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

 
WSOP Day 29: Sartre's Lobster

By Pauly

Freddy Deeb mentioned that Chip Reese was the greatest poker player of all time and that they had swapped 5% of each other for the HORSE tournament. Moments after Deeb won the event, he said that he felt it was an honor that last year's winner thought confident enough in his game that he's take a piece of the action.

HORSE is a players players game. It's nod a fad. It's not great for TV. It's not the most popular game of poker on the internet. It is what it is... rotation poker. Sort of a throw back to the kitchen games with plastic chips or those beer-soaked fraternity house days when you played dealer's choice and knew that certain players didn't like specific games so when they were on tilt or having an insane rush, you called that game to either cool down the hot player or push your buddy further into tiltdom.

At the final table of HORSE, you could figure out what game was stronger for the players than others. Some went into lockdown mode the moment a round began. The better final table players switched gears within their rounds. If they were known to be a tight Stud 8 player, they'd jam pots and keep their opponents guessing.

What I respect most about the $50K HORSE is that consistent play over a variety of limit games is rewarded. The buy-in is also sizable enough investment that it weeds out the bottom feeders. I always felt that they should raise the buy-in of the WSOP main event to $25K if only for inflation reasons. When I was a kid (when the WSOP started), $10K was a lot of money. I don't know how much money my father earned in 1977, but I assume that $10K was at least 1/3 of his salary at that crappy desk job he humped in Midtown Manhattan. I'm too lazy to figure out inflation figures, but $25K seems about right.

At any rate, 148 players bought into HORSE and that represented some of the Top 75 or so of the premiere players in the world. Then there were a few players whom I couldn't figure out why they were in the event. I simply assumed someone staked them. Some of the players who I respected the most skipped out on HORSE. They said it was too expensive and the field was too strong. I also wondered how many horses that Lindgren and Patrik Antonius had the HORSE event. I betcha between two of them combined, they backed 75% of the field. An anonymous friend in the media room thought that number was higher and more like 90%. Sure, we knew that Chip Reese had 5% of Deeb, but who had the rest?

Moving on...

I returned to the Rio only seven hours after the HORSE final table ended I left it to cover Day 2 of the $5K NL Hold'em Short-handed event. Dutch Boyd started out as the chipleader, with Phil Hellmuth not too far behind. Tony G was also left along with Allen Cunningham, Jamie Gold, and Spiderman himself... Tobey Maguire. With all those stars, the spectators were tightly packed six or seven deep on the rail. Flashes were going off every few minutes despite the stern warnings from the TD that flash photography was not permitted.

We got the whole Hollywerid-ish PR bullshit before the event started regarding coverage of Tobey Maguire. I got instructions like, "Um... we're not going to be taking photos of Tobey today at his request. He doesn't want any attention until he goes deep."

He didn't want to be covered. Cool with me. I had Logan, Dave, and Drew covering the event with me and I told them specifically, "Fuck that Spiderman clown in the ear. We're not covering him."

I made sure that none of our guys sweated his table and left him alone. Maguire busted out early and we didn't get the specifics about the hand. One of the guys asked the players at the table what happened, and they were quick to let us know who busted Spidey.

Besides, we had bigger fish to fry with Jamie Gold cashing in an event (his first significant money win since he won the Main Event last year) and Phil Hellmuth being vintage Phil Hellmuth. That meant plenty of side drama and tons and tons of railbirds. His nemesis quckly became Raj Sawant after he sucked out on the Poker Brat. Hellmuth flopped a set and lost to a two outer. He lost most of his stack and his sanity. The verbal tirade began. Hellmuth even showed one of ours guys his hole cards before he folded to a raise from Sawant. A few hands earlier Sawant raised big with 10-4o and busted a player.

Hellmuth felt he was getting set up as he peeled off Ah-Qd. He called Drew over and showed him his cards.

"I'm the greatest player in the world and that is what the best players do," he said as he threw his cards into the muck.

Hellmuth ended up busting out under a tirade of donkey-f-bombs and Tony G took the spotlight. He doubled up on one hand against Erik Friberg when The G made a boat to beat Boyd's Broadway straight. That's when the old school Tony G jumped up and started yelling.

"Try making a move with J-10 again and you'll go broke!" he said.

When Dutch Boyd was moved to his table, The G tried to tilt him. His 4d-4s held up against Boyd's Ac-Qs. Tony G flopped a set and he jumped up and started trash talking with Dutch Boyd.

"I'm gonna take everything you have," said Tony G. "I'm gonna rip your stack apart! Keep calling and I'll keep taking all your chips."

The G had chips then Friberg and Boyd started making moves on him. Whenever The G would raise, they moved all in. He folded on two instances and lost about 40% of his stack.

Tony G eventually busted out in 10th place on a wicked bad beat. He got it all in with A-J against Emil Patel's A-8s. Patel turned an 8 and The G stormed away from the table in silence. I think he was also playing in the Triple Draw event.

Speaking of Triple Draw, Chris Fargis was back in town trying to win his first bracelet. And Garth was also playing in the event. He had both Sheiky and Jesus at his table at one point. Just like my buddy Coach playing the day before or Drizz last week, I barely had enough time to say hello and sweat them for a bit. That's been my biggest regret about the WSOP this year... is that with multiple events (some days as many as 6 at once) I don't get to follow the action outside of the event that I'm covering. I feel like I'm missing 80% of the WSOP since there are too many events.

Two years ago, I covered every single final table except two - I left the Razz marathon early and another one so I could go to one of the parties. That also doesn't include the bracelet events that went on during the main event. This year, I have only seen a handful of final tables... the ones that I covered. My main assignments are Day 2. What I have been seeing is how those players got to the final table, but what I am also seeing is who's been running good at the WSOP and who hasn't there are a few players who I've seen regularly this year. And there are some pros that I haven't covered yet... which means that they haven't been going deep. Ergo, bad series for them. Of course, all of that could change with one final table.

Anyway, Justin Shronk and Oliver Tse cashed in the events they were playing on Day 29. Congrats to both. Garth survived a Day 1 which is a feat considering the field he was up against. Nice work, kangadonkey!

Here's a random thought...

Over the last month I've been having several Sandy Bates moments. For the six of you who picked up on that reference, you can understand the existentialist and artistic dilemma that I have been experiencing over the last couple of weeks. For those of you who haven't, go rent Stardust Memories on Netflix.

Random Guy: Can I have your autograph?
Sandy Bates: Oh, jeez.
Random Guy: Could you just write: "To Phyllis Weinstein, you unfaithful, lying bitch."

During one of the breaks of the HORSE event, I went outside for a few minutes for a smoke break. It was around 3am and Benjo told me a weird story regarding John-Paul Sartre. I actually started the conversation by asking him something about Sartre. I think it was about him banging Simone de Beauvoir. Anyway, Benjo told me how Simone de Beauvoir made him take a holiday in Southern France because he was too burnt out after experiencing hallucinations, specifically one about a lobster following him around. He had been doing too much mescaline and was feeling the residual effects of that drug. For years the lobster would follow him around and he made the decision that he was not going to see the lobster any more... and the lobster vanished and ceased to exist anymore.

I had a moment of clarity and finally figured it out. Everything. Especially what Sartre was trying to teach us... that we have to make a choice in life. And not just about what we do, but what we believe, and the values we hold. Those choices are not going to be made for us or nor should they be dictated by those around us. He decided to stop seeing the lobsters and they were gone.

* * * * *
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos and there's the Poker Prof's cool 2007 WSOP Info page.

And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

For all you fantasy sports junkies, check out our new site... Fantasy Sports Live.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker at www.taopoker.com. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/30/2007 02:24:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Day 28: Freddy Deeb Wins $50K HORSE

By Pauly


2007 HORSE Champion - Freddy Deeb
Photo courtesy of Flipchip
My Main Man Freddy Deeb came from behind to win the $50K HORSE event. He won the most respected bracelet that the WSOP has to offer after he outlasted a difficult field of 148 players. His final table was not an easy one and it took him a grueling 14.5 hours, but at exactly 5am Las Vegas time, Deeb eventually won his second bracelet and took down $2,276,832 for first place. That can buy him a lot of crazy shirts.

HORSE Final Table Money Winners:
1. Freddy Deeb - $2,276,832
2. Bruno Fitoussi - $1,278,720
3. John Hanson - $852,480
4. Amnon Filippi - $586,080
5. Kenny Tran - $444,000
6. David Singer - $337,440
7. Barry Greenstein - $259,296
8. Thor Hansen - $188,256

Although the event was not as long as last year's, it was exhausting to cover. I spent almost 18 hours at the Rio on Thursday and it was sun up when I left close to 6am.

Congrats to Deeb, Bruno Fitoussi, and all the media that hung around to the end. Plenty of people (both fans and media) left early but a handful of true die hards in the media stuck around to watch the end. You're all aces in my book and I admire your dedication, especially BJ and Flipchip.

I wish I could write more about the final table, but I'm pressed for time. Agter a couple of hours of sleep, I have to go back to work and cover Day 2 of NL Short Handed. I will try to write some stuff throughout the day, on my dinner break, and as soon as I get home.

* * * * *

Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos and there's the Poker Prof's cool 2007 WSOP Info page.

And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

For all you fantasy sports junkies, check out our new site... Fantasy Sports Live.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/29/2007 03:04:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Day 27: Lindgren Wins $340K Golf Prop Bet and $50K HORSE Final Table Set

By Pauly

I was sweating all day. I had $2,700 riding on Erick Lindgren. That was the most I had wagered on a single event since March Madness and I couldn't get enough updates. Every few minutes I'd ask Schecky or check Wicked Chops Poker on his progress.

Lindgren was not playing in a poker tournament. Rather, he was on the golf course. Even though the second to last day of the $50K HORSE was running, most of the attention in the Rio Ballroom fell upon the shoulders of a guy who wasn't even in the casino. One of the things I do love about Las Vegas are when degenerate gamblers bet outrageous amounts on trivial things.

I felt I had an edge. I didn't have a lock or feel that the fix was in. But I felt as though I was on the better side of that seemingly impossible bet. Something that Brandon Schaefer told me in Australia resonated while I was making a slew of side bets with friends. Schaefer told me that he gambles for a living and assesses risk. If he was going to set a prop bet, against anyone, they would be the underdog. So when Lindgren made that bet with Gavin Smith and Phil Ivey, I felt strongly about Schaefer's words. Erick Lindgren is a professional gambler and he was a former athlete. Add those two facts together, and the obvious choice was to bet on Lindgren. I found a handful of suckers who pooled together $2,700 and I scored. Big.

Erick Lindgren had to shoot four consecutive rounds of golf at Bear's Best, all under a score of 100, without a cart, and in one single session. He had to carry his own bag but had a caddy to help with distances, replacing divots, and green reads. Gavin Smith, Nordberg, Chris Bell, and Phil Ivey all wagered against Lindgren for a combined amount of $340,000.

"I got a lot of action," said Lindgren.

Guess what? Not only did Lindgren do it... he did it after getting shitfaced drunk the night before and on 90 minutes of sleep while surviving 115 degree temperatures under the sizzling Nevada sun. That's the stuff legends are made of.

His prop bet was a variation of a Huck Seed bet that was done several years ago. It was also similar to the one in the film Lucky You, but since like seven people saw that film, no one would know that the same golf course they shot that scene happened to be the same course Lindgren played four consecutive rounds on.

The first two rounds were a breeze. He struggled with the third round. At the start of the fourth round, a big problem arose. What happened if he shot 100 exactly? Ivey and Lindgren decided to flip a coin to decide the outcome... should they have that issue. Unreal, I thought. My entire wager night be decided on a fuckin' coin flip.

Anyway, Schecky gave me the low down on the final round. Lindgren shot the front 9 at 49. The back 9 is much tougher, but the Las Vegas winds had died down as did the temps. Lindgren had struggled on the back 9 all day in the previous three rounds, yet he prevailed. By the 13th hole, Chris Bell and Gavin Smith took a buy out, but Ivey did not.


Chops sent a RawVegasTV camera man to interview me since I was one of the few people who bet on Lindgren. Fernando was the one who found out the official outcome for me. I indeed won and and if you add up my cash in the WSOP on Sunday, I picked up close to 7.5K in less than five days.

Of course, my bar tab at the Tilted Kilt has reached four figures and if you add up all the money I lost in "throwing things" prop bets over the last four weeks, I'm hovering around almost breaking even. On Day 27, I dropped $80 on a water toss and another $5 on trying to hit one of our interns in the head with a wadded up piece of paper.

Thank God for Lindgren. Now I have enough money to pay my bar tab.

Moving on...

The final table for the $50K Horse final table is set. They will be playing HORSE this year at the final table instead of NL like last year. Too bad the final table will still be a crap shoot with the fucked up structure that all the pros were bitching about.

$50K HORSE Final Table:
Seat 1: Kenny Tran - 2.445M
Seat 2: David Singer - 1.33M
Seat 3: Bruno Fitoussi - 895K
Seat 4: John Hanson - 1.995M
Seat 5: Freddy Deeb - 3.5M
Seat 6: Thor Hansen - 40K
Seat 7: Amnon Filippi - 4.015M
Seat 8: Barry Greenstein - 750K

Here are the payouts:
1 - $2,276,832
2 - $1,278,720
3 - $852,480
4 - $586,080
5 - $444,000
6 - $337,440
7 - $259,296
8 - $188,256

Quick Stats:
Entrants: 148
Prize Pool: $7,104,000
Day 1 Chipleader: Eli Elezra
Day 2 Chipleader: John Hanson
Day 3 Chipleader: Amnon Filippi
Day 4 Chipleader: Amnon Filippi

Mr. Kotter bubbled off the final table in 9th place. The following players busted out on Day 4: Gabe Kaplan, Dewey Tomko, Mark Gregorich, Stephen Wolff, Tim Phan, Greg Raymer, Chris Reslock, Mike Matusow, Noah Jefferson, Max Pescatori, Justin Bonomo, Patrick Pezzin, and Daniel Negreanu.

Amnon Filippi maintained his chiplead and enters the final table with $4.05M. He has two cashes in 2007 and four overall. He made two final tables on the WPT and his biggest score to date was winning the Bellagio Cup in 2005. Tobey Maguire also made that final table. His score at the Horse event will push him past $1M in career tournament winnings. He is seeking his first bracelet.

The mystery man left in the field is John Hanson from New York. He cashed in the $5K Heads Up event last week but that's his only WSOP cash. He was the chipleader of HORSE at the end of Day 2. Aside from that, I know nothing about him.

Norway's Thor Hansen come in as the super short stack. He has four cashes at the 2007 WSOP and has over $2.1M in career earnings, including two WSOP bracelets.

Kenny "The Kid" Tran has $420K in career earnings and has three previous WSOP cashes. There were several points during Day 2 and 3 when Tran flirted with the chiplead.

David Singer has $2.1M in career tournament earnings. He's cashed 13 times at the WSOP including 8 final tables (one of which was the WSOP main event in 2004 where he took 9th). He's the only player to return to the final table from last years inaugural Horse event. He's also made two WPT final tables. He has zero bracelets and is one of the best players on the circuit to have never won a bracelet.

Bruno Fitoussi from Paris, France, has four cashes at the WSOP and has won over $670K in tournaments all over the world. This is his third final table at the WSOP. He never won a bracelet and came close in 2005 when he took second place in Razz. He's currently the President of VIP-gaming.

My Main man Freddy Deeb has cashed 21 times at the WSOP. He made 12 final tables and won one bracelet in 1996.

Barry Greenstein is one of the best poker players of all time. Doesn't matter if it is a cash game or tournament, he's going to be one of the best players at the table. He also has the biggest heart in poker and donates 100% of his tournament winnings to charity. Barry cashed three times at the 2007 WSOP and has 31 career WSOP cashes. He's won 2 bracelets and made nine final tables. He's also won two WPT events. He's also won more than $5M in tournaments in his life and God only knows how much more in cash games. Barry Greenstein dedicated his last bracelet to Charlie Tuttle in 2005. Spaceman's best friend was battling cancer and died a day later after hearing what Greenstein had done for him.

This should be an exciting final table. I'm rooting for Barry Greenstein but my darkhorse to win it... is David Singer. Nothing against Amnon... I just can't get anyone to give me good odds on him!

The final table will start at 2pm local time or 5pm for all you New Yorkers. BJ will be doing the hand for hand and I will be doing color commentary at the final table. Click here to follow our live updates of the $50K HORSE event for PokerNews.com.

* * * * *
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos and there's the Poker Prof's cool 2007 WSOP Info page.

And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

For all you fantasy sports junkies, check out our new site... Fantasy Sports Live.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker at www.taopoker.com. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/28/2007 01:00:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Day 26: Horse Day 3 and Wednesday Pimp

By Pauly

"The structure is too fast," said Cyndy Violette.

She was the first player eliminated on Day 2. She sat near media row near the ESPN final table and sweated her good friend Mike Wattel who appeared at the feature table for the $50K HORSE event. She peered over my shoulder to check out chip counts. That's when I asked her about the structure.

"Last year's (structure) was better," she said. "Much slower. In all of the events this year, not just HORSE, you start out slow but by the end it's a crap shoot."

By the end of day 3, only 21 players remained out of the original 148. The Day 1 chipleader, Eli Elezra failed to advance to Day 3, along with last year's champion Chip Reese, last year's runner up Andy Bloch, and Phil Ivey who has so many prop bets that it's hard to keep up. There's the $2 million bet (at 5-1 odds) that he'd win a bracelet this year, and I found out on Day 3 about another bet specifically about a $30,000 bet that he made where he was getting 10-1 odds that he's win the HORSE event. If my math is correct... had Ivey won HORSE, he would have collected $10,300,000 in prop bets.

Players busting out of HORSE on Day 3 included... Rob Hollink, Toto Leonidas, Phil Hellmuth, Mike Wattel, Huckleberry Seed, Tuan Le, Eli Elezra, John Juanda, Steve Sung, Isabelle Mercier, Andy Bloch, Robert Mizrachi, David Oppenheim, Erick Lindgren, Sam Grizzle, Thomas Weideman, Allen Cunningham, Daniel Shak, Matthew Hawrilenko, Neal Friets, Joe Tehan, Phil Ivey, Annie Duke, John Hennigan, Erik Seidel, Chip Reese, Scotty Nguyen, David Williams, Greg Mascio, David Sklansky, and Cyndy Violette.

Late in the session, Amnon Filippi had a massive surge and jumped to the front of the pack as the chipleader.

End of Day 3 Chip Counts:
Amnon Filippi - 2,343,000
Kenny Tran - 1,959,000
Bruno Fitoussi - 1,248,000
John Hanson - 1,215,000
David Singer - 1,017,000
Freddy Deeb - 963,000
Tim Phan - 889,000
Barry Greenstein - 700,000
Mike Matusow - 696,000
Gabe Kaplan - 625,000
Thor Hansen - 537,000
Chris Reslock - 536,000
Greg Raymer - 504,000
Mark Gregorich - 386,000
Justin Bonomo - 295,000
Stephen Wolff - 263,000
Dewey Tomko - 248,000
Noah Jefferson - 167,000
Daniel Negreanu - 149,000
Patrick Pezzin - 102,000
Max Pescatori - 81,000

Negreanu lost a couple of big pots during Stud and slipped to the bottom. He needs to double up quick if he wants a shot at the final table. Flipchip picked Mike Matusow as his horse to win HORSE. I'm sticking with Mr. Kotter. He'll come out of nowhere to make a final table!

For reasons unknown, I was pulled off of HORSE and have to cover the Day 2 of $2K Limit Hold'em event instead of Day 4 of HORSE. For the first time in almost four weeks, I was super pissed that about my assignment. I should be back for the final table, but in sports terminology, no one wants to be sent to the bench when you're playing well.

And now... some pimpage.

RawVegasTV had an interview with Vinny Vinh's chair.

PokerNews ran an interesting piece on Vinny Vinh.

ESPN will be doing PPV for the final table again. Check it out.


Johnny Hughes has been emailing me since the WSOP. He sent me a link to this piece called Remembering Johnny Moss.

And don't forget about Fantasy Sports Live.

* * * * *
Bouncin Round the Room on Day 26

I bumped into my buddy Zeke from the Borgata. I saw him a week ago and had not seen him since. He told me that he had been playing at the Bellagio's tournament and that their numbers were pathetic. The Bellagio committed suicide by trying to run a series of tournaments during the WSOP. What were they thinking? In the past, the $10K buy-in Bellagio Cup always took place after the main event of the WSOP ended. Although the field was not very large, the event was top heavy with pros. For some reason, the wizards over at the Bellagio decided to go head-on against the WSOP and you know what? They got stomped like a narc at a biker rally or like a bug splattering it's brains out on the windshield of my car. Despite all the complaints about Harrah's and the Rio, the WSOP will always be the premiere event in poker. The Bellagio's weak-ass attempt was like trying to go up against the NFL and the Superbowl. Unreal. Whoever came up with that idea should get fired, especially since they couldn't even outdraw the Venetian's summer tournaments.

At the WSOP, in four of the $1,500 NL events, they had numbers such as 2,998; 2,628; 2,541; and my event was 2,778 players. There were seven Hold'em events at the Bellagio during that same time that drew a paltry... 101, 78, 100, 37, 11, 63, and 78 players. Add all that up... that's 468 players in seven events. We got more players in previous blogger events in Las Vegas than the Bellagio got during that stretch.

The Bellagio can't event outduel the Venetian. According to Lou Krieger, "The Venetian’s Deep Stack II series is averaging 426 players per event for their first ten tournaments... If someone had asked me to make attendance predictions before these events began, I would have said that the Bellagio event would have been in second place. In fact, I would have thought that the Venetian's results and those of the Bellagio would be flip-flopped."

OK... how about some prop bet info? Rafi Amit and Farnood Sharkahn had a $50K last longer in HORSE. They both busted on Day 1 but Amit outlasted Farnood by an hour or so.

Lindgren is supposed to do a crazy prop bet. He has to play four consecutive rounds of golf, shoot under 100 all four times, and walk the course. That seems impossible since he shoot sin the mid-80s, but I think Lindgren can pull it off. He's already got 340K in bets against him including 200K from Phil Ivey. Me? I got $20 against Snake from Wicked Chops Poker. I took Lindgren. Let's hope he pulls this one off.

Tilted Kilt Stella Count: 37

* * * * *
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos and there's the Poker Prof's cool 2007 WSOP Info page.

And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

For all you fantasy sports junkies, check out our new site... Fantasy Sports Live.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/27/2007 01:50:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Day 25: Horse Day 2 and Liz Lieu Tuesdays

By Pauly

Let's jump out of the gate and post a pic of Liz Lieu.


Photo courtesy of Liz
Very nice selection from a Milan photo shoot. Yummy. Yummy.

Moving on...

$50K Horse was on everyone's mind in the Amazon Ballroom. The staff roped off a special area in order to allow spectators to encircle the pros remaining on Day 2.

Entrants: 148
Payouts: Top 16
Surviving Day 1: 127
Day 1 Chipleader: Eli Elezra
Surviving Day 2: 52
Day 2 Chipleader: John Hanson
Remaining Females: Annie Duke, Cyndy Violette, and Isabelle Mercier

End of Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts:
John Hanson - 641,000
Toto Leonidas - 621,000
Eli Elezra - 568,000
Allen Cunningham - 549,000
Kenny Tran - 544,000
Justin Bonomo - 508,000
David Oppenheim - 469,000
Mike Matusow - 456,000
Phil Ivey - 436,000
Amnon Filippi - 429,000

Remaining Players Day 2 Chipcounts:
Andy Bloch - 425,000
Matthew Hawrilenko - 416,000
Phil Hellmuth - 412,000
John Juanda - 410,000
Max Pescatori - 396,000
Freddy Deeb - 357,000
Robert Mizrachi - 338,000
Bruno Fitoussi - 337,000
Chip Reese - 332,000
David Singer - 332,000
Rob Hollink - 321,000
Daniel Negreanu - 307,000
Tuan Le - 295,000
Greg Mascio - 290,000
Greg Raymer - 287,000
Huckleberry Seed - 278,000
Barry Greenstein - 275,000
Thor Hansen - 275,000
Stephen Wolff - 251,000
Mike Wattel - 250,000
Mark Gregorich - 249,000
Neal Friets - 246,000
Tim Phan - 234,000
John Hennigan - 204,000
David Williams - 203,000
Erik Seidel - 194,000
Gabe Kaplan - 186,000
Joe Tehan - 166,000
Annie Duke - 165,000
Daniel Shak - 156,000
Noah Jefferson - 149,000
Thomas Weideman - 127,000
Dewey Tomko - 119,000
Steve Sung - 119,000
Erick Lindgren - 99,000
Chris Reslock - 98,000
Patrick Pezzin - 94,000
Sam Grizzle - 86,000
Scotty Nguyen - 72,000
Cyndy Violette - 60,000
David Sklansky - 47,000
Isabelle Mercier - 41,000

Players who busted out on Day 2 included: Bill Edler, Abe Mosseri, Gavin Smith, Allen Kessler, Kristy Gazes, Alexander Kravchenko, Tony Cousineau, Bill Gazes, Richie Sklar, Greg "FBT" Mueller, Phil Laak, Todd Brunson, Chris Ferguson, Marco Traniello, Darrell Dicken, Howard Lederer, Mickey Appleman, David Grey, Capt. Tom Franklin, Patrik Antonius, TJ Cloutier, Doyle Brunson, Victor Ramdin, Ted Forrest, Ralph Perry, Rafi Amit, Grinder, Jason Lester, Steve Zolotow, Joe Cassidy, Robert Williamson III, Ali Eslami, James Bechtel, Nick Frangos, Bill Chen, Bart Hanson, David Chiu, Maureen Feduniak, Hasan Habib, Chad Brown, John Phan, Thomas "DonkeyBomber" Schneider, Kirk Morrison, John D'Agostino, David Levi, Carlos Mortensen, Ted Lawson, Jennifer Harman, Tony G, John Duthie, Mike Sexton, Jesse Jones, and Brandon Adams.

The bustouts came pretty quick and it was hard to keep up with them. All the pros in the event are hyper competitive and wanted to see themselves in the Top 5 chip counts on the displays in the Amazon Room. Some complained that they weren't updated constantly. Annie Duke kindly offered up her count when we'd walk by the tables.

Eli Elezra started out as the leader and held the lead for most of the day. He was challenged by Allen Cunningham, Kenny Tran, Matthew Hawrilenko, and Toto Leonidas at some point. Late in Day 2, a new leader emerged... John Hanson.

Eli Elezra drew a few moans when he was moved to a new table. He used his big stack wisely and raised pots blind during Hold'em. He three-bet one time without looking at his cards which drew ire from David Sklanasky. Eli also turned his head so he could not see the flop and then fired out blind. His opponent folded.

Erick Lindgren is the self-appointed Razz Machine. He made up a song that he'd sing during the Omaha levels since Razz was approaching. He was down to 11K and increased his stack to over 110K... all during Razz. "I'm just a razz machine. I'm a razz machine," he'd sing.


Defending Champion... Chip Reese
Photo courtesy of Flipchip
2006 HORSE CHampion Chip Reese finished up Day 2 in 19th place in chips. But you have to keep an eye out for Andy Bloch, Phil Hellmuth, and Phil Ivey. Hellmuth wants #12 and has been running good over the last three weeks. Andy Bloch was soooooo close to winning the event last year that he wants redemption. And if the rumors about Phil Ivey are true (betting $2 million that he'd win a bracelet and getting 5-1 odds) then you know Ivey is focused and trying to play his best game ever.

Cyndy Violette was down to 5.5K and got up to over 250K before she slipped. She's one of the short stacks and will have to double up early or she'll be in trouble.

"Tim to separate the men from the boys before we go to bed," is what Mike Matusow described the thinning field around Midnight.

There's still plenty of play left and anything can happen in a poker tournament. Pros are just one turn of the card away from going busto, heading into tiltdom, or picking up a wave of confidence that could carry them to the final table.

I'll be covering Day 3 of HORSE over at PokerNews.com. Click here to follow the live updates of HORSE.

* * * * *
Bouncin Round the Room on Day 25

Congrats to Erica Schoenberg for taking third in Event #38. I was rooting for her to win it all. Robert Cheung from Vancouver took it down. Fuel55 has played with him before and gave me a tip that I hoped to use if I had more chips and got involved in a big pot with Cheung. I played two pots with him. I let him steal my big blind and he said he had a hand since he knew I was short-stacked and would push with anything marginal. The second was when I flopped a set of Aces in a three-way pot with Men the Master and him.

David Williams told me he thought my bit about CK Hua's bag was funny. When I asked him what he thought CK kept in his bag, Williams said... "Afro-sheen."

Change100 wrote about what railbirding me in Event #38 was like. Some great observations in a piece called The Sweat. Take a peek.

One of our reporters for PokerNews is Tom Sexton. You might know his brother. Anyway, Tom gets some of the best color commentary since he's buddies with a lot of the pros and hangs out with them on breaks. The best story he told me on Day 2 was about Richie Sklar. He's golf buddies with Mike Sexton and has won a fistful of cash on the golf course. Sklar chopped a HORSE satellite and had half of his buy-in. He went into the VIP lounge and picked up 12K in less than ten minutes on their putting green. He was wagering with some of the heavy hitters and secured 3/4 of his buy-in. When he walked back into the hallway, he bumped into an old friend who bought 1/4 of a piece of him. Within one hour, Sklar had his buy-in to the #50K Horse event. As soon as he busted out of HORSE, he said "I'm heading to the lounge to win my buy-in to the main event."

Snoopy and Jen from Blonde Poker have arrived and it took less than an hour before I won my first prop bet with Snoopy. At dinner break of Day 1 of HORSE, we bet on how many pros were wearing baseball hats... not a skull cap like Max Pescatori wears or a weirdo hat that Andy Bloch wears or Doyle's Stetson.... but traditional baseball hats. The line was set at 16, and I took the over. He started counting and stopped after he got through four or five tables. He gave up. I counted 23... Ship it!

Michael Craig made the final table of Mixed Hold'em. Congrats to MC. Maybe he can pull a Jim McManus?

Three WSOP main event champions advanced to Day 2 of the Seniors NL event... Tom McEvoy (1983), Amarillo Slim (1972), and Brad Daugherty (1991). I was not even born yet when Slim won his title. But it was great to see him playing.

There was a rumor that Jimmy Chagra was playing in the Seniors event. At one point he was the largest marijuana trafficker in the Southwest. In the 1970s, you couldn't toke a joint in Las Vegas from a crop of pot that Chagra probably had brought in from Mexico via El Paso. He supposedly hired Woody Harrelson's father to whack the judge who threw the book at him. Today's 4:20 break is brought to you by... Jimmy Chagra.

Kristy Gazes and Bill Gazes were seated at the same starting table for Day 2 of HORSE. They had not been at the same table since they divorced several years ago. It was not the cause of any stress, according to Kristy since they are close friends. Sadly, they both busted out and failed to advance to Day 3.

Seven players busted out of HORSE early and made their way over to the Poker Freezer to play in PLO8. It used to be called the Poker Sauna, but ever since they installed a new AC system, it's a freezer. Chau Giang was shivering around Midnight. When Flipchip walked in to take photos, he said, "Fuck man, can you turn this thing down." We love it when Chau Giang says fuck. And I betcha Chau's nipples were rock hard.

PLO8 featured Drizz playing in his first WSOP event! I got to wish him luck on one of my breaks since I covered Horse. Change100 got to cover his event that also featured Andrew Webking, Jay Greenspan, Tony G, George Danzer, Gank, and Amy Calistri. Yes, Amy played and took a bad beat before she sat down. She ripped her jeans and we could see her ass. Of course, Amy was free-balling and not wearing any underwear. That's how Calistri rolls.

Tilted Kilt Stella Count: 35

Last 5 Pros Who Told Me They Read the Tao of Poker...
1. Erica Schoenberg
2. David Williams
3. Allen Cunningham
4. Melissa Hayden
5. George Danzer

Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next To...
1. Chad Brown
2. Thomas Wahlroos
3. Max Pescatori
4. Amarillo Slim
5. Victor Ramdin

* * * * *
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos and there's the Poker Prof's cool 2007 WSOP Info page.

And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

For all you fantasy sports junkies, check out our new site... Fantasy Sports Live.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/26/2007 02:40:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Day 24: 119/2778 = $4,740

By Pauly


I finished in 119th place out of 2,778 players and won $4,470 in prize money in Event #38. I had a tough table on Day 2 that included several pros such as Men the Master and Action Bob. I was eliminated by Erica Schoenberg, who happens to be a friend that loves reading Tao of Poker, especially the Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next to.... And you know what? She put my chips to good use. She made the final table.


Congrats to Erica for making the Final Table
I cover plenty of Day 2s so I knew what to expect when I showed up to play on Sunday. A couple of the floor staff that I work with gave me words of encouragement. They thought it was cool that I got to play... and went deep. Several friends came out to sweat such as Friedman and Joe Speaker. Readers like Stuart and Lonnie also stopped by to watch my table which happened to be on the rail. Lonnie also brought me two cool Phish t-shirts for good luck.

I started out in Seat 6 with the small blind with Julie Deng (who made the final table in the Ladies Event) in the big blind. Erica, Men the Master, and Robert Cheung were all to my right. Action Bob was to my left. It was weird to have Patrik Antonius and David Benyamine come by and sweat my table since they were railbirding Erica. But I had a swarm of media coming over every few moments like the Drew and the other kids that work at PokerNews or Otis and Mike from Poker Pages.

On the third hand of Day 2, everyone folded to me and I shoved all in with Kd-Qd. No action and I picked up the blinds and antes. A couple of hands after that, I found Ah-As from UTG. I bet 5.5K with the blinds at 1K/2K and 300 antes. If I shoved, I'd get no action but with Chueng and Men the Master in the blinds, I figured they would call that bet no matter what they held... unless they sniffed me out for Aces. Everyone folded to Men in the small blind and he called as did Cheung in the big blind. The flop was Ad-9h-4d. Men checked and Chueng fired out 12K. I peeked at my cards and moved all in for about 25K.

Men stared at the flop before he muttered something. I couldn't hear what he said but I saw him toss his cards into the muck. Cheung looked down at his cards, played with his chips for about ten seconds, then folded. As the dealer push me the pot, Men said, "Show me your A-4."

"Nah," I said.

"Come on, why don't you show me what you had?"

"Read about it on my blog tomorrow," I answered.

I had 46K and the blind level increased. I picked up zero cards as two players at my table busted out courtesy of Erica Schoenberg. She kept adding to her stack as I kept bleeding chips due to the antes and blinds of 1.5K/3K.

With 30K left, I found Ad-9d at the cutoff. Erica raised 9K. I figured that I might be able to push her off that hand if I moved all in. Erica is a solid player and doesn't mess around playing a lot of garbage hands, but I hoped that her tight image might allow me to persuade her to fold after I shoved all in. No such luck.

"I call," she said as she tabled 9c-9s.

Here's how BJ Nemeth described the action on PokerNews:

The flop comes {Qd}{5c}{4d}, and McGuire picks up a diamond flush draw. The turn card is the {3c}, and McGuire also picks up a gutshot straight draw, and he has 15 outs going to the river. But the last card is the {8c}, and Schoenberg wins the pot with her pocket nines. Paul 'Dr. Pauly' McGuire is eliminated in 119th place, earning $4,740. He also receives a bonus prize -- a hug from his friend Erica Schoenberg.

After I busted out Erica walked over and gave me a big hug. She whispered into my ear, "You were the only player at the table I didn't want to knock out."

"Then why did you call?" I whispered back.

I wished her luck and told her to use my chips wisely. And... she did as she advanced to the final table. I'm going to be pulling for her to win a bracelet.

Thanks for all the phone calls, emails, blog blurbs, and text messages. And thanks to a few friends (and readers) who came out to watch me play on Day 2. Also, thanks to all the press and buzz from my friends in the media. They seemed to be the most geeked out as I went deeper and deeper. I'm a little bummed that I didn't make the final table but outlasting almost 2,660 other players in a WSOP donkament is a quite a feat.

The worst part about busting out? Having to go to work an hour afterwards. Ouch. I covered Day 1 of the $50K HORSE event and it was a stacked field. They had only a handful of more players than last year but the payouts would be different which pissed off some of the pros. More on that issue later.

I'm shocked that so many players busted out early like Jeff Lisandro and Johnny Chan. Also busting out on Day 1 were Sam Farha, Bob Feduniak, David Benyamine, Minh Ly, Mark Vos, Chau Giang, Gus Hansen, Lyle Berman, Andrew Black, Josh Arieh, David "The Dragon" Pham, Jerrod Ankenman, Jerri Thomas, and Nick Schulman.

Eli Elezra ended Day 1 as the chipleader with 561K. Bruno Fitoussi, David Oppenheim, Gavin Smith, and Phil Ivey rounding out the Top 5 in chips.

* * * * *
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos and there's the Poker Prof's cool 2007 WSOP Info page.

And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

For all you fantasy sports junkies, check out our new site... Fantasy Sports Live.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/25/2007 12:47:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Day 23: Live Poker Is Rigged, Tilting CK Hua, and How I Cashed in Event #38

By Pauly

Just survied Day 1 of Event #38 $1,500 NL donkfest. I'm 124th in chips out of 170 players and advanced to Day 2.

Here's my starting table on Day 2:
Seat 1: Erica Schoenberg - 30,900
Seat 2: Walter Remaley - 18,800
Seat 3: Darin Haddock - 24,500
Seat 4: Men "The Master" Nguyen - 91,500
Seat 5: Robert Cheung - 89,500
Seat 6: Your Hero - 27,300
Seat 7: Julie Dang - 69,100
Seat8 : David Robbins - 64,600
Seat 9: Robert "Action Bob" Hwang - 57,800

Head over to PokerNews.com to read what happened on Day 1... how I doubled through CK Hua and sucked out a bunch of times to make the money. For now, I guess I can say I had a pretty good day off. Thanks to everyone who railbirded me both live and online.

Day 2 starts at 2pm local time or 5pm for all you East Coasters. I'm hoping to double up against Men the Master early in Day 2. At least I get to stare at Erica Schoenberg for a little while.

Click here to follow my progress on Day 2 of the $1,500 Donkeyfest.

* * * * *
Editor's Note: Here's the recap of Day 1 that I just finished...

The good thing about June 23rd was that I got the day off. I wanted to play an event and sadly the only one I could swing on the day off was the $1,500 NL donkament. I didn't have a choice and said fuck it, I'll play. That's when I was approached by Schecky who said that he and Tony G would stake me in a 50-50 deal. They pretty much assumed that they'd be pissing their money away but it was more like a bonus than anything else. Both Scheky and The G appreciated the hard work I had done over the first three weeks and I was pumped that I didn't have to fork over any of my money in a donkfest. I'm not a tournament player these days but in 2007, I seem to have a better than average record. My bankroll took some hits at the 30/60 Limit Hold'em level and that was offset by a few decent scores in tournaments. I cannot explain why I played well in the few that I decided to play. It just happened.

I've covered three or four of thedonkaments already and after talking to friends and pros who played in them, it was pretty evident that I'd have to play loose and accumulate chips early if I wanted to survive. In the previous two WSOPs, I played two events and never made it the dinner break. I had a few side bets on lasting longer than some of my friends who played in similar events this year. Michalski lasted until 3:30 last Saturday. Felipe made it to 6:30 on Thursday. If I could make the dinner break, I would have survived half the field. That was my goal.... accumulate and survive.

The last player to be seated at my starting table was Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier. He was the first Supernova on PokerStars. The former professional video game player from France was a rock-star in South Korea where he crushed the gamer scene. He turned to poker and often played 20 SNGs at once. Talk about manual dexterity. I also heard a rumor from a fellow poker player that ElkY was running bad online and stuck $250,000 in SNGs.

I sat in Seat 4 and ElkY took Seat 6. From the first hand, ElkY played fast and aggressive. He raised the first three hands and saw a lot of flops early on. The rest of my table were weekend warriors. Great guys but weak-tight. One guy had a photo near his stack.

"That's a dead deer and that's my grandson," he proudly said.

Only in Texas do they point out the dead animal before their blood kin.

One play got crippled in the first orbit and I took him out. He pushed for 600 and I called with J-J. He flipped over 6-6 and my hand held up. That was the first player I'd bust at my table.

I found 9c-8c and limped in UTG. Eight total players in the pot. The flop was Jd-10d-7c. I flopped a straight and fired out 275. The guy next to me with a black sock covering up the stump on his amputated arm called. A cheery fellow from Denver who was drinking Beat Lite raised to 1K. I moved all in for 2K. The guy with one arm went into the tank and folded. The Beat Lite kid sat for a few minutes before he folded J-10 face up. The guy with one arm said he folded 7-7. I dunno how those clowns got away from that hand.

I had a couple of hands against ElkY. Both involved me raising his blind from the button. He called both times. He fired out at the pot both times. And me? I shoved all in both times. He mucked. That was the only way I figured I could play against ElkY. One instance I had Jd-10d and flopped a Jack. The other time I had 10s-8s and missed completely.

I increased my stack to 6K and felt pretty good. Meanwhile, friends in the media kept coming over and sweating me or snapping photos of both myself and ElkY. After ElkY busted out, one of the old guys joked, looks like we won't be having photographers come over any more since that European kid is gone. Maybe they can take a photo of the empty chair."

I eventually busted that guy who made the wise ass remark. He raised pre-flop and I defended my big blind with Ac-7c. The flop was 10s-8c-4d and we both checked. The turn was the Ah. I bet 500 and he called. The river was the Ks. I bet 750 and he moved all in for 1400. I called thinking he rivered two pair on me. He showed K-9 for second pair and I took down the pot as he headed to the rail. That put me up to 8K.

Around 2:45pm, I found The Hammer.

"Raise," I said and tossed in 700 from the button. The big blind defended. The flop was Kh-Qc-3s. He checked and I bet 1500. He called. The turn was the 6c. He checked and I bet 2000. He folded and I showed 7s-2h. That hand put me past the 10K mark. Grubby would have been proud.

I increased my stack to 12.7K when I called a big raised with Ah-Ks in the big blind. The flop was Ad-2d-2h. I check-raised the kid drinking Beast Lite and he folded his Kc-Kd face up. I showed him the Kh but one of the players said, "Show one, show all." The dealer flipped over my other card.

Then I busted another player with a junk hand. I called from the small blind with 6s-3h. the flop was Ac-6d-3s. I was hoping to check-raise someone but everyone checked around. The turn was the 8h. I bet 2K and the guy with one arm shoved for 3.2K. Everyone folded to me and I called. He showed As-4h. The river was the Qd and I busted another player. That put me close to 16K.

Then I lost the first big pot of the day. It was to a new player at the table, a quiet guy from Oklahoma named Gary (not GCox!). He raised in EP and I called from the button with Qc-Jc. Otis walked up to the table as the dealer fanned out Kh-Qh-Jd. He bet, I raised, he re-raised all in. I hoped he had A-K and I called with bottom two. He flipped over Kd-Qs and he doubled up. I was down to about 6.5K. That's when CK Hua arrived.


Photo courtesy of Flipchip
CK Hua went to work and started running over the table. He's quiet and aggressive and shows no mercy. Having him to my left was not pleasant. I tried chatting him up and asking him about his man purse that he always wears even at the table. I asked him about the 50K HORSE and he said he was skipping it because it was "too expensive." Every time I'd walk through the cash game area, CK Hua would be playing $100/point Chinese Poker. The guy likes to gamble and I knew he had a reputation for loose-aggressive play.

I was down to about 4.5K and shoved with Kc-Jc. I was called by a player with J-J. I was toast and stood up ready to leave. The board ran out 8-6-5-7-4 for a chopped pot.

"Sweet Jesus!" I said.

"You're still alive," said CK Hua.

I picked up a few chips there (from the blinds and antes) and picked up my first lucky hand. Just before dinner break, I get my second lucky hand. A new player with a ton of chips sat down. George Djen is a magazine owner and editor from France. He's one of Benjo's editors. Anyway, he limped and I shoved with Ah-3s. He called with Ac-Qs. I asked the dealer for a three. It was the door card.

"There's your three," said CK Hua.

Djen was pissed and I think I tilted him after that hand. I doubled up to over 10K. When the dinner break started, I had 9,900.

Change100 and I left the Rio and ate at Subway and went home for about 40 minutes to refresh. My t-shirt and shirt was soaked with sweat. I started to change my clothes and she refused to let me do that.

"It's bad luck," she said.

"My attire has nothing to do with what cards I get," I said.

Still, just in case she was right, I kept wearing the same clothes.

I had a plan... double up against CK Hua. He was among the chipleaders with almost 50K and he'd most likely double me up with a small pair against big cards and vice versa.

After the break, the players in the tent came inside. 570 players left. I just had to get through more than half the field and I would cash. Eric Hershler (WPT LAPC champion) moved to my table two seats to my right. Great. If I wanted to steal Hershler's or CK Hua's blinds, I was going to be in trouble. Those guys would murder me post-flop.

After it was folded to me in the small blind, I tired to steal CK's big blind with 5-3o. I raised and he moved all in.

"50-50," he said.

He put me on over cards and I went into the tank for a few minutes to let him think I had a hand. I mucked and he flashed 7c-7s.

"Fifty percent," he said.

"Next time, I call," I promised.

Ten minutes later, I found 7c-7h and raised 2,100 from the cutoff. CK Hua jammed for 7,100. Everyone folded to me. And I sat looking at CK Hua's hands. He wore a bracelet. I dunno from what event, but he was showing his bling. I tried to put him on a range of hands. CK Hua could have any two cards. Then I started thinking about what was in his bag. Cash for Chinese Poker. Cell phone. Vinnie Vinh's stash? Nah. But what the fuck does CK Hua have in his man purse? I had to shake off those thoughts and focus on the hand. If he had big cards, I was risking my tournament life on a coin flip. If he had a small pair, I was way ahead. If CK Hua woke up to a monster I was fucked.

Big time pro vs. me. Time to make a stand. That's why people play in these events? The chance to take down a professional. Sticking it to someone who lists professional poker player on their tax returns. I told myself that I wouldn't let CK Hua push me around. That's when I noticed a swarm of media surrounding the table. If I busted, the world would know about in within ninety seconds. No fear. Sometimes you have to be willing to lose everything to get ahead in life.

"I'm all in," I said.

"I call," CK Hua quickly said.

"Do you have a pair?" I asked.

He shook his head as I showed him my Sevens. He showed Ad-Jc.

"Fifty percent," I said.

"Fifty percent," he said.

We both stood up as the dealer put out the flop. Usually I have perfect clarity over big hands. It's my job and what I get paid to do. That instance, I could not recall a card. All I know was that I still lead. On the turn CK Hua picked up a gutshot. The river was a blank and I doubled up. I was stunned. I couldn't move. I doubled through CK Hua and all I could think about was what the fuck was in his bag. CK counted out my chips since I couldn't speak and he shoved chips my way.

I sensed that I tilted CK Hua. It took me twice as long to stack my chips because my hands were shaking. I did exactly what I said I was going to do. CK Hua hooked me up and I was above average up to 23K.

A few hands later, I found the Hilton Sisters. I raised. Old guy moved all in and I called. He showed A-K. it was a classic race and my Queens held up after I flopped a boat on a Q-10-10 board. That hand put me to 34K.

I folded a ton of hands as we got close to the money. That guy Gary from Oklahoma barely had enough for the antes. He had three chips left as 271 players remained. He put in $200 for the ante. He had one chip left. A lady opened for a raise. He said, "I have to do this." He tossed his last chip in. He could have been the bubble boy. After twelve hours of play it came down to one hand.

She tabled 9-9 and he flipped over K-K. Everyone at our table stood up in amazement. The guy won the pot, avoided elimination, then made the money. One chip left and the guy wakes up to K-K on the bubble. Amazing.

My table broke as the money bubble burst. Andrew Webking and Chicago Jason also cashed along with Kathy Liebert, MarcelLuske, Jesus, and Ed Moncada.

At my new table, I had about 15K when I open-shoved with Ac-Qh. One player moved all in and a player int he big blind showed J-J as he folded. The other player showed K-K. I missed the flop but the turn was an Ace.

"Shit!" the guy screamed as I doubled up to over 30K.

I got moved tables after than hand. I spotted Erica Schoenberg'stable and hoped I got seated next to her. No such luck. As I sat down I spotted Men the Master drinking beer. That's when I heard, "Hey Pauly!"

It was Action Bob. He's a local player at the Borgata in Atlantic City and he's a frequent poster on RGP and 2+2. I met him when I covered an event for the Borgata almost two years ago. It felt good to recognize someone at my table.

Men the Master was in rare form. He took dragged a monsterpotten with A-A. He had five players call him and he busted the guy sitting next to me. Men increased his stack to almost 90K. I folded the rest of my hands as time ticked down. I got to watch Erica Schoenberg play a couple of hands and realized that she has magnificent eyes. She made a big fold in that hand with Men the Master.

I got to bag up my chips. I never did that before and a childlike giddiness took over. I cashed in a WSOP event (a real one, not like the media event I final tabled in 2005 where I won money for Charlie Tuttle's charity). Plus I made it to a Day 2. I saw Flipchip and I had never seen him happier. Felipe and the rest of thekids at PokerNews were excited that I went deep. I went to the secret bar with Change100 and Otis to have Red Stripe and play video poker.

Since I covered a slew of Day 2s this year I know what to expect. I could sit on my ass and let thirty players bust out ahead of me, or make a move and try to double up early to be in a position to go deeper. I'd like to have Men the Master double me up since he has most of the chips at the table. We'll see.

At least I got a few extra hours off on Sunday. After I bust out, I'll have to cover the 50K HORSE event at 5pm. I'm not expecting to last much more than that. Alas, it was one wild day.

Click here to follow my progress on Day 2 of Event #38.

* * * * *
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos and there's the Poker Prof's cool 2007 WSOP Info page.

And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

For all you fantasy sports junkies, check out our new site... Fantasy Sports Live.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/24/2007 06:33:00 AM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Day 22: I Never Thought I'd Make It This Far

I survived three full weeks of insanity of the WSOP. I wanted to write more about Day 22, but like usual, I am short on time. I gave myself an extra hour to sleep since I'm playing in Event #38. Since I chose rest instead of writing, my post today will be super short.

In the past, I have played in two different WSOP events and bused out early in both. In 2005 I took a bad beat when my Big Slick was rivered by A-10. Last year, I busted out early of PLO. Since Event #38 is a three-day tournament, my goal is to survive Day 1 and advance to Day 2 which would mean I'd make the prize money and get another day off so I could play. I'm a long shot to do that, but that's my goal.

The cool thing about working for PokerNews.com, is that my progress will be tracked by my peers. And I found out that Change100's assignment is my tournament which means I should get a lot of press if I last more than a few hours.

Click here to read live updates and follow my progress in Event #38.

Click here to view updated chip counts of Event #38.

Tournament begins at noon local time or 3pm for all you New Yorkers.

And if I bust out early, I get to go home and relax and catch up on a billion things I've been putting off. I have a couple of columns due and I have to edit the next issue of Truckin' among other things.

Moving on...

I covered Event #35 $1,500 NL Day 2. And yes, they are having three $1,500 donkaments inside of eight days. Anyway, Phil Gordon happened to be seated right in front of the media desk for Event #35. That was both good and bad. The good thing was that I could follow the action without getting up and that Phil would feed me any info if I asked for it. The bad was that Phil is the original Tiltboy and is prone to slide off the deep end from time to time. Watching a poker pro go on tilt is hard to stomach. Plus with Phil's mega popularity, he attracts a slew of railbirds which congested that corner of the Amazon Ballroom.

Before Day 2 started, Phil asked to borrow one of my power outlets so he could charge his phone. He seemed focused. He already made the money in consecutive events and survived over 2,300 other players to make it that far. His main focus was on winning his first bracelet. His friends own two. Rafe Furst won one. Perry Friedman won one. Phil Gordon had none and he wanted to change that in 2007.

Sadly, Phil Gordon was playing through a ton of pain. He had a torn meniscus after falling down a flight of stairs trying to walk and read his Blackberry at the same time. He's scheduled to have surgery after the WSOP but for now, he had to chew on pharmies and gut through the pain.

He had Clonie Gowen at his table and even knocked her out. The other named pros busted out quickly as well. Joe Sebok had an early exited and eventually Gordon went busto after he got his Jacks crippled by Kiwi Dan Francis's A-10 in a three-way pot. That set Phil Gordon off and his inner Tilt Boy jumped out his his chest. He busted out a few hands later when his A-5 lost to Steve Cohn's 10-10. He flopped an ace and said, "Justice!" But the turn was the 10 and he kicked his chair as he stormed off.

"Unfucking believeable," he said to me as he left the tournament area and headed for the rail.

* * * * *
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos and there's the Poker Prof's cool 2007 WSOP Info page.

And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

For all you fantasy sports junkies, check out our new site... Fantasy Sports Live.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/23/2007 12:57:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Day 21: Late Night Hijinks, Lisandro's Breakthrough Victory, and Fantasy Sports Live

By Pauly

3:22am... Bored shitless. Sitting in a near empty media row waiting for Change100's event to end so we can go home. Tragically, it's a Limit Hold'em event and they have to play down to a final nine players. Some kid named Vivek was the shortstack but he's doubled up a few times and his drunken friends liquored up on Beast Lite keep shouting from the rail keep, "Ship it to Vivek!!!"

I'm too lazy to break a $100 bill so I can hail a cab home. My assignment covering the Final 8 of the Heads Up bracelet event ended two hours earlier when a 21-year old former professional video game player who lived in South Korea took down a bracelet after beating Tao of Poker reader Mark Muchnik in a best of three heads up match.

An odd sickness plagued me all day. I felt hungover despite the fact I hadn't drank enough in the last three or four days to warrant a sluggish demeanor. I wasn't full on sick, yet I had all the symptoms... fever, chills, breathing problems. I could have had anything from the bird flu to malaria. And after spending three weeks inside the Rio breathing their recycled air, I'm shocked that my body has been run down by infection from all the widespread germs from poker players who lack personal hygiene. By week three of the WSOP, some guys are in dire need of a bath, shower, and change of clothes. Sometimes I think some players should be spending their money on deodorant, a new pair of shoes, and clean underwear instead of buying into the $1,500 NL donkfest.

For most of Day 21, I longed to be at home sleeping off my bug instead of covering heads up tournaments. As soon as my event ended, my pharmaceutical cocktail of generic Vicodin and NyQuil Day medicine (which Ed from Gutshot pointed out was actually called DayQuil) finally kicked in. Wired. Eight hours too late. That's what I was so I wandered around in a buzzed state and fucked around in the media room. I gave Benjo a new nickname, Benjo Crackhead. Because it's funny to think about French people smoking crack cocaine in Las Vegas. I kid. The guy is a good egg and crack free.

Steve Hall lurked in the media room. I had spotted him intermittently over the last three weeks. He usually hung out with his German lady friend who was flat broke but had the ability to get strange men to hand over $5,000 so she can donk it off at the tables or blow in the Forum Shops at Caesar's. Steve Hall told me about his new Liz Lieu. In 2005, the Liz Lieu du jour was Liz Lieu. In 2006, he shifted his focus to Lynette Chan. In 2007, it's Jennifer Lam. Steve Hall might be the horniest person on Earth that hailed from the British Isles and he has a devestating penchant for young Asian women. I'm glad the new girl who works for Poker Listings had already been warned about Steve Hall. His reputation precedes him.

I went looking for Otis but he wasn't around I assumed that he headed back to his room to masturbate into his hand towels. Since the maids that clean his room at the Rio already think he's a chronic pud wanker for using too many bottles of hand lotion to soothe his chapped hands, he might as well rub one out thinking about Tilted Kilt Waitresses frolicking with Milwaukee's Beast girls.

Moving on...

ESPN decided to tape the Stud final table with Daniel Negreanu, Nick Frangos, and Jeff Lisandro. Eventually, Lisandro went on to win. Ironically, late on Day 2 when the remaining eight players initially voted on whether to quit and come back for a Day 3 (of a scheduled two day event) or if they should play it out, Lisandro was the only person who wanted to play it out. He changed his mind and the rest did him well. He went on to win his first bracelet.

It was a sweet moment for Lisandro who most of the poker world knows as the guy who Prahlad Friedman accused of cheating during the 2006 Main Event when he claimed Lisandro did not ante and shorted a pot. ESPN went to the videotape and proved that Lisandro was innocent. However, for several minutes after the incident, Friedman was relentless and kept pestering Lisandro about shorting the pot. If you don't know, Lisandro is from Australia but has ties to the old country back in Italy. Draw your own conclusion. But let's just say the Friedman was lucky he wasn't found dead in a ditch somewhere on the outskirts of Pahrump.

I will be covering Day 2 of Event #35 aka the $1,500 Donkfest. There are 147 players left and I don't get to go home until nine remain. Phil Gordon has chips along with Kathy Liebert, Nam Le, JC Alavarado, that Esfiandari character, and Clonie Gowen. Yes, Clonie actually cashed in a WSOP event. Maybe she'll finally have enough money to pay back that $500 debt she owes Michalski.

Click here to follow my live updates for Day 2 of Event #35 $1,500 NL Hold'em over at Poker News.

* * * * *
Do you waste all your time watching sports and wishing that you signed up for a fantasy league?

If so, check out Fantasy Sports Live. I'm a partner in a brand new fantasy sports website. Blinders came up with the idea and business plan for Fanstasy Sports Live. He brought Joe Speaker and myself in on his brainchild. I'm happy to be part of the team. We launched the site the other day.


Fantasy Sports Live is perfect for lazy gamblers who don't want to have a fantasy team over an entire season. You can get your fix in one day. It's sort of like an SNG version of fantasy sports where you join a league, draft a team, and can play for as little as $1. And everything is over in a day!

Here's how Blinders explains the site:

I bring to you a website that compresses the Fantasy Sports experience to just a few action packed hours, offers you the ability to profit long-term from your sports knowledge, and eliminates all of the hassles of standard fantasy sports offerings like season long commitments, fees for adjusting your rooster, waiver wires, free agents, trades...

Just choose your stakes, draft a team of starters from the contest's games, and test your sports knowledge against others from around the country. We run the contests like sit and goes. They form up real-time, and close when the maximum entries are registered. Players then have until the start time to complete their draft. Once the contest starts, you can see the fantasy players on the teams you are against and a leaderboard shows the real-time contest standings. Also, by law all of our cash prizes are guaranteed. If we don't get the maximum entries it is like an overlay for those that are entered.

What I did was rewrite the rules of fantasy sports. I hope you enjoy the results.

For more information head over to the website... Fantasy Sports Live. And if you want a sign up bonus, use bonus code: Pauly.

* * * * *
Bouncin Round the Room on Day 21

Phil Hellmuth was steaming over something Change100 wrote about him on Poker News. He sought out everyone's favorite Hollyweird blonde and was ready to chastise her. Apparently, someone misread something she wrote and called up Hellmuth to ask him why he was chasing a gutshot. We all know that the greatest Hold'em player in the world would never do such a thing. But that person had poor reading comprehension and gave Hellmuth wrong information. Once he realized what happened, he settled down. Although Hellmuth cashed in another event, he failed to make another final table as he seeks out bracelet #12.

Tony G offered to arm wrestle a guy $40,000. His opponent punked out and did not want to do it. Hear that Bad Blood? I think you should fly out to Vegas and take on The G! If I were you, I'd scrape together the cashola from all your G-Vegas buddies and take a shot at The G.

Two tourists snapped a photo with David Chui in the hallway. After Chui went back inside the ballroom to his event, one guy turned to the other and said, "That's so cool we got a picture with Chau Giang!"

Number of Bad Beat Stories I Heard from Pros in the Last 48 Hours: 27

Number of People Who Asked Me for Weed in the Last 48 Hours: 9

Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next to...
1. Layne Flack
2. Ray Davis
3. Men the Master
4. Mel Judah
5. Josh Arieh

* * * * *
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos and there's the Poker Prof's cool 2007 WSOP Info page.

And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/22/2007 02:45:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Day 20: Hoyt Corkins Wins Bracelet and Heads Up Prop Betting

By Pauly

Schecky and I studied the match ups for the final 64 players in Event #31 $5,000 Heads-Up NL Hold'em. He picked five players and I picked five. If any of our picks made the Final 4, we'd have to pay up and if any of them won the bracelet, we'd have to pay up even more.

Schecky got the first pick and he went with Carl Olson. We're friends with Carl and I wanted to pick him, but Schecky beat me to the punch. My first pick was Paul Wasicka. He had a cold WSOP so far in 2007 but he destroyed the field at the NBC Heads Up Championship. He seemed like the logical choice for me.

Team Schecky: Carl Olson, Shannon Shorr, Danny Alaei, Joe Sebok, and Thomas Wahlroos
Team Pauly: Paul Wasicka, Kirk Morrison, Rizen, Roland DeWolfe, and Tony G

My last pick was a coinflip between Phil Gordon and Tony G. I went with The G since he's from the streets. After the first round, three of my guys busted. The G played like a donkey against Carmel Petresco. He had bought into the $1,500 PLO with Rebuys event and two-tabling. He seemed more interested in that stack than playing Petresco. He ordered a massage and never got to finish it because he bluffed off most of his chips with As-Qs against Petresco's trips.

Rizen and DeWolfe also had early exits. Only Wasicka and Morrison advanced to the Final 32. Schecky was in much better shape. Only Sebok and Alaei busted and three of his players advanced.

Kirk Morrison was eliminated quickly in the next round and luckily Wasicka advanced. He was my only player in the Sweet 16. Carl Olson lost his match and Wahlroos and Shorr advanced. I was trailing 2 to 1 but I felt good about Wasicka.


Carmel Petresco
Photo courtesy of Poker News
The Sweet 16 matches were tough. Wasicka drew Vanessa Selbst, who had been running well at this year's WSOP. She's tough to put on a hand and will shove all in on any street. Sadly, my hopes ended when she busted Wasicka. On Schecky's end, Wahlroos had a tough time against an old school NYC Mayfair club player Steve Sarrafzadeh. Wahlroos failed to advance but Shannon Shorr beat Carmel Petresco to make it to the Final 8. If he wins one more match, I have to start paying out cashola to Schecky. Petresco took the Bad Beat of the Day. She got all in with A-A vs K-K but Shorr caught a four flush to bust Petresco.

Final 8 Matches:
Keith Block vs. Steve Sarrafzadeh
Mark Munchnik vs. Jared Davis
Dan Schreiber vs. Toto Leonidas
Shannon Shorr vs. Vanessa Selbst

I'll be covering the Final 8, The Final 4 and the Final Table of Event #31 over at PokerNews. Click here to follow the action in the Heads Up event.

Over in the Black Hole, Cowboy Hoyt Corkins went wire-to-wire in Event #30 $2,500 Short-Handed NL and won his second bracelet... 16 years after he won his first one. Some of these internet kids were still shitting their pants the last time Corkins slapped a WSOP bracelet around his wrist. He played super aggressive on Day 2 to amass the big stack and kept the pressure on at the final table. Terrence Chan was ahead on the last hand when Corkins paired up on the turn to take down the bracelet. Chan played superb poker for the last three days and it took a bad beat to eliminate him from the tournament.

* * * * *
Bouncin Round the Room on Day 20

I didn't have much time to write today and since the last two posts were solid, I figured I could have a slacker day on the Tao. Some days I get so much information that I don't used 50% of what is in my notes. Other days, I have just two or three things written down. Day 20 was one of those days.

I'm starting to recognize players cars in the valet so I know who's playing. I spotted The Grinder's wine colored BMW and Mike Sexton's pimping ride. That's how I knew they were at the Rio playing in events.

Once action got down to the Sweet 16 in the Heads Up event, the poker agents swarmed the rail like pimps hanging out at the bus station looking for fresh pieces of ass. That's a disgusting part about poker as the bottom feeders do what they can to cut deals with online poker sites so the players hat represent can wear logos at televised tables. The worst part of my day is having the gnats constantly swarm around the media table badgering me with questions and updates about their potential clients. Do your own fuckin' homework. And if that doesn't work out, there are some crack whores strolling Tropicana Avenue that are independent contractors. Why don't they start brining them around the Rio and collect $50 for every hand job that they give in the parking lot?

I went to the Hooker Bar with Otis and Michalski. Although I pass it almost everyday, this was the first time this year that I actually stopped to have a drink. Otis and I frequented the bar every day in 2005 and only drank there occasionally in 2006. This year we've been drinking at the Kilt or the secret bar which no one knows about except us. Anyway, I lost close to $30 in throwing things prop bets with Otis that night ranging from empty water bottles to a matchbook toss. I'm stuck over $200 at the WSOP this year in throwing things prop bets and I'm down almost $400 in combined eating things and other prop bet losses.

Tilted Kilt Stella Count: 29

Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next To...
1. Howard Lederer
2. Devilfish
3. Kenna James
4. Mickey Appleman
5. Mark Newhouse

* * * * *
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos and there's the Poker Prof's cool 2007 WSOP Info page.

And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/21/2007 02:33:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Day 19: The Ghost of Stuey Ungar and Katja Thater Wins Razz Bracelet

By Pauly

Just before sunrise, you can find the ghost of Stuey Ungar wandering the hallways of the convention center at the Rio. Somedays he's cleaning out the trash. Other days he's bartending in front of the poker kitchen. Sometimes he's dealing a satellite or standing guard near the cage. Most of the time, he's standing on the rail checking out the action in the biggest cash game in the room.

Stuey Ungar is the greatest NL Hold'em player of all time. And that's not a half-baked comment coming from a hack of a poker writer. The men that knew him and played with him are the ones responsible for bestowing that accolade. If you don't believe me go ask Doyle Brunson or Mike Sexton. They'll sit you down and tell you some stories about Stuey that will blow your mind.

These days, the legend of Stuey Ungar grows, thanks to plenty of colorful stories about the kid from New York City with a voracious appetite for action who took Las Vegas by storm. The gin rummy prodigy could not get a decent gin game and turned to poker instead. You've heard the ensuing stories. You've seen the awful movie about his life. You've read the amazing book by Peter Alson and Nolan Dalla. There are plenty of heroic gambling tales to go around and even several sad and pathetic ones. Those somber stories are told with a semblance of disappointment as the storyteller usually paints a desperate picture of Stuey in the years leading up to his death.

Did Stuey Ungar's self-destructive behavior kill him or was Las Vegas an accomplice?

Another player turned Stuey onto cocaine in the early 1980s. Players and gamblers used to do it because it allowed you to stay up all night to gamble. (That was before Red Bull aka cocaine in a can was introduced.) But a drug like cocaine in the hands of a monster like Stuey was what helped steer him to his downfall. It was bad enough that he limped through life with a serious gambling problem (sports betting, horses, prop bets, you name it) but when you add the affects of rampant drug abuse, you basically have a recipe for disaster. Instead of snorting a few lines in a bathroom stall late at night to stay awake, he was doing it more frequently. Before he knew it, he was a raging cokehead in a 24 hour city that profits on your every weakness. It's no wonder that several of his friends bet on whether or not he would survive his 40th birthday.

At the 1990 WSOP, Stuey amassed a monster chiplead and went back to his hotel room to party. His backer Billy Baxter frantically showed up the next day when Ungar was a no show at Binion's Horseshoe. Ungar suffered an overdose and could not make it to the rest of the tournament. He had a big enough lead that his idle stack advanced to the final table before he was blinded off in 9th place.

Sound familiar?

Flash forward 17 years later to the Amazon Ballroom in the Rio. For second time inside of two weeks, Vinnie Vinh's stack sat at his table without him behind it. He failed to show up for another Day 2. When he disappeared last week, rumors swirled around the poker community of his whereabouts and many of us pontificated about his current state. My gut told me he was strung out somewhere, probably close by, but millions of miles away from home.


Vinnie Vinh with the Ghost of Stuey in the background
(Photo courtesy of Ed from Gutshot)
I had seen it happen dozens of times before in my own journey through life. Some folks slip and when they slip, they dive head first into the deep end of insanity. Usually they are hopeless souls and no one can save them except themselves. The lucky ones stumble out of their alcho-narco stupor barely alive. And the weak ones? You show up at their funeral a few weeks later with a knot in your stomach the size of a basketball as you look this person's mother or wife or daughter in the eye and say, "I'm sorry for your loss."

I covered Day 2 of Event #30 $2,500 NL Shorthanded. Everyone showed up at 2pm for the restart except Vinnie Vinh. The field had plenty of big names left like Erik Seidel, Erick Lindgren, Mimi Tran, Hoyt Corkins, and of course Vinnie Vinh who was noticeably absent. The floor supervisor walked over to his table and opened up his sealed bag of chips. He quickly stacked them up before he left the table. Ten minutes later, I wandered over to see if Vinh had arrived. His chair was empty and as my eyes focused on a figure standing at the rail. I saw the ghost of Stuey Ungar.

The dealers began the process of blinding Vinnie Vinh's stack off. Since the tournament was short-handed NL Hold'em, his stack decreased at a faster rate.

"He's the tightest player left in the tournament," Mimi Tran joked as she sat at his table. "He hasn't played one hand yet."

He still outlasted twenty players and finished in 22nd place out of the 42 players who survived Day 1 and advanced to Day 2. He won $12,468 and did not play a single hand on Day 2.

Every ninety seconds or so, another person would come up to the media desk and ask, "Where's Vinnie Vinh?"

Players, media reps, and spectators bombarded me with the same question and that put me on tilt.

"How the fuck should I know?" I snapped a dozen times.

The constant interruptions were slowing down my work and then I'd get distracted again when someone asked the same question. The anger was slightly misdirected. The media reps were trying to get to the bottom of the story and besides Hellmuth trying to win bracelet #12, the Vinnie Vinh saga had become one of the biggest stories of the 2007 WSOP right up there with Eskimo Clark's waning health (which I'll discuss shortly).

I was pissed off because my biggest fear about Vinh became a harsh reality. Vinh was not pulling off a Hellmuthian psyche-out and arriving a few minutes late. He wasn't going to be coming in at all. I accepted that fact ten minutes into the tournament. He was a goner. But everyone else was brainwashed and honestly thought that good would triumph over evil and there would be a warm and tender Hollyweird moment where Vinh would swear off loose women and drugs for the rest of life and race into the room with his NA sponsor and his family cheering him on from the rail as he won a bracelet. That only happens on Lifetime's Movies of the Week.

Under the gritty lights of Las Vegas, evil always squashes good. Vinh was long gone, somewhere deep into the thirteenth hour of a serious bender. Crystal meth? Crack? Cheese? Cocaine? Pills? Booze? All of the above?

The last place Vinh was going to be found was at Table #72 in the Amazon Ballroom. You had better luck finding him passed out in the bathroom of the Oasis Motel. That's were Stuey Ungar's dead body was found in November of 1998 with $800 in his pockets. They say he died of a heart attack, but Stuey's friends would tell you that he died years before.

David "The Dragon" Pham walked up to me around 6pm. He normally wears sunglasses and slid them down as he looked me in the eye and said, "Vinnie didn't show up today?"

The gloomy look in The Dragon's eye told me that he already knew the answer yet he asked anyway.

"Nope. He got blinded off in 22nd place."

"What the fuck?" he said before he muttered something in Vietnamese and walked away.

* * * * *
Otis walked over to me and shook his head.

"Eskimo just pissed himself at the table. He can't feel his left side," before he disappeared.

I had never seen Otis that upset before. He felt like everyone else in the room felt. Eskimo Clark should be in a hospital and not playing poker.

America loves underdogs. That's why sports movies like Rocky and The Bad News Bears and Hooisers send tingles down your spine when you watch them. Some of us were hoping that Eskimo Clark would win a bracelet a week after he collapsed in the Poker Sauna and the day after he passed out twice and held up Day 2 of the Razz event. The reality was a sad one. He was stuck. Big time. Most of his ralibirds were people that he owed money too. The man was moments away from the Angel of Death sucking out his last few breaths and the vultures circled his dying mass ready to get paid moments after he busted out in 4th place.

When I first watched the WPT first season and they panned the audience and focused on shots of pros, I thought that it was cool to have your peers sweating you and cheering you on. Little did I know, that those pros weren't there out of camaraderie. Rather, they were there to collect a debt or had they own piece at someone at the final table. It happens all the time. So when I see Johnny Chan wandering around a WPT final table set, my immediate thought is, "Who does Chan have a piece of?"

Jeffrey Pollack tried to talk Eskimo out of playing in the Razz event on two different instances. The first time was on Day 2 of the Razz event after he refused to be taken away by Clark County paramedics. Eskimo wanted to play though the pain. He had debts to pay. Before the final table started on Day 19, Pollack asked him to seek medical attention instead of playing. Eskimo declined again and said he was going to play through the pain. I heard a rumor that Harrah's made him sign a waiver which would not make them liable if something happened... like if he had a stroke or heart attack or died at the table.

Once again, the ghost of Stuey Ungar was on the rail of Eskimo's final table. I don't know why he owes money to others. I assume it's more gambling related than anything else. But borrowing money to chase a loss is probably the worst vice to have in Las Vegas. And when you're running bad in Las Vegas, you should probably get out of town. But a guy like Eskimo who is almost 60 years old is in a bad spot. What kind of job is he going to get that will pay him enough money to pay off his debts? He'd be lucky if he was able to find a crappy job that will help him pay the weekly juice on any of his debts.

He had to play. That was the only way that he saw he could climb out of debt. Even if it was going to kill him, he was not going to leave the tables. Bravado or pure stupidity?

Las Vegas is a place where desperate souls make desperate decisions all the time. If there was anyone who should have skipped a day and let his stack get blinded off, it was Eskimo. I hope that I don't see him for the rest of the summer and he gets the necessary rest and medical attention his weary body craves before he does any more damage.

* * * * *
It's kind of disappointing that I'm writing about the Eskimo drama when Katja Thater should be the focus. She won her first WSOP bracelet in Event #29 and not only did a European win another bracelet, she was a female. Not too many European women have taken down bracelets at the WSOP and Katja Thater is one of them. She's also made a final table during the Ladies NL event and final tabled an event on the EPT.

"She's an excellent Stud player," her husband Jan Von Halle said. "She joked that she always got bad cards in Stud so she decided to play Razz instead."

Of course when I play Razz, I always get rolled up Kings or Queens. Katja Thater outlasted a tough field of 330+ players and endured the side drama of Eskimo at her table. Katja Thater was named to Team PokerStars last summer to help promote them in the German market. And now she's their latest bracelet winner.


2007 WSOP Razz Champion - Katja Thater
(Photo courtesy of Flipchip)
Congrats to Katja for winning a bracelet in one of the most sadistic forms of poker around.

* * * * *
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos. And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/20/2007 02:19:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Day 18: Down Goes Eskimo, Hellmuth's 12, and Liz Lieu Tuesdays

By Pauly

Phil Hellmuth arrived on time for Day 2 of Event #28. That was unusual since he almost always arrives late in true Hellmuthian fashion. Even Greg "FBT" Mueller had to say something.

"How come you are not two hours late today?" asked Mueller.

Hellmuth smiled and shrugged his shoulders. Perry Friedman and Steve Dannenmann stopped by to wish him luck while Hellmuth listened to his iPod and unbagged his chips.

"I know you don't make the money often," joked Friedman. "You can't use iPods when were in the money."

Since the money bubble broke the night before, Hellmuth cashed in his 60th event, which is a WSOP record. He already set the record for bracelets a week earlier when he picked up #11 and he was trying to tie TJ Cloutier for WSOP final tables with 39.

Hellmuth's table happened to be right in front of the media table which was both entertaining and a sincere burden. Hellmuth has a magnetic personality that attracts all sorts of individuals such as the curious, the haters, the fans, and every media member inside a five hundred foot radius. That meant out tiny corner of the Amazon ballroom was jam packed as everyone watched The Phil Hellmuth Show. Some were waiting for him to go on mega tilt and berated his opponents or perhaps kick over a chair. Other hoped he'd utter more classic Hellmuthian vernacular like he did in 2005 when he told his wife in front of ESPN's cameras, "I can dodge bullets baby."

Me? I get goosebumps when Hellmuth refers to himself in the third person such as "Phil Hellmuth is the greatest Hold'em player in the history of poker."

Hellmuth's table ended up being a doozy. He had Beth Shak to his left, the wife of pro Dan Shak. Like a true East Coaster, she's mentally tough and doesn't take shit from nobody including Hellmuth or any of the internet hotshots that tried to tilt her like Luke Vrabel.

Also at Hellmuth's table was chipleader Feng Chen. About an hour into Day 2 she told us that she wanted to be called Tsai Chen. I have no idea why but I granted her that wish. She was an elderly Asian woman with a motor mouth. Even Hellmuth could not keep up with her barbs. She was capable of playing any two cards and always seemed to have a monster when someone attempted to pick off one of her bluffs.

About ninety minutes into Day 2, Luke Vrabel was moved to Hellmuth's table and that's when their two volatile personalities clashed. Hellmuth had a tough enough time keeping the attention on him with the lovely Beth Shak to his left and the Yoda-like musings of Tsai Chen in Seat 9. During his verbal diarrhea, Hellmuth mentioned a few gems such as...

"Another day, another million dollars."

"Muckit is a small town in Northern Alaska."

"I'm so good sometimes, I amaze myself."

"Phil Hellmuth never bluffs."

When Luke Vrabel, the wise-cracking internet kid with a severe case of ADD, was moved to the table, Hellmuth realized the need to step up his act. He had spectators standing seven deep on the rail and more than a dozen media encircling his table snapping photos and recording his every word as it was sagely advice from Buddha himself. It was showtime and Hellmuth seized the spotlight.

Vrable had nothing to lose and everything to gain by picking on Hellmuth. I dunno if the kid took advantage of that situation on the fly or if he's just a cocky dude. Regardless, he jumped right into the fight and started ragging on Hellmuth and giving lip to Chen. The kid did not stop talking the entire time as he riffed on a multitude of topics ranging from why his girlfriend was infatuated with ARod's ass and why PokerStars is rigged.

After a player raised, Luke Vrabel shoved all in and William Burdick went into the tank before he called. The first player folded as Vrabel turned up 10s-10c while Burdick showed Ac-Qd. Hellmuth immediately disapproved of Vrabel's play as the dealer spread out the flop of the Ah-8s-2d. Vrabel jumped out of his chair and turned around. He walked away from the table towards the rail. The turn was the 2s and when the 10d spiked on the river, everyone at his table let out a collective "Ooooooooooooh!" Vrabel busted Burdick when he rivered a two-outer. That pot pushed Vrabel's stack to 199K which was more than what Hellmuth had.

"Terrible play kid. Shoving with tens like that. Keep it up," needled Hellmuth.

After Vrabel stole his blinds for the second time Hellmuth said, "Keep stealing. They steal and steal and steal and before you know it, Phil Hellmuth has all the chips. It happens every day. They keep coming trying to take down the best int he world and they end up going broke. You're playing against a world champion."

Vrabel ignored Hellmuth's barbs and jawed back."This is pretty cool. I'm playing at the same table as the greatest player in the world. This is something I'll tell my grandkids. Of course they'll say 'Who is Phil Hellmuth?' because by then everyone will forget about you."

Vrabel won a pot off of Hellmuth which set him on tilt. After he lost the hand, Hellmuth jumped up and cursed underneath his breath. He paced around his table like a sad puppy as railbirds whipped out that cameras and tried to capture shots of the poker giant sliding into the deepest depths of utter tiltdom.

Five minutes after the hand, Hellmuth still steamed.

"This kid has no chance to win the tournament," he said to no one in particular. "He called my raise with J-9. The sucker calls with J-9. Can you believe that? Terrible poker."

"Come on Phil, it's just one hand," taunted Vrabel. "I took 35K off you and I'll do it again. If that's terrible. I'll keep playing like that."

Ten minutes later, a floor supervisor came over with a seat change card.

"Nooooooooooo!" screamed Hellmuth after he was informed that he was getting moved.

"I was just ready to double up against this guy," Hellmuth said as he pointed to Vrabel. "Check with me in two hours when you're busted and I'm still in."

"Phil Hellmuth, you're my third favorite pro behind my girlfriend and Evelyn Ng."

Evelyn Ng was moved to their table thirty minutes earlier. She sat in between Hellmuth and Vrabel while she caught an earful. Former SNL Weekend Update anchor Norm MacDonald played in the vent and eventually busted out in 20th place. He survived a tough field and hung on with a short stack most of the day. Without a doubt, Norm is my second most favorite SNL WU anchor aside from Dennis Miller. Tina Fey comes in a distant third.

When the action got down to 18 players, Hellmuth was the short stack and moved back to Vrabel's table. The two continued their sparring. When Vrabel opened up for a 40K raised, Hellmuth jammed the pot and moved all in. Vrabel mucked saying he folded A-10. Hellmuth showed A-K.

"Phil Hellmuth doesn't bluff," Helllmuth said.

Despite a short stack, Hellmuth played disciplined poker and picked the right spots to make moves. He admitted that he got no cards yet managed to be one of the last ten players. Usually, WSOP final tables are nine-handed with a few exceptions. That was one of them. I had only seen that happen once before... in 2005 when Hellmuth was short-stacked for a PLO event and they suspended play at ten so Hellmuth could have some TV time at the ESPN final table. It might be the Hellmuth Rule but makes sense if you're ESPN. At least it's not in Bluff's Black Hole.

Men the Master played in the Razz event a few tables over. He wandered over and protested.

"WSOP final tables are nine players. Why is it ten?" he said. "Why are you making an exception for Phil Hellmuth. This is not fair."

Event #28 Final Table Seating Assignments and Chip Counts:
Seat 1: Phil Hellmuth - 213,000
Seat 2: Luke Vrabel - 315,000
Seat 3: Ben Fineman - 272,000
Seat 4: Dustin Holmes - 1,076,000
Seat 5: Jason Song - 284,000
Seat 6: Brett Richey - 738,000
Seat 7: Daniel Corbin - 210,000
Seat 8: Shankar Pillai - 371,000
Seat 9: Perry Friedman - 723,000
Seat 10: Beth Shak - 740,000

After the event ended, Hellmuth blew off Bluff's attempt to get an interview as he sat next to his wife. Michael Craig wandered over to ask a few questions. I walked over and wanted to get a clarification on some stats.

"How many final tables have you made at the WSOP?" I asked.

"I didn't know the number until Nolan Dalla told me I started the year with 39, two behind TJ (Cloutier). I made one and I'm close to tying him. I haven't made the final table... yet. I have one more bustout to go."

When I asked him about having a short stack, Hellmuth shrugged it off.

"Listen up, Phil Hellmuth is the best Hold'em player in the world. My 213K in chips is worth twice as much as their stacks. It's doubled. I'm closer to 426K. All I have to do is double up once and I have one million."

I didn't want to point out that in reality it would only be 426K. But Hellmuth was on a roll and giving me five minutes of his time so I kept my mouth shut.

"The players are so bad that they'll give me their chips. Phil Hellmuth is going for number twelve."

* * * * *
Bouncin Round the Room on Day 18

Eskimo Clark did a nose dive in the middle of Day 2 of the Razz event. Lance over at the Poker Biz and Wicked Chops Poker had good pieces on what went down. After collapsing in the Poker Sauna last week, Eskimo was back playing in the Razz event. He suffered two episodes on Monday and shook both off to make it to the final table. I also heard he was shot twice in the parking lot and shanked near the pisser behind the Poker Sauna. The guy is really bulletproof or he must really be stuck. He probably should be at home resting and watching the History Channel. Instead he's made a final table and is close to winning a bracelet. He'll have to survive a difficult final table with Men the Master, Katja Thater (her second final table in 2007), 2005 WSOP Razz Champion O'Neil Longson, and Australia's Mark Vos.

Since it's Liz Lieu Tiesdays how about a stealth shot of Liz's back tattoo taken by one of our photographers:


The other day, I was walking through the valet when The Grinder rolled up in his wine-colored BMW. Some of the valet guys were bitching about how some of the pros didn't tip. "All they have is $100 bills," one said. "The last thing they want to do is break a big bill for a valet tip. So we get stiffed."

Check out Benjo's blog. It's in French and I can understand about 50% of it.

Vinnie Vinh advanced to Day 2 of Event #30 $2,500 NL Short-handed. He's one of 42 players left. We'll see if he decides to show up and play or if he locks himself in a roach motel in North Las Vegas and go on a three-day crank bender. I'll be covering that event for Poker News. Click here to view live coverage of Day 2 of Event #30 $2,500 NL Short-handed.

Stella Count at the Tilted Kilt: 26

The Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next To...
1. Chad Brown
2. Steve Dannennman
3. Bill Chen
4. Minh Ly
5. Jesus

* * * * *
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos. And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/19/2007 03:41:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Day 17: Hellmuth's 60th Cash and Eskimo Clark Lives

By Pauly

This might be a quickie post. Short on time.

I've been assigned Day 2 restarts which is a lot of work spread out over 12-15 hour days. They begin at 2pm and do not end until nine players are left. I feel like Mo Rivera on the Yankees in the 1990s when he was the set up man for John Wetteland and Mo would pitch two innings before handing the ball over to the closer (and in our case that happens to be whoever is doing the final table that day which is usually BJ).

In the NL events, the money bubble usually burst before Day 1 ended. So on Day 2, the action starts out quick with a flurry of bustouts. All the short-stacks push all in and hope to double up. About half of them survive and the rest head over to the floor guy who tells them how much they won. I scurry around trying to figure out which big names are left over. I also make sure the junior reporters keep an eye on the big stacks. Trying to cover a hundred players that I have never seen before can be difficult and I give kudos to the guys on my team for continuously getting the job done. I rely upon their reporting skills to help bolster the tournament coverage since I can't be on the floor as much as I'd like to.

Over the weekend, I covered the $2K NL Day 2 and the $1,500 NL Donkfest Day 2. Today I have the $3K NL Day 2. What a difference $1,500 makes. There were only 827 players in Event #28 versus 2,135 in the $1,500 Donkathon. Out of the 81 remaining players, there are plenty of top pros. Phil Gordon went busto shortly before Day 2 ended when Ed Moncada made a great call and felted El Gordo. Moncada won a bracelet in 2005 and he's second in chips behind Feng Chen. Phil Hellmuth is 4th in chips and Perry Friedman is 5th. I know it burns Phil Gordon up at night knowing that Perry has more bracelets than him. He has zero.

All eyes are on Hellmuth when he plays, walks, or talks. Its sort of like watching Willie Mays play catch alongside a massive car wreck on the 405. You're watching a superstar and secretly hoping to see carnage in the process with severed limbs and pools of blood. Hellmuth is looking for bracelet #12. He already set another record with his 60th WSOP cash and is trying to break TJ Cloutier's record of most WSOP final tables. Hold'em is Hellmuth's game. And you know what? The world evolves around Phil Hellmuth. Just ask him and he'll agree.

Also in that field are Maureen Feduniak, Jorge "twin_caracas" Arias, The Unabomber, Greg FBT Mueller, Steve Dannenmann, Taylor Caby, Evelyn Ng, and actor Norm MacDonald. Should be fun to cover.

Click here to follow my coverage of Event #28 $3,000 NL Hold'em over at PokerNews.

Last night, Phil Ivey took 4th place in the $5K HORSE event and missed winning his 6th bracelet and $10 million in cash. I'm still trying to verify that rumor about his $2 million bracelet bet with 5-1 odds.

The Razz event began and they got over 300 runners. I spotted Eskimo Clark in the field. He's alive and looked good for a guy who was passed out in the Poker Sauna a week earlier. Also in the Razz event were Shirley Rosario, Jim McManus, Katja Thater, Lacey Jones, Chris Fargis (who final tabled last year's event) and Jen Creason who has a cash in the Razz event from 2005. Razz is for pure sadists but Andy Bloch mentioned that he thinks it's the easiest game to master.

Here are the tournaments over the next week:

Event #30 June 18 @ noon $2,500 NL - 6 handed (3 day event)
Event #31 June 19 @ noon $5,000 World Championship Heads Up NL (3 day event)
Event #32 June 19 @ 5 p.m. $2,000 Seven Card Stud (2 day event)
Event #33 June 20 @ noon $1,500 PLO w/rebuys (2 day event)
Event #34 June 20 @ 5 p.m. $3,000 Limit Hold 'em (3 day event)
Event #35 June 21 @ noon $1,500 NL (3 day event)
Event #36 June 21 @ 5 p.m. $5,000 World Championship Omaha8 or Better (3 day event)
Event #37 June 22 @ noon $2,000 Pot-limit hold 'em (3 day event)
Event #38 June 23 @ noon $1,500 NL (3 day event)
Event #39 June 24 @ noon $50,000 World Championship HORSE (5 day event)
Event #40 June 24 @ 5 p.m. $1,500 Mixed hold 'em (Limit/NL - 3 Day event)

I play in Event #38 the $1,500 Donkfest. Why? Because I'm a donkey and it's my only day off between now and July 3rd when Widespread Panic plays in Las Vegas.

Here's a list of 2007 WSOP Bracelet Winners through Event #26:

Event #1 $5,000 Mixed Limit/NL Hold'em: Steve Billirakis
Event #2 $500 Casino Employee NL: Frederick Narciso
Event #3 $1,500 NL: Cairan O'Leary
Event #4 $1,500 Pot-limit Hold 'em: Michael Spiegel
Event #5 $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud 8: Tom Schneider
Event #6 $1,500 Limit Hold 'em: Gary Styczynski
Event #7 $5,000 PLO w/rebuys: Burt Boutin
Event #8 $1,000 NL w/rebuys: Michael Chu
Event #9 $1,500 Omaha 8: Alexander Kravchenko
Event #10 $2,000 NL: William Durkee
Event #11 $5,000 Seven Card Stud: Chris Reslock
Event #12 $1,500 NL Six Handed: Jason Warner
Event #13 $5,000 Pot-limit Hold 'em: Allen Cunningham
Event #14 $1,500 Seven Card Stud: Michael Keiner
Event #15 $1,500 NL: Phil Hellmuth
Event #16 $2,500 HORSE: James Richberg
Event #17 $1,000 Ladies Event NL: Sally Boyer
Event #18 $5,000 Limit Hold'em: Jard Getzoyan
Event #19 $2,500 NL: Francois Safieddine
Event #20 $2,000 Seven Card Stud 8: Ryan Hughes
Event #21 $1,500 NL Shootout: Don Baruch
Event #22 $5,000 NL: James Mackey
Event #23 $1,500 PLO: Scott Clements
Event #24 $3,000 Seven Card Stud 8: Eli Elezra
Event #25 $2,000 NL: Ben Ponzio
Event #26 $5,000 HORSE: Ralph Schwartz

* * * * *
Bouncin Round the Room on Day 17

Norm MacDonald played in the $3K event. We requested an interview for PokerNews and he said he wanted to shave first before he was on camera.

David Williams snapped at one of our reporters. He told Zeke to scram while he was getting information on a hand that Williams lost. Our new nickname for Williams is... Scram. Beats his old name... Foot Jizz.

My brother Derek sent this to me in an email about a NY Jets player:

it looks like the media is after jonathan vilma . . . after he kind of sided with michael vick last week regarding the dog fighting (but in a less embarassing way than clinton portis did) . . . the media seems to be on this smear campaign of vilma . . . they had some article linking vilma to the poker club in NY that got robbed this weekend . . . they were like vilma plays here all the time just like ARod and AJ Soprano. i guess these media clowns think poker is just as bad a dog fighting b/c there is no reason to write the article and talk about vilma . . . the story is that the club got robbed. we all know by now these clubs are illegal . . . old news.

Around Midnight, Chris Fargis said that they had yet to go on a dinner break for the Razz event. "We also need a two hour break for the older folks in the field to take a nap." They were going to play down to a final table but stopped the action around 3am. They will try to play a final table today. I have no idea. They change shit on the fly all the time.

Stella Count at the Tilted Kilt: 24

Number of people who asked me for weed over the weekend: 24

Number of media reps who asked me for Valium: 13

Sunday night, not too many hookers strolling around. They go to church on Sundays since it's their day of rest.

Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next To...
1. Marcel Luske
2. Victor Ramdin
3. Joe Sebok
4. Jamie Gold
5. David "The Dragon" Pham

* * * * *Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos. And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/18/2007 03:06:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Day 16: Congestion Mutation and the Ghost of Vinnie Vinh

By Pauly

There were not too many open spots left in the Rio parking lot so we parked all the way in the back corner. A security guard rolled up in the Rio mini-van and asked us if we wanted a ride since it was 106 degrees. Of course, we said yes. He drove us up to the main entrance of the convention center. Thanks again to Joseph who spared me from sweating my ass off just to cross the sizzling pavement on my way to work.

Saturdays are the most congested day at the Rio. The weekend warriors fly into Las Vegas with grandiose dreams in pursuit of poker glory and a bracelet in the $1,500 donkfests that attract close to 2,000 players. Since it's also the weekend, plenty of slow-moving tourists flock to the Rio to check out the spectacle of the World Series of Poker. Most of them are newbies and are overwhelmed by the experience. They don't know about the no flash photography rule as every few minutes a rapid flash of white light illuminates a table with Phil Ivey or Doyle Brunson sitting at it.

And if you get caught roaming the hallways on a break, it resembles Mardi Gras minus the tits and stench of spilled beer and urine. Notions of claustrophobia attack the senses as the hallways are flooded with poker players and spectators trying to get outside for a smoke break, grab a snack at the Poker Kitchen, seeking out the shortest line to the bathroom, and recanting a bad beat story via their cell phones.

Then there's the amateur paparazzi who seek out photos of Jen Harman or pester Eli Elezra for an autograph while he's on break for his final table.

"Eli, remember that hand on High Stakes Poker, season 1 when you had 5-3s and Negreanu flopped a set but you rivered a flush on him and he went on tilt? Remember that?" a woman wearing a WSOP visor and a PokerStars t-shirt said to Elezra as he walked out of the bathroom.

He shrugged his shoulders and stopped to take a photo with the woman. And as soon as the pros stop, the rest of the cockroaches scurry out and bombard him with more photo requests as a symposium on High Stakes Poker hands break out in front of the Poker Kitchen. Elezra had his mind on beating Scotty Nguyen heads up, but he handled the massed with class and dignity.

Not every pro does that. I've seen a few scoff at the autograph seekers. I've witnessed WPT champions act surly towards photograph requests. Some pros are truly shy and cherish their privacy. Some are simply on a break and are more concerned with examining their play than chatting up with fans on the rail.

As one pro mentioned to me, "The spectators often forget that we're at work. I get one 15 minute break every two hours. The last thing I want to do is stand there like a cardboard cut out and pose for photos."

I sat in the Sao Paolo cafe and ate breakfast (at 1:30pm) with Change100 as we watched hundreds and hundreds of players doing the walk of shame after they busted out of the $1,500 event. A few of them were on their phones moaning about the bad beat while others seemed pleased to have played in a WSOP event. They spent the $1,500 on the overall experience and can now die peacefully because they played in at least one WSOP event. You can't criticize those players since they help swell up the prize pool.

With a 3,000 starting stack and one hour levels with swift escalating blinds in addition to playing in a field of "3,000 monkeys" as Minneapolis Jim Meehan described those events, the action goes super fast. Half the field busts before dinner break. Three hundred or so players are left by Midnight and by 2am, the money bubble bursts at 200. 90% of the field is decimated by the end of Day 1. And every time I see that happen, I'm in awe.

Michalski was one of the early casualties. He had Barry Greenstein seated to his right. He got crippled early and fought back before he busted out when he lost a coinflip.

Moving on...

My assignment for Day 16 was to cover the Day 2 Event #25 $2,000 NL. 130 players survived Day 1. Liz Lieu and Brandon Schaefer had cashed in the event and were trying to make it to the final table. Since the money bubble burst just as play ended on Day 1, the beginning of Day 2 featured a blizzard of eliminations. Twenty players headed to the rail in the first fifteen minutes of play. Liz Lieu survived the initial onslaught and doubled up with her shortstack, but she busted out in 89th place.

Steve Dannenmann played in Day 1 of the $1,500 donkfest. He said he played super fast and super loose and tried to build up a stack. When he realized that was not happening and it got close to the starting time for Day 2 of Event #25, he moved all in blind. He had to talk his opponent into calling him and finally busted so he could head over to play in Day 2. Sadly, Dannenmann didn't go deep and he busted out in 90th place just before Liz.

Brand Schaefer struggled early on. He had several short stacks at his table to his left that would jam the pot if Brandon opened up for a raise. He patiently waited for his spots as he slipped out of the Top 10 in chips. With four tables remaining, he was in the middle of the pack and got crippled when his A-10 lost to A-Q. He busted out on the next hand in 31st place. Despite not making the final table, Brandon has a 20th place and a 31st place finish at the 2007 WSOP. That's not too shabby.


Kazuki Ikeuchi playing in Event #25
(Photo courtesy of Flipchip via PokerNews)
I had a great crew working with me for that event including Dave, Zeke, and Slippers one of our Aussie guys. And I also got to work with Jen Creason for a bit. If you haven't heard, PokerNews drew some criticism over the chipcounts over the first two weeks. In order to address that issue, our big wigs went out and hired the best possible person in the universe to do that... Jen Creason otherwise known as PokerWire Jen. A couple of years ago, Jen started PokerWire. The neice of Howard Lederer and fiancee to Andy Bloch left the business at the end of the summer last year to finish up her degree at Duke. Now, we have her working part-time with PokerNews. Obviously she can't work everyday but I'm confident that the overall quality of chipsounts will improve thanks to her joining our ranks. No one can count a table faster than Jen and I'm super pumped to have her on the team. Hopefully this recent hire will bolster one of the weaker aspects of our coverage. In baseball terms, it's like signing a left-handed power-hitter a few months into the season.

There are 12 players left in the $5K HORSE event including Phil Ivey and Bill Gazes. Phil Ivey supposedly bet $2 million that he'd win a bracelet in 2007. I'm not clear on who exactly bet him if it was Doyle Brunson, Chip Reese, Bobby Baldwin, or Lyle Berman. It could have been all four pooling their money. I don't know. I'm on the case and trying to find out. But here's the coolest part... Ivey is getting 5-1 odds. If he wins a bracelet on Day 17, he cashes in for $10 million in a prop bet. By the way, first place pays $275K in that event. That's pocket change compared to the possibility of a $10 million pay day. I'd keep an eye on that event to see of Ivey can make a final table and win a bracelet. He came close already this year with a second place finish in the $5K Stud event when he lost to Chris Reslock. Click here to follow the action in Event #26 $5,000 HORSE.

I'll be covering Day 2 of the $1,500 donkfest. There are 135 players remaining. Click here to follow the action in Event #27 $1,500 NL Hold'em.

* * * * *
Bouncin' Round the Room on Day 16

I spotted David Sklansky walking down the hallway of the convention center with a hot woman who had her hand in his back pocket. Was she a pro? At this point... we don't know.

Vinnie Vinh is alive. I saw him playing in the $1,500 event. We even got a photo of him at Poker News. He didn't seem too thrilled about getting his photo snapped, but he's not dead like many of us thought after he failed to show up on Day 2 of an event.


Vinnie Vinh
(Photo courtesy of PokerNews)
Gavin Smith told me about a hand he misplayed during the Event #26 $5,000 HORSE event. I prefer hearing pros talk about hands in that manner instead of hearing bad beats stories. I usually can't learn too much from a bad beat, but listening to pros examine every detail of a hand with remarkable clarity is both fascinating and educational. Smith is an exceptional player and he broke down the action in the most simplest turns and was able to objectively look at the situation. All of this went down during one of his breaks as he sipped a rum and coke and kept saying, "Pauly, I really played that bad." Gavin Smith busted out a few minutes later in 21st place in between Doyle Brunson and Australia's Billy the Croc.

Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next to...
1. Thor Hansen
2. Brandon Schaefer
3. E-Fro
4. Ben Roberts
5. Alex Jacob

* * * * *Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos. And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/17/2007 02:30:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Truckin' - June 2007, Vol. 6, Issue 6

By Pauly

The new issue of Truckin' has been published. Guess what? It's the birthday issue. Truckin' is now five years old!

I'm blown away to think that this little corner of the internet has been around for five years! We've come a long way since my original vision of sharing travel stories with friends. Since then we've published over fifty writers from all over the world. There were moments when I wanted to quit, but thanks to the encouragement of some special people, I kept it going. And now, we get to celebrate Truckin's 5th birthday. Thanks to everyone involved in the last five years and especially the last twelve months. Super thanks goes out to Maudie for the site re-design and to Jessica for her thankless work as assitant editor.

And thanks to all the writer's who wrote for free. Thanks for sharing your bloodwork.

1. Donuts with Baby & Winky by Paul McGuire
Baby sat on the edge of the coffee table and poured out an ashtray that overflowed with butts. She picked out three or four and lit one up. She took three drags and put it out before she lit up another used one. Then another... More

2. Three Men Leaving by Brad "Otis" Willis
he cash register hummed underneath the buzz of the overhead fluorescents. Together, the noises almost masked the sounds of the crickets. Their little love song sang through the open door and it was getting on Little Liza's nerves... More

3. Desperados by Joe Speaker
The start time was pragmatic. We didn't want to be traversing the Mexican desert in mid-day, especially in our unreliable cars. This way, we'd arrive shortly after dawn, being treated to a spectacular sunrise the last hundred miles or so. There are always trade-offs, though, and our schedule dictated we'd drive through the border town of Mexicali in the dead of night... More

4. Five Dollars for the Colonel by Dr. Tim Lavalli
Across the alley are these two trailers, the back one is Annie's and she'll give you head for twenty bucks, only the Colonel don't like her doing that, so you give him $5 and he goes to get his bottle of muscatel but he doesn't like the folks at Abe's Liquor so he goes down the street to the Chinaman's and then you go to see Annie while he is getting his wine... More

5. Leaving the City by Sigge S. Amdal
All of this mud, all of this poison pumping from my pitch black heart, through my veins and out the razor sharp tip of the pen is nothing but unclean blood for you to leech on. As I see the city disappear, minute-by-minute, I become much more a man... More

6. Rose by Doog
Rose's heart pounded with anticipation, a strange mix of exhilaration and fear of the unknown coursing through her veins. Keeper opened the door and stepped through into the world outside... More

7. Las Vegas Car Battery by Dingo
I suppose because of my accent I seem to attract a weird and wide selection of sheilas and broads. I am quite okay looking, or so people tell me, so picking up sheilas has never been a problem. Mine all just seem to be total whack jobs... 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 Truckin'. 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.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/17/2007 02:22:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Day 15: Clements Time, the $18,000 Weed Prop Bet, and Brandon Schaefer Crushes Day 1

By Pauly

Covering the WSOP is like climbing Mt. Everest. Most inexperienced climbers spend too much energy reaching the summit that they forget to realize they have to climb down. That's when most of the accidents occur, when you are tired and making poor decisions that often end up costing you your life. I view the start of the main event on July 6th as the summit and the following 12 days as the descent. I didn't always think about the series in those terms until just recently.

We have reached the conclusion of the second week of the 2007 WSOP. I'm surprised that we got this far. On all accounts. We almost had our first death, a bunch of people we never heard of before won bracelets, Hellmuth took down #11 (as won Texas Dolly $400K in the process), and Jeffrey Pollack has not been lynched and hung by an angry mob of poker players... yet.

I see the weary faces on the media reps who have been in the shit since Day 1. They develop that blank stare and move a tad slower than everyone else. The newbies who used to get giddy when they saw Phil Ivey and Doyle Brunson shrug it off. They are just one player in a sea of thousands of poker junkies.

By the end of week 2 most people working the WSOP start questioning their sanity and start job surfing on Monster.com. That includes floor supervisors, dealers, chip runners, massage therapists, poker pros, and media reps.

"What the hell did I just get myself into?" they think. I know, it's happened to me twice in previous years.

Instead of focusing on the now, they are worried about the bigger picture of being here for another five weeks. That daunting notion crumbles any self-confidence that they have and freakouts ensue whether it's donking off your chips at the poker tables after your shift or getting shitfaced drunk at the Hooker Bar. The results are never positive when you have a nervous breakdown in Las Vegas.

Mental health and psychical health were my main priorities coming into this year. Mental health is important because it's very easy to start worrying about major things or obsessing about trivial things. I remind myself to focus on the next step that I take instead of worrying about the entire journey.

Sometimes people read too much into things or project their feelings and emotions into what I write. Take the last post for example. I might have been tired by the time I got to the end of the piece, but I was not angry or whining or on "speed" or drunk or wasted. I was relatively sober and held up a mirror to the entire city of Las Vegas. That's what I saw.

And despite what everyone has been hypothesizing, I'm doing great physically and mentally. Despite a bum ankle and knee, my body is amazing compared to previous years. I'm getting more than two hours of sleep a night. I have not developed the Las Vegas cough that usually happens about ten days in. My sinuses have not been acting up. And although I put on a few extra pounds from those beers at the Tilted Kilt, I find myself doing my best to make healthier food choices. I ate Wendy's or In & Out at least once a day in 2005. This year, I've been avoiding fast food and the poker kitchen aside from the fruit salad and choosing to eat my biggest meal before I come into work. No coffee or Red Bull for me this year. The Red Bull tip I got from Dr. Jeff, brother of the Otis, who told him to exercise regularly and avoid Red Bull.

On Day 13, I was given a rare day off and spent all o my time away from the Rio. Although Change100 and I work and live together, we rarely get to spend quality time with one another. We drove up to Red Rock for lunch and played poker. She went on mega-tilt when she got her Aces cracked in a kill pot... my kill pot... when I called her raised with 10-4. I flopped two pair and lost to a sausage jockey who turned a higher two pair.

After poker, we hung out with a friend of mine, I won't reveal his name, but he's a pothead. A world class pothead. The Phil Ivey of potheads. I've dragged my fair share of Mary Jane over the last 17 years. In college just before Jerry Garcia died, I used to follow the Grateful Dead and hang out with old school hippies. I knew plenty of drug fiends in Seattle and in New York City. And when I say that this dude is one of the Top 5 potheads that I ever met... that means something.

So what did I do? I offered him up a prop bet... $18,000 that he could not last an entire week without smoking marijuana. No bong hits. No blunts. No spliffs. No more dank. No more fatty nugs. No more cheebah. Clean and sober for seven straight days.

He's still mulling over the wager but I think I'm good here. Stay tuned for an update on the $18K weed bet. If I do win, I'll fly my buddy out to Amsterdam for a week to get shitaced.

I love a good prop bet. Who cares about A-K outflopping a set of Jacks? I get excited when Mike Matusow and Ted Forrest make a weight bet in front of us in media row. I loved seeing Barry Greenstein slay Eli Elezra playing "props" during the PLO with Rebuys event last week.

The two best prop bets I heard about this year involve Texas Dolly betting an unknown gambler $300,000 that Phil Hellmuth would win a bracelet this year. When Hellmuth ended Day 1 among the chipleaders, he threw down another $100,000. Brunson might have been bummed that Hellmuth broke his record, but at least he got some cash out of it. Smart bet. If Texas Dolly bets anything over six figures with you, you probably have to know that you're the underdog.

Johnny Chan recently bet $1 million that he'd win a bracelet this year. He bet on himself and that's fuckin' balls tot he wall. I'm trying to figure out if it was the same guy that bet Brunson that Hellmuth wouldn't win. Anyway, Johnny Chan has gone deep in a few events this year but he's yet to make a final table.

I also made a prop bet that makes Brandon Schaefer happy. One friend of mine (name withheld by request) offered me 10-1 odds that Brandon Schaefer would not win a bracelet before Carl Olson. The two are best buddies and Schaefer actually beat Olson heads-up to win the first ever event in Deauville, France during the first season of the European Poker Tour. Olson is the king of the online package. No one that I know personally qualifies for more events online that Carl Olson. Schecky called him "The white Phil Ivey."

There's no doubt in my mind that Olson will win a bracelet someday. But hey, Brandon is a good friend and I was getting 10-1 on him so I put down $100. I wanted to put down $1K but the guy got scared and tried to drop the odds to 5-1. We settled on 10-1 so if Brandon wins a bracelet this year (and before Carl Olson does), I get $1,000.

When Brandon told Olson about the prop bet, he laughed harder than Brandon had ever seen him. Olson thinks the other guy who bet me is a moron.

Guess what? At the end of Day 1 of Even #25 $2,000 NL, Brandon Schaefer is 5th in chips.1,619 players bought in and there are 130 left. The money bubble broke late last night and the remaining 130 in the field are all guaranteed a cash. Brandon has his eye on a bracelet. He started out 0 for 7 but has cashed in two out of his last three events including the NL Shootout when he lost to Erick Lindgren heads-up in Round 2. If he beat Lindgren, he would have made a final table. So close.

"Man, I want to run good for the next two days sooo bad," Brandon told me.

I told Brandon to keep having positive thoughts at the table and to think about the same things that entered his mind when he won an EPT event and took second at the EPT Grand Finale in Monte Carlo in 2005.

"I'm definitely having flashbacks (about Deauville and Monte Carlo). I feel awesome at the table," he said.

I'm pumped because I get to cover Brandon's event for Day 2. Also still left in the mix is Liz Lieu! She doesn't have as many chips as Brandon but I'll be clocking her progress as well over at Poker News.

Click here to follow my live updates of Day 2 for Event #25 $2,000 NL.

Top 5 Chipcounts for Event #25:
1. Peter Auer - 186,800
2. Justin Pechie - 177,900
3. Kazuki Ikeuchi - 171,100
4. Jordan Morgan - 156,900
5. Brandon Schaefer - 151,200

On Day 15, I covered Event #23 $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha. 23 players started and I covered them all down to the last one standing... Scott Clements, who picked up his second career bracelet. Johnny Chan, Andy Black, and Burt Boutin were all advanced to Day 2. Everyone was anticipating Chan making a final table as he tried to win #11. he showed up ten minutes late and lost his first two hands. He went from over 110K to 25K. He eventually busted out in 20th place.

Burt Boutin won a bracelet in Event #7 PLO with rebuys. He was one of the favorites to win but he lost a big pot early and busted out just before Chan in 22nd place. With Chan and Boutin out, the odds on favorite to win as Scott Clements and his monster stack. All he had to do was outslug a final table that included Eric "Rizen" Lynch, Andy Black, and 2007 WSOP bracelet winner Will Durkee.

Andy Black had been running hot at PLO. He won three PLO tournaments on three different continents this year and was looking for number four. I watched him take down the PLO one in Australia. He didn't have enough chips to compete against Scott Clements and busted out in 7th place.

Clements played perfect big stack poker. He aggressively raised almost every pot he play and rarely limped (which I assume he did with big hands to switch up his play). He didn't double up many smaller stacks and kept the pressure on. After he busted Tommy Ly in 3rd place, Clements had 1.65M in chips to Rizen's 100K. heads-up lasted one hand as both players were all in before the flop. Clements snagged the victory and a bracelet.

* * * * *
Bouncin Round the Room on Day 15

I finally met Maridu, one of the writers from the Brazilian PokerStars Blog. She's friends with our photographer Felipe and has been a fan of Tao of Poker for some time. She used to write a hilarious blog called Need An Ace. Of course I had no idea what she was saying since it was in Portuguese. However, from what my Brazilian friends say, she's a hilarious and talented writer.

I ended my shift early and waited for Change100 to finish her assignment before we went home. I played cash games at the Rio. I got slammed at the 10/20 tables then got drunk and donked around the 4/8 tables while Jen Leo, Michalski, and Charles came by to sweat and shoot the shit.

Chris Fargis stopped by my table. He's looking happy and slim. He had a monster stack of black chips at his BT table... Badugi and Triple Draw. I want him to loan me the money so I can open up a hash bar in Amsterdam called... Triple Draw... where Shaniac gets to smoke at a heavy discount.

I spotted a couple of hookers in the actual Amazon Room. "Must be Friday," I said. That's how I can tell what day it is... the cash games are packed and the hookers stroll through the room looking for johns.

Many thanks to Johnny Hughes for the kind emails over the last week or so. I'll be pimping his new book when it comes out for sure.

After I exit the bathroom on piss breaks, there is always a few fans with their cameras ready as they try to snag a photo op with their favorite pros. I also have a secret bathroom where I drop the kids off at the pool. There is no way I would consider shitting in the toilets outside the Poker Sauna.

The Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next to...
1. Dewey Tomko
2. Scott Clements
3. Dan Heimiller
4. John Juanda
5. Dutch Boyd

* * * * *Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos. And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/16/2007 04:03:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Day 14: Lost Paradise

By Pauly

"Bags of money," I said to Change100 as I pointed up at the glowing Nevada sky. "All of those planes are flying in bags and bags of money."

As we drove back from Blue Diamond to the Del Bocca Vista, 13 planes lined up on approach to McCarran airport.

"St. Louis, New York City, San Francisco, Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, Minneapolis, Portland, Toronto, London, and Miami," I mumbled aloud as I counted each one.

Each plane bubbled over with exuberance as thoughts of wads of dollars danced around the heads of the newest batch of cherry gamblers that carried with them legendary dreams of big scores under the flashing lights during four day alcho-narco binges that would make John Belushi's worst bender look like a circle of girl scouts roasting marshmallows over a warm fire. Those epic orgies are fueled by gallons of Red Bull, fistfuls of Adderal, enough cheap blow to choke a giraffe, constant casino oxygen and the ecstatic possibility of becoming the biggest and baddest ass muthafuckin' baller that you know with the next hand of blackjack, at the next toss of the dice, at the next turn of the roulette wheel, as the next card that spikes on the river, and as that next Keno number illuminates so too does that spark which ignites your soul as it jumps right out of your intestines and knocks back eight consecutive glasses of Champagne while you sit next to a big time pimp with bling the size of bowling balls and a stable of girls matching the elasticity of Romanian gymnasts. They habitually carried around a bottle of KY, a nasty case of the clap, along with a scornful attitudes that accompanied $2,000 a night working girls at the Hooker Bar at the Rio. Those disease-infested tramps drenched in poorly cloned perfume to hide the smell of cock on their breaths, hope to lure in the sexually depraved internet pros who have not seen daylight let alone the inside of a vagina since 2004 as they shuffle past the geriatric zombies glued to the Wheel of Fortune slot machines as their orange eyeballs radiate sloth, greed, wrath, pride, gluttony, lust, and pride and suck the life out of anyone who walks within five feet radius of their tortured karmas.

The planes land every few minutes and drop off walking ATMs with distracted minds that are flooded with fleeting thoughts of sordid guilty pleasures, multiple trips to strip clubs pissing away two or three paychecks on artifical-breasted life size blow up dolls named Amber, Cinnamon, Raven, Summer, Mercedes, Angel, Crystal, Sierra, Lavender, and Sable who grind their asses into beerguts for $20 every three minutes as deafening hip hop blasts on the speakers while you get served over-priced and water-downed drinks.

The planes drop off weekend warriors hoping to get a hummer from their wife after an expensive dinner followed up by a show at the latest Cirque de Soleil... Ka, Love, Zumanity, Mystere, O, or listening to outdated comics like Louie Anderson or Carrot Top who were funny in 1989 and now play semi-packed rooms from tourists from flyover states who wish they were getting lapdances at the Rhino instead of hearing recycled jokes from hacks who make fun of unruly Vegas cab drivers that clutch their steering wheel and secretly wish they could mow down a herd of pedestrians stumbling across the Strip amidst the sparkling and glimmering lights that magically reflect a kaleidoscope of colors onto the sizzling payment and for a brief moment your Aunt Edna from Des Moines looks like she's walking on glistening gems, but those bright lights blind the populous and hide the opposite end of the Las Vegas spectrum where the vampires and tweakers lurk in the shadows of dimly lit alleyways and parking lots and carjack conventioneers from Houston and steal their wallets jammed packed with $100 bills as the flustered victims try to explain to the trigger happy cops that a pimply faced guy with no teeth shanked him with a dull steak knife before he sped off with the overpriced rental car which the junkie will sell to a chop shop in North Las Vegas for enough crystal meth to get him through the end of the week when he'll have to beat the shit out of a retiree in Henderson and steal her Caddy and month supply of Ensure as that vicious cycle of addictions continues every second of everyday in the city of sinners where the ten commandments are brazenly broken and frowned upon as the lunatics run rampant down the Strip, fucking anything that moves like Vikings pillaging towns, as the guilt-ridden sinners hide from the sneers from God and become the lost souls that perfect little pious Mormons children pray for every night as hundreds and thousands of citizens with good reputations, solid marriages, an impeccable criminal records become shattered casualties in a cloudy weekend of execs debauchery and Dionysian decadence while locking themselves into a suite at the Stratosphere and shooting pharmaceutical cocaine into the veins in their feet with a 21-year old stripper from Boise that moved to Vegas to become a blackjack dealer that ended up on the pole who ordered $500 in room service while clogging up the toilet with a nasty case of diarrhea.

IRAs, college savings, housing payments, credit card advances... they all get fleeced to support the lowest forms of habitual self-inflicted terror of endless craps out, dealer's Blackjack, no sightings of Mr. Cashman, too many cold decks at Pai Gow, or too many bad beats by sunburnt donkeys with wrap-around sunglasses that are secretly Celine Dion fans who fly in thrice a year to pay homage to the greatest French Canadian singer in the entire world, as sprinting valets dodge speeding cabs and drunk drivers and pothead limo drivers shuttling drunken frat boys from Scores and to massage parlors where they can get a rub and a tug before hitting the Midnight tourney at Binion's where it sometimes smells like a nursing home and a Tobacco farm while the faint aroma of stale urine wafts it's way in from Freemont Street where corruption and corporate scumbags ruined what used to be the jewel of gambling Mecca, and now Downtown Las Vegas reminds me of an old French whore who has done one too many tricks and fucks not for the money but because she needs a good rodgering to remind herself that she is still alive and the last thirty-five years were not a distant dream or a fading memory, because once upon a time, Las Vegas used to be a small jewel in the Nevada desert where high rollers drove through town in convertibles and now you can't drive anywhere near downtown in an open-aired vehicle without worrying about the hoodlums sieging your car like an angry mob of cockroaches swarming on the kitchen floor of my old apartment in the Redneck Riviera.

All you can eat buffets is on everyone's To Do list while they stuff their faces with lukewarm fried chicken and ignore the simple fact that millions of others in our world are dying of starvation with flies crash landing on their swollen protruding bellies as the vultures of death circle around ready to tear apart the thin layer of muscle and skin that wrap around our fellow humans and with every extra plate of pasta or every scoop of ice cream we step closer and closer towards Hell's front door where hustlers named Zed hang out and try to steal every single dollar out of your pocket and rob you of every ounce of dignity in your brainwashed body because you firmly believe that anything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas but those credit card bills don't stay in Vegas and come to your mailbox, just like how that itchy case of the crabs you picked up from the cocktail waitress at the Nascar Cafe in the Sahara follows you back home to Philly where you have to explain to your six-month pregnant wife why you have to shave your pubic hair and apply ointment to your hair-less balls three times a day because you got drank too much tequila and knocked boots with a Las Vegas cocktail server who stole your cellphone, two credit cards, and all of your black Bellagio chips as she quickly donked off your money at the Money Wheel and sold the numbers to your American Express card to an Al-Qaeda operative scouting out the best possible method to blow up the Hoover Dam to a million pieces while he lives high off the hog, ignoring all of Allah's special rules regarding women and pork and he forgot about 72 virgins because even deep cover Al-Qaeda cells can't ignoring all those hot chippies standing in line waiting to get into Tao, instead of planting IED on highways outside of Baghdad and trying to blow limbs off of 19 year old kids who wish they were back home playing online poker and trying to win satellite on PokerStars and snagging a WSOP bracelet in a 3,000 person event playing donkey poker and winning forty-seven coinflips in a row which means more money to buy more lapdances and until they are so broke that hey have to sneak onto the Monorail to get back to their hotel, if management hasn't thrown them out yet and rented their room a couple of German honeymooners named Karl and Freda.

The absurd is the norm. Take my apartment in the Del Bocca Vista for example. Upstairs an Asian family of ten live in a two bed room apartment while a stripper and part-time call girl lives downstairs and drives a convertible with a vanity plate. While I'm not worried about a crystal meth lab exploding don the street, I am worried that Bush's Anti-Immigration thugs will tear gas my flat and purposely kick down my door and drag me out of the apartment with plastic ties tearing into my wrists cutting off the circulation to my fingers because they think I'm running an immigrant smuggling ring. I'm always one to look for a solid investment but human trafficking ain't my bag... yet.

Sometimes I wish that I didn't have to live in Las Vegas and the WSOP was held in a cooler place like New York City or in the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington State or in the Casino Holland in Amsterdam where I could hit up the local hash bar on my dinner breaks and cover more Pot-Limit Omaha events instead of trying to figure out who the next unknown will be to win a bracelet. That's the allure of the WSOP these days... to win a bracelet and brag to your friends and family that you won more WSOP bracelets than Erick Lindgren or Phil Gordon or Patrik Antonius or Gus Hansen or Marcel Luske or Gavin Smith or The Grinder or Andy Bloch or The Unabomber or Isabelle Mercier. None of them have won a bracelet and everyday Jeffrey Pollack is handing out one, two, or three bracelets. They cost as little as $1,500 if you can survive "a field of 3,000 monkeys" as Minneapolis Jim Meehan referred to the massive fields during some of the smaller buy-in NL events. Everyday Phil Gordon cringes because in his mind another donkeyfish picked up something he's had his eyes on for almost a decade.

Why do some of us live and why do some of us die? Why do some of us leave Las Vegas a winner why others of us leave utterly hungover, dehydrated, and completely broke? That's an existentialist question that I have been trying to seek out the answer ever since I first arrived in Las Vegas back during the Clinton administration in 1995 when Action Dan Harrington won the WSOP along with a paltry $1 million after he dominated what was essentially a 28 table SNG with 273 total players and a final table that featured Barbara Enright, the only chick to make it to a main event final. Also at that final table was Capt. Tom's Penis. Yes, it's true. In 1995, Brandi Hawbaker was just 12 years old and little did she know that some guy who'd make the final table of the WSOP would someday put his penis in her back.

All flights eventually land in Las Vegas to drop off more wretches who foolishly think they can tame the lost paradise. I'm one of them.

* * * * *Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos. And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/15/2007 03:54:00 AM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Day 13: Good Morning Vietnam and Step into the Freezer

By Pauly

Pros have been complaining to me about the Bluff Tent. Pros like to complain but the recent wave of bitching and moaning has drawn my curiosity. I love the fact that I'm not hearing these pros tell me bad beat stories, but the bottom line is that the biggest names in poker feel that having a company profit off of hidden final tables is absurd.

Ah, during Week 2 at the series, the Bluff Tent has become the focus of controversy. Last week, the Poker Shrink nicknamed it the Sequestrium. I refer to it as the Black Hole and Lance from the Poker Biz calls it The Forbidden City. It's actually none of those things, just a few drapes and black cloth covering a final table in the Amazon Room. The NGC came down hard on Bluff and forced them to make those changes on the fly if they wanted to show hole cards. The result has been a disaster. When you have Bluff employees referring to the Black Hole as "retarded," then you know you're in trouble.

I doubt that they will pull the plug on their brainchild. I applaud them for coming up with an innovative concept but after applying said concept to real life, it's obviously not working. Sure the fans booed Bob Dylan when he stopped playing acoustic guitar and went electric, but the Bluff Tent ain't Bob Dylan, babe. I fear that the Forbidden City/Black Hole/Sequestarium will become Bluff's own personal Vietnam minus the hookers saying, "No boom-boom with soul brother."

At 3am the night before, the folks in charge made a last minute change. Once they saw the roster for the final table of the $1,500 Shootout (Lindgren and Negreanu), they bumped the $2,500 NL final table out of the Black Hole and onto the main stage.

Several big wigs felt embarrassed about that decision, but I could sense that their hands were tied. It appears that Bluff is not following their published broadcast schedule. There are days with two or three final tables and they will pick the best final table and throw those players into the Black Hole to play. Popular pros like Daniel Negreanu and Erick Lindgren mean that more people at home will be more likely to buy the WSOP package versus if there's a final table with just Humberto Brenes on it. I dunno what's worse... the slam on the players at the $2,500 NL final table because they weren't popular or cool enough? Or the fact that the powers to be blatantly used and exploited Daniel Negreanu and Erick Lindgren to boost sales?

And I'd hate to bring the race card into the mix. The two pretty white boys and their final table got picked over the final table with a Costa Rica, and Asian-American, and a French kid. If promoting world-wide poker is the ultimate goal, then why ignore the Central American (and Spanish speaking markets), Asian, and European fans who would like to check out the action in Las Vegas?

I was scheduled to work the Black Hole but I begged my superiors to take me off those assignments. Since it has turned into a quagmire like Vietnam and I'm a conscious objector, I want no part of those final tables. I have asked to be relieved of any final table that is in the Black Hole/Vietnam/Sequestrium/Forbidden City due to political and philosophical reasons. The good news is that my wish has been temporarily granted and future requests depend on roster scheduling. I'm doing my best to stay out of the shit and focus on other events and final tables that Bluff deems "not as cool or interesting."

I drew Event #19 $2,500 NL final table with The Shark and The Razor. Also at that final table was ElkY (the former video game pro who plays 20 SNGs at once), Devin Porter, Lars Bonding, Marcus Obser, Shawn Hattem, Alex Bolotin, and Francois Safieddine.

Humberto Brenes busted out the shark a few times. He made his third final table in six events that he's played in 2007. Brenes has been on a rush yet he failed in his quest for bracelet #3. He busted out in 7th place.

John Phan seemed in control. What I admire most about his game is that he takes his time with every decision. The kid is a thinker. With a bracelet and $521K for first place on the line, he's not going to make any bad decisions. Francois Safieddine tried to tilt Phan by calling the clock on him during several instances. The worst incident happened only thirty seconds after he acted. Phan objected and said something like, "We're playing for a bracelet here. You can't call a clock just after you bet."

Safieddine agreed and waited a couple of minutes before he asked the TD for a clock. Phan folded that hand but it was obvious that Safieddine was trying to take Phan out of his game by making faster decisions.

I thought Phan was going to win but Safieddine picked up a few pots when he rivered a better hand.

"Can we not play with a river? And just go to the turn?" Phan joked in a somewhat serious tone.

After playing 24 hands of heads-up play, Phan found A-A. He was shortstacked and desperately needed to double up to stay alive. Safieddine had been bullying Phan with his big stack and moving all in pre-flop or on the flop, taking away Phan's ability to out-play him on the flop. So when Safieddine moved all in from his small blind, Phan quickly called and tabled Ah-As. Safieddine frowned as he turned over the 4h-4d.

Phan led on the flop of Js-8c-2c. And if they eliminated the river card, he would have won when the 5h fell on the turn. Sadly, the room exploded when the 4s spiked on the river. Safieddine rivered a two outer to bust Phan. Had Phan's hand held up, they would have been close in chips. Since Safieddine caught another lucky card on the river, Phan had to settle for another second place finish at a WSOP final table, while Francois Safieddine picked up his first WSOP bracelet.

Phan played like a champion but sometimes in poker, the cards fall the other way.

In the Black Hole, Negreanu also missed a chance at a bracelet in Event #21 $1,500 NL Shootout. He took third while Lindgren finished in 8th place.

At the forgotten final table, Greg Raymer took fourth place in Event #20 Stud Hi/Lo. The Fossilman has made two final tables this year and he'll have to wait a little longer to win his second title.

And just like BJ Nemeth's observation from the other day, several big names continued to come in second place, third or fourth place at the 2007 WSOP as John Phan was another runner-up on Day 13.

* * * * *
Bouncin Round the Room on Day 13

I covered the final table with Drew, one of our junior reporters. The kid did a great job and ironically his mother back in Minnesota happens to be a big fan of Tao of Poker. She encouraged Drew to take the job with PokerNews. How cool is that? Anyway, thanks to Momma Drew.

For the last few days, several of my co-workers have been complaining about the cold temperatures in the Amazon Ballroom. They also bitched that they had to buy $40 hoodies from the gift shop just to stay warm. It's a scam! I finally felt their pain at the final table. My nipples were frozen solid. When there is not a lot of players in the room generating body heat, the temperature drops. Won't you step into the freezer...

At the final table, I sat next to Lacey Jones. She's a sweetheart but sitting next to her was tough because every horny guy in the room came over to hit on her while I logged hand-for-hand coverage of the final table. Having to sit next to a hot chick made it difficult to concentrate, and having every other moron in the media trying to woo Lacey while I was working became old after a while.

Whenever Brandi Hawbaker plays, a buzz is generated. Either those media reps refusing to cover her start bitching or those who can't get enough of Brandi swarm like flies on shit. Everyone got a kick out of David Sklansky's revelation when he found out about Brandi blowing through 30K of Newhizzle's roll on Poker Stars. The saga continues...

Over in the cash game area... CK Hua and Sabyl Cohen were playing $100/point Chinese Poker while Swedish pro William Thorsson tested out the $25/$50 NL game.

I spotted Robert Varkonyi playing satellites. Feel bad for the guy. He's the dude who leaves a party early only to find out the next day that the Swedish bikini team crashed the party five minutes after he left and brought two kegs of beer and two kilos of Peruvian blow with them. At least he has his portrait up among the banner of Champions in the Amazon Room.

I didn't get too much gossip on Day 13 while I was stuck at the final table. Since it ended early, I got to go home way before Midnight. I could have stuck around the Rio to dig up dirt, play cash games or satellites, but the last thing I wanted to do was spend more time there. And with Otis gone for about a week, I have no one to get in prop bet trouble with.

* * * * *Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos. And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/14/2007 02:51:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Day 12: Shootout

By Pauly

About three or four miles from the Rio, a bank robber walked into a Wells Fargo near UNLV. He shot an armored car guard in the face then fled down the street. I know about this because Flipchip happened to be coming back from the doctor at the same time and got caught up in the traffic caused by crime scene investigators. I didn't think anyone actually robbed banks anymore. Like my buddy Stormy said, Las Vegas is full of dumb people.

North Las Vegas is a place where you hope you never end up after sundown. Over the weekend, the local law enforcement officials experienced one of the worst incidents of gun violence in recent memory. Seven people were shot at a party/BBQ and one person was declared dead on the scene. That's the type of bad luck that festers just outside the city limits.

And how about the three hookers getting busted at the Rio? They were a part of a bigger prostitution ring involving a cheerleading coach who moonlights as a Madame. She ran a high end hooker business that allegedly serviced high profile clients such as Bill Clinton and Shaq. I always knew Slick Willy liked high end pussy. The ladies for hire cost at least $10,000 and they only got a meager 15% cut. It pays to be a pimp.

Of course, those are stories that may never make its way out of the desert. They might get passed around the poker table like old ladies gossiping in a knitting circle, but they rarely reach mainstream eyes.

It's fitting that I start this post with an old fashioned bank robbery. The event that I covered on Day 12 was the $1,500 NL Shootout. It featured some of the top pros in a tough 900 person field. Originally, they capped the event at 800. Due to the high interest in players, they bumped the starting time to 12:30 so they could accommodate and extra 100 players who wanted to play.

Round 1 featured ten-handed tables. They would end when there would be one player left on 90 tables. Every player who advanced to Round 2 made the money. Places 10-90 paid the same amount and the real money is at the final table. Round 2 would begin at 9pm where those 90 players would also play ten-handed on 9 tables. The winner of each of the nine tables would advance to Round 3 which is the final table slated for Wednesday at 2pm.

Brandon Schaefer and Shirley Rosario both won their first table and advanced to Round 2. Shirley picked up a tough draw with Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, and Jerrod Ankenman at her table. She would end up in 38th place with her first ever WSOP cash while Brandon Schaefer almost won his second table of the day. He busted out in 20th place when he lost heads up to Erick Lindgren. So close.

Event #21 $1,500 NL Shoot Out Final Table:
Seat 1 - Donald Baruch
Seat 2 - Daniel Negreanu
Seat 3 - Jared Davis
Seat 4 - Thomas Fuller
Seat 5 - Frederick Goldberg
Seat 6 - Brendan Lee
Seat 7 - Michael Wehner
Seat 8 - Doug Baughman
Seat 9 - Erick Lindgren

All player start with 300K in chips. First place wins $264K and a bracelet. Erick Lindgren is often mentioned as one of the best NL Hold'em tournament players never to have won a bracelet. Let's see if he can end that drought.

The Ladies Championship was being held in the Bluff Tent which meant that the public could not watch Sally Boyer take down the bracelet. Katja Thater busted out in 5th place. I covered the Day 2 of that event and asked to be taken off the final table because of the restrictions put in place. I guess that's my way of boycotting the terrible idea.

One official explained to me how in the bigger picture it's great for poker because more people can watch the final table versus the hundred or so that could crowd the final table stage to see the event live. I understood his point, but in the end, the idea was set in place to generate income under the guise of "what's best for poker."

I have no illusions at what is going on, so I scoffed at the absurdity of having to withhold our coverage for one hour just so someone can make a quick buck. Everyone in the Rio knows who busted out, but having to wait an hour to report it seems foolish. Even if people know the outcome, they will watch it anyway. Although some of the viewers are friends or relatives of the final table players, the majority if people who bought the service are poker fans and will want to watch the final table despite the outcome. The WSOP final table gets reported on by hundreds of outlets. Everyone knew Jamie Gold won several weeks before it was aired on ESPN. Did that deter people from watching? No. Same goes for WPT events. We already know who won certain events and that information is available to the public. Yet people watch it anyway.

Yeah, 12 days into the WSOP, the Bluff Tent (or the Black Hole or the Sequestarium) is the biggest bust about the WSOP. The shitty cards issue was fixed. The long lines are much shorter. The food still sucks but players, fans, and media have been bitching about the absurdity of the hidden final table since their first broadcast. Mike Matusow said he'd boycott the final table if he makes one and will encourage the rest of the players to do the same. I'd like to see what happens if the Mouth goes deep in an event because the Bluff Tent is here to stay.

In other news, Humberto Brenes played in six WSOP events and cashed in three. He also made his third final table at this year's series. Maybe the Shark can finally break through and win a bracelet this year in Event #19 $2,500 NL?

In Event #20 $2,000 Stud Hi/Lo, Greg Raymer made his second final table of this year's WSOP. He's third in chips. Ted Forrest finished in 10th place in the same event. The Fossilman is seeking his second bracelet.

I was supposed to cover the final table of The Shootout with Erick Lindgren and Daniel Negreanu. I heard rumors that their final table will be moved to the black hole in the center of the Rio called the Bluff Tent. Origianlly, the $2,500 NL final table was on their schedule. It appears that was changed at the last minute to boost sales. I'll do my best to get switched so I can cover either Fossilman or Humberto's final table.

* * * * *
Bouncin Round the Room on Day 12

A dealer named Claudia walked over to media row on the floor of the Amazon Ballroom. "Maybe this will help you sleep with all those loud lawn mowers," she said and handed me a small vial. I asked her if it contained drugs. She told me they were earplugs. She read about my problems sleeping at my apartment in Del Bocca Vista and was kind enough to seek me out and give me the earplugs. Thanks again Claudia!

Phil Hellmuth played in the $1,500 Shootout. Chau Giang walked over and said, "Fuck Phil. You won!" Hellmuth ad Giang joked around for a few minutes before I overhead Hellmuth say, "It's nice to be #1. Whoever bet against me deserves to lose."

Hellmuth seemed distracted during the Shootout. He spent a lot of time away from his table doing phone interviews with various outlets such as USA Today, the AP, and the San Francisco Chronicle. He failed to advance to Round 2.

Bill Chen made a bet with Gavin Smith during the Shootout. Smith bet him $2K that he would not make it to Round 2. Chen picked up that bet.

I watched Barry Greenstein and Jen Harman play their heads-up matches. Both were the final two on their tables. Greenstein won his while Harman lost her match. Both lasted a while. Harman's table was right in front of media row, so I kept a frequent eye on her. She was short-stacked and hung on for almost an hour.

I ate a fruit salad for a third straight day in a row and skipped booze on my dinner break for a second day in a row. I've been having some health issues and I have to think about the bigger picture. Alas, I'm jonesin for a beer and real food.

Over the last three days, I ate at least one meal by myself. I prefer the alone time since I'm never alone aside from when I'm on the shitter. The last thing I want to do on a break is talk or think about poker. The only way to retreat is to hide out by myself in an eatery where no one will find me. I'm an extremely social person, but I crave my alone time. And I desperately need a few moments everyday where the focus is not on poker. My sanity by Day 12 is being tested on all accounts.

Jonno loves steak and eggs. I guess it's not common in Australia. Anyway, he's been ordering room service with a faux-American accent so they understand his order correctly. The funny thing is that his American accent sounds like a stoner kid from The Valley.

I played online poker the other night. I was stuck $400 until I turned a straight flush with 6s-5s in Limit Hold'em. Nothing is better than a capped pot on the river in a three-way pot when you're holding the nuts.

Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next to...
1. Per Ummer
2. Jon Little
3. Erick Lindgren
4. Dan Shak
5. Scott Clements

* * * * *Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos. And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/13/2007 02:03:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Day 11: Hellmuth's 11 and Liz Lieu Tuesdays

By Pauly

First of all, congrats to Liz Lieu who cashed in the $5K Limit Hold'em event. She made the money in 19th place. In honor of Liz Lieu Tuesdays, here's one of her favorite pics.


(Courtesy of Liz Lieu)



Playing in Event #18
(Photo courtesy of Poker News)
And if you didn't know, Doyle Brunson called Phil Hellmuth the "best hold'em tournament player in the world." That was moments after he presented Hellmuth bracelet #11 with Johnny Chan in a make-shift ceremony near the bracelet display area.

Hellmuth entered the final table second in chips and managed to outlast a field of over 2500+ players. He won over $670K for first place (as Otis pointed out that figure might barely cover his Chinese Poker loses to Phil Ivey) but the money did not matter as much as his winning of bracelet #11.


(Photo courtesy of Flipchip)
I could sense the gravity of the situation late on Day 2 when Hellmuth seemed unusually quiet. He was locked in and focused and didn't expend any unnecessary energy. I didn't watch much of the final table. It was in the Bluff Tent (actually just a final table in the Amazon Ballroom that is covered up by large black cloth) which is an area near the ESPN final table that is blocked off to the public and the media. Bluff films the table with hole cams and you can view the episode on a one hour delay on worldseriesofpoker.com (if you buy the entire WSOP package for $50).

Not being able to see final tables sucks ass, especially the good ones. You have to buy it online or go to the poker room at the Rio (on the casino floor) to view it. As official media, we have to wait one full hour to report on any hands. Hellmuth's bracelet ceremony was finished as he was heads up on the internet feed. Even though he won, we couldn't report it on PokerNews unil an hour later.

Zee Justin played on the first "sequestered" final table. His parents flew in just to watch him play at his first ever WSOP final table. However, they discovered that they were banned from the "tent" and could not see the action. Same thing for the Phil Hellmuth final table. No one in the public got to see it live and had to settle on the delayed feeds in the poker room or had to buy the package on the internet.

Anyway, on his quest for #11, Hellmuth busted Scott Clements to add to his stack and by the time it was three-handed, Hellmuth had more chips than the two remaining players combined. He eventually finished them both off before he won bracelet #11 at 7:59pm.

"Doyle Brunson told me that he bet $300K on me to win a bracelet this year. At the end of Day 1 when I was one of the chipleaders, he bet another $100K. I thought, I better not let my man Doyle down!"

"It was a nice consolation prize," added Brunson who had his record of ten WSOP bracelets broken.

"Good job," added Johnny Chan. "Now Doyle and I have to catch up."

Hellmuth mentioned that he kept only the first bracelet that he won and gave the rest to his family members.

"Today is June 11th. My sister Molly's birthday is 11-11-71 so it's fitting that I give her number 11," Hellmuth added.

Before he left the stage, he mentioned that "if my lawyer let me, I'd buy all of you 40 bottles of Dom. But he's afraid you'd get drunk and sue me."

The Poker Brat made poker history as became the first player to win 11 bracelets and he also set the record for total number of cashes at the WSOP at 59, which I'm sure he'll keep adding to over the next six weeks. He's also made 38 final tables at the WSOP, which is just one shy of TJ Cloutier's record. You can check out Flipchip's photos of Hellmuth's 11th bracelet ceremony.

* * * * *
My assignment on Day 11 was Day 2 of Event #5 $1,000 Ladies NL. The field started at 1268 on Sunday and the action went so fast that 65 players remained at the end of the first day. Sweet Svetlana Gromenkova made the money and busted out in 28th place. The Russian girl from Brooklyn and I first crossed paths when I worked for the Borgata covering the Borgata Winter Open in January of 2006. She made the final table of a Limit Hold'em event (that was won by Steve Benton who's a good friend of Action Bob). Anyway, she took two bad beats at the final table and busted out in 3rd. She was so pissed off about her elimination hand that she stormed out of the ballroom and did not return for two full days before she picked up her tournament winnings of $13,977. Talking about steaming...

Anyway, Susie Issacs busted out on Day 2 along with last year's champion Mary Jones. Katja Thater was among the chipleaders most of the day. She made her first WSOP final table despite being ill the last two days. Her hubby Jan Von Halle from 50 Outs made a final table last week. In fact two German women made the final table. I'll be rooting for Katja at the final table.

Event #17 Final Table Seating Assignments and Chipcounts:
Seat 1: Vanessa Selbst - 354K
Seat 2: Katja Thater - 340K
Seat 3: Mindy Trinidad - 444K
Seat 4: Kathy Gliva - 147K
Seat 5: Anne Heft - 277K
Seat 6: Sally Boyer - 326K
Seat 7: Julie Dang - 48K
Seat 8: Frauke Ritter Von Sporschill - 523K
Seat 9: Randi Calabro - 110K

Random note... during the Ladies Event, some of the women burst into tears when their hands held up or they came from behind to win. Not after they busted, but usually in a close call situation. It happened several times and even Otis picked up on that.

The Asshat of the Day Award goes to the guy who yelled at me because I was blocking his view of a table during the Ladies Event. He stood up on the elevated platform by the No Limit lounge which overlooks ESPN's final table and you could see down at some of the regular tournament tables.

"Hey you! Hey you're in my way. Move!"

Otis and I sweated one of the two final tables, the one where Katja Thater sat. I whirled around and pointed at myself like Robert Deniro's character in Taxi Driver.

"You talkin' to me?"

"Yeah you," the tourist said. "You're blocking my view. Move!"

I pulled up my badge so he could see, just to let him know that I was working as part of the media.

"I don't care," he shouted. "Move, I can't see!"

"I don't care," I shot back which drew several chuckles from the railbirds who started to follow the banter.

He could have got off his lazy ass and move closer to the action. Instead, he decided to break my balls. As I walked back to the media desk to enter chipcounts, he jawed at me. That's when I put him in his place.

"Hey tough guy, please tell me the address of that station where you pump gas at in Iowa, so I can come by and act like a complete jerkoff while you're at work."

That nimrod never bothered me again. Alas, he's the Tao of Poker's Asshat of the Day.

In the past I almost got into two altercations with unruly railbirds.

The first time I nearly came to blows was at the 2005 WSOP. It was at the final table for a PLO event with eventual bracelet winner Rafi Amit playing Vinnie Vinh heads up. Around 3am, a drunk tourist kept elbowing me out of the way. After the third elbow, I elbowed him back so hard that he dropped his beer. He pushed me. I pushed back and Nolan Dalla had to step in to break us apart. Security was called and they whisked the guy away.

The last time I had an incident was at the WPT LAPC at Commerce with three tables remaining. As I stood watching JC Tran's table, a railbird actually shoved me out of the way so he could see an all in hand. I gave him the old, "What the fuck? Do that again, I break your nose you motherless pussyfart."

* * * * *
Bouncin Round the Room on Day 11

The biggest news was the Eskimo Clark incident. I got a text from Otis that read, "Eskimo on floor. Maybe a heart attack." Eskimo was in the Poker Sauna playing in an event and he felt a numbness in his arm before he slumped over. Rumors ranged from a heart attack to a stroke. Luckily one of the guys at his table was a doctor and they got him to lay down on the floor before the paramedics arrived. The TD sent that tournament on a break while medical staff attended to Eskimo. No word on his status.

We had six events to cover on Day 11 including two final tables:

Event #15 $1,500 NL - Final Table
Event #16 $2,500 HORSE - Final Table
Event #17 $1,000 Ladies NL - Day 2
Event #18 $5,000 Limit Hold'em - Day 2
Event #19 $2,500 NL - Day 1
Event #20 $2,000 Seven-card Stud Hi/Lo - Day 1

Liz Lieu charged up her iPod on Mean Gene's laptop. Yes, I was jealous. I would have obliged, but I was squirreled away in the corner covering the NL Ladies event.

I had several Robert Varkonyi sightings over the last few days. And no, he didn't have a hook in his mouth.

Dealer Wisdom of the Day: "You can't be chasing flushes heads up," said one dealer during a break in the $2,500 HORSE event.

Walter Browne made the final table of HORSE. He told BJ that he was a grand chess master. Browne made it heads-up before he finished in second place.

Pokerati's Donkey Bomber tried to win barcelet #2 however, he busted out in 4th place. He made two final tables this year and has four overall final tables in his poker resume. Why someone of his skill hangs out with Michalski... we'll never know.

Maudie would be happy that I ate fruit salad for two days in a row and I even abstained from booze.

For the first time since the WSOP started, I actually skipped the Kilt and drinking altogether. I had a special meeting to go to that popped up at the last minute. I considered stopping by after work, but went home instead to write.

Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next to...
1. Thor Hansen
2. Greg "FBT" Mueller
3. Padraig Parkinson
4. Mike Matusow
5. Fabrice Soulier

* * * * *Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos. And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/12/2007 05:18:00 AM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Day 10: Allen Cunningham Wins #5, Phil Hellmuth Seeks #11, and Negreanu Joins Team of PokerStars

By Pauly

The 10th day of the series happened to be one of the most stressful thanks to internet issues (The Rio's wifi crapped out) and the fact that I was wicked hungover after a day off of binge drinking. It was also a special day because of the Ladies NL event along with the loudest and rowdiest final table that I've heard this year. In addition, there were two Day 2s running (including the $1500 NL re-start which I drew) and the start of the $5K World Championship Limit Hold'em event that featured a slight controversy about the dinner break.

I was not scheduled to work until 2pm, but I came in early since Change100 was going to play in the Ladies event. I had a 25% stake in her along with a consortium of other media reps such as Otis, Felipe, and Mean Gene. 1200 or women bought into the record setting tournament as the entrants were spread out between the main floor and the Poker Sauna. Other bloggers such as Lana, Iron Girl, and Michelle Lewis of Pokerati were in the event. PokerNews members Dixie, Jennifer, and Khamsy were also in the mix. In fact, Dixie, Khamsy, and PokerWire Amanda all sat at the same table.

It was also a who's who of female players playing on Sunday such as Isabelle Mercier, Katja Thater, Lacey Jones, Susie Issacs, Shannon Elizabeth, Mimi Rogers, Cheryl Hines, Edna Dalton, PokerWire Heather, Anna "Poker Pixie" Wroblewski, Michaela Johanssesn, Erica Schoenberg, Jennicide, Lisa Wheeler, Sabyl Cohen, Wendeen Eolis, and Shirley Williams.

Mean Gene told me that as he walked through the field, several of the women scowled at him. I knew exactly what he was talking about. I wandered through the field jotting down notable players and some of the players gave me the evil eye. I wasn't checking them out, just doing my job. I didn't even attempt to take photos. I discovered the hard way that most of the women in Ladies only events hated getting their photo taken. When I covered a Ladies event at the Borgata in January of 2006, I had tons of problems. Most of the women turned away at the last second or covered their faces which made it difficult to get any decent photos.

Michelle Lewis and I failed to get Michalski to shave his back and wear a dress as he entered the event. No such luck. I'm still trying to goad Michalski into waxing his back for $200.

"I have not been surrounded by this many women since I was in a whore house in San Juan," I joked with Nolan Dalla.

Of course the jokes kept flying. Several dealers were making fun of the slew of lesbians in the field.

"Um, can we get a cock check on a few?" wondered BJ Nemeth.

Talk about intimidating. I tried to get off the floor as quickly as possible while checking up on Change100's progress. Iron Girl was seated a few seats to the right of Swedish bombshell Michaela Johanssen and her table got even tougher when Erica Schoenberg was moved to Seat 10. Katja Thater tracked me down and she said she was ill but sucked it up and played anyway.

"I usually don't like playing in all female events," she explained. "It's a lot of limping and calling stations."

We had a brief discussion about not being able to use her sexuality as a weapon which she usually does in tournaments that are 95% to 99% all male. Everytime I saw Katja she looked sicker and sicker, but she managed to survive the day and make the money. She's a trooper. Lana did not advance to Day 2, but she made the money as the bubble burst. Sadly, Change100 was knocked out early but at least she got to have sometime to herself on a rare day off.

Shirley Rosario did not play in the Ladies event because she made it to Day 2 of the HORSE event. The slow structure irked Daniel Negreanu since everyone was a shortstack by dinner break with about 12 big blinds each. He was also ticked off that the TD's changed the dinner break on the $5K Limit event. He signed up for two events along with Gigabet and David Chui. He initially thought that they would go on different breaks and he could play in the Limit event while he went on dinner break for the HORSE. They changed it at the last minute and Negreanu did not find out until a few hours into the event.

"I told David (Chiu) and Darrell Dicken to buy in based on the fact that I thought the breaks would be staggered," Negreanu told John Caldwell and myself. "You could get a solid hour in at 300/600 in the Limit event. You may be down to 6,000 or so when the other tournament goes on break, but you could get yourself to 20,000 in that hour and you are good for the night."

The HORSE event was supposed to play down to a final table, but due to the slow structure they stopped play at 4am with 20 players remaining. On Monday they will play down to a final table.

The buzz in the entire Amazon Ballroom was the yelling, shouting, and screaming that surrounded the final table stage. The final table of Event #13 $5,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em was stacked.

Event #13 Final Table and Chip Counts:
Seat 1 - Jason Lester - 295,000
Seat 2 - Allen Cunningham - 346,000
Seat 3 - Travis Rice - 544,000
Seat 4 - Alan Jaffray - 254,000
Seat 5 - Joe Patrick - 631,000
Seat 6 - Gavin Griffin - 524,000
Seat 7 - Humberto Brenes - 225,000
Seat 8 - Keith Lehr - 182,000
Seat 9 - Jeff Lisandro - 982,000

Despite being towards the back of the pack, Allen Cunningham kicked his game into high gear. He was the chipleader with three players remaining. Humberto Brenes busted out in 3rd place while Cunningham and Lisandro were even in chips. Heads-up play lasted 80 hands (or a "quick 80" as BJ described). When the dust settled, Allen Cunningham won his 5th bracelet.

And you know what? It could not have happened to a nicer guy. The poker world is full of douchebags, scumbags, and self-absorbed twats. It was super refreshing to see a humble pro like Cunningham take it down. He plays a lot like Phil Ivey. You rarely hear a peep out of him at the tables. He never berates an opponent. He's not mugging for TV time. He takes his beats like a man. More young pros should emulate players such as Allen Cunningham. The man carried himself with class and dignity and doesn't brag about being one of the top tournament players in the game.


(Photo courtesy of Flipchip)
He's now won bracelets in Pot-Limit Hold'em (2007), Seven-card Stud (2001), Deuce to Seven NL (2002), and No Limit Hold'em (2005 and 2006) and he also made 16 total final tables at the WSOP.

Flipchip picked Allen Cunningham to win the 2006 WSOP just a few days before the series started last year, and that was before Event #1 kicked off... not before the main event. He almost looked like a genius because Cunningham made the final table and was the biggest known pro to go deep in that massive field.

"He's got a playing style that I admire," said Flipchip who has been around the Las Vegas poker scene for four decades. "And the kid is flat out good."

Even Phil Ivey thinks Cunningham has a shot at winning twenty bracelets. Five down and fifteen to go.

Speaking of bracelets, Phil Hellmuth could smell his 11th bracelet coming. He made his first final table at the WSOP since winning #10 last year. With 160 or so players starting Day 2, Hellmuth was relatively quiet most of the day. He seemed focused and locked in. He was not kicking over chairs or playing Hellmuthian mind games with his opponents. Since the field did not include too many named players, Hellmuth relied on his reputation and by his mere presence at the tables -- he intimated his opponents.

Hellmuth slowly made his way up the food chain and stayed above average as a slew of bustouts happened during the first two hours of play. With about 10 tables to go, Hellmuth was in the Top 20 in chips. With about five tables left, Hellmuth could smell a final table. He stepped up his game and although he did not give off any classic Hellmuthian tirades, he did engage in more banter with his opponents. By then he figured out who he could needle and who he should leave alone. When the final 27 players redrew for seats, Hellmuth was in the middle of the pack but that would not last very long.

With 18 players remaining, Hellmuth took over the chiplead. He steamrolled his table that also included Fabrice Soulier and one of Men the Master's family members. They stayed out of his way but on the other table, Scott Clements had the advantage of not playing with Hellmuth and he quickly raced past the 1M mark as he took on the role as table captain.

Hellmuth had close to 1.1M in chips when he opened up for a 55K raise at the cutoff. Ut Nguyen moved all in for 200K. Shannon Eastin was shortstacked and she pushed all in for 117K. Everyone folded back to Hellmuth as he stood up and lectured the players at the table.

"Phil Hellmuth the greatest NL Hold'em player in the world," Hellmuth said as the railbirds hung on his every word and referred to himself in the third person. "Because Phil Hellmuth knows when to make big lay downs. Maybe I'm up against A-K and A-K. I'd be ahead but I have to fold here."

Hellmuth folded 7s-7c face up. He yelled, "Shoot!" when he saw Nguyen flip over Kc-Jc and Eastin tabled As-Qh.

The flop was Js-8d-7h. Nguyen flopped top pair but Hellmuth put his hands on his head and shouted out, "I would have flopped a set and busted you both!"

He was right as Nguyen won the pot and Eastin busted out in 17th place. That hand didn't tilt Hellmuth. He hunkered down and continued his dominance at his table. Meanwhile on the other table, Rick Fuller took over the chiplead after he busted two players on the same hand. Fuller was all in with Ah-6h and up against A-K and A-Q. He flopped a 6 and since he had both players covered by a tiny margin, they both busted out as he nearly tripled up to 1.4M. That put him into the lead with Hellmuth and Clements not far behind with 1M chips each.

Event #15 $1,500 NL Hold'em Final Table:
Seat 1: Rick Fuller - 1,779,000
Seat 2: Scott Clements - 1,232,000
Seat 3: Morgan Machina - 834,000
Seat 4: Fabrice Soulier - 344,000
Seat 5: Ut Nguyen - 624,000
Seat 6: David Simon - 880,000
Seat 7: Andy Philachack - 446,000
Seat 8: Phil Hellmuth - 1,482,000
Seat 9: Taylor Douglas - 259,000

Scott Clements prevented Hellmuth from winning #10 last year and it would be interesting to see of those two get to battle it out again for another bracelet. Love him or hate him, Phil Hellmuth will be chasing history as he attempts to become the first player to win 11 WSOP bracelets. He's currently tied with Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson with 10 each.

"Are you ready to make history?" I asked Hellmuth as he bagged up his chips.

"Don't you know it, baby!" Hellmuth said. "Phil Hellmuth is going to make history."

The final table starts at 2pm. Our coverage at PokerNews.com starts at 3pm. They are playing the event in a closed space not open to the public so Bluff can broadcast it on the internet while showing the hole cards. You can tune into www.worldseriesofpoker.com for more details on how to view the final table.

* * * * *
Bouncin Round the Room on Day 10

Friedman and I walked into the Amazon ballroom behind Kathy Liebert and she dropped her shades. Since she had on headphones she could not hear us shouting her name. I almost tackled her to hand them over. She smiled and thanked us.

"Fuckin' Americans!" said Felipe as he got into work on Sunday. He told me a crazy story about a guy trying to sell him a bike for $40. I told him it was probably stolen.

Mean Gene is looking for a new nickname. Any suggestions?

Our mult-media guys Shronk and Steve Frey came up with a hilarious bit:


Click here to veiw Coffee, Soda, Juice... via RSS or Bloglines.
At one point, Andy Bloch was screaming at one of the floor people during a color-up. He felt that they should be standing behind the dealer instead of across from the dealer and only players and dealers should be allowed to touch the chips. After the missing chips fiasco at last year's main event, the color up process is much slower and requires a floor person to physically do each color up. "No one wearing a jacket should touch the chips," explained Bloch. "That's why dealers don't wear coats. You can easily hide chips in the pockets."

Afer ten days of action, some poker players are developing that foul stench and body odor that makes me shiver everytime I walk past them. With the Ladies event going on, you figured a few of them would have showered.

If you don't know by now, Daniel Negreanu is now a member of Team PokerStars.

Jean-Robert Bellande was sweet talking the Milwaukee's Beast girls. He managed to get two of them to go fetch him lunch from the Poker Kitchen.

I saw Phil Hellmuth tip a waitress $10 for one bottle of water.

Grubbette played cash games in the Amazon Ballroom and I bumped into her outside as we headed to the bathrooms near the Poker Sauna.

Zeke, one of our floor reporter for PokerNews gets some of the most hilarious stuff. He told us that he overheard Doyle Brunson say that he could not go to bed until he ate two packs of Skittles.

I headed to the Kilt for dinner break (big shocker there) with StB and Steve Horton.

Stella Count at the Tilted Kilt: 18

Richard "Dick Bro" Brodie was no longer 86'd from Harrah's properties and he played in the $5K Limit event. "I want to take a piss next to you, Pauly," he said. I told him, "No peeking. Eyes forward at all times." Sadly, we never had a bathroom break at the same time.

Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next to...
1. Jean-Robert Bellande
2. Chip Jett
3. Daniel Negreanu
4. Steve Z
5. Phil Laak

* * * * *
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos. And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/11/2007 02:24:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Day 9: Vinnie Vinh Alive and Mrs. Spaceman Takes Down Blogger Title

By Pauly

Here's what happened on Day 9 of the WSOP.... um, I have no clue because I was given a rare day off and didn't step foot on the floor of the Amazon Ballroom. After logging 100+ hours in the first eight days, I requested a few hours off to play in a private tournament at the Orleans and got the full day off. How did I spend it? Getting shitfaced drunk and losing a ton of money.

I discovered that Vinnie Vinh is alive (and not well). Alas, he's alive and I hope he finds some inner peace away from the tables. And speaking of poker, in the longest event so far at the series, Greg Raymer and Barry Greenstein both made the same final table in the Event #14 $1,500 Stud. Neither of them won a bracelet, but the appearance of two Team PokerStars members at the final table meant that Otis had a late night covering them on PokerStars Blog.

There's a poker bloggers gathering in town. I've been working and did not have any time to partake in the festivities aside from the private tournament at The Orleans. In the past, these events have peaked around 100+ players. There were around 45 or so at this event. I dunno what accounted for the drop off in attendance. I know a few bloggers like Mean Gene, Otis, Michalski, and Change100 were working at the Rio but aside from them, the usual cast of characters decided to sit this one out. I think that made me one of the only people (aside from Linda and possibly Grubby) to have played in all six blogger events.

Thanks to Falstaff for setting up the weekend and thanks to Sloshr for setting up the tournament. Sadly, we were treated like crap by the Orleans and specifically their tournament director. That's not a reflection of the hard work by Sloshr and Falstaff, it's a reflection of the jackoff running the tournament. I won't mention his name but I probably should, so everyone can know about his lack of customer service. We spent a lot of money in their casino and we should have been treated with more respect. For a powerful group of people in the poker industry (with disposable income to burn) you figured that they would have given us a better tournament structure or been less surly to us. Especially since a slew of people playing in the event were staying at The Orleans. I got the general feeling that they didn't want us there and wanted us out as quickly as possible. I will add their poker room to a long list of places in Las Vegas that I boycott. They fucked the monkey on that instance.

Sam's Town gave us plenty of special attention during the first event and Caesar's Palace gave us an amazing structure (although them dicking us around last December telling us it was on, then canceled, then back on all within 48 hours of the event is something I'm never forget and totally typical of a Harrah's property).

But it was the Imperial Palace, yes the I-fuckin-P, that treated us like gods. Gods. We were given a ballroom with an open bar and they were totally happy to have us there donking around in the poker room, in the pits, and drinking at all of their bars. I suggest whoever draws the short straw as the December's organizer work out a deal with the IP since out of all six events, that was probably the best run tournament and we were treated with tons of respect and did I forget to mention... open bar?

I caught lunch with Spaceman and Mrs. Spaceman then I got shitfaced before the tournament started. Since it was my day off, I drank steadily from about 1:30pm over the next ten hours. I met bloggers that I never met before like MeanHappyGuy, Astin, Lanaj, and Iron Girl. I taunted Waffles to no end and caught up with old friends such as StB, Bad Blood, Blinders, Penner, Falstaff, Grubby and his lovely sister Grubette. I picked Table 22, seat 7.

My starting table:
Seat 1: Falstaff's friend
Seat 2: Lanaj
Seat 4: Columbo
Seat 5: Falstaff
Seat 6: Cracknaces
Seat 7: Your Hero
Seat 9: Zeem
Seat 10: BrianMc

I thought the tournament was a rebuy and I lost a lot of money on the first two hands I played. I flopped an ace with A-J and Lanaj rivered two pair on me with Qh-9h. She flopped second pair and a flush draw. After I donked off almost half my stack, Falstaff informed me that it was not a rebuy like the previous two blogger tournaments. I feared that I would bust out first and win Gigli! Thankfully Kram420 had his Aces cracked as he busted out first.


Mr. Gigli... Kram420
I tightened up until the blinds started shooting up which came around quickly. I doubled my stack by re-stealing against Columbo with 7-6o. When Iakaris, Hoy, and Smokee were moved to my table, Iak quickly tried to push everyone around. He raised in MP and I found A-Ko on the button. I moved all in and he folded. I wanted the call but was happy to take down two pots in a row which brought me back to even. I doubled up against Lanaj when my A-10 held up against A-5. I knocked her out shortly after when I flopped top pair with A-9.

That was the extent of my rush. It ended when I open-shoved with As-4s and BrianMc called with J-J. I turned a Wheel draw but could not improve my hand. I busted out like 20th or so.

Mrs. Spaceman and Grubbette made the final table and those two ended up playing heads-up after they busted Waffles in a three-way pot. Mrs. Spaceman played fearless. One player raised her big blind from the button. She pushed all in with 9h-6h. He called with Q-J and she flopped trips. That decisive hand allowed her to add to her stack to catch up to Grubette's monster stack.


F Train said that Grubette would never make the final table. I called him a cock and left a message on his voicemail.

After almost thirty minutes of heads-up play, Mrs. Spaceman won with 10c-8c and during her final table photo, I told her to put on her sunglasses and pull up the hoodie to go "Unabomber" on us.

I forgot who said this, but it's true... "The winner could not have been a nicer person."

Congrats to Mrs. Spaceman who took down $1K and became the sixth person to win a Las Vegas blogger title.


WPBT Summer Classic Champion: Mrs. Spaceman
We went to the Tilted Kilt to celebrate the victory so some of the bloggers who were working the WSOP (such as Otis, Michalski, Change100, and Mean Gene) or Big Pirate who played in a WSOP event could stop by and have a victory drink. We had a blast and ran up a massive tab at the Kilt as I got even drunker. We then stumbled over to Gold Coast, the forgotten casino where Otis ate Keno crayons.

We all sat at the same 2-4 Limit table and I donked off close to 4 buy-ins. I wanted to shove Grubette through a wall or stuff her in a trash can after all of her suckouts and bad beats that she unleashed on me. the worst was when she bluffed at a pot with 7-3o. I had nothing either, but my nothing, Q-7, was better than hers. I mucked on the river because there was a straight, flush, and overcards on the board. That's when I slid from mega-tilt to super-uber-nutty tilt. By then I was Albert Finney drunk and after Spaceman cracked my Queens, I threw my cards into the and splashed the pot with my remaining $8. No mas donkey poker for me.

Mrs. Spaceman almost got her purse stolen by a team who utilized the whole distract trick. Luckily she was wise enough not to fall for it.

By the way, no harming of Grubbette actually happened during the writing of this blog.

* * * * *
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos. And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/10/2007 12:56:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Day 8: Where's Vinnie?

By Pauly

"There are a lot of holes in the desert," is an expression I heard at least a dozen people say on Friday.

A few of the people who mentioned that expression alluded to the fact that Vinnie Vinh was whacked. The topic of the day was the disappearance of Vinnie Vinh. If you don't know what went down, here's the skinny. At the end of Day 1 of the $1,000 NL w/ Rebuys event, Vinnie Vinh ended the day as one of the big stacks. He looked like shit. I never saw him but those who did say that he looked awful. The next day, he failed to show up. His stack was blinded off and he managed to finish in 20th place. A thread of 2+2 popped up with possible explanations.

"He looks terrible. Scary actually," wrote Daniel Negreanu on his blog. "He's lost a ton of wait and it looks like he is suffering all the symptoms of possibly crystal meth or something along those lines. He looks half dead.”

"I couldn't believe how he looked - he was emaciated and appeared like he had aged years in the course of a month. I'm assuming it's the result of some kind of hard-drug problem, but I have no real insight," wrote Shaniac.

"I saw Vinny Vinh around the tables yesterday and he looked like he was on a different planet from hard drug abuse," added Shannon Shorr, "It, indeed, must've been very serious for a player like Vinh to miss this kind of shot at a bracelet."

Many players and media speculated on his disappearance as lurid tales made their way around the Rio. He was supposedly staying at a sister property of the Redneck Riviera. Anything can happen in those roach motels. He could have been robbed by tweakers, rolled by a crack whore, or he could have overdosed in the john on a bad batch of "cheese", face down and ass up like fat Elvis was found.

Drug abuse is rampant in American society and of course drugs are what keep a 24 hour city like Las Vegas pumping. Although poker players are not juicing up with performance enhancing drugs, many of them are jacked up on some sort of pharmaceutical cocktail. Sure you have a few potheads that like to drag a little weed from time to time, but they are harmless. I'm sure they'd rather be at home with the bong in one hand and a mouse in the other playing six $500 SNGs at once. And then there are the cokeheads. Those are easy to spot with the nasal drip, constantly fidgeting at the tables, and running to the bathroom stalls every thirty minutes. The nicotine freaks are constantly watching the clock to see when the next break is so they can chain smoke three Camels. And then there are the Jesus Freaks, high on Christ a the tables.

The Amazon Room is filled with junkies. Everyone is addicted to something aside from poker. If it's themselves, power, money, sex, drugs, religion, popularity... people are hooked. Vinnie Vinh is just one in a several thousand players who have been walking that fine line between life and death in Las Vegas. This is a gloomy town where your insecurities and weaknesses are exposed on a daily basis. In a city full of temptations, the weak ones are gobbled up by the nebulous side of the universe. Some spiral into that darkened abyss never to return. And the few that do manage to survive, are never the same.

I fear that Las Vegas has claimed yet another casualty.

Moving on...

I covered Day 2 of Event #12 $1,500 NL Short-handed. Andy Bloch once told me that all NL events should be 6-handed. That would induce action and make the tournaments go quicker. As a player, you also get to play more hands and more "real poker."

JC Tran, Erik Seidel, Carl Olson, and Joe Awada were among the pros left in the mix at the start of the day. None of them would make the final table. Eric "sheets" Haber took down Seidel and JC Tran busted out shortly after the dinner break. Tao of Poker reader Andrew Webking went deep. He cashed in his second event at the WSOP and at one point held the chiplead in Event #12 but busted out in 10th place. His Kings ran into Aces.

"What a cooler," he said as he walked to the payout room.

Matt Brady (another Tao reader) made the final table. He's the shortstack but anything could happen at the final table.

At the main stage, the $5K Stud event crowned a winner. It was not David Oppenheim who entered the final table as the chipleader. Chris Reslock, a New Jersey native who won a WSOP Circuit event in Atlantic City, took down his first bracelet. He beat Phil Ivey heads up to win. As BJ Nemeth mentioned to me the day before, the big story at the WSOP this year is the big named pros who finished in second place and barely missing a bracelet - such as Gavin Smith, Phil Ivey, and Greg "FBT" Mueller. While big names like Alex Jacob, Devilfish, Annie Duke, and David Oppenheim all came in third place.

* * * * *
Bouncin' Round the Room on Day 8

Daniel Negreanu sat in front of us in media row on the floor of the Amazon Ballroom. He was directly in front of Mean Gene and would come over to peak over his shoulder to see what he was working on. Negreanu was full of energy and could not sit down. He unleashed his ability to mimic other players and spoke in several different accents and dialects.

I ate lunch at the Sao Paulo cafe with Change100 and Schecky. There was a Tao of Poker reader at the table next to us. Debbie said she had been reading me for over two years and said that I needed her help. She's a craps tutor or dice coach over at dicecoach.com. She is going to comp me a free lesson. I asked her if she coached Pai Gow. That's where I really need help.

At lunch we bumped into Andrew Feldman from ESPN. He expressed numerous times how he was disappointed that my gig with ESPN did not work out. He seemed positive about the future and hopes we can come to an agreement sometime down the line. I have a good feeling that I'll be doing something with them at some point.

Perry Friedman and Mark Vos had a prop bet going that neither would make the final table of the $5K Pot-Limit Hold'em event. If Vos went deep, he's get $20K. If Perry went deep, he'd win $10K. Friedman gave Vos 2 to 1 odds even though Vos jumped out to a big chiplead.

Mean Gene and I were prop betting that I couldn't hit Change100 in the head with wadded up balls of paper. I lost about $50 in various "throwing things" prop bets on Day 8.

Kristy Gazes gave me a bag of Hawaiian coffee. She also offered me up her leftover French Fries. I told her I was going to sell it on e-bay to freaky Kristy Gazes fans. She thought that was creepy. I happened to be walking with her in the hallway after she busted out of her tournament. She seemed in good spirits despite losing $5K that day in tourney buy-ins. "What can you do? There's always another tournament tomorrow."

Kristy Gazes also took time out to snap photos of tourists with Daniel Negreanu. They handed her the camera and she obliged.

Phil Hellmuth lost $7,500 to Doyle Brunson. The two were putting in the VIP lounge on their break. Looks like the Poker Brat could not putt under the pressure.

Mean Gene got a sandwich at the poker kitchen that was frozen. Even the pickle.

Linda posted a great story about Sammy Farha and sbrugby called Behind the noise.

Otis is always good for a hilarious quote like this one, "The maid who cleans my room must think I'm a chronic masturbator." Otis has been using one bottle of hand lotion per day due to his dry and flaky hands.

We headed to the Tilted Kilt for dinner break and Kari said she looked me up on the internet. She did her homework and discovered that there's a Jesus Freak with the same name who has a radio program where he discusses the impending rapture. She stopped by the Amazon Ballroom later on to hand out coupons for the Tilted Kilt. When the girls entered the room, they definitely distracted several of the players.

Otis wants to get a mud wrestling match going between the Milwaukee's Beast girls and the Tilted Kilt Waitresses. That could be bigger than the main event this year.

Kari was training a new Kilt and she had a back tattoo of a turtle. "You know what that means?" said Otis. "Move slow."

Tilted Kilt Stella Count: 12

Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next to...
1. Gene Todd
2. Brad Berman
3. Gary Benson
4. Erick Lindgren
5. JC Tran

* * * * *
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos. And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/09/2007 02:05:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Day 7: One Week Down, Six to Go

By Pauly

After one week at the 2007 WSOP, I logged 92 hours or so on the floor of the Rio. I don't know if anyone has logged more hours aside from Jonno. I should pass the 100 hour mark sometime on Friday. After 92 hours, I can tell you that I'm not short of material for my Las Vegas book.

If anything... it's the same shit, different year. And as much as people loathe Harrah's, plane loads of poker players are arriving every few minutes ready to donk their bankrolls off in satellites, cash games, and in WSOP events. The beast is getting bigger and bigger everyday. No one can stop the cancerous affect of the WSOP.

Physically, I'm tired. Mentally, I'm fine and writing wise I'm at the top of my game. I just wish I had more time to sit at home and write (and edit). I don't and have to make best with what little free time that I have. I have not played a single hand of poker since the series started. That includes online and live. I expected the long hours when I accepted the position with PokerNews. And I'm fully prepared to work at least 80 hours a week over the next six weeks. I can already see other media reps burning out. That's when I kick it into high gear.

I see the sunrise almost every morning and I'm up a few hours afterwards. There's always a landscaping team working on something two days a week at the Del Bocca Vista. Getting woken up by leaf blowers or lawnmowers in Las Vegas is absurd and often makes me grumpy for a few hours.

The first week of the WSOP is complete and depending on who you talk to, things are either worse, better, or the same. My assessment? Things could be better, but considering how huge that the WSOP has gotten I think everything is par for the course. Harrah's fucked up a few things... and that was no surprise. Cardplayer was involved in some controversy... that was no surprise. Non-exclusive media is moaning about the new rules... that's old hat. Players were bitching about long lines, crappy food, and the cards... sounds like last year, right? The dealers have been moaning about their pay and long hours... what else is new?

I'm still amazed that no one has been killed yet at the series. Tempers flared on Day 1 during the long lines but no one threw down in the hallway. Thankfully we averted an all out gang-war with Tony G and The Shulmans, so I'm no longer worried about getting shanked by a Cardplayer intern on the way to the Tilted Kilt. We came close to losing someone the other day during the windstorm. Some dude almost bit it when part of the tent (aka Poker Sauna) spliced his arm off and blood spewed everywhere in a gory scene out of a Tarrantino flick. But aside from a lot of tempers, foul moods, and shit-talking... there has been no major crimes to report aside from numerous fashion faux pas. But I'll let Change100 critique poker players' wardrobe choices.

After one week of play, several bracelet winners have been crowned:

2007 WSOP Bracelet Winners:
Event #1 $5,000 World Championship Mixed Limit/NL Hold'em: Steve "MrSmokey1" Billirakis
Event #3 $1,500 NL: Ciarin O'Leary
Event #4 $1,500 Pot-limit Hold 'em: Mike Spega
Event #5 $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud 8: Tom "DonkeyBomber" Schneider
Event #6 $1,500 Limit Hold 'em: Gary Styczynski
Event #7 $5,000 PLO w/ rebuys: Burt Boutin
Event #8 $1,000 NL w/rebuys: Michael Chu
Event #9 $1,500 Omaha 8: Alex Kravchenko

History was made on three instances. Event #3 was the largest ever non-main event field with 2,998 players. Event #1 was won by MrSmokey1 who is the youngest player to ever win a bracelet. And Phil Hellmuth set the record for all-time cashes at the WSOP.

On Day 7, I arrived early to write and ended up having to work a few hours earlier than I was scheduled. Of course I didn't want to work, but I'm a team player and stepped in to help out with the $2K NL event... the one that Brandi Hawbaker cashed in.

"She's cute, like a monkey," mentioned Benjo about Brandi.

I covered the entire Day 2 of Event #11 $5K Seven-card Stud. 180 players bought in and the top 24 made the money. Day 2 started at 2pm and lasted until almost 4am when the final table finally got set. Johnny Chan busted out in the money in 18th place and failed in his bid to win bracelet #11. Phil Ivey is trying to win his 6th bracelet.

Event #11 $5K Stud Final Table Chipcounts:
1. David Oppenheim - 609,000
2. Phil Ivey - 322,000
3. Pat Pezzin - 234,000
4. Theo Jorgensen - 229,000
5. Oriane Teysseire - 195,000
6. Chris Reslock - 141,000
7. Ted Lawson - 90,000
8. Marco Traniello - 30,000

David Oppenheim got a three-hour massage. The relaxation helped as he starting to amass the big stack. He steamrolled his table once action got short-handed and kept adding to his lead. Phil Ivey was at the other table doing the same thing.


Image courtesy of PokerNews
I have a greater appreciation of Phil Ivey after watching him play Pot-Limit Omaha and Seven-card Stud against the premiere players (in those events) in the world. You can learn so much about poker and about life from watching Ivey. I admire his stoic expressions at the table. The guy expends very little energy. He rarely talks and often keeps an eye on whatever random sports event was on the TV (you know he had action on the NBA finals). What I love best about Ivey is that he's the biggest swinging dick in poker, and he never acts like an asshole at the table. I have never seen him berate his opponents. He takes bad beats like a man. He never talks trash. He never starts trouble. Most of the time, you don't even know he's playing since he's so quiet. Young poker players should take a page out of his playbook. Just shut the fuck up, leave the sunglasses at the pool, and just play cards.

Phil Ivey is the Teddy Roosevelt of poker... speak softly and carry a big stick.

Although Ivey trails Oppenheim by almost 2 to 1 in chips, my money is on Ivey to win his 6th bracelet. That should be an interesting final table. With the blinds fairly high, I expect the short-stacks to bust out in the first hour, which means four or five-handed Stud to determine the next bracelet winner. You have to give Ivey the edge in short-handed play but Oppenheim is going to put up a good fight.

Keep an eye out for French player Oriane Teysseire. She's the card room manager at the Gallion poker club in Paris. She's fearless and check-raised an opponent on the river with no pairs showing and four hearts showing on her opponents board. She survived a tough table and got Ivey to crack a smile when she offered him some candy.

The final table should start around 3pm local time. Check in with PokerNews to follow the action.

By the way, here's the schedule for the next week:

Event #13 June 8 @ noon $5,000 World Championship Pot-limit Hold 'em (3 day event)
Event #14 June 8 @ 5 p.m. $1,500 Seven Card Stud (2 day event)
Event #15 June 9 @ noon $1,500 NL (3 day event)
Event #16 June 9 @ 5 p.m. $2,500 HORSE (3 day event)
Event #17 June 10 @ noon $1,000 World Championship Ladies Event NL (3 day event)
Event #18 June 10 @ 5 p.m. $5,000 World Championship Limit hold 'em (3 day event)
Event #19 June 11 @ noon $2,500 NL (3 day event)
Event #20 June 11 @ 5 p.m. $2,000 Seven Card Stud 8 or Better (3 day event)
Event #21 June 12 @ noon $1,500 NL shootout (2 day event)
Event #22 June 13 @ noon $5,000 NL (3 day event)
Event #23 June 14 @ noon $1,500 PLO (2 day event)
Event #24 June 14 @ 5 p.m. $3,000 World Championship Seven Card Stud 8 or Better (3 day event)
Event #25 June 15 @ noon $2,000 NL (3 day event)
Event #26 June 15 @ 5 p.m. $5,000 HORSE (3 day event)

* * * * *
Bouncin' Round the Room on Day 7

I had another long day at work and didn't get chance to float around and fuck off. My notes were thin for a second day in a row.

Several female photographers said they were boycotting Brandi Hawbaker and not taking her photo. I actually boycott several players -- anyone associated with a certain online poker site and certain players because that are arrogant asstards. I refuse to take their photo and give them any coverage on Tao of Poker. I'm professional when I work for other outlets but as far as Tao goes... fuck those assclowns.

Tony G made his first appearance at the series. He told us that we were doing a great job with PokerNews. If The G is happy... we're happy.

Jen Harman couldn't sleep last night and logged into PokerNews to follow the action on her husband Marco Traniello.

Congrats to Hoy for cashing in the NL short-handed event. I wish that I could have covered his event. Alas, my assignment was the Stud event. I'm the "Day 2 guy" which is like being Mo Rivera on the Yankees in the mid-1990s when he was the set-up man for John Wetteland.

I bumped into Falstaff and BadBlood early on and late in the night there was an StB sighting.

One of my Truckin' writers, Clay from Chicago found me, and we got to shoot the shit for a few minutes.

I ate lunch at the Sports Kitchen (nice cheeseburgers -- better than the poker kicthen) and had a beer before I started work. I couln't go to the Kilt on my dinner break. I worked through my break since we were short on staff and I had a ton of catch up work. I ate a turkey and cheese sandwich and drank a green tea at my laptop. I made a promise to myself (per Wil's advice) that I would always take a dinner break... but what can you do?

Stephen Bartley from Gutshot arrived. He was mentioned a few times in Anthony Holden's new book, Bigger Deal. I gave Barltey shit that he was referred to as a "blogger." The kid is a legit scribe and real writers cringe when they get labeled a blogger.

Traffic is up on Tao of Poker. Thanks to everyone who has linked up my coverage or passed around the URL to your friends and family.

Number of people who asked me for weed on Day 7: 6

Days Dan Michalski Has Been Missing: 2

Stella Count at the Tilted Kilt: 10

Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next To...
1. JC Tran
2. Marco Traniello
3. Mike Wattel
4. David Oppenheim
5. Chris Fargis

* * * * *
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos. And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/08/2007 03:09:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Day 6: Burt Boutin Wins Event #7 and Brandi's Universe

By Pauly

"Do you know your final table is at 2pm?" asked Schecky.

1:45pm. I sat in the cafe at the Palms with Change100 finishing up breakfast. The bill arrived at the same time my cellphone rang.

"Awww, fuck," I said. "I'll be there in less than ten minutes."

I rushed to the final table and no one was there yet. The crew started to set up but no players were present. There was an issue with conflicting starting times. ESPN told me it began at 3pm. It was scheduled for 2pm and several of the players were confused with the starting time.

Alas, the event started at 3pm anyway. That gave me a few minutes to crank out short bios of the final table for Event #7 $5K PLO with Rebuys.

Humberto Brenes won $4.8 million in career tournament earnings. He also owns WSOP bracelets (2004 PLO Omaha and 2005 Limit Hold'em). Otis was at the final table with me sweating his team PokerStars player.

John Juanda has over $6.7 million in career tournament earnings. He also won three bracelets; PLO bracelet in 2003, Seven-Card Stud Hi/Lo in 2003, and Triple Draw in 2002.

Larry Jonsson from Malmoe, Sweden made a final table at PLO at the Aussie Millions a few years ago, that was won by Marcel Luske. He was the chipleader late in Day 1 and at the start of Day 2.

Minh Ly plays in the Big Game in Las Vegas. He's considered one of the best cash game players in the world and has $2.3 million in tournament earnings. He's also made three final tables at the WSOP including a 9th place finish at the 2002 Main Event.

The Devilfish is a former safe-cracker and jeweler from Hull, UK. He has $4.1 million in career tournament earnings. He won one bracelet at the WSOP and won a WPT event. The Devilfish started the final table as the chipleader. B

Burt Boutin is a local cash game specialist. He made four final tables at the WSOP with $1.2 million in career in earnings. He won a bracelet at Pot-Limit Hold'em in 2001 where he beat Devilfish heads-up to win. Mike Sexton, Men the Master, and Feddy Deeb were at that final table.

Robin Keston from London, England was playing in his 8th WSOP. He's one of three Europeans who made the final table.

Sirous Jamshidi, a car dealer Philly, finished 18th at the 2006 WSOP. Erik Cajelais from Montreal dropped out of school to play poker full time. He has over $700K in career tournament earnings.

Event #7 would be the first final table that I live-blogged for PokerNews and worldseriesofpoker.com. I had Leanne helping me with chipcounts. I'm never nervous at these events, but I admit that I felt a little extra pressure because the event was Pot-Limit Omaha. There were more cards in play to keep track of and make sure everything was accurate especially on the flop and turn when players pick up redraws. NL is a breeze to cover compared to the specialty games.

The first ten hands were tough to follow but I got a hang of everything and managed to log every single hand at the final table. The first player busted on Hand #2.

Devilfish lost his chipleader early on as two other named pros headed to the rail early on. Brenes and Juanda also busted early, Devilfish took out Brenes on Hand #16. Erik Cajelais did most of the dirty work. He busted Juanda on Hand #35, Minh Ly on Hand #56, and Devilfish on Hand #91.

Cajelais held a 3.2M to a 2.4M chiplead over Burt Boutin when they began heads-up play... which lasted only four hands.Most of the damage was done on the first hand. Both players limped preflop. With 160K in the pot, the flop was Ah-8s-2s, Boutin fired out 125K and Cajelais raised to 500K. Boutin re-raised an additional 1M. Cajelais moved all in and Boutin insta-called. Boutin flipped over As-Ks-Qh-6c for top pair with a nut flush draw. Cajelais tabled 8h-8d-5d-5c for a flopped set. The turn was the 3s and Boutin turned an Ace-high flush for the lead. Cajelais had outs for a boat but didn't get there. The river was the Qc and Boutin doubled up to 4.9M. Cajelais was knocked down to 760K. He was out three hands later as an excited Boutin won his second bracelet.

At dinner break, I headed to the Tilted Kilt and drank two beers with Bad Blood who came into town for a few days. I went back to the final table which lasted less than 15 minutes. I did a good deed and helped Nolan Dalla and Jeffrey Pollack figure out some background and bio information on Burt Boutin moments before the bracelet ceremony. I came through in the clutch for the bigwigs.

After the PLO final table, I covered some of the start of $5K Stud event. I have to cover Day 2 on Thursday and wanted to get familiar with the pro-heavy field.


(Photo courtesy of Flipchip)
I also checked out the $2K NL event. Brandi Hawbacker was in the event but I was too busy with other things to check out the Lindsay Lohan of poker.

You could easily spot her table with a slew of railbirds and media lurking in her section like sleazy paparazzi. She had a $1,200 Louis Vuitton bag underneath her chair (Change100 told me the retail price) and I must say she's a much more attractive person in real life. She has a certain energy about her that sucks you in. That's why women like her are dangerous.

"She's so crazy," said Benjo. "I'm trying to ignore her."

All eyes in the Amazon Ballroom were on Brandi. For several hours, nothing else existed as she was the center of the poker universe (much tot he chagrin to other pros particularly the female veterans) as everything she did was gobbled up by the voracious media covering the WSOP. Plenty of rumors and jokes swirled around the Rio and the media room about Jamie Gold's backing, David Sklanasky, and of course... Capt. Tom's Penis.

"You know the saying," mentioned Snake from Wicked Chops Poker. "Once a stripper, always a stripper."

The girl who had a brief stint as a dancer at Spearmint Rhino amassed chips early on and ended the day as one of the big stacks.


You can't just have one photo of Brandi Hawbaker
(Photo courtesy of Flipchip)
There will be a cool final table for Event #8 $1K NL with Rebuys. My friends Jan from 50 Outs along with Shaniac made the final table. They are shortstacks but anything can happen at a final table.

Event #8 Final Table Chipcounts:
1. Amir Vahedi - 1,360,000
2. Michael Gracz - 730,000
3. Dolph Arnold - 520,000
4. Michael Chu - 480,000
5. Barry Cales - 420,000
6. Tommy Vu - 344,000
7. Shane 'Shaniac' Schleger - 290,000
8. Robert Aron - 385,000
9. Jan Von Halle - 205,000

Yes, Vahedi has the monster stack while Mike Gracz is trying to win another bracelet. You can't count out real estate guru Tommy Vu.

Check out this video with Shaniac...


Click here to view the Shaniac video

* * * * *
Bouncin' Round the Room on Day 6

I didn't have too many notes on Day 6. I spent the majority of my time writing intense coverage for the PLO final table and didn't get to float around as much as I have been. In the past week, I've cranked out 18K words on Tao of Poker. I'm due for a short due.

I got to shoot the shit with Kristy Gazes for a little bit on one of her breaks. She told me that I have to go visit New Zealand the next time I go to Australia (which might happen sooner than I think).

I ran into Bone Daddy while he was on break. I also bumped into Miami Don, Weak Player, and Fuel55 on my way to dinner. Fuel55 told me how he busted out of his event. It was a bad beat story and I made him give me $1.

Devilfish hit on Leanne when she was trying to count chips at the final table. "Do you want my phone number, Sweetie?" he asked.

Stella Count at Tilted Kilt: 9

I took a piss next to Jeffrey Pollack last night. He would have made my list but he's not a pro.

Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next to...
1. Andy Bloch (2 days in a row!)
2. Chad Brown
3. Scotty Nguyen
4. Devilfish
5. TJ Cloutier

* * * * *
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos. And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/07/2007 03:54:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Day 5: Stealing from the G, Donkey Bomber Wins, and Poker Tent Blown Away

By Pauly

"You're from Texas, do you know where I can get a gun?" I asked Michelle Lewis.

I said the same thing to Michalski. Last year, we were going to test shoot guns at a local gun store. We had a side trip planned during the WSOP that never materialized. Michalski gets plenty of half-baked ideas and I turned to the Texans to figure out how to arm myself.

For a 24-hour period, I was concerned about an all-out gang war between Tony G and The Shulman's at Cardplayer that would spill over onto the floor of the Rio. I wanted to be prepared and considered packing some heat, or strapping as the kids would call it today. Since I technically work for Tony G, I'm a target. I didn't want to get clipped in the parking lot during a drive-by shooting between the Shulman's personal security detail and Tony G's thugs or find myself getting shanked in the bathroom trying to piss next to Toto Leonidas during one of the breaks.

Poker is big business. However, there are essential elements of the billion dollar global business that have been spawned from the underground and in the dark and seedy shadows on Las Vegas. Fortunate 500 companies don't get gangbangers to take out their competition, that's what their legal teams are for... hired hitmen. However in poker, there's that old school element of "Let's meet in the parking lot and settle this like men."

Tony G wrote a post on his blog called Cardplayer Family Stealing from Me. Here's what Tony G said:

I have never tried to hide who I am. I am from the street. I have made many mistakes in my life, but I have always felt that I treated all people fairly and with respect. You may see me on TV giving someone the business, and feel it's unfair, but to me it's all part of the game. I think if you ask people if they think I am a fair person in business and in life most would say yes.

Away from poker, I have a successful business. I own a majority of the shares in PokerNews Limited. This company owns many websites, the biggest of which is PokerNews.com. We are having our best year ever and right now we should be enjoying the finest moment of our life as a company. We are at the WSOP and are supposed to have an agreement with Bluff to be the exclusive provider of updates and chip counts. But unfortunately over the last few days, we have been pirated and simply stolen from by many of our competitors - including Cardplayer. Cardplayer is hiding behind a legal fence that they were standing on top of just this time last year - kicking anyone who dared try to climb it in the teeth.

We put the chip counts up on PokerNews, and one minute later they are up on Cardplayer.com. Cardplayer has no one counting chips at the WSOP, and they know that counting chips is against the rules for them since we beat them to the rights for coverage this year. But they have the counts up on their site, stolen straight from the counts we are doing live in the room at the Rio. We have paid a lot of money for these rights and a lot of money to the 40 people we have hired to cover the series.

I am from the street and when you steal from me, you are playing with fire. This is no different than taking money out of my pocket when it was all I had, which wasn't that long ago. I'll bet the Shulmans never thought they would be stealing from me two years ago when they were on top and PokerNews had three employees and was just getting by. I urge the Shulmans to think about what they are doing to me now. They should think about how people feel when they are robbed.

I urge the Shulmans & all of the CardPlayer family to stop this unethical activity, right now, and all will be forgiven. I'm sure they feel bad about how things have gone for them over the past year, but that doesn't make this ok. They have fallen from their high horse, and there must be a lot of anger for them to do something like this. They must know others will not respect them and they must just not care.

This probably will have to go to lawyers for the final outcome. No one is talking about this now, but I tell the world the truth on this blog.

The most interesting point that Tony G makes (aside from the fact that he reminds us from the streets - something that I have in common with The G since I grew up on the rough and tumble streets of the Bronx in the late 1970s when crime swept the city and early 1980s when crack was king) is that "I'll bet the Shulmans never thought they would be stealing from me two years ago when they were on top and PokerNews had three employees and was just getting by."

It's true. The rise of PokerNews has come out of nowhere and after the UIGEA rippled through the US poker industry, PokerNews was one of the few remaining entities that seemed marginally affected by the ruling. When I lost several clients and other clients asked me to take a pay cut, I turned to PokerNews for employment. Not only did John Caldwell hire me for writing opportunities, PokerNews (along with The G) paid me my highest rate. Plus they let me be me and have never censored anything I have written and never dared to censor anything I write on Tao of Poker. That's a recognition of respect for all the hard work I've put in the last two years. I'm glad they noticed and since then I've been rewarded with gigs in Australia and Monte Carlo along with getting tapped to be one of the leaders on the live coverage team at PokerNews.

Love him or hate him, Tony G has my utmost respect. I admire his business model at PokerNews.com and applaud him for shelling out big bucks to create a live tournament client and paying bigger bucks to hire the best reporters in the business, something Cardplayer failed to do last year when they secured exclusive rights.

I'm an extremely loyal person and I owe my place in poker over the last six or so months to Caldwell and The G. I could have declined their invite to work with them at the WSOP and took on much more easier assignments at the series where I could fuck around in the media room, play poker for five hours a day, drink for three hours straight at the Hooker Bar, and lounge around at the pool. I didn't take the easy road out a sense of loyalty and willingness to be a team player. I want to see PokerNews succeed (even though they managed to do that without my help over the last two years) and I am fortunate that I got selected to provide official updates for the partnership involving PokerNews with Bluff, Harrah's, and the WSOP.

I know that my work is open to criticism from the haters and rival media outlets and I took on the assignment anyway. Honestly, I don't care what those whiny bitches moan about. I listen to any points of constructive criticism and ignore the rest. Most of that contempt is rooted in jealousy and their utter laziness. They couldn't handle an hour in my position and would quit right away. As Lance from The Poker Biz pointed out, "They claim to be journalists yet they're more concerned about the rules than trying to write something good and find the stories."

Last year, I got cock blocked and I did what I could to find stories. The WSOP is filled with thousands of them. I also got shit from unappreciative readers who wanted more live updates and chip counts but my hands were tied. The more they bitched, the more I wanted to do things my way instead of pandering to a small percentage of malcontents. Instead, I sought out the stories and wrote about them for numerous outlets or took notes for a future book. From a writer's perspective, my overall content in 2006 (including work at 11 different worldwide media and online outlets) was better than 2005.

This year, I'm trying to out do myself. The live updates are over at PokerNews.com and the stories are posted here on the Tao of Poker or saved for future reference. After logging 15-16 hour days on the floor, I put in several hours at home writing up my notes, writing posts here, and other freelance work and columns. This is my reality for seven weeks and I've accepted my fate.

The bitter pill to swallow is knowing that my feed gets stolen and that the coverage I provide for PokerNews.com gets ripped off by rival outlets who are on site sitting in the media room or off site somewhere. I would never steal content from anyone because I have enough pride as a writer that I want to do my own work and the ego kicks in where I want to show everyone else that I cannot only do the job, but do it 100x times better than them.

The irony of the situation, as Wicked Chops Poker pointed out, is that a few months ago Cardplayer gloated and posted a video where a Bluff reporter allegedly cut and past information at a WPT final table from Cardplayer. Now, they got outed and caught red-handed by Harrah's and Tony G.

I personally know that Cardplayer (and other outlets as well - please note that they're not the only content thieves) stole chipcounts from us because we entered fake names into our chipcount list for almost every single event... and Cardplayer stole every one that we entered.

For example, my brother Derek was flying from Maine to NYC last Sunday, yet Cardplayer had him in their chipcounts. Harrah's and the FAA can verify that he was not at the Rio playing in that event. I used Derek as a bait and rival outlets fell for it. Of course, Derek got a big kick out of seeing his name on Cardplayer's chipcounts in between ZeeJustin and Burt Boutin.

I also made a list of people who stole from myself, LasVegasVegas, and from PokerNews. I could out you on Tao of Poker and post the screen caps, but I don't want to give you any publicity and I'm not one to gloat like Cardplayer did in their video about their Bluff incident. Just take note that I know who you are and if we cross paths in a dark parking lot after the WSOP ends, you are going to wish that you had a little more talent instead of being a lazy cut and paster. I'm not going to sue you or call in the media police. I do believe in karmic payback and hold faith that down the line cosmic retribution will be paid back ten fold. And if not, I will just have to kick your ass. I hope you have good health insurance.

For the record, I did not secure any firearms yesterday. By the end of the day, Tony G got a call from the Shulmans who offered up an apology and a promise that they would follow the guidelines set forth by Harrah's. Kudos to the Shulmans for doing the right thing after doing the wrong thing. I heard that Jeff Shulman was pulled out of the tournament he was playing in (on several instances) to meet with Harrah's officials to discuss the matter.

The G proclaimed that he was a "much happier Tony G." A happy Tony H means that I breathe a sigh of relief that the guy who signs my checks is in a good mood. He's digging our coverage and as long as The G approves of my work... in the end that's all that matters. He put his company's reputation and finances on the line to cover the WSOP and I'm busting my ass because I don't want to let him, the other shareholders, or Caldwell down.

The real issue deals with enforcement. Suits cut deals with other suits about exclusive coverage. It's not PokerNews' job to enforce the rules and it's not Bluff's job either. I guess that the enforcement issue becomes Harrah's job and in my estimation, it will have to take a drastic measure like revoking badges before anyone stops bending the rules. That's not my concern since it's out of my hands. I have a job to do and that's my focus. I've been on both sides of the exclusive coverage ropes and know that there are issues with both. But hey, it's not my party. I'm just a guest. My biggest gripe? Better food and more hookers.

Moving on...

there was plenty of poker going on at the WSOP. There were two final tables, two day twos, and two day ones. The ESPN featured table had Gavin Smith trying to win a bracelet in the Pot-Limit Hold'em event. The second final table featured top pros such as Jesus, David Benyamine, and Annie Duke trying to win a bracelet at Mixed Omaha/Stud. Pokerati's own Donkey Bomber aka Tom Schnieder took down the bracelet. I was covering a different event but caught a piece of a conversation between Annie Duke and her friend Erik Seidel. She was bitching and moaning about DonkeyBomber catching cards. Of course if Annie was the one who was the card rack, she would not have said that. She would have bragged about her massive chiplead. The duality of a pro's life. Congrats to Donkey Bomber for winning his first bracelet.

For the last two days, I had a tough yet fun assignment covering Event #7 Pot-Limit Omaha with Rebuys. I'm a PLO guy and action junkie and have learned a ton watching the best PLO players in the world slug it out for two straight days. It makes me want to get back into playing that game.

"No Limit is so boring these days," mentioned Steve Z. "Omaha is much more challenging. We all thought No Limit Hold'em was going to die out. But TV saved it."

145 players bought in with 421 rebuys. The prize pool changed twice during the course of the event which led to some confusion and fucked up some of the work I had been doing. Anyway, the final 18 players won prize money but I wonder if any of the guys who made the money did not break even with all the rebuys?

I kept an eye on Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan early on. They were seeking their 11th bracelet but both failed to make the money. Chip Reese rarely plays tournaments so it's always a pleasure to watch one of the best poker players of all time effortlessly play.

The big story involved Devilfish. His stack fluctuated most of the day before he eventually took over the chiplead and held onto it. He sat at Andy Black's table and the two jawed back and forth for most of the night before Black was eventually eliminated in 11th place.

At one point, Devlfish raised Black and he went into the tank. Devilfish started trash talking, I'll lay you 5 to 1 that you don't call."

Black objected to his prop bet and felt that it had no place in the tournament. That spat boiled over as the two jawed back and forth for most of the day.

Mike Sexton was short-stacked until his lucky charm showed up. As soon as his new wife showed up, he tripled up from 70K to 210K. Sexton eventually headed out in 15th place.

Humberto busted out the shark. He actually has two that he nicknamed 2006 and 2007, or 007 for short. I suspect that he'll bust it out for the ESPN cameras at the final table.

Event #2 PLO w/ Rebuys Money Winners:
10 Robert Williamson III $41,229
11 Andy Black $41,229
12 Chip Reese $41,229
13 Jeff Lisandro $35,732
14 Dustin "NeverWin" Woolf $35,732
15 Mike Sexton $35,732
16 Hoyt Corkins $30,325
17 Nenad Medic $30,325
18 Chau Giang $30,325

Here are the official chip counts for the final table of Event #7 ($5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha w/Rebuys):
Seat 1: Humberto Brenes - 275,000
Seat 2: John Juanda - 220,000
Seat 3: Larry Jonsson - 900,000
Seat 4: Minh Ly - 240,000
Seat 5: Burt Boutin - 460,000
Seat 6: Rob Keston - 335,000
Seat 7: Sirous Jamshieli - 865,000
Seat 8: Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott - 1,300,000
Seat 9: Erik Cajelais - 1,075,000

Here are the payouts for the final table:
1 - $825,956
2 - $483,755
3 - $332,582
4 - $230,883
5 - $174,537
6 - $134,682
7 - $107,196
8 - $79,710
9 - $57,721

I will be live blogging the final table for PokerNews starting at 3pm local time. ESPN will be filming it as well. I can't wait.

* * * *
Bouncin' Round the Room on Day 5

Otis wrote up a story about how Brandi Hawbacker bummed a smoke from him. He left out the POB part. By the way, she's much cuter in person and she was sweating David Sklanasky's table.

Benjo arrived from France and had a tough time getting a badge. He said he's working with different outlets and I hope he gets that mess cleared up.

Jennicide was hanging on the rail of the PLO event. I suspect she was railbirding NeverWin, unless she has a crush on Chau Giang. After all, what's more sexier that a short Asian man rubbing his nipples while saying, "I love poker?"

There was a massive windstorm in the Las Vegas valley and the Poker Sauna (aka Poker Tent) became a casualty. Doyle Brunson refused to play in there because he knows what those desert winds can do especially to a piss-poor tent that was used for spillover tables. One guy got his arm nearly sliced off by a piece of metal that fell down. As Otis said, "That's a lawsuit for Harrah's."

Robert Williamson III told me a story about being accosted by fans at the valet. He was late to Day 2 of the PLO event and trying to get inside but had issues dealing with a couple of unruly fans who failed to realize that the guy was going to work.

The PLO event had tons of pros left which meant my section was swarmed with tourists and railbirds. Every few minutes are so a flash would go off. The TD had to remind spectators of the no flash photography rule. If you are coming down to the WSOP, you can take photos, but please respect the players and the rules... no flash.

Otis and I made a $20 prop bet. He said he was trying to not eat the crappy pizza in the Poker Kitchen. I said that he couldn't do it. Otis will eat anything. Of course he'll lose this bet.

Shronk and I were throwing balled up paper into a trash can for $20 a pop. We broke even.

One guy had a copy of Naked Lunch at the table. He also had an issue with chips. The dealer fucked up his color up and play was halted until they figured out what happened. I heard that the dealer was fired.

Shirley Rosario played in her first event... Omaha 8. She's looking great after spending last year fighting cancer. It was good to see her back at the tables although she had to endure Hellmuth sitting two seats to her left.

I asked Andy Bloch what his assessment of the WSOP was and he said that the color-ups were a disaster. He felt that floor people (and anyone with a suit) should not be touching chips... only the dealers and players. He also thought that players should not be told to go on break during the color-ups, that way they can verify any mistakes. One guy had his entire stack taken by mistake during a color-up.

Best story I heard all day was one of the media reps was toking weed in the parking lot and Jeffrey Pollack came out of nowhere. Instead of acting suspicious the person actually engaged in a conversation which was a horrible idea. Anyway, Pollock asked what their biggest complaint at the WSOP was. That rep said, "The hamburgers." Pollack answered, "I'll see what I can do about getting you better hamburgers." Of course only a pothead with the munchies would bring up food to the WSOP commissioner.

Maudie would be proud. I ate a fruit salad yesterday during one of the breaks.

Shronk said I would be his #1 pick for Media Death Pools. He said since Flipchip survived two tours in Vietnam that he was invincible and that I was a solid choice due to my excessive travel to exotic places and plenty of plane trips. I guess Shronk thinks I'll perish in a plane crash. Hemingway survived two. Both in Africa.

Stella Beer Watch at the Tilted Kilt: 7

Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next to...
1. Andy Bloch
2. Robert Mizrachi
3. Mike Sexton
4. David Sklansky
5. Humberto Brenes

* * * * *
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos. And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/06/2007 03:27:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Day 4: PLO Madness, Prop Putting, and the Return of Liz Lieu Tuesdays

By Pauly

My reward for staying until sunrise on Monday morning was a 5pm shift later in the day. I arrived at the Rio at 4pm because I wanted to get some media room time in since I had been on the floor 95% of the time. Otis was scheduled to arrive and I wanted to see him along with shooting the shit with other media reps. I got to chill outside by the dealer's secret smoking spot with Amy Calistri and Michalski. I got some dirt and we talked shop about the poker industry. Some things have gone bloody awful at the WSOP while there have been some great stories to discuss among friends, to blog about on Tao of Poker, and to save for that Las Vegas book I have been intending to write.

I really don't have high expectations with anything I do in the poker industry. I simply assume that things (and tournaments) will be fucked up and I have to do what I can to get through each day. I focus on the moment and cleaning the shit that gets shoveled onto my plate without worrying about the future which simply does not exist to me. I try to prep myself but not too much because I don't want to lose sight on what's important... the now. I expect more crap to be dished out every day because the WSOP, much like life, is about dealing with adversity and filtering out the excess fluff and bullshit.

There are people in the industry and on the sidelines that have a spoiled approach (impossible expectations to meet and they act like whiny bitches when they don't get instant gratification) or attack with a streak of self-righteousness. Poker is bigger than all of us and at the end of the day, the machine wins. The Man wins. Big Business wins. This has been going on for centuries. The workers of the world get fucked over and the little man gets kicked to the curb as the fat cats get fatter and the monster that we call poker gets bigger and bigger. I've accepted that is how life works.

Like the great 20th century American poet Snoop Dogg once said... "Everybody got they cups, but they ain't chipped in. Now this types of shit, happens all the time. You got to get yours but fool I gotta get mine."

I have no illusions on trying to change the poker industry or radically change the world. It is logistically impossible so I do my best to remind myself that. And given the circumstances that I have to deal with everyday... I suck it up and make the best of what's there. In the end, my sole existence at the WSOP is a privilege, not a birth right. I forget that from time to time while others in the media don't have a fuckin' clue. As BJ Nemeth and I discussed, we're often embarrassed that we have to be lumped into a group with someone of the most loathsome people on the planet along with some of the biggest tools and sausage jockeys in poker.

Alas, I'm extremely lucky to be here in Las Vegas everyday. Without poker, I'd be a broke homeless pothead. These days, I'm just a pothead.

If friends and readers like my skewed take on things, that's awesome. I'm honored to be read and that people waste their time with me. I'm just a guy with a passion for writing and organizing my thoughts, feelings, and observations into words and paragraphs. Some other folks in poker want to become the next star (whether they are players, agents, media reps, groupies) and I constantly see them forcing themselves into the scene. They are a dime a dozen. They pop up every few months and fade away into oblivion. Why? Because they lack originality and forget that poker is bigger than them.

When I stop covering poker tournament or stop blogging, poker will continue to flourish with or without me. I'm happy to be here at this time and place in life. I caught poker at the cusp of the internet and multimedia boom in America and now overseas. It's a wild ride and I've been humbled along the way.

For a fourth day in a row, I headed back at the Rio trying to do the best job that I can covering the most prestigious poker tournament in the history of poker. During the days I crank out my assignment and when I get home I sit down and write up my thoughts from that day before I pass out at my laptop. In essence, it's a true journal of my time at the WSOP. I'm not trying to use this space to cover the glitz and glamour of the event, rather to use as notes for a future book and to keep my friends informed about the behind the scenes of the series that you wouldn't anywhere else.

Poker tournaments are not easy and one person that PokerNews hired showed up for their first day of work. They went on a break and never came back. They texted a message in their car on their way home as they fled the insanity. Not everyone has the testicular fortitude to endure the stress and overwhelming experience of the WSOP. I'm glad they left on Day 4 instead of freaking out two weeks from now.

Anyway, there were five events going on including the final table for Event #3 NL, Day 2 of PLH, Day 2 of Mixed Omaha 8/Stud, Day 1 of Limit Hold'em, and Day 1 of PLO with Rebuys. I drew PLO with rebuys since I'm an action junkie and that was the 5pm event.

Event #7 $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha with Rebuys was an event that Harrah's thought would attract about 50 or 60 players. They got 145 in total which included some of the biggest names in poker. I had not seen that many top tiered pros in a concentrated space (outside of $50K Horse last year) since I started covering poker.

When I first made a pass through the tournament area, I saw Doyle Brunson, Mike Sexton, Steve Z, Dan Shak, John D'Agastino, Daniel Negreanu, John Juanda, Scott Fischman, David Williams, Brad Berman, Roland de Wolfe, Thomas Wahlroos, Humberto Brenes, Minh Ly, Mike Wattel, Padraig Parkinson, Dewey Tomko, Mark Vos, Danny Alaei, Lee Watkinson, Ram Vaswani, Barry Greenstein, Hassan Habib, Darrell Dicken, Jen Harman, Jordan Morgan, Brian "Sbrugby" Townsend, Max Pescatori, Chip Reese, Erik Seidel, Chau Giang, Vanessa Rousso, and Sammy Farha.

On my second pass I spotted Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen, Jim Becthel, Andy Black, Kirk Morrison, Johnny Chan, Robert Williamson III, Rafi Amit, Phil Ivey, Todd Bruson, Nenad Medic, JC Tran Gabe Thaler, Michael Binger, Ben grundy, and Roland DeWolfe.

Huck Seed and Phil Hellmuth both arrived almost two hours late.

Since the event was held early in the WSOP, the staff didn't think the field would be too large due to the lack of European pros at the event who usually show up a week or two before the main event. They were blown away by the number of entrants that featured rebuys for the first three hours and included an add on and double add on at the end of Level 3. Three hours of rebuys for pros with deep pockets meant tons of action.

TD Jack Effel decided to make the event three days instead of two which it had been originally scheduled. That allowed ESPN to get their cameras in place to tape the final table on Wednesday. With tons of well known pros in the field, they knew their rating would be substantially higher instead of broadcasting a table with a slew of unknowns.

There are screens with various chipcounts streaming throughout the Amazon Ballroom. Two happened to be stationed right above the PLO tables. The pros had prop bets on various chipcounts and right away several tat I knew wanted faster updates. At that point, I shifted the focus of my team from less hands and more chip counts to appease the pros. Of course they were asking for an impossible task. Humans getting chipcounts is not a perfect science and in a rebuy event, particularly PLO, the fluctuations and swings were immense. My team did the best job that they could and the pros helped out a lot pointing out players who busted that we missed or they simply wanted to see their big stack announced to the entire world.

At one point Andy Black was the chipleader and we told him that, "It's not the lead I'm worried about, it's finishing the fucking thing off!" he joked as he alluded to his abaility to meltdown late in tournaments.


Stacked table...
Photo courtesy of Flipchip
Hellmuth arrived late and was seated at a table with Vanessa Rousso, Erik Seidel, Chau Giang, Gabe Thaler, Sammy Farha, and Rafi Amit. He got sucked out by Farha when he rivered quads against the Poker Brat.

On another hand, Hellmuth was all in pre-flop against Farha and Amit.

"Who will give me odds on my hand? I want to bet against it," the Poker Brat said as a crowd gathered around his table.

Johnny Chan and Mike Sexton got up and I stood between them as they got in on the action. Chau muttered something but I could not understand what he said, but I think he gave Hellmuth some action. Hellmuth moved all in with Ad-As-Js-4c as both Sammy Farha and Rafi Amit called behind.

Rafi Amit flipped over As-Ks-Qd-6h while Sammy Farha tabled 8s-6c-5d-3s. Hellmuth knew what was coming as he braced himself for the beat. That's why he bet against himself. The flop was 5h-4h-2s and Farha flopped a straight. The turn was 3c and the river was the Jh. Nobody had a flush so Farha scooped the monsterpotten.

"This is the nuts, bro," said Farha with a shit-eating grin on his face. "If you can play like this, you will never go broke."

Hellmuth threw his arms up in the air and shot back, "Sammy in the old days I used to be afraid of you. Now you're a yum yum."

Then Hellmuth went on tilt on the last hand before the rebuy period ended. He was steaming after losing a big four-way pot where everyone was all in before the flop. Hellmuth had J-10-9-7 and he flopped two pair and a gutshot on a board of J-7-4. He ended up losing to two players (one was Amit) who held A-A. They chopped the pot after the 3 fell on the turn and the 4 spiked on the river. Hellmuth's two pair was counterfeited and he went off. He unleashed a bunch of "fuck this" and "fuck that" and "fuckin' donkeys."

Mike Sexton, Doyle Brunson, and Gus Hansen stood around the table as Hellmuth held court. The more he complained, the more Brunson smiled. Nothing gives Texas Dolly more satisfaction than seeing Hellmuth slide into mega-tilt.

Hellmuth bought a double add on and continued to complain. Brunson told Mike Sexton to follow him to the VIP lounge to avoid the Hellmuthian tirade.

TD Jack Effel asked Sexton how things were going. Sexton said, "Buddy, they are gambling. But the rebuys are over now."

One of the guys we have covering the series for PokerNews is Tom Sexton, Mike's brother. He's a great guy and was happy to cover his brother's event. Not only does he know tons of old school pros, but his ability to get great stories is invaluable like the following gem.

On the dinner break, one of the players asked Doyle Brunson where he was going to eat. Brunson said he was skipping food and going to the VIP Lounge to play Chinese Poker instead. He chose to relax with high stakes Chinese Poker. That stuff is what legends are made of.

Brunson didn't get a chance to play Chinese Poker, instead they all gambled on the putting green inside the room. It's a nine foot putt and the minimum bet was $2,000 per put. Mike Sexton, Barry Greenstein, Devilfish, Chip Reese, and Hellmuth all gambled on putts. Mike Sexton emerged as the big winner after picking up 11K in side bets. That almost covered the 15K he invested in PLO.

Otis told me that Barry Greenstein put 35K into the PLO event and although he busted out, Greenstein picked up over 100K playing "props" with Eli Elezra as the two gambled on the flops.

PLO is an action game and the biggest swinging dicks in gambling could not contain their inner action junkie. If they weren't gambling on their cards, they did their best to get their fixes other ways. I wish all poker tournaments could be like the $5K PLO with Rebuys.

Hellmuth eventually busted out but not befre he entertained everyone within earshot with some quotes.

Phil Hellmuth lost a huge pot to Rafi Amit. Amit flopped trips and turned a full house and Hellmuth was not pleased. He stood up and cursed a few times before he got involved in another hand with Amit. Hellmuth lost the second hand and his stack sunk to 19K.

"I'm a super genius. You just think you are a genius," Hellmuth said as he berated Amit. "I fold stuff like that shit before breakfast."

Oh, I forgot that Steve Horton and Change100 got to cover a cool event, the Mixed Omaha/Stud. That final table is set for 3pm on Tuesday and features some familiar faces such as Michalski's Pokerati buddy Tom Schnieder.

Event #5 $2,500 Mixed Omaha 8/Stud 8 Final Table:
Seat 1: Tom Schneider 526K
Seat 2: Annie Duke 239K
Seat 3: Joe Bolnick 104K
Seat 4: John "The Razor" Phan 88K
Seat 5: Chris Ferguson 193K
Seat 6: Chris Bell 213K
Seat 7: Edmond "Omaha Ed" Tonnellier 69K
Seat 8: David Benyamine 221K

On Tuesday, I cover Day 2 of PLO and won't stop until they get down to a final table. Both Chan and Brunson are still alive (Hellmuth busted late on Day 1) and they are seeking their 11th bracelet.

* * * * *
Bouncin' Round the Room on Day 4

Jennicide has been putting some time in at the Rio. Her boobs look bigger than I remember them. Looks like she's been spending some of her bankroll on breast augmentation. I heard a rumor that she intends to play the main event in lingerie. We're trying to get Michalski to do the same.

Brandi Hawbacker sighting! I spotted Brandi playing satellites a few tables over from where the PLO event was going down. David Sklanasky is her mentor these days and he was on the rail chatting with her when I walked past them. I wonder if DS gets a little POB action for Brandi getting to tap into his vast poker mind? Or I wonder if he just gets to tap her ass? Where's Micon when you need him?

There was a Sweet Svetlana sighting. I first encountered her at the Borgata in the winter of 2006 when I was hired by the Borgata to cover their two week Winter Tournaments for them. She was so pissed that she busted out at a final table by a player sucking out on her that she stormed away and did not pick up her winnings for several days afterwards.


We love Liz in the pool!
Cyndy Violette gave Amy Calistri her yellow tank top that said "Peace Lover Poker." I want Calistri to wear it so she can show off the twins. Ship it!

After a masseuse worked on Phil Hellmuth's butt for an hour, she asked him for an autograph of three playing cards... As, 9s, and the 9h.

I spotted Felicia and Glenn in the Rio along with Shirley Rosario who was having a few cocktails while she played a satellite.

Tom Sexton mentioned to me that Dewey Tomko is a hustler on the golf course. He's earned almost $1M on the links. Warning... don't play with Dewey!

At one point, one of the Tilted Kilt waitresses came down to the Amazon ballroom to pass out flyers and coupons. They headed over to media row to ask where I was. That set Change100 on slight tilt. The waitress eventually found me inside the ropes by the PLO event as plenty of players stopped to gawk.

Stella Count at Tilt Kilt: 5

Yes, Otis and I returned to the Kilt for two beers each on my dinner break.

Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next To...
1. Chau Giang
2. Howard Lederer
3. Bill Edler
4. Robert Williamson III
5. John D'Agastino

* * * * *
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos. And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/05/2007 03:14:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Day 3: MrSmokey1 Day and Matusow & Forrest $100,000 Weight Loss Prop Bet

When I walked outside the Rio early on Monday, the sun slowly crept over the mountains as I completed the longest day of work so far at the series. It was a 15 hour day and it could have been longer. My assignment was to cover Day 2 of Event #3 $1,500 NL. 270 players started the day and I could not leave until 9 remained. I'm lucky that I got to leave the Rio shortly after 5am. The ESPN film crew and I set the over/under at 5:45am and we were all giddy when the last player busted out.

I arrived at the Rio around 2pm after a quick lunch at the cafe in the Palms casino with Change100. We sidestepped a slew of L.A. douchebgas and Paris Hilton clones in order to eat somewhere that was not the Rio. By the end of Day 3, I'd grown completely sick of the food in the poker kitchen. With 44 more days left, I expect my first major freak out will most likely be related to the chemical reaction to the kangaroo burgers that they pass off as "hamburgers."


Shannon Elizabeth thinks positive thoughts
Photo courtesy of Flipchip
We had four tournaments to cover for PokerNews.com and Jonno divided all of us up. BJ and Leanne took the final table for Event #1 $5K Mixed Hold'em. Mean Gene and Dixie covered Day 1 of Event #4 $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em. Change100 covered the Day 1 of $2,500 Mixed Stud and Omaha 8 by herself and I drew Day 2 of Event #3. At some point during the 15 hour day, I worked on all four events in various capacities. Without a doubt, Day 3 of the series was the toughest that I encountered with all the major fuck ups and it would test all of my patience and skills as a veteran tournament reporter.

I encountered a major problem with accessing information that Harrah's was supposed to provide to me and PokerNews. I took matters into my own hands and sought out the necessary info on bustouts instead of waiting around for a suit to hand it over to me. That meant I was backlogged with a lot of data entry which was a major waste of my resources as a reporter and writer. I eventually caught up on the bitch work and lost some of my dinner break (Per advice from Wil, I try not to work on my breaks, but I had no choice). I give a lot of credit to the new guys Matt, Steve, Rob, and Jim who helped me cover Event #3 which featured a bevy of unknown players. How we managed to figure out who's who is still a shocker.

There were a few technical issues with Event #3. Play was suspended at the end of Day 1 just as the money bubble burst. That meant at the start of Day 2, there would be dozens and dozens of eliminations to start the day. Small stacks push on the first hand after they make the money and a frenzied pace of eliminations start flowing. The staff was not prepared for that. After the first three or four hands, everyone was overwhelmed with eliminations. Play had to be stopped for forty-five minutes while they sorted out the confusion. My criticism was that they should have expected a mad rush of bustouts at the start of Day 2 and got enough staff in place to handle the influx of money winners.

There was also a problem with chip stacks. Several players complained that they did not have the same amount of chips that they signed off on. A color-up was made after they signed off on their chips and several players did not re-check before they zipped their chips in the bags at the end of Day 1. I never got a full confirmation on what the staff did to fix that problem. I heard rumors such as one player was shitfaced and wrote down the wrong amount. I also heard that players were told, tough shit since it is their responsibility to count the chips before they seal the bag. you never know who was trying to angleshoot.

Since there was over 9 million chips in play, the color-up process was a nightmare. There was a second break in the action that lasted another 45 minutes. Color-ups cannot be done by dealers and only by floor staff. They have to go to each table and take off the smaller chips. Play cannot resume until the entire staff has an accurate count before play resumes. Although this lengthens the color-up process it was implemented to ensure that there would be no missing chips like what went down at last year's main event. After the staff took out black $100 chips off the table, three were discovered hidden in dirty stacks. I assumed that they took them out of play.

That lull in the action would have been the perfect time for me to catch up with data entry and recording bustouts, however, I didn't get that info until a few minutes before the dinner break. Instead, I helped cover the other events. Change100 was short-handed with her junior staff and I had to walk the floor in her quadrant to jot down the noteworthy pros in the event. One of the things I learned to do on Wall Street was to multi-task in a hostile work environment with mass confusion and people screaming in your ear at every moment. Because of my high threshold for pressure, I often get extra tasks thrown my way. Plus I've accepted a role as middle management which is th eone part of the job that I'mnot a fan of. I love writing and seeking out the story. It's hard to do that when I'm chained to a laptop or troubleshooting. For the first twelve hours of Day 3, it seemed like I was behind the entire time. I didn't catch up until almost 2am. Yeah, it was a long fuckin' day.

The buzz around the Amazon ballroom was the announcement of the first bracelet winner Steve "MrSmokey1" Billirakis. He made history by becoming the youngest player ever to win a bracelet. I witnessed E-Fro achieve that task in 2005 as he broke Gavin Griffin's record. Last year, Jeff Madsen broke E-Fro's record and last night, MrSmokey1 shattered Madsen's record. The kid turned 21 less than two weeks ago. I was impressed with his victory because he had to endure a difficult final table and survive one of the toughest fields of pros that I had seen in a very long time.


2007 WSOP $5,000 Mixed Hold'em Champion: MrSmokey1
Photo courtesy of Flipchip
The second mixed event of the series, $2,500 Omaha/Stud, was a tournament that featured tons of pros. Most of them skipped the 2,998 person NL event in order to play the mixed event in a quest to win a bracelet. That tournament was going on right in front of the media desk. I sat twenty feet away from Mike Matusow as he ran his mouth the entire time. The Mouth is so loud that he outspeaks the staff using microphones. He talked about a multitude of topics such as his table being all donkeys and how great of a guy he is.

The best story of the day surrounded the prop bet issued by Ted Forrest. He wagered Matusow $100,000 that he could not lose 54 pounds in one year.

"I have to get from 235 to 181," Matusow told everyone within earshot.

"Chop off your leg," suggested Perry Friedman.

"Chop off your head," shouted an unknown pro.

Unfortunately, Matusow cannot get surgery (either liposuction or stomach stapling) and he cannot amputate any limbs. He's got to lose weight the old fashioned way. I wonder if he could pull it off?

Eventually in the wee hours of the night when most of you were still sleeping, Event #3 dwindled down to a final table that featured Alex Jacob with a tremendous chiplead. He'll have to hold off Bart Hanson from Live at the Bike and Andreas Krause, whom Katja Thater said was one of the top 3 German players in the world.

Event #3 $1,500 NL Final Table Chip Counts:
1. Alex Jacob - 3,100,000
2. Paul Evans - 1,690,000
3. Jeff Yoak - 965,000
4. Matt Vengrin - 930,000
5. Ciaran O'Leary - 610,000
6. Thad Smith - 555,000
7. Craig Crivello - 495,000
8. Andreas Krause - 490,000
9. Bart Hanson - 210,000

Mike (the reader who was at Jim Meehan's table on Day 1) told me that Paul Evens was at his starting table and went from 250 to 1.69M in chips. Talk about a massive run to go from nearly busto to second in chips at the final table.

On Monday, I get to cover the $5K PLO with Rebuys event starting at 5pm. That should be fun. Stop by PokerNews.com to read the live updates.


2007 Main Event Winner's Bracelet
Photo courtesy of Flipchip
* * * * *
Bouncin' Round the Room on Day 3

Our multimedia guru Justin Shronk lost his voice due to a bizarre incident where he was singing too loudly in his car on the way to the Rio. What was he singing? The original cast album of Rent. That puts Shronk on my "suspect list" along with Michalski's pink polos.

Daniel Negreanu was hitting on a railbird the other day and he was overheard saying, "I got a house in Vegas and I got a hotel room in Reno."

When I got a cab in the wee hours of the morning, it was obvious that the woman in front of me had been doing the walk of shame. She had that all too common look that I see in Las Vegas... half-hung over, dehydrated, exhasuted and wrought with guilt. I hope she got cab fare out of the deal. One of the best walk of shame stories that I ever heard involved a friend of mine that came to Vegas for a convention. He got shitfaced at Light with a female co-worker. They had sex twice before he puked on her tits and then he told her and said, "Now get the fuck out." Poor girl was spotted sneaking away from his room with a severe limp and reeking of vomit.

There's one dealer who looks like Fat Elvis. He has those hairy sideburns and I assume he's an Elvis impersonator as well as WSOP dealer.

Mean Gene did not have any desk space and had to stack chairs to use a work station. The guy was a trooper as I sat next to him for most of the day. Here's a pic:


Photo courtesy of Mean Gene
Phil Hellmuth was listening to Dr. Dre on his iPod. Seriously. When someone asked what song, he responded, "I'd tell you the name but then I'd get an F-bomb penalty."

Around 2:10am, I bumped into a reader named named Andrew Webking. He cashed in the PL Hold'em event and advanced to Day 2. We shot the shit for a few minutes before I had to get back to work. Let's hope he can make a final table.

Melissa Hayden has been seen hobbling around with a cast on her left foot. She thwarted a car jacking attempt but got shot in the foot by a tweaker as she fought him off with just a card capper. OK, that didn't really happened but she asked me to come up with a great story so she could tell people. How about... "a bizarre gardening accident."

SinCityCarmen secured a media badge and is now working for the Poker Works along with CC and Michalski.

Katja Thater walked around barefoot while she left her PL Hold'em table to check on the progress of her fellow German Andreas Krause.

Max Pescatori sported a pair of cool plaid shorts that I'd love to own but Change100 would never let me buy them.

I had a nightmare last night. I was working a PLO event and then I woke up. It sucks when you spend your moments in deep slumber dreaming about work.

I saw Jesus take six photo requests and give no less than three autographs on Sunday. I give Jesus a ton of credit since he's very friendly and accommodating to the fans unlike a ton of other pros I've encountered.

After the Mixed Omaha/Stud event ended, Greg Raymer walked over to check out the final two tables of Event #3 that I was covering. When he asked me if I had to stay until the final nine and I said yes, Fossilman gave me shit and said, "Sucks to be you."

It was a Sunday which meant that there were not too many hookers working the area since most of them were in either church or bible study.

I confirmed a Dan Michalski sighting in the media room. This is the third WSOP that we've worked together. I'm still waiting for Otis to arrive.

Stella Watch... Total Pints of Stella I've Drank at the Tilted Kilt: 5

I went to the Tilted Kilt during my dinner break which was shortened from ninety minutes to sixty due to the delays early in the day. I watched the highlights of the Yankees-Red Sox game and cheered when I saw A-Rod's ninth inning home run to break a tie. I downed two pints and headed back to work.

Last 5 Pros I've Pissed Next To:
1. Jesus
2. Max Pescatori
3. Ghau Giang
4. Pete Giordano
5. Mike Gracz

* * * * *
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos. And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/04/2007 04:18:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Day 2: The Poker Sauna, 3,000 Monkeys, and Pussy Pics

By Pauly

When I wandered down the long corridor, I noticed the absence of the Cold War type bread lines that cluttered the convention area the day before. I could move with relative ease until I got close to the Amazon ballroom. That's where the madness had been contained. The entire area in front of the media room was packed with alternates in Event #3 $1500 NL. It took several minutes just to navigate the crowd of gamblers who had been standing there for some time awaiting their number to be called so they could play in the largest event ever at the WSOP that was not the main event.


Devilfish with the Beast Girls
Photo courtesy of Flipchip
It took several hours, but eventually 2,998 players were seated in the event which had so many people that the Poker Tent or The Poker Sauna (that I'm going to refer to it over the remainder of the series) was packed with players. Harrah's did not have enough tables so both Day 2s of the Employees Event and Event #1 were delayed several hours. Originally scheduled for 2pm, Event #1 was pushed back to 4:30pm while the Employees got stiffed once again and were pushed back to 5:30pm. Even Event #3 started an hour late in order to accommodate the crush of dead money.

The hallways outside the Amazon ballroom was swarmed with spectators and family members of players in Event #3. Security guards were not letting anyone inside the tournament area and depending on the rent-a-cop, they weren't even letting media inside. I got stiff armed at one door and didn't argue. I did take down the guy's name and added him to my Shit List of Assholes and Inbred Dipshits that I will totally flame in my Las Vegas book. I know he has a job to do, but so do I.

I found a different way inside. Harrah's gave one dealer the shittiest job that I had ever seen at the series. One dealer had to stand by a door and act as security guard. What did that guy do to deserve that? Of course, he was the weak link in the security system and I breezed right by him.

As soon as I walked into the room, one of our staff members ran over and said, "Shannon Elizabeth is out on the first hand."

Poor Nadia. I guess the Secret Law of Attraction didn't work that time.

Harrah's took over our work station on the floor and used the table to handle the alternate issues. That meant our team was spread out to different spots. My heart went out to Change100. Her assignment was the Poker Sauna and I went over to check it out since I had never been inside. The room supposedly had A/C pumping through but with the doors constantly opening and closing, the room had a tough time keeping all the cool air flowing.

"Close the door!" bitched one iPod kid with wrap around sunglasses.

"Can we please do something about the door?" another player bitched.

I felt bad for them in one respect since they drew the table closest to the door. But then again, I didn't give one rat's ass about their situation. At this point, you have to expect that you're going to deal with some sort of bullshit at a WSOP event. In 2005 it was the bathrooms, thick clouds of smoke in the hallways, and shitty food. Last year it was the dealer mutiny, used cards, and not enough non-NL events. This year it's the Poker Sauna and cards.

Fuck ups are the norm. It's like living in LA and complaining about the traffic or living in Seattle and bitching about the rain. These are things that are "just are."

Here's my suggestion of the day: the poker kitchen should have been left outside since when they cook burgers in the adjacent ballroom, the fire alarms go off. Isn't that a fire hazard? They should use the ballroom (where the poker kitchen is located) to put spillover tournament tables and use it as a satellite or cash game area instead of clogging the Amazon ballroom.

Change100 had a tough time with internet access in the Poker Sauna and I helped out a few junior reporters with identifying players. I want to use the term "intern" because it sounds cooler and is easier to type than junior reporter. However, they are not technically interns. Anyway, I realized that the new kids had a tough time finding named pros because only a handful were playing in the massive $1500 field.

A lot of pros told me that they are skipping the $1500 NL events in favor of smaller events where they have a better chance to win a bracelet. The $1500 NL ones are a crapshoot and you have to outlast like 2500 or more players just to make the money. Since Harrah's added less NL events and more mixed events, they wanted to focus on those. In addition, Event #1 had 97 players left and many of them were top pros. That's where they were.

Since I was scheduled to work the Day 2 of Event #1, I didn't have anything to do for my first three hours. I stepped in and helped cover Event #3. I walked the floor troubleshooting. Most of the questions I got from our floor kids involved verification of second-tiered pros. I did what I could and also pointed out any Europeans or Aussie/Kiwi players that I happened to know.

I spent some time in the media room since I barely hung out in there during the first day. A few veteran reporters had switched jobs or were working for different outlets. I caught up with some other people I had not seen yet and we bullshitted about the recent buzz involving the cards or the differences in this year's series.

Alternates were sprawled out on the floor. Some were napping while others were eagerly waiting to play. Even though the hallways were clear, the area by the media room was a bottleneck. I quickly bolted and went back inside.

I found Jason Strasser milling around the area where he thought Event #1 would start. The staff told him to come back later around 4pm when more tables broke from the NL event.

"How many entrants today?" he said. "I have a $1,500 bet with John Juanda over the exact number. He said that they would get less players than last year. I said more."

When I told him that there were at least five or six hundred alternates, Strasser made a beeline to Juanda's table.

"Pay up!" he demanded.

"Can I pay you online?" asked Juanda.

Strasser shook his head and Juanda pulled out a wad of Benjamins. He peeled off 15 and Strasser slid them into his pocket with a shit eating grin on his face. The exact number of players was 2,998.

I wandered the floor and came across a table with Minneapolis Jim Meehan. He's one of the biggest and most hilarious characters that I've come across in poker. He's always wearing a cowboy hat and often has an unlit cigarette dangling from his lip. After decades of chain smoking, his raspy voice is both loud and distinctive.

When I walked past his table, he was in a hand. On a flop of 10h-9c-4c one player moved all in for 2.7K. Players started with 3K in chips and it was still in the first level of play. Meehan took almost five minutes to make a decision. He stood up several times and examined the flop. He took off his hat and put it back on. He muttered to himself and spouted out percentages.

"I think I'm a 4 to 1 dog. Or maybe I'm an 8% favorite," he said as a small crowd of media gathered at his table.

"That's two clubs and one heart, right?" he asked the dealer. "I want to make sure. I'm surrounded by 3,000 monkeys."

"Are you calling us monkeys?" snapped his opponent who looked super pissed at Meehan.

"No. Not you guys. You're all world champions. I'm talking about the rest of the idiots!" he replied as he waved his hand gesticulating to the rest of the tables in the Amazon ballroom.

He apologized for the delay to the rest of his table as the guy in Seat 3 stood up and walked over to me.

"Are you Pauly?" he asked.

I nodded and he said his name was Mike and a reader of my blogs.

"Meehan has been putting on a good show for the last hour," Mike whispered to me before going back to his seat.

"I'm lost in this hand," Meehan said. "I just keeping thinking the 9c is the 6c."

Event #3 used the shitty decks with the funny looking numbers. The shipment of new cards had not arrived and Meehan was making sure the cards were right before he made a decision.

His opponent called a clock on him and Meehan eventually called. Meehan flipped over Kc-2c while his opponent showed Jc-8c. The board was 10h-9c-4c and Meehan was ahead with King high and a flush draw while his opponent's hand was not as big since Meehan had a bigger flush draw. The turn was the Qs and his opponent took over the lead with a straight. Meehan still had outs for a flush but missed when the 4d fell on the river.

Meehan mumbled an F-bomb while he headed to the rail and said, "See all you fucking guys at the Resurrection."

When Meehan walked past me, he pulled his unlit cigarette out of his mouth long enough to say, "I'm surrounded by fuckin' geniuses."

Flipchip had been playing in Event #3 along with Snake and Chops from Wicked Chops Poker. Flipchip busted early when he outflopped A-A with Pocket Jacks. Flipchip flopped a set and got all his money in the pot. Unfortunately, the turn was an Ace and he busted out.

BJ and I covered Day 2 of Event #1 $5K Mixed Hold'em which meant we followed the action from the remaining 97 players until the final 9. The starting field was 451 player and we were about to make the money in the first event of 2007.


When Isabelle smiles, I melt.
Photo courtesy of Flipchip
We were excited because there were a lot of pros we knew still in the mix along with a slew of online players such as Pearljammer, Strassa2, Hazards21, MrSmokey1, twin-caracas, and Martine23. Of course the lovely Liz Lieu and Isabelle Mercier both advanced to Day 2. Sadly, they both busted out before the money.

The big story was about Johnny Chan. He was among the chipleaders for most of the day. he was seeking his 11th bracelet and whenever Chan, Brunson, or Hellmuth go deep into events this year, that becomes the immediate focus. Chan went out in 31st place. Other noteworthy players cashing included: Kenny Tran, Paul Snead, Joe Tehan, Jimmy Tran, Jorge Arias, Tony Ma, Jason Strasser, David Grey, Ali Eslami, Aaron Kanter, Hung La, Andreas Wahnum, Todd Brunson, Mark Gregorich, and Cyndy Violette.

The final nine is set and Kirk Morrison is my pick to win his second bracelet. He'll have to come from behind to beat Greg Mueller and Steve Paul-Ambrose who are among the chipleaders.

Event #1 $5K Mixed Hold'em Final Table:
Seat 1 - John Younger - 94,000
Seat 2 - Jon "Pearljammer" Turner - 88,000
Seat 3 - Fred Berger - 942,000
Seat 4 - Roger McDow - 320,000
Seat 5 - Greg 'FBT' Mueller - 683,000
Seat 6 - Kirk Morrison - 512,000
Seat 7 - Steve Billirakis - 562,000
Seat 8 - Steve Paul-Ambrose - 771,000
Seat 9 - Tony George - 546,000

Stop by PokerNews.com to check out our live coverage of the final table along with coverage of two other events.

* * * * *Bouncin Round the Room on Day 2

I almost hit Kathy Liebert as I pulled into the parking lot. She dashed out from a row of cars and I slammed on the breaks. Daddy would have been pissed if I ran over his favorite poker player. Kathy sported a purple velour jumpsuit which sent Change100 on uber-tilt as soon as she spotted Kathy's outfit.

Last year, I posted a pic of a cute dealer and Mean Gene pointed out to me that she was dealing right in front of his media table. He noticed the same glasses that she wore from last year.

Phil Hellmuth and Doyle Brunson were in the VIP lounge during one of the breaks. They made a prop bet to see if Hellmuth could sink three putts in a row on their faux putting green. Hellmuth nailed all three and Brunson forked over $18,000.

Erick Lindgren must have had a horse in Event #1 because he kept asking me about Josh Arieh's progress. Arieh busted out after taking two sick beats in consecutive hands. "He didn't shoot himself afterwards?" wondered Lindgren.


Liz playing in Day 2 of Event #1
Photo courtesy of Flipchip
I hung out with Liz Lieu who was in the media room since she was killing time while waiting for Event #1 to start. She told me that she thinks I have matured over the last two years. "You used to be all feisty," she said. "Now you are more calm and relaxed when I see you." I told her that I'm much better at saving my energy and was most likely stoned or jacked up on painkillers when she saw me. "I don't think so," she said. "I know why. It's because you have a girlfriend now. Am I right?" I asked her if she was jealous and she said, "Maybe."

There was a Dan Michalski sighting in the Rio. I have not confirmed if that is true or just a ghost of Michalski past. The figure had a similar bald spot but he was not wearing a pink polo. I don't think it was him. We have a theory among the veteran media that Michalski will be outsourcing the WSOP content on Pokerati by using illegal immigrant day workers to write his blogs. I can totally picture Michalski pulling up to the parking lot at Home Depot and asking, "Puede usted contar virutas? Usted desea trabajar en la serie de mundo de poker?"

Thanks to The Fat Guy for the shout out and calling me HST Jr.

Gavin Smith was using an airport bottle of Canadian whiskey as a card capper.

My dinner break was much later than most of the staff and the players in Event #1. I went at 9pm instead of 7:30pm. I missed the mad rush at the Tilted Kilt according to Kari and the other kilts. I drank a couple of pints of Stella and ate chicken fingers with spicy ranch dipping sauce. I had been craving that for months. Kari told me about the one new girl they hired. The guys in the kitchen think she's a man. The waitress wanted to prove them wrong and asked Kari to take a picture of her vagina to prove the guys wrong. Where was Flipchip when you needed him? I offered up my services. Alas, I did not get to snap any pictures of Tilted Kilt waitresses' cookies. If I was able to pull that feat off, that would have put Otis on mega tilt for the rest of the decade.

We told Filipe (our photographer from Portugal) that he should say, "No habla anglais." when people from other rival outlets asked him questions. I started saying that when tourists were asking me questions like "Where's Bill Ivey?"

It was Saturday night at the Rio which meant that the hookers were out in full force. One short old guy had a buxom fake-blonde on one arm and a slim black girl on the other arm. He strolled through the Amazon room showing off. Too bad everyone breathing knew that they were pros. Instead of hanging out at the Hooker bar, a few ladies of the night were proactive and trickled down into the convention center. Hey, the poker pros flock to Vegas during the WSOP because of all the dead money flying onto town. Same goes for the working girls. They know that everyday more marks are flying into town and showing up at the Rio. Who can they fleece or roll today?

Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next To...
1. Johnny Chan
2. CK Hua
3. Minh Ly
4. Tony Ma
5. Todd Brunson

* * * * *
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos. And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/03/2007 02:48:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Day 1: Long Lines, Shitty Cards, and the French Fries Prop Bet

By Pauly

I drove to the Rio via the back way thirty minutes before I was scheduled to pick up my credentials. As soon as I got out of the car and started walking across the sizzling asphalt of the parking lot, I felt like a dead man walking. I was ready to serve the first day of a 47 day prison sentence and subjected to living 75-80% of my life at the Rio's convention center.

Flashbacks buzzed my already baked brain as I noticed that an entire section of the parking lot was blocked off for the valet. Two red carpets were rolled out as mist machines in front of the entrance cooled down a couple of donkeyfish.

"Sweet Jesus, what the fuck is this line for?" I muttered to Change100 and BJ as we walked down the long corridor that led to the festivities in the Amazon ballroom.

A ginormous line had already started to form with people were standing three across. I rushed past them and made a beeline for the media credentials room. A group of us from PokerNews.com stood in line for almost an hour before we eventually got to talk to the media department. During that time, I saw random and familiar faces that I had not seen since last year's WSOP. There was CC and Mike Paulle, and Ed from Gutshot, and Wade from Texas Hold'em radio.

I got plenty of compliments on how I looked. I shaved that morning for the first time in a week or so. I bumped into Michael Craig and he said that I looked like I lost weight. I didn't return the compliment. Even Tiffany Michelle commented on my thinner self. I did my best to shed pounds are run a bit in NYC before I embarked on the seven week kamikaze mission.

By the way, before the WSOP began, I was already $50 in the hole after I lost a prop bet against Tiffany. The poker kitchen was moved inside and took up a massive area that used to be utilized as the hospitality suites for UB and Full Tilt. Outside the rooms were a few tables where people could sit and eat. A group of Scandis had gathered including Thor Hansen and Per Ummer. They had been eating sandwiches before they walked away. A large bucket of French fries sat untouched. I offered Tiffany $50 to eat the entire bucket. She picked it up and started chowing down.


Yes, that girl can eat. The fact that it was someone else's leftovers did not deter her. She crushed the bucket and Daddy would have been proud of her ability to knock back a couple of potatoes with only a small helping of ranch dressing on the side. Did I mention that they were cold and soggy? It didn't matter, she ate them all and I forked over $50.

Note to self... never make eating prop bets with Tiffany or Otis. The WSOP had not even started and I was in the hole prop betting. This is going to be a long summer.

I was handed the wrong badge that would be the first of many screw ups during the my first day on the job. The badge had my name on it but I was given the wrong color. Orange meant all access and I was given a baby blue one. After fifteen minutes of red tape, Schecky solved the mystery and Harrah's issued me the proper pass. As we waited in line for the press credentials, the monster line that backed up all the way to the entrance of the convention center near the valet. The horror stories quickly spread throughout the Rio. Some people waited five or six hours to register for events... and some of them even registered online but were forced to stand in line anyway. What's the point to pre-registration if you have to stand in line to get your seating assignment?

By noon players were trying to register for SNGs or for different WSOP events as both lines were not moving. The desperation in people's faces reminded me of those outstretched bread lines filled with bleak Ruskies during in the middle of the cold war. Everyone in line look pissed off, confused, and not happy about the lengthy wait. Some of them snagged chairs to sit on. A couple of folks pulled benches into the middle of the hallway and sat on them as they waited. And waited. And waited.

A note to all future WSOP participants, here's a tip how to avoid the stress of waiting in line for five hours... go to the Home Depot on Decatur and Tropicana and hire a illegal immigrant day worker to stand in line for you.

All poker players are depraved junkies and thousands of people subjected themselves to the utter humiliation and torture by standing in line just to get their fix.

"Fuck this shit," one guy snapped in a thick New Jersey accent. "Yo Vinny, I'm leaving. Fuck Harrah's in the mouth."

Some players decided not to register or play in Event #1 or Event #2 because the refused to stand in that awful line. I don't blame them. They wanted to play in the WSOP not stand around like a moron for five hours with their thumbs up their asses. I wonder how many customers that Harrah's lost due to that fiasco? Whatever the reason... there's no excuse for that incompetence. When I left the Rio at 2am... the line was as jam packed as when I first entered the convention center at 10:30 that morning.

For a while I had no idea what caused the back until I found out that there were not too many open registration windows plus their new procedures involved photocopying IDs of every player which slowed up the process. At one point security guards had to be called into the hallway to help quell a potential riot. I'm shocked that the angry mob didn't lynch WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack or give him a swirlee in the port-o-potties in the back.

The long lines also meant that players in the Casino Employees event (scheduled at 5pm) had to wait up to two hours to get into the event. Sloshr missed ninety minutes of his event because he got stuck in the line. Harrah's solution? Push back the starting time to 6pm instead of 5pm. OK that's like putting a band-aid on a gapping wound. But how about Saturday's NL event where 2,000 players were expected? And future events? If they don't solve that issue ASAP, then they are going to lose a lot of customers unless tourists wise up and start hiring Mexicans from the parking lot at Home Depot to stand in line for them.

Sadly, the long lines overshadowed any of the new changes at the Rio. People were too pissed off to notice the differences in the layout from last year's event such as the lack of vendors in the hallway and the brand new stadium seating and stage set up for the final table.

Due to the craziness and confusion, TD Jack Effel pushed back the starting time of Event #1 $5K Mixed Hold'em to 12:30pm. After Jeffrey Pollack was introduced to the crowd on the tournament floor around 12:25pm, he was quickly booed by some players. Pollack deflected the boo birds and joked, "That must be from the people standing in line."

He managed to plug two sponsors... Beast Lite and Corum watches before he handed the microphone over to Jamie Gold. He of course, the 2006 World Champion was promptly booed as well as he uttered the famous words, "Shuffle up and deal."

"He's a donkey," one railbird told his friend. "I can't believe that idiot won."

Once Event #1 started, everyone in the room focused on one thing... the new playing cards.


Photo courtesy of PokerNews
"You can't see the cards! Where the hell is Jeffrey Pollack,"screamed Mike Matusow two minutes into the event.

"These are the worst cards ever," explained Johnny Chan who threatened to boycott the remainder of the WSOP.

"The shittiest cards I ever played with," agreed Daniel Negreanu. "It was affecting everyone a lot early. You cannot distinguish the 6 and the 9. You can't squeeze your cards. I was surprised that they went with them. If these cards are played with in Stud or Stud Hi/Lo it would be the most confusing thing you've ever seen. It's very difficult."

After last year's problem with recycling cards for later events, Harrah's tried to address the issue by getting new cards for every event. However, the new company who fucked the monkey on that deal. Not only were the cards difficult to read in the hole, but players had problems reading the board correctly. It was even harder for left-handed players to see the cards. Some players in Seat 5 or 6 were actually calling out the flop so players in the corners could figure out what was going on. The 6s looked like 9s and vice versa.

"You get to pick if it's a 6 or a 9," joked Rafi Amit.

A mutiny started and two players quickly demanded their money back. They were already pissed off about the long lines and the shitty cards really set them off. Harrah's stepped in and decided to get new cards to appease the players. At 2:01pm, Jack Effel said that they were going to get a new set up. They eventually handed out decks of Kem cards as soon as they could muster enough decks. Ironically, they Casino Employees got stuck using the crappy and hard to read decks. At 5:05, KEM cards were finally introduced to Event #1. That drew a light applause from the remaining players.

* * * * *

Event #1 $5K Mixed Hold'em
Entrants: 451
Prize Pool: $2.2M

I covered Event #1 for PokerNews and headed up a team of "junior reporters." I got five and they were all pretty good. One or two kids stood out and I gave them special assignments. They pretty much ran hands and chipcounts back and forth from the quadrant we were assigned. Everyone was overwhelmed at first, especially Mean Gene who sat next to me. It took an hour or so to catch up but once we got past that initial rush, we were fine. BJ and I were back in our old routine and it felt good to sit on the floor on the Amazon Ballroom and not be locked up in the tiny hole of a media center.

The first tournament to kick off the series was $5K Mixed Hold'em which featured 30 minute levels of NL followed by a 30 minute level of Limit. During the first level players were confused with the cards and format. Some of them forgot what format they were playing.

The event was top-heavy which often happens for 5K buy-in events. The field included Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, Phil Gordon, Jen Harman, Annie Duke, Johnny Chan, Scotty Nguyen, Isabelle Mercier, Chad Brown, Erick Lindgren, Brandon Schaefer, Carl Olson, Liz Lieu, Andy Bloch, Andy Black, Greg Raymer, Shaniac, Sam Grizzle, Patrik Antonius, JC Tran, The Dragon, The Devilfish, Thomas Wahlroos, Mike Matusow, Erik Seidel, Joe Sebok, Johnny D'Ags, John Juanda, Gus Hansen, Jesus, Daniel Negreanu, Allen Cunningham, and Anna "Poker Pixie" Wroblewski.


Is it LLT's yet?
Photo courtesy of Flipchip
The Limit levels were boring while most of the action went down in the NL sections.

Here's something I wrote in my notes:

9:24pm... Hellmuth kicks over a chair

The Poker Brat was in rare form. He showed up two hours late to start the event. After dinner break, he got into several arguments with players at his table. After he busted out, he got into a verbal spat with Paul Snead who busted him. Phil Gordon stepped in and snapped at Hellmuth saying that he had no right to berate players. Those two got into it for a few minutes as a heated argument ensued. Eventually, Hellmuth calmed down and he shook Snead's hand before he left the tournament room.

Late in the evening, the big story was the run made by Sably Cohen, the last female left standing in last year's WSOP main event. She jumped out to the chiplead and was one of the first players past the 100K mark. She ended the day 3rd overall.

When action was stopped around 2am, 95 players remained with Greg "FBT" Mueller as the chipleader with 130K.

Event #1 Top 10 Chipcounts:
1. Greg Mueller 130000
2. Frank Kassela 121500
3. Sabyl Cohen 118500
4. Louis Werman 110500
5. Mark Teltscher 100500
6. John Kroshvs 93000
7. John Younger 91500
8. Kirk Morrison 90500
9. Alex Bolotin 88000
10. Joseph Tehan 87500

Noteworthy stacks:
Jason Strasser 79000
Eric Froehlich 74000
Jon Turner 72500
Todd Brunson 70500
Staffan Rydin 63000
Toto Leonidas 61500
Ted Lawson 56000
Steve Paul-Ambrose 55500
Isabelle Mercier 55500
Hung La 54000
Vanessa Rousso 53500
Erik Seidel 52000
Joe Bartholdi 51000
Josh Arieh 50000
Mark Gregorich 48500
Antonio Esfandiari 46500
Barry Greenstein 43000
Minh Ly 42500
Cyndy Violette 38000
Kenny Tran 34500
Hoyt Corkins 34000
Andreas Walnum 27000
Carl Olson 21000
Jimmy Tran 19500
CK Hua 16500
Perry Friedman 14500
Johnny Chan 14000
David Grey 13000
Chad Layne 12000
Liz Lieu 11500
Humberto Brenes 10000

Action for event #2 resumes at 2pm local time on Saturday. Head over to PokerNews.com to follow the live updates. Also on Saturday, Event #3 $1,500 NL Hold'em kicks off at noon.

* * * * *
Bouncin Round the Room on Day 1

For the third year in a row, the Bouncin' Round the Room segments are back. In case you didn't know the origins of BRM, it is actually the title of a Phish song. During the 2005 WSOP, I was stuck in the trenches in media row at the final table and would need to take a break. I'd walk around the area and take notes. Those segments became more popular than bust out hands so I kept them up. Here's the first installment...

Antonio Esfiandari had been sitting in Todd Brunson's seat by mistake. Brunson arrived late and sported a hot pink polo shirt. In 2005 when Todd Brunson won his bracelet, I mentioned to Jay Greenspan that he reminded me of Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons. He still does.

During one of the breaks, I went to the bathroom outside and the entire area reeked of pot. Someone was toking reefer near the bathrooms and by the delicious aroma... it was some good shit. I have a list of possible suspects.

I heard whispers that Gus Hansen was stuck over $10M to Texas Dolly and that the Great Dane was working off his debt over the last few months.

The Milwaukee's Beast girls were back trolling around the Amazon room wearing shitkickers, tight jean shorts and a handkerchief for a top. They were different than last year's crop. Some of them looked bored shitless while others took tremendous pride in their job. What's the series without some good old fashioned T & A?

The tournament room appeared much darker than in previous years. There were too many banners hanging from the ceilings. It appeared that Harrah's sold every piece of available space in the ballroom to advertisers. I was shocked hat I didn't find a Chico's Bail Bonds banner flying around.

There was one cool thing that Harrah's did and that was to hang huge portraits of previous main event winners. When people asked me where I was sitting, I'd say "Berry Johnston."

Gus Hansen grabbed Joy's ass in the middle of the tournament in front of a slew of spectators. I was jealous. Gus didn't grab my ass.

Phil Hellmuth arrived late... in true Hellmuthian fashion. He was getting a massage when the Devilfish took over at one point and he gave the Poker Brat a rub down.

Mike Matusow and Devilfish were jawing back and forth for most of the day. At one point Matusow doubled through Devilfish and his needling seemed to die down after that.

The one pro who posed for the most pictures on Day 1 had to be Humberto Brenes. Everytime I turned around he was taking photos with tourists. I wonder if he charged them anything? And yes, the Shark is here. It's called Shark #2.

Michelle Lewis stopped by to chat. She was playing cash games. We have some great ideas involving prop bets with Dan Michalski. How much would it cost to get his entire back waxed? We're going to find out.

At dinner break, I wandered around the casino and headed over to the Tilted Kilt. They were supposedly bought out but nothing has been done with the space. The Tilted Kilt was still there. I wandered inside and our favorite waitress Kari quickly greeted me with a hug. She wondered were Wil and Otis were and said that she missed served us everyday last summer. I drank a pint of Stella as I watched the Yankees-Red Sox game as Kari explained to me what was going on with the rumors that the Tilted Kilt were closing. She assured me that they will be open during the duration of the series.

After dinner break, I bumped into Sloshr who told me that he was playing in Event #2 as he recanted his horror story about trying to register.

I also found my buddy Stormy from NYC. He cashed in last year's main event but this year he's dealing at the WSOP. He seemed excited for Day 1.

Miami Don and WeakPlayer were playing cash games at some point. From what they tell me, the 205 NL is juicy.

I bumped into Eric Schoenberg. She wanted to play in Event #1 but didn't want to wait in the long line. Instead, she hung out on the rail and sweated her main squeeze David Benyamine. Erica had some nice things to say about the Tao. "You've been writing great stuff recently," she complimented. "And I love the Last 5 Pros you pissed next to."

I told Erica that she needs to sneak me into the ladies room so I can pee next to her. By the way... the first installment of 5 Pissing is dedicated to Erica.

Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next to...
1. Freddy Deeb
2. Phil Gordon
3. Sam Grizzle
4. Fossilman
5. Amir Vahedi

* * * * *
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos. And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
posted by Pauly at 6/02/2007 01:15:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Welcome to the 2007 WSOP

By Pauly

In a few hours the ravenous vultures, blood-thirsty sharks, and scrofulous professional poker players will quickly circle the Rio Casino as they fight to pick apart the carrion of dead money. Donkeys, superfish, hipsters, and hordes of wide-eyed amateurs are already starting to trickle into Las Vegas as every few minutes another plane touches down at McCarran or another car races into town on I-15 transporting bags and bags of money that will eventually end up in the bank accounts of 55 new bracelet winners.

The spectators are ready to pounce on every famous pro they see and besiege them with autograph and digital photo requests. Even the pimps are getting their bitches prepped to service the sexual or emotional needs of lonely poker players who willingly fork over a couple of big bets for blowjobs. I wonder if the working girls charge extra to hear a barrage of bad beat stories?

"Umm, let's see... a hummer, a doggie style for 10 minutes, and two bad beats... that will be $800. And I don't take online poker transfers."

The 2007 World Series of Poker begins in a couple of hours and for the third year in a row, I have been given the opportunity to cover the event. The Tao of Poker will be the place to get the straight dope on the behind the scenes action at the most prestigious poker tournament in the universe.

My philosophy with the Tao of Poker has always been simple... write what I see and write what I know. That tradition will continue as I help paint the word picture for everyone who cannot be here in Las Vegas to witness the spectacle and the insanity. I don't have a gameplan this year because I won't know what to expect until I the first event starts. I have to size everything up as it happens and find moments to jot down notes and write during the tedious 18-20 hour days and desultory schedule that I'm anticipating over the next seven weeks.

If your office or school firewalls the Tao of Poker, then feel free to add me to your Bloglines or other RSS feeds so you can keep track of the action.

Click here to add the Tao of Poker to Bloglines.
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I'm back inside the ropes and have better access this year. However, I'm unable to post live updates on the Tao of Poker. The reasoning is two fold. First, there's a new rule in place this year by Harrah's which restricts coverage by bloggers. I will adhere to their rules and regulations because if I fail to comply, I lose my badge and won't get invited back in the future. The second reason is that I was hired by PokerNews.com to provide live updates for them since they are part of the official WSOP media team.

Of course, PokerNews has zero problems with me posting once a day on the Tao of Poker and a couple of days a week over at LasVegasVegas. And I can write whatever I want here. No censors. Freedom of speech. Complete independence. I can say cocksmuggler, cuntbag, assclown, and dildohead as much as I want. I can discuss the similarities between weak-tight post-flop play and how it correlates to female ejaculation. And I can talk freely about the high priced talent that saddles up to the Hooker Bar every night. This might be the last chance I ever get to say what I want before the blog police throws me into Gitmo after I get a complaint from Ned Flanders who red flagged the Tao for too many POB references.

And who knows... this might be the last year that I ever cover the WSOP. Because of the uncertainty of my future, I am going to treat this year like it is going to be my last.

I'm excited to be working with Poker News since they tapped some of the best writers and reporters in the poker community to be a part of the coverage team. I have been with them since the Aussie Millions in January and have been fortunate to cover the LA Poker Classic, the EPT Grand Finale in Monte Carlo, the WPT Championship, and the WSOP Circuit at Caesar's Palace with the likes of the Jonno, BJ Nemeth, Poker Shrink, Amy Calistri, Change100, Filipe, Tiffany Michelle, Leanne, and Shronk. Since then, the team has added a few members along the way such as Flipchip, Steve Horton, Jay Neuman, and Mean Gene... all of whom have plenty of experience covering tournaments.

I'm also pumped for Flipchip who got tapped to be one of the official photographers since he's been snapping photos of the WSOP since 1973. I was one years old then. And not to worry, Flipchip's WSOP photos can still be seen daily over at LasVegasVegas.


Just a few days ago... the empty Amazon Ballroom
Photo courtesy of Flipchip
And there's also folks like Short-Stacked Shamus, Haley Hintze, Earl Burton, and Michael Friedman who will also be providing recaps and back-end support. Even The Poker Biz thought the move by PokerNews was powerful enough that they leap-frogged into their Top 25 in the Poker Power Rankings. Fuck Duke. Here comes PokerNews.

Caldwell and PokerNews did the right thing and spent a lot of time and money to assemble this team. I'm sincerely honored to be working for a company where the main focus and priority is on covering the biggest and most bad ass tournament in the world. Our collective goal is to provide top-notch coverage which is better than anyone has ever seen before at the WSOP. Something of that level of prestige deserves to be covered in the best possible manner. And I'll be taking that philosophy one step further by writing daily recaps on the Tao of Poker to fill in you in with the more seedy and vile stories and gossip. I guess you can say that the live updates on PokerNews will be the play-by-play and the end of day write-ups on Tao of Poker will provide the color commentary.

I hope that the long and grueling hours don't create crazy moments when the stress levels max out and I want to punch a hole into the fake walls in the convention center, quit blogging, and move to Paris to write a book or three. It's going to be a tough assignment with 55 events this year and days when there are three or four different events are running simultaneously. I'm ready for battle. Working the WSOP is like climbing Mt. Everest. Many people die along the way and never make it to the summit. After two previous WSOPs under my belt, I feel like an experienced climber who hopes to avoid the pitfalls I encountered in previous years.

Anyway, the WSOP kicks off at noon today. Here's the schedule for the first week:

Event #1 June 1 @ noon $5,000 World Championship Mixed Limit/NL Hold'em (3 day event)
Event #2 June 1 @ 5 p.m. $500 Casino Employee NL (2 day event)
Event #3 June 2 @ noon $1,500 NL (3 day event)
Event #4 June 3 @ noon $1,500 Pot-limit Jold 'em (3 day event)
Event #5 June 3 @ 5 p.m. $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud 8 or Better (3 day event)
Event #6 June 4 @ noon $1,500 Limit Hold 'em (3 day event)
Event #7 June 4 @ 5 p.m. $5,000 PLO w/ rebuys (2 day event)
Event #8 June 5 @ noon $1,000 NL w/rebuys (3 day event)
Event #9 June 5 @ 5 p.m. $1,500 Omaha 8 or Better (3 day event)
Event #10 June 6 @ noon $2,000 NL (3 day event)
Event #11 June 6 @ 5 p.m. $5,000 World Championship Seven Card Stud (3 day event)
Event #12 June 7 @ noon $1,500 NL Hold 'em / Six Handed (3 day event)

The first mixed-game event will be introduced on Day 1 with a $5K buy-in Limit and NL Hold'em event. Levels will alternate between Limit and NL. Later in the evening, the Casino Employee's NL event will kick off.

* * * * *
Tuesday: Crazy White Man

I played some poker in my short time since arriving in Las Vegas. On Tuesday night, Change100 and I headed to Red Rock for dinner and poker. They didn't spread any bigger limit hold'em tables, so I quietly took a seat at Change100's 4-8 with a half kill table. I played like a maniac because I'm an action junkie and just only a few days earlier, I regularly multi-tabled 15/30 and 30/60 online. The 4/8 game seemed too slow for me and I was bored which meant large fluctuations in my stack.

I lost a big hand early in my session with K-K. A donkeydouche showing too much chest hair in Seat 3 called Q-5 to 3 bets preflop. He flopped bottom pair and turned trips. After that beat, my primary objective was to tilt the locals. Within a few hands, I met my goal.

During the first ten kill pots, I raised every single one. That drew ire from a few players but they were too weak or too scared to play back at me. I bluffed one local out of a pot with Kh-7h. By the river, four diamonds appeared on the board. There was only one way to win for me and that was to keep firing at the pot representing a flush. He had nothing and mucked. I considered showing him my bluff, however, that would have angered the locals even more. And you know the saying... don't burn the locals. They already had pegged me for a sociopath. I was going to get paid off with big hands no matter what.

"He's crazy," one of the players on Change100's end of the table said to her about my play.

I established a wild and erratic playing style and tightened up as the game progressed and the other players grew more and more frustrated because they couldn't put me on a hand. I used to play conservative early and exploit my tight play later on with bluffs, but in low limit games at Las Vegas casinos... that strategy never works. Instead, I started out playing like a maniac and then slowly down shifted gears.

Later in the session, I reaped the benefits of playing like a schizoid while quelling my inner action junkie at the same time. The hands that I won in the last hour were A-Ks, A-Qs, A-Q, J-J, and A-Js. They all held up and I rarely played junk hands aside after the first hour of play. The locals never believed me when I raised and they constantly called me to the river with inferior hands.

One old fart was steaming after I flopped trips with 2c-3c. I limp-called his raise in a six way pot and he berated me. He knows better and just wanted to bitch at me. I ignored him which seem to piss him off some more. Some of these guys have been playing poker for decades yet they can't take a beat like a real man. They act like a baby who just got a piece of candy stolen from them. Besides, he plays there all the time. Suited connectors (and even one-gappers) and baby pairs are playable hands at Red Rock due to the bad beat jackpot. Grumpy Old Man in seat 10 was just surly because he probably had a load of shit in his Depends after I cracked his Cowboys. Had it happened the otherway, I might have muttered "Cumstain" under my breath and called him a donkalope in my blog, but I always say "Nice hand." I understand the flow of the games at Station Casinos and shrug off any bad beats especially at those limits with everyone dreaming about hitting that lofty bad beat jackpot.


Wednesday: Third Place

Jen Leo hosted a birthday gathering at Treasure Island. We drank at the Isla, the swanky tequila bar and headed over to the poker room to play in the 7pm tournament. The TI hosts five daily tournaments. We played a $60 freezeout (plus a $5 add-on). 46 players bought in and you start with 2000 in chips with 20 minutes levels. After the first hour it's a crap shoot but not as bad as some of the other Strip tournaments.

I was seated at Mean Gene and Change100's table. The remainder of our table was filled with weak-tight tourists. I won a big hand with K-Q after flopping top pair and won another pot with A-Q. Spaceman busted out in the first level and quickly headed to the cash game table.

A French tourist was moved to my table and on the second hand he played, he min-raised my blind. I called with Q-7 and we were heads up. The flop was Q-J-2 and I checked. He moved all in and I quickly called. He showed A-2 and I doubled up. Just before the break, I picked up 8-8 and raised. I got two callers and the flop was 10-9-9. I was first to act and moved all in. Everyone folded and I picked up another decent sized pot.

At the break, I had close to 3K with my eye on Schecky's stack. We had a last longer and I wanted to win that badly.

Jen Leo was moved to my table and was involved in a sick hand. Mean Gene raised in MP and the French guy (who bought in as a new entrant just before time expired) flat called. Jen Leo pushed all in from her small blind with K-K. Mean Gene called with Q-Q as did the French guy with Ad-Qd. The flop was Q-x-x. Ouch. The turn was the Ace and the river was a blank. Mean Gene took the chiplead as he busted two players.

When the final two tables consolidated, I held the chiplead with about 10K. I was moved to Jonno and Leigh's table along with Mean Gene and Change100. When action was down to 12 players (and our table was short-handed), I went to work and started bullying everyone around. My big stack would be worthless in the upcoming levels with the blinds accelerating. I made moves and picked up a slew of blinds. I pushed my stack to over 20K by the time the final table was seated. Sadly, I only had 20 big bets, yet, I was the chipleader. Everyone else was short-stacked.

I busted one chick on the money bubble in 7th place. I raised from the SB and she moved all in from the BB. I called with Qc-6c and was up against A-7. The tourist pushed with the tourist. I flopped a Queen and she was out. Jonno, Change100, and I all cashed.

I busted Change100 in 5th place when I moved all in UTG with 6c-4c. She called from her BB with K-Q. I rivered a 4 and she was wicked pissed. By that point, a small crowd had gathered around the table and she barked, "You're walking home. Looks like you're calling a cab."

That comment got a big laugh from the crowd.

"Sore loser!" I responded.

I was the chipleader with 4 BB. Insane. But that's how the structure was. I moved all in on every hand I played and eventually got crippled by the girl who won it all.

"She's a donkey," explained Jonno who lost to her heads-up.

She was not a very good player but I was happy to take 3rd, while Jonno took down 2nd. I tipped the dealers $40 on a $350 win and they were ecstatic. The best part of the tournament (besides busting Change100) was winning the last longer with Schecky.

After the tournament, Mean Gene, Jonno, Change100 and I headed to the pit to play Pai Gow. We taught Mean Gene and although he made a few rookie mistakes, he only lost $20 on a $10 table. We drank some more beer and I only lost $20. Remarkable.

After checking my tournament spreadsheet, I'm showing a $1200 profit this year. That's a shocker. Usually I'm losing a few grand every few months playing tournaments. Of course, I'm going to donk all of those winnings off in a WSOP event at some point this summer.


Thursday: Small Peckers

Change100 and I headed back to Red Rock for a couple hours of poker before we started working the WSOP. That might have been my last session for a very long time. There was an 8/16 game going but it was short-handed with the local rocks. I decided not to play and sat down at 4/8 with one goal... to tilt the locals. I always thrive on a good challenge and quickly found an opportunity on the third hand that I played.

I peeked at the first card as soon as it hit my chip stack. The 7d. The dealer pitched in the next card seconds later. I peeled back to see 2c. Hammertime.

I raised. Four callers. The flop was Q-7-2. I check-called a bet. Still four players. The turn was a blank and I check-raised. I got one caller. The river was another blank. I bet out and was called by K-Q. The Asian lady was wicked pissed and called me a donkey in Vietnamese. The locals hate The Hammer and they hate getting outplayed by someone younger than them even more.

I got paid off in two big pots. I raised pre-flop with Ac-Kc and got five callers. I flopped a full house on a board of A-A-K. I bet out and was called on the flop and turn by four players. The river was the 9h. I was check-raised by emo-kid in Seat 8 who somberly listened to his iPod the entire time. I re-raised. He re-raised. I re-raised and he took off his headphones and dramatically uttered, "I think you got A-K."

No shit, Sherlock. He called and showed 9-9.

"Thanks for believing me," I said. "Now you can go back to listening to Death Cab for Cutie."

A couple of hands after, I raised with Jh-Jd preflop. Five callers. The flop was Q-9-8 but gave me a gutshot which I rivered when the 10 hit. The Vietnamese woman raised me and I three-bet the river. She called and reluctantly showed A-10 for just a pair of 10s. I flipped over J-J and she slammed her hand on the table. That time, I caught a tirade of curse words all in her native tongue.

Ten minutes before we left for the night, I lost the biggest hand that I think I ever lost at 4/8. I had 3s-3c on the button and called three-bets preflop. Six people in the pot. The flop was Kd-5d-3h. The betting was capped on the flop with four callers. I was worried that someone had 5-5 or worse... K-K. I figured that one player had A-A or A-K and another player had the flush draw. But what did that other guy have? The turn was the 5d. No way he could have gotten quads. Maybe he had Kings? I re-raised the flop and was re-raised. I capped it and we had four players see the river. When the case 3 fell, I almost knocked over my stack because I quickly grabbed a column of grey chips. Two players were all in after I raised.

Emo-kid: A-A
MVWFM (Malcontent Vietnamese Woman with a Foul Mouth): Ad-9d
WWII Vet: 5-5
Your Hero: 3-3

Quads over Quads over nut flush over Aces up. Too bad we missed the bad beat jackpot. The qualifying hand was Quad 7s losing to a better hand. That hit to my stack stung.

I called out one guy for being an asshole at the table. I loathe dealer abuse. There's no need for that in poker. I also noticed he stiffed the dealer twice on hands he won. He had been sitting next to me in Seat 2 and bitched and moaned after taking a couple of beats. There was one legit suckout while the other two times he played his hand so poorly that he should have been self-mutilating his own genitals after his atrocious play. He switched seats thinking that would change his luck. It didn't happen. Instead, he lost a big pot and busted out when his A-Ko lost to Ah-Kh. The flop was Ax-8h-3h and there was plenty of action on the flop and the turn. The river was a baby heart and he was all-in for $3. When he saw that he lost, he intentionally threw his cards at the dealer.

"Hey, that was rude," I said in my tough-guy New Yorker voice. "You owe that lady an apology."

He didn't say anything to the dealer and muttered something about the suckout.

"Take the beat like a man. A real man would have not thrown his cards like a baby."

He slithered away from the table in silence and the dealer leaned over to me and whispered, "Thank you."

"So do you guys think he wasn't hugged enough as a child or has a two inch penis?"

After polling the table, we decided that he suffered from a case of minuscule genitals.

* * * * *
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos. And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

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posted by Pauly at 6/01/2007 04:20:00 AM | Permalink |