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

 
Charity Tournament for Leah

I need to improve my karma as much as possible and promoting worthy causes on my poker blog is a great way to start. After I helped save BG's ass, I got a slew of emails asking me to pimp chairty events. Thanks to everyone who blogged about and played in the one this past Sunday at Full Tilt. It was fun and I played. I had Erik Seidel at my table and Daddy convinced Jen Harman that he worked in a sausage factory.

Anyway, I got an email recently about a tournament scheduled for Thursday. According to Chad O., Noble Poker is not only donating the price of admission, but an additional $250 to his friend Leah who has been diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma. Pretty nice of them. If you are unable to make it this Thursday, another tournament is in the works on Poker Stars.

Site: Noble Poker
Date: Thursday March 2nd, 2006
Buy-in: $10 + 1
Time: 7:30pm ET
Password: charity

Coupon code to use when registering (if you need to register an account): help4leah

A little about Leah, from Chad:

This tournament is being held to raise funds to help out my good friend Leah. On Tuesday February 7, 2006, Leah was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma, a very rare form of bone cancer. Medically, Ewing's Sarcoma is best summed up as a cancerous tumor that attaches itself to a bone and destroys it. As I could not find Canadian statistics on this I will use USA stats. In the USA, there are only 150 new cases reported in a year. Of those 150 cases, only 9% affect Leah's age group of 20 to 30 which is the oldest age group affected. Treatment of Ewing's Sarcoma includes chemo, radiation and surgery to remove the tumor.

On a more devastating note, this form of cancer can result in amputation of limbs or even death.

Leah is a vibrant, confident, caring, beautiful woman who would do anything for anyone of her friends. She is the exact type of person who does not deserve to be going through this. Leah lives in Regina, Saskatchewan and because of this, she needs to travel to Calgary, Alberta for treatment. Her boyfriend Barry will be going with her standing beside her through every thing. The costs of both of them being away from work and living in hotels in a completely different province will be substantial at best.

I couldn't think of two more deserving and devoted friends who need our help. I want to personally thank you for joining this fundraising tournament to help my friend Leah through this difficult time. She really needs to focus on getting healthy and should not have to worry about the financial burden this will cause.

Thanks to Gracie for letting me cut & paste all of this entry. I encourage you to spead the word about this tournament, blog about it, and sign up. It's the least that we can do.
posted by Pauly at 2/28/2006 04:19:00 PM | Permalink |

 
In Cold Blood: Another Night at Murderer's Row

"Oh, look at Reek. He's so cute I want to breastfeed him. Sorry, Henry." - Mrs. HDouble

Nothing is more unnerving than walking into a situation where you cannot control any of the events. It reminds me of those old John Ford westerns that I used to watch when I was a kid. I always had trouble sleeping and I'd sneak into the living room and view late night movies in the dark while my parents and my brother slept. This was in the days of pre-cable, DVDs, and VCRs and I'd have to settle on whatever flick they chose to run on ABC's Late Night Movie. I was always fascinated with old school westerns, where a new gunslinger rode into town on a healthy horse ready for a shootout with the grizzled locals where at some point, he wandered into the local saloon/bordinghouse/whorehouse for a piece of ass, a shot of whiskey, and a game of cards. Poker has been part of the outlaw subculture for a century and a half and when I walked into Murderer's Row two Saturdays ago, I secretly wished I was packing heat.

The infamous homegame at Murderer's Row in West L.A. is a place that no matter how well you played, you're still not guaranteed to leave without getting your junked kicked so far up into your esophagus, that you're gonna need emergency colon surgery just to pluck out your swollen testicles from your digestive track.

The Murderer's Row game is filled with some of the best minds in poker including an eclectic collection of the astute programmers and members of the poker blogging elite. Whether it's cash games, tournaments, online poker, or playing in the super loose local cardrooms... you'll easily find a successful player in one of the regular seats at Murderer's Row. With a mine field cluttered with tight players and loose maniacs, you're constantly playing the guessing game and must switch gears on every hand in order to survive. It's hard enough to play against a guy like Ryan who spent the last six weeks playing against pros everyday or a guy like HDouble who routinely kills the cash games at the local casinos. But then throw in a very drunk and uber-loose Lance into the mix or the cagey Mrs. HDouble who can and will play any two cards and set you on tilt for weeks, and you have a challenging table and a rough night ahead of you.

The Poker Geek mentioned something that's he's down over $1K since he started playing at Murderer's Row. I'm sure that's an inflated number to illicit sympathy, but with games like Columbine, it's not entirely impossible to lose that much money in one session. Usually pots in Pot Limit Hold'em tend to be bigger than most NL pots.

I played at Murderer's Row in December for the first time with Grubby and Grubbette. (You can read Part 2 and Part 1 of that night.) That fateful night Change100 sent me to the rail in the tournament when she cracked my A-A after she flopped a set of 5s. I got so hammered during my first Murderer's Row game that I passed out on the drive back home to Grubbette's. At least I made some money in the cash game to save my dignity.

HDouble is a great host and tries to cushion the blows early with free booze and free pizza before the tournament started. He squeezed two poker tables into his tiny apartment, and as soon as one table broke, a cash game popped up on the other. The routine was a $50 tournament to start followed by cash games. Top 4 places paid with $340 going to the winner. I ended up taking 3rd place. I had been running pretty good I thought considering that two days earlier, I took third place in the LA Poker Classic Media tournament. I was also in the middle of erasing my losing streak, so my confidence was pretty high despite the high caliber skill of play.

My Starting Table:
Seat 1: Wampler
Seat 2: Facty
Seat 3: Laurie
Seat 4: Pauly
Seat 5: Bill
Seat 6: HDouble
Seat 7: Shyam
Seat 8: Shane Nickerson
Seat 9: Ryan

I don't recall much. I didn't take very good notes, which was unusual. I was drinking steadily after I skipped out of work early to play. I thought I left Commerce Casino at a reasonable time. No such luck. Driving on two freeways was awful. The traffic on the I-5 and I-10 was a pain in the ass which is normal for Friday rush hour.

The first hour went by quick. Laurie arrived late and when I reraised her she snapped, "Don't you know who I am?"

"Errrrr, you're the hot chick from Full Tit with the red hair!"

I was worried that if I pissed off too many Full Tilt employees then I'd end up getting the doom switch dropped on my ass whenever I played. Most of the first hour was dedicated to making prop bets with Bill Rini. We'd bet on "highest card" that we'd pull out of the muck.

Ryan built up a stack early. He was telling me how he watched pros continuously limp into unraised pots as he did the same. Facty and Laurie had their stacks evaporate and they were some of the first players busted from our table. I folded and was chipped down the first hour until I found J-J. Nickerson opened up with a raise and I came over the top for an re-raise. He called. On a flop of 6-4-2, he bet out and I moved all in. He reluctantly called with 7-7. My Jacks held up and Nickerson was busted. That was the beginning of my mini-rush.

When Ryan was shortstacked he raised my blind from the button and I popped him back with A-8. He moved all in and I had a tough decision to make. I eventually called and was ahead of his J-10. He flopped a pair and I rivered an Ace to bust him.

A few hands later, I sent Bill Rini to the rail. With 4-6o, I flopped middle pair and an opened straight draw on a board of 3-4-5. Rini moved all in with A-3. I called thinking I was behind, but having a decent draw. Instead I was ahead and my hand held up. At that point, I was one of the table chipleaders.

I rivered the Wheel against the Poker Geek and I crippled him. HDouble tripled up with 10-4s against K-K and A-Q. And HDouble took a big hand from me when his 9-9 held up against my A-Q. I eventually busted the Geek and was the chipleader once the final table was seated. Lance looked like he was the closest to me in chips, while Wampler looked strong as well. Kori made the final table too along with HDouble, Shyam, Franklin, and Katkin.

Lance won a ridiculous hand with K-6 on a hand he almost folded in a multi-way pot. He ended up busting Franklin's 9-9 and Kori's A-10 on the same hand when he flopped trips. I lost a big hand to Lance when he slowplayed a flopped straight. He had Q-J on a board of A-K-10. I had K-8s and flopped second pair. The hand was checked on the flop and turn. I rivered trip Kings and figured I was good. I bet out, Lance value raised, and I called. He had Q-J and I felt like Erik Seidel at the 1988 World Series of Poker when Johnny Chan flopped the nuts against him.

That hand crippled me. HDouble finished in the money in fourth and I was out soon after in third. Shyam lost heads up to Lance, and in true fashion Lance sucked out on Shyam to win it all. I wish I could have kept all my winnings, but Spaceman had 25% of my action so I had to give him a cut. After the disastrous cash game, I'd end up leaving down a few bucks.

* * * * *
After a quick smoke break with Change100, I joined a cash game. Right away I started to piss away my third place winnings. My nemesis for the night was Mrs. HDouble. At first glance, Mrs. HDouble looks like a sweet Swedish girl, but that's part of her deception. She an existentialist at heart, can cuss like a sailor, and rip out your eyeballs at any moment. If you want to be victorious against her, you better have the balls to go all the way to the river and hope that your hand holds up. I discovered the hard way that it's impossible to push her off a pot. I had to dig into my pocket for three rebuys during the PLH game. Most of my chips went to Mrs. HDouble's stack. Like a good socialist, she spread the wealth around the rest of the table. Unfortunately, I was not able to win any of my money back from her.

Mrs. HDouble is full of hilarious one liners. She's easily the most quotable player in the game. She kept asking me about Daddy the Donkey Fucker. The last time I played at Murderer's Row, we explained to her the entire donkey fucker trend. At first she thought Daddy was fucking monkeys, but grew angry at the thought about his sexual trysts with donkeys.

Take a peek at Change100's recap of the game. She won the largest pot every in the history of Columbine against pocket rockets and SMTL.

"Columbine. It's a 4-way all-in. AA vs. JJ vs. 78o vs. snowman-taterlegs on a 783 flop. Ephro of course had the taters. Rini had one of the big pairs and gazed at the felt in utter disbelief, glassy-eyed and weaving heavily from his Heineken-laced bloodstream as I tabled my top two pair to rake in a pot worth over $250. I couldn't fucking believe it. And this, after a horrible beat I put on the Geek when he got his money in with two small pair and my AA spiked a set on the turn. This must be how Katkin feels every week."

Change100 was up $250 at Murderer's Row which is like having an ERA under 1.50 at Coors Field. I lost all my tournament winnings and didn't care too much. I had a great time. I sat next to Ryan during the cash game and shot the shit with him.

That particular game I attended held special reverence because that's gonna be the last Murderer's Row game for a while. HDouble informed the crew that the sorry lot of hooligans who populate his homegame have gotten to loud for his neighbor's tastes. It takes a lot of weirdness to spook out the freakazoids in this town, but all the frenetic energy late night bad beats and suckouts seeped through the walls and rattled the neighbors.

The Murderer's Row game will start up again after the dust settles. That's why certain poker rooms or homegames have shelf lives. External circumstances like law enforcement, criminal elements, and broke players often ruin a good game. Enjoy every moment at the tables because in this world of legal uncertainties, you can get pinched at any time. This instance, the game was busted up temporarily. Dozens of degenerate gamblers scampered down dimly lit streets in the City of Angels seeking a new refuge for poker like cockroaches scurrying through my kitchen at 3:30am. Wherever and whenever Murderer's Row reconvenes, it's still going to be the toughest homegame to beat on the West Coast.

* * * * *
Over the past week or so, I posted a series of L.A. pictures over at the Tao of Pauly. I also been writing a ton since the WPT Invitational and the LAPC ended. Take a peek at a piece I wrote called LA Stories: Let's Do Lunch. Yeah, even Otis liked it a lot. Here's a bit:

The 11am sunlight ripped through the blinds and illuminated the entire room with a radioactive glow that burned the eyelids off my face. That was my daily alarm... a high concentration of natural light piercing my retinas. If I was able to conquer the insomnia for a rare night, I never slept in too late because the solar rays prevented me from falling back to sleep. My first glimpses each day were traces of a large palm tree shooting up out of the ground and towering over the garage across the alley. That's the first reminder that I was in Los Angeles... more

posted by Pauly at 2/27/2006 03:16:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Suckout on Luekemia

I will be playing in a tournament on Full Tilt on Sunday afternoon. It's for a worthy cause called Suckout on Luekemia. A member of the Full Tilt Forum named Jill was diagnosed with Leukemia. Her friends put together a private tournament at Full Tilt to raise money for Jill. The private tournament is a $10+$16 NL tourney, with $15 of the fee going to the fundraiser. Visit this link this link for more details on the Suckout on Leukemia tournament. I hope all of you can play. I'll be there are so are a few pros such as Erik Seidel and Andy Bloch and even SirWaffle is playing!

What: Suckout on Luekemia (check under Private tourney tab)
When: Sun, Feb 26th @ 17:00 EST
Where: Full Tilt
How Much: $10 + 16
Password: playforjill

It's at 2pm West Coast or 5pm Waffle time. I hope I can get up early enough to play.
posted by Pauly at 2/26/2006 01:10:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Truckin' - February 2006, Vol. 5, Issue 2


I just published another issue of your favorite e-zine Truckin'. Thanks to Maudie for the new banner, which gives Truckin' a more professional look! The second issue of 2006 features several old writers such as Otis, Human Head, and AlCantHang. Strips clubs, cokeheads, and shit trucks. Sounds like another exciting issue, eh? Especially with another poem from Jaxia. This issue also features a new writer, Ben Rillie. Check out his story called Merry Fucking Christmas. Finally, I decided to go with a bus story and something that happened to me one late night in Atlantic City.

1. Highway Job by Tenzin McGrupp
They smelled like a combination of three-day old urine and rotten eggs as the aroma of depravity made me nauseous for the entire fifteen minutes I sat and waited for my Greyhound bus bound for NYC to arrive... More

2. Action Island by Otis
I couldn't see any coke on his nose. Still, if you'd told me there hadn't been some marching powder shooting up his nostrils in the last couple of hours, I would've called you an idiot... More

3. Tomorrow Thoughts by Jaxia Kiley
Window's open. A soft breeze runs across our skin and under the sheets as we dance together... More

4. The Honey Wagon by AlCantHang
I drive the shit truck. The Honey Wagon. I'm a drunk. It's my job and I hate it. The job, not the drink... More

5. Two Loves by Human Head
A person with self-esteem as fragile as mine often questions the reality of things. Everything is easy when nothing stinks, enough money is in various accounts, and cartoon bluebirds flutter to and fro in the background, but sooner or later Mr. Yin makes a call to Mr. Yang and the balance sheets are once again set in order... More

6. Merry Fucking Christmas by Ben Rillie
The only thought in my tiny, tiny brain at the time was, "Man, this is going to be a monster of a fart," and I immediately pondered the best way to record it so I could email it to my friends... More

7. Can I Hit It and Quit? by Tenzin McGrupp
She reminded me of a young Meryl Streep. Her accent was thick and she smelled like flowers and blueberries. She sipped on a Sea Breeze or some sort of vodka-cranberry concoction... More

I ask that if you like these stories, then please do me and the rest of the writers a huge favor: Tell your friends about your favorite stories. It takes a few seconds to pass along the URL. I certainly appreciate your support. Feel free to shoot me an e-mail if you know anyone who is interested in being added to the mailing list.
posted by Pauly at 2/25/2006 11:16:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WPT Invitational - Final Table


Sorry, folks. I will not be able to cover the final table of the WPT Invitational. I had a minor traffic accident and ran over an old Hasidic lady's cat. She lived next door to Change100 and I spent most of the afternoon consoling the old lady and more importantly convincing her not to sue me or notify the authorities. Dead cats can sure kill a guy's karma and bankroll, even in Hollyweird.

Anyway, for complete updates of the WPT Invitational final table, please check out updates from my good friends in the poker media. Visit Poker Wire for chipcounts and stop by to read BJ's hand-to-hand coverage of tonight's final table that features Barry Greenstien, Jesse Jones, Blair Rodman, Tom Lock, Allen Kessler, and Ugur Marangoz.

I'll be back on Monday with a recap of last week's Murder's Row homegame, which might end up being the last one for a while. Until then...
posted by Pauly at 2/24/2006 09:01:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WPT Invitational - Day 2

"Suck my fat one, you cheap dime store hood." - Wil Wheaton, Stand by Me

We're back for the second day of the WPT Invitational at the Commerce Casino located just outside of Los Angeles. There are 88 players remaining out of the original 317 who started. Only the top 6 places pay and first place gets a seat in the WPT Championhips at the Bellagio in April. Ugur Marangoz ended day one as the chipleader. Some of the biggest names in poker players are left in the hunt (Phil, Gus, Barry, and Isabelle) along with some of your favorite celebrities hanging around as well including Wil Wheaton, Jason Alexander, and Mimi Rogers.

Because of the accelerated blind structure, the tournament is a crap shoot. Anything can happen today. Action will not stop until we are down to 6.

Here's some notable players left: Scott Fischman, Gentleman John Gale, Joe Cassidy, Jason Alexander, Lee Watkinson, Alan Goehring, Quinn Do, Phil Hellmuth, Bill Edler, Isabelle Mercier, Steve Lipscomb, Chad Brown, Evelyn Ng, Gus Hansen, Amnon Filippi, Steven Dannenmann, Humberto Brenes, Barry Greenstein, Clonie Gowen, Allen Kessler, Todd Brunson, Noli Francisco, Mimi Rogers, Jesse Jones, Blair Rodman, Davood Mehrmand, Tuan Le, Paul Darden, Tony Cousineau, Jon Favreau, Hoyt Corkins, Kevin Weisman, Gavin Smith, Casey Kastle, Alexander Stevic, Nick "Takeover" Schulman, Danny Masterson, Wil Wheaton, Nam Le, Al Ardebili, Kathy Griffin, Tony Ma, Ben Roberts, Farzad Bonyadi, Marco Traniello, Dick Van Patten, Karina Jett, David Levi, and Mike Matusow.

End of Day 1 Chicpounts (Courtesy of Poker Wire):
1 Ugur Marangoz $ 96,800
2 Scott Fischman $ 94,600
3 John Gale $ 92,700
4 Shawn Buchanan $ 76,600
5 Joe Cassidy $ 68,400
6 An Lu $ 68,300
7 Jason Alexander $ 63,700
8 Lee Watkinson $ 62,100
9 Coley Laffoon $ 61,300
10 Alan Goehring $ 61,300
11 Judson Swimner $ 58,600
12 Quinn Do $ 55,000
13 Dante Oliveto $ 54,700
14 Phil Hellmuth $ 54,300
15 Matt Carboy $ 53,400
16 Jeff Liebster $ 53,100
17 Bill Edler $ 52,100
18 Will Alaimo $ 48,400
19 Isabelle Mercier $ 48,100
20 Steve Lipscomb $ 47,900
21 Adriano Zimonyi $ 47,300
22 Chad Brown $ 45,300
23 Evelyn Ng $ 42,700
24 Craig Hartman $ 42,200
25 David Prat $ 41,600
26 Gus Hansen $ 41,200
27 David Norrie $ 38,100
28 Denny Williams $ 36,200
29 Amnon Filippi $ 34,700
30 Tom Lock $ 34,600
31 Audrey Kania $ 34,100
32 Steven Dannenmann $ 33,200
33 Humberto Brenes $ 32,700
34 Barry Greenstein $ 32,300
35 Clonie Gowen $ 32,000
36 Johan Storakers $ 30,400
37 John Esposito $ 30,200
38 Allen Kessler $ 29,700
39 Todd Brunson $ 28,300
40 Noli Francisco $ 28,200
41 Scott Jensen $ 27,400
42 Mimi Rogers $ 26,500
43 Jesse Jones $ 26,500
44 Jimmy Tran $ 26,400
45 Blair Rodman $ 25,900
46 Steve Diamatas $ 25,600
47 Davood Mehrmand $ 24,700
48 Matt Smith $ 24,300
49 Andy Goetsch $ 24,300
50 Matt Lefkowitz $ 23,400
51 Herman Zango $ 23,200
52 Louis Drogin $ 22,900
53 Tuan Le $ 22,500
54 Paul Darden Jr. $ 22,400
55 Tony Cousineau $ 22,400
56 Jared Smith $ 22,300
57 Jon Favreau $ 22,000
58 Hoyt Corkins $ 21,700
59 Lynette Chan $ 21,200
60 Ali Sarkeshik $ 21,200
61 Kevin Weisman $ 21,100
62 Gavin Smith $ 20,400
63 Casey Kastle $ 19,300
64 Alexander Stevic $ 18,900
65 Sam Simon $ 18,400
66 Nick Schulman $ 17,700
67 Danny Masterson $ 17,700
68 Wil Wheaton $ 17,500
69 Rossi Morreale $ 16,200
70 Bob Van Horne $ 14,700
71 Nam Le $ 14,600
72 Joe Viceroy $ 14,600
73 Al Ardebili $ 14,300
74 Marko Trapani $ 13,400
75 Kathy Griffin $ 13,300
76 Chuck Pacheco $ 12,700
77 Philippe Rouas $ 12,600
78 Tony Ma $ 12,400
79 Jeannette Crandall $ 11,500
80 Ben Roberts $ 11,100
81 Doug Carli $ 11,100
82 David Welch $ 10,900
83 Farzad Bonyadi $ 10,300
84 Orlando Maldonado $ 10,100
85 Bart Hansa $ 9,900
86 David Cossio $ 9,800
87 Mark Tenner $ 9,100
88 Adrian de Carteret $ 8,600
89 Neil Wright $ 8,500
90 Marco Traniello $ 6,100
91 Dick Van Patten $ 5,800
92 Karina Jett $ 5,600
93 Charlie Donaldson $ 5,300
94 Andy Simpson $ 5,300
95 Danny Smith $ 4,600
96 David Levi $ 3,200
97 Mike Matusow $ 2,300
98 Steve Mould $ 2,100

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

5:45pm... Wil Wheaton frantically called me, "Doc, I'm on severe traffic tilt." Wil thought that today started at 6pm. Actuallty it's 6:30, so he's fine. Here's Wil's starting table:

Day 2 - Wil's Table:
Seat 1: Steve Lipscomb $47,900
Seat 2: Amnon Filippi $34,700
Seat 3: Wil Wheaton $17,500
Seat 4: Scott Fischman $94,600
Seat 5: Tom Lock $34,600
Seat 6: Adriano Zimonyi $47,300
Seat 7: Coley Laffoon $61,300
Seat 8: Judson Swimner $58,600
Seat 9: Blair Rodman $25,900

6:00pm... The Poker Wire girls confrotned me about my blog. "I have some issues," mentioned Poker Wire Heather. "About the Top 5 Things Tournament Reporters Do On Breaks... post." Yeah, they wanted me to set the record staright that they do not download German pissing porm, nor masturbate in the Men's room like Spaceman, nor do they do "hookers and blow" on dinner breaks. When everyone is on a break, the Poker Wire girls are hard at work on the floor getting chipcounts. They don't take breaks and are the hardest working media reps in the business.

6:15pm... Wil arrived and now he's ready to double up against some bigtime pros. I'm sitting in press row next to Foiled Coup and in front of the Poker Wire Girls.

6:25pm... Prop Bet Update: We have two. The O/U is set at 1:30am. BJ has the under. And I also have a last longer with BJ. He has Isabelle Mercier and I got Wil Wheaton. He's giving me 3 to 1. I also have a last longer with the crazy Norwegians who have been kicking my ass in Olympics prop bets. They are giving me 6 to 1 that Gus Hansen will last longer than Wil Wheaton.

6:31pm... Cards are in the air!

6:45pm... Recent Eliminations: Several quick bustouts. You can hear dealers announcing, "All in!" Karina Jett, Marco Traniello, Dick Van Patten, Ron Levi, Bob Van Horne, ared Smith, Jeannette Crandall, David Cassio, David Welch, and Adriano Zimonyi are all out. Dick Van Patten's 10-10 were cracked by A-4. The guy caught trips on him.

6:50pm... Wil Wheaton Update: Wheaton 1, Fischman 0. Phil Hellmuth was moved to Wil's table. With 3-3 Wil raised rpeflop and Scott Fischman raised him half his stack. Wil thought about it for a moment and called. Fischman had A-6. The flop had three clubs and Fischman had the Ace of clubs. Wil lead all the way and rivered a full house to double up. He has 37K now and looking strong.

6:56pm... Recent Eliminations: Jimmy Tran is out. Phil Hellmuth was sent to the rail by Scott Fischman. I'm bummed that Hellmuth got busted. I wanted Wil to drop the Hammer on him and get Hellmuth on uber-tilt.

7:11pm... Recent Eliminations: Jon Faverau, Evelyn Ng, Paul Darden, Sam Simon, Chad Brown, Louis Drogin, and Charlie Donaldson are all out.

7:12pm... Wil Wheaton Update: Wheaton 1, Anne Heche's husband 0. Wil Wheaton won a monster pot in a three way hand with pocket aces. He busted Amnon Filippi's 7-7 and doubled through Cooley Laffoon's J-J. Wheaton now has over 90K and has a shit eating grin on his face. We need to check his shorts for cum stains because I think he jizzed in his pants.

7:15pm... Wil Wheaton Update: Wheaton was just moved to a new table. He's got the stunning Lynette Chan to his right and Al Ardebili, Gus Hansen, and Tuan Le to his left. He's got 95K and looking good.


Lynette Chan, Wil Wheaton, Al Ardebili, and Gus Hansen (far right)
7:30pm... Recent Eliminations: Lynette Chan was busted by Al Ardebili. Cooley Laffoon, Steve Diamantas, and Ali Sarkeshik are also out.

7:37pm... Recent Elimination: I never had a chance to grope Mimi Rogers. She was just eliminated. There are about 56 players remaining. Probably less. Around 9 celebrities left.

7:42pm... Mike Matusow is singing a song called, "Alan Goehring is my hero."

7:45pm... Recent Elimination: Gus Hansen, JR Liebster, and Hoyt Corkins are all out. Gus Hansen was busted by Barry Greenstien. I just won 600 Euros. I had Wil Wheaton in the last longer against Gus Hansen. I was getting 6-1 which was a steal. Thank you Wheaton. You just got me unstuck from my Olympic prop betting with my friends in Norway.

Top 5 Chipcount:
1 Scott Fischman $200K
2 Ugur Marangoz $135K
3 An Lai Lu $110K
4 Will Alaimo $110K
5 Wil Wheaton $102K

8:00pm... Recent Eliminations: Kathy Griffin, Nam Le, Farzad Bonyadi, Kevin Weisman, Davood Mehrmand and Bob Van Horne are out. We're down to under 50 players.

8:15pm... Bouncin Round the Room: At the break, I got another interview with Wil and he introduced me to Jason Alexander. He lost a big pot early in the day to get crippled... boat over boat. Mike Matausow walked up to Alexander and said, "Good luck. What's your name again? Who are you?" I'm sure he was joking around.


Mike Matusow, Steve Dannenamann, and Jason Alexander


Wil Wheaton, Jason Alexander, and Danny Masterson
8:25pm... Recent Eliminations: Ben Roberts and Judson Swimner are both out.

8:30pm... Recent Eliminations: Jason Alexander, Matt Lefkowitz, Todd Brunson, and Gavin Smith are both out. Jason Alexander had 9-9 and lost a race to John Esposito's A-K. We're down to 5 tables and about 44 players remaining.

8:45pm... Shane Nickerson is in the house to sweat. Wil Wheaton. He has 100K.

9:00pm... Recent Eliminations: Al Ardebili, Tony Cousineau, Joe Cassidy, Quin Do, Doug "Rico" Carli, Alan Goehring, and Philippe Rouas are all out. Mike Matusow tripled up, busted Alan Goehring, and got a 10 minute penalty for dropping an F-bomb on the same fuckin' hand. With Q-8 he rivered a Queen to send Goehring's K-8 to the rail. Blair Rodman's A-K was no good too.

9:04pm... Smile Mean Gene. Isabelle Mercier just doubled up.

9:05pm... Recent Eliminations: Gentleman John Gale is out along with Shawn Buchanan. Danny Masterson is also out when Jesse Jones busted him. I think that there is just one other celeb in the field.... David Norrie. The celebrity who lasts the longest wins $10K for their favorite charity. Wil Wheaton said he was playing for my foundation... The Wayward Home for Sexual Promiscuous 19 Year Old Women.

9:15pm... Former Star Trek Actor Wins Celebrity Last Longer in WPT Invitational! Congrats to George Takei. Just kidding. Congrats to Wil Wheaton... for outlasting all the celebs. I can't wait to see how an evil corporation like AOL takes financial advantage of that future post and exploits Wil. Anyway, Wheaton has to outlast Isabelle Mercier so I can win my prop bet with BJ.

9:20pm... Recent Eliminations: 3 tables left. 26 players remaining. Johan Storakers, Craig Hartman, and David Norrie are all out.

9:25pm... Wil Wheaton Update: One of the tournament directors annoucned that Wil Wheaton won the celebrity last longer and that he won $10K for his charity... City of Hope. Everyone applauded and one player at his table joked, "Go all in now!"

Wil's New Table:
Seat 1: Jesse Jones
Seat 2: Wil Wheaton
Seat 4: Scott Jensen
Seat 5: Scott Fischman
Seat 6: Barry Greenstein
Seat 7: Tuan Le
Seat 8: Steve Lipscomb
Seat 9: An Lai Lu

9:35pm... Recent Eliminations: Steve Dannenmann and Will Alaimo are both out.

9:40pm... Recent Eliminations: Wil Wheaton is out. With 10-10 on the button, he moved all in and ran into Scott Jensen's A-A. He took 23rd place. 22 Players remain.

9:41pm... Time stamps have been fixed. Wil is doing a bustout interview with the WPT (minus Courteny Friel). He did mention poker bloggers int he interview and something about Otis having a nice ass.


Wil's bustout interview
10:45pm... Prop Bet updates: Sorry for the delay in updates. I was drinking in the sports bar with Wil and Shane. Stay tuned for a real update. I won a prop bet with Shane & Wil over the last digit of the tab. I had 1-3, Shane had 4-6, and Wil had 7-9. I came through in the cutch. I also settled my prop bet with BJ. Yes... BJ 1, Pauly 0. I'm still geeked out about nailing a 6-1 prop bet with a consortium of nihlist Norwegians from a smoky pub in Oslo, who all thought that Gus Hansen aka The Great Dane would outlast Wil "Fuckin" Wheaton. Little did they know that Wil harnessed the powers of the Monkey. That huge win almost unstuck me for the entire Olympics.

11:00pm... Recent Eliminations: Mike Matusow and Tuan Le are out. Tuan was busted by Steve Lispcomb. Isabelle Mercier was busted by a brutal river suckout. Her 10-10 was holding up until Audrey Kania spiked a Jack on the river with A-Js.

11:30pm... Recent Eliminations: Scott Jensen, Casey Kastle, John Esposito, An Lai Lu, and Matt Korby are all out. Clonie is the chipleader.

Recent Chicpount courtesy of Poker Wire:
1 Clonie Gowen $650K
2 Steve Lipscomb $380K
3 Tom Lock $350K
4 Ugur Marangoz $220K
5 Blair Rodman $215K
6 Barry Greenstein $210K
7 Scott Fischman $200K
8 Jesse Jones $180K
9 Humberto Brenes $160K
10 Lee Watkinson $130K
11 Herman Zango $80K
12 Allen Kessler $70K
13 Audrey Kania $23K

12:01am... Recent Eliminations: Lee Watkinson was busted by Barry Greenstien and Audrey Kania was sent tot he rail by Allen Kessler. Clonie lost a pot with A-K to Tom Lock's K-K. She slipped to $325K. With 11 players remaining, Tom Lock is the chipleader with $850K.

12:20am... Recent Elimination: Humberto Brenes is out. We're down to 9.

Final 9 Chicpounts:
1 Tom Lock $780K
2 Barry Greenstein $469K
3 Steve Lipscomb $397K
4 Blair Rodman $385K
5 Scott Fischman $296K
6 Clonie Gowen $237K
7 Jesse Jones $196K
8 Ugur Marangoz $162K
9 Allen Kessler $82K

12:30am... Recent Elimination: Steve Lispcomb was knocked out by Barry Greenstein. Bad beat too. Barry's K-3 beat Liscomb's A_10 when Barry flopped trip Kings. Barry is the new chipleader with 8 players left.

12:45am... Recent Elimination: Down to 6. Play is over for the night. Clonie Gowen's 10-10 was eliminated by Barry Greenstein's J-J. She took 8th. Scott Fischman finished in 7th place. Blair Rodman's 5-5 held up against Fischman's A-2s.

Final Table Chipcounts (courtesy of Poker Wire):
1 Barry Greenstein $1.119M
2 Tom Lock $740K
3 Blair Rodman $573K
4 Jesse Jones $279K
5 Allen Kessler $166K
6 Ugur Marangoz $64K

12:47am... Prop Bet Update: BJ 2, Pauly 0. I lost the O/U for finishing time. BJ's been hot during the last week!

12:48am... Stay tuned for a photo gallery of Day 2.


Umberto Brenes


Isabelle Mercier


Steve Lispcomb, WPT founder & creator


Wil with a clean shaven Scott Fischman


Phil Hellmuth


Fischman's big stack


Jon Faverau & Paul Darden


Clonie Gowen


Wil's 100K stack


A former Star Trek actor and his monkey...


Dick Van Patten & Gentleman John Gale


Gus Hansen


Blair "Kill Phil" Rodman


Isabelle at work
See you at 5pm on Friday.
posted by Pauly at 2/23/2006 08:52:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WPT Invitational - Day 1


Some of the brightest stars are out in numbers at Commerce Casino for the annual WPT Invitational, where some of the top names in Hollyweird are rubbing shoulders with poker's elite. As the name suggests, this is an invitation only event so this was the hottest ticket in town. And yes, I wiggled myself an invite.

Change100 asked me this morning of there was going to be a red carpet at the WPT Invitational. She's used to those sorts of things cause she worked in Hollyweird, and I quickly scoffed at the notion, "It's just a poker tournament."

My oh my, I was wrong bigtime. This is not just a poker tournament. It's a Hollywood Poker Tournament. With all the glitz and cheesyness factor rolled into one messy poker burrito. As soon as I drove into the parking lot, I saw the tent and red carpet ready to great limos and Hummers. I had to get new press badge for the event and fumbled through that process. It was border line hellish and reminded me of a scene from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, when Hunter S. Thompson stumbled into the Mint Hotel to check in under a head full of liquid sunshine. I was not mentally prepared for the zoo of paparazzi, with photographers following camera crews and publicists shuffling their clients down the media line, as the Commerce was flooded with reps from several mainstream media outlets. Of course they got first priority, while the normal poker press like Card Player and Poker Wire got pushed to the back of the line. Lucky for me, I mentioned that I wrote for Fox Sports and they quickly ushered me to the front in between Access Hollyweird and the local ABC affiliate.

"Kent Brockman News 4," one news anchor said to me as he shook my hand. His name wasn't really Kent Brockman, but he reminded me of a cross between Kent Brockman from The Simpsons and J. Peterman from Seinfeld.

"Pauly. Doctor Pauly. Fox Sports and the Tao of Poker," I slurred in between sips of my Seven & Seven.

I never drink those. But Ron Rose was drinking Seven & Sevens when I shot the shit with him while we stood in line. And he's a WPT Champion so if it works for him, it works for me. The hallway upstairs was cluttered with banquet tables serving random food. I liked the chocolate covered strawberries. I found the open bar quickly and that's where I realized I could find some of your favorite pros getting sauced up for the event.

Last 5 Pros I Saw at the Open Bar:
1. Ron Rose
2. John Gale
3. Tony G
4. Men the Master
5. Mark Seif

And yes, Men the Master was knocking back Coronas. I stood in the corner with the Poker Wire girls as we watched the security guards turn away big time pros from entering. This is work for some of the media folks and it was hard to enjoy yourself at a cocktail party when you have work looming overhead. I have no problems drinking on the job, so I headed back for a refill.

I didn't work the room. I hate schmoozing people and kissing their asses. If I dig something, I usually keep it to myself. I chatted mostly with Jen Leo and John Caldwell from Poker News. I found Foiled Coup too. Jen Leo cornered Jon Favreau and he told her that his show Dinner for Five will not be on anymore. John Caldwell is a music guy and he was talking to the drummer from No Doubt.

I finally went inside to take photos as they seated everyone. I will post a gallery of photos at the end of this entry.

***** Live Blogging Update *****

7:07pm... Cards are in the air. About 317 players are here.

7:10pm... Here's who's palying: Amir Vahedi, Alan Goehring, Amnon Filippi, Antonio Esfandiari, Bill Edler, Bill Gazes, Brad Berman, Capt. Tom Franklin, Carmel Petresco, Clonie Gowen, Cyndy Violette, Dan Alspach, Daniel Alaei, Daniel Negreanu, Danny Masterson, David "Chino" Rheem, David Levi, David Sutcliffe, Doyle Brunson, Eli Elezra, Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, Evelyn Ng, Gavin Smith, Chau Giang, Gus Hansen, Isabelle Mercier, J.C. Tran, Jean-Robert Bellande, Joanne Liu, John Juanda, John Phan, Jon Kelley, Kenna James, Kristy Gazes, Laura Prepon, Lilly Elvira, Liz Lieu, Lyle Berman, Mario Ho, Men "The Master" Nguyen, Michael Michrachi, Mike Sexton, Mike Wattel, Minh Nguyen, Nenad Medic, Phil Laak, Robert Mizrachi, Scotty Nguyen, Shannon Elizabeth, Steve Brecher, Todd Brunson, Joe Sebok, Josh Arieh, Scott Lazar, Jeff Rine, Humberto Brenes, Adrian Young from No Doubt, Anne Heche, Billy Burke, Boyd Coddington, Camryn Manheim, Carlos Bernard, Cheryl Hines, Chau Giang, Chris Masterson, Christopher Rich, AlCantHang, Cindy Margolis, Coleman Laffoon, David Norrie, David Sutcliffe, Dick Van Patten, Erik Palladino, Gavin Maloof, Jack Black, James Garner, James Woods, Jason Alexander, Jean Smart, Jennifer Tilly, Jon Favereau, Josh Morrow, Kathy Griffin, Kevin Weisman, Kyle Gass, Lou Gossett, Jr., Lou Diamond Phillips, Marissa Jaret Winokur, Matthew Lillard, Meatloaf, Mimi Rogers, Morris Chestnut, Norm McDonald, Patrick Labyorteaux, Richard Kind, Ricki Lake, Rossi Morreale, Sam Simon, Shannon Elizabeth, Stephen Collins, Tom Everett Scott, Wil Wheaton, Willie Garson, Mark Gregorich, Mike Matusow, Patrik Antonius, and Jesse Jones.

7:14pm... Joe Sebok, Clonie Gowen, Mike Matusow, Men the Master, and Amir Vahedi are all at the same table.

7:15pm... Wil Wheaton was playing and he was late due to an audition, but finally arrived. He originally was seated at a table with the 2006 WPT Commerce Champion Alan Goehring and The Grinder. Lucky his seat got filled and he found himself at a table with Mike Sexton, Jason Alexander, and Thomas Everett Scott, who was the celebrity who lasted the longest in the 2005 WPT Invitationa;. I told Wheaton that I'd pay out bounties... $27 to any Scientologist that he busted. I also told him he'd get $100 if he busted anyone with The Hammer.

7:40pm... Recent Elimiantions: Norm MacDonald is out. Steve Z busted along with Cheryl Hines from Curb Your Enthusiasm. She truned trip Jacks with A-J but was rivered by a two outer.

8:00pm... We have to set up in the far hallway, so I can't see the action. I have to do updates and run inside. I'm sweating Wil and watching Isabelle Mercier's table. Ohhh la la. Eat your heart out Mean Gene, or as the say in France... Mangez votre coeur hors de Gene moyen.

8:10pm... Recent Eliminations: Arnold Spee is out. He lost with top pair to someone who flopped a set.

8:15pm... Wil Wheaton folded the Hammer to a raise. It would have won with a Seven high straight.

8:20pm... Recent Elimination: Liz Lieu is out and she begged me not to post it! Her AKs lost to A5s. The river gave Liz a straight, but gave her opponent a nut flush. She wanted me to make sure that my brother Derek knew that she said, "Hello." Looks like Derek's got a big fan!

8:30pm... Players were on a break. I asked Jon Favereau how he was doing.

"I'm up but it's not because I'm good," he said.

Isabelle Mercier updated me on her progress. "I had 15K, now I have 7. I made a stupid play and lost to a fucking flush."

I love hearing F-bombs roll off the tongue of hot women, especially with French accents.

Wheaton and I did an interview in the hallway and we ogled at Jen Tilly's boobs. That is some prime real estate, let me tell you. Mimi Rogers is stunning in real life.

8:47pm... Recent Elimination: Boston Rob is out, along with Allen Cunningham.

8:51pm... So close, yet so far. Here's an actual conversation that I had with a random B-list female celebrity while I was waiting to interview Wheaton.

"Oh my God, you're Dr. Pauly!! I love your blog," she said.

"Really?" I answered as I faked aloofness. "Thanks for reading."

"Yeah, I read you all the time. My boyfriend show me your site during the WSOP. Now I read everyday."

She had me at "Oh!" and lost me with "boyfriend." Of course she has a boyfriend. What hot chick doesn't? Just when I thought I had a shot of bedding a bona fide Hollyweird B-lister, I was brought back down to the harsh reality that I'm still a ugly duckling in a pond of swans. When I realized that I had less than a 2% chance of seeing her naked, I quickly folded.

9:01pm... Recent Elimination: Amanda from Poker Wire told me that Daniel Negreanu busted Carlos Mortenson.

9:15pm... Recent Elimination: Rob Mizrachi, Cindy Margolis, James Krazy Kanuck Worth, and Barry Shulman.

9:20pm... Wil Wheaton update: He's got 13K in chips. You have to file this post under.... Former Star Trek Actor bluffs former Seinfeld actor out of a pot. Yep, Wheaton made a move on Alexander. Wesley Crusher 1, George Costanza 0.

9:35pm... Erick Lindgren folded the Hiltons when Riki Lake moved all in on him. He knew she had him beat and folded. She flashed pocket aces.

9:40pm... Recent Eliminations: Daniel Negreanu is out when his 4-4 lost to A-Ks. Jen Tilly is out as well and is giving a bustout interview with the WPT crew. Jean-Robert Bellande is gone too.

9:55pm... Recent Eliminations: Chip Jett is out. Amnon Filippi busted Chris Masterson. Allen Kessler sent Tom Everett Scott to the rail. Scott moved all in with K-8 and Kessler called with A-K. Jeff Rine is also out.

10:01pm... Recent Elimination: Matt Lillard is out. Joe Sebok is gone as well. He was crippled when he lost a three-way pot. Mel Judah had A-A, Sebok had A-K and a third player had 8-8. The third guy flopped a set of 8s. A few hands later, Sebok was out.

10:15pm... Players are on a break. Wheaton has 15K. During my interview we walked to get a hotdog. We bumped into Matt Laborteaux and his wife. He was in one of my favorite movies of all time. He played Ed in Ski School. He's still in the hunt.

Last 5 Celebrities I Took a Piss Next To:
1. Lou Diamond Philips
2. Danny Masterson
3. Richard Kind
4. Rob from Survivor
5. Matt Lillard

10:25pm... Recent Elimination: Richard Kind is out when he was sent to the rail by Bill Edler. James Woods is out along with Men the Master, who got sent to the rail by Mike Matusow.

10:30pm... Wheaton told me a funny quote. He overheard Mike Matusow corner Matt Savage. "You call this a celebrity tournament? I'm at a table with nine fuckin' pros!"

10:40pm... Nick "Takeover" Schulman and Scott Fischman have over 50K in chips. Isabelle Merceir has 19K in chips.

10:43pm... Recent Elimination: Stuttering John is ooooooooooooooo-ut.

10:45pm... Wil Wheaton Update: John Juanda joined Wheaton's table and he flashed me a look of, "Oh shit!"

10:52pm... Recent Elimination: Wil Wheaton sent John Juanda to the rail. With just 900 in chips, Juanda was all in with K-Q. Wheaton had A-A and flopped an ace! Juanda was sent to the rail and Wheaton has over 16K now.

10:55pm... Recent Eliminations: James Garner, Huck Seed, Amir Vahedi, David "The Dragon" Pham, Ricki Lake, Mike Sexton, Hung La, Jan Fisher, Vince Van Patten, David Wells, Mark Gregorich, Robert Varkonyi, Steve Brecher, Miami John Cernuto, David Plastik, David Chiu, Capt. Tom Franklin, Phil Laak, and Louis Asmo are all out. Ricki Lake had her K-K snapped off by Erick Lindgren's Hilton Sisters.

11:01pm... Recent Eliminations: Tony G and Jerry Buss are both out.

11:30pm... Recent Elimination: Anne Heche is out.

11:45pm... Recent Eliminations: Allyn Shulman, Camryn Manheim, Tom McEvoy, John Phan, Chau Giang, Erick Lindgren, Mark Seif, Antonio Esfandiari, and Nenad Medic.

12:15am... Wil Wheaton Update: With 16K, Wheaton was moved to a new table. He's got Allen Kessler, Joanne Liu, Barry Greenstien, John Kelley, and Jon Favreau at his table. On the brink of elimiantion, Favreau was all in with 4-4 in a three way pot against Barry Greenstien's A-A and John Kelley's A-Q. He spiked a 4 on the river for a set to triple up.

12:20am... One drunk guy is yelling at Shannon Elizabeth's table, "American Pie girl! American Pie girl! I have some rose petals for you."

12:30am... Recent Elimiantions: David Williams, Mel Judah, John Kelley, The Grinder, Linda Johnson, and Lou Diamond Phillips are all out. Willie Garson is also out. As he walked past media row he muttered, "This is the walk of shame. I cannot believe she made that terrible call. She's an awful player."

12:40am... Play is over for the night. About 10 tables left and somethinglike 90 players remaining. Stay tuned for final numbers and a complete photo gallery. Wil Wheaton survived day one. He has a little more than 17K in chips. Action will resume at 6pm on Thursday.

3:01am... Here's a gallery of photos from tonight's event. There are over 30. Feel free to click on each image to see an enlarged view.


James Woods


Isabelle "No Mercy" Mercier


Daniel Negreanu


Dick Van Patten


VVP (Far left) and Liz Lieu


Dan Alspach & Patrik Antonious


Monkey Poker


Paul Darden & Tom McEvoy


David Williams


Evy Ng


WSOP Ladies Champion Jen Tilly


Clonie Gowen & Joe Sebok


"All you can eat, baby!"


Ricki Lake & Erick Lindgren


Former Star Trek actor plays poker


Layne says, "I'm gonna raise your blind every time!"


Jason Alexander, Willie Garson (in background), and Mike Sexton


My office...


Todd Brunson


Isabelle at work


Max "The Italian Pirate" Pescatori


Unabomber


Lou Gossett, Jr. and Gus Hansen in a deep conversation


Cowboy Kenna James


Dr. Jerry Buss


Jon Favreau moments before cracking Barry Greenstien's aces


Wil plays with Barry Greenstien (far right)


Blair Rodman & Phil "I Can Dodge Bullets" Hellmuth


Shannon Elizabeth & Al Ardebili


Danny Masterson & Gentleman John Gale


More Wil


Jesse Jones


Humberto Brenes


Wil survives Day 1 of the WPT Invitational

See you at 6pm PCT for Day 2 for more live blogging updates. Wil got a good draw for Day 2. Here's Wil's seating assignment couresty of Poker Wire:

Day 2 - Wil's Table:
Seat 1: Steve Lipscomb $47,900
Seat 2: Amnon Filippi $34,700
Seat 3: Wil Wheaton $17,500
Seat 4: Scott Fischman $94,600
Seat 5: Tom Lock $34,600
Seat 6: Adriano Zimonyi $47,300
Seat 7: Coley Laffoon $61,300
Seat 8: Judson Swimner $58,600
Seat 9: Blair Rodman $25,900

End of Day 1 CHipcounts:
1 Ugur Marangoz $ 96,800
2 Scott Fischman $ 94,600
3 John Gale $ 92,700
4 Shawn Buchanan $ 76,600
5 Joe Cassidy $ 68,400
6 An Lu $ 68,300
7 Jason Alexander $ 63,700
8 Lee Watkinson $ 62,100
9 Coley Laffoon $ 61,300
10 Alan Goehring $ 61,300
11 Judson Swimner $ 58,600
12 Quinn Do $ 55,000
13 Dante Oliveto $ 54,700
14 Phil Hellmuth $ 54,300
15 Matt Carboy $ 53,400
16 Jeff Liebster $ 53,100
17 Bill Edler $ 52,100
18 Will Alaimo $ 48,400
19 Isabelle Mercier $ 48,100
20 Steve Lipscomb $ 47,900
21 Adriano Zimonyi $ 47,300
22 Chad Brown $ 45,300
23 Evelyn Ng $ 42,700
24 Craig Hartman $ 42,200
25 David Prat $ 41,600
26 Gus Hansen $ 41,200
27 David Norrie $ 38,100
28 Denny Williams $ 36,200
29 Amnon Filippi $ 34,700
30 Tom Lock $ 34,600
31 Audrey Kania $ 34,100
32 Steven Dannenmann $ 33,200
33 Humberto Brenes $ 32,700
34 Barry Greenstein $ 32,300
35 Clonie Gowen $ 32,000
36 Johan Storakers $ 30,400
37 John Esposito $ 30,200
38 Allen Kessler $ 29,700
39 Todd Brunson $ 28,300
40 Noli Francisco $ 28,200
41 Scott Jensen $ 27,400
42 Mimi Rogers $ 26,500
43 Jesse Jones $ 26,500
44 Jimmy Tran $ 26,400
45 Blair Rodman $ 25,900
46 Steve Diamatas $ 25,600
47 Davood Mehrmand $ 24,700
48 Matt Smith $ 24,300
49 Andy Goetsch $ 24,300
50 Matt Lefkowitz $ 23,400
51 Herman Zango $ 23,200
52 Louis Drogin $ 22,900
53 Tuan Le $ 22,500
54 Paul Darden Jr. $ 22,400
55 Tony Cousineau $ 22,400
56 Jared Smith $ 22,300
57 Jon Favreau $ 22,000
58 Hoyt Corkins $ 21,700
59 Lynette Chan $ 21,200
60 Ali Sarkeshik $ 21,200
61 Kevin Weisman $ 21,100
62 Gavin Smith $ 20,400
63 Casey Kastle $ 19,300
64 Alexander Stevic $ 18,900
65 Sam Simon $ 18,400
66 Nick Schulman $ 17,700
67 Danny Masterson $ 17,700
68 Wil Wheaton $ 17,500
69 Rossi Morreale $ 16,200
70 Bob Van Horne $ 14,700
71 Nam Le $ 14,600
72 Joe Viceroy $ 14,600
73 Al Ardebili $ 14,300
74 Marko Trapani $ 13,400
75 Kathy Griffin $ 13,300
76 Chuck Pacheco $ 12,700
77 Philippe Rouas $ 12,600
78 Tony Ma $ 12,400
79 Jeannette Crandall $ 11,500
80 Ben Roberts $ 11,100
81 Doug Carli $ 11,100
82 David Welch $ 10,900
83 Farzad Bonyadi $ 10,300
84 Orlando Maldonado $ 10,100
85 Bart Hansa $ 9,900
86 David Cossio $ 9,800
87 Mark Tenner $ 9,100
88 Adrian de Carteret $ 8,600
89 Neil Wright $ 8,500
90 Marco Traniello $ 6,100
91 Dick Van Patten $ 5,800
92 Karina Jett $ 5,600
93 Charlie Donaldson $ 5,300
94 Andy Simpson $ 5,300
95 Danny Smith $ 4,600
96 David Levi $ 3,200
97 Mike Matusow $ 2,300
98 Steve Mould $ 2,100

See you at 6pm.
posted by Pauly at 2/22/2006 10:29:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WPT LA Poker Classic Day 6: The Final Table


After six longs days of poker, we've finally reached a final table for the LA Poker Classic at Commerce Casino. 692 players, celebrities, and satellite wnners forked up $10K each for a shot at $2.3M first place prize, a set in the $25K WPT Championships, and bragging rights for winning the biggest poker tournament (total prize pool) ever in California. Right now, JC Tran sits on top as the chipleader, with WPT champion Alan Goehring still in the hunt for his second title. Per Ummer from Sweden is trying to win his first WPT event.

Final Table Chipcounts (courtesy of Poker Wire):
1 JC Tran (Sacremento, CA) $3.72M
2 Per "Nemo" Ummer (Cyprus, Greece) $2.87M
3 Michael Woo (Desert Hot Springs, CA) $2.195M
4 Alan Goehring (Henderson, NV) $1.9M
5 Daniel Quach (Monrovia, CA) $1.655M
6 Steven Simmons (Watertown, NY) $1.505M

Quick Stats:
Chipleader: JC Tran
Total Entrants: 692
Prize Pool: $6,643,200
First Place: $2,391,550

Here's a final table payout list:
1st: $2,391,550
2nd: $1,162,560
3rd: $571,315
4th: $338,803
5th: $265,728
6th: $199,296

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

4:00pm... We're waiting to be let inside. In the meantime, the Poker Wire girls ate BLT sandwiches for lunch, while BJ ate McDonalds and got a St. Pattys Day green milkshake. Spaceman ate corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, and baked chicken. I ate In & Out Burger... the double-double with cheese.

4:15pm... I'm set up in media row, sitting in the far corner with Spaceman and BJ. Stay tuned for action. We're supposed to start at 5pm PCT. The crowd just got let into the stage area and the crew is finsihing up last minute preps on the set.

4:20pm... Smoke break!

4:45pm... Prop Bet Update: We got four going in media row to keep things interesting.

1. The O/U in today's tourney was set at 11:20pm. I took the over and BJ has the under.

2. I bet Spaceman that the first bustout will be a bad beat. He has the best hand winning.

3. In the media pool, Spaceman has Per Ummer, BJ has Alan Goehring, and I went with Michael Woo. In these pools, you cannot take the chipleader and I got the last pick. So I'll be pulling for my man Mike Woo today.

4. BJ thinks it will take less than 4 hands before we see our first flop. I got 5 or more.

5:15pm... Celeb Sightings: The Grinder and James Woods is sitting in front of us in Media Row. Juha Helppi is here along with Paul Darden.

5:30pm... Player introductions are starting as we speak. Mike Woo was the first player to win a single table satellite to the LAPC. And now he's here at the final table. JC Tran is the chipleader.

5:38pm... Cards are in the air.

5:39pm... Prop Bet Update: BJ 1, Pauly 0. We got to see a flop on the first hand. I'm already in the hole before the first pot has been pushed to a player! Danoel Quach took down the first pot.

5:41pm... JC Tran is still the chipleader after won a pot against Alan Goehring.

6:00pm... JC Tran is up to $4.1M in chips.

6:06pm... Bouncin Round the Room: Announcer Linda Johnson pointed out that James Woods was in the crowd. He took 24th place in this event and was playfully talking smack with Mike Woo, who busted him when his A-A held up against Q-Q. By the way, Evelyn Ng is also here in the crowd.

Updated Chipcount:
1. JC Tran $3.8M
2. Per Ummer $2.7M
3. Daniel Quach $2.4M
4. Mike Woo $2.2M
5. Steven Simmons $1.290M
6. Alan Goehring $1.2M

6:13pm... In the biggest hand of the day, Steven Simmons raised preflop to $150K. JC Tran raised to $400K and Simmons moved all in over the top. Tran thought about calling for a while before he folded. Simmons has the reputation of being a tight player, so we suspect he had a big hand like Aces or Kings. That was the first hand he played so far, through 14 hands.

6:30pm... Per Ummer won his first pot of the day and won another one soon after. JC Tran was in both hands with him. 22 hands in and we're still looking for the first bustout.

6:38pm... Daniel Quach was the second player to move all in today. He went over the top of JC Tran for $1.8M. Tran called and everyone in the crowd jumped to their feet anticipating the first big hand and bustout of the final table. Tran flipped over Ac-Kh, while Quach showed As-Ks. They chopped.

6:45pm... Players are on a break while the crew changes the tapes in the camera.

Updated Chipcount:
1. JC Tran $3.8M
2. Per Ummer $2.775M
3. Daniel Quach $2.475M
4. Steven Simmons $1.765M
5. Mike Woo $1.74M
6. Alan Goehring $1.54M

6:55pm... Players are back. We're on a new level. Blinds are $40K/$80K with a $10K ante.

7:05pm... Steve Simmons moved all in again. This time, Per Ummer called. Simmons had Q-Q to Ummer's J-J. The flop was A-10-4, the turn was a 2. I turned to Spaceman and said, "A betcha the river is a black card." He picked red and we had a prop on the river. A 10 of spades fell, which meant I picked up a win against Spaceman and Per Ummer doubled up Steven Simmons. Like I said before, Simmons is tight, but it's tough to fold J-J six-handed. Per's stack took a big hit. He has just over $1M and is the shortstack, while Simmons's stack is around $3M. JC Tran is still the chipleader. My guy Mike Woo is third in chips with $1.7M.

7:21pm... JC Tran and Per Ummer rumbled again. This time Ummer had A-A and Tran had 10-7. On a flop of Q-9-8, all the money went into the pot. Tran missed his open-ended straight draw and Ummer's Aces held up. Ummer doubled up and is now back on top as the chipleader, knocking JC Tran out of the leader's spot.

Updated Chipcount:
1 Per Ummer $4.2M
2 Steven Simmons $2.63M
3 Daniel Quach $2.55M
4 Michael Woo $1.9M
5 JC Tran $1.65M
6 Alan Goehring $1.2M

7:33pm... Alan Goehring came from behind to double up with 9-7. He flopped trip 9s against Daniel Quach's 10-10. Goehring's no longer the shortstack.

7:43pm... Daniel Quach just took down a big ass mother of a pot worth about $2M according to BJ. His A-A held up after he flopped a set.

7:49pm... 41 hands in, we still have six players left. The chips are going around the table. JC Tran went from first to last. Although this is not the longest the WPT has gone before somone was busted, it's certainly one of the longest tournaments I covered in a while before anyone got eliminated. With $2.3M on the line, no one wants to make a mistake. These players got this far and they're not going to piss away six days of work on a poor decision.

7:55pm... Jc Tran was all in preflop with A-K versus Alan Goehring's Kc-Jc. Tran still lead after the flop and his Big Slick held up to double up. He's still alive.

7:58pm... We're on a new level. Blinds are $60K/$120K with a $15K ante. The low stacks are about even... $1.4-$1.7M for JC Tran, Alan Gohering, and Mike Woo. The big stacks are Daniel Quach with $3.5M, Steve Simmons with $2.7M and Per Ummer has $2.8M.

8:05pm... My pick Mike Woo took a pot off of Alan Goehring with the Dead Man's Hand. He now has $2.3M. Goehring slipped to $1M. He's the shortstack.

8:11pm... Players are on a break. And so am I. Quach is our new chipleader.

Updated Chipcounts:
1. Daniel Quach $3.47M
2. Steven Simmons $3.44M
3. Per Ummer $2.19M
4. Michael Woo $2.18M
5. J.C. Tran $1.19M
6. Alan Goehring $1.015M

8:20pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I headed downstairs to eat a hotdog at the Tiki Hut. Commerce is infamous for their hotdogs. I also grabbed a donut. Kinda stale, but I was hungry. And now back by popular demand....

Last 5 Pros I Took a Piss Next To...
1. Juha Helppi
2. Paul Darden
3. Eskimo
4. Allen Cunningham
5. The Grinder

8:48pm... We're approaching Hand #60 without an elimination. On two consecutive hands, Steven Simmons and Mike Woo moved all in and everyone folded.

Updated Chipcount:
1. Daniel Quach $3.7M
2. Steven Simmons $3.045M
3. Michael Woo $2.5M
4. Alan Goehring $2M
5. Per Ummer $1.7M

9:03pm... Linda Johnson is even bored. She's cracking one liners with the crowd and has been telling jokes.

9:06pm... JC Tran and his A-5s doubled up againt Per "Nemo" Ummer's A-4s. He's got over $1.4M now after he picked up a second pot in a row. Daniel Quach is still the chipleader with $3.2M, while Per Ummer slipped to under $800K.

9:15pm... We just completed Hand #72. No bustouts so far. Six tight players still remain. Here's how most of the hands have gone preflop: fold, fold, raise, fold, fold, fold. Yep, whoever raises preflop usually takes down the pots. No one wants to gamboool here.

9:18pm... Per Ummer came from behind to double up against Alan Goehring. Dominated K-Q to A-Q, Ummer flopped two pair. On a board of K-Q-10, Goehring had outs but didn't catch any. Ummer is still alive! And we're still six handed.

9:20pm... Players are on a break because the level ended. They are also coloring up chips.

Updated Chipcount:
1. Steven Simmons $3.155M
2. Daniel Quach $2.995M
3. Michael Woo $2.505M
4. Alan Goehring $2.19M
5. Per Ummer $1.6M
6. JC Tran $1.405M

9:30pm... Players are back. Blinds are $100K/$200K with a $20K ante. Let's hope the new blinds level will force the action.

9:36pm... Recent Elimination: The place went bonkers when Per Ummer and JC Tran were all in preflop. Everyone in the audience was tired and had been waiting for some action for almost four hours. On Hand #80, our first elimination went down. Ummer had Ac-7c while Tran showed Ah-Kh. Ummer's hand did not improve and JC Tran won the pot. Per Ummer won $199,296 for 6th place. JC Tran regained the chiplead. A new record was set at 80 hand before the first elimination. It broke the record set at the Borgata Poker Open in September of 2005, which was 73 hands. Ironically, that event lasted under 100 hands.


Per Ummer - 6th Place

Updated Chipcount:
1 JC Tran $3.7M
2 Daniel Quach $3.5M
3 Michael Woo $2.7M
4 Steven Simmons $2.6M
5 Alan Goehring $1.75M

9:40pm... Prop Bet Update: Spaceman is out of the media pool. Per Ummer was his pick and it's down to me and BJ. I lost a prop with Spaceman. I said the first bustout would be a bad beat.

9:50pm... Players are on a break. Andy Bloch is hanging out in media row.

10:08pm... Bouncin Round the Room: Things are back to being slow again. The Grinder is sitting in front of us making fart noises while Amnon Filippi is heckling the remaining players. I'm currently sweating Wil Wheaton in a 180 person SNG on Poker Stars and he's kicking ass.

10:13pm... Two players were all in preflop. JC Tran had 7-7 while Mike Woo had 9-9. The flop was 10-10-8. The turn was a 10 and the river was a three. Mike Woo's hand held up and his railbirds chanted in approval. Mike Woo doubled up.

10:20pm... Wil Wheaton update: Wil is 5th out of 17 left in his 180 person SNG. He's just made the money and has $16K chips left with two tables remaining. He was shortstacked a few levels ago and doubled up with Q-10 when caught trips. He had been on a rush since then.

10:22pm... Alan Goehring's J-J's held up against Mike Woo's J-6o. Goehring doubled up with a shortstack while Woo called from the big blind with J-6o. He has $1.14M and stciks around for a little while longer.

10:28pm... Wil Wheaton update: Wil picked up two hands in a row with preflop raises. No action. He's 6th out of 16.

10:29pm... Recent Elimination: JC Tran badbeated! Another exciting hand, as the crowd jumped to its feet when two players went all in. Alan Goehring's 5-5 was way behind JC Tran's pocket Aces. Flop was all spades 2-9-7. Tran had the Ace of Spades and was free rolling a flush draw. The turn was a 2 and the river was a five of diamonds. The audience exploded when one of Goehring's two outs spiked on the river. The room is still buzzing from that bad beat as JC Tran just shook his head and walked off the set to do a bustout interview with the lovely Courtney Friel, who is sporting a tight fitting sleek red cocktail dress. One of JC Tran's railbirds screamed, "Get that internet dealer out of there!" Yes, even live poker is rigged. Since Goehring had Tran covered by just 25K, Tran was busted out in 5th place. JC Tran won $265,728 for 5th place after getting his pocket aces cracked. Even pros get kicked in the junk.


JC Tran - 5th place

Updated Chipcount:
1 Daniel Quach $4.5M
2 Michael Woo $3.87M
3 Alan Goehring $3.1M
4 Steven Simmons $2.33M

10:40pm... Wil Wheaton update: Wil Wheaton was shortstacked and made an amazing call on the flop with A-9. He was outdrawn and he took 10th place, bubbling out of the final table. Wil will be playing in the WPT Invitational tomorrow. Best of luck, Wil.

10:45pm... We're on a new level. Blinds are $150K/$300K with $30K antes.

Updated Chipcount:
1 Daniel Quach $6.4M
2 Michael Woo $3.6M
3 Alan Goehring $2.2M
4 Steven Simmons $1.8M

10:52pm... Recent Elimination: On Hand #103, Steven Simmons was eliminated in 4th place when his J-10 lost to Alan Goehring's K-Js. Simmons moved all in on the button, and Goehring quickly called with the dominating hand. Simmons won $338,803 for 4th place.

Final 3 Chipcount:
1. Daniel Quach $6M
2. Alan Goehring $4.25M
3. Mike Woo $3.5M

Steven Simmons - 4th Place
11:05pm... Dan Quach won the first big hand once it got three-way. He added to his stack which sits at $6.5M.

11:14pm... Recent Elimination: Mike Woo is out in 3rd place. Here's what wnet down. Mike Woo raised and Dan Quach moved all in. Woo eventually called with 5-5. Quach flipped over K-Q. The flop was A-A-Q, and Quach took the lead. The turn was a ten and the river was 3. Quach's hand held up and Mike Woo was sent to the rail. He won $571,315 for 3rd place.

Updated Chipcount:
1. Dan Quach $9.315M
2. Alan Goehring $4.51M

Mike Woo - 3rd Place

11:19pm... Prop Bet Update: BJ won the media pool when his pick Alan Goehring outlasted my pick Mike Woo and Spaceman's pick Per Ummer. I won the O/U on the final time. Spaceman and I did one last prop bet of the day... the final time of the event. We set the time at Midnight and he has the under.

11:30pm... There is a slight delay as the crew sets the table for the money presentation. We're almost ready for heads up play.

11:36pm... Dan Quach won the first hand of heads up play, but Goehring picked up the next few.

11:56pm... We're on a new level. Blinds are $250K/$500K. Antes are $50K.

Updated Chipcount:
1. Dan Quach $9.7M
2. Alan Goehring $4.2M

12:00am... Alan Goehring moved all in, and everyone in the audience jumped to it's feet anticipating a showdown. Alas, Quach folded and everyone sat back down as the folks in media row grumbled. Goehring picked up a few more chips and now has $6.6M to Quach's $7.2M. We're almost even.

12:03am... Clonie Gowen sighting here at the final table taping.

12:07am... After picking up three consecutive pots, we have a new chipleader in Alan Goehring.

12:18am... Bouncin Round the Room: I forgot to tell you how the Poker Wire girls are kicking my ass in various Roshambo prop bets. While we waited to get in Amanda beat me in best-of-three. We tied the first three and I thought I was inside her head, but then I went on Roshambo tilt and lost. During the boring heads up play, I played Heather IM-a-Roshambo. She slaughtered me.

12:24am... Recent Elimination: We had our first big battle on the 30th hand of heads up play. Both players were all in preflop. Alan Goehring was behind wth K-8 versus Dan Quach's A-J. Goehring looked disappointed with his call. The flop was Q-J-9 and Qauch kept the lead, but it gave Goehring a gutshot. The turn was a King, and the crowd let out a loud reaction as Goehring took the lead. The river was a 7 and Goehring won the hand and his second WPT title. Daniel Quach won $1,162,560 for 2nd place. Alan Goehring won $2,391,550 for first place including a seat in the WPT Championships at the Bellagio in April. Congrats to both Daniel Quach and Alan Goerhing.


Daniel Quach - 2nd Place


Alan Goehring - 2006 LA Poker Classic Champion
1:01am... Well that concludes another final table of the WPT. The LA Poker Classic is officially over. Thanks to the Commerce's staff and all my fellow reps in the media for another fun adventure. Special thanks to all my blogger friends for linking up my live blogging coverage and pimping it on their blogs. You guys rule. I also want to say extra special thanks especially to Maudie for the cool banners.
posted by Pauly at 2/21/2006 06:53:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WPT LA Poker Classic - Day 5


We're back at Commerce Casino for the shortest day of action in the history of the WPT. We have ten players remaining in the LA Poker Classic main event and we're going to play down to six. Four players must bust out. Should be an exciting day? If you were sitting in front of me in media row, you could see the sarcasm oozing out of my ears. This is totally ridiculous and my time could be better spent donking around chips at the NL tables instead of figthing through traffic (even on a holiday) and coming down to cover the last four eliminations.

Per Ummer from Sweden is the chipleader with over $2.5M, while WSOP bracelet winner David Chiu is the shortstack.

Some bustouts from Day Four included: Jon Luu, Juha Helppi, Jon Kelley, John Gale, James Woods, Rodeen Talebi, Chris Bigler, Bill Gazes.

Final 10 Chipcount (courtesy of Poker Wire):
1 Per Ummer $2.455M
2 Alan Goehring $2.315M
3 Kevan Casey $2.03M
4 Michael Woo $1.665M
5 Daniel Quach $1.425M
6 Steven Simmons $1.270M
7 JC Tran $1.245M
8 Michael McClain $665K
9 Anahit Galajian $480K
10 David Chiu $305K
Avg. Stack: $1.384M

The Final 10

Here's a payout list:
1st: $2,391,550
2nd: $1,162,560
3rd: $571,315
4th: $338,803
5th: $265,728
6th: $199,296
7th: $166,080
8th: $132,864
9th: $99,648
10th: $73,075

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

3:03pm... I'm sitting in between BJ and Spaceman in media row. I ate El Pollo Loco with Joe Speaker in downtown L.A., which happens to be BJ's favorite place to eat on the planet, next to In & Out Burger.

3:20pm... Prop Bet Update: I chopped with BJ last night. Today we have a good one. How many combined vowels are there going to be in the full name of the first player to bust out. He took 5 or more and I got the under... 4 or less. Should be interesting, especially since I'm getting slaughtered in Olympics betting. The US Women's curling team got spanked by the Brits.

3:36pm... Cards are in the air. Blinds are $15K/30K with a 5K ante. There's a little more than 40 minutes left at this level.

3:52pm... There's tension sticking to the walls in here. There's no talk at the tables and you can only hear the faint clatter of chips and media reps plugging away at their laptops. With $2.3M on the line for first palce, no one wants to make a bad move.

3:54pm... Recent Elimination: 2005 WSOP bracelet winner David Chui has been eliminated by JC Tran in 10th place. Tran flopped top pair and Chiu missed an pen ended straigth draw. He won $73,075.

3:55pm... Prop Bet Update: Pauly 1, BJ 0. I won the first prop bet with BJ. 4 vowels, baby!

4:05pm... Recent Elimination: Michael McClain is out in 9th place when he ran into Michael Woo's Q-Q with a steal. He won $99,648.

Updated Chipcount:
1 Per Ummer $2.7M
2 Michael Woo $2.3M
3 Alan Goehring $2.03M
4 JC Tran $2M
5 Kevan Casey $1.88M
6 Steven Simmons $1.111M
7 Daniel Quach $1M
8 Anahit Galajian $380K
Avg. Stack: $1.73M

4:20pm... Players are on a break and I'm on a smoke break.

4:40pm... We're on Level 24. Blinds are $20K/40K with $5K antes. 8 players remain. Per is reaching the $3M mark.

Updated Chipcount:
1 Per Ummer $2.9M
2 Alan Goehring $2.46M
3 Michael Woo $2.17M
4 JC Tran $1.915M
5 Kevan Casey $1.57M
6 Steven Simmons $1.1M
7 Daniel Quach $1.05M
8 Anahit Galajian $555K

5:10pm... JC Tran lost a big pot to Steven Simmons with 7-7 vs. J-J.

5:15pm... I'm running out of batteries! Be back soon.

5:30pm... Picture dump!


David Chiu & Michael "Agony of Defeat" McClain


Per Ummer's Bigstack


Glimpse from Media Row: Poker Wire Girls in action


More Media Row
6:05pm... Recent Elimination: Kevan Casey was busted in 8th place by JC Tran. He turned two pair, but Tran turned a set on a board of 10-3-2-5-J. Both players were all in by the river. Kevan Casey, who held the chiplead on more than one instance over the course of yesterday finished up in 7th. He won $132,864. That pot put Tran nto the chiplead with over $3.7M

Updated Chipcount:
1 JC Tran $3.74M
2 Per Ummer $2.9M
3 Alan Goehring $2.48M
4 Michael Woo $1.65M
5 Steven Simmons $1.62M
6 Daniel Quach $1.3M
7 Anahit Galajian $260K

6:40pm... Recent Elimination: Anahit Galajian, the last female in the field, finished in 7th place and became the TV Bubble Girl. Her A-6s lost to Daniel Quach's 9-9. Anahit Galajian won $166,080 for sixth place.

Final Table Chipcounts:
1 JC Tran $3.72M
2 Per Ummer $2.87M
3 Michael Woo $2.195M
4 Alan Goehring $1.9M
5 Daniel Quach $1.655M
6 Steven Simmons $1.505M

Anahit Galajian - 7th Place


JC Tran - End of Day 5 Chipleader
Action is over for Day 5 and will resume at 5pm on Tuesday for the final table of the WPT LA Poker Classic. JC Tran will be the chipleader when the final table begins. See you there for more live blogging updates.
posted by Pauly at 2/20/2006 05:53:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WPT LA Poker Classic - Day 4

"I hope you all get anal herpes!" - James Woods in Salvador

A movie star is on the verge of making a final table in the biggest poker tournament in California. This isn't an overbudgeted blockbuster in Hollywierd, it's just another day in my life as I get to document another stop on the WPT. Can the two-time Oscar nominee James Woods survive one more day an achieve immortality by coming from behind to book the biggest poker win of his career? Or will he be one of the hundreds of players that were sent to the rail and had their brains and guts smashed to bits, like roadkill on a late night interstate.

We're back for day four of action at the LA Poker Classic at Commerce Casino. Yesterday ended with the field losing even more players and having the money bubble burst. We're going to try to get down to six players tonight and get a rare day off. I could use the sleep after five straight nights of staying up until dawn and partying with drug-addled blondes, neurotic actors, and strung out studio execs.

There are some tough questions that I am going to try to figure out today:

1. Can James Woods make a WPT final table?
2. Will I come from behind and even up the prop bets with BJ?
3. Can a European player like John Gale, Chris Bigler, Per Ummer and Juha Helppi take it down?
4. Will anyone at Commerce get anal herpes?

Jon Luu ended day three as the chipleader. Day two's chipleader Fabrice Soulier was booted yesterday, so Luu hopes he can hold off the pack and make his first WPT final table. I'll be rooting for Gentleman John Gale from London today, along with James Woods.

Here's some notable names who busted out on Day 3: Chip Reese, Chip Jett, Mark Gregorich, Shawn Sheikhan, Eric "Rizen" Lynch, Phil Laak, Blair Rodman, Hasan Habib, Paul Darden, Ben Roberts, Jason Lester, Matt Matros, Fabrcie Soulier, Scotty Nguyen, Brad Berman , TJ Cloutier, David Plastik, Gabe Thaler, Ed Moncada, Allen Cunningham, Jim Bechtel, Mike Carson, Can Kim Hua, Danny Alaei, Jim Miller, and Amir Vahedi.

Here's an updated end of day three chipcount courtesy of Jen, Heather, & Amanda at Poker Wire:

1 Jon Luu $1.111M
2 Per Ummer $1,022M
3 Brian McCann $939M
4 Alan Goehring $916M
5 Juha Helppi $804M
6 Jon Kelley $751K
7 David Chiu $749K
8 Daniel Quach $739K
9 Michael McClain $737K
10 Kevan Casey $685K
11 Michael Woo $670K
12 John Gale $549K
13 Steven Simmons $494K
14 Anahit Galajian $458K
15 J.C. Tran $441K
16 James Woods $438K
17 Rodeen Talebi $414K
18 Chris Bigler $413K
19 Mark Weidmann $327K
20 Bill Gazes $258K
21 Danny Noam $253K
22 Tom Macey $242K
23 Kelly Kim $173K
24 Damon Ahmadi $135K
25 Bruce Parker $106K
26 Genefredo Legaspi $68K
27 Roy Winston $45K

Here's a payout list:
1st: $2,391,550
2nd: $1,162,560
3rd: $571,315
4th: $338,803
5th: $265,728
6th: $199,296
7th: $166,080
8th: $132,864
9th: $99,648
10th-12th: $73,075
13th-15th: $59,789
16th-18th: $46,502
19th-27th: $39,859

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

3:15pm... It's a cluster fuck here at Commerce as the media row was collapsed and we got sent down to the floor. I'm sitting in between Landon, BJ, and Spaceman and we're actually closer to the action instead of being stuck in the far corner of the stage. We have limited access to the tables and I'll do my best to snap a few photos. I got some horrible news. We're going to be playing down to 10 today and then we will play down to six on Monday. It's pretty silly if you ask me but why the hell would a prestigious organization like the WPT heed my advice on matters like tournament reporting? But maybe I'll get out of here earlier. That's what I'm hoping for... loose play.

3:25pm... We're a few minutes away from action. I can hear the clatter of chips start as the players unbagged their chips. When I walked into Commerce an hour ago, I spotted James Woods nervously talking on his cellphone and pacing the hallways like a caged lion.

3:35pm... We're still on Level 18 with about 30 minutes remaining. Blinds are $5K/$10K with $1K antes. Cards are officially in the air.

3:40pm... Recent Eliminations: Two quick bustouts. Tom Macey (27th place) and Genefredo Legaspi (26th place) are out within the first few minutes. Tom Macey's A-K lost a coinflip to Per Ummer's 10-10. The both won $38,859.

3:55pm... We have a new chipleader. Say hello to Per Ummer, who has $1.3M. James Woods still has around $300K which is below the average.

4:00pm... We're now on Level 19. Blinds are $6K/12K with a $2K ante.

4:05pm... Recent Elimination: Chris Bigler took a big hit when JC Tran doubled through him. A few hands later, he was busted in 25th place by Bruce Parker when his A-2 lost to A-8. He won $39,859.

Top 5 Chipcount:
1 Per Ummer $1.275M
2 Brian McCann $1.05M
3 Alan Goehring $970K
4 Kevan Casey $970K
5 Jon Kelley $770K

4:15pm... Recent Elimination: James Woods loses with the Hiltons. James Woods is out in 24th place when his Q-Q lost to Michael Woo's pocket Aces. James Woods won $39,859 and failed to make the final table. When he pushed his chair in and left the table, the crowd gave him a warm ovation.

4:15pm... Picture dump. I snappped these today.

Gentleman John Gale and James Woods


Sweden's Per Ummer


Chris Bigler


Finland's Juha Helppi


Bill Gazes flashes the evil eye at his opponent
4:20pm... Today's smoke break is brought to you by the letter E.

4:32pm... How about an updated chipcount?

Top 5:
1 Michael Woo $1.3M
2 Brian McCann $1.2M
3 Per Ummer $1.2M
4 Alan Goehring $840K
5 JC Tran $820K

4:37pm... Recent Elimination: Roy Winston took 23rd place when he was busted by JC Tran's A-K. He won $39,859. Down to 22.

4:53pm... Prop Bet Update: BJ and I have a double last longer bet. BJ has Bill Gazes & Alan Goehring. I'm going with Team Europe: Juha Helppi and John Gale. Yesterday BJ went 2-1 and I'm hoping to even the score.

4:56pm... Recent Elimination: Bruce Parker is out in 22nd place when his Q-J lost to JC Tran, who scooped the pot with King high. Parker won $39,859. Down to 21.

5:10pm... Recent Elimination: John Luu is out in 21st place when his A-Q lost to David Chiu's 9-9. Luu won $39,859. 20 players left.

5:22pm... Recent Elimination: Damon Ahmadi took 20th place when he was sent home by Michael McClain's 10-10. Ahmadi's overcards could not hold up and he won $39,859 for his efforts. 19 players left on three tables. We're on hand-for-hand. As soon as one more player busts out, action will consolidate to two tables.

5:30pm... Players are on a break. When action resumes we'll be Level 20 with $8K/16K blinds and a $2K ante.

Updated Chipcount:
1 Per Ummer $1.626M
2 Brian McCann $1.4M
3 Michael Woo $1.233M
4 JC Tran $982K
5 David Chiu $964K
6 Steven Simmons $940K
7 John Gale $924K
8 Kevan Casey $845K
9 Alan Goehring $786K
10 Daniel Quach $733K
11 Michael McClain $660K
12 Juha Helppi $620K
13 Jon Kelley $600K
14 Rodeen Talebi $451K
15 Kelly Kim $349K
16 Mark Weidmann $261K
17 Bill Gazes $219K
18 Danny Noam $182K
19 Anahit Galajian $125K

5:45pm... Players have returned and we're still hand-for-hand.

5:51pm... We just came up with this gem in Media Row.

Top 5 Things Bored Tournament Reporters Do on Breaks:
1. Surf for German S&M and pissing porn.
2. Masturbate in the first stall of the Men's Room. (Sorry to out you, Spaceman.)
3. Hit on the good looking female railbirds.
4. Smoke cigarettes on the patio and listen to pros bitch about bad beats.
5. Three words: hookers and blow.

6:00pm... Bouncin Round the Room: Courtney Friel is in the ballroom shooting promos and whenever she enters a room, the place lights up. The railbirds have flocked to the corner of the ballroom to sweat the last 19 players. There are definitely more media reps here than players remaining.

6:04pm... Recent Elimination: Rodeen Talebi was elimianted in 19th place by Kevan Casey by a brutal river suckout. Talebi led with A-K to Casey's A-Q, until a Queen spiked on the river. Talebi won $38,859. Hand-for-hand is over and players are redrawing for the final two tables. 18 players remain.

6:35pm... Nothing to report aside from the fact that Per Ummer now has over $2.1M in chips after he took down a huge pot from Brian McCann.

Updated Top 5 Chipcount:
1 Per Ummer $2.17M
2 Michael Woo $1.5M
3 Kevan Casey $1.15M
4 JC Tran $1M
5 Michael McClain $950K

7:20pm... Players are on a break as action has slowed down to a LA freeway standstill. 18 still left.

7:35pm... We're on Level 21. Blinds are $10K/20K with a $3K ante. Per Ummer is the chipleader.

Updated Chipcount:
1 Per Ummer $1.905M
2 Michael Woo $1.800M
3 Kevan Casey $1.392M
4 JC Tran $980K
5 Steven Simmons $927K
6 Daniel Quach $860K
7 David Chiu $840K
8 Brian McCann $692K
9 Juha Helppi $626K
10 Mark Weidmann $575K
11 Michael McClain $575K
12 Alan Goehring $565K
13 John Gale $450K
14 Anahit Galajian $437K
15 Jon Kelley $324K
16 Kelly Kim $305K
17 Bill Gazes $257K
18 Danny Noam $123K

7:40pm... Recent Eliminations: Bill Gazes was knocked out in 18th place by Alan Goehring. Gazes moved all in with 4-4 and a shortstack and Goehring called with A-J. It was a classic race situation and GOehring flopped an ace to send Gazes to the rail. He won $46,502. Down to 17.

7:47pm... Prop Bet Update: BJ and I made one more... I said that we're going to be playing past Midnight and BJ took the under. I'm hoping that I lose that one. In our other bet, one of his guys Bill Gazes was busted by his other player Alan Goehring. Both my two guys, Juha Helppi and John Gale, are still in. Gale doubled up with Q-10 against Kevan Casey's 5-5. But that overall prop bet is still ongoing. We're gonna take the lowest score of both combined players to determine our winner, which means that Alan Goering needs to go pretty far.

7:50pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I wandered over to buy a snack. I got an iced tea, a banana, and a Snickers bar. All sugar for me. I need to perk up since the action is so tediously slow.

8:01pm... Players are on a one hour dinner break. See you in 59 minutes.

9:06pm... Recent Eliminations: Kelly Kim's K-Js was busted by Kevan Casey's A-Qs. Kim won $46,502 for 17th place.

Today's Money Winners:
27. Tom Macey $38,859
26. Genefredo Legaspi
25. Chris Bigler $38,859
24. James Woods $38,859
23. Roy Winston $38,859
22. Bruce Parker $38,859
21. John Luu $38,859
20. Damon Ahmadi $38,859
19. Rodeen Talebi $38,859
18. Bill Gazes $46,502
17. Kelly Kim $46,502

9:20pm... Bouncin Round the Room: Chris "Triple Draw" Fargis, Adam Friedman, and Liz Lieu all were hanging out in media row. The lovely Liz was asking about my brother who wrote an article about her in December. She was busting my balls the entire time about forgetting who she was at the Bellagio. I say it never happened and she was willing to bet me it did and pulled out a wad of Benjamins. Talk about intimidating! We settled on that the loser has to take BJ to dinner. Since I know I'm right in my bet, it was a cheap way to get BJ a free meal with Liz Lieu.

9:40pm... We're currently hand-for-hand which means that we're rolling along very slow. Michael Woo captured the chiplead and wrestled it away from Per Ummer. It wasn't as exciting as it sounded, but I'm bored shitless over here.

Top 5 Chipcount:
1 Michael Woo $1.71M
2 Kevan Casey $1.7M
3 Per Ummer $1.64K
4 Alan Goehring $1.2K
5 Steven Simmons $965K

9:55pm... Recent Elimination: Jon Kelley, the last celebrity remaining, took 16th place after he was busted by Steven Simmons. Kelly flopped top pair with A-Q against Simmons' J-J. Unfortunately for Kelley, a Jack spiked on the river to send Kelley to the rail. He won $46,502. Down to 15 and we're no longer hand-for-hand.

10:01pm... Recent Elimination: Brian McCann is out after Kevan Casey busted his A-A with the Hilton Sisters. Casey flopped a set of Queens. McCann finished in 15th place and won $59,789 for his efforts. Down to 14 with Kevan Casey as the chipleader.

10:05pm... The 14 remaining players are on a 15 minute break. When they return, we'll be on Level 21. Blinds are $12K/$24K with a $4K ante.

Top 5 Chips:
1 Kevan Casey $2.404M
2 Michael Woo $1.700M
3 Per Ummer $1.603M
4 Steven Simmons $1.153M
5 JC Tran $991K

10:25pm... Recent Elimination: Danny Noam is out in 14th place. Alan Goehring's Q-Q busted his A-Q. Noam won $59,789. And then there were 13 players... and now we're hand-for-hand again.

10:45pm... Still 13 handed. John Gale picked up two pots, one with 10-3o in the little blind when he turned trips.

11:11pm... Nothing exciting to report. Here's a most recent chicpount:

1 Kevan Casey $2.011M
2 Michael Woo $1.8M
3 Per Ummer $1.47M
4 Alan Goehring $1.463M
5 JC Tran $1.4M
6 John Gale $1.37M
7 Michael McClain $1.345M
8 Steven Simmons $660K
9 Daniel Quach $565K
10 Juha Helppi $505K
11 Mark Weidmann $452K
12 David Chiu $430K
13 Ahahit Galajian $320K

11:55pm... Recent Elimination: Good night, Juha... or as they say in Helsinki, "Hyvaa yota." Alan Goehring's Big Slick held up against Juha Helppi's helpless A-J. Helppi won $59,789 for 13th place and misses his chance of making another WPT final table. Alan Gohering springboarded into the chiplead with almost $3.2M.

12:01am... Since Glyph asked, he got it.


JC Tran


Steve Simmons
12:35am... Recent Elimination: Gentleman John Gale is out in 12th place by Daniel Quach. He won $73,075.

12:40am... Prop Bet Update: BJ 1, Pauly 1. It's a push today. I won the final table finish O/U since BJ picked before midnight. And my team of Gale/Helppi lost to BJ's team of Gohering/Gazes.

12:50am... We're bummed in media row that our favorite eye candy is no longer around. When Roy Winston busted, his railbird left with him.


Tao of Poker's Railbird of the Day

12:55am... Recent Elimination: Mark Weidmann was knocked out in 11th place by Per Ummer. Weidmann's K-K lost to A-Q when Ummer flopped an ace. He won $73,075. We're down to 10 and action is complete for the night. We wll be playing down to 6 tomorrow. I know, it's totally retarded but that's how it goes.

End of Day 4 Chipcount:
1 Per Ummer $2.455M
2 Alan Goehring $2.315M
3 Kevan Casey $2.030M
4 Michael Woo $1.665M
5 Daniel Quach $1.425M
6 Steven Simmons $1.270M
7 JC Tran $1.245M
8 Michael McClain $665K
9 Anahit Galajian $480K
10 David Chiu $305K

See ya at 3:30pm on Monday for Day 5. That's it. In the immortal words of James Woods, "I all hope you get anal herpes."
posted by Pauly at 2/19/2006 05:34:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WPT LA Poker Classic - Day 3


I'm back at the Commerce Casino for the third day of action of the LA Poker Classic. Lucky for me there was no traffic this afternoon and I arrived on time. I had a late night after playing poker with some friends at the infamous West LA Murder's Row homegame. I took 3rd place in the tournament then got slaughtered in the PLH cash game.

There are 97 players remaining out of the original 693 who started the main event. The buzz today surrounds the progress of the six day event. Everyone is hoping that players can get knocked out as fast as possible in order to get a rare day off on Monday. This happened in the Poker Stars Caribbean Adventure Bahamas in January, when a five day tournament only needed four days to complete. That's what the media, crew, and the staff here are hoping for! Weirder things can happen especially in California, so I'm not going to worry about that until tomorrow night. The top 45 players make the money and action always slow down once we get close to the bubble.

Frenchman Fabrcie Soulier is the chipleader with $462K. There are plenty of pros and notable names left in the mix including: JC Tran, Alan Goehring, Mike Carson, Can Kim Hua, Danny Alaei, Jim Bechtel, Jim Miller, Amir Vahedi, Chris Bigler, David Chiu, Rodeen Talebi, Edward Moncada, Ben Roberts, Jeff Rine, Chip Jett, Jason Lester, Matt Matros, Paul Darden, Hasan Habib, Gentleman John Gale, David Plastik, Allen Cunningham, Chip Reese, Bill Gazes, Shawn Sheikhan, Juha Helppi, Blair Rodman, T.J. Cloutier, Gabriel Thaler, Phil Laak, James Woods, and Scotty Nguyen.

Here's who busted out on Day 2: David Benyamine, Bruce Buffer, L.A. Lakers owner Jerry Buss, Shannon Elizabeth, Men the Master, Ray Pardley Jr., Brandon Adams, Morgan Machina, David Singer, David "Quackpot" Jones, Gus Hansen, Tony Grand, Tim Phan, Olga Varkonyi, John Myung, Davood Mehrmand, Dan Schmiech, Boston Rob from Survivor, Jen Harman, An Tran, Daid Grey,Harley Hall, Eric Mizrachi, Loi Phan, Mike Wattel, Young Phan, Erik Seidel, Dutch Boyd, Barry Greenstien, Minh Ly, Chris "Armenian Express" Grigorian, Dewey Tomko, Mike Matusow, William Rockwell, Capt. Tom Franklin, Jim "Krazy Kanuck" Worth, Glyn Banks, Gabe Kaplan, Erick Lindgren, Chris Karagulleyan, Keith Sexton, Lyle Berman, Jean-Robert Bellande, Minneapolis Jim Meehan, Peter Costa, Scott Lazar, Philippe Rouas, Miami John Cernuto, Eli Elezra, Ralph Perry, Greg "FBT" Mueller, Melissa Hayden, Dustin Wolf, Antonio Esfandiari, and Max Pescatori are all out.

Today's early questions are:

1. Will we get down to less than 45 players?
2. Can James Woods survive another day as one of the shortstacks?
3. Will I win any money in Olympic prop bets?
4. Can Fabrice Soulier maintain his chiplead?

Stay tuned to find out the answers.

***** Live Blogging Update *****

3:05pm... I won my first prop of the day during breakfast. I went to Nick's Coffee Shop on Pico with Change100 and we decided to do a prop bet for the tab. She was on her own turf, set the over/under, and even got to choose! And she failed miserably, picking 12:30pm for the time our food would arrive in the crowded joint. It came at 12:46 and she was way off. My four slices of French toast, bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, and iced tea were all for free.

3:15pm... When I arrived in media row today, James Woods, Mike Matusow, and TJ Cloutier were milling around. Then Spaceman and I got to talk hockey with Steve Rosenbloom. Talk about having a good start to the day. Rosenbloom covered Olympic hockey in Nagano in 1988.

3:25pm... Action will be starting soon. We will be playing six levels or until 45 players remain, which is "the money." Here are the chipcounts:

End of Day 2 Chipcounts:
1 Fabrice Soulier $ 462,000
2 JC Tran $ 426,300
3 Luis Sanchez $ 383,000
4 Alan Goehring $ 368,200
5 Mike Carson $ 343,800
6 Can Kim Hua $ 329,200
7 Danny Alaei $ 317,300
8 Jim Bechtel $ 310,000
9 Stephen Giufre $ 301,200
10 Jim Miller $ 298,000
11 Amir Vahedi $ 297,600
12 Chris Bigler $ 290,800
13 Jose Tavares $ 277,500
14 David Chiu $ 265,800
15 Rodeen Talebi $ 264,400
16 Edward Moncada $ 255,000
17 Ayaz Mahmood $ 234,900
18 Orlando Maldonado $ 217,300
19 Ben Roberts $ 210,200
20 Per Ummer $ 209,700
21 Lin Ho $ 202,600
22 Luis Velador $ 200,000
23 Jeff Rine $ 197,000
24 Daniel Fuhs $ 194,100
25 Brian McCann $ 184,900
26 Chip Jett $ 180,400
27 Jason Lester $ 175,500
28 Julian Hart $ 174,200
29 Matt Matros $ 169,800
30 Paul Darden $ 157,500
31 Ugur Marangoz $ 151,700
32 Kelly Kim $ 150,200
33 Hasan Habib $ 147,400
34 Chuck Doumitt $ 147,000
35 Michael McClain $ 145,300
36 John Gale $ 143,700
37 David Plastik $ 143,500
38 John Villanueva $ 142,500
39 Emil Patel $ 141,400
40 Allen Cunningham $ 140,000
41 Raed Abukartomy $ 138,100
42 Chip Reese $ 134,400
43 Yao "Mike" Shi $ 133,200
44 Jon Luu $ 133,100
45 Daniel Quach $ 132,500
46 Bill Gazes $ 131,500
47 Bruce Parker $ 124,300
48 Shawn Sheikhan $ 124,000
49 Danny Noam $ 124,000
50 Todd Bui $ 123,800
51 Jon Kelley $ 120,200
52 Michael Woo $ 115,200
53 Juha Helppi $ 115,100
54 Blair Rodman $ 113,900
55 Daniel Ahmad $ 112,500
56 Mark Gregorich $ 107,000
57 Francois Safieddine $ 106,800
58 Sean Ly $ 105,700
59 Scott Epstein $ 104,600
60 Tom Macey $ 104,400
61 Steven Chao $ 95,000
62 T.J. Cloutier $ 89,800
63 Roy Winston $ 88,500
64 Pat Kelly $ 87,800
65 David Daneshgar $ 84,800
66 Kevan Carey $ 84,600
67 Gabriel Thaler $ 80,000
68 Sean McCabe $ 79,700
69 Mikael Thuritz $ 77,500
70 Eric "Rizen" Lynch $ 75,500
71 Larry Tull $ 75,300
72 Mark Weldmann $ 72,800
73 Genefredo Legaspi $ 72,100
74 David Domstein $ 72,000
75 Alex Azadpeyma $ 70,700
76 Amir Monsefi $ 70,500
77 Brad Berman $ 69,600
78 Tor Gammelgard $ 69,200
79 Neil Chriss $ 64,300
80 Joe Tushnet $ 62,700
81 Lee Salem $ 58,000
82 Phil Laak $ 58,000
83 James Woods $ 56,200
84 Billy Duarte $ 55,500
85 Adam Spiegelberg $ 53,600
86 Amanda Baker $ 53,600
87 Dong Bai Xu $ 51,200
88 Steven Simmons $ 48,200
89 Don O'Dea $ 42,400
90 Brian Walters $ 41,100
91 Travis Green $ 35,500
92 Sean Quinn $ 34,800
93 Scotty Nguyen $ 30,700
94 Jeffrey Freedman $ 29,100
95 Josh Millet $ 24,700
96 Anahit Galajian $ 21,700
97 Jimmy Manavi $ 20,200

3:36pm... Cards are in the air. We're on Level 13.

3:45pm... I heard that Doyle Brunson and Gus Hansen are playing downstairs. Can anyone loan me $250K to sit in that game?

3:55pm... Some early action: John Gale doubled up Sean McCabe when his A-J lost to A-10, while Phil Laak doubled up Josh Millet.

4:15pm... Recent Eliminations: Chip Reese, Emil Patel, Mark Gregorich, Luis Sanchez, Jose Padilla, and Shawn Sheikhan was busted by quad 3s.

4:20pm... Today's smoke break is brought to you by the letter W...

4:30pm... Recent Eliminations: Chip Jett is out when his 8-8 lost to Q-Q. So is Larry Tull, Guy Calvert, Mikael Thuritz, Amir Monsefi, Lin Ho, and Eric Lynch. Eric Lynch has a poker blog called Rizen Poker. Take a peek.

4:35pm... James Woods doubled up and Alan Goehring won a huge pot when he turned a flush against David Chiu and cracked his aces.

4:38pm... Recent Eliminations: The Unabomber has left the building. Phil Laak's K-K was busted by Matt Matros' A-3. Matros flopped a three and turned trips to send Laak to the rail.

4:45pm... Chris Bigler is now the chipleader with 480K and WSOP bracelet winner Ed Moncada is not far behind. Fabrice Souiler slipped to third.

5:20pm... 76 players remain. Everyone is back from a break and the $100 chips have been colored up. We're on Level 14. Blinds are $1.5K/$3K and $500 antes.

Top 10 Chipcounts:
1 Edward Moncada $575K
2 Kevan Carey $550K
3 Chris Bigler $545K
4 Daniel Alaei $483K
5 Fabrice Soulier $375K
6 Brian McCann $350K
7 Alan Goehring $344K
8 Amir Vahedi $336K
9 Jim Bechtel $330K

5:38pm... Recent Eliminations: Joe Tushnet, Travis Green, Tor Gammelgard, Sean Quinn, Don O'Dea, Pat Kelly, and Amanda Baker are all out.

5:55pm... Scotty Nguyen cracked a set with a straight flush. Alan Goehring is back on top as the chipeader after he doubled up. Jim Betchel slowplayed top pair, top kicker and let Goehring catch trips.

6:00pm... Steve Rosenbloom quote of the day: "Don't stare too long (at players) BJ, otherwise you'd have to make a reservation at Brokeback Mountain."

6:12pm... Recent Eliminations: Blair Rodman is out. As is John Villanueva and Jose Tavares. 66 players remaining.

6:15pm... James Woods Update: With 7-7 Jimmy Boy doubled up. He's still hanging on and trying to squeak into the money.

Top 5 All Time James Woods Flicks:
1. Salvador
2. Diggstown
3. Casino
4. Any Given Sunday
5. True Believer

6:25pm... Prop Bet of the Day: BJ set the O/U for the money bubbled (45 players) at 30 mins after the dinner break. I took the under.

6:30pm... Recent Eliminations: Hasan Habib's 8-7 lost to TJ Cloutier's 9-9. Steven Chao and Scott Epstein are also out. We're down to 63 players.

6:50pm... Recent Eliminations: 58 players left. Sean Ly had his K-K cracked by Kevan Carey's 9-8s when Carey caught a flush. Lee Salem was knocked out by Gentleman John Gale. Michael Rocco is also out.

6:55pm... Players are on a short break.

7:05pm... We're on Level 15 with $2K/4K blinds and a $500 ante. Kevan Carey is the chipleader with 935K.

7:15pm... Recent Eliminations: Chuck Doumitt's K-K was snapped off by Edward Moncada's A-J when Moncada flopped trips Jacks. Mike Shi was busted in a three way pot where Julian Hart tripled up and was issued a ten minute penalty for dropping an F-Bomb.

7:27pm... Boucin Round the Room: Commerce is known for their hotdogs. I finally gave in and ate one. Not too shabby. The far corner of the ballroom is being used for cash games. I considered playing a little Mexican Poker during the dinner break.

7:31pm.... Recent Eliminations: The Truth has left the buiding. Paul Darden was crippled when his A-5 lost to 9-9, then he was busted soon after by Genefredo Legaspi. Josh Millet not only got his aces cracked, he also was bounced from the tournament when Chris Bigler rivered a set. We're down to 54 players. 9 more until the money!

7:50pm... Recent Elimination: Adam Spiegelberg is out. 52 players left.

7:55pm... Recent Eliminations: 50 left after Mark Weldman busted two players with J-9 aka "The Jaxia." Ben Roberts and Sean McCabe were the ones sent to the rail. Billy Duarte is also out.

8:00pm... Players are currently on a 45 minute dinner break. See you at 8:45pm.

Top 10 Chipleaders:
1 Kevan Casey $965K
2 J.C. Tran $713.5K
3 Fabrice Soulier $695.5K
4 Chris Bigler $610K
5 Daniel Alaei $500K
6 Alan Goehring $495K
7 Juha Helppi $460K
8 Julian Hart $425K
9 Jeff Rine $421.5K
10 Michael Woo $415K

Notable Chipcounts:
15 Edward Moncada $325.5K
17 Rodeen Talebi $290K
18 David Chiu $290K
19 James Woods $270K
22 Jim Miller $228K
24 Allen Cunningham $220K
25 Scotty Nguyen $203K
26 John Gale $200K
28 Jason Lester $180K
30 Amir Vahedi $180K
31 Mike Carson $170K
32 Jim Bechtel $170K
34 Brad Berman $148K
40 Bill Gazes $125K
45 T.J. Cloutier $110K
46 David Plastik $100K
47 Matt Matros $90K

8:45pm... Players are back. There is 33 minutes left in this level. Scott from Card Player is making fun of bloggers... "All you do is blog your feelings."

9:08pm... Recent Elimination: Jason Lester was busted by Juha Helppi. There are 49 left and I'm worried that I have only 7 minutes to win my prop bet against BJ. 4 more bust outs must happen by 9:15 otherwise, I lose.

9:14pm... Recent Elimination: Matt Matros is out in 49th place when his Q-10 ran into the Hilton Sisters.

9:16pm... BJ 1, Pauly 0. I lost my prop bet with BJ. Booooooooooo. He offered to let me keep it if I walk up to one of the many attractive railbirds/porn stars and ask them what their stage names are.

9:18pm... 48 left. Players are on a break. The TDs are coloring up the $500 chips.

9:25pm... Welcome to Level 16. Blinds are $3K/6K with $1K antes. 2 from the money. We're hoping to break the money bubble by the middle of this level. We'll be playing three more levels tonight. James Woods is 15th in chips with $330K.

Top 5 Chipcount:
1 Kevan Casey $965K
2 J.C. Tran $800K
3 Juha Helppi $690K
4 Alan Goehring $655K
5 Fabrice Soulier $550K

9:50pm... James Woods whipped the entire ballroom up into a frenzy. With the Hilton Sisters, he doubled up through Fabrice Soulier's Q-J and asked the dealer for "no bad beats." When his hand held up, Woods yelled, "Yes, that's poker!" The railbirds and everyone on the other side of the ballroom playing in cash games all stood up and cheered. Woods ended up standing up on a chair and screaming, "I'm gonna win this thing."

9:53pm... Recent Elimination: Todd Bui's 9-9 lost to A-J and he took 48th place. Ayaz Mahmood took 47th after he was sent to the rail by Orlando Maldonado. We're down to 46 players. Action is hand for hand as we are officially on the money bubble. I know that Otis is excited. He loves the bubble.

9:59pm... Recent Elimination: Fabrcie Soulier, who entered today as the chipleader, was just eliminated in 46th place. He is the "Bubble Boy" or as they say in France... garcon de bulle.

10:00pm... We're in the money and every player almost doubled up their investment. Here's the payout list:

1st: $2,391,550
2nd: $1,162,560
3rd: $571,315
4th: $338,803
5th: $265,728
6th: $199,296
7th: $166,080
8th: $132,864
9th: $99,648
10th-12th: $73,075
13th-15th: $59,789
16th-18th: $46,505
19th-27th: $38,849
28th-36th: $26,573
37th-45th: $19,930

10:06pm... James Woods has plenty of fans including Change 100. "If James Woods makes the final table, I'll grab his junk and blow lines with him. I know how much he loves blondes."

10:10pm... Recent Elimination: And that's all she wrote, baby! Scotty Nguyen is out when his A-K lost to John Luu's 9-9. He won $19,930.

10:30pm... Recent Eliminations: Brad Berman and Ugur Marangos are both out. They won $19,930 each. 42 left.

10:33pm... Prop Bet Update: I got another prop bet with BJ. We have until Midnight to settle this bet. I said there will be 34 players and under remaining and BJ has 35 or more left. Say tuned for this outcome.

10:45pm... Alan Goehring sucked out JC Tran on the river and cracked his A-A in the process with Q-J. Goehring rivered a straight. He took down a $670K pot.

10:53pm... Recent Elimination: Orlando "Don't call me Candy" Maldonado is out in 42nd place when his A-Q lost to K-10. He won $19,930.

11:00pm... Level 16 is over. Players are on a ten minute break. 41 left.

11:10pm... We're back from break. Level 17. Blinds are $4K/$8K with a $1K ante. James Woods has $395K ater he ran into K-K with A-J and lost a pot.

Top 10 Chipcounts:
1 Alan Goehring $1.04M
2 Kevan Casey $983K
3 Michael McClain $875K
4 Daniel Quach $710K
5 Jon Luu $687K
6 Juha Helppi $673K
7 Michael Woo $530K
8 Jon Kelley $506K
9 Brian McCann $475K
10 Mike Carson $425K

11:15pm... Recent Elimination: TJ Cloutier is out in 41st place when his pocket cowboys went Brokeback on him. JC Tran turned a set with 8-8. TJ's backers were hoping for a much better showing. Luckily, there are no craps tables at Commerce so TJ's $19,930 winnings are safe... for now. Although, there is always Mexican Poker downstairs.

11:15pm... Recent Elimination: Julian Hart was busted in 40th place by Amir Vahedi. He won $19,930.

11:35pm... Recent Elimination: David Plastik lost a coinflip to Per Ummer. His 10-10 lost to A-K and Plastik finished in 39th place. He won $19,930.

11:44pm... I just spoke to John Gale and he told me he was card dead the entire day. When I said there were still 2.5 hours left, he joked, "I can't take another hour of this!"

11:52pm... Bill Gazes crippled Allen Cunningham, who has less than 60K in chips. Bill then took a pot off of Mike Carson.

11:53pm... Recent Elimination: Gabe Thaler was eliminated in 38th place when he ran into A-A. He won $19,930. Play is hand for hand until the next player is busted.

12:00am... BJ 2, Pauly 0. I lost my second prop bet of the day when only 37 players remain as of Midnight. We have one more going... the final number of players at the end of today! He has 28 and above, and I have 27 and below.

12:15am... Recent Elimination: Ed Moncada is out in 37th place when his A-7 lost to Mike Carson's Q-9. He won $19,930.

Today's Money Winners:
45. Scotty Nguyen $19,930
44. Brad Berman $19,930
43. Ugur Marangos $19,930
42. Orlando Maldanado $19,930
41. TJ Cloutier $19,930
40. Julian Hart $19,930
39. David Plastik $19,930
38. Gabe Thaler $19,930
37. Ed Moncada $19,930

12:30am.... Recent Eliminations: Allen Cunningham (36th) and Jim Bechtel (35th) are both out and won $26,573 each. Cunningham's A-9 lost to David Chiu's A-2 when Chiu flopped trip 2s.

12:40am... Heather from Poker Wire told me that Brian McCann is the chipleader with over 1M after he scooped a pot against Mike Carson. James Woods in 20th in chips with $315K.

Top 5 Chipcounts:
1 Brian McCann $1M
2 Alan Goehring $820K
3 David Chiu $800K
4 Juha Helppi $790K

12:45am... Yes, I've been drinking a lot of water and iced tea and pissing a ton.

Last 5 Pros I Took a Piss Next To:
1. TJ Cloutier
2. Juha Helppi
3. Humberto Brenes
4. Chip Jett
5. Blair Rodman

12:48am... Recent Eliminations: Mike Carson is out in 34th place after Chris Bigler busted him. Carson won $26,573. Can Kim Hua is out in 33rd. He flopped two pair with A-10, but his opponent flopped a set of Queens. Can Kim Hua won $26,573.

12:50am... 32 left. Players are on a break.

1:00am... Players are back. We're on Level 18, the final level of play for tonight. Blinds are $5K/10K with a $1K ante.

1:18am... Recent Eliminations: Danny Alaei (30th), Jim Miller (31st place), and Amir Vahedi (32nd place) are out. They all won $26,573. Vahedi's 9-9 did not win a race against Per Ummer's A-K.

1:25am... Recent Eliminations: Raed Abukartomy is out 29th place. He won $26,573. 28 players remain and we're hand for hand. James Woods is 18th in chips with $370K.

Top 5 Chipcounts:
1 Brian McCann $940K
2 Alan Goehring $860K
3 David Chiu $820K
4 Jon Kelley $810K
5 Per Ummer $800K

1:55am... Nothing to report. We've been laying hand for hand for a half hour. The railbirds are several people deep. I have 33 minutes left to win my prop bet. One player must bust in order for me to win.

2:05am... Recent Elimination: We're down to 3 tables and 27 players after Jeff Rine was eliminated in 28th place. He won $26,573.

Recent Money Winners:
36. Allen Cunningham $26,573
35. Jim Betchel $26,573
34. Mike Carson $26,573
33. Can Kim Hua $26,573
32. Amir Vahedi $26,573
31. Jim Miller $26,573
30. Danny Alaei $26,573
29. Raed Abukartomy $26,573
28. Jeff Rine $26,573

We're down to 27 players and action is over for today. Play will resume at 3:30pm on Sunday. See you then.
posted by Pauly at 2/18/2006 06:11:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WPT LA Poker Classic - Day 2


I'm late to work. Caught in traffic. I spotted two old ladies smoking on a blunt on I-5. I had to do a doubletake to make sure I wasn't seeing things. I'm sure it was medicinal.

Well we're back for action for day two of the LA Poker Classic at Commerce Casino. Alan Goehring ended the first day as the chipleader with $128,375. There are 379 players out of 693 remaining and they are all slugging it out to survive the second day of action. $2.3 million first place prize is on the line along with a seat to the WPT Championships at the Bellagio in April.

Here are some notable bustouts from Day 1: David Williams, Gavin Smith, Shirley Rosario, Daniel Negreanu, Dan Harrington, Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Chan, and Phil Ivey, Eugene Todd, Bill Edler, Bret Jungblutt, Quinn Do, Ted Forrest, John Duthie, Jen Tilly, Tex Barch, Chad Layne, Martin de Knijff, Tony G, James Van Alstyne, Lee Watkinson, Cyndy Violette, Robert Varkonyi, Steve Zolotow, Amnon Filippi, Todd Brunson, Denis Ethier, Jerri Thomas, Victor Ramdin, Dewey Tomko, Peter "Nordberg" Feldman, "My Main Man" Freddy Deeb, David Levi, Anthony Reategui, Jean Gaspard, Barry Shulman, Harry Demetriou, Robert Mizrachi, Evelyn Ng, Mike Gracz, The Grinder, Oliver Hudson, Ryan Kallberg, Patrik Antonius, Kenna James, Scott Fischman, Dan Alspach, Chau Giang, Liz Lieu, Carlos Mortensen, Tuan Le, Chris "Triple Draw" Fargis, Layne Flack, John D'Agostino, Josh Arieh, John Juanda, Mimi Tran, Kristy Gazes, Maria Ho, and Carmel Petresco.

Here are some notable players who survived the Day 1: Alan Goehring, Bill Gazes, Hasan Habib, li Elezra, Erick Lindgren, Edward Moncada, Melissa Hayden, David Daneshgar, T.J. Cloutier, Lyle Berman, Chip Jett, Blair Rodman, Shawn Sheikhan, Dutch Boyd, Amir Vahedi, Chip Reese, Chris Bigler, Young Phan, Jennifer Harman, Barry Greenstein, An Tran, Antonio Esfandiari, Scotty Nguyen, Max Pescatori, Minh Ly, Jean Robert Bellande, James Woods, Carl Olson, Huck Seed, Gentleman John Gale, Donnacha O'Dea, Harley Hall, Mike Matusow, Capt. Tom Franklin, Mike Wattel, Miami John Cernuto, William Rockwell, Randy Holland, Juha Helppi, Phil Laak, Jerry Buss, Jason Lester, Peter Costa, Allen Cunningham, John Myung, Matt Matros, Gabe Kaplan, Keith Sexton, Olga Varkonyi, Minneapolis Jim Meehan, Shannon Elizabeth, Steve Brecher, Erik Seidel, Thor Hansen, Gus Hansen, David Singer, Davood Mehrmand, Men the Master, and Joe Awada.

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

3:35pm... Cards were in the air! We're on Level 7. There was a mistake with the end of Day 1 chipcounts. Here are the top 10 counts at the start of today:

1 Alan Goehring $128,375
2 Bill Gazes $123,750
3 Ali Eslami $122,300
4 Brian McCann $119,875
5 Hasan Habib $113,550
6 Abraham Bergis $105,450
7 Jon Luu $102,200
8 Jeff Rine $100,375
9 Albert Alshamn $99,900
10 Eli Elezra $96,300

3:45pm... Recent Eliminations: Frenchman and WPT champion David Benyamine was eliminated when his 5-5 lost to 10-10. Bruce Buffer, the brother of Michael "Let's Ready for Rumble" Buffer was busted.

4:00pm... Bouncin Round the Room: There's a weird silence in the room as the remaining players are locked in and focused. You can hear the clatter of chips in the background. Most of the noise is coming from media row which takes up five banquet tables and three poker tables that are being used as desks for everyone.

4:15pm... Recent Eliminations: L.A. Lakers owner Jerry Buss is out.

4:20pm... It appears that Shannon Elizabeth is a no-show today. Most likely she was caught in traffic as well.

4:30pm... Recent Eliminations: All you can eat baby, as long as it's on the rail. Men the Master has left the building after he was busted by Max Pescatori's A-A. He started the day as one of the shortstacks and doubled up but just got bounced. Ray Pardley Jr. is also out when his 10-10 ran into pocket aces.

4:50pm... Recent Eliminations: Brandon Adams and Morgan machina are both out.

5:00pm... Prop Bet Woes: I'm getting slaughtered gambling on the Olympics. My buddy from Norway pooled his money together with friends of his from Oslo to take me on for random prop bets during the Torino Olympics. mirroring Andy Beal vs. the Corporation, there are 12 Norwegians taking on me and one week into the Olympics, I've been seriously humbled. The US women's curling team took another loss, this time to Sweden. And my sure thing Lindsey Jacobellis fell and took second int he snowboard cross. It's been an unlucky day for me for sure. I might have to go hit the tables to make up some of my losses!

5:05pm... In true Hellmuthian fashion, Shannon Elizabeth arrived 90 minutes late.

5:06pm... Recent Eliminations: I spoke too soon. Shannon Elizabeth has been eliminated by Bill Gazes who turned two pair with A-9. David Singer is also out. He was sent to the rail by David "Quackpot" Jones.

5:25pm... Recent Elimination: Gus Hansen is out when his K-8 rand into K-K. Also out are Tony Grand, Tim Phan, Olga Varkonyi, John Myung, Davood Mehrmand, and Dan Schmiech.

5:30pm... Players just returned from a break. We're on Level 8. Blinds are $400/800 with a $100 ante. I spotted Shannon Elizabeth and Amber from Survivor buying hats out in the hallway.

5:50pm... Alan Goehring now has over 227K. James Woods cracked Hiltons with A-10 when he flopped an ace. There are 31 tables left with about 278 players remaining.

6:00pm... One of my favorite players to sweat is TJ Cloutier. He lost a big pot a few hands earlier when his Q-Q lost to K-K. In the hand I watched, Cloutier moved all in in early position with 7-7. One player in late position called with 9-9 and another called with A-Q. Cloutier flopped a set. By the turn there were four clubs on the board but lucky for Cloutier none of his opponents held a club. He tripled up and is looking good after winning a pot worth almost 50K.

6:05pm... James Woods doubled up with A-A against K-10. He now has over 120K.

6:15pm... Recent Eliminations: Boston Rob from Survivor has been knocked off the island. Jen Harman and An Tran are also out. Tran got busted by Antonio Esfandiari. Daid Grey was knocked out by David Daneshgar.

6:20pm... Steve Rosenbloom from ESPN is here in press row. He's always entertaining and he's the ony real sportswriter here.

"Yo Steve! How come you're not in Torino?"

"I did the last two winter Olympics. I skipped Italy. But shit, if there was a place I could get laid, it would be in Italy. I mean Nagano and Salt Lake City? No chance for action there."

At that point he launched into a rant about the lackluster strip clubs in Utah that he experienced during the 2002 Olympics.

"There's a three feet rule. The strippers have to saty three feet away from you. And they wear pasties over their tits. You're better off going to Hooters."

6:30pm... I have to step away for a while. In the meantime, check Poker Wire for chipcounts and be sure to stop by and read Spaceman's updates over at Bluff.

7:15pm... Random Photo Dump:


Max "The Italian Pirate" Pescatori getting a massage


TJ Cloutier


Paul "The Truth" Darden


Seidel & Lindgren


William Rockwell
7:45pm... Recent Eliminations: Harley Hall, Eric Mizrachi, Loi Phan, Mike Wattel, Young Phan, Erik Seidel, Dutch Boyd, Barry Greenstien, Minh Ly, Chris "Armenian Express" Grigorian, Dewey Tomko, Mike Matusow, William Rockwell, Capt. Tom Franklin, Jim 'Krazy Kanuck' Worth, and Glyn Banks are all out.

8:00pm... Players are on a dinner break. James Woods has over 220K.

9:30pm... Recent Eliminations: Goodbye Mr. Kotter. Gabe Kaplan was busted when his 9-9 lost to Gabe Thaler's 2-2 when a 2 flopped. Erick Lindgren, Chris Karagulleyan, and Keith Sexton are all out.

10:00pm... Recent Eliminations: Lyle Berman and Jean-Robert Bellande are both out.

11:00pm... Recent Eliminations: Minneapolis Jim Meehan was busted by Juha Helppi. Meehan's Q-Q lost to Helppi's 10-10 when he rivered a 10. Also sent to the rail were Peter Costa, Scott Lazar, Philippe Rouas, and Miami John Cernuto.

11:30pm... Recent Eliminations: Eli Elezra is out.

12:05am... Alan Goehring is the chipleader with 400K.

12:30am... 131 players left!

2:30am... Recent Eliminations: Ralph Perry, Greg "FBT" Mueller, Melissa Hayden, Dustin Wolf, Antonio Esfandiari, and Max Pescatori are all out.

2:35am... Play is over for today and will resume at 3:30pm on Saturday!
posted by Pauly at 2/17/2006 07:08:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WPT LA Poker Classic - Day 1


I've been in LA for less than two days and I've come to the conclusion that every other person you meet is an actor, writer, or pothead. In some instances, they are all three. You can add poker to that mix. It seems that everyone is playing poker in this town; studio execs, B-list celebrities, frat boys from USC, and wannabe screenwriters who daylight as a valets.

Southern California has always been the poker capital of the world. And if anyone thinks poker is on the decline, they have not been to a LA poker room recently. The rooms are immense, especially here at Commerce. And for the next week, the ballroom upstairs at the Commerce Casino will be the hotspot for all of poker as everyone waits to see who the next WPT champion will be.

Welcome to the coverage of the first day of action at the main event for the LA Poker Classic at Commerce Casino, located just outside of Los Angeles.

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

3:35pm PCT... Cards are in the air. Levels are 90 minutes. Players start wth 20K in chips.

3:40pm... Fellow blogger Ryan from Absinthe Troubles is playing attable 20. He'll be live blogging from the table! So stop by his site to see his progress.

3:45pm... The Poker Geek made a rare appearance in media row. He's here doing podcasts for Full Tilt. He has a new nickname... "Coco." Please refer to him as that in the future.

3:50pm... "We have a brat in the house," said Spaceman as he climbed back into press row. Indeed, Phil Hellmuth is here. Spaceman is covering this event over at Bluff. Take a peek at his photos and updates!

3:55pm... Bouncin Round the Room: A ton of big time pros are here including Phil Ivey, Johnny Chan, Marco Traniello, Jen Harman, Todd Brunson, Gavin Smith, Steve Brecher, John D'Agostino, Bill "The Stunning One" Edler, Allen Cunningham, Victor Ramdin, Carmel Petresco, Liz Lieu, Gentleman John Gale, Robert Varkonyi, Amir Vahedi, Alan Goehring, and Antonio Esfiandari.

4:00pm... Alan Goehring nearly doubled up when he busted a guy when he rivered a straight flush against his opponent's full boat.

4:10pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I took another quick walk through the crowd and I spotted Evelyn Ng, Erick Lindgren, Minh Ly, Paul Darden, Al Ardebili, Jen Tilly, Oliver Hudson, Chip Jett, Barry Greenstien, Mel Judah, John Duthie, David Singer, David Williams, David Plastik, Joanne Liu, Jerry Buss, Cyndy Violette, Mike Matusow, The Grinder, "My Main Man" Freddy Deeb, Gus Hansen, Tuan Le, Erik Seidel, Shannon Elizabeth, Men the Master, Kristy Gazes, Amnon Filippi, Lyle Berman, David "The Dragon" Pham, Chris Fargis, Harry Demetriou, and William Rockwell.

4:15pm... Straight Flush sighting: According to the Poker Geek, Gentleman Ben Roberts also hit a straight flush. David Plastik cracked Hung La's A-A with K-K.

4:20pm... Smoke break.

4:40pm... Antonio Esfiandari is down to about 11K in chips.

4:50pm... Prop Bet Bartabs: Gavin Smith and Bill Edler have a running prop bet. Whoever wins the most money in a set month gets his drinks paid for free for the next month. Gavin won January and all his drinks for this month are free. This is the crucial month for Gavin. He's currently down and needs a big score here if he wants to drink for free in March. That's when the Party Poker cruise runs and drinks are super-pricey on the boat.

5:00pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I spotted some more bigtime pros such as Dewey Tomko, Mike Gracz, Boston Rob from Survivor, James Woods, Bill Gazes, Humberto Brenes, Carlos Mortenson, Brett "Blunt" Jungblut, Tony G, David Levi, Huck Seed, Eskimo Clark, Chau Giang, Chris Bigler, Olga Varkonyi, Layne Flack, Kenna James, Jean Robert Bellande, Dutch "Tool" Boyd, Scott Fischman, Jason Lester, Patrik Antonius, Juha Helppi, and Action Dan Harrington. Ooppps, I forgot to mention... Mr. Kotter is in the house. Gabe Kaplan is here. Mike Matisow was spotted down in the lobby taking a nap on a couch as he gets blinded off.

5:01pm... It's official. There are 692 entries in today's event.

5:05pm... Recent Eliminations: Mimi Tran, Kristy Gazes, and Phil Hellmuth, and Johnny Chan are all out. Chan flopped two pair against David Chiu who flopped a se of Kings.

5:10pm... Players are curently on a break. When they return, we'll be on Level 2. I spotted Spaceman chatting with Max "The Italian Pirate" Pescatori. Also, one of my favorite pros Shirley Rosario aka Poker Babe stopped by media row to chat. She's got about 20K in chips and she's doing well.

5:15pm... Ryan has 19.9K in chips and counting.

5:30pm... In last year's event, won by The Grinder, there were 538 players. This year's number of particpants, 692, broke last year's record. Teh grinder won $1.85M last year. The winner of this year's event wins over $2.3M for first place. That's not a bad payday for five days of work. Here's a list of the total payouts with the top 45 getting paid:

1st: $2,391,550
2nd: $1,162,560
3rd: $571,315
4th: $338,803
5th: $265,728
6th: $199,296
7th: $166,080
8th: $132,864
9th: $99,648
10th-12th: $73,075
13th-15th: $59,789
16th-18th: $46,505
19th-27th: $38,849
28th-36th: $26,573
37th-45th: $19,930

6:00pm... Ryan took a hit according to Spaceman. He's down to 17.3K. David Chui has over $60K in chips.

6:15pm... Recent Elimiantion: Phil Ivey is out when he semi-bluffed with the Hammer and he was sent to the rail.

6:30pm... The Media Boom: With the poker boom, so too comes the media boom trailing behind the tournament circuit in a cloud of dust like Pig Pen, Charlie Brown's unkempt friend from Peanuts cartoons. At the WPT Borgata Open in September of 2005, there were five of us sitting in media row for the final table; Heather & Jen from Pokerwire, BJ from Card Player, one other person and myself. Today there are almost 20 media reps here on the first day. The WPT has 7-8 people covering it for them. Poker Wire added two more to their roster. BJ was replaced by three people at Card Player. At some point, there will be an oversaturation of media coverage of poker tournaments. With the WPT, WSOP, WSOP Cicuit, UPC, and EPT... there are just too mnay tournaments out there. Who's gonna burn out first... the players? The media? Or the readers?

The majority of people are running around in media row like it's the final table of the friggin' WSOP, like chickens on high-powered crystal meth who discovered that their heads have been cut off. The majority of these people are newbies to the tournament reporting world. The veterans like BJ or the Pokerwire girls are casually walking around at a steady pace. It's like soldiers in the field for the first time that hit the deck as soon as they hear the first sounds of incoming artillery file, while the war dogs simply carry on with focusing on the tasks in front of them.

"I gotta remember to bring drugs with me tomorrow," Spaceman joked.

6:52pm... Players are on a break. Shannon "Nadia from American Pie" Elizabeth busted Frank Kassela. She had Q-Q and he had A-K. Her Hiltons held up and she sent Kassela to the rail.

7:00pm... Daniel Negreanu has been moved to Ryan's table.

7:15pm... Power Table: Gabe Kaplan, William Rockwell, Amnon Filippi, Melissa Hayden, and Shirley Rosario are all at the same table. Melissa has 20K in chips. Shirley has 22K. The lovely Carmel Petresco has over 50K in chips. Eli Elizera apears to be the early chipleader.


Melissa Hayden and Shirley Rosario mugging for the camera.
7:30pm... Recent Eliminations: 70 players have been busted including Chris "Triple Draw" Fargis and Layne Flack.

8:00pm... Recent Eliminations: John D'Agostino, Josh Arieh, and John Juanda are both out.

8:05pm... Players are on a 45 minute dinner break. Ryan from Absinthe's Troubles has about 17K in chips.

8:45pm... Players have returned from their dinner break. I saw Young Phan eating icecream. Lyle Berman ate fruit salad. Jen from Pokerwire ate sushi. I expect a few players bust out right away. Usually there are several quick bustouts right after dinner. Either players get drunk during dinner or they decide to make a move. Regardless, there is a spike in eliminations within the first few minutes of the break.

9:00pm... Recent Eliminations: Shirley Rosario has been busted by Melissa Hayden. Shirley's K-K ran into Melissa's A-A. "I almost cried," said Melissa. "I didn't want to bust my table friend." Right now Hayden has over 47K in chips. Shirley felt she played the hand badly, but getting away from K-K is tough. "I'm a pro. I should be able to fold them," Shirley explained.

9:15pm... Recent Eliminations: David Williams and Gavin Smith are out. Looks like he'll be paying for his own drinks on the Party Poker cruise, as well as Bill Edler's.

9:22pm... We're now on Level 4. We will be playing through the completion of Level 6.

9:25pm... My Main Man Freddy Deeb took a hit when his straight flush lost to a higher staright flush. On a board of 6h-7h-8h-9h, Deeb had the 5h while his opponent had the Qh-10h. Too bad there wasn't a bad beat jackpot.

9:30pm... Ghost Tales: There's a ghost here at Commerce who keeps turning out the lights. They went out for a minute while players sat in the dark. A few yelled out asking for the clock to be stopped. The lights eventually came back on.

9:40pm... David Plastik likes the Hilton Sisters. He cracked K-K with them when he caught a set on the river. He has almost 60K in chips. There are about 569 players left on 570 tables. Also, Freddy Deeb doubled through Lyle Berman. Deeb had A-A and Berman had A-Q.

9:45pm... Recent Eliminations: Oliver Hudson is out. He moved all in with A-Q and he ended up losing to quad Jacks! If you don't know, Oliver Hudson got to make out with Katie Holmes in several episodes of Dawson's Creek when he played the townie bartender.

9:50pm... Recent Eliminations: Ryan Kallberg was just busted by Blair Rodman. His K-K lost to Rodman's A-K when Rodman flopped trip aces. This ends one helluva run for Ryan who won Event #1 and cashed in 5 events at the LA Poker Classic. WPT Bellagio Champion Patrik Antonius has been eliminated. Also busted were: Kenna James, Scott Fischman, Dan Alspach, Chau Giang, Liz Lieu, Carlos Mortensen, and Tuan Le

10:00pm... Spaceman saw a crazy hand involving Gabe Kaplan, who rivered a guy with K-Q. The guy slammed his fist on the table and stormed off.

10:05pm... Back by popular demand!

Last 5 Pros I Took a Piss Next To:
1. Jean Gaspard
2. Allen Cunningham
3. John Myung
4. John D'Agsotino
5. Shawn Sheikan

10:20pm... Recent Eliminations: My Main Man Freddy Deeb is out. He was busted bby former hockey pro Greg "FBT" Mueller. Deeb's A9s lost to Mueller's Q-Q.

11:01pm... Recent Eliminations: David Levi, Anthony Reategui, Jean Gaspard, Barry Shulman, and Harry Demetriou.

11:15pm... Players are back from a break.

11:30pm... Recent Eliminations: Robert Mizrachi, Evelyn Ng, Mike Gracz, and The Grinder are all out. Evelyn Ng's Hilton Sisters were cracked by J-J.

12:01am... Brian McCamm is the chipleader with $90K. Other notable chipcounts:

Eli Elezra $89K
Hassan Habib $88K
Edward Moncada $ 72K
Shawn Sheikhan $ 68K
Lyle Berman $62K
Melissa Hayden $55K
Marco Traniello $50K
Matt Matros $50K
Dutch Boyd $50K
Phil Laak $50K
Bill Gazes $48K
TJ Cloutier $47K
Chris Bigler $46K
Erick Lindgren $46K
John Gale $45K
Mike Matusow $45K
Paul Darden $40K
Jean-Robert Bellande $40K
Blair Rodman $38K
Jen Harman $36K
Chip Jett $36K
Barry Greenstein $34K
Chip Reese $34K
James Woods $34K
Dan Harrington $30K
Huckleberry Seed $28K
William Rockwell $26K
Rod Pardey Jr. $ 25,000
Captain Tom Franklin $25K
Arnold Spee $25K
Gus Hansen $25K
Todd Brunson $24K
Amir Vahedi $24K
David Benyamine $23K
Peter Costa $23K
Greg 'FBT' Mueller $22.5K
Thor Hansen $21K
David Grey $21K
Antonio Esfandiari $21K
Scott Lazar $21K
Steve Brecher $21K
Minneapolis Jim Meehan $21K
Minh Ly $20K
Allen Cunningham $20K
Miami John Cernuto $20K
An Tran $20K
Ted Forrest $19K
Amnon Filippi $18K
Harley Hall $18K
John Myung $17K
Carmel Petresco $15K
Erik Seidel $13K
Daniel Negreanu $13K
Gabe Kaplan $12K
Juha Helppi $11K
Scotty Nguyen $10K
David Singer $10K
Denis Ethier $10K
Jerry Buss $10K
Max Pescatori $9K
Humberto Brenes 9K
Shannon Elizabeth $9K

12:15am... Recent Eliminations: John Duthie, Jen Tilly, Tex Barch, Chad Layne, Martin de Knijff, Tony G, James Van Alstyne, Lee Watkinson, Cyndy Violette, David Wells, and Robert Varkonyi are all out. Once again Olga outlasts her husband.

12:35am... Players are on a break. There are about 449 players left.

1:00am... Recent Eliminations: Steve Zolotow, Amnon Filippi, Todd Brunson, Denis Ethier, Jerri Thomas, Victor Ramdin, and Dewey Tomko. Blogger Peter "Nordberg" Feldman is also out.

1:15am.... How abou a 1:15am picture dump? You can click on the photos to enlarge them.


The Unabomber loves referring to himself in the 3rd person


The always lovely Maria Ho


Gus Hansen charms the new girl from Poker Wire


Action at the LA Poker Classic


Barry Greenstien
1:20am... Time for a smoke break. It's 4:20 on the East Coast!

1:32am... Bill Gazes is on a tear. He flopped quads against Mike Matusow and won a $35K pot. He moved his stack up to 110K. Carmel Petresco has over 70K.

1:35am... Recent Eliminations: Daniel Negreanu, Dan Harrington, Eugene Todd, and Bill Edler who ran into Erick Lindgren's A-A.

1:55am... Recent Elimination: Time to fire one up for Gank! Bret Jungblutt was just smoked when his Hilton Sisters were snapped off by Huck Seed's A-K. In the immortal words of Ben Harper, "If you don't like my fire, then don't come around, 'cause I'm gonna burn one down."

2:15am... Recent Eliminations: Quinn Do and Ted Forrest are both gone. Quin Do's A-A were cracked by David Daneshgar's quad 4s. Ted Forrest's 9-9 lost to Mike Godman's A-J.

2:18am... Action has completed for today with 379 players remaining. Day 2 begins at 3:30pm on Friday.

End of Day 1 Chicpounts:

Top 10:
1 Michael Carroll $154,375
2 Alan Goehring $128,375
3 Bill Gazes $123,750
4 Ali Eslami $122,300
5 Brian McCann $119,875
6 Hasan Habib $113,550
7 Abraham Bergis $105,450
8 Jon Luu $102,200
9 Jeff Rine $100,375
10 Albert Alshamn $99,900

Notables:
Eli Elezra 96,300
Erick Lindgren 88,000
Edward Moncada 85,400
Melissa Hayden 75,975
David Daneshgar 69,875
T.J. Cloutier 67,550
Lyle Berman 66,600
Chip Jett 66,250
Blair Rodman 59,450
Shawn Sheikhan 58,500
Dutch Boyd 55,975
Amir Vahedi 52,800
Chip Reese 51,925
Chris Bigler 50,950
Young Phan 50,525
Jennifer Harman50,300
Barry Greenstein 46,975
An Tran 46,750
Antonio Esfandiari 45,750
Scotty Nguyen 44,225
Max Pescatori 42,625
Minh Ly 42,600
Jean Robert Bellande 42,025
James Woods 41,975
Carl Olson 41,750
Huck Seed 40,600
John Gale 40,250
Donnacha O'Dea 33,575
Harley Hall 33,550
Mike Matusow 33,525
Capt. Tom Franklin 33,300
Mike Wattel 32,250
Miami John Cernuto 31,050
William Rockwell 30,600
Randy Holland 30,175
Juha Helppi 28,225
Phil Laak 28,150
Jerry Buss 27,000
Jason Lester 25,800
Peter Costa 25,325
Allen Cunningham 25,250
John Myung 24,225
Matt Matros 24,000
Gabe Kaplan 22,750
Keith Sexton 22,500
Olga Varkonyi 21,300
Minneapolis Jim Meehan 20,100
Shannon Elizabeth 18,250
Steve Brecher 17,925
Erik Seidel 17,450
Thor Hansen 16,525
Gus Hansen 15,800
David Singer 9,975
Davood Mehrmand 7,850
Men the Master 7,800
Joe Awada 4,900

posted by Pauly at 2/16/2006 06:03:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Third Place Sucks

I took third place in the LA Poker Classic Media Tournament. First place paid out a seat to the WPT Invitational which starts right after the LA Poker Classic ends. Third place paid nothing today, except a t-shirt. And they only had a large. I'm an XL kinda guy. I got bad beated by Barbara Enright three times. The three-time bracelet winner also was the only female to ever make the final table of the WSOP main event. The best player in the field sucked out on me three times and crippled me at the final table before I was finally eliminated.

After a late night of partying, Change100 took me out to lunch in Beverly Hills at Italian sandwich joint that served amazing panini. It was one of those trendy eateries where you watch hipsters order $5 canolis and drink designer juices. We sat outside and caught a glimpse of a random late 1990s rockstar with a coked up groupie or girlfriend du jour, who's brand new surgically enhanced breasts and Kate Spade handbag costs more than my entire poker bankroll. Oh, and yes the lunch was good. Eggplant, chicken breast, and provolone on panini bread.

Random L.A. thought: I realized that no one walks around LA. And the ones that do are simply walking to their car because they couldn't find anything close by.

We headed to Commerce Casino and drove through random parts of LA on a beautiful day. With the windows down, we feverishly smoked and listening to Abbey Road. It was amazing to see sunshine and not freeze my ass off. I have never been to Commerce before. I've played at Hawaiian Gardens and at the Bike, but never at Commerce. The floor space is larger than most casinos in Las Vegas with different rooms for different games, like separate high-limit poker area from the low-limit section. I thought Foxwoods was big, but Commerce is s series of room after room with poker tables. Talk about the higest concentration of loose geese on the planet. Everyone that sees Commerce for the first time is impressed with the size of the room, even yours truly. It's like catching a glimpse of John Holmes' crank for the first time.

"Oh my goodness, it's huge!"

Ryan from Absinthe Troubles was playing in a super satellite upstairs and we met up with him on a break. I spotted Humberto Brenes buying into something at the cage. Change100 hit up the cash games and I registered for the media event. I bumped into Jen Leo along with John Caldwell from Poker News. They were both playing along with Oliver from Poker News and Stan, my boss at Poker Player Newspaper. I met Richard Sparks and his wife in the hallway. Sparks is the author of Diary of a Mad Poker Player and he's a really funny guy.

"See you at the final table," he joked as I wandered inside the ballroom to find my seat.

God, I love forshadowing comments like that. You started out with 800 in chips. I felt like I was on Party Pokeragain. The levels were twenty minutes in a crap shoot with half the field who didn't know what they were really doing. I sat at the same table as Jen Leo and we yapped the entire time. To my right were three local TV and radio guys. To my left was the "big" TV guy. He was LA's version of G-Rob, which meant he was on TV a lot using his anchorman voice and displayed a marvelous coif of freshly moussed hair.

The best part of the media tournament was that they served everyone a three course meal. I folded marginal hands early because I wasn't done with my salad and I didn't want to get busted before the main course came out. It was chicken cordon bleu with carrots and rice and a dinner roll. Dessert was a chic pastry. Yes, I survived it all the way to the dessert. My first goal was accomplished. Usually you try to "make it to the first break" as an early milestone. This time it was... survive to dessert.

Jen Leo won a big pot with J-8s before she got moved tables. John Caldwell got moved to mine. He went out in a five way pot, where four players were all in. On another hand, LA's version of G-Rob had to go all in because he was shortstacked and tripled up with the Hammer.

I won a pot from LA-G-Rob. With J-10o, I cracked his A-Js when I flopped a ten. Barbara Enright was moved to my table with a shortstack. I tried to bust her the first time, but my A-9s lost to her 5-8o. Then she moved all in again with a shortstack later that orbit. I had A-K to her A-6. She won that hand from me too! She had my number.

I made it to the final table 5th in chips as we redrew for seats. Also there were Stan, Richard Spraks, Mrs. Sparks, Barbara Enright and yours truly. I got as high as third in chips but I made a lot of aggressive moves to pick up the ever increasing blinds and antes. I busted two short stacks with 8-3o. It was only a few hundred more for me to call and I took them down.

Once it got three handed, I was second in chips even after I lost a small pot trying to steal the blinds from the button and then on her button, Enright moved all in on my big blind. I peek down and say K-3s. I thought for a minute or two.

"You told me that you never bluff," I said.

She kept staring at me, trying to make me fold. A seat for the WPT Invitational was on the line. I didn't show up to Commerce to sit down and fold. I came to play.

"I call," I said flipping over the better hand. Enright showed Q-5. I flopped a three but she turned a five and I was crippled. I thought she had me outchipped but I had 350 left. I tripled up on the next hand and lost on the hand after to finish in third place. Richard Sparks signed a copy of his book for me and the cool and friendly tournament staff at Commerce gave me a t-shirt. I was too pissed off to hang out and see who won. Enright had the chiplead so I assume she won. She was the best player at the final table by far.

Third place.

That was the closest I ever came to winning a seat in a major poker tournament. Two spots. D'oh! I think that I'm just going to play in celebrity and media events. I took sixth and cashed in the WSOP Celebrity/Media one last July. And I took third at Commerce. Enright was not the first pro to issue a bad beat on me. Greg Raymer busted me in a media/VIP SNG at a Poker Stars party in NYC in November. That was the night when Otis and I went barhopping and I puked in the middle fo 15th Street.

As I'm finishing this post, Spaceman called. He has arrived in LA. He's on his way to chez Change100 for a late night party. She and her roommate Showcase are gonna do karaoke. So lemme end this post abruptly.

After I got busted out of the tournament and after a smoke outside, I played cash games with Change100. We went slumming at the $4/8 No Fold'em tables filled with crazy Asians and old grumpy guys with the Daily Racing Form rolled up in their back pocket. We were both up over $100 at one point. My aces held up and one by one players busted out. One guy kept rebuying at $20 clips. Another old guy next to me had a growth on his eye that was the size of a golf-ball.

Here's the bad beat of the session... welcome to the second installment of Pauly's Beating of the Day. In case you were wondering, Barbara Enright issued me the first one. Yes, I won the inaugural Pauly's Beating of the Day award.

Change100 raised my blind from the cutoff. I had J-8s and called. We were heads up and I flopped a Jack. I thought I was good and check-called. The turn was an 8 and I check-raised America's favorite Junkgrabber.

"Three bet," she said as I stared at the board.

"There's no straight out there," I mumbled.

I called. The river was a blank and I my two-pair cracked her A-J. Sweet Jebus. I put her on mega tilt after that. She racked up her chips soon after and cashed out. She also survived a couple of major suckouts. One lady nailed a gutshot on her. Ouch. We both walked away up a few bucks, which is fine for someone like me who was caught in a bad streak.

Heck, seven winning days out of the last eight. I'm on a mini-rush. I might go to Commerce early on Wednesday so I can play in some of those juicy NL games. Where six people call a $30 preflop raise in a $2-3 NL game and check it all the way down to the river.

Day 1 of the main event for the LA Poker Classic starts at 3:30pm on Wednesday. See you there.
posted by Pauly at 2/15/2006 11:26:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Safe Arrival

I'm in Los Angeles after a six hour plane ride on JetBlue that featured me sitting next to a Hasidic jew from Brooklyn and his wife. I watched the US ladies drop another curling match, this time to Japan. I've developed a crush on Cassie Johnson. That's my only consolation aside from the fact that I'm 0-2 betting on the US women's curling team. Norway still leads the US in medals.

By the way, it's no coincidence that Katie Holmes broke up with Tom Cruise the day I showed up in LA. I'll bet my entire bankroll that the bun in Katie's oven is not TC's.

Anyway, on Wednesday I get to play in the media/celebrity event at the LA Poker Classic. I got picked as a media rep. In this town, being an internet celebrity has about the same cache as being the drunk girl on MTV's The Real World or being that Star Trek actor who lost all his money playing poker.

I'm lucky that I get to crash at chez Change100. I met her roomie, the infamous Showcase, and I'm sure I'll have some odd and twisted stories. She promised me a lasanga. Pictures to come for sure.
posted by Pauly at 2/15/2006 03:04:00 AM | Permalink |

 
On the Road: L.A. Bound

I'm off for two weeks of fun in the sun while covering the biggest poker tournament in California so far this year. I'm happy to be leaving the cold, windy, snowy, and frigid East Coast for the 80 degree temps and laid back attitude of LA.

Here's the coolest part of this trip... I'll be covering the LA Poker Classic solely for myself and the Poker Prof. I'll try to sell an article or two after the trip, but I'll be live blogging and paying my own way. Doing it this way gives me 100% artstic freedom and I can work as much or as little as I want.... meaning more time at the tables!

So stop back everyday over the next week to ten days because I'll be posting random updates and photos from the LA Poker Classic at Commerce. And yes, there is a rumor that Flipchip will be in LA sometime next week. Hmmmmm....

Make sure you read Flipchip's latest post about the latest 2006 WSOP News. He mentions a few things that no one else knows about! Take a peek to find out.

Moving on...

My Olympics prop betting slide continues after the US ladies dropped their curling opener to Norway. Due to my incorrigible betting habits, I have become a laughing stock in the pubs in Oslo. Time to win back my dignity! At least I won a few bucks on my favorite potheads who finished 1-2 in snowboarding and my goal is to have a huge American medal surge over the next few days. At press time, the Norwegians still have more medals that us.

I've won 6 out of the last 7 days that I've played poker. Feels great to win, even at a modest clip. I played some low-limit NL late last night on Poker Stars and I got one guy on super-tilt when I rivered him with A-Q against his A-J. He flopped a Jack and slowplayed it. The insults started flying soon after I scooped the pot. I'm sooooo ready for SoCal poker.

Oh before I go, today is Haley's birthday. Yeah, she's a Valentine's Day Baby and Haley has been an amazing friend over the past few years. Both her and her mom have dispensed plenty of excellent career advice to me most recently. I'd be totally lost without Haley. Be sure you read an old story I wrote (two years ago) about Haley's first and only home game titled Haleywood. Happy Birthday, Haley and have a great day.


Thanks to my buddy Frank at Gammalight.com for the cool photo!
posted by Pauly at 2/14/2006 07:46:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Market Corrections, Bozos, and Bolos

"And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done." - Revelation 20:12

I made a few prop bets on the Torino Olympics with a friend of mine from Norway. And you know what? I'm already in the hole. Those damn Norwegians are cleaning up in the medal count. Sure we have more gold medals, but they dominate all those obscure outdoor sports like the Biathlon. What's the deal with that sport? I'm gonna ski a few miles then shoot a gun, then ski some more? You wanna hear about an Olympics prop bet bad beat? Halvard Hanevold from Norway came out of nowhere to take the Bronze medal. It's like he spiked a two-outer on the river to win. Yeah, the Norwegians took second and third in the Biathlon and that cost me big bucks. I learned a valuable lesson. Don't bet against the damned Norwegians in the Biathlon. The Olympics are rigged. Just ask Roy Jones, Jr. and he'll tell you the straight dope about the night he was robbed a gold medal in Seoul. Maybe I can make back some of my losses this week in women's curling and short track speed skating. That's my wheel-house... women's curling. Keep an eye on that Norway-US women's curling match. I got American pride and a hundred Euros riding on them.

I also got clobbered in the over/under on expected snowfall in Central Park. I took the under and thought the blizzard was not going to be as bad as the media hyped it up. Foolish me. NYC experienced the second largest snowfall ever in history and I was keeping my fingers crossed hoping it would hit the under.

Thank God I'm currently in the middle of a winning streak at poker. It's helping cover my Olympics and other prop bet loses. Poker bloggers talking about a winning streak on the blog is just like in baseball when a pitcher discussed his no-hitter in the dugout in between the fifth and six innings. That's frowned upon. It's a taboo like white pants after Labor Day or limping with the Hammer. Heck, I'm not afraid of jinxes. My entire life is a jinx. My karma is so outta whack, that a half-baked post about my recent poker play isn't going to affect the alignment of Jupiter's moons let alone going to prevent anyone from sucking out on me.

And yes, I'm on a five day winning streak. I looked up my stats. I won 10 out of 11 days last Spring and booked winning sessions for seven days straight during that stretch. Yep, one week without posting a losing session. That's my best. Right now, I'm somewhat close. But I'm not going to make a stink about it. The past five winning sessions were small victories. It was like if I went 1 for 4 for five straight baseball games. However, after posting 10 losing weeks out of the last 12, I'll take a small victory.

Last week I stopped the bleeding and started rebuilding my confidence. I'm even on the PLO tables and have a profit at the 3/6 tables at Poker Stars. I've been playing 2 or 3 at once on Poker Stars and employing my Action Bob bot where I just sit and fold, fold, fold. Nothing fancy and if you've been one of my railbirds (or stalkers) then you know how boring it is to watch me play limit online. The small profit at the tables boosted my confidence which was needed since I've been getting slaughtered on Poker Stars. At least I confronted my fears and continued to play on that site. I know a slew of pussies who lose on one site and never return.

I played a VIP freeroll on Poker Stars on Saturday. That's one of the perks of being a Silver Status guy... a weekly $2,500 freeroll. I think they give you free blow and hookers for SuperNova status. I gotta check with my sources with that one. I've cashed three out of four times in those VIP freerolls. Actually Derek and Change100 played for me twice when I couldn't play and they both cashed. I finally cashed this past weekend in one. I had a reader and blogger at my table... Gunga Galunga in my freeroll and we got to chat a bit.

I was card dead for the first hour and doubled up with K-K. I was moved tables and then went on a mini-run. I flopped a set with 6-6 and slowplayed on the flop heads up against a hyper aggressive player. With just second pair he moved all in on the turn and I happily called with my set, which held up and that boosted me up to over 11K in chips. Just before the second break, I pissed away most of my stack on a bad call. I put one player on a low pair and made a call when I should have folded. I had 7-7 to his A-A. He had been re-raising preflop with small pairs the entire time and I thought I picked up on a betting pattern and thought I made an amazing calling picking off a bluff. I was wrong and lost 70% of my stack. If I followed the advice of my Action Bob bot... I should have folded. Alas, I allowed the ego to get in the way and it ruined two hours of near flawless play. I convinced myself for thirty seconds that I could read minds and came back to reality when he showed his pocket aces. I eventually made the money and took 147th out of 1234.

My highlight of this past week was flopping quads with the Hilton Sisters.

I'm back to playing on Party Poker again. On Sunday, I cleared Silver Status again on Poker Stars and for some reason, Party Poker was the only site I wasn't losing on over the past three months. I've been doing hit and runs on the $5/$10 short-handed tables over the past week to some moderate success. I have to remind myself to play a long cash game session (long enough to book a few Party Poker points) at least once a month on Party Poker, otherwise, they revoke all your Player's Club points.

There's a term we used on Wall Street called a "market correction." I dunno if it's a legit term or some bullshit buzz word that we were told to mouth off to our clients to calm them down during a downswing. I think it was created by big fund managers who used the term "market correction" to quell any fearful thoughts in their investors' minds. Whether it was a psychological device to instill calm over worried clients or whether it was an actual scientific fact, market corrections occur all the time in the financial markets.

In my case, I had been winning at a decent streak that lasted over eight months. The 10 most recent weeks of loses represent a market correction. I was never that good to begin with and the law of averages caught up to me. I'm still a winning player over the past year, just my bankroll finally reflects a more accurate tally of my overall poker play. You can even make an argument that this past week has been a market correction as well. I'm not that bad of a player. The losses eased up. Now I can only hope that my poker axis is back on track.

My poker play and bankroll was subject to a market correction. So let's take my entire bankroll to Southern California where I can lose it all or double it up in one session.

On Saturday night, just as the first flurries of the blizzard began falling upon New York City, I headed to the historic Beacon Theatre to see a Phil Lesh and Friends concert. Phil Lesh is the legendary bass player from The Grateful Dead and in my opinion, he was the glue of The Dead and held the band together even when Jerry Garcia was hooked on smack later in their careers. The night was not without a minor run-in with the law. My buddy Bruce, aka The Grateful Dead guru, was busted by NYPD for drinking in public. He had a beer in a brown paper bag and a cop snagged him and issued a citation. We could have gone to jail if they searched us, but lucky for us, they didn't. I got off because I wasn't drinking! I was a model citizen and waited until I got into the Theatre to start boozing it up. The cops were just there to looking to generate income for the city by busting potheads and drunks and Bruce was a casualty. Anyway, Phil Lesh is one of my favorite musicians and you can read a complete review of the concert over at the Tao of Pauly or on my Phish Blog.

There is something relevant with The Grateful Dead that I have to discuss. If you don't know, The Grateful Dead were my favorite band of all time. I spent most of my late teens and early 20s on the road, mostly in the South, following The Dead from city to city. This was all before Jerry Garcia died. I knew I was seeing something at the tail end of it's shelf-life but it was still an unbelievable experience and being on the road at such a young and impressionable age set the tone for the rest of my life and was the springboard for me wanting to be a writer. Seeing the Dead at the end of their career was like walking into a coolest bar in the city at 3:30am when the "last call" is in thirty minutes away. Sure you're there, but you missed all the cool stuff that went down at the peak of the party. That's why I was fortunate to catch bands like Phish, Widespread Panic, and Galactic at their peak.

One of my favorite Dead albums is Europe '72. The Grateful Dead spent two months in Europe and played a series of concerts overseas that were recorded for an epic 2 CD box-set. My friend Mophy had loaned me a copy and I made a taped version. This was 13-14 years ago before the days of CD burners and iPods and I must have listened to that tape so much that it wore out. I remember when I finally had enough money to buy that CD for myself. It was an epic day and I marveled at the better sound quality. 1972 was the year of my birth and to hear the recorded version of a concert from twenty years earlier (shit, now it's over thirty years!) was a mind-numbing experience. That Mr. Charlie featured Pig Pen shortly before his death and I still get goosebumps thinking about their version of Morning Dew.

The liner notes from Europe '72 featured something that have to talk about. Here's what it said:

For example, consider the rise of hypnocracy during April and May 1972. The 43 persons constituting the Grateful Dead's (latest) European tour apportioned themselves for the most part between two buses which came to be known as the Bolo bus and the Bozo bus. The Bolo bus had a john in it and its seats faced forward. The Bozo bus had a refrigerator and some of its seats were installed facing back, to accommodate four tables. And to look back. The subtle difference in character and import and atmosphere between the two omnibuses was so profoundly hidden and enigmatic that you could never possibly understand it. The Bozos wore masks, and the Bolos showed their faces. At one time the Bozos staged a raid on the Bolo provisions; at one time the Bolos staged a raid on the Bozo provisions.

One St. Dilbert defected from the Bozos and lived for a season with the Bolos. In view of his subsequent martyrdom, his penitence and reconciliation with the Bozos, it came to be said that he was a true hypnocratic missionary to Bololand. And to look back, it appears evident that Bozo and Bolo knew themselves each the other's raison d'etre. Is hypnocracy not the aspiration to know what it is?

The part I want to point out is the difference between the Bozos and Bolos. The Bozos had seats facing backwards on their tourbus so they could look back, while the Bolos sat looking forward. That represented two styles of thought. Are you one to look back constantly? Or do you stay in the moment while looking toward the future. I cannot answer those questions for you. That's something you have to figure out how it applies to your poker play.

While I feel it is necessary to examine your play to figure out what you did right and how you played a hand incorrectly, it's crucial that you don't spend too much time dwelling on what happened in the past. You've heard the expression, "He lives in the past."

With anything in life, it's important to understand history and to examine your thought process into making decisions in your life. That's important in how you make future decisions. At some point, your game will be on a level where you are not making any decisions, rather you are simply reacting in a Zen moment based on what is happening. You're not focused on the past or future, because in the basic form of reality neither exist. The past is something that happened and the future is something that is going to happen, but the only reality is the "now" and that's the important question. What do you do in the "now"? Are you caught up in thinking about the past or wrapped up in future events?

I think that most people have problems in life when they fail to understand that they spend too much time worrying about the future or too much time re-living the past. Because when you do that, you overlook the moment. And that moment is you right now.

Obviously what I said was nothing mind-shattering and is just basic Philosophy 101 stuff. But after seeing Phil Lesh play on Saturday night, I began thinking about the importance of music and arts on society and how musicians and artists think an entirely different way. The act of creating is employing the sense of the moment, where their mind of focused on the task at hand and aware of everything going on at that time.

I'm someone who daydreams a lot or gets caught in deep thought. Obviously, I'm as far away from the moment as possible. I'm in my own world and it seems that too many of us retreat to the safety and comfort of their inner worlds rather than be brave and let the real world take over. That's why in many ways the internet is a blessing and a curse. It allows people to hide from their own realities.

That's where the second point I want to make comes up.

"The Bozos wore masks, and the Bolos showed their faces."

There are very few instances in life where we are comfortable to show our real faces. A few years ago, I was working on a screenplay for a short film and I asked a friend of mine if she wanted to act in it.

"I'm not an actress... anymore," she said.

She used to act in college, but she no longer pursued it. I told her she was wrong. She acted all the time. When she talks to her mother, she's acting. When she talks to her boss, she's acting. When she has sex with her boyfriend, she's acting. When she sees one of her co-workers that she can't stand, she politely says hello while putting on an act.

I looked her in the eye and said, "Shit, I don't think I know the real you. Just the image you are trying to portray."

She burst into tears. She wasn't ready for a heavy dose of reality that she was basically a fraud and had no identity aside from the images that she sought to project to the people in her life. Basically what I was trying to say was that we're all actors (wait, didn't Shakespeare say that?) and some of us are better than others. Sometimes, we get to show our real faces and have the courage to walk around without a mask. That's what I love about writing novels. That's the closest glimpse into my soul that you will ever get.

You can put on act for most of your life, but there comes a time when you have to honestly re-evaluate yourself and assess the reality of the situation. Playing internet poker allows us to put on our mask and hide behind your computer screen while shouting obscenities at the dipshit who just chased a gutshot to the river and won. What you need to do is take off your mask at the tables because if you don't, you will get crushed. Based on what I've seen and read, the majority of people I know are not as good as they think they are, which is the worst kind of attitude to have in poker. A few months back, I read one blog about some vicious bad beats that this guy took. And after a close examination, there was at least one or two things wrong per hand that he did wrong, so in reality, he misplayed his hand on several instances. Since he's wearing the "I'm an expert poker player mask" he's unable to honestly look in the mirror and see what he did wrong. And there are plenty of folks out there, pros included, who think they a lot better than they are. Although some have talent, what they mistake for talent is actually luck.

Conversely there are plenty of poker players who don't have the confidence and they wear a "I'm a losing poker player mask" or "I'm afraid to move up in levels mask." If they continue that way of thinking, they'll never improve and be caught in low-limit purgatory for the rest of their poker lives.

You can't be afraid to go broke in poker. If you are, then you shouldn't be playing and you need to pick up a new hobby.

I'll try to tie up all my rambling thoughts now.

After 14 tough weeks of poker, I experienced a market correction with my bankroll. I rode out the storm and it's time to start playing solid poker again and get on track. I have the mindset of a winning poker player again. I also have to honestly look at my poker play and put the ego aside when making big decisions. I have to respect the past and have aspirations for the future, but I can never lose sight of the importance of the moment and the now.

On Deck

I leave for California on Tuesday and I'll be in the LA area for two weeks. I'm going to be covering the LA Poker Classic at Commerce and do some live blogging on the final table and take some pictures along the way and post as many updates as I can. I never covered a poker tournament in California before and I'm excited. There's also the WPT Invitational that I'm going to cover too. That happens after the LA Poker Classic ends. I'm so sick of Las Vegas that it will be nice to cover a tournament in a different city. Plus I hear it's like 80 degrees everyday. So stop back later this week to read about the main event at the LA Poker Classic, my progress at the No Fold'em tables, and how I got the Poker Geek on uber-tilt during Murder's Row. I'm also looking to try out some different things and cover this event in a different way... one that I'm sure will get copied and imitated along the way.

I have a lot of friends in LA and I'm going to try to squeeze in as many lunches as possible. I'm also eager to play some NL at Commerce. I'm skipping out of work early on Friday to play in a Murder's Row homegame. Plus Change100 is unemployed now which means I'll have someone to go drinking with at odd hours.

With the prospects of playing live poker, I'm hoping that the tables in LA treat me well. I don't expect to play much online over the next two weeks aside from the charity tournament on Full Tilt on Feb. 26th called Suckout on Luekemia.

Recent Poker Playing Music...
1. Jerry Garcia with Merle Saunders
2. John Coltrane
3. Matisyahu
4. Medeski, Martin & Wood with Trey Anasastio
5. Django Reinhardt
posted by Pauly at 2/13/2006 01:14:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Top 10 Tao of Poker Referrals

Thanks to the folks who sent me the most traffic during January.

1. The Borgata
2. Las Vegas & Poker Blog
3. Iggy's Guinness and Poker
4. Up for Poker
5. Al Cant Hang
6. Tao of Pauly
7. Aaron Gleeman
8. Double As
9. Steal the Blinds
10. Jackmama

posted by Pauly at 2/12/2006 04:20:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Worthy Causes

Glyphic's friend has a girlfriend who is very ill. She needs potential bone marrow donors who are Filipino between the ages of 18-61. Please read this very important post on how you can help out.

Also a reader of this blog named Carol sent me an email about a private tournament and fund raiser. I met Carol and her husband Dave during the 2005 WSOP. She asked me to blog about the special tournament. She's a member of FullTiltForum, and put together a private tournament at Full Tilt on Sunday February 26th as a fund-raiser for a member whose fiancee has been diagnosed with Leukemia. It is a $10+$16 NL tourney, with $15 of the fee going to the fundraiser. Visit this link this link for more details on the Suckout on Leukemia tournament. I hope all of you can play for a worthy cause.

What: Suckout on Luekemia
When: Sun, Feb 26th @ 17:00
How Much: $10 + 16
Password: playforjill

posted by Pauly at 2/11/2006 06:07:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Muck Marissa Cooper

"Dude, find a girl who looks just like her. Nail her. And dump her." - from Say Anything

Dear Ryan,

You don't know me, but I'm a fan of your show The OC. I guess you can color me a borderline stalker because I've been watching your every move since you first came on the air and you have no idea who I am. Well, I never miss a show and have skipped out on big events just so I can watch a new episode.

Since I know everything possible about you, I can automatically assume that we have this unexplained connection and a bond. I know you like my best friend. That's why I can freely dispense some relationship advice to you. Here it is as blunt as I can say it...

Muck Marissa Cooper.

That's right. Walk away. Let her go. It will be the best decision of your life. Don't draw out three to five years of more melodrama and fall in and out of love a half a dozen times and be caught in triangular relationships where the outsider comes and goes just like the ebb of the ocean's tide and causes emotional distress for everyone in the cast.

Take my advice. Girls like Marissa Cooper are bad news. I'll get into that more specifically in a second. But let's quickly run down her history.

Marissa Cooper's ex-boyfriend is the school bully and picks on minorities and nerds. During his reign of terror she fully supported his vision of tormenting social outcasts. She gets off on watching other people share in her misery.

Marissa Cooper was a virgin and gave it up to her Neo-Nazi and homophobic ex-boyfriend all because she was crushed by the sight of you kissing a girl.

Marissa Cooper tried to kill herself in Mexico after a late night of clubbing in Tijuana. She couldn't stand seeing her Neo-Nazi thug of a ex-boyfriend kiss some floozy. She OD'd on a hefty combination of valium, tequila, and some sort of horse tranquilizer that trainers at Belmont usually give their two-year old thoroughbreds. She not only wants attention, she's willing to commit suicide of the epic Sylvia Plath proportions.

Marissa Cooper got involved with a psycho kid who tried to hold her hostage and shoot her. Even after you told her that he was bad news, she insisted that she be friends with him because it was important for her to be a good friend. That's horseshit because we all know the only reason guys are friends with women so that they can have an opportunity to fuck them at a later time.

Marissa Cooper also endured a eating disorder, suffered through divorced parents, and she even shot your fuckin' brother for Christ's sake. I know he tried to rape her, but still, she shot him when she could have easily missed and shot you. You're lucky that you're still alive. Besides, how we can be 100% certain that she was hit the guy she was aiming for? Hmmmm. Makes you think right?

Now add the whole Johnny the Surfer drama. What total bullshit. You should have bitch-slapped her or broke up with her the second she started making gaa-gaa eyes at surfer stoner dude, who we all know (casting director included) that he's supposed to be a thinly veiled replica of you. She never really fell for Johnny. She fell for the stoner/surfer personification of you. She knows she's not good enough to have you so she lashed out in that way of befriend stoner-surfer dudes with bad knees and sidekicks named Chilly.

Plus Marissa Cooper has a 15-year old pothead of a sister who makes Britney Spears look like Mother Theresa. That's just bad news altogether. Mary Jane toking trailer park vixens wearing short plaid skirts and seducing older men always ends up with us in prison for up to a decade. Marrissa's gold-digger for a mother and a sexually-disturbed younger sister is a dangerous mix for anyone to have to endure. Get out now before you knock them all up and have to deal with a psychologically taught dinner scene that reminds me something from of a Fellini flick on four hits of acid.

And let me tell you a thing or too about dating rich women. It never works. They have no concept about money and make you feel like shit for not having any of it. What kind of chick like that lets you walk around in wifebeater t-shirts all the time? Even the poorest of girlfriends that I had at some point took me shopping to buy a new item of clothing. I can't explain why but the third time after you sleep with a woman, something clicks in her head that says, "I need to buy you a new shirt." Marissa would never cook for you either. Another reason to dump her.

Look, I know you've had a tough life living on the other side of the tracks in Chino. But in The OC, it's a different world. You got big issues. You knocked up another psycho chick, this one from the barrio and she never told you she kept the baby. Oh shit! You're not supposed to know that part of the plot, but yeah it's true. And your brother has one kidney and one testicle left over after Marissa Cooper took target practice on his ass. He fled to Las Vegas and Grubby told me that he's dealing blackjack at the Klondike and has developed a festering addiction to Vicodin. And don't forget about your best friend Seth Cohen. He's the biggest tool in school and President of the Comic Books Club. I dunno how you guys roll in The OC, but when I went to school, kids like that got stuffed into lockers and their underwear ripped to shreds. When are you gonna wise up and realize that the Cohens are only using you as muscle? To keep the bullies away from their Ivy League bound son. Oh yeah, he's a closet pothead too. Just like Marissa Cooper and even her mom, Julie Cooper. She smokes the reefer too. Flee the land of incestual potheads.

What can I say, you gotta dump the girl and walk away for good.

One day in college about 12-13 years ago, I woke up and found a knife stuck in my door. I lived in my fraternity house and everyone was anticipating a scene out of Fatal Attraction. If I had any bunnies, this chick would boil them. She left a refusal to break up with me note pinned to my door with a knife. Not just a steak knife, but one out of a set of 31. The sharpest of which she said she'd use to cut my balls off if I attempted to break up with her again. If she never got picked up by Atlanta Police for shoplifting tampons at Kroeger's, then I'd be whipped for sure.

Another ex-girlfriend dumped me on my birthday of all days. She was French. No compassion from those cheese-eating surrender monkeys. She waited purposely for my birthday because she knew that for the rest of my life, I'd have to celebrate knowing that I had my heart ripped out on the same day. Talk about torture. I recall her last words were something like, "Happy Birthday. Fuck you. I hope you die."

Then there was another girlfriend who stole forty of my favorite CDs. The snake of a woman took the CDs out of their cases and left them behind, so that over the next few weeks I'd slowly discover one by one that she pilfered a quarter of my CD collection. I'm still bitter about losing Blonde On Blonde and Maceo Parker's Life on Planet Groove.

Sorry I got side-tracked. Here's my point... you need to ditch the rich broad. Quick. Otherwise, you're gonna get you junk kicked in no less than 126 times, lose three teeth, have five ribs broken, and lose all your dignity, pride, and integrity in the process. Love is a powerful drug, opiate, and necessity. Don't waste it on her. Find a nice girl on the rebound, because let's face it, the world is full of scumbag guys who probably just fucked over some nice girl from the Valley. Punch your weight, kid. And stick with the chicks from the 818 area code. They are more your speed. They'll eat Jack in the Box and still give you a beejer in the parking lot of the bowling alley after you take her there for your second date. They'll even pay for the shoe rentals.

Just like in poker, sometimes you get too attached to a hand and you can't let it go. It's pretty obvious from my perspective, that you need to leave the girl. It's hard to see that from your end. that's why you're on relationship tilt. Take my advice. Fold when you know you are beat and save yourself some money. Say good-bye to the girl and move to Dawson's Creek.

Thanks.

Your biggest fan,
Pauly


P.S. Can you give me Marissa Cooper's younger sister, Kaitlin's cell phone number?
posted by Pauly at 2/10/2006 03:03:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Island Theory of Ending Losing Streaks

"Losing is a disease, like gonorrhea or syphilis." - Sports psychiatrist from The Natural

Hello. My name is Pauly, and I'm a losing poker player. I try to make up my losses at the tables by betting on women's curling and short-selling the Malaysian stock market. My only solace is that the Winter Olympics are just around the corner, which means I get to clean up in prop bets against causal gamblers. I'll take action on any Olympic sport except figure skating. So fuckin' rigged, just like online poker.

I'm down 50% of my bankroll since Halloween. I took a hit in January. I didn't lose as much as I did the previous two months, but I also didn't play for nearly two weeks when I was working at the Borgata otherwise I would have lost more. In fact, the Borgata was the only place I won in over a month. I never had four losing months in a row. And I'm not going to start now. Whenever things get too freaky, you hunker down and go back to the basics.

ABC poker. No fancy play. By the book. What would Pablo do?

I reeled in the aggression. At the Borgata, a player named Action Bob mentioned how he rarely tries to read players at the tables. "It's all about the math."

Action Bob also plays a lot online in a void where there are no physical tells. He bases all those tough decisions strictly on math. If the numbers are in his favor he raises or calls. If it's not so favorable, he folds and waits for a better opportunity to get his money into the pot.

I tried to adhere to Action Bob's philosophy. It seemed so simple. I needed to eliminate my mind out of the decisions and act like a bot. Sometimes the ego takes hold and although the math dictates a fold, I call anyway because I "know that fucker is bluffing." That's the over-confident side of my personality where I think I can fly and read people's minds and sometimes dodge bullets.

Most of the time, I'm wrong and I bleed away a little more of my stack. I'm a mere mortal and my testicles are scarred with dozens of black and blue marks from when it was viciously attacked by an onslaught of suckouts and badbeats. Those are battle wounds that will never heal. Bankrolls will fluctuate. But my balls will never be the same.

The last few days ago I turned on my Action Bob bot and tried to clean up at the tables. I didn't win, but I didn't lose that much. I stopped the bleeding. Right now I just need to keep playing solid poker and have faith that the principles of mathematics will prevail. As longs as I get my money in the pot when I have the best hand statistically, I will win over the long run.

It's hard to keep reminding myself that everytime I cash out with less chips than I started with. Last year I had a conversation with F Train during one of our games at the Blue Parrot. He told me that he tracked all of his online hands and he had not gotten A-A in a ring game in over 2200 hands. You're supposed to get aces one in 220 or so. By his estimation, he should have has A-A no less than ten times.

"You're due," I said trying to reassure him.

I'm due. I'm just waiting. Time to go back to guerilla poker. Hit and Run sessions. Sit down at a ring table, scoop a pot and bail. I've been trying to log long sessions and that's been killing me. How many times do you decide to leave and say, "Ah, one more orbit and then you take a big hit?" That happens to me all the time.

At the end of a two week writing binge, I printed up 130,000 words worth of text. It's one thing to read a manuscript on Word. It's a whole other thing to physically read a copy. I held the physical manifestation of two weeks of work in my hands. It's a sense of accomplishment. Although it wasn't perfect or far from being complete, it was the first time I saw my project as a whole. Just when I had doubts of whether I could pull it off, seeing hundreds of pages that I wrote was enough to inspire me to keep on moving forward with my goals and to complete the project.

That's tough to do with poker. I can look back on the first four weeks of 2006 but I can't physically see the results. And when you lose you feel hopeless about the money lost. Vanished from you pocket or from your bankroll. I used to think that the world was divided into good players and bad players. It's not. There are winning players and losing players.

I'm a losing player... over the past three months. Since the Summer of 2003, I've been a winning player.

Whenever I'm in a tough bind, I turn to television to solve my problems. This time I'll use Gilligan's Island to help pull me out of my losing streak.

Seven strangers stranded on a deserted island. Hilarity ensues. As much as they try to get off the island, they can't. The secluded island resembles the my current state of poker play. I'm trapped and can't get away from my losing mentality.

I realize that at some point, my poker play has taken on the personalities of everyone from the cast of Gilligan's Island.


The Skipper

The Skipper has been around the block several times. He's a war veteran. He's been stabbed in a bar in Calcutta. He's banged tranny hookers in Bangkok. He's fought hand-to-hand combat with pirates in the Caribbean and even fought of the advances of sexually confused sailors. He knows how to play poker but sometimes he gets too bossy and becomes the table captain. No one likes playing against the table captain and you never get action. The Skipper also has a big ego. It's hard for him to accept that he still makes mistakes and often blames it on his underlings. His unwillingness to accept responsibilities for his actions is what got everyone stranded on the island in the first place and is why I'm still losing at poker. Plus the Skipper is secretly in love with Gilligan. After all he's his "Little Buddy."

Gilligan

Gilligan was the Skipper's dumb-ass boy toy. Gilligan's inept abilities as a first mate was often questioned by television scholars and many believe that's why the castaways were shipwrecked. But we all know that's not the real reason why the got stranded in the first place. The Skipper hired him and should sholder the blame for surrounding himself with an incompetent crew. Gilligan's faults specialize in his inability to follow through on a specific game plan. He ends up goofing off and fucking stuff up. I play like Gilligan all the time. I start out down the right path and the next thing, I'm caught in quicksand or being molested by a menagerie of horny apes.

The Millionaire

Thurston Howell III likes action. He'll make retarded calls because he has the bankroll to sustain short term and long term losses. I find myself playing too much like Thurston. My bankroll is not unlimited. I better start paying more respect to how I handle it otherwise I'll end up MC Hammer broke.

The Millionaire's Wife

Lovey Howell was a selfish tart. She was a black hole of wealth and was so drugged up on uppers that she had no idea that her husband was cornholing the Movie Star behind her back. That unawareness and inability to pay attention to the little details is why she's a horrible poker player. I'm playing blind most of the time like a ditzy wife of a millionaire who walks around a deserted island in pearl necklaces and a parasol.

Ginger the Movie Star

Ginger was the most overrated character in sitcom history. Don't play like a ditzy Hollyweird star. Be careful or you might become a former Star Trek actor who lost his house playing Badugi with Cuban drug dealers. Ginger was more concerned about how she was perceived that she forgot that over the long run, people judge you based on your competence, and not the image that you are trying to project. On a whole, most people look like total idiots at a poker table. Ditch the iPods and shades. People like that help pay professional poker player's car payments and house mortgages. Don't be a Ginger.

The Professor

The Professor read every poker book ever written. He even penned one of his own. The Professor is a math and science guy. He believes in playing by the book. I need to let the Professor make more of my decisions. But part of me just doesn't trust him. If he's so friggin' smart and can make a radio out of a coconut, how come he couldn't patch a hole in the boat and never got to show his "Oh!" face to Ginger or Mary Anne or Mrs. Howell for that matter?

Mary Anne

She seems innocent but she's not. Everyone knows that farmer's daughters are some of the best sexual partners on the planet. That's why there are so many jokes about them. Anyway, Mary Anne pulls off the sexy and innocent look. She appears to be harmless yet alluring at the same time. She's a cagey player. You never believe her when she raises and still doesn't believe when she check-raises you on the turn and river. Plus she made the best coconut and cream pies. The island had tons of coconuts, but where the hell did they get all the whipped cream?

Cousin Oliver

I know what you're thinking, "Pauly, Cousin Oliver was in the Brady Bunch, not on Gilligan's Island." You may be correct but Oliver plays an important role in breaking my losing streak. Do you remember that one episode when the Brady kids thought Oliver was a jinx? It was all cleared up after they got into a big food fight and Oliver got a pie thrown in his face. So all I gotta do to break my streak is to go Hollyweird and find the actor who played Oliver and smash him in the face with a pie. I got a "Map of the Stars" and a coconut cream pie. My quest begins.

What have I learned from this losing experience? Accept responsibility for my losing streak. It's not because online poker is rigged or because I am playing against inferior opponents. Err on the side of math and avoid going with my gut because over the long run, mathematics has proven to be more profitable than "impulsive feelings." I have to respect my bankroll and manage it more efficiently. I have to pay more attention at the tables and be more deceptive in my play. Lastly, I have to stick to a gameplan and not call any audibles at the line of scrimmage.

Sounds easy. Shit talking always is. Time to see if I can blow my entire bankroll or double up before I head back to Las Vegas for the 2006 WSOP. I have a few months and it's time I started acting like a winning poker player.

Recent Poker Playing Music...
1. Jerry Garcia and David Grisman
2. Matisyahu
3. Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane
4. Johnny Cash
5. Wilco
posted by Pauly at 2/08/2006 01:16:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Save BG



Twenty years ago, the kids from a tony suburban neighborhood rallied around their sick classmate Ferris Bueller. That was 1986 when Abe Frauman was the Sausage King of Chicago. Today, I'm trying to rally all the bloggers to help me Save BG.

If you don't know, Boy Genius aka BG has a tear in his colon and had surgery on Monday. He's going to be out of work for the rest of the month. When he gets out of the hospital, he's gonna have a ton of medical bills. That's where I'm asking you to help out.

I'm asking you to please donate $20 to BG.

Where do I send BG the money?

GamblingBlues = Full Tilt
HeyKidsItsBG = Poker Stars

If you have an online poker account, please transfer $20 to one of BG's online poker accounts. If you don't have an online poker account and still want to help, then please shoot me an email and I can tell you about alternative options.

And you don't have to give $20. That is just a suggested amount. Feel free to donate as much as you want. But if I can get 100 bloggers and readers donate $20, then that's $2,000 less that BG has to spend in medical bills.

BG is not just a good friend, he's one of my favorite writers and bloggers. Yeah, one of our own is sick. I'm asking every blogger to help out in some way. Donate what you can and please spread the word about the Save BG fund.


2005 WPBT Holiday Classic in Las Vegas
(Photo courtesy of Poker Resource Network)
Click to enlarge
If you have not done your one good deed of the year, here's your chance to do something altruistic. I kinda feel helpless, but this is the least I can do to help. So help spread the love and show BG how you appreciate him and donate to the Save BG fund!
posted by Pauly at 2/06/2006 09:17:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Lounge Lizards

"I got my mind on my money and my money on my mind." - Snoop Dogg

My middle name should be "Aloha" because I've been coming and going so many places, I don't know whether I should be saying "hello" or "goodbye." I just got back to New York City and in little more than a week I have to get ready and hit the road again. Atlantic City was a lot of fun, but it's hard living in a casino for two weeks. Thank God that Derek came down last weekend along with AlCantHang and EvaCanHang. They preserved my sanity. Also thanks to a timely Chris Halverson suggestion, AlCantHang picked me up a very exquisite bottle of scotch. The Hangs graciously hung out while I had to finish up covering one of the final tables. When the event was finally over, the Hangs kidnapped me for a night of drinking. We headed over with Derek to Harrah's to drink heavily.

I had been outside a couple of times a day, but only for a few minutes and never past the front lobby entrance. I never left the Borgata property for ten straight days when I headed over to Harrah's for the first time. There was a bar that featured live music and that's where they wanted to take me. AlCantHang's buddy Phil's band played there the week before. And they all went and had a fun time.

As soon as you walk into Harrah's you notice the atrocious floor. "It's like the universe puked on the carpet," explained AlCantHang.

As soon as I set foot on the casino floor of Harrah's I saw two awkward signs of desperation. Foreshadowing? An omen? Or just part of the usual Saturday night scene in Atlantic City? An old man busted at a slot machine and slowly limped off in defeat. The dejection on his face nearly kicked me in the junk. Immediately to his left, a tiny bald lady with just a few strands of white hair sprouting out of her age-spotted lumpy head took a huge drag of a Marlboro red and pulled the slot machine lever. The 100-year old broad was hooked up to an oxygen machine. One bad move and she could have blown us all to Ramallah.

We made our way to the bar as the band set up on the stage. There was a small dance floor in front surrounded by a semi-circle of small lounge tables and chairs. Behind that was the Cheers style bar and in the corner were more tables. Eva wanted us to be close enough so we could see the scene. I read on Al's blog a few days earlier about the type of people who came to Harrah's on a Saturday night to drink and dance. His buddy Tony described it as a "bad wedding reception." Fitting. It was more like horny and drunk forty-year olds dancing like an extra from a Village People video.

As soon as we sat down, the same waitress from the week before popped up out of nowhere. The Hangs ran up a huge tab equivalent to the GNP of Luxembourg and tipped her accordingly. AlCantHang has every waitress paid off within a 87 mile radius of Philadelphia. The rules are simple: Keep the SoCo flowing and they made their biggest tip night of the year.

Al quickly recognized a friend of his.

"Holy shit, that's Vinny! Yo Vinny!"

Yep, Al and Eva knew the guitar player and the lead singer of the cover band. He had been in the band Crystal Roxx and wrote the infamous AlCantHang song. Vinny was there the night AlCantHang got his nickname and almost died.

"He should be dead," Vinny explained. "No one drinks that much and lives."

The center of amusement and entertainment for the night had to be a guy who looked like a cross between Frank Zappa and Max Cady, Robert DeNiro's character from the film Cape Fear. If you saw Cape Fear, you know how much of a slimeball that guy looked like. Our hero had a handle-bar mustache and a slicked back mullet-type of long hair. He wore a blue Hawaiian shirt and white slacks. He reminded me of a used car dealer who's a part time pedophile.

Vinny's band played a series of 1980s and 1990s cover songs. After they got warmed up, the freaky looking guy jumped up and started displaying his amazing drunken dancing skills. He pretty much humped anything that moved on the dance floor. It was as though he learned all of his dance moves from watching porno movies. He did things that resembled various sex acts as I laughed and shook my head at the same time. His main target was a 60 year old woman who looked like Bea Arthur. He humped her for three straight songs and looked hornier than Bill Clinton on the first day of Spring. During the band's cover version of Nelly's Hot in Herre, he repeatedly spanked Bea's ass as he humped her doggie style.

We all sat back and laughed and enjoyed the show. It was for free too. Just like Tony said, it looked like a bad wedding reception. I don't recall too much after a while. I know that the SoCos kept coming and everytime I looked down, there was a new drink. Eva befriended a hooker at the adjacent table and she had no clue she was a lady of the night until Derek clued her in.

The second band was this group of chicks from Montreal with three musicians. They sang 70s and 80s pop and disco tunes. Three of them were blonde and I'd do all three singers, not because they were blonde, but because they were French-Canadian and I was drunker than Jenna Bush on Cinco de Mayo. One of the singers looked like a healthy Tara Reid with hipster glasses. She was the sexy one. The other looked like a younger version of Diane Lane. She was the smart one. And the third one didn't wear a bra. I couldn't tell you what her face looked like because I stared at her nipples during their entire set.

I don't recall leaving Harrah's but when Derek woke me up the next day I was still drunk. Lucky for me the showers had benches and I sat down for a few minutes in a hot shower as I sobered up.

Drinking with Al past Midnight causes serious lapses in your memory. I lose spacial consciousness somewhere between 2am and 4am. That's the peak time for alien abductions and random drunk dialing where I spew out obscenities onto people's voicemails and call up ex-girlfriends and persuade them to divorce their husbands so they can go hiking in the Himalayas with me.

Moving on...

I've been trying to maintain my Silver Status on Poker Stars. Over the past four days I racked up almost 1,000 VIP points so I'm 2/3 of the way there to keeping my current social status. If I don't lose my bankroll, I'm gonna give Gold status a shot. I played in a VIP freeroll. Actually I had been eligible for three. Derek played for me in the first one. I posted & folded the second one (that's when AlCantHang and Derek were in AC). And I started the third one on Saturday and had to dinner plans at 6pm. Luckily Change100 was playing on Stars at the time and offered to take over for me. I was one of the short stacks, but just made the money. She played two hands and busted out when Q-Q ran into a middle pair who rivered a set. Oh well. As I was ordering my food at the diner, she sent me a text and told me how she busted. I told her she could keep half of what I ended up winning. She kindly declined my super generous offer of $2.50.

During the Super Bowl, I played in a 600 FPP freeroll for the EPT Monte Carlo on Poker Stars. I'm gonna play in one of those satellites/free rolls at least once a day. I wanna go to Monte Carlo badly, more so than any other event I tried to win a seat into. Anyway, I took 41st out of 82 in the satellite. I played one hand on 51 minutes and you think when I moved all in over the top of some guy that he'd fold knowing that I folded every damn hand prior to that. Nope. He called and beat out my Big Slick when he paired one of his undercards.

The losing streak continues and I'll address that topic in a post later this week. For now, the goal is hit and run on the limit tables and try to win a seat to the EPT Grand Finale in Monte Carlo on Poker Stars. In the meantime, I'll be writing a few freelance assignment the next few days and trying to finish up the Vegas book before I head out to the Left Coast in 8 days. I'm trying to get Grubby to come out to California so we can hit the lesbian bars in Venice Beach to try to pick up confused starlets.

Recent Poker Playing Music...
1. Grant Green
2. Beck
3. Phish with George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic
4. Wu-Tang Clan
5. Jerry Garcia Band
posted by Pauly at 2/06/2006 02:03:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Sunday Pimpage

Have you gotten any SnailTrax official merchandise? I scored some. Take a peek at some of the very best of SnailTrax gear. Be the first kid on your block with a bumper sticker that sayd... Daddy likes 'em stout.

By the way, Charlie Shoten's book No Limit Life is finally available on Amazon.com. And it's only $15!

Ed from Openers ended his blog on a bittersweet note. Take a peek at his last post. I had the pleasure of meeting him in Las Vegas. I wish him the best of luck.

The Poker Geek has a new url. Make sure you update your blog roll.

Also check out Absinthe's Troubles. That's the real live-blogging digity from Ryan.

Lastly, sorry to Change100 losing her job. You have to check out her latest post called I gave Hollywood my twenties and all I got was this lousy severance check. My career in Hollyweird ended before it even began! Someone has to give my favorite junk grabber a job.

Ok, I know it's late, but I finally published the Januaray issue of Truckin'. Take a peek at the first issue of 2006. It features several new writers such as John "Falstaff" Hartness and Sean A. Donahue. I'm hoping that they contribute more stuff later this year. Change100, my buddy Sigge Amdal from Norway, and the Human Head returned with epic stories. Sigge was in Estonia and we're lucky to read about his travels. I also wrote a hybrid subway story.

Truckin' - January 2006, Vol. 5, Issue 1

1. Subway Bitch Slap by Tenzin McGrupp
Pedro eventually graduated from low level thuggery to middle level drug dealing. He started out at the bottom as a look out, then a runner, then a full on dealer.... More

2. Two Inches of Banana by Change100
"All I know is that if I were a homosexual, I'd have to be a feeder. Two inches of banana and I'm gagging!" he said... More

3. Anniversary in Italy by John "Falstaff" Hartness
It was our anniversary, and we had ditched the tour group to do a little shopping and have a nice romantic dinner all to ourselves. So we meandered through the cobblestone streets of Taormina.... More

4. Taste by Human Head
Doug and I were long time tripping buddies. Both of us typically shied away from tripping with our group of friends, well, because we felt like the drugs were wasted on them. Not only did we love our drugs, we took them seriously... More

5. The West Texas No by Sean A. Donahue
The simple West Texas attitude is infectious. Give me a beer, George Strait and a karaoke machine to sing Hotel California or The Chair and a West Texan has found Nirvana. For they love to drink, smoke, chew and party... More

6. Living la vida Estonia by Sigge S. Amdal
My second fuck-up was leaving my camera at home. I despise tourists and consider myself a traveler. A traveler sees what he sees, a tourist what he came to see.... More

I ask that if you like these stories, then please do me and the rest of the writers a huge favor: Tell your friends about your favorite stories. It takes a few seconds to pass along the URL. I certainly appreciate your support. Feel free to shoot me an e-mail if you know anyone who is interested in being added to the mailing list.

P.S. The February 2006 issue will be released in less than two weeks. I'm seeking submissions for March and April 2006.

posted by Pauly at 2/05/2006 11:26:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Turn This Mother Out

"Can I hit it and quit?" - James Brown

After the Grinder won the WPT Borgata Winter Open, I had one final meal with Spaceman, Friedman, and Frank where we all had an amazing conversation on several topics including what it was like working for a casino and the perceptions (or skewed views) that the media can present to uninformed masses.

The main event ended and my two week assignment was officially complete. All I had to do was catch up on some closing paper work. I had an article to write about the final table, but the deadline was over a week away. I finally had time to relax. We all partied it up to about 2am. Spaceman had to go because he had to get up like at 5am to get the train to Philadelphia so he can go to the airport. I went up to my room to finish up some work and realized that I was too wired to sleep. It was my last few hours in Atlantic City. I only played poker on the first day I arrived so I headed downstairs to the poker room.

The poker room was not as crowded as it was all day, or all week for the matter. There was an open seat on a NL table, I bought my chips and nodded at the dealer at the table next to mine since we both recognized each other. I sat in seat 3. At first glance I decided that my table was going to be tough. Drunks and dipshits are tough to beat at 3am. That's the "Do Not Fold" hour and unless I caught cards, it was gonna be a challenge to make some real money.

Most poker rooms are broken up into several categories of people:

1. Players who know what they are doing.
2. Players who think they know what they are doing.
3. Players who are there to gamble.
4. Players who are there for the cool entertainment value a.k.a. hipsters
5. Beginners and newbies.

I had all five at the table. Heck, I'm a combination of three or more of those stereotypes. I'm really #2. As much as I talk shit and can boast about having consecutive winning years, I still have no clue what I'm doing at the tables. Sure I can quote Sklansky verbatim like it's a line from Fletch, but just like how the notion of God evaporates from the bottom of a foxhole during the middle of a war, anything that Sklansky writes about poker gets thrown at the window when you are playing at 3am against drunk Russians from Brighton Beach and guys in sweatpants named Anthony that bootlegged cigarettes from the South into the greater Philadelphia area. I was also #3. If I wanted to make real money I would not be playing $1-2 NL in Atlantic City. After working for two weeks straight and seeing luck box after luckbox beat out great players, I wanted to gamble and drink for free.

There's also a part of me, the humblest side of my poker acumen, that reminds me that I'm still a student in life as well as in poker. Andy Black spoke about how it's a very fine line between being under-confident and over-confident. If you are one of two much at the tables, you're fucked. The key is to be confident in your abilities, yet maintain a semblance of humbleness. That way you do stray too far off the center line. I absolutely deserve to sit at that table, but I'm conscious that I'm one bad move or bad beat away being sent to the rail.

Inside of a few minutes, I had to quickly profile and size up the other eight at the table.

Seat 1: Old guy with hairy ears
Seat 2: Hot Russian chick
Seat 3: Your Hero
Seat 4: Anthony
Seat 5: Russian guy
Seat 6: Drunk Russian guy
Seat 7: Hipster from Brooklyn
Seat 8: Ghost 1
Seat 9: Ghost 2

Sometimes playing against drunks is like trying to juggle hand grenades with Charles Manson. You know that some weird and crazy shit is going to go down at some point. This time, one guy spilled his cocktail. The dealer was pissed because she warned him at least five times in the first minute I sat down. He had an empty cupholder but was so polluted that he kept putting it on the other side of his stack. And he had a stack. A monster stack. It was dirty for sure with a few $1 and $25 chips grouped together in a sea wall of red $5 chips. Seat 6 was the sucker and I wanted him to double me up. He wasn't friends with the other two Russians and my table. And they had been badgering him all night.

"Call me Nicky," he insisted, "I want you to know the name of the guy who is going to take all your money!"

He began taunting me early on. He had the hipster kid from Brooklyn on tilt and must have run through at least 4 or 5 buy-ins according to the Russian chick sitting next to me. She reminded me of a young Meryl Streep. Her accent was thick and she smelled like flowers and blueberries. She sipped on a sea breeze or some sort of vodka-cranberry concoction. She was shortstacked and if I spoke better Russian, I would have figured out that she was the table captain and part of Group #1. She thought she knew what she was doing and she was screaming at Nicky, the drunk Russians guy everytime he scooped a pot. I like feisty women. I prefer feisty drunk women with a penchant for gambling and playing cards at 3am.

Everytime she entered a pot, Nicky would raise. She seethed in anger even more so. Nicky had the most of the table on tilt. He event got the dealer on tilt after he knocked over his drink.

I'll spare you the bad beat. Pocket pair busted by an unsuited two gapper. Before Nicky could scoop up the pot, I dug back in for a rebuy.

"He is stupid," she said. Actually it sounded more like "stew-pet."

I quickly became her table friend. The old guy with the hairy ears to her right was in a daze. I couldn't tell if he was heavily medicated or just tired after a long session.

"What's your name?"

Always ask hot women what their name is and follow it up with something quick. If it's exotic say something like "What does that mean?" or "How did you get that interesting name?"

If it's a common name like Jennifer or Michelle, just say, "You've got to be one of the best looking Jen's I ever met."

It sounds corny, but it works.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Nadya," she said.

"That's beautiful. What does it mean?"

She smiled. "Hope," she said.

"Like you hope that assclown is going to double you up eventually?"

She laughed and then cursed at Nicky in Russian. The other Russian at the table laughed. Nicky fired back something and by the look on Nadya's face, I'm sure he called her a pig or a dog or dropped a Ruskie C-bomb.

Nadya doubled through Nicky twice in one orbit. She had the best hand both times. A-K and J-J held up for her against A-3 and 3-5s. I doubled up against Nicky and lost a big pot to the old guy with the hairy ears. The hipster dropped another buy-in when he chased a baby flush and Nadya filled in a full house on the river. All of a sudden she had chips and starting talking smack with everyone at the table.

"People are so stew-pet," she said.

I was about even when I was heads up with Nadya. I raised with A-Js and missed my flop. She checked to me on a ragged board and I bet the pot on the flop. She muttered something like she knew I had A-K and re-raised me.

Hot Russian chicks drinking Sea Breezes at 6am in the morning check-raising me in a $30 pot is a total turn on. I moved all in on her.

"You are a good player. Not one of those stew-pet players like Nicky," as she pointed and cursed at him in Russian.

She folded and showed me her small pair.

"Since I like your face, I'll let you see one card for free. Pick one," as I spread out my hole cards. She pointed to one and I flipped over the Jack of hearts.

She groaned and said something in Russian. Nicky taunted her for the next ten minutes before Nadya racked up her chips and left. After I cashed out she stood at the top of the escalator smoking a menthol cigarette.

"Think I can hit it and quit?" I joked.


Recent Poker Playing Music...
1. Phish
2. Jedi Mind Tricks
3. Karl Denson
4. Radiohead
5. Miles Davis
posted by Pauly at 2/03/2006 10:35:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Thanks Wil!

Wil is hosting a tournament on Poker Stars tonight and you are all invited!

What: WWdN Dr. Pauly Appreciation Tourney
Where: Poker Stars
Tournament Info: #19063218 (Check under Private Tourney tab)
When: Feb 2 @ 11:30 PM (or 8:30 PM on the West Coast)
Buy-in: $10 + 1 NL
Password: monkey

I'm back in New York City after 15 days in Atlantic City working for the Borgata. Man, I missed NYC. Anyway, I'll be playing tonight and so should you!

I'd like to thank Wil, Gracie, AlCantHang, Derek, EvaCanHang, BG, JoeSpeaker, CJ, BadBlood and everyone else who did a live-blogging attempt in showing their amazing support last weekend. Special thanks to Gracie, who's idea to make life a bit easier for me certainly worked! Words like thank you are not enough to tell everyone how much I appreciate your support. And thanks to Otis & Wil for the uplifting emails. And to Halverson for picking out the Scotch.

See you all tonight.
posted by Pauly at 2/02/2006 04:47:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Borgata Winter Open: WPT Final table


Today is the day that everyone had been waiting for... it's the conclusion of the championship main event of the Borgata Winter Poker Open. The final table of the $10K main event starts tonight at 5pm at the Borgata Casino Hotel & Spa in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The Winter Poker Open was a series of ten tournaments and we're finally reached the last final table.

WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open Quick Stats

Chipleader: Erick Lindgren $2.635M
Entrants: 381
Buy-in: $9,700 + $300
First Place: $1,173,373 + Seat in WPT Championships

Final 6 Chipcount:
1. Erick Lindgren $2.635M
2. Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi $2.04M
3. Josh Spiegelman $1.635M
4. John D'Agostino $ 1.34M
5. Stuart "Donator" Paterson $1.06M
6. Amnon Filippi $820K

TV Table Payouts:
1. $1,173,373
2. $591,312
3. $282,721
4. $184,785
5. $147,828
6. $110,871

Day 3 Eliminations:
33. Erik Seidel (Henderson, NV) $14,783
32. Marc Nantais (Alfred, Ontario, Canada) $14,783
31. Chris Reslock (Atlantic City, NJ) $14,783
30. Leonard Green (Huntingdon Valley, PA) $16,631
29. Greg Cash (Mount Ida, AR) $16,631
28. Jorge Arias (Boca Raton, FL) $16,631
27. Mike Sica (N. Brunswick, NJ) $16,631
26. Vlad Mezheritsky (Brooklyn, NY) $16,631
25. Ronnie Cauthen (Pawley's Island, SC) $16,631
24. Bill Edler (Las Vegas, NV) $16,631
23. Denis Ethier (Durham, NC) $16,631
22. Jim Lester (Cincinnati, OH) $16,631
21. John Duthie (London, England) $18,479
20. Richard Kirsch (Pampass Beach, FL) $18,479
19. Dennis January (Vancouver, WA) $18,479
18. Pete Skyllas (Astoria, NY) $18,479
17. Dane Jorgensen (Chesterfield, VA) $18,479
16. Will Tong (Astoria, NY) $22,174
15. Eugene Todd $22,174
14. Michael Goodman (New York, NY) $22,174
13. Richard Dabal (Rochelle Park, NJ) $27,718
12. Louise Francoeur (Palm Beach, FL) $27,718
11. Cliff Josephy (Muttontown, NY) $27,718
10. Kenny Schuyler (Long Branch, NJ) $27,718
9. Don Mullis (Willmington, NC) $46,196
8. Joe Miceli (New York, NY) $55,436
7. Peter Feldman (Harper Woods, MI) $73,914

See you at 5pm for live blogging updates of the final table!

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

4:20pm... Final Table update: We're forty minutes away from the scheduled start time. The crew are testing the cameras and everyone is set up in media row.

4:30pm... Final Table update: The audience has been let inside. 30 minutes from show time.


2005 Borgata Open Champion - Al Ardebili
5:00pm... Final Table update: Still a few minutes away from action. Stay tuned. Here are some photos.



WPT Borgata Winter Open Final table


Erick Lindgren & The Grinder


Stuart "The Donator" Paterson
5:15pm... Final Table update: Tournament Director Tab just announced the final table players. The Grinder has the most railbirds minus Mrs. Grinder, who is expecting their first child any day now!

5:20pm... Final Table update: Blinds are $15K/$30K with $3K antes. Cards are in the air!

Final 6 Chipcount:
1. Erick Lindgren $2.635M
2. Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi $2.04M
3. Josh Spiegelman $1.635M
4. John D'Agostino $ 1.34M
5. Stuart "Donator" Paterson $1.06M
6. Amnon Filippi $820K

5:24pm... Final Table update: The Grinder takes down the first pot. He battled Stuart "Donator" Paterson who had A-10 and lost to Grinder's 7-8s and two pair.

5:30pm... Final Table update: Paul Darden is one of the members of this packed audience. After John D'Agostino raised a pot to $90K, Erick Lindgren came over the top for $420K. Everyone folded.

5:35pm... Final Table update: Erick Lindgren took upon the role as the early aggressor. After The Grinder raised preflop, Erick Lindgren came over the top from the big blind with a big raise. The Grinder folded and Lindgren picked up another pot.

5:43pm... Final Table update: Amnon Filippi took down a big pot against the Grinder. Filippi rivered two pair with K-Q and the Grinder folded half of his hand showing just an ace for top pair.

5:46pm... Final Table update: The Donator moved all in preflop. One of his railbords shouted, "Don't mess with the Donator!" Stuart Paterson took down the pot after everyone folded.

5:50pm... Final Table update: Josh Spiegelman and Lindgren went heads up in a pot and Lindgren took it down on the flop. Lindgren adds even more chips to his stack.

5:57pm... Final Table update: Josh Spiegelman took down a pot against Erick Lindgren with Ace high. His A-9 was better than Lindgren's A-8.

6:00pm... Final Table update: Josh Spiegelman and Erick Lindgren were in another big pot together, well over $1M. On a board of 8-6-5-Q-A and two diamonds, Lindgren showed a pair of Queens with Q-9 and Josh Spiegelman flipped over a pair of aces with A-9s. He missed his diamond draw but turned top pair. Josh Spiegelman seems to have Lindgren's number over the past orbit as the two have butted heads several times within the first hour of play. Spiegelman looks strong after scooping the biggest pot of the night.

6:11pm... Final Table update: On a board of 7h-As-Qh, John D'Agostino bet out for 200K and the Grinder moved all in over the top. John D'Ags called with K-K and The Grinder showed 2h-4h and a baby flush draw. The Grinder's railbirds were pleading for a heart. The turn was a 3s and The Grinder picked up a gutshot Wheel draw. The river was a 7s, which didn't help The Grinder. John D'Ags pocket kings held up. He doubled up and The Grinder's stack took a big hit.



6:30pm... Final Table update: Players are on a break. Lindgren is still on top.

Updated Chipcount:
1. Erick Lindgren $2.825M
2. Josh Spiegelman $2.040M
3. John D'Agostino $1.75M
4. "The Grinder" $1.34M
5. Amnon Filippi $1.03M
6. Stuart "The Donator" Paterson $540K

6:40pm... Final Table update: We're back with a new level. Blinds are $25K/50K with a $5K ante. These levels are the original structures that the WPT and the Borgata agreed upon.

6:42pm... Final Table update: The Donator moved all in for $540K with A-10 and The Grinder called with Big Slick. The flop was all spades with K-6-7. The turn and river didn't help Stuart Paterson. The Donator was eliminated in 6th place and won $110,871. The crowd gave him a loud and warm ovation.


Stuart "The Donator" Paterson - 6th Place

6:50pm... Final Table update: Erick Lindgren took down a pot from Josh Spiegelman. He added to his chiplead.

Updated Chipcount:
1. Erick Lindgren $2.9M
2. Josh Spiegelman $2.2M
3. John D'Agostino $1.75M
4. "The Grinder" $1.74M
5. Amnon Filippi $970K

7:05pm... Final Table update: John D'Agostino won a 700K pot when his Queen high flush was better than The Grinder's baby flush. The Grinder just won a hand with 10-5. It was suited, of course.

7:15pm... Final Table update: Gavin Smith is in the audience.

Updated Chipcount:
1. Erick Lindgren $2.7M
1. John D'Agostino $2.7M
3. The Grinder $1.725M
4. Amnon Filippi $1.25M
5. Josh Spiegelman $1.24M

7:29pm... Final Table update: Nothing of significance has happened the last half hour or so.

7:35pm... Final Table update: Erick Lindgren picked up a pot against John D'Agostino and became the first player to reach $3M in chips.

Updated Chipcount:
1. Erick Lindgren $3.2M
2. Amnon Filippi $1.62M
3. The Grinder $1.62M
4. John D'Agostino $1.125M
5. Josh Spiegelman $973K

7:40pm... Final Table update: We're on a new level. Blinds are $40K/80K with a $10K ante.

7:50pm... Final Table update: The Grinder beat John D'Agostino out of a pot with 7-7. He caught a four flush and won a $1M pot.

7:52pm... Final Table update: Erick Lindgren bullied Josh Spiegelman off a pot when he moved all in on the turn. Spiegelman folded. Lindgren has almost $4M now.

8:05pm... Final Table update: Players returned from a short break.

Updated Chipcount:
1. Erick Lindgren $3.93M
2. The Grinder $2.455M
3. John D'Agostino $1.42M
4. Amnon Filippi $900K
5. Josh Spiegelman $825K

8:11pm... Final Table update: Josh Spiegelman and his short stack were all in preflop qith A-6. Erick Lindgren called with A-3. The flop was 9-2-2 with two hearts. 10 and a 4 completed the board and The two players chopped the pot.

8:17pm... Final Table update: It's been a push fest this orbit. Whoever moved all in preflop took down the pot. Amnon Filippi was the last player to take down the blinds and antes after pushing all in.

8:19pm... Final Table update: Josh Spiegelman moved all in with K-Qd and John D'Agostino called with J-8s. The flop was Q-J-8 and D'Ags took the lead with two pair. The turn and river didn't help Spiegelman and he was eliminated in fifth place.
Spiegelman won $147,828. Down to four players.


Josh Spiegelman - 5th Place
8:23pm... Final Table update: On the very next hand, two players were all in preflop. John D'Agostino flipped over Q-Q and The Grinder showed 9-9. The flop was 10-Q-K and The Grinder picked up a straight draw despite D'Agostino flopping a set. The turn was the case Queen and The Grinder was drawing dead. The Grinder was crippled.

8:28pm... Final Table update: The Grinder and Erick Lindgren were all in preflop. It was a classic race. The Grinder had 4-4 and Lindgren had A-Q. Lindgren flopped a Queen and took the lead. The turn was no help. A four spiked on the river and the crowd erupted. The Grinder rivered a set and caught one of his two outs to double up against against the chipleader.

8:32pm... Final table update: The action is fast and furious and it's hard to keep up. John D'Agostino was all in preflop with A-K against Amnon Filippi's A-10. D'Agostino flopped a King and his Big Slick held up. Amnon Filippi from New York City took fourth place and won $184,785.

Updated Chipcount:
1. John D'Agostino $4.16M
2. The Grinder $3.35M
3. Erick Lindgren $2.1M

Amnon Filippi - 4th Place
Photo courtesy of Frank Bellocchio
8:45pm... Final Table update: John D'Agostino is on a rush. He scooped another big pot, this time off the Grinder.

Updated Chipcount:
1. John D'Agostino $4.35M
2. The Grinder $2.8M
3. Erick Lindgren $2.4M

8:53pm... Final Table update: The Grinder and Erick Lindgren were heads up in a big pot. Both players were all in on the turn on a board of J-Q-4-5 and three spades. The Grinder had a flush with Ks-3s and Lindgren had a nut flush draw with the ace of spades. The river didn't help Lindgren and he doubled up the Grinder. Lindgren has less than 400K. The Grinder and John D'Agostino have over $4M each.

8:59pm... Final Table update: Erick Lindgren was all in preflop with J-8s due to his shortstack. John D'Agostino and K-6 busted him in 3rd place. Lindgren won $282,721. We're heads up. This is John D'Ags fourth WPT final table and The Grinder's second of back-to-back final tables.

Updated Chipcount:
1. The Grinder $5.05M
2. John D'Agostino $4.08M

Erick Lindgren - 3rd Place
Courtesy of Frank Bellocchio
9:10pm... Final Table update: We are awaiting the Babes of Borgata to bring out the cashola for the money presentation. The winner of this event wins $1.1M and a brand new fully loaded 2006 Escalade in addition to a $25K seat in the WPT Championships in April.


The Babes of the Borgata unveil the 2006 Escalade.
9:30pm... Final Table update: The Grinder took down a huge pot in one of the first few hands of heads up play. The pot was over $1.6M. As of now, The Grinder has a $6.5M to a $3M chiplead over D'Agostino.

9:39pm... Final Table update: The two players have been trading pots back and forth. No hands of note so far.

9:40pm... Final Table update: Players are on a break. When play resumes, we'll be on a new level. Blinds are $60K/120K with $20K antes.

Updated Chipcount:
1. The Grinder $6.33M
2. John D'Agostino $3.22M

10:00pm... Final Table update: Both players have been staying out of each other's way as action has slowed down. The first person to raise has been the guy who takes down the pot either preflop or on the flop.

10:02pm... Final Table update: The Grinder is heating up. He has $7.5M after he moved all in on a flop with all spades. D'Agostino quickly folded. The Grinder increased his lead to 3x D'Agostino's stack.

10:11pm... Final Table update: Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi has eliminated John D'Agostino. On a board of J-9-6-2, The Grinder had J-6 for two pair and John D'Agostino had K-10 for a gutshot draw. The river didn't help him and he took second place. John D'Agostino won $591,312. This is the second WPT victory for The Grinder. He won $1,173,373 for first place, the 2006 Escalade, and a seat in the WPT Championships. Congrats to The Grinder.


John D'Agostino - 2nd Place
Photo courtesy of Frank Bellocchio


Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi
WPT Borgata Winner Open Champion
Congrats to The Grinder. Thanks to everyone at the Borgata for an amazing experience. I'll be back live blogging the LA Poker Classic in two plus weeks!
posted by Pauly at 2/01/2006 02:01:00 AM | Permalink |