Saturday, November 12th
1pm EST
Password = hiltons
Tournament #14328904

posted by Pauly at 11/08/2005 12:46:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Full Tilt Bloggers Shootout #1, Strip Club Advice, and Fear and Loathing at Vegoose

Let's start off with some pimpage of my personal writing. You can head over to the Tao of Pauly to read about my Vegoose Day 2 recap called Fear and Loathing at Vegoose. Here's a bit:

I also found myself walking up to slutty nurses and fondling them. Only at a musical festival in Las Vegas can I get away with groping women, especially when they are in skimpy outfits and have been rolling on ecstasy for two straight days. For a brief moment, I knew what Frank Sinatra must have felt like.

It's the third installment in a series of four covering the insane music festival I attended in Las Vegas last weekend. I also included a ton of pictures from the Flaming Lips show. I hope to have my Halloween write up posted later today. Oh... I have a lead on an extra Trey Anastasio Band ticket for this Tuesday at Roseland Ballroom here in NYC. My friend has an extra. Anyone Phisheads interested in buying her ticket? Shoot me an email.

*****

Well my Full Tilt WPBT Shootout recap is short and sweet. I had to gut through some connection issues and kept timing out. I finished 28 out of 31 when CJ flopped trips with the Jack Hammer against my J-10. Oh well. At least I got to drop the Hammer on my brother. This reminded me of the early days of the first blogger events, when we used to host them on a different site every month, and we could barley fill 3 tables worth of bloggers! Anyway, here's who was at my starting table:

Moving on...

I've been getting a ton of emails from people asking me advice about Las Vegas strip clubs. My posts covering random existentialist conversations that I've had with strippers attracted a lot of attention and now all of a sudden I'm considered a stripper guru.

When I attend college over a decade ago, I used to frequent the greater Atlanta strip clubs like Cheetah, the Gold Club, 24K, and even the infamous Claremont Lounge. Anyone could go to a chic strip club with women that resembled models and the dancers fulfilled every one of your erotic fantasies. It takes courage and imagination to show up at titty bar on the other side of the tracks. The first time I went to the Claremont Lounge, I killed a bottle of Jagermiester with a couple of my fraternity brothers inside of an hour. We rolled up and parked next to a pickup truck with a gun rack and a shot out back window. The repugnant strippers all had C-section scars and they served you cans of beer that were a good five or six years old. The smoke-filled club was poorly lit and smelled like spoiled lettuce and a used tampon, with cum stains splattered all over the walls and chairs. As I sheepishly made my way up to the stage to sit down in front of a pregnant stripper humping a wiffle ball bat, I realized that I had accidentily wandered into the doleful place where strippers go to die.

I grew out of my stripper phase when college ended. Sure I've had random moments in the late 1990s when I've hit up a bunch in Mexico, LA, Las Vegas, NYC, Dallas, and Portland. I even had an excursion in Iceland with Senor and some of those hijinks I'm saving for a future book. I mean one second the champagne bottle was in my hands, and the next moment the entire thing was inside of her. Talk about talent. She didn't even use her hands.

Anyway, I got an email from a reader named Ben earlier this week. Here's a bit of what he wrote:

Dear Dr. Pauly,

Some friends and I are spending 3 days in Vegas on our way home from a work conference at the end of next week. None of us are 1st timers to Vegas, but none of us have ever been to a strip club there either. We're going to on the strip all 3 nights. Do you have a suggestion for the strip club destination we'll want to hit while we're there? We're looking for the best place we can find not far from the strip, specificially the Luxor end.

Thanks, Ben

And here's my response.

Hey Ben,

OK here's the deal on strip clubs... taxi drivers and limo guys get paid a commission on where they take you, so if you ask them to recommend a place... it will be the one that pays the best referrals. So try to get an idea where you want to go before you get in a cab. I do not have a favorite place. As my buddy Senor explains, your strip club experience all depends on the girls... if you meet one special one all night, it makes it worth your time and money.

Olympic Gardens has women all over the place. It's $30 to get in though but there is some good talent there. They actually spend time with you chatting which I like. It's close to the Stratosphere.

Spearmint Rhino is one of the best in Las Vegas and will be super crowded. $20 cover the last time I went. The girls are amazing there but they definitely churn out the lap dances. You don't get extra special attention like at other places. Get there early to get a good spot.

I like Crazy Horse Too.... the girls are OK and some are out right skanky. $20 cover when I went.

Cheetah costs $10 to get in. It's a dump but the chicks there are super skanky.

Sapphire is huge, the biggest in Vegas. The girls there were hot but again it was very professional. No chit chat... all business... they grind for one song and bail, then onto the next guy.

Sin is free if you provide your own transportation.

I was shocked to find out that Olympic Garden raised their cover/door price to $30 from $20. I think that the others are also $20 as well, but you never know. Sometimes they jack up the prices on the weekends.

Some Las Vegas strip club tips:
1. Offer to buy a girl a drink, she might stay longer and sit on your lap.
2. Try to get a deal like 3 lap dances for the price of 2.
3. Never under any circumstances go to the VIP room.
4. Never call her a stripper. Use the term "dancer."
5. Only take enough money with you that you are willing to spend.
6. Don't fall in love. You cannot and will not rescue a stripper from a life of pole dancing. She has to do that herself.

And then there's my infamous... Top 5 Lines I Say to Strippers:
1. "You're a true artist."
2. "I love your shoes."
3. "You have amazing skin. So smooth and so silky."
4. "You're the most beautiful dancer here."
5. "You're a deadly combination: smart and hot."

You can't say more than 2 at a time to a stripper, er dancer. And never use a line more than once every thirty minutes.

HAVE FUN! One last thing, make sure you drink a ton before you go to a strip club. Drinks can be pricey there.

Ok that's it for now. I have a shitload of freelance assignments due this week and I'm going to be writing all day. Later tonight, I'll be playing in the $150 Super Monday at 9pm EST on Party Poker. So stop by and say hello if you ain't busy.
posted by Pauly at 11/07/2005 02:13:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Saturdays with Dr. Pauly #1: The Sir Waffle House Rules

"Wow! What a week. Bubble in Wil, Take 3rd in the 180 person SNG and first place in a Blogger event! WOO HOO! It was a lot of fun man!! Thanks for having it." - SirFWalgman

Sir Waffle reminds me of a wayward character out of a Shakespearean tragedy or a somber protagonist out of a Raymond Carver short story. His poker game is erratic and his bankroll is as unstable as the Sudanese Stock Market. If you don't know the story of Sir Waffle, you should take a moment and dig through his archives. He was one of the regulars who played on those insane NL blogger tables on Party Poker with a bunch of us almost every night around a year ago. At the same time, Sir Waffle speaks of himself in blunt terms on his blog. He's also been extremely open with his family problems. When he loses, he doesn't hide and fade away like most bloggers do. He tells you how much he lost and how it happened, like one night when he lost his entire bankroll. One moment he's making the final table in a huge MTT and the next he's tilting his winnings away in a game he has no business playing in. But that's the charm of Sir Waffle. The guy always bounces back. I had to stop reading him for a while. It was simply too painful for me to keep following him on a downward spiral. He'd disappear for stretches of time and resurface every few months.

Here's an excerpt from Sir Waffle's blog:

Poker is like the most abusive relationship you could possibly have. One day she is kissing you and giving you that sweet loving. The next day she kicks you in the balls and leaves you in the gutter to die. She is so attractive that you cannot help but to come back to her. Her melodic voice and shapely curves draw you back into her sweet embrace. You never know which lady your going to get.

Well Sir Waffle is back for a while. After bubbling out of Wil Wheaton's Poker Stars tournament on Friday via a badbeat from Iggy, he had to borrow a buy-in to another tournament where he cashed and took 3rd. His very next effort was Saturdays with Dr. Pauly where he went on to win despite a harsh chorus of witty banter from his fellow bloggers who both jeered and cheered him on his way to a final table and an eventually win. Sir Waffle came from behind and scooped 4 out of the 5 last hands against Gary 634 for the victory. He's the first weekly Saturdays with Dr. Pauly champion and sits a top the iPod Leaderboard. He also picked up a free copy of Phil Gordon's Little Green Book.

98 bloggers and readers gathered for the first of four Saturday tournaments on Poker Stars. The prize pool was $980 and the first 9 places paid. First place would win $294 and the Phil Gordon Book.

Before I begin, I have to add that at the same time as the Poker Stars event, I was playing a MTT satellite on Party Poker. 110 players entered. I jumped out to a massive chiplead and for the duration of the entire tournament, I never slipped below 4th or 5th place in chips. That's never happened to me before. I also knew that was a bad omen for me... I used up all my card mojo on Party Poker!

Here's some highlights from my notes:

12:59pm... On Party Poker, I was 4th out of 19 with two tables remaining.

1:00pm... Here's my starting table:

Seat 1: MccreadJ
Seat 2: EasyCure
Seat 3: BG
Seat 4: Acture
Seat 5: Timinator
Seat 6: Pauly
Seat 7: Peanut56
Seat 8: Buffalo66
Seat 9: Poker Nerd

The Poker Nerd was busy so he posted and folded the entire tourney. He finished in 72nd place.

1:03pm... Mourn was the first layer eliminated when he ran into a set from BG. Mourn won the unannounced Boobie Prize. I bought him into the next Saturday's tournament for free.

1:05pm... Otis stopped by to say hello. Obie was knocked out.

1:06pm... I dropped the Hammer.

1:17pm... On Party Poker, I found A-A and I busted 6-6 and A-Qs. I was the chipleader with 12 players remaining.

1:19pm.. Both Daddy and Poker Prof were busted out, followed by April98 and the Big Pirate. Argggggh!

1:24pm... With 6-6, I flopped a set. I got 2K and I'm 28/87.

1:25pm... On Party Poker, I made the final table and was second out of 10 in chips.

1:31pm... AlCantHang dropped the Hammer.

1:46pm... On Party Poker, I flopped a set with 4-4 and busted a guy who had 7-7. He was out in 4th and I was 2nd in chips out of 3.

1:50pm... Sarah Bellum was moved to my table.

1:51pm... On Party Poker, I was heads up and my QJs lost to K-8. I flopped a Queen, but he rivered a King, that fucking assmuchingcockweasel! I took 2nd place and won a seat in Super Monday NL event. In consecutive tournaments, I placed 2/110 and 6/117. I was on a roll.

1:54pm... I won a coinflip against Nepvuel when my 8-8 held up against A-Q. I moved into 19th place out of 60 with T3105.

2:01pm... At the break, Gary634 held the chiplead with 6K. I was 19th with 58 remaining and my stack hovered around 3200.

2:10pm... The Human Head was moved to my table. He saw me flop a set with 2-2. Quack fuckin' quack.

2:11pm... Sir Waffle and Iggy moved to my table. Here's the updated lineup for the unofficial TV table that was aired exclusively on Norwegian TV:

Seat 1: Sir Waffle
Seat 2: Easy Cure
Seat 3: BG
Seat 4: Sarah Bellum
Seat 5: Timinator
Seat 6: Pauly
Seat 7: Human Head
Seat 8: Buffalo 66
Seat 9: Iggy

2:12pm... Grubby was knocked out in 55th place. If you busted "lostchangi" please contact Grubby so he can tell you how to collect his bounty!

2:13pm... Derek was knocked out.

2:14pm... Jen Leo moved into the chiplead with T8600.

2:16pm... I won a pot with bottom pair against Sir Waffle, who missed a straight draw.

2:23pm... I was crippled when I ran into Sir Waffle. He my blind and I called with A-6. I flopped top pair with a 6-4-2 board. I bet, he raised, and I moved all in. He showed 10-10. I had a paltry T1120 left.

2:33pm... Spaceman dropped the Hammer and cracked AlCantHang's Kournikova. I dropped to 35th out of 36 remaining players and was on life support. I started trolling for a cash game table.

2:34pm... Iggy and his A7s was busted by SirWaffle's A-K. Waffle got Iggy back from the night before.

2:35pm... I picked up a few pots with A-2 and 6-2o. Im the battle of the blinds, I flopped second pair in the big blind and moved all in. Timinator had a straight draw and called. He missed and doubled me up. I moved into 19th place with 31 left.

2:41pm... Jen Leo, Sir Waffle, and CJ were the Top 3 in chips.

2:46pm... After stealing a few pots to just stay alive, I still slipped to 23rd out of 27.

2:49pm... I moved all in from the big blind on a re-steal with Q-8. I lost to A-5 in the LB and Presdlee from Baltimore won the bounty. Congrats! I took 26th place.

3:15pm... The final two tables began play with Gary634 moving back into the chiplead.

4:20pm... Bobby Bracelet and Katitude battled back and forth for a few hands, before Bobby busted her.

4:26pm... The Final Table is seated.


The Final Table
4:33pm... Sir Waffle's Hiltons crippled Bobby Bracelet.

4:35pm... Bobby Bracelet ran into Aces and was kocked out on 3rd place. It was heads up between Sir Waffle (65K) and Gary634 (81K).

4:42pm... Gary634 won a few pots but SirWaffle got aggressive and picked up 4 out of the last 5 pots for the win. On the final hand, Gary634 bluffed at a flop of J-8-4 with A-6. Sir Waffle call with A-8, and it held up for the victory. Congrats dude! Also, Gary634 played a great game and was one of the chipleaders since the first level. Well done.

Saturdays with Dr. Pauly #1 (Tourny #14328889) Money Winners:
1: SirFWALGMan (Dover), $294.00 (30%)
2: gary634 (Jackson), $196.00 (20%)
3: Bobby Bracelet (Farmington Hills), $117.60 (12%)
4: Katitude (Toronto), $98.00 (10%)
5: CJ (Lafayette), $78.40 (8%)
6: HUMAN HEAD (Wichita), $63.70 (6.50%)
7: presdlee (Baltimore), $53.90 (5.50%)
8: on_thg (Grand Haven), $44.10 (4.50%)
9: SGTdanko (Schaumburg), $34.30 (3.50%)

98 players
Total Prize Pool: $980.00
Buy-In: $10 + 1
Tournament started @ 13:00:00 (ET)
Tournament finished @ 16:42:05 (ET)

See everyone next Saturday at 1pm on Poker Stars for Event #2! The password = hiltons.

We had an awesome turnout... 98 players! Pretty cool for a Saturday. Thanks to Poker Stars for setting this up! Thanks to all who played and woke up super early on the Left Coast just to make it. I'm honored. Thanks to Brandon Schaefer for playing too! Glad he could make it and congrats to him on winning the $250K event on Paradise later in the day!

Special thanks to Iggy, who set his alarm clock to insure he didn't miss the tourney. You rule, dude.

The Leaderboard standings can be found below. See ya next week.
posted by Pauly at 11/06/2005 12:30:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Leaderboard - Saturdays with Dr. Pauly

Your current point total is your place finish. The lowest point total wins. Here are the 98 players eligible for the iPod.

iPod Leaderboard
1 Sir Waffle
2 Gary634
3 Bobby Bracelet
4 Katitude
5 CJ
6 Human Head
7 Presdlee
8 On_Thg
9 SgtDanko
10 Jen Leo
11 Spaceman
12 Philly63367
13 Barr-B2
14 Mofo888
15 Akatul
16 BG
17 Buffalo66
18 Maureen73
19 Drizz
20 Blink182
21 Maudie
22 Frankl66
23 SarahBellum
24 Shane Big Pimpin Nickerson
25 Joanne
26 Pauly
27 EasyCure
28 PatrickPKT
29 TML10023
30 BadBlood
31 Timinator
32 SoxLover
33 KevinHo
34 Brandon Schaefer
35 Iphist
36 Iggy
37 AlCantHang
38 StB
39 Crazfn
40 WIllytheWise
41 Seadog46
42 Curtis Special K
43 A-Oreo-God
44 Darval
45 Alan
46 John1984
47 Whaaaa?
48 Skitchorama
49 Arcon
50 Boobie Lover
51 Mattazuma
52 Wyndigo
53 Derek
54 dankhank
55 Swiss Turtle
56 Grubby
57 Amadeus99
58 Gracie
59 MccreadJ
60 Acerbicone
61 Nepvuer
62 Columbo
63 RickLang
64 Klopzi
65 acture
66 Bddide
67 CHAD
68 Chev9
69 CawtBluffin
70 Peanut56
71 The Poker Nerd
72 Weak_Player
73 LifesaGrind
74 Change100
75 High on Poker
76 JoeSpeaker
77 RicoM
78 RawMustard
79 Da5ID
80 TeeDub
81 Kochun88
82 John Shecky Caldwell
83 BobBlahBlah
84 PYITE_NH
85 Lefty
86 Rod
87 kajagugu
88 bailinglan
89 TramuaPoker
90 phunkedup
91 Wes Big Pirate
92 April98
93 Slimerface
94 Daddy
95 Prof
96 MrHutz
97 ObieVIP
98 Mourn

Last updated on 11.6.05

posted by Pauly at 11/06/2005 12:03:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Sir Waffle Wins First Saturdays with Dr. Pauly Event!!


Congrats to SirFwalgman!
I'm working on the recap. Post is pending... probably will be up Sunday morning. Stay tuned. The working title is.... The Sir Waffle House Rules.
posted by Pauly at 11/05/2005 04:20:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Sitting at a Final Table in a Wil Wheaton Private Tournament

First of all thanks to Wil Wheaton for setting up these Friday night events on Poker Stars. Tons of fun. Congrats to Alan who won and Iggy who came in second. Last week G-Rob and Daddy went heads up. Always cool to see bloggers representin' at the final table.

I took 6th place and at one point I held the chip lead. Sir Waffle came from behind after been short stacked early and he survived the first break, which netted me a cool prop bet. Thanks Sir Waffle. And for all you newbies out there... I get credit for dubbing SirFWALGMAN as Sir Waffle, which is a nickname I gave him during our blogger games on Party Poker last year.

Wil live blogged the event on Card Squad. Take a peek. 127 players played. Top 18 won prize money.

Here's my recap.

7:00pm... My starting table:

Seat 1: Murmur12
Seat 3: Pokahbear
Seat 4: Chrisowns
Seat 5: Pauly
Seat 6: BDidde
Seat 7: Ackbleh
Seat 8: BDR1968
Seat 9: Maudie

7:03pm... I had AA and doubled up against JJ. Then I got moved tables.

7:12pm... Mellon101 dropped the Hammer!

7:19pm... EvaCanHang got moved to my table.

7:20pm... I won a big hand against Eva with AQ. I had almost 3K.

7:22pm... Mellon101 dropped the Hammer... again.

7:25... I was 10th out of 109 with T3070.

7:27pm... I won another pot against Eva when my K9s beat out her busted straight draw.

7:29pm... Gracie was moved to Derek's table.

7:38pm... Noteable Bustouts: StB (125), MVilla888 (123), April98 (109), GRob (104), SarahBellum (102), Shane "Big Pimpin" Nickerson (99), EvaCanHang (96).

7:42pm... With 4-4, I flopped a set with an ace on the flop. I busted someone who had A-J. I moved into 5th place with 88 players remaining and a stack just below $5K.

7:43pm... Maudie was out in 88 and Gracie followed in 86th place.

7:44pm... KyHunny dropped the Hammer twice inside of an orbit.

8:00pm... Just before the break, The Poker Prof was sucked out on by SoxLover when he caugth a two outer. Ouch. Prof finished in 71st place. At the break, I was 12th out of 68 with T4475 and I won the SirWaffle prop bet.

8:15pm... Chad busted out in 66th and Joanne was eliminated in 64th place.

8:24pm... I dropped the Jack Hammer at my table. I was 13/55.

8:25pm... VegasGreg got Quad 6s at my table.

8:30pm... Derek was eliminated when he moved all in with a short stack and 7-7. Unlucky for him 8-8 and Q-Q both called! He finished in 48th place.

8:32pm... Wil was moved to my table. With him came a flock of railbirds and the start of the most overheard comment of the night... "This looks like the TV table." My favroite comment was from Sloshr, who said, "I know who Pauly is, but who the hell is Wil Wheaton?" To which Wil replied, "I was in Star Wars."

8:39pm... As soon as the antes kicked in, I shifted gears and started picking up small pots. I moved up to 8th out of 42 and had a stack around T6100.

8:44pm... Wes the Big Arrrggggghhhhh Pirate was moved to my table and he promptly busted a player with K-K when he had A-A. Argggghhhh! He then had 10K in chips.

8:55pm... I won a pot with A-Q and had about T7800.

8:56pm... Taking a move out of Derek's playbook, I limped with the Hammer and took down a pot on the flop when a 7 fell. I was 5th out of 29 with T9600.

9:05pm... At the break, I was 6th out of 26 with T8175. SirWaffle was 3rd in chips.

9:14pm... I was still at Wil and Wes' table and developed a maniac image. I was stealing a lot of blinds and antes, although I was getting some juiced hands. I was hoping I'd get called. I found A-K at the cutoff and raised. Someone with A-8 thought I wa m aking a move and called. I was ahead when an ace flopped, but the turn gave him an open ended straight draw. My hand held up and I had 19K in chips. I typed in the chat, "I was sweating like a junkie in rehab."

9:23pm... Wil had been getting irked that I was stealing his blinds. I found JJ on the button and knew I was gonna get paid off. I raised a small amount and Wil went over the top of me with a middle ace. I called and he flopped an ace. I doubled Wil up. I wrote in the chat, "Make sure you blog it was a bad beat blog boy!" I was so close to getting next week's tournament named the "Dr. Pauly Invitational!"

9:26pm... I was all in preflop with the Hilton Sisters against A-K. Again, an ace flopped, but I caught running hearts to fill in a four flush. River justice. Karmic payback? I moved into second place out of 18.

9:34pm... In the hand of the tournament and possibly the bad beat of the day, Iggy and Sir Waffle went heads up when they both had Top 10 stacks. With 10-10, Iggy flopped a set against Sir Waffle's A-A K-K. Ouch. Sir Waffle bubbled out and Iggy had a huge chip lead once we reached the money.

9:39pm... Wil's 8-8 lost to Toby039's J-10. Skecthy call from Toby. When he asked Wil if he wona bounty, Wil joked, "Yeah you win a book on How not to call all ins with J-10o."

9:40pm... Wil called my cellphone to apolgize about the A-8 vs my J-J. He tells me to go on and win it all.

9:43pm... 2 out of 10th as we reach the final table bubble.

9:45pm... I made the final table with 19K! Here's who else made it:

Seat 1: RAH2 (Oslo)
Seat 2: maureen73 (Minneapolis)
Seat 3: torgeauxSA (Fairfax)
Seat 4: PhoebusX (Princeton)
Seat 5: DrPauly (New York)
Seat 6: heffmike (Fairfax)
Seat 7: Iggy (cincinnati) = CHIPLEADER
Seat 8: Alan (Santa Barbara)
Seat 9: Toby039 (Nepean)

10:00pm... I got cold decked at the final table. Whenever I wanted to make amove, someone beat me to it and moved all in in front of me.

10:01pm... I found A-A in the big blind and doubled up against 5-5. I was 2/8 with 40K.

10:15pm... At the break I ws 2/7. Iggy was the chipleader. Alan was 3rd.

10:23pm... I tried to make a steal with Q-2. Iggy moved over the top of me from the BB. I folded. I almost called. He had Q-4. I lost a huge chunk of my stack.

10:24pm... I moved all in with 3-3 against 6-6 ad had just 124 in chips. I 4x up on the next hand and was out in 6th place.

Iggy donked off most of his chips to Alan who came from behind to win Wil's tourney. Congrats to Alan and thanks again to Wil!


Congrats to Alan from Geek and Proud!!
posted by Pauly at 11/05/2005 11:55:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Saturdays with Dr. Pauly: A Reminder

Saturdays with Dr. Pauly on Poker Stars
Saturday 11.5.05 @ 1pm EST
$10 + 1 NL
Password is hiltons
Tournament #14338880 (check under Private Tournament Tab)

First place prize = Phil Gordon's Little Green Book
My bounty = $15 iTunes gift certificate

See you there!
posted by Pauly at 11/05/2005 12:01:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Wednesday Is Hump Day, But Friday Is Wil Wheaton Day

Why haven't you signed up to play in Wil Wheaton's tournament scheduled for 7pm later tonight on Poker Stars? It's only $10! Three words for you... Wil fuckin' Wheaton!

Why haven't you signed up to play in Saturdays with Dr. Pauly scheduled for 1pm on Saturday on Poker Stars? It's only $10? The password = hiltons. Three words for you... free fuckin' iPod!

Don't forget to visit Bill Rini's blog for info about the WPBT shootout on Full Tilt on Sunday.

Moving on...

By the way, I've been reading a pretty cool poker blog from Jeff Pulver. I've read his main blog before but I've been getting into some of his great posts from playing in this year's WSOP.

I finally played some online poker yesterday. My bender is officially over and I was sober enough to return to the tables. I fired up every site I had money in... to make sure it was still there. I played a few SNGs on Titan and tried to work off some more of my bonus. I don't care what the masses say about Titan. I like playing on it because of all the bad players there.

I played a little Razz on Full Tilt with Jaxia after I gave her a few pointers on the most brutal game in all of poker. I'd rather scrape my knuckes on cheese graters for three hours staright than play razz. I quit pretty quickly because I was reminded why playing Razz is like asking to getting asked to get kicked in the junk by Chris Gardacki. It just hurts so much finding four cards to the Wheel to start and getting three conescutive bricks. I returned to my Midnight Madness on Full Tilt in their 11:59pm MTT. I've played almost a hundred of those and only made one freakin' final table. I was due... but not last night. I took 63 out of 140 when I made a bad call with AJs. Late night, I settled into a mini-blogger NL table with Jaxia and Chad.

I've also been playing some PLO on Party Poker. I like where my PLO game is at. I'm improving every session.


Scribes

I posted a recap of Vegoose Day 1 on my main blog. Take a peek. Here's a bit:

One of the other girls wore a freaky costume with red tights, a yellow dress, and a small red fireman's hat. The Joker went over and asked her to elaborate on her costume.

"I'm sexy disco firefighter chick," she said.

"Very cool. Where are you girls staying?" the Joker responded.

"Sleep?" she said at him in a condescending tone as she poured herself a mixture of vodka and orange juice, "We're not sleeping at all. We're staying up the entire time we're here." ... More

By the way, best of luck to a few bloggers (Joe Speaker, Bobby Junklet, Otis, Human Head) who are doing NaNoWriMo. It's national novel writing month, and in the past three years I completed four NaNo novels including my first novel Jack Tripper Stole My Dog in 2002 while I was working on Wall Street. I even wrote two inside of a month (Blind Kangaroo and Bar Hopping with Buddha) in 2003. And last year I took a month off from blogging and moved to Rhode Island to write Gumbo. Some of you have read one (BG, Otis, Bad Blood) or all of them (like AlCantHang, Derek, Briana, EvaCanHang, Haley, Jerry, Senor, Molly and Joanne) with the sole exception of Bar Hopping with Buddha... which no one has read except Haley and I only showed her about 1/5 of that piece of crap. My favorite is my first, Jack Tripper Stole My Dog. The best written one is probably The Blind Kangaroo. But I think Gumbo is my most mature, where I finally wrote in the first person weaving several autobiographical moments involving ten different relationships. Briana called it 110% pure Americana trash and I took that as a compliment. My most twisted and fucked up novel was written in the summer of 2003 and that's called Sweet Nothing: The Baby & Winky Novel. I adapted it to a screenplay called The Baby & Winky Movie. Sadly, all of my novels are unpublished.

Alas, this year I don't have the time to crank out a half-baked Nano novel. I'm trying to find time to finish my Vegas book. I'm seeking a publisher. If you happen to know one who would love to have a book about my Las Vegas adventures including several trips to strip clubs, please shoot me an email.

By the way, happy belated birthdays to Felicia and Special K!

See you at the tables.
posted by Pauly at 11/04/2005 02:06:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Tournaments a Trois

There are three tournaments coming up in the next few days that I will be playing in. All events are $10. Hope to see you there!!

WWdN: Donegal Invitiational on Poker Stars
Friday 11.4.05 @ 7pm EST
$10 + 1 NL
Password is monkey


Saturdays with Dr. Pauly on Poker Stars
Saturday 11.5.05 @ 1pm EST
$10 + 1 NL
Password is hiltons
Tournament #14338880 (check under Private Tournament Tab)


WPBT Shootout on Full Tilt
Sunday 11.6.05 @ 3pm EST
$10 + 1 NL
Email Bill for the password

Only the Full Tilt one is restricted and limited to only bloggers/readers coming to Las Vegas in December. The other two are hosted by Wil and myself, so stop by and play because it opens to both bloggers and readers. I'm giving away some cool prizes and bounties, especially to the player who participates in all 4 and has the best overall score... they will win a iPod Nano. Weekly winners get the new Phil Gordon book. Read my post from a few days ago to get more specific information.

John from Poker News is giving away $20 and a free t-shirt if you bust him aka "Shecky." Grubby is also giving away a bounty if you bust him aka "lostchangi." You get to pick something out of his vast prize closet of casino gifts. You could win: shower radio, beach bag, travel bag, multi-angling fan, salad serving bowl, set of two salad bowls, mystery gift from Sahara (gift-wrapped and unopened), Barber in a Box, flashlight with toolkit, hardware caddy with over 600 pieces, March Madness 2005 short-sleeved Polo shirt + matching visor, picnic cooler bag, duffel bag, set of two color-changing mugs, two-piece Fondini pen set, set of two Motorola Talkabout walkie-talkies, set of six small wine glasses, appetizer serving platter, ESPN Zone travel bag, or a fruit bowl.

Anyway, hope to see you all at the tables!
posted by Pauly at 11/03/2005 12:35:00 AM | Permalink |

 
End of a Bender

My five day long Las Vegas Halloween bender is over and I'm starting to finally sober up. I'm getting on a plane to head to NYC in a few hours. Upon my return to the city, I expect to get back to posting about poker again and finishing my Vegas book.

Until then, I finally got around to writing up some of my Las Vegas bender on my main blog. Feel free to read the first installment called: Vegas Friday: The Day Before Vegoose. And yes, there are plenty of stories about hookers and spun out hippie chicks including a concert review or two.

Here's a bit:

After a late night of Blackjack, strip clubs, drinking, and poker, I woke up a slightly hungover and a tad on the ashamed side. I went over my stripper budget after another decadent night of canoodling with exotic dancers at Olympic Garden. I vaguely recalled that I bought Grubby a lap dance from a former late 1980s porn star with breasts that were as rock hard as marble. She couldn't keep her hands off of Grubby's chest and continuously shoved her hands down his shirt and pants. After objectifying naked women for three straight hours and pissing away the equivalent to Paraguay's GDP on lap dances, the Joker and I headed to the poker room at the Excalibur for late night, drunken donkey poker... More

Here's another excerpt:

Thousands of spun out hippies, Phishkids, wookies, and other weirdos flooded the Aladdin casino floor just around 4am. For a tourist couple who had no idea there was a music festival going on in Vegas, they must have been freaked out to see so many dirty hippies walking around in a jovial daze. The unleashed freaks did nothing to deter the degenerate gamblers from plugging away at the slot machines. The kept their heads down and continued to gamble while they ignored all the weirdness that went down right behind them... More

And one more excerpt:

The Joker picked up on what girls where hookers and who weren't. As we walked by one of the bars, we saw about a dozen at work. He was amazed at what was going on, but for me, it's just part of Las Vegas. It's not anything out of the ordinary for me to see hookers crawling around a Strip hotel bar. It's simply another integral part to Las Vegas, just like the Bellagio fountains or the all-you-can-eat shrimp buffet... More

posted by Pauly at 11/02/2005 02:21:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Lord Admiral Interviews Isabelle Mercier

Due to my five day long bender here in Las Vegas, Sean and I were unable to tape an interview this past weekend for the Lord Admiral Card Club Radio Show and Podcast. That's perfectly OK, because they got someone much better looking than me to interview.... the lovely and talented Isabelle Mercier!

If you don't know by now, Card Club the best and longest running podcast dedicated to poker in the universe. Sean and Brent Stacks are working hard every week in Toronto to get their podcast done (for free) so stop by and show your support.

The guys over at Lord Admiral recently reached a milestone and have been on the air for one full year. Congrats to Sean and Stacks and I hope they do a couple of more years of poker podcasting.

You can download the MP3 of last week's show... Episode 50: Here. (Right Click and Save As)
You can download the MP3 of last week's show... Episode 49: Here. (Right Click and Save As)

If you want to catch up and listen to previous episodes, please visit their archives over at Brainscat. Stop by Card Club at Lord Admiral Radio and check them out. I hope to be back very soon. Stay tuned.
posted by Pauly at 11/01/2005 11:49:00 PM | Permalink |