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

 
60 Minutes Video: Absolute Bet and Ultimate Bet Online Poker Cheating

By Pauly
New York City

In case you missed 60 Minutes, here's a video of the piece...


Watch CBS Videos Online
For some RSS readers, you have to click through to Tao of Poker to view the 60 minutes video.

So what are your thoughts?


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 11/30/2008 10:04:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Online Poker Cheating, 60 Minutes, and the Washington Post

By Pauly
New York City

On Sunday night, 60 Minutes will be airing a piece on the Absolute Poker/UB online cheating stories. The hombres at Wicked Chops Poker thinks it will be a hatchet job on the poker industry while Pokerati doesn't think it's going to be all that bad.

I guess you'll have to tune in and watch 60 Minutes to see for yourself.

There's an article in the Washington Post that you should check out.... The Poker Cheats: Players Gamble on Honesty, Security of Internet Betting was written by Gilbert Gaul. It's supposed to be Part 1 of a two part series.

Update....

Part 2 of the Washington Post investigative piece by Gilbert M. Gaul is available. Check out... Prohibition vs. Regulation Debated As U.S. Bettors Use Foreign Sites.


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 11/30/2008 01:04:00 AM | Permalink |

 
dfense072 Wins Saturdays with Dr. Pauly for the Second Time This Year

By Pauly
New York City

dfense072 won Saturdays with Dr. Pauly back in September. And he just joined an elite group of two-time champions after winning this week's tournament. That group of multi-winners includes... Derek, Grouse14, Sydney 8, CSauve, and Resdent Evil (three time champion including back-to-back wins).

We had 32 runners this week and the top 5 paid out. Special guests included GRob, Spaceman, and Benjo.

My starting table included andynelson, GRobman, ArcticAction, Skow-go, SmBoatDrinks, Benjo_DiMeo, and last week's champion markoflnk

Derek said, "Dude, you are a table with Tony Soprano, Trey, Paul Newman and a young Obama."

Click here to see our avatars. During Turkey Cup, the eventual champion Daddy mistook my avatar for Obama as a child.

Anyway, back to the PLO tournament... Same old story. I didn't last long. I went out in 28th. My Kings were snapped off by Skow-go's trip tens.

At the first break, Chompy was the chipleader with 6.7k with 20 too go. After the break, Chompy lost the lead in two big hands. Skow-go took the lead.

Benjo's empty chair finished in 15th place. Change100 busted two on a cooler. Her A-A-x-x held up against Kings and Queens. StB bubbled off the final table in 10th place.

Final Table:
Seat 1: Skow-go (7597)
Seat 2: jeciimd (7670)
Seat 3: TNSpaceman (6125)
Seat 4: rocketman97 (7666)
Seat 5: ResdentEvil (1800)
Seat 6: change1OO (4335)
Seat 7: dfense072 (9432)
Seat 8: CheckRaise70 (3015)
Seat 9: markoflnk (360)

dfense072 began the final table as the chipleader, but bythe second break, there were rocketman97 snagged the chiplead. His stack was 14k with six to go.

Change100 was the bubble girl. She ran into Aces and finished in 6th. Spaceman went out in 5th. He had a rollercoaster ride. Aces cracked. Aces hold up. Then out. CheckRaise70 went out next when jeciimd took him out in 4th place. With three to go, dfense072 was regained chiplead.

Rocketman went out in third place. He got it all in on the board of Qd-7h-3s-Ac.

jeciimd: Qh-Jh-3d-3h
rocketman97: Ah-10h-7s-5s

jeciimd flopped a set and it held up. Rocketman finished in third and heads up was set.

Heads Up Chip Counts:
Seat 2: jeciimd (29103)
Seat 7: dfense072 (18897)

dfense072 won the first big battle when he doubled up. He was all in with a flush draw against jeciimd's two pair. He missed his flush but backdoored a bigger two pair to win the pot. dfense072 took a 3 to 1 chiplead.

Jeciimd was short until he doubled up to 10K, but his comeback ended right there.

On the final hand, both players got it all in on the turn. The board read Jd-Jh-4s-2c.

dfense072: Ac-Js-8c-3s
jeciimd: Jc-10h-8d-3c

Both players flopped trips, but dfense072 had jeciimd outkicked. The river was the 9c. dfense072 won the pot with trip Jacks and an Ace kicker. jeciimd went out in second place. dfense072 won Saturdays with Dr. Pauly and joined an elite club of folks who have won more than once. Congrats!

Week 44 Money Winners:
1. dfense072 - $128
2. jeciimd - $76
3. rocketman97 - $51.20
4. CheckRaise70 - $38.40
5. Spaceman - $25.60

Congrats again to dfense072 for taking down Saturdays with Dr. Pauly for a second time.

Thanks again to everyone who played and pimped in the event. See you next week.

FYI, Saturdays with Dr. Pauly will be running every Saturday in December but The last event will be on December 27th. Saturdays with Dr. Pauly will be going on haitus in early 2009. So get your PLO fix while you can!


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 11/29/2008 08:25:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Merde! Benjo Runs Good

By Pauly
New York City

Maybe Benjo has been watching Scandis play too much poker, or perhaps he's been hanging out with all those lucky French pros. But everyone's favorite chain-smoking malcontentjournalist and Tao of Pokerati sidekick won the second event of Run Good 2.0.

Nice catch, Eurodonk.

15 runners this week trying to win $600 for first place. The special pro playing in this week's event was Liz Lieu. My starting table included Dave Schwartz, Jen Newell, Poker Shrink, Kid Dynamite, Benjo, Liz Lieu, and Michele Lewis.

I won a pot early on with pocket Jacks. I flopped a set against Benjo and he didn't pay me off! I lost a pot to Liz Lieu. I raised with A-Ks. She three-bet me from the big blind. I called and missed the flop. She bet and I folded.

Kid Dynamite can't catch a break in the Run Good. He's a magnet for bad beats. He got it all in with Aces against Benjo's Hilton Sisters. Yep, a Queen spiked on the river. Benjo won the pot. Kid Dynamite hit the rail. Say hello to Gigli.

I misplayed two hands which were my downfall. I lost a hand to the Cougar. Top pair versus two pair. And then I couldn't get away from a hand against the Poker Shrink. My nines lost to his A-Q. He flopped a Queen and I was out in 11th place.

The final table for Event 2...

Seat 1: PokerShrink (1915)
Seat 2: The Cougar(4016)
Seat 3: MattS(1005)
Seat 4: DanS (3735)
Seat 5: Benjo (5644)
Seat 6: Liz Lieu (425)
Seat 7: Amy Calistri (680)
Seat 8: change1OO (2515)
Seat 9: CJ (2565)

Benjo had a massive lead at the final table. He busted the Cougar on the Bubble. Shrink went out in third and CJ as heads up with Benjo. Behold, the Luckbox versus the Eurodonk.

On the final hand, Benjo had a 6 to 1 chiplead over CJ. They got it all in preflop. Benjo held Ks-Jh and CJ was behind with Qc-Js. The flop was Qs-10c02d and CJ took the lead. The turn was the Kc and Benjo regained the lead. The river was the 8s. Benjo won the pot and CJ was eliminated in second place. Benjo runs good.

Congrats to Benjo for the win. And I know he's gonna be pissed that I called him a Eurodonk, but I use that term with the warmest regards.

Anyway, in honor of Benjo winning the Run Good, here are some of my favorite Tao of Pokerati episodes where Benjo makes a cameo...

Tao of Pokerati - Best of Benjo:
Episode 17.1: Barley Legal (0:55)
Episode 17.2: Hooker Tournament Chips (1:05)
Episode 17.3: Le Masturbe (1:20)
Episode 26: Agents, Frenchies, and Polacks (3:48)
Episode 3.1: EPT Afterparty (3:39)
Episode 3.2: Hungarian Hooker Halloween (4:14)
Episode 3.3: Competitive Apple Eating (4:08)
Episode 3.4: Euro Core-tossing (3:17)

Well done, sir. Thanks again to the gang at Poker Listings for the invite.


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 11/29/2008 07:50:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Week 12 - Sundays with Dr. Pauly Update

By Pauly
New York City

Only1Calvary had a record-setting Week 12 and won Sundays with Dr. Pauly. Out of 42 players, he managed to post the highest score of the entire season and has a shot at $75 bonus.

I had another dismal weekend. I can't explain it. I'm in first place in the Pauly's Pub pool. I can pick winning teams but I can't put together a team to save my life.

Anyway...

Week 12 Top 5:
1 only1calvary - 171.6
2 FSLFSF - 143.6
3 Chuckdnb - 143.2
4 Kaiseroll13 - 140
5 ebk03001 - 138.7

Click here to view complete Week 12 results.

Standings for Series 3 (Top 35):
Kaiseroll13 259.9
Jag 252.1
Acefilleddreams 251.6
Kev 245.7
cwfoot 245
greengoddess 241.5
Da Bidz 235.7
Sconie 234.9
FSLFSF 232.9
Pokerpeaker 231.7
etoppsfan 231.5
ebk03001 230
spitball 223.8
Chuckdnb 223.8
Expensive Wino 223
Brian 222.8
BobbyBracelet 222.5
jakehead 222.3
Zeem 221.2
Mattazuma 220.3
HermWarfare 215.4
bonds 210
Olliewood 209.2
Resino 208.1
RIP 204.4
Buffalo66 203.9
Chewbot 203.8
repete offenders 202.4
AlCantHang 189.5
belly2bar 178.4
only1calvary 171.6
jrf361 163.6
TaoPauly 163.4
bayne_s 163.1

Click here complete results and standings.

Needs to Beat Pauly's Score Next Week for TOC Entry: Jag, Acefilleddreams, Da Bidz, Sconie, FSLFSF, etoppsfan, BobbyBracelet, Jakehead, Zeem, HermWarfare, Olliewood, RIP

The following players won a entry in the TOC (Tournament of Champions) by beating my score for 3 consecutive weeks... Jag, Expensive Wino, AlCantHang, Buffalo66, Chewbot, Resino, Greengoddess, Kaiseroll13, Chuckdnb, Brian, ebk03001, Belly2Bar, spitball, cwfoot, Kev, Mattazuma, Big Pirate, bonds, Pokerpeaker, Repete Offenders

High Weekly Scores for the Entire Season ($75/$25 added):
1st only1calvary 171.6 (Week 12)
2nd jrf361 152.8 (Week 8)

If you don't have a Fantasy SportsLive account, you can sign up for one today! It's legal in the US and you can fund your account with a credit card.




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 11/29/2008 04:20:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Daddy Wins Turkey Cup

By Pauly
New York City

The second annual Turkey Cup ended up being an unexpected hit. Derek anticipated 50+ players. I had a much conservative estimate.

In all, 56 folks showed up to play in the Turkey Cup and everyone at the final table would make the money. 55 people had their sights set on Derek who was defending his crown, er cup. And when the dust settled around Midnight, Daddy (aka TequilaMom) emerged victorious and won the coveted Turkey Cup. Bragging rights now belong to Daddy, who he insisted the local women nicknamed him "cumzilla."

My starting table included JPPhilly, cyberpebbles, butchhoward, Java117, Scurvyfreed, nealdo56, JustLuck1978, and change1OO.

Buffalo66 has been cleaning up over at Fantasy Sports Live, but he couldn't get anything going in the Turkey Cup. He busted on one of the first hand and too Gigli honors.

AlCantHang was also an early casualty when his Queens were cracked by Friedman's A-K.

Early on, the banter at Daddy's table was kicked into high gear.

TequilaMom: I usually listen to Kid Rock when I'm cramming my crank into a *****'s pisstank.
DrPauly: can u describe said pisstank?
TequilaMom: Her pisser was pretty banged up. I think she had gingivitis down there. Smelled like rotten pissroot, and looked like an open axe wound.
DoubleDave: maybe a busted ravioli?
777GMoney: i think i just threw up in mouth a little bit
TequilaMom: Overrotated blotator cufflinks at the very least.

Friedman and TequilaMom were out to an early lead with almost 5K.

Change100 headed to the rail early when her J-J lost to 10-4s. I busted cyberpebbles with Kings vs. A-Q. I had to fade a flush draw on the river and succeeded. For most of the early levels, I was in the top 5-10 in chips.

I moved to a new table that included GrrrlZilla, Family Ice, imhere4beer, Daddy, pungissunob, opnmnd, irongirl01, and Johnny Walker.

Derek failed to repeat and went out in 35th place. He was shortstacked and open shoved for 850 with pocket eights. Hoy called with Q-J. Derek lost his race and was eliminated.

At the first break, GMoney the chipleader with 9K. I had 3.6K and was 6/30.

Daddy was at my table and we had a few interesting conversations. He even complimented me on my avatar (Arnold Drummond from Different Strokes).

TequilaMom: Pretty sweet Obama avatar Pauly.

DrPauly: Tequila Mom, when was the last time u actually wore underwear -- in a conventional sense?
TequilaMom: Third grade.
DrPauly: freeballin since the 90s?
TequilaMom: That's actually the title of my memoirs.

TequilaMom: Haha, my pet koala just queefed. Smells like turnips.

The last line might have been the quote of the night.

GMpney moved to my table with a leading stack of 11K. Daddy referred to him as a "total fishmonkey."

I went out in 23rd. GMoney raised UTG. Friedman called. I had Jacks and knew that I was ahead of both players. I shoved for 3K. imhere4beer re-raised all in from the button. Awwww, fuck. He had me covered and I knew I was beat with a monster. GMoney and Friedman both folded and my Jacks were up against Kings. King on the flop. I was fucked. imhere4beer won the pot. Out in 23rd.

With two tables to go Bikom took the chiplead and he was out in front for a while until Daddy snagged the lead shortly before the second break with 11 players to go.

FishyMcDonk was the BubbleBoy. He also bubbled off the final table in 10th place.

Hoy was the chipleader with nine to go.

2008 Turkey Cup Final Table:
Seat 1: scurvyfreed (4534)
Seat 2: lightning36 (9265)
Seat 3: Joanne1111 (10800)
Seat 4: TequilaMom (13171)
Seat 5: imhere4beer (12403)
Seat 6: hoyazo (14442)
Seat 7: 777GMoney (3479)
Seat 8: Family Ice (3790)
Seat 9: Bikom (12116)

Daddy busted GMoney on a crazy sick ugly hand. Bad beat of day for sure. GMoney's Kings were brutally sodomized by Daddy's 3c-2c. Daddy caught a runner runner Wheel to crack Kings. Brutal. Daddy surged to over 30K.

Kings were not a fun hand to have at the final table. Joanne had her Kings cracked by A-K and she went out.

Hoy was eliminated when his 9s-7s lost to Daddy's 10s-2s. "The ole Doyle Bunford," explained Daddy, who ended up winning the hand with a full house.

Lightning36 went out in third and a heads up match was set. Daddy was ahead in chips, but Bikom was chasing history. He had previously won an event in Saturdays with Dr. Pauly and was trying to join Derek as the only other person to have won a Turkey Cup and a Saturdays with Dr. Pauly.

Heads Up Chip Counts:
Seat 4: TequilaMom (64047)
Seat 9: Bikom (19953)

At one point, there was an all in. Both shoved pre-flop with 10-9 vs 9-5. Man, I love these guys! I knew the heads up would go quick and on the tenth hand, just before the stroke of midnight, it was all over.

Daddy raised to 8,000. Bikom shoved for 23,856. Daddy had him covered and called.

TequilaMom: Ad-10s
Bikom: Kc-Js

The flop was 10c-7c-3d. The turn was the Ac. And the river was the 4d. Daddy won the pot with two pair. Bikom was eliminated in second place, and Daddy won Turkey Cup.



Daddy sent me a text message shortly after his victory...Paul, thanks for providing me with yet another opportunity to completely dismantle an MTT field full of gifted poker writers/players.

I dig how he called me... Paul.

Congrats to Daddy/TequilaMom for the victory in the second annual Turkey Cup. Thanks to everyone who played and pimped the event. See you next year for the third annual Turkey Cup.

And don't forget about Saturdays with Dr. Pauly! Every Saturday at 4:20pm.


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 11/28/2008 11:07:00 AM | Permalink |

 
The Turkey Cup Returns! Derek Will Attempt to Defends His Title

By Pauly
New York City

Many years ago on Thanksgiving evening after our family dinner, I played poker at my brother's apartment. I had recently bought a chip set and he had just learned the intricacies of the game. We prepped for an impending poker trip to Vegas and had a blast that night. We forged a bond and never could we ever imagine the amazing journey that we'd both set off through poker over the next six years. That momentous evening of cards on Thanksgiving were the origins of Turkey Cup.

Last year I created Turkey Cup.... a special Thanksgiving tournament that came to life at the last possible moment. Derek won the tournament and took down the title. The coveted cup and the honor and the bragging rights were all his own. And now it's back. Derek will try to defend his title on Thanksgiving night in the second annual Turkey Cup.


Yes, that's Derek and myself circa 1980. And you are cordially invited to join us.

Turkey Cup is a $5 NL tournament hosted on PokerStars at 9pm ET on Thanksgiving night. It's the perfect the post-dinner activity and a chance to get away from your insane family members. Or Turkey Cup is a nifty activity if you are a bored Canuck or a Eurodonk with insomnia.

Everyone is invited. Hope to see you there. And if you can't play in the Turkey Cup, there's always Saturdays with Dr. Pauly this coming weekend.


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 11/26/2008 02:50:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Tao of Five: Otis and The Devil

By Pauly
New York City

During the summer in Las Vegas, I introduced a series of questions and answers with various poker industry figures under the subheading... Tao of Five. Well, it is back.


I took this shot of Otis at the 2006 WSOP
In this installment of the Tao of Five, I interviewed Otis about his encounters with a player he referred to as "The Devil," someone whom he has written extensively at Up for Poker about his experiences over the last couple of WSOPs. During one late night after a round of lime tossing, we taped a brief interview outside of the Rio. Here's the transcript of our entire interview. Viewer discretion is advised.

* * * * * *

Pauly: July 2008. Las Vegas, NV. This is an interview with Otis about the Devil.

Otis: Yep. Last night. I saw him again. 10pm. He walked into the Amazon Room. Almost floating again. I don't get it.

Pauly: I have read all of your scribblings about The Devil. They're haunting. I just thought that you were going crazy in Las Vegas. Then I saw him and you pointed him out and I saw that you were really freaked out. You were trembling. You were really freaked out.

Otis: It started out as a joke in 2007. I ended up on the elevator with the guy and he seemed sort of spooky. Everywhere I went in '07, there he was looking at me with those same hollow eyes with that long black hair falling down over a his black coat. It was weird. He freaked me out. By the end of last year, I was a little bit nuts. And I thought when I went home I thought maybe, 'I'm just a little nuts.' Then I came back this year, and he's here. Now people see what I meant.

Pauly: If you put a beard and a black hat on him, the Devil almost passes as Jesus (Ferguson). There are a lot of ancient Christian texts that suggest the Devil is one of God's fallen angels. The Devil was God's second hand in command and took control of hell. Some other scholars suggest that the Devil is God's other son. Jesus and the Devil were brothers. And now here at the WSOP, Jesus (Ferguson) and the Devil almost look alike.

Otis: The Devil can pass for Jesus (Ferguson) if you put on a beard and sunglasses.

Pauly: And a Full Tilt logo. Have you seen the Devil logoed up?

Otis: Here is the interesting thing about the Devil. This is what I find fascinating and other people find it as well. He has been here both years and stayed the entire world series. And even tonight, he's here days after he busted out (of the main event) and he's here. He didn't qualify on any online poker site. He doesn't have a sponsor. When some people have asked him how he got here, he said that he bought his way in. When people asked him what he does for a living, he will never commit to anything. He said, "I do a variety of things." They ask "What do you like?" And he answers, "Well, I like games." That's were it gets a little bit spooky. He's always here. He pays full time to stay at the Rio. He's got a lot of money but nobody one knows who he is. I figured out his name and his name alone is one of those John Smith style names that doesn't even seem real. What's weird about him is that he never does anything that necessarily you would consider devil. But it's just the way he looks and the way he moves and where he shows up. No matter where I am, the guy shows up. A few days ago, my wife called and I wanted to find somewhere quiet to talk. I found a quiet spot in the Rio in a back corner where no one was. And there was the Devil giving me the same look, that same nod, and that same long long stare that freaks me the fuck out every time I see him. I don't necessarily believe in anything religious. I'm not a God guy. I don't believe in the devil. I don't believe in hell. But if there is a devil, this guy might be it. I'm at my worst when I'm in Las Vegas. My feelings, my soul is at its worst when I get here. And this guy shows up and it's a reminder that, "I'm here, if you need me."


Pauly: Las Vegas is hell on Earth. So we're hanging out in the Devil's backyard. We're chilling out in his domain.

Otis: This is one of the worst places on Earth. This is where vice and sin take place. I have done a lot to improve myself over the last few years and would like to think I'm a pretty good person. Las Vegas is the place were the Devil resides. I don't want to make too much of this guy but the people who have seen, MeanGene in fact, pretty much agrees with me. Just the other day, it was the strangest thing and we're walking out of the Rio and there's a slots tournament getting ready to start. The slot tournament promotional items are all about fire and brimstone. There is a giant poster on the wall of fire and brimstone that's lit up. The son of a bitch is walking six feet in front of me and I'm trying to hang behind and he just stops as if he saw me there and he waits with the fire behind him. I'm starting to sound like a nut job the more and more I talk.

Pauly: I think you should stop talking about the Devil. This is the kind of stuff you start talking about and the cops start looking at you funny and ask, "Son, where's the crystal meth?"

Otis: I'm completely sober and have been for several days. I'm well rested and not all that mentally drained or physically taxed. I have survived the series pretty well.

Pauly: The Devil spooks you. I have know you for four or five years and I have never seen you that rattled by one person. I have seen you go on mega-tilt many times. Isabelle-tilt. Work-tilt. Lime tossing-tilt. Pai Gow-tilt.

Otis: Yeah, Pai Gow-tilt. I've been there.

Pauly: The Devil-tilt. It's not really tilt. You're freezing up and are unable to move.

Otis: It's real tilt. Every other kind of tilt is manufactured. Manufactured by someone else or manufactured by my own indiscretions. This is a tilt that is uncontrollable and real. I'm going to be very happy when I get on a plane in a couple of days and stand a chance of never seeing the son of a bitch again.

Pauly: Have you ever seen the Devil in a location other than Las Vegas?

Otis: No.

Pauly: Do you remember the movie The Doors? And that bald guy who is in every scene. And he's always dressed as someone different. He could be anywhere. Everywhere.

Otis: That's the thing, I can only see him here.

Pauly: He could be in G-Vegas or Monte Carlo or somewhere else on the road.

Otis: All I'm saying is that if for some reason I disappear while I'm here...

Pauly: The Devil did it?


Otis: If I disappear while I'm here and I don't make it home and people ask where I went, the first thing you should do is find that son of a bitch and ask him what he did with me. And if he did anything so bad, that I can't come back.

* * * * *
The photos of the Devil were provided by MeanGene.


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 11/25/2008 11:10:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Monday Morning Brain Dump and Link Pimp: Turkey Week Edition

By Pauly
Hollyweird, CA

Shortened week because of Turkey Day. Hope everyone survives the hectic holidays. To kick off the week, here are a few links that you should help alleviate your case of the Mondays....

Iggy Makes Final Table at LSOP (Guinness and Poker)
Congrats to Iggy for making the final table of the LSOP down in Costa Rica! He finished up in 8th place after a bad beat.

Poker Shrink on Keep Flopping Aces (RoundersRadio)
Download the MP3 of the Poker Shrink's appearance on Lou Krieger's radio show Keep Flopping Aces. The Shrink talks about writing a book with Amy Calistri about everyone's favorite Adderall chomping loud-mouth Mike Matusow.

Hierarchy of Cheating in Poker (Nat Armem)
Nat Arem had an interesting post where he quantifies the different levels of online poker cheating. From multi-accounting to ghosting, Nat is on the ball with this post.

Poker in Pictures (Up for Poker)
Otis is feeling nostalgic. As he wrote, "You cannot argue poker's place in history." Excellent post with many vintage black and white photos to illustrate his point.

Hold Me, Darling - Part 1 (Bigger Deal)
Tony Holden, one of my favorite authors, recently released his latest book Holden on Hold'em. To celebrate the latest release, BiggerDeal.com published a five-part extract chronicling the origins and history of Texas Hold'em. I'm sure you will dig the first part because Holden is a fantastic scribe. You can find links (on the right side) to the remaining parts to this historical series.

11/22 - On This Date in History (Hard Boiled Poker)
Shortstacked Shamus wrote about the historical events of last Saturday... November 22... a day which took the lives of both JFK and Stuey Ungar.

And here's a few non-pokery links for you music enthusiasts...

Russ Brown's New CD: The Fugitive Peace (Coventry)
Russ Brown... poker blogger and musician... has a new CD out titled The Fugitive Peace. If you like Wilco and alt-country, then this is right up your alley.

What is the Rolling Stones' signature song? (Coventry)
A special post by Otis. Everyone's favorite keno crayon eating navel gazer wonders what's the one Stones song that everyone knows them by?

Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash circa 1969 (SendSpace)
Do you like Johnny Cash? How about Bob Dylan? How about Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash? Here's a gem for you music junkies that I recently uploaded.

On deck... get ready for the second annual Turkey Cup! Yes, I'm hosting a private tournament on Thanksgiving night over at PokerStars. Stay tuned for details.


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 11/24/2008 10:31:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Run Good 2.0 - Poker Shrink Shrinks the Field

By Pauly
Hollyweird, CA

The mellow folks at PokerListings were kind enough to invite me to the headiest of all events... The Run Good Challenge. The second incarnation of their private tournament series featured an expanded cast of characters which included a mixture of poker industry figures, poker pros, bloggers, and many wayward souls in the poker media.

One of our gracious hosts, Matt Showell, was unable to attend the opening event. He was too busy sunning himself in the tropics and sampling the local flavors of the Caribbean; list including but not limited to fruits, women, rum, and other local produce. Of course, while Matt basks in the warmth of the good life, his work colleagues had to tough it out in the wilds of Canadia (yes, Canadia) constantly repelling attacks from herds of wild moose and roving packs of American ex-pats who watched too many Michael Moore movies.

There were 14 players including my nemesis Dan Skolovy, who returned to hold the rope for Team PokerListings. Representing the pros was 2008 WSOP bracelet winner Jason Young. Combatants this week included... Benjo, Amy Calistri, Change100, Dave Schwartz, Kid Dynamite, Shortstacked Shamus, Michele Lewis, Michalski, Spaceman, CJ, and the Poker Shrink.

My starting table included Shamus, Jason Young, Dan Skolovy, Dave Schwartz, Amy Calistri, and Change100.

Benjo was late. He in transit and trying to play on a high-speed train that raced across Europe. I could only imagine how pissed off he was trying to connect.

"This is booshit!" he screamed at one of the train workers. "Your wifi is nothing but peasant shit."

He slammed his croissant down as flakes splattered all over the floor. He also smashed out his cigarette in his bare hand, while thousand of miles away, a hungover Michalski sitting in his underwear on his couch in Las Vegas picked on Benjo's empty chair. Michalksi stole Benjo's blinds repeatedly and said, "Take that Benjo! [insert surrender joke here]"

I shot Benjo a text message, "Where r u? Empty chair. Michalski making fun of you & stealin your blinds. Making racist jokes too."

Meanwhile, CJ took out Kid Dynamite with the Hammer. CJ has his luckbox powers in full effect when he flopped trip deuces and it was all over. Kid Dynamite took down Gigli honors.

I was at the front of the pack early on. I pushed my stack up to 2K and was the table chipleader for most of the first few levels. I won two pots with A-x. Flopped an Ace both times. I also won a pot against Change100. She rivered a Wheel, but your hero rivered a 6-high straight. Here's the banter:

DrPauly: suck it
DrPauly: wheel no good
change1OO: fck u asssscocck
DrPauly: nice try, blondie
DrPauly: go back to clutching your bong
PokerShrink [observer]: ain't love grand

What I love about the west coast is that football starts at 10am. I got lucky because the local CBS affiliate showed the Jets/Titans game. The Jets were up 10-3 at halftime and I could hunker down and stay focused to play poker.

Benjo finally arrived... "Fucking train was late obv."

I busted shortstacked Dave Schwartz in 13th place when my Ah-7d held up against his Ks-10s. I snagged the chiplead. Change100 knocked out the bracelet winner Jason Young. He was shortstacked and went out in 12th place. Michalksi was next in 11th place courtesy of the Poker Shrink.

I won a big hand against DanS when I rivered a baby flush. He put me on the Ad and folded. That pot pushed me to 3.6K.

Shamus bubbled off the final table in 10th place when his fate was decided by DanS. With Shamus' elimination, I advanced to the final table as the chipleader.

Final Table Chip Counts:
Seat 1: Benjo (880)
Seat 2: Michele Lewis (1885)
Seat 3: Pauly (3605)
Seat 4: change1OO (2455)
Seat 5: Spaceman (1860)
Seat 6: DanS (2900)
Seat 7: CJ (2435)
Seat 8: Amy Calistri (1540)
Seat 9: Poker Shrink (3440)

I lost chiplead after Spaceman three-bet me preflop from the big blind. I let go of A-Js from the button. He showed A-K.

Change100 was the first player to bust from the final table. Her departure in 9th place was courtesy of an ugly bad beat that sent her on tilt for a good hour or so. Her A-A lost to Michele Lewis' A-K. The Poker Cougar turned a Broadway straight to sink Change100's Aces.

I was 4th in chips at first break with 3K. DanS and the Cougar were tied for lead with 3.5K. Benjo was shortstacked and didn't last too much longer. The headline would read, "Cougar Mauls Frenchman."

Everyone's favorite malcontent chain-smoking black jack loving Tao of Pokerati sidekick was eliminated when he lost a race to the Cougar. She emerged as chipleader with over 7K. I was second with 3.7k. Three were players below 10 BB.

Then I started bleeding chips. I doubled up CJ. He was short and woke up to Q-Q. I lost with A-3s. More bleeding. I opened UTG with 9-9. Amy shoved for 3K more. I had to put her on a monster so I folded. She said she had pocket Queens. I slipped to under 2K. Then I took a bad beat that would be the beginning of the end. Dan shoved for 1,625. I had him covered from the big blind and called with Ah-Qc. He held As-4s. He flopped a four and I got fucked without any lube.

Down to 300. Future grim. Asshole sore. Although I doubled up on next hand with A-10 against the Shrink, that minor burst of elation would subside and be replaced by utter misery. My Ah-Jh lost to Amy Calistri's Big Slick. Out in 7th. D'oh.

Spaceman hit the rail in 6th place. CJ was out-luckboxed by the Cougar. She knocked him out in 5th place. BubbleBoy honors went to Dan S. He ran into Tim's Aces and got crippled. He busted shortly after when the Shrink outran his pocket nines with 7-7.

With three to go, the Shrink was the chipleader with almost 13K and amassed 61% of the chips in play. Shrink tamed the Cougar when he busted her in third place. Heads up was set between the two authors of the impending Mike Matusow book. Amy Calistri trailed the Poker Shrink by almost 4 to 1.

Heads up didn't last very long. Amy had a chance to double up when she shoved with Jacks against the Shrink's K-Q. Alas, the Shrink runs good and turned a Queen. Amy did not improve on the river and she finished in second place. The Shrink emerged victorious.


All hail the Poker Shrink. He won the first week of the Run Good Challenge 2.0 and collected $600. Lucky fucker. Please piss it away on a good cause like the Save the Stripper Fund. If I had won the first place booty, I would have bought enough ganja to blind the Pope.

That's it. Thanks again to the gang at PokerListings for hosting. Congrats to the Poker Shrink. See you clowns next week.


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 11/23/2008 01:22:00 PM | Permalink |

 
markoflnk Wins Saturdays with Dr. Pauly; GMoney Is Bridesmaid Again

By Pauly
Hollyweird, CA

We had a nice turnout for Saturdays with Dr. Pauly, which featured one of the longest tournaments since this weekly event kicked off 43 weeks ago.

32 players this week and the top 6 were paid. The remaining six made a save for 6th. We had some special guests such as Mookie, BuddyDank, and Chad Pukarama.

My starting table included JOHN-E-FLUSH, 777GMoney, Er_gan, AlCantHang, wolfshead, Skow-go, and BamBamCan.

ClintonStain was Gigli and busted out on the third hand courtesy of LorraineLove.

I took a hit early on and lost a pot to JOHN-E-FLUSH. My Q-Q-x-x got outrun by his K-10-10-x.

I made an early exit in 29th place. I held Kc-Jc-8c-6d and flopped two pair on a board of 8h-7c-6h. I got it all in when the Qc fell on the turn. I picked up a flush redraw and had two callers. Er_gan was ahead with a ten high straight and GMoney had a nine-high straight but also had outs for a flush draw.

DrPauly: Kc-Jc-8c-6d
Er_gan: 10c-9s-5s-3s
777GMoney: Kh-9d-8d-5h

The river was the Jh. GMoney made his flush and I went out. Two pair and a flush draw are always the death of me. That hand thrust GMoney into the chiplead.

GMoney surged to almost 10K and added to his lead when he busted two players on the same hand. The flop was Ah-4s-4s. Two small stacks were all in against GMoney, who flopped top boat with Ad-Ac-Qs-8c. sigzilla's smaller boat and AcerbicOne's flush were no good. Both hit the rail and GMoney increased his stack to almost 10K.

At the first break, 18 players remained and GMoney was the chipleader with 9.7k.

TJPackMan bubbled off the final table in 10th place as GMoney began the final table as the chipleader.

The Final Table:
Seat 1: markoflnk (6120)
Seat 2: SmBoatDrinks (6125)
Seat 3: JOHN-E-FLUSH (4488)
Seat 4: pungissunob (3780)
Seat 5: AlCantHang (3840)
Seat 6: BiskoKid106 (4987)
Seat 7: BamBamCan (3230)
Seat 8: 777GMoney (10445)
Seat 9: irongirl01 (4985)

IG was the first out at final table. Bisko Kid took chiplead with over 11K until JOHN-E-FLUSH doubled through Bisko and busted BamBam in on the same hand. BamBam finished in 8th place.

At the second break, seven players were left but three of them had less than 7 BB remaining on the money bubble. JOHN-E-FLUSH held the chiplead with 15K, with BiskoKid and markoflnk in a close race for second with 7.5K each.

BiskoKid was crippled on the first hand after the break when he ran into markoflnk's Aces. And on the very next hand, Bisko was all in from the big blind and markoflnk woke up to Aces. Again. Consecutive hands. markoflnk won the pot and seized the chiplead. Bisko was out in 7th place. BiskoKid was BubbleKid.

AlCantHang busted out in 6th. He was short and shoved with Ac-Ks-Js-10h. JOHN-E-FLUSH called with Kc-Kh-Qc-5c and Al was doomed. JOHN-E-FLUSH had the chiplead.

pungissuno went out in 5th place. He shoved with Ac-Kh-8c-6c and SmBoatDrinks won with Ah-Jd-10h-4d when he rivered a flush.

Down to the final four with SmBoatDrinks as the only previous champion remaining. He didn't get a chance to repeat when GMoney took him out. GMoney's Aces held up as SmBoatDrinks busted out in 4th place.

With three to go, JOHN-E-FLUSH was ahead with a 24K stack. GMoney and marko both had about 12K.

GMoney struck blood early on and doubled through JOHN-E-FLUSH. GMoney took the lead with Aces when he doubled through JOHN-E-FLUSH for the second time. He was up to 24K, but wouldn't hold the lead for long. Marko regained the lead when he doubled through GMoney. GMoney flopped two pair against Marko's Kings, but Marko turned a set to win the pot and avoid the elimination.

JOHN-E_FLUSH was crippled when his two pair couldn't cut the mustard against GMoney's two pair. JOHN-E_FLUSH didn't give up and he doubled up in consecutive hands to avoid elimination. Sadly, he was postponing the inevitable and finished in third place when marko took him out with a straight.

We were heads up. GMoney has a second place finish a couple of months ago and wanted to finally take this down. markoFlnk was standing in his with with almost a 2.5 to 1 advantage.

Heads up chip counts:
Seat 1: markoflnk (33264)
Seat 8: 777GMoney (14736)

Heads up went quick. On the second hand, it was all over. GMoney min-raised from the small blind to 4,000. markoflnk called. The flop was As-10d-3c. markoflnk bet 4,000. GMoney raised all in for 8,736 and markoflnk called.

markoflnk: Ac-10h-2h-2c
777GMoney: Ah-Ks-Qs-Qd

markoflnk flopped two pair and was ahead. The turn was the 8s and the river was the 7h. Neither helped GMoney and he was out in second place. markoflnk won the pot and took down Saturdays with Dr. Pauly. His only other previous cash was way back in Week 5. Nice job.

Week 43 Money Winners:
1. markoflnk - $123
2. 777GMoney - $72.80
3. JOHN-E-FLUSH - $48.20
4. SmBoatDrinks - $36.40
5. pungissunob - $24.60
6. AlCantHang - $15

Thanks again to everyone who pimped and played the event. Congrats to everyone who cashed and to markoflnk for winning his first Saturdays with Dr. Pauly.

Hope to see everyone next weekend. I know it's Turkey Day weekend, but if you want to take a break from shopping or need to get away from the family for a few hours, you can always join us for Saturdays with Dr. Pauly. Check you later...


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 11/22/2008 07:26:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Smoke 'Em if You Go 'Em: Saturdays with Dr. Pauly at 4:20pm on Saturday

By Pauly
Hollywerid, CA

I'll be able to give Saturdays with Dr. Pauly my full attention this week. Hope to see you on Saturday at 4:20pm ET for my little PLO tournament. Everyone is invited. JPPhilly is the defending champ.



Previous champions include... Grouse14 (twice), The Rooster, Buddy Dank, DrPauly, StB, Bikom, Family Ice, Bettercheck4, 23skidoo, USC55ND24, I_CrackQuads, Bayne, MrMojo, and Resdent Evil (three times including back-to-back), CSauve (twice), holdin-ragz!, Sydney 8 (twice), OneEyeKeith, Derek (twice), SmBoatDrinks, Boscodon, NoTalentTom, quinedge, GoIrish89, Quak Quack, ValpoProf, dfense072, Bad Blood, ArcticAction, Sting11165, Acornman, FiveFingerz, 2Tall_Saint, jeciimd, AcerbicOne, and JPPhilly.

If you have problems finding the tournament... look in the Tourney tab and then the Private tab. Tournament name is Saturdays w/DrPauly.

Oh, and if you don't have a PokerStars account... sign up for one today. Download PokerStars software.


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 11/21/2008 05:51:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Fantasy Football and Sundays with Dr. Pauly

By Pauly
Hollyweird, CA

I haven't updated you on the progress of Tao of Poker's football pool in a while. My apologies! Rummy's TaoPicks is still out in front but the pack is catching up. Poker Vixen and garth picked up Team of the Week honors the last couple of weekends.

Week 10 Winner: LV Degenerates (PokerVixen) - 14 Wins
Week 11 Winner: Niggling Groin Injuries (Garth) - 13 Wins

Tao of Poker Football Pool - Top 5 Thru Week 11:
1 Rummy's TaoPicks (E. Rummel) 113
2 jaguar9499 (r. zacharki) 112
3 PatsRevenge2008 (E. Kalis) 111
4 Scotty's Mich Ultra (P. Grotjohn) 110
5 PokerFool's Purple Power (P. Fool) 109

Click here for complete standings.

* * * * *
And for your Fantasy Sports Live fans, you should take a look at Blinders recent post Top Poker Bloggers at Fantasy Sports, which is a summary of how some of your favorite bloggers who have been faring well over at FSL, such as Buffalo66 who has been dominating FSL since we launched it last summer. My brother also got a shout out.

Anyway, the final series of Sundays with Dr. Pauly kicked off last week and of course, I took a thumping. Holy shit, do I suck at fantasy football this year. I posted an anemic score of 77.5 this week. If you entered you pretty much beat me.

Congrats to Mattazuma for winning Week 11 of Sundays with Dr. Pauly with a score of 136.7. We had 40 runners in Week 11 and Mattazuma jumped out to the early lead in Series 3.

Week 11 - Top 20 Results and Overall Standings for Series 3:
1 Mattazuma 136.7
2 Zeem 127.8
3 Expensive Wino 123
4 BobbyBracelet 122.4
5 Buffalo66 119.9
6 Kaiseroll13 119.9
7 Jag 119.8
8 Family Guy 119.4
9 greengoddess 118.6
10 Acefilleddreams 116.3
11 Da Bidz 115
12 jakehead 113.4
13 Kev 111.9
14 Pokerpeaker 111.8
15 cwfoot 111.7
16 Sconie 109
17 Olliewood 105.4
18 etoppsfan 104.3
19 repete offenders 104
20 spitball 99.8

Click here to view complete results and standings.

Needs to Beat Pauly's Score Next Week for TOC Entry: Repete Offenders

The following players won a entry in the TOC (Tournament of Champions) by beating my score for 3 consecutive weeks.... Jag, Expensive Wino, AlCantHang, Buffalo66, Chewbot, Resino, Greengoddess, Kaiseroll13, Chuckdnb, Brian, ebk03001, Belly2Bar, spitball, cwfoot, Kev, Mattazuma, Big Pirate, bonds, Pokerpeaker.

High Weekly Scores for the Entire Season ($75/$25 added):
1st: jrf361 - 152.8 (week 8)
2nd: Rajah424 - 144.7 (Week 10)

If you don't have a Fantasy SportsLive account, you can sign up for one today! It's legal in the US and you can fund your account with a credit card.


NBA, NHL, and NASCAR contest are running as we speak not to mention plenty of NFL action. I've been getting my ass kicked in fantasy football, but the good news is that I've been doing well playing daily NBA contests. I even won one last week. Heck, if I can win and cash in the hoops contests, well that should tell you how soft they are. NBA contests start as low as $1 and you can play heads up or against a field or either six or ten other players.


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 11/21/2008 05:28:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Rare Appearance in the Mookie; Even Rarer Appearance at the Final Table

By Pauly
Hollyweird, CA

I have never seen Mookie, so I really don't know if he really exists. He's at the top of the list of bloggers I have never met, yet dying to meet. All I really know about Mookie is that he has mad Photoshop skills and potent sperm. The guy has like nine kids and hooked me up with plenty of banners including the Tao of Poker logo.

Mookie also hosts a weekly tournament every Wednesday night. I play once in a blue moon (only the fifth appearance from your hero this year) mainly because my free time is restricted and also because I rarely if never play tournaments anymore (with the exception of Saturdays with Dr. Pauly - but that is more like an opportunity to kick back, partake in 4:20 activities, and have some fun with friends and loyal readers). But thank God for Twitter because I never would have remembered The Mookie if I didn't see his reminder tweet.

The girlfriend was away on a business trip and I had the entire apartment to myself. Change100 was dealing with the bleakness of Eastern Europe while she covered the EPT Poland and I basked in the sunshine of SoCal. I had been writing like a fiend all week (blogs, columns, short stories, screenplay, et al) and completed my pages for the day. It was time to unwind and play some poker.

During the Mookie, I also played a 15/30 LHE full ring game with former WSOP champion Berry Johnston. It was a soft table. I had not seen a juicy 15/30 table like that since the Party Poker days. Even though I took a couple of brutal beats, I continued to stay in the fracas because I knew at some point I'd get my money back from the various trout and calling stations that inhabitaed my table. Ah, that never happened. I lost a big pot on a rivered gutshot and then I got Queens viciously cracked. Sadly, the two biggest fish at the table left. One went busto and the other hit and run. I logged off and focused on the Mookie. I realized that even if I won the Mookie, I'd still be way stuck for the day. I'd have to win the Mookie three times over to even get close.

There were 52 runners at this week's Mookie and I had a tough starting table that included twoblackaces, jjok, JoeSpeaker, PokerVixen73, NYRambler, NumbBono, Schaubs, and BuddyDank. I didn't play too many pots during the first hour mainly because I was locked in on my 15/30 cash game. At the first break, I was 25th out of 40 and had less than the starting stack.

I lost my first pot of the tournament to Joe Speaker. One player limped. Speaker raised from the button and I called from the small blind with Ad-Kd. The flop was 9h-3d-2s. I bet 75% of the pot and Speaker min-raised me. I had to put him on a big pair or a set but it didn't matter. I whiffed the flop and folded. I told him I had pocket tens and either made a terrific laydown or the worst fold of the day. Speaker said he had a set and I believed him.

I slipped to under 2K when GCox was moved to our table. He wasn't there very long because I knocked him out. I raised with Qh-10h and GCox called. The flop was Jc-10s-9c. He had 380 left and I bet 379. He called. The turn was the 8d and I made a straight. I min-bet to put him all in for his last chip. His 5d-5h was no good and he was drawing dead. GCox went out and I was up to 2.4K.

I picked up a couple of small pots and went over 3.3K before I busted JoeSpeaker. He was short and shoved from the button. I put him on any two cards so I called with Qd-Jh from the big blind. He had 6c-3d and did not improve. All of a sudden I had 5.5K and was no longer below average.

NYRambler was down to his last 1K in chips and I took him out. It was the battle of the blinds and action was folded to me in the small blind. I woke up to Kd-Kh and raised to put him all in. He insta-called with Ad-8h. Some how, my Kings held up since I usually lose to a flopped Ace in those situations. I won the pot and NYRambler was out. I increased my stack to over 7K and improved to 10th place with 20 to go.

I lost some chips when I doubled up BuddyDank. I raised preflop and he called from the blind. The flop was 10d-7s-2s. He checked. I missed the flop was A-9, but fired out anyway for 1,700 or the rest of Buddy's stack. He tanked and eventually called at the last possible second with 5h-5s. His hand held up and he doubled up.

I lost another pot when I missed with A-Q and was back down to 3K. I was one of the shortstacks with two tables to go. It was time to double up or go home. I was short and shoved with J-10s. BuddyDank called with A-J. Alas, I flopped a 10 and doubled up. I had 5K but was 15th out of 18.

Then I got involved in one cooler of a hand. Luckily, I escaped without going busto. I woke up to Jacks in early position. PokerVixen limped for 400. I raised to 2,250 or almost half of my stack. PirateLawyer shoved for 10,545. MiamiDon moved all in for 7,130. Vixen folded and it was back to me. It was pretty obvious that one of them had a monster. Even though I had half of my stack in the pot, I had to fold. Ended up being the correct call since PirateLawyer held Qh-Qd and MiamiDon showed As-Ah. Don's Aces held up and he had almost 18K which put him among the chipleaders.

I slipped to the shortest stack. I was 17 out of 17 and had a mere 2.5K. I made a couple of steals to squeak up to 15th in chips but I still needed a miracle. That finally happened when I doubled up. TheMan2484 raised to 1,500. I shoved for 4,690 with pocket treys. He called with As-3s. My baby pair held up and I doubled up to 10K. I also jumped up to 9th out of 16.

I picked up a big pot against PokerVixen and moved into second place with 15K. She limped. I popped her with Ad-Ks. She called. The flop was As-Jc-2c. She bet 1,500. I raised to 7.5K and she folded.

I had chips and confidence with some good tunes cranking out (Phish at the Roxy). I had been the most sober I had been in almost a week. In short, I felt like I was in a good position and head space to make a run at the title. All I needed to do was make the final table and get a little lucky.

Ah, then I spewed some back to Vixen. My pocket tens lost to her A-Q and I doubled her up when she flopped trips. All of a sudden I slipped to 11th place with under 10K before I climbed my way back up to 15K.

It was time for me to issue a wicked beat. I had Qd-5d in the big blind Action folded to PokerVixen in the small blind. She min-raised and I called. The flop was Ah-Qc-10c. She bet 2,400. I had been bullying her around a lot and figured that she was trying to bully me back. I had her covered and shoved with second pair. She insta-called with Ad-8d. Oooooops. I picked up a gutshot on the turn and screamed for a King. That never materialized but I backdoored two pair when the 5s spiked on the river. She was out and I surged over 20K in chips. I made a bad read and got lucky. That's poker.

I busted CLReeves shortly after. I raised with Kc-Jc. He shoved with a short stack and I called. His Kh-6c did not improve and went out. I seized the chiplead with 28K. I was first out of 12 to go.

On the final table bubble, I still held the lead. But then I'd suffer a vicious beat - one that made up for all the beats I issued all night.

Blinds were 500/1,000 with a 125 ante. I had 27.3K to Julkeus' 16.5K. I had 8c-6c in the small blind. Action folded to Julkeus and he limped in late position. I called 500 more from the small blind and the big blind checked. The flop was 7c-5d-4h. I flopped a straight and checked. Big blind checked. Julkeus bet 2,000. I called and the big blind folded. The turn was the 7h. I checked. Julkeus bet 4,000. I went for the good old Scandi min-check-raise. Julkeus re-raised to 12,000. I made it 16,000 and Julkeus called all in for his last 1,414. He had As-7s for trips. I needed to fade a boat (never even considering that I'd lose to the case seven) and I prayed to the poker gods to not pair the board.

Prayers left unaswered. 7d on the river. Fuck you poker quads.

"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!" I screamed so loudly that everyone in the Hollywood Hills must have heard me.

Julkeus won a 34,453 pot on running quads and I needed to rip a binger to cool off in order to avoid sliding into the depths of tilt. I was left with 10K and dropped to 6th in chips with nine to go.

Here's the final table...

Seat 1: Julkeus (34,453)
Seat 2: chitwood (6,829)
Seat 3: DrPauly (10,771)
Seat 4: Joshuacarlsen (24,109)
Seat 5: -WYLDKARD- (12,999)
Seat 6: TheMan2484 (4,200)
Seat 7: carmensincity (42,628)
Seat 8: MiamiDon (12,534)
Seat 9: mookie99 (7,477)

I didn't see any decent hands and couldn't find any spots to pick up loose change. I slipped to 6th in chips when action reached the bubble. The top six were paid and Mookie was the short stack.

On the bubble, I made a move and shoved with 10-8 off suit. Carmen called with pocket sixes. I won the race and doubled up to avoid elimination.

-WYLDKARD- was the Bubble Boy when his Ah-Kc lost a race to Joshuacarlsen's pocket tens. With -WYLDKARD-'s exit, I cashed in the Mookie. That was the only cash of the year for me in five attempts. And it was definitely my first final table appearance in the history of the Mookie.

I busted our host Mookie in 6th place. His Kd-5d were no match for my Ac-5c. I was still one of the short stacks and needed some help if I wanted a shot at getting heads up.

I had made two moves against MiamiDon at the final table. I had Kings one time and the other time I had Qs-4s. I figured the next time that I raised him, he would push back so I needed to wait for a decent holding.

I had around 30K and Don had 27K when I found Ac-Jd in early position. I opened for 6,600. Don re-raised from the small blind. I put him on a re-steal since I looked at the hand from his perspective and figured he thought I was on a steal. I had been playing a wide range of hands and it would be a good spot for Don to pop me with air. He bet 16,000. I hate calling in that situation. It was shove or fold for me. I didn't have too much time left on the clock to think it through. I put him on re-steal with a weak Ace or some sort of royal cards. And if he had a middle or small pair, we'd be racing. I shoved as time ticked down. He insta-called with Ah-As. Fuck me. I doubled him up to almost 56K and was crippled. Down to my last 2.7K.

I thought that he thought that I was making a move. I made a hasty decision and should have let it go and found a better spot. Oh well. If that happened at a live table, I would have took more time to think it through. Unless I had a tell on him and knew I was way ahead, I probably would have folded. Alas, it's not live poker, it was online. That bad decision cost me the tournament.

I busted out on the next hand. I shoved blind and MiamiDon woke up to Queens right after he picked up Aces. I was eliminated in 5th place and picked up some prize money, no where close to the amount that I lost playing cash games.

It was late for me and I missed dinner. I didn't think I was going deep in the Mookie and was gonna grab grub as soon as I busted. I drove to Ralph's and bought some pasta and 'welcome home' flowers for the girlfriend. When I returned, it was heads up between Carmen and MiamiDon. Carmen had a massive lead. I was cooking dinner and didn't see how it transpired, but Don came from behind to win.

You can read Mookie's recap here.

Congrats to MiamiDon for the victory. And special thanks to Mookie for hosting. A fun time was had by all and I hope to be able to play sometime soon... schedule permitting. With Turkey Day in New York, a trip to Mexico for the Latin America Poker Tour, and the gathering in Vegas on the agenda the next few weeks... it looks like I might not be in the mix again until early 2009.


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 11/20/2008 04:20:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Tao of Pokerati Episodes: The Hooker Bar and Heads Up

By Pauly
Hollyweird, CA

I have been getting a slew of emails requesting the audio portions of the Hooker Bar hijinks. Ah, and Tela the hooker makes a cameo at the end of Episode 5.2.

Well, here you go...

WSOP Addenda: Tao of Hooker Bar (feat. Otis and Howard)

Episode 5.1: Boundless Nature, Las Vegas (6:05)
Episode 5.2: Hurricane of Hookers (7:25)
Episode 5.3: Cage-Savvy Coochie (3:05)

Description by Michalski: Your WSOP Experience is hardly complete without a drink or seven at the notorious Rio hooker bar ... and while I skipped out early on post-coronation festivities, Pauly stuck around to yuk it up with Otis and Howard (from PokerStarsBlog.com, and England). Frightening observations of obese depravity lead to existential musings on the pathetic existence of all who domicile in Vegas (umm ...) and while the trio don’t talk with Peter Eastgate as he walks through the Rio casino eerily alone for a guy who just won $9 million, they do interview one of the working girls ... and before you know it they're negotiating a deal to shoot a tag-team porno, all of which eventually deteriorates into threats of a lawsuit.

Hey, that's just how things float early after sunrise on a Wednesday morning at the Rio.

* * * * *
And here's the last batch of November Nine episodes....

Book 4: WSOP Final Table

Episode 4.11: Deal or No Deal? (5:33)

Description by Michalski: When the security guys came out with the money in silvery aluminum briefcases — 9 million semi-real American dollars — a few of us in media row joked about telling the story that the guys left at the final table had decided to chop up the remaining prize pool and play for it Deal or Ne Deal style. (Ha ha, we are so damn funny.) But on this episode of Tao of Pokerati, Pauly and I take the issue a bit more seriously, and break down what’s really at stake for Ivan and Peter — who became friends recently playing on the EPT on PokerStars' dime — beyond just the $3.34 million in prize differential between 1st and 2nd.


Episode 4.12: Dealer or No Dealer? (3:31)

Description by Michalski: Pauly and I discuss what goes into becoming a WSOP final-final table dealer, his crazy series of prop bets with Otis, Lou the Dealer's up-close observations about the heads-up action (both were nervous, and Peter Eastgate kept messing up his bets in early hands), and the Linda Tran vs. Jena Phillips controversy, both of us unaware that Lou (my pick) would end up winning the side-action on who deals the final hand a few hours later.


Episode 4.13: Web Player Down! (3:31)

Description by Michalski: You can' tell from the groovin' tunes in the background, but Pauly y yo are in the PT Theater as the heads-up battle is just one hand from completion — and I'm suffering from severe WSOP separation anxiety tech tilt as Pokerati goes offline at a fairly critical time, presumably at the hands of loyal Tao of Pokerati listeners. (Bastards.) From there we speculate on the future of the WSOP's relationship with Milwaukee's Best Light, particularly in light of a pretty major biz merger we missed during the start of the regular WSOP.


Episode 4.14: That's a Wrap (3:49)

Description by Michalski: The 2008 WSOP has come to an end, and with crews tearing down the set... Pauly and I give our after-the-fact analysis of heads-up play and The November Nine Experiment.

You can always visit the Tao of Pokerati archives to listen to older episodes.

* * * * *
Ah, and in case you missed my token appearance on Lou Krieger's radio show Keep Flopping Aces, you can download the episode from 11/13/08 here.

Ah, and I almost forgot to mention that the Poker Shrink will be a guest on Lou's show this week. He'll be discussing the Mike Matusow book that he's writing with Amy Calistri. Poker Shrink will be on at 9pm ET on Thursday. Head over to Rounders Radio to listen in.


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 11/19/2008 03:26:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Existentialist Conversations with Hookers: Maelstrom at the Hooker Bar

By Pauly
Hollyweird, CA

We were outnumbered 3 to 1 by a spirogyra of working girls. Otis, Howard, and myself sat at one end of the bar when no less than nine of them had taken up refuge at the other end. Sounds like the beginning to a crude joke... Otis, a British journalist, and Pauly sat in the Hooker Bar... Alas, it was just another day in the life.

As the Nevada sun slowly crept over the mountains, we were lost in a supernatural time warp with a distorted concept of time and space. We sat in the darkness of the Rio wanting to be left alone. We sipped moderately chilled beers and shared stories about our exotic travels (Otis in Costa Rica, Howard in Barcelona, and my drunken escapades in Budapest) while several classic rock tunes cranked out on the sound system. In the blink of an eye, they appeared. First one, then two, and a couple of more. We only had a few minutes before they pounced on us. After all, we were the only marks left standing at that time of the morning.

The prostitution industry felt the full force of the credit crunch and quality tricks were few and far between. It's a numbers game. Less conventioneers meant less potential clients. The hookers at the Rio were a combination of famished vultures and parched vampires ready to pick apart any carcass. Any john. Any drunk. Anybody in their path. They were evil personified and depending on who you talked to, they were the absolutely best/worst thing about Las Vegas.

We were their imminent prey and in the vernacular of Otis, we were illequipped.

We had a hurricane a brewing on the western front. The torrential downpour and relentless winds sprang up as soon as they spotted the trio of us. After all, we were drinking at the bar named for them. Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. We had to endure the tantalizing menagerie for a couple of hours. Luckily, we all lived to tell about it. No one got rolled. No one got a rash. But there might be a hooker's rotting corpse stuffed in a utility closest somewhere in the Rio.

* * * * *
3:35am.

Within an hour after Peter Eastgate won the 2008 WSOP, I was ready to officially celebrate the completion of that ersatz assignment. The post-final table festivities were extremely tame compared to previous main event final tables. A smaller group of poker media covered the November Nine. Instead of the army of reporters that some sites had deployed this summer, they only sent out an elite unit of one or two at the most to cover the final table. And with this press corp, most of them had to catch early flights or were on rigid deadlines. Even the free-wheeling Michalski was swamped with work. He headed home instead staying out to the wee hours.

Jen sat at the corner of the Hooker Bar and I joined her along with Change100, Matt, Otis, and Howard. The rest of the bar was empty aside from two people who sat next to Jen. For sake of simplicity, we'll refer to them as Hemingway and the old hooker.

The portly guy was in his early 50s with thick glasses and a scruffy white beard, which reminded me a bit of Ernest Hemingway. The tourist happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time because a working girl latched herself onto him. She was way past Judy Garland drunk and her prime years as a prostitute were long gone.

The tipsy old whore wore a black satin corset with tight black pants, but it was the standard hooker heels that gave her away. If a chick wore those in Soho, you knew right away that she was part of the bridge and tunnel crowd. If you saw those heels on Sunset Strip, then you were dealing with a Valley girl. And when you saw those garish heels in Vegas and were certain that she didn't have a New Jersey accent, well all the clues suggested that she was a pro.

* * * * *
4:20am.

Our group thinned when the only females in our party, Jen and Change100, crashed for the night. Matt went home to write. Only Howard, Otis, and myself remained. I figured that I'd be good for one more beer. Well, one beer turned into three more hours of pure hooker hijinks.

The barkeep consistently served Hemingway a fruity drink, either a Greyhound or some sort rum and pineapple concoction. The old hooker slammed Jagermeister like a Florida frat boy on the morning of Gator Growl. She was drunk. Plastered. Crunked. Shitfaced. Tanked. Loaded. Fucked up. Hammered. Toasted. Wrecked. Blitzed. Luggage. Sloshed. As the liquor seeped into her bloodstream, the volume of her voice grew louder and louder while her level of friskiness increased. She took off her heels and Hemingway massaged her wrinkled feet.

Within minutes, he kissed her bare left foot then the right one before he inserted three toes into his mouth. He sucked on those for a few seconds and licked the bottom of her feet. A spume of sexual invigoration seized his better judgment and they began making out. And it wasn't erotic like two sizzling hot lesbians sucking face with one another. Their public display of affection was rather awkward and ungraceful and outright pathetic. Hemingway had not 'made out with a chick' since the Watergate days. We watched in amazement as he slobbered over a soused old hooker juiced up on Jager.

In disbelief, I uttered a quote from National Lampoon's European Vacation. Without even breaking stride, Otis quickly returned the lines from one of my favorite comedies.

Rusty Griswold: [Rusty still watching the couple] ... Dad, I think he's gonna pork her.
Clark Griswold: He's not gonna pork her, Russ.
Rusty Griswold: I think he's gonna.
Clark Griswold: He may pork her.

* * * * *
5:36am.

"I think he can do better, which is saying a lot because he's a fat bald guy," mentioned Howard.

"She had a woman's body that looks like she had a kid six years ago," said Otis.

Six? More like sixteen years. She had a couple of C-Section scars and started out on the pole in 1993.

She stood up and almost fell over. We've all been that drunk before. So drunk that you barely notice it when slumped on a bar stool until the excess booze hits you like a ton of bricks as soon as you stand up to go take a leak. Your legs disappear and you spin around like a weeble wobble hoping to get lucky and gain your balance before you smash your face into the edge of the bar. The old hooker stumbled back and twirled around a few times as she nearly collided with the electronic roulette table.

"She's going to get 86'd," said Otis.

I nodded but there was not one security guard in sight. The Rio was abandoned. I had never seen it that unpopulated before. Even our barkeep would disappear for ten minutes at a time. A couple of bluehairs were hidden away behind a row of slot machines. We were on our own.

Hemingway eventually realized the gravity of the situation and decided it was time to call it a night. The old hooker could no longer speak and was reduced to babbling incoherent words. She lost all motor functions and crashed to the ground. Hemingway was a little snookered himself and had a tough time picking her up off the Rio's carpet.

One of the security supervisors walked by the bar. Otis nodded at the guy and suggested that he might want to take care of the incredulous situation. He pointed to his lapel where his name tag and badge used to be. He was off the clock and handed off the responsibility to a thuggy looking security guard who looked half asleep. The guard reluctantly stopped Hemingway. The old hooker leaned up against Hemingway, but her sedentary body slowly slid down to the floor as the security guard asked her for some identification. This all went down about five feet from where we sat.

The security guard scribbled down her name and address on a piece of paper. He avoided all eye contact and didn't even ask Hemingway for an ID. He let them both go.

"This shows the boundless nature of Las Vegas," explained Otis while Piece of My Heart by Janis Joplin blasted on the speakers. "All Vegas does is look at it and write it down, just in case there is a lawsuit or the cops come when she shows up dead. And lets it go on."

Hemingway dragged the old hooker back to his room. We speculated if she puked all over his bed, or passed out on the shitter, or most likely she was sodomized with a remote control and then her throat slashed in fourteen different places. Dead hookers are a dime a dozen in Las Vegas, especially on a Tuesday morning.

An obese necrophiliac dragging a comatose hooker back to his room is the type of degradation that shoves Otis over the edge. He spirals into the depths of mega-tilt because of the omnipresent cycle of endless perversion.

"This is a depraved and soulless city. And this shit goes on all the time," lamented Otis. "After you spend five weeks here, that becomes real. It becomes your reality. And when you start to except that is reality, you are living in a world where no one should actually live."

And out of nowhere, Peter Eastgate appeared as he walked down the corridor. Only a couple of hours earlier, the 22-year old Scandi smashed Phil Hellmuth's record for the youngest WSOP champion and won $9 million in the process. The biggest swinging dick in Las Vegas walked around by himself, while in a room somewhere in the Rio, the corpse of an old hooker was covered in glops of semen and she may or may not choked to death on her own bile.

* * * * *
6:08am.

One middle-age guy in an orange Texas Longorns hat sat down at the end of the bar and shoved $20 into a video poker machine. An attractive young woman with Halle Berry looks slid into the stool next to him. She pulled out a cigarette and asked him for a light. I started to wonder if those were assigned seats for johns and working girls.

Just as we took note of the latest harlot, a gaggle of them showed up at the other end of the bar. First one, then two, and a couple of more. We only had a few minutes before they pounced on us. After all, we were the only marks left standing at that time of the morning. The hookers at the Rio were a combination of famished vultures and parched vampires ready to pick apart any carcass. Any john. Any drunk. Anybody in their path. They were evil personified.

Three of them sat near by Otis and ordered drinks. Two of them broke off from the larger pack and made a beeline towards us. They flashed seductive glances with every step. They always operated in pairs. One did the stroking while the other one did the talking.

"You guys looking for a little fun?" she said which was the standard opening line from the local strumpets.

I played hardball. "Umm, that's what we were doing before you arrived."

"So where are you from?"

I pointed to Howard. He's a proper Englishman who resides in London but I blurted out, "He's Irish and I'm from Colorado."

"What's your name?"

"Steve," I said. "I'm Steve from Colorado. I sell propane and propane accessories."

"What's his name?" she said as she pointed at Otis who had his head down, tucked way down that it looked like he was sleeping on the bar.

"Cameron," muttered Otis.

"Have you ever been with a black girl, Cam?"

Otis instantly raised his left hand and practically shoved his wedding ring into her face.

"I have," I said in order to rescue Otis.

"Well how about we have some fun?" she cooed.

"How much does fun cost?" I inquired.

"Depends. What do you want to do?"

At that point, both slags stroked various parts of Howard's paralyzed body. Dogs, bees, and hookers can smell fear, but Howard eschewed all of their advances.

"How much for a threesome? I want to videotape both you and her tag-teaming my Irish friend."

"What's his name?"

Howard remained still and silent.

"This my friend Bartley," chimed in Otis.

"We'd both do him, but you can't videotape us," she demanded.

Before I can retort with a counter offer, she instantly changed her mind.

"O.K., you can tape us, but no faces!" she said. "I don't wanna see you getting fuckin' rich by putting that shit up on the internet."

At that precise moment, Otis noted that we were dealing with a hooker who had a keen business acumen. She demanded that I sign a contract. We suspected that she let a previous john tape her and it ended up on YouPorn. Otis offered up his services as a choreographer and that's when the negotiations broke down.

"You want a fuckin' cut? You get 10%. What's my cut?" she demanded.

"Umm, 3%," I said.

"Fuck that!"

Foiled again.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Tela," she said.

Wow, that's was a peculiar coincidence. Tela was the name of a Phish song and she had never heard of that band before. No shocker there. The only other Tela that I came across was a cat. My ex-girlfriend had a Siamese cat named Tela. (Later that morning, I'd send my ex-girlfriend a text that said, "u named your cat after a vegas hooker." She's a third grade teacher at a parochial school in Dallas and was not exactly thrilled when she received my drunken text.)

I steered the conversation towards economics. I wanted to know how the credit crunch and the collapse of the hyper-risky subprime-mortgage market affected the average Las Vegas working girl.

"It sucks," she said. "Business is bad. No one has money. Shit, I might have to actually get a real job."

The Joker had emailed me a couple of questions that he wanted me to ask any hookers or strippers that I came across. He was curious to find out if working girls were benefiting from the popularity of a president elect or if they look up to Michelle Obama.

"Did you vote for Obama?"

"I would have but I didn't vote."

"Why not?"

"I'm from Oregon."

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't know too many black people from Oregon, unless you count the guys playing basketball for the Portland Trailblazers."

"No shit. That's why I'm here. So do you guys wanna have fun or what?"

I sipped a bottle of Amstel Light as four hooker hands continued to stroke Howard.

"What the hell is that?" Tela asked.

"Amstel," I said and she proceeded to give me guff about drinking a beer that she never heard of before.

A steady stream of conventioneers, with name tags dangling around their necks, walked by us every couple of minutes while on their way to breakfast. Some of them stopped and leered at the maudlin skanks hovering around us.

Tela didn't mess around and switched to lewder tactics as she unleashed an aggressive sales pitch.

"Don't you want a blow job? All guys want their cocks sucked. Let's go up to your room," she cajoled.

"We can't go up to my room. My girlfriend is sleeping there."

"Girlfriend? Who the hell brings sand to the beach?" said Tela.

That was actually a funny line but the banter ended right there. The hoochies knew when to fold a losing hand and finally gave up especially since Otis kept flashing his wedding ring and I constantly reminded them about my extremely understanding and wonderful girlfriend who was fast asleep upstairs. They were also worn down by Howard's icy demeanor in the heat of battle. Howard was as cool and smooth as a John Coltrane solo. He admirably displayed nerves of steel and did not blink once, nor did he utter a single word, or move an inch as the frisky hookers molested him.

"They fancied me," said Howard once the storm had subsided and the harlots retreated. "I think we could have had a non-commercial relationship."

We managed to mollify the foul temptresses. We were unattainable and no longer on their radar. They left us alone and we ordered another round.

One of the working girls seated next to Otis received a phone call. She quickly wrote down an address and two of them scurried off. The last of hussies had bailed. It was time for us to document our experiences and we recorded a future episode of Tao of Pokerati. As we finished taping one installment, Howard nudged me.

"They're back!"

Tela and her friend returned. She thought that my mini-recorder was a phone and snatched it out of my hand. She sang along to a pop song that blasted on the speakers. She freaked out when she realized that it was not a phone.

"You're not videotaping me are you? I'll sue your ass if you're fuckin' videotaping me!" she screamed. I forcibly grabbed my recorder from her hand and she stormed away.

* * * * *
7:10am.

Tela and her friend returned for a third and final time to hawk their goodies. They looked fidgety and solicited themselves one last time before they darted towards the cashier's window.

"I wanna know where they've been?" asked Howard.

"Doing blow?" was my quick answer.

"They're going to the cage. Why else would they be going there?" Otis said.

He theorized that they held a couple of $100 black chips that they acquired after turning a quick trick. I suggested that they went on a heater at the blackjack tables and were cashing out their winnings. Otis was not convinced with that theory. They were not gamblers, rather they business women and were paid for their services in chips. They were not like those dumbass Bellagio hookers who were duped by johns when they got paid with tournament chips from the Bellagio poker room that had no cash value.

Tela and the other working girls at the Rio were savvy veterans. They earned their MBAs in whoring and hustling. With cash in hand, they disappeared into a sea of conventioneers. We never saw them again.

Otis polished off his Corona and motioned to the barkeep for another round of beers. He dug into his jeans pocket and pulled out a crisp $100 bill.

"This is just a semi-horseshoed bar in a no name casino in a barely named city in a fuckin' country that's barely anything in the world," said Otis. "There is a reason why this bar is named the Hooker Bar. And we saw it tonight."


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 11/17/2008 04:20:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Emissaries from the Land of Indulgence

By Pauly
Hollyweird, CA

Peel back the layers and expose Las Vegas for what it is; a playground for the filthy rich amidst a cesspool of hopelessly addicted souls representing the decay of modern society. Just when I thought I knew a town like the back of my hand, I got shamefully slapped upside the head by a dose of poignant reality.

I spent the last four summers in Las Vegas. The first year it felt like a journey to Fantasy Island. The second year was as joyous as a sojourn to summer camp. The third year was a brutal prison sentence and the fourth was a pivotal self-imposed exile.

The bean counters used to say that gambling towns are impervious to recessions because at the core root, humans will resort to drastic measures during desperate times. Gambling your last $500 on black seems like a more logical choice than jeopardizing your money in risky situations like signing away your pension money to the shysters on Wall Street, who have about as much credibility these days as a drunken used car salesman. Credit default swaps turned our most prestigious financial institutions into blathering crack whores.

I caught a glimpse of the economic crunch on the streets of Las Vegas. Construction projects halted. Rusted steel beams shot out of concrete blocks on unfinished architectural superstructures. The vertical ghost towns cluttered the Las Vegas skyline. The illumination of Sin City, once glorious and majestic as the morning light at the dawn of the new day, has been dulled by a morass of financial gloom, so much so that even the languorous hookers were bitching. Shit, everyone was bitching. Cocktail waitresses. Poker dealers. Cab drivers. Valets. And even the crackling snaps of pamphlets from the porn slappers seem a little sullen these days.

Seasons change. The winter of discontent is on the horizon and the vast gaming floors were no longer packed with small town tourists on summer vacation in the big city. And all those casual weekend warriors were opting to skip a trip to Vegas for a cheaper alternative.

The uber-rich folks stuck out in the sparse crowds. They were bored to the tits and had pockets stuffed with money to burn on extravagant meals, unsentimental strippers, and slippery dice. They splurged when everyone else tightened their belts. Their decadent binges were the primary reason why most casinos were breaking even. The high rollers from Europe and Asia along with the whales from Dubai will always play astronomical Baccarat limits, but gaming conglomerates that feasted off of the middle-ranged players like you and me were screwed since those were the exact gamblers who have been absent from Las Vegas.

All those bags of money that flew in town every few minutes? There's less and less of that arriving at McCarran.

During tough times when the steady flow of casual gamblers dries up, the skeletal remains of Las Vegas are comprised of the retardedly wealthy and utterly perverted miscreants that scurry around the gaming floors like cockroaches; grandmas pecking away at the slot machines while waiting to expire, blackjack junkies doubling down in desperation, and the spiritually starved looking for answers at the roulette tables. Ah, and don't forget about the life-long losing sports bettors chomping on the last bits of their fingertips since there's no more nails and cuticles left to chew out after being gnawed away. Their entire life flashes before their eyes during a last second field goal attempt because they bet everything they had on a sure thing.

Yeah, you hear a lot about a sure thing in Las Vegas. Almost too good to be true, because they are. Illusions. Mirages. Hallucinations. Everyone has gotten properly fucked in the ass on a sure thing and the only certainty of the situation is that you wished you had KY jelly.

The broke dicks always succumb to the allure of Las Vegas, addicted to maintaining their own broken dreams instead of escaping the capitalistic mutation of Pai Gow poker.

Some people firmly believe in good luck charms despite the known fact that they have zero scientific value. Rocks. Coins. Hats. Watches. Or whatever the superstitious ones decide will bring them a wave of good fortune. Personally, I think that people create their own luck because in the end, you are only as lucky (or unlucky) as you think you are. We tend to ignore all the bad mojo when things go right and conversely, we forget about all those positive things when the shit hits the fan. But let's save that discussion for a later date.

Coolers. Not those styrofoam pieces of shit you can buy at the gas station, but an actual living and breathing humanoid that is a magnet for all things bad. Some folks believe that coolers attract all of the negative forces in the universe and anyone within a five foot radius of a cooler will all of a sudden get swept up in a tornado of misfortune and bad luck.

The paranoid gamblers fear the coolers. I'm not a superstitious person (with the exception of US $50 bills) but from time to time my usually calm demeanor gets disturbed when I think there is a cooler nearby. I honestly don't believe in those sorts of things, but sometimes peace of mind is worth the extra effort to ward off a potential cooler. It's like wearing a belt with suspenders or wearing a condom after you had a vasectomy. Sometimes, you just want extra assurance.

Last Tuesday night. Change100 was on a heater at the Pai Gow tables at the Gold Coast. She's one of those people who firmly believe she's shrouded in bad luck. I sat with her and Otis at the same Pai Gow table. We stood out in a sea of crazy Asian gamblers who were bussed in from Southern California to the off the Strip property located in the shadows of the Rio and the Palms.

Michalski arrived a little late. Otis and I made a prop bet on his outfit. Otis suggested t-shirt and I had the field. Yep, I lost and tossed Otis a red chip. Michalski stood around since there were no available seats at our Pai Gow table. He flagged down a harried cocktail waitress and smoked a cigarette. Within a couple of minutes of his arrival, Change100 lost several ugly hands. So much so, that she asked him to move.

Michalski stood behind me and I was immediately dealt a Jack-high Pai Gow. I flashed Michalski the evil eye and he retreated behind Otis. After a few losing hands, Otis turned around and said, "Go stand behind the dealer."

Michalski got the hint. He wandered over to the craps table and cooled that sonofabitch down. We started to wonder if he was on the Gold Coast's payroll? Even if we had a glimmer of doubt that Michalski was indeed a cooler or a government informant, that was all put to rest when we each started winning hands. I walked away a winner, as did Otis and Change100. Usually Pai Gow is a bleeder. It's my biggest leak in Sin City, more so than sports betting and strippers.

And don't forget about my deviant weakness for prop bets. I had a bit of a setback in lime tossing and at bowling. Otis also smoked me in our Peter Eastgate vs. Ivan Demidov heads up prop bets. I lost 11-3 and the last hand saved me otherwise I would have won only one wager.

It just wasn't my night. Shoddy luck. Mishaps all around. If I had won, I would have talked a ton of smack because the outcome would have been all based on skill. My deft skills. And if I lose, I shy away from taking responsibility for my own actions. I always tend to project blame upon the unknown... such as those damn inner demons who are always fucking with me. My dilapidated fortunes haunt me to no end due to my willingness to indulge every single craving for action.

Or maybe I'll just blame Michalski aka the professional cooler. It's so much easier that way.


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 11/16/2008 04:20:00 AM | Permalink |

 
JPPhilly Wins Saturdays with Dr. Pauly

By Pauly
Hollyweird, CA

After several weeks of being in transit on a Saturday, I finally had a chance to play in my own tournament while I was holed up in LA.

We had 23 runners this week and the top three were paid. Special guests included TequilaMom, The Rooster, and SweetSweet Pablo. BiskoKid was back after a long hiatus. My starting table included linkocracy, zagga, bayne_s, docGonzo, thomasbay, L0K1, and Derek.

Gilgi honors went to Jeciimd. He was all in on the flop of 10s-5d-5c with K-K against JPPhilly's A-A-A-x. JPPhilly won the pot and Jeciimd headed to the rail in 23rd place.

The Rooster jumped out to an early lead and almost had 4K in chips in the first 20 minutes. He turned a Wheel against Chompy and doubled up. Ah, the Rooster would fade out before the first break. Ingoal got most of his chips with a boat over boat. The Rooster was eventually taken out by JPPhilly's Kings. The Rooster was nevermore in 16th place.

I got moved to a new table that included... Katitude, jahs34, JPPhilly, AcerbicOne, AlCantHang, and Ingoal. TequilaMom busted out in 15th place courtesy of AcerbicOne's full house. JPPhilly took out AlCantHang in 14th place. AlCantHang had A-A snapped off by Qh-Qs-10s-9h when JPPhilly rivered trips. JPPhilly increased his stack to 8K in chips and was in first place by sizable advantage.

I busted out in 13th place when I flopped trips against JPPhilly's full house. I got it all in on the turn and whiffed on the river. He had almost 10k in chips.

Derek was supershort and outlasted me but by only a few hands. He went out in 12th and Bayne busted on the next hand in 11th. Ingoal bubbled off the final table in 10th place.

The final table was set.

Final Table:
Seat 1: JPPhilly (15305)
Seat 2: jahs34 (3185)
Seat 3: zagga (2720)
Seat 4: AcerbicOne (1910)
Seat 5: docGonzo (2735)
Seat 6: peacecorn (650)
Seat 7: Katitude (1820)
Seat 8: L0K1 (3705)
Seat 9: linkocracy (2470)

JPPhilly had an overhwelming lead with 15K when no one had more than 4K. The final table also had two former champions including the defending champ.

At the first break, JPPhilly was out in front with 9 to go. Gracie was the shortstack with a mere 600 compared to JPPhilly's 15K. But on the second hand after the break, Gracie doubled up with Aces. That would be the start to an amazing rush.

Last week's champ, AcerbicOne, went out in 9th place. He shoved with Kings and ran into jahs34's Aces. His quest for consecutive wins was thwarted.

JPPhilly picked up a few small pots to add to his stack. The action slowed a bit until linkocracy was all in. He shoved with 5-6-7-8 upagainst jahs34's K-K-Q-6. Both players rivered a straight, but linkocracy held the bitch end and went out in 8th. Jahs34 was second in chips with 7K, but he still trailed JPPhilly by a 10K margin. With seven to go, JPPhilly had over 50% of the chips remaining in play.

docGonzo went out next in 7th place. Three-way all in...

JPPhilly: Ah-Ad-10d-7c
docGonzo: Ks-Kc-Qc-8c
Katitude: Qh-Qd-10s-3c

Guess who won? That's right, Kat took it down with a set of Ladies.

L0k1 was short and busted in 6th place after running into Acornman's A-A. Acornman would get gobbled up shortly after by Gracie's Ks-Qh-10-10s. He went out in 5th place. With four to go, Gracie jumped up to an 8K stack and was second in chips. According to Gracie, she "finally got some cards."

Bubble time. Kat was all and looked like a lock to double up with As-As-Js-2s, but JPPhilly sent her packing as the Bubble Girl. He looked like he was toast with Kh-Ks-6c-3s but he hit a nasty nasty flop of 9c-6h-3c for two pair. It held up and Kat was eliminated on the money bubble in 4th place. With three to go JPPhilly had 22K or 67% of the chips in play.

The lone representative from South America, Jahs35, went out in third place. He shoved and said, "Here is hoping." However, his Kc-Qd-6d-5c did not improve against Gracie's monster... Ah-Kd-Ks-4s. Gracie actually won with a straight. Jahs34 was out and cashed in third place.

Heads up chip counts:
Seat 1: JPPhilly (23590)
Seat 6: peacecorn (10910)

Gracie only trailed 2.3 to 1 in chips. That was a much more comfortable margin than being down to her last 600 with nine to go. She doubled up with Aces and never looked back. She caught some cards and hit a few hands and put herself into position to win it all. However, she definitely had a lot of work ahead of her.

Gracie was heads up with only player who was on a better rush. That was JPPhilly who took the lead during the early levels and never looked back. He eliminated a large percentage of the field before the final table was even set. The closest anyone at the final table got to him was Gracie... when they began heads up.

They played passive the first six hands and on the 7th hand of heads up, it was all over. Gracie raised to 1,200 and JPPhilly called. The flop was Kd-Jc-9c. Gracie bet 2,400 and JPPhilly called. The turn was the 8c. Gracie shoved for 6,710 and JPPhilly called. He had her covered.

Gracie: As-Qd-10c-7h
JPPhilly: Qc-7c-6s-4h

Gracie flopped a straight, but JPPhilly turned a Queen-high flush. She was drawing dead. Propelled by an amazing comeback, Gracie's run ended right there and she went out in second place. JPPhilly won it all and became the latest Saturdays with Dr. Pauly champion.

Week 42 Money Winners:
1. JPPhilly - $115
2. peacecorn - $69
3. Jahs34 - $46

Congrats again to JPPhilly for winning it all and thanks again to everyone who played and pimped the event. I'll be back next week and hope to see you then.


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 11/15/2008 06:19:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Poker News: Paying for Tuition Via Online Poker and Clonie Gowen Suing Full Tilt Poker

By Pauly
Hollyweird, CA

First of all, check out this video.... Student Poker Prodigy Earns Six Figures by Kristin Gianis (ABC News)

The ABC News video focuses on Steven Burkholder, a finance major from UF who pays his bills including tuition by playing online poker. He won the $750K guarantee on Full Tilt in September.

* * * * *
All is not well in the land of Full Tilt Poker. Clonie Gowen is suing the gang at Full Tilt which included the official members of Team Full Tilt; Howard Lederer, Andrew Bloch, Phillip Ivey, Christopher Ferguson, John Juanda, Phillip Gordon, Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, Jennifer Harman-Traniello, Michael Matusow, Allen Cunningham, Gus Hansen and Patrick Antonious.

Yikes. Clonie vs. Team Full Tilt. Read it here. Here's a bit...

In May 2007 all Full Tilt Poker team members received distribution payments apart from her; she demanded distribution owing but was refused. Six months later Howard Lederer offered to pay her $250,000 for her past performance but Gowen refused as she believed this was only a fraction of what is rightly owed to her as she estimates the company to be worth over $US4 billion. She continued to work and promote Full Tilt Poker until being informed that they were going to issue a press statement detailing that she was no longer part of the team.

More drama in the land of poker.

Editor's Note: The original story on PokerNetwork is no longer there. There was a link in the original post to the court documents which you can check out by clicking here.

Updates:

Pokerati has a snazzy non-hagged out photo of Clonie.

And a thread popped up on 2+2.

Awaiting snarky commentary from the hombres at Wicked Chops Poker.


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 11/15/2008 09:46:00 AM | Permalink |

 
ebk03001 Wins Series 2 of Sundays with Dr. Pauly; Series 3 Begins This Sunday

By Pauly
Hollyweird, CA


Series 2 of Sundays with Dr. Pauly over at Fantasy Sports Live is complete. ebk03001 took it down and joins Series 1 winner Expensive Wino in the Super Tournament of Champions (held during Week 16). They also get a $25 bonus. ebk03001 clinched first place in Series 2 without even winning a single week although he posted three Top 5 finishes and never finished lower than 15th.

Rajah424 was the overall winner for Week 10. He posted a score of 144.7 which was the second highest score for the entire season.

Series 3 begins on Sunday and lasts during weeks 11-15 of the NFL season. For more details on Sundays with Dr. Pauly... click here.

And if you don't have a Fantasy Sports Live account, you can sign up for one here.

And here's the skinny...

Series 1 Results:
Week 1 Winner: Expensive Wino - 114.4
Week 2 Winner: only1calvary - 123.4
Week 3 Winner: Kev - 140.4
Week 4 Winner: PayME - 141.1
Week 5 Winner: bonds - 134
Overall Series 1 Winner: Expensive Wino - 581

Series 2 Results:
Week 6 Winner: Kaiseroll13 - 137
Week 7 Winner: V-man - 135.9
Week 8 Winner: jrf361 - 152.8
Week 9 Winner: belly2bar - 131.2
Week 10 Winner: Rajah424 - 144.7
Overall Series 2 Winner: ebk03001 - 592.6

High Weekly Scores for the Entire Season ($75/$25 added):
1st: jrf361 - 152.8 (week 8)
2nd: Rajah424 - 144.7 (Week 10)

Series 2 Final Standings:
ebk03001 592.6
belly2bar 581.6
spitball 572.5
jrf361 557.3
Buffalo66 557
Expensive Wino 553
Resino 548.3
repete offenders 546.6
Chuckdnb 532.4
BigHeeb91 511.3
bonds 509.9
Olliewood 506.5
Sconie 490.7
cwfoot 480.7
Pokerpeaker 480.4
Joe Speaker 480.2
Kev 478.6
TaoPauly 477.3
Brian 471
HermWarfare 463.6
Mattazuma 455.9
Kaiseroll13 455.7
bayne_s 448.3
AlCantHang 428.7

The following players won a entry in the TOC (Tournament of Champions) by beating my score for 3 consecutive weeks.... Jag, Expensive Wino, AlCantHang, Buffalo66, Chewbot, Resino, Greengoddess, Kaiseroll13, Chuckdnb, Brian, ebk03001, Belly2Bar, spitball, cwfoot, Kev, Mattazuma, Big Pirate, bonds, Pokerpeaker.

Super TOC and TOC will be during Week 16. Whoever beats my score will chop up the bonus prize money of $125 for the Super TOC or $200 for the TOC

Again, if you don't have a Fantasy SportsLive account, you can sign up for one today! It's legal in the US and you can fund your account with a credit card.




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 11/14/2008 02:03:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Sometimes, I Wish I Was a Lesbian...

By Pauly
Hollyweird, CA

This has absolutely zero to do with poker.


Welcome to Hot Girl on Girl Action Thursdays on Tao of Poker. And you're welcome, Jaxia.


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 11/13/2008 11:51:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Radio Free Pauly on Lou Krieger's Radio Show

By Pauly
Hollyweird, CA


I'll be making a rare radio appearance tonight on Lou Krieger's weekly show called Keep Flopping Aces. We're going to talk about the November Nine and perhaps my adventures in Budapest and London.

Head over to Rounders Radio to listen in at 9pm ET or 6pm PT.

There is a call in number... 810-496-3428... if you are dying to ask a question.

And if you miss tonight's program... don't worry. You can always download it as a podcast in a couple of days.

Helpful links.... Keep Flopping Aces archives and Rounders Radio.


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 11/13/2008 10:43:00 AM | Permalink |

 
AcerbicOne Wins Saturdays with Dr. Pauly; New Tournament This Saturday

By Pauly
Las Vegas, NV


AcerbicOne came close a couple of months ago but finished in second place to the Last King of Scotland. He finally managed to breakthrough and capture his first Saturdays with Dr. Pauly crown.

The last couple of months have been brutal for me. The majority of the time, I'm simply too busy to play in my own tournament because I'm traveling. On last Saturday, I was driving from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. We got caught in traffic so I tried to play while I rode shotgun in Change100's car. Luckily, I was able to connect during the crawl through bat country.

We had 21 runners last Saturday. The top 3 paid out. I didn't see the hand, but Chenzilla was Gigli.

When I finally logged in, my starting table included... 777GMoney, GapBand85, AcerbicOne, MrMojo, jimmym, and cantseefade.

I managed to build a stack early on. I might have been the chipleader at one point before I lost a big pot. I was 9th out of 11 to go when my laptop ran out of juice. I sat out and posted and folded my way to the final table.

When I arrived at the Rio and checked into our room, I fired up the laptop. I had finished in 6th place and it was heads up at the second break. Acerbic One was ahead with a 5K lead over john1984.

Dredful was the bubble boy and JOHN-E-FLUSH cashed in third place.

The decisive hand happened when both players were almost even in chips. John1984 was ahead by 1.6K. AcerbicOne raised to 2,400 and john1984 called. The flop was Js-10c-8d. John 1984 checked, AcerbicOne bet half the pot or 2,400. John1984 check-raised to 5,600. AcerbicOne shoved for 12,780. John1984 had him covered and called with a set of eights. AcerbicOne flopped the joint.

john1984: 8s-8-7c-3h 8h
AcerbicOne: Ah-Kd-Qs-9h

AcerbicOne faded the full house when the 6h fell on the turn and he improved his hand with a Broadway straight when the Kc fell on the river. John1984 was crippled and busted out two hands later.

Money Winners:
1. AcerbicOne - $105
2. john1984 - $63
3. JOHN-E-FLUSH - $43

Congrats to AcerbicOne and thanks to everyone who played and pimped the event. I should be able to play this Saturday without any issues. See you there!

Previous champions include... Grouse14 (twice), The Rooster, Buddy Dank, DrPauly, StB, Bikom, Family Ice, Bettercheck4, 23skidoo, USC55ND24, I_CrackQuads, Bayne, MrMojo, and Resdent Evil (three times including back-to-back), CSauve (twice), holdin-ragz!, Sydney 8 (twice), OneEyeKeith, Derek (twice), SmBoatDrinks, Boscodon, NoTalentTom, quinedge, GoIrish89, Quak Quack, ValpoProf, dfense072, Bad Blood, ArcticAction, Sting11165, Acornman, FiveFingerz, 2Tall_Saint, jeciimd, and AcerbicOne.

If you have problems finding the tournament... look in the Tourney tab and then the Private tab. Tournament name is Saturdays w/DrPauly.

Oh, and if you don't have a PokerStars account... sign up for one today. Download PokerStars software.


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 11/12/2008 04:20:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Charity Tournament Tonight

By Pauly
Las Vegas, NV

IlliniFan97 sent me an email regarding a charity tournament for an ailing friend....

A friend of mine is struggling to make ends meet while fighting kidney disease. He is unable to work, and his disability and medical coverage only cover so much. If you could all help me out in advertising on your blogs, to your friends, etc, it would mean a lot to me. This is a great community for helping people, so I am sure we will continue that tradition.

You can help out this Wednesday, Nov 12th. Here's the details:

When: 9pm ET on 11/12
Where: Full Tilt - Tournament #67971755
Buy in: $10+$10 NL
Name: Bad Beat on Kidney Failure
Password: CailtyssRulien

Spread the word and improve your karma. A couple of Full Tilters are signed up including Andy Bloch, Jen Harman, Marco Traniello, and Mandy Baker.


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 11/12/2008 11:08:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Peter Eastgate Wins 2008 WSOP Main Event; Scandi Become Youngest WSOP Champion

By Pauly
Las Vegas, NV

It's over. Say hello to our new champion...


Peter Eastgate - 2008 WSOP Champion
Photo courtesy of Flipchip
On the 105th hand of heads up play and Hand #274 of the final table, Peter Eastgate knocked out Ivan Demidov.

Here's the final hand... Both players limped. The flop was Ks-3h-2d. Demidov checked. Eastgate bet 1.25m and Demidov called. The turn was the 4c. Demidov checked. Eastgate bet 2m. Demidov check-raised to 6m. Eastgate called. The river was the 7s. Demidov moved all in for the rest of his stack. Eastgate insta-called.

Demidov: 4h-2h
Eastgate: Ad-5s

Demidov's two-pair was not good enough because Eastgate turned The Wheel. Eastgate won the hand and Demidov was eliminated in second place. The Russian won $5,809,595. Eastgate collected $9,152,416 and became the youngest ever WSOP champion breaking Phil Hellmuth's 19 year record in the process.

"This was a good final table, obviously, because I won it," joked Eastgate. "There was a lot of competent players at the final table. It's was tough. I'm really tired. I'm exhausted."

2008 November Nine Final Table Results:
1. Peter Eastgate - $9,152,416
2. Ivan Demidov - $5,809,595
3. Dennis Phillips - $4,517,773
4. Ylon Schwartz - $3,774,974
5. Scott Montgomery - $3,096,768
6. Darus Suharto - $2,418,562
7. David "Chino" Rheem - $1,772,650
8. Kelly Kim - $1,288,217
9. Craig Marquis - $900,670

Yep, that's it. Peter Eastgate from Odense, Denmark is officially the biggest swinging dick in Las Vegas after winning the 2008 WSOP. That kid is definitely gonna get laid tonight.

With that being said, thanks to everyone for tuning in to the Tao of Poker. It's been a wild, indulgent, poignant, insane, and epic 2008 WSOP and the November Nine is officially over.


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 11/11/2008 06:33:00 AM | Permalink |

 
2008 WSOP Final Table - Heads Up - Live Blog

By Pauly
Las Vegas, NV

Well, we're down to the final two players. One of them will be poker's next superstar. Which one will it be?

The Final Two:
Peter Eastgate (Denmark) - 79.5M
Ivan Demidov (Russia) - 57.725M

1st Place - $9,152,416
2nd Place - $5,809,595

And without further ado, here's the skinny on the final two...

* * * * *
8:30pm... Action with Otis

I should actually sub-title this Otis Money Is the Sweetest Money. During dinner, Otis and I decided upon 13 14 different prop bets on the heads up battle. Here they are...

1. Time on tournament clock (last digit) when action stops?
Otis: Even
Pauly: Odd

2. Who has the button on the last hand?
Otis: Peter Eastgate
Pauly: Ivan Demidov

3. Winning hand (at the time when money goes all in)... suckout or best hand holds?
Otis: Hold
Pauly: Suckout

4. Time of the first all in? Over/Under at 12:25am.
Otis: Over 12:25am
Pauly: Under 12:25am

5. Will Aces or Kings get cracked?
Otis: No
Pauly: Yes

6. Will the first pocket pair at showdown be 9-9 and higher or 8-8 and lower?
Otis: 8-8 and under
Pauly: 9-9 and over

7. Total hands of heads up play? Over/Under at 72.5.
Otis: Over 72.5 hands
Pauly: Under 72.5 hands

8. Final hand number (according to PokerNews.com)?
Otis: Even
Pauly: Odd

9. Overall winner?
Otis: Peter Eastgate +20
Pauly: Ivan Demidov +25

10. When will the Danes sing the "Ooooompa" song (after cards go in the air)? Over/Under at 10:53pm?
Otis: Over 10:53pm
Pauly: Under 10:53pm

11. Winning hand? Better than Q-7 or worse than Q-7?
Otis: Worse than Q-7
Pauly: Better than Q-7

12. Player to get the first walk in the big blind?
Otis: Ivan Demidov
Pauly: Peter Eastagte

13. What will be the winning hand?
Straight flush: Otis
Quads: Pauly
Full house: Otis
Flush: Pauly
Straight: Pauly
Set: Otis
Trips: Pauly
Two pair: Pauly
Pair: Otis
High Card: Otis

14. Which female dealer will deal the final hand?
Otis: Linda
Pauly: Jenna

* * * * *
9:30pm... The Calm Before the Storm and Why Otis Has a Chubby

The hot DJ is back. She's a tall leggy femme fatale with a black cowboy hat resting on top of her streaky blonde hair. She wore red lingerie yesterday and today it's a black Milwaukee's Beast tank top and exposing her midriff and hugging her supple breasts. She has been bopping up and down while spinning on the 1s and 2s. A small pool of saliva has collected near Otis' laptop in media row. We had to get him a bib to keep his shirt clean.

The room is buzzing, much like yesterday with the exception of the several hundred Dennis Phillips clones. Many of them are still around wandering through the casino at odd hours. You can't miss them, sort of like that scene in Being John Malkovich.

The media row in the orchestra pit has filled up. I'm sitting next to Flipchip and Matt from PokerListings. Michalski actually showed up on time. We recorded one episode of Tao of Pokerati. F Train and Change100 are up on the stage and getting ready to do provide hand-for-hand coverage of the heads up battle.

Me? I'm comfortably numb. This will be my fourth consecutive final table of the WSOP. I caught the last ever one at Benny's Bullpen at Binion's in 2005 when Joe Hachem won. I was hanging out in the peanut gallery when Jamie Gold beat Paul Wasicka in 2006. Last year, I was ringside with BJ as we did hand-for-hand for PokerNews. This year? Well it's special because it's the November Nine and inside the Penn & Teller theatre.

Oh, and before I forget... thanks to the gang at Cluster Stock for the shout out! They mentioned the Tao of Poker in a post titled... So, Who's Psyched About The WSOP Final Table?. Thanks guys.

* * * * *
10:00pm... Erick Lindgren - Player of the Year

Jeffrey Pollack took the stage at 10:15pm to present Erick Lindgren the Player of the Year award and a custom-made Harley Davidson motorcycle. F Train mentioned that the engraving was wrong. Ooooops. Someone's getting whacked for that.

"This is awesome. I can't believe all of you are here to watch poker!" joked Lindgren. "One of my best friends, Daniel Negreanu, have won this award. It's truly an honor. You'll get to watch a really great heads up match. Oh, and Doyle Brunson said to tell you guys, 'There is a cash game when they are done tonight.'"

Jack Effel introduced the final two players as they unbagged their chips.

"This is gonna take twenty minutes for them to stack their chips," said Jeremy Firth.

Jack Effel is helping them out. He's hustling for a fat tip. But as we know, Europeans don't tip very well since it's not really in their culture.

* * * * *
10:32pm... Let's Get Ready to Rumble

Michael Buffer did the "Let's get ready to... shuffle up and deal" honors. Yawn. He was huge like in 1998 when it was cool to actually wear Doc Maartens. I'm just giving him shit. He did a good job. He tried to give it a boxing spin. He called Ivan the Russian..."From Russia with Love Ivan Demidov."

I wonder how much it cost to get him to do that? $50K? $100K and an 8-ball and three Hooker Bar hookers?

Jack Effel tried to speak to the players in their native tongues. Both players smirked.

Cards went in the air at 10:34pm. We're on Level 27. Blinds are 300k/600k with a 75k ante. There is 8:31 left in this level.

A couple of former champs are in the crowd including... Jamie Gold and Jesus.

The final table has several dozens bricks of cash. Fake money? Real money? Who cares. It looks cool. The effect on TV will be tremendous. Both players are deep stacked which means they both have mountains of chips on the table in three denominations... 25,000; 100,000; and 250,000.

Peter Eastgate is a backwards hat kinda guy. He's the good guy if you consider that he has the white PokerStars hat. And Ivan the Russian? He's sporting a black PokerStars hat.

The wife and daughter of Stuey Ungar are here tonight... Madeline and Stephanie Ungar. They got a warm round of applause.

There are now 14 prop bets between Otis and myself. #14 has been added above.

In case you were wondering, there are five different dealers in rotation for the final table. Michalski and I each took two dealers and bet on which one will deal the knock out hand. Michalksi has Linda and the old white guy. I have Jenna and Kevin.

* * * * *
10:54pm... Otis 1, Pauly 1

I won the first prop bet of the night.... 12. Player to get the first walk in the big blind? I picked Peter Eastgate and I won. As soon as Jack Effel announced the result, everything got quiet in the theatre. The cliche fits... it was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. Actually, it was so quiet you could hear Otis go on prop bet tilt. He involuntarily unleashed a loud, "Noooooooo!" So loud that everyone in the theatre heard him. Otis' face flushed with blood. He was beet red as he got pretty embarrassed. Yes, it's not even Midnight and I tilted Otis.

I lost the second bet.... 10. When will the Danes sing the "Ooooompa" song (after cards go in the air)? Over/Under at 10:53pm? I had the under. I figured that when Eastgate won the first hand, his boys would start screaming and singing. No such luck.

Oh and there's a Chris Moneymaker sighting.

And we have a brand spanking new episode of Tao of Pokerati. The first of tonight...

Book 4: WSOP Final Table.... Episode 4.11: Deal or No Deal? (5:33)

Michalski says: When the security guys came out with the money — 9 million semi-real American dollars for the money — a few of us in media row joked about telling the story that the guys left at the final table had decided to chop up the remaining prize pool and play for it Deal or Ne Deal style. (Ha ha, we are so damn funny.) But on this episode of Tao of Pokerati, Pauly and I take the issue a bit more seriously, and break down what’s really at stake for Ivan and Peter — who became friends recently playing on the EPT on PokerStars’ dime — beyond just the $3.34 million in prize differential between 1st and 2nd.

* * * * *
11:24pm... Where's Gus Hansen?

Jesper Hougaard is in the house. The Copenhagen, Denmark native won two WSOP bracelets this year. He won one of the $1,500 slaughterfests this summer and he took down the £1,500 NL event at the WSOPE in London. He's been in the crowd the last two days supporting his fellow countryman Peter Eastgate. But where's Gus Hansen? Probably out banging groupies instead of rooting on one of his own.

FYI... if Eastgate wins the Main Event tonight, he will become the third Danish player to win a bracelet this year. Theo Jorgensen won one at the WSOPE in London.

Some stats (through the first 25 hands):
Eastgate - 12 hands won
Demidov - 13 hands won

There have been only 6 flops through the first 25 hands of heads up. Appears that both players are feeling each other out. Eastgate picked up less than 2m in chips even though Demidov won one more hand than him.

* * * * *
12:24am... No Nerves of Steel

I thought Scandis and Russians had ice water flowing through their veins. It appears that both are super nervous. This is coming directly from Lou the dealer. Michalski and I bumped into him on the first break. Lou just came off from dealing to both guys.

"Yesterday, nobody was nervous. But today, they are both very nervous. You can see it in their hands. They are both shaking."

He mentioned that Eastgate was more nervous that Ivan the Russian.

That made sense because Ivan made the final table in London for the WSOPE and played under the hot TV lights.

"You can see it in his face," the dealer explained about Eastgate's early jitters.

Despite his early bout with the nerves, Eastgate increased his lead.

Updated Chip Counts as 12:24am:
Peter Eastgate - 86.325M
Ivan Demidov - 50.575M

Well, if I was coring this as a boxing match (through the first 35 hands) the first round went to Peter Eastgate.

* * * * * *
12:44am.... 100 Million Man

First monsterpotten of the night goes to Peter Eastgate. Here's what happened.... Eastgate limped from the button. Ivan the Russian raised to almost 2m. Eastgate called. The flop was 9h-7s-6d. Ivan the Russian fired out 3.6m. Eastgate called. The turn was the Jh. Both players checked. The river was the Qs. Ivan the Russian bet 7m. Eastgate insta-called Js-8s. His pair of Jacks were good against Ivan's A-10. Yeah, Ace-high is no good.

That hand thrusted Eastgate over the 100m barrier while Ivan the Russian slipped to 35m.

Some stats (thru hands 26-50):
Eastgate - 14 hands won, 1 chop
Demidov - 10 hands won, 1 chop

Overall stats (thru 50 hands):
Eastgate - 26 hands won, 1 chop
Demidov - 23 hands won, 1 chop

Eastgate pulled away over the last batch of 25 hands. Although he only has three more wins over Demidov overall, he has picked up the larger pots thus far. That's the main reason why he's leading 3 to 1 in chips.

* * * * *
12:55am... Longest Final Table.... Ever!

Jack Effel made an announcement that this final table is now the longest final table in history of the WSOP. The 2005 main event that Joe Hachem won lasted 14 hours and 2 minutes. This one has surpassed that mark.

Oh and I forgot that I saw Jamie Gold in the hallway during the break. He was mobbed by fans and posed for several pictures.

Lacey Jones stopped by the media row in the orchestra pit to say hello. Shes doing the commentary over at Bluff TV.

* * * * *
1:23am... Otis 3, Pauly 1

I two more prop bets.... 4. Time of the first all in? Over/Under at 12:25am.. Yeah, I had the under. Almost one hour later, neither of them have been all in yet.

And the other loser? 7. Total hands of heads up play? Over/Under at 72.5. Another whiff from me. They just completed Hand #73.

There are more Peter Eastgate fans in the house. Jack Effel took a poll. Ivan the Russian got a smattering of applause, while Eastgate received a much louder response from the crowd. Plenty of Dennis Phillips clones wandering around the theatre. They showed up to check out the action.

Some stats (thru hands 51-75):
Eastgate - 10 hands won
Demidov - 15 hands won

Overall stats (thru 75 hands):
Eastgate - 36 hands won, 1 chop
Demidov - 38 hands won, 1 chop

The last round goes to Ivan the Russian. He managed to pick up 4m or so over the last dozen hands. He still trails like 95m to 41m but at least he stopped the bleeding... for now.

* * * * *
2:01am...Eastgate Stops Russian Counter-Offensive

Finally, just when everyone started to doze off, there was some action. Ivan the Russian had mounted a minor comeback. He bottomed out at 30m and ran his stack back up to 53m until he lost a decisive pot....

Ivan raised 2m and Eastgate called. The flop was Kd-10d-7c and everyone checked. The turn was the Jd and Eastgate fired out 2.5m. Ivan the Russian popped him for 8m. Eastgate called. The river was the 3s. Eastgate checked. Ivan the Russian pulled out 12m. Eastgate called. He tabled 7d-4d for a flush while Demidov showed Ac-9s for a busted straight and only Ace high. Eastgate won the pot and his posse unleashed their Oooooopa song for the first time in the evening.

After the dust settled, Eastgate increased his stack to 108m, while Ivan the Russian slipped to 28m. Eastgate stopped the Russian counter-offensive.

Some stats (thru hands 76-100):
Eastgate - 11 hands won
Demidov - 14 hands won

Overall stats (thru 100 hands):
Eastgate - 47 hands won, 1 chop
Demidov - 52 hands won, 1 chop

Once again, it's quality that matters, not quantity. Demidov won more pots over the last 25 hands, but Eastgate picked up the largest pot in that span as he increased his lead to over 80m.

Players are on a 20-minute break. Here's the chip count....

Peter Eastgate - 120.55M
Ivan Demidov - 16.35M

2:34am... Ivan Demidov Eliminated in 2nd Place; Peter Eastgate Wins 2008 WSOP!

On the first hand after the break, on the 105th hand of heads up play and Hand #274 of the final table, Peter Eastgate knocked out Ivan Demidov.

Here's the final hand... Both players limped. The flop was Ks-3h-2d. Demidov checked. Eastgate bet 1.25m and Demidov called. The turn was the 4c. Demidov checked. Eastgate bet 2m. Demidov check-raised to 6m. Eastgate called. The river was the 7s. Demidov moved all in for the rest of his stack. Eastgate insta-called.

Demidov: 4h-2h
Eastgate: Ad-5s

Demidov's two-pair was not good enough because Eastgate turned the Wheel. He won the hand and Demidov was eliminated in second place. The Russian won $5,809,595. Eastgate collected $9,152,416 and became the youngest ever WSOP champion (and broke Phil Hellmuth's 19 year record in the process).

"This was a good final table, obviously, because I won it," joked Eastgate. "There was a lot of competent players at the final table. It's was tough. I'm really tired. I'm exhausted."

2008 November Nine Final Table Results:
1. Peter Eastgate - $9,152,416
2. Ivan Demidov - $5,809,595
3. Dennis Phillips - $4,517,773
4. Ylon Schwartz - $3,774,974
5. Scott Montgomery - $3,096,768
6. Darus Suharto - $2,418,562
7. David "Chino" Rheem - $1,772,650
8. Kelly Kim - $1,288,217
9. Craig Marquis - $900,670

Yep, that's it. Peter Eastgate from Denmark is officially the biggest swinging dick in Las Vegas after winning the 2008 WSOP. That kid is definitely gonna get laid tonight.

With that being said, thanks to everyone for tuning in to the Tao of Poker. It's been a wild, indulgent, poignant, insane, and epic 2008 WSOP and the November Nine is officially over. Time to tilt Otis at the Hooker Bar and make some money back lime tossing. I'll post our prop bet results soon.


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 11/11/2008 12:05:00 AM | Permalink |

 
2008 WSOP Main Event Final Table: November Nine > November Dos

By Pauly
Las Vegas, NV

After a 117-day wait, we're down to two players remaining in the 2008 WSOP Main Event. 6,844 players bought into the Main Event last July, which seems like an eternity ago when the Amazon Ballroom was transformed into the killing fields and we were knee deep in donkey blood. I also overlooked a lot of the sheep that were led to the slaughter as they juiced up the prize pool. There's still around $15 million up for grabs as both Peter Eastgate and Ivan Demidov having their eyes on the coveted $9,152,416 first place prize and all the honor and glory that accompanies the winner of the WSOP.

The next champion will truly be a world champion and either a Scandi or a Russian will take it down. I covered a good share of EPT events over the last couple of years and clsoely watched the premiere players in Europe. The Scandis (Sweden, Norway, Denmark) are among the best poker players in the world. Despite what Phil Hellmuth thinks about the skill level of players from Northern Europe, those uber-aggressive Scandis in hoodies or with perfectly messy hair are among the toughest to play against.

It's the bleak Scandinavian winter of discontent. Too many hours of darkness, not enough light. Many of them turn to online poker to help retain their sanity which is why that area of the world has been a fertile breeding ground for top notch players over the last decade or so.

But there's a new poker hotspot in Europe and this one is located in Mother Russia. Since the collapse of communism, Russia has struggled with entering the free market and shedding the shackles of the former Soviet empire. And in the last several years, the Russian economy has been fueled by oil. Black gold. Although oil production has slipped a bit, the earlier part of the decade was a boom for Russia. All of a sudden there was an influx of oil money trickling into all parts of the economy.

And just as the Texas rounders fleeced wealthy oilmen in East Texas in various card games in the 1960s and 70s, so too did their Russian counterparts in the earlier part of the 21st century. The Russian sharks had a feast on the fat cats. I have never been to Moscow, but I've heard several wild stories about some of the insane cash games where billionaires are donking off millions and millions of dollars at the table every couple of hours. Poker is a viable source of income in Russia.

Most North Americans are familiar with a fictional Russian poker player - Teddy KGB. And yes, the NYC underground card rooms have their fare share of wild and wacky Oreo chomping Russian players in track suits, but not too many of them were staples on the various tournament circuit. Ralph Perry (a Russian immigrant via Brooklyn) made the final table of the WSOP the year that Varkonyi won, but he was not as popular as Kirill Gerasimov, who was the first big named Russian player to get lots of media exposure due to his good fortunate during the early seasons of the WPT.

Over the last couple of years, the top Russian players have been making an impact. Alex Kravchenko won a bracelet at the 2007 WSOP and also made the final table of the Main Event. And earlier this year, Alexander Kostritsin headed down under and won the Aussie Millions after he beat Eric Seidel heads up for the victory. And don't forget about a couple other Russian transplants from Brooklyn such as Sweet Svetlana Gromenkova (the 2008 WSOP Ladies Champion) and Alex Bolotin.


Ivan Demidov
Photo courtesy of Flipchip
Ivan Demidov admitted that Kravchenko's appearance at the final table last year was an inspiration not only to him, but to many young Russian players who looked up to Kravchenko. Prior to the November Nine, Kravchenko was number one on the all time Russian money winners however, he will lose the top spot to Ivan Demidov since the young gun is guaranteed to win $5+ million later tonight. That would instantly put Ivan Demidov into the number one spot.

So right now, the shift in poker power in Europe is being played out at the final table in Las Vegas. The Scandis are the old guard but right now we're seeing a migration of power towards Eastern Europe led by a Russian offensive. As poker gains more and more popularity in that part of the world, we're going to see more top notch players emerge from the ruins of Eastern Europe. The Russians are coming whether you like it are not.

But let's not jump the shark just yet, although I firmly believe that five and ten years down the road, poker historians and pundits will look back at the heads up match up between Peter Eastgate and Ivan Demidov and say that was a defining moment in tournament poker, when the Russians made a run at the Scandis in the quest for supreme poker prowess.

In my final table preview post I wrote, "There's a good possibility that we could see a Demidov and Eastgate showdown." Now you understand why I wrote that.

And of course, the biggest winner in all of this will be PokerStars and other online poker sites that are actively seeking new areas of the world to conquer. The Northern European market is oversaturated, but Russia and Eastern Europe (Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic) is an enticing emerging market.

* * * * *


Chipleader - Peter Eastgate
Photo courtesy of Flipchip
Peter Eastgate is on the cusp of making WSOP history and kicking Phil Hellmuth in the junk in one swift motion. Only Ivan Demidov stands in the way of Eastgate winning the main event and becoming the youngest champion of all time. Hellmuth held that distinction since his victory in 1989 when he beat Johnny Chan heads up for the title. That was 19+ years ago and despite the influx of young internet players over the last few years, Hellmuth has been able to retain that record for almost two decades.

I can tell you right now, that Hellmuth will be rooting for Ivan Demidov. I wonder if the Poker Brat will show up waving an old-school Soviet flag?

* * * * *
I thought about writing up a recap of yesterday's events, but I'll let the live blog (in the post below) stand on its own. No sense in repeating myself and I'll save my commentary for an overall recap once the heads up match is complete.


I do suggest that you listen to the latest batch of Tao of Pokerati episodes... the shortest poker podcast in the business mainly because Michalski and I have short attention spans and we're too lazy to actually produce anything bigger.

I believe we recorded around ten or so. Michalski should be posting a few more shortly over at Pokerati.

Anyway, all the descriptions were penned by Michalski. So, here you go....

Book 4: WSOP Final Table

Episode 4.1: WSOPenn & Teller (2:04)
Pauly and I are back ... watching the biggest sit-n-go in the history of poker, very live-ish from the Penn & Teller Theater in the Rio. As fans were filing in, chips were being unbagged, and 4 months of semi-hyped anticipation was getting underway, we are nice guys looking to share our observations with you.

Episode 4.2: Root, Root, Root for the Short Stack (3:17)
As action gets underway, Pauly and I check out the crowds and the difference in expectation between Dennis Phillips' and Kelly Kims' fans before debating the name of the whole shebang — November Nine, bleh — while paying homage to Robin Leach and noting that the PBR Rodeo, which is also in town, is going nuts over the chance for a cowboy to win $1 million. Puhlease.

Episode 4.3: Double Up! Double Up! (1:20)
I'm having some trouble with properly title-ing this stuff ... but follow along, as "Book 4" is definitely the event going on here at the Penn and Teller Theater that we are discussing. This time, Pauly and I witness a double-up by Kelly Kim, much to his fans delight, who are suddenly fueled with new hope for a better poker day.

Episode 4.4: Bustin' Outs (2:43)
The action picks up, with Craig Marquis and Kelly Kim busting out ... Kim had some of the best fans, and for Marquis, it's all sickness ... sick to go out when he did, sick to go out how he did, and as a result, he goes home with nada, or at least nada mas. Kim, on the other hand, has an extra $300k ... and we can only assume his friends and fans are out celebrating that achievement.

Episode 4.5: Boo Berry (4:18)
Last Woman Standing Tiffany Michelle shows up and gets an unwarm reception from the crowd, perhaps inspiring her to play up her "bad girl" image? Oooh.

Episode 4.6: Poker Rogue (1:05)
I go rogue to bring you the bustout of David "Chino" Rheem — supposedly the most serious pro at the table, but also the guy with the most serious criminal record. Dude knows how to play hardball, though, as we’ve all seen him on ESPN get hella lucky to get here, and the (unconfirmed) word buzzing around the room is that he was a contract holdout with PokerStars, reportedly threatening not to wear his gear without more money attached to it. To be sure, much of this is just rumor second-hand from quasi-reliable sources, but on Tao of Pokerati — especially without Pauly to keep me in check and Benjo to keep it funny — does that really matter?

Episode 4.7: Pokerstarzistan (2:04)
At dinner break, Dr. Pauly and I discuss Chino Rheem's bustout interview and its political inspiration, along with PokerStars' domination over Full Tilt. (Four Stars players left, one Full Tilter.) In fact, there’s even a rumor we start discuss about PokerStars' intentions to start its own country — which would be theoretically feasible, and would probably have the best prisons.

Episode 4.8: Livin' on a Prayer (4:57)
Upon reaching the Final Four, Pauly coins Dennis Phillips as "Mr. F-in' Rollercoaster", and from there we look at the strategy in play, make assessments of the time (and playing styles) it will take to get to the final two, and officially declare victory for PokerStars.

Episode 4.9: The Novembrists (5:31)
Ylon Schwartz check-raises with nothing into the nuts of Peter Eastgate, and Pauly and I begin the countdown and begin speculating on what two Eurokids (and maybe even Dennis Phillips) will mean for poker/PokerStars... and where poker is in Europe these days. But are Russians dead money or just scary? Maybe a little bit of both? Plus advanced blogging strategy by Dr. Pauly.

Episode 4.10: Ivan Moneymaker (3:29)
Either that or Peter Hellmuth. As we wind down the day yesterday and look forward to tonight’s action, that’s what’s at stake — either we'll have a new youngest main event champion ever, or the Ruskies will have a new national hero. Meanwhile, Dan gets his facts wrong, but does Pauly even care when he can’t see the final f-in table.

To listen to old episodes, visit the Tao of Pokerati archives.

* * * * *
The conclusion of the final table will begin at 10pm local time on Monday night (or at 1am on Tuesday morning for all of you East Coasters or 6am GMT for the Europeans).

Check back in with Tao of Poker for live updates from the Rio.


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 11/10/2008 01:05:00 PM | Permalink |

 
2008 WSOP Final Table - November Nine - Live Blog

By Pauly
Las Vegas, NV

The day of reckoning is upon us. After a 117-day layoff, the final table of the 2008 WSOP will finally be played out today at the Rio Casino in Las Vegas. The November Nine is here whether we like it or not.

* * * * *
4:20am... Is This Thing On?

Is anyone already tuning in already as I shout into the void? Dreaded batch of insomnia struck. I was wide awake six hours before cards are scheduled to go in the air by 10:23am. Stay tuned for live updates, snarky commentary, and even a couple of new episodes of Tao of Pokerati. Well, it's 4:20. Smoke 'em if you got 'em!

* * * * *
5:21am... Meet the Entourage

I'm staying at the Rio with Change100. We drove out from the lush hills of Hollyweird on Saturday afternoon and sped through bat country en route to Las Vegas. As soon as we pulled into the valet at the Rio, we caught a glimpse of the massive army of supporters that comprise Dennis Phillips' entourage. I heard that he had booked over 359 rooms at the Rio for his many peeps. That's insane. You can pick out his loyal followers by the red Saint Louis Cardinals hats that many of them are wearing. And even PokerStars has been branding Phillips' army. In the relentless war for the hearts and minds of online poker players, PokerStars appears to have won an early battle. Plenty of PokerStars logos on the legion of Dennis Phillips fans. Fly 'em in, slap stickers on them, and hope everyone who sees that signs up for a PokerStars account.

I only spotted one final table player on Saturday. It was Darus Suharto. He waltzed past us just outside of the Tilted Kilt McFaddens. Matt told me there was a sign at McFadden's saying, "The Official Headquarters of Poker's Chip Leader." Supposedly, Phillips's crew has been using that drinking establishment as their home base. Alas, the hooker bar can't hold 300+ people.

A Hooker Swiped My Seat

What's a trip to Vegas without an interaction with the local working girls? I spotted two white trashy hookers with smeared back tattoos at the Gold Coast on Saturday night. I slurped down a $2 Heineken and scoffed at the plethora of cowboys in town for some sort of Rodeo event while I shot the shit with a couple of my peers in the poker media. The bartender quickly kicked me out of my seat at the bar because I wasn't playing the video poker machine and he gave the spot to a hooker instead. Supposedly, one of the hookers wanted to donk off her cock chugging money playing video keno.

That was a humbling moment in my life. Just when I thought I was getting an inkling of respect in Sin City for being a well-read poker writer, I got put in my place when my stool commandeered by a foul wench.

* * * * *
6:23am.... Dawn Breaks

I gazed out the window towards the Las Vegas Strip and the morning sun is bursting through small holes in the blanket of rain clouds that covered the Las Vegas valley. As darkness gives way to the first inkling of light, the vampires are retreating back into their coffins. The party people are stumbling back to their hotel rooms. The bluehaired slot sluts are making their way to the buffets and the ladies of the night are limping back to their crash pads and washing the semen streaks off of the inside of their thighs. Somewhere out there, the Sunday morning church bells are drowned out by the cacophony of gambling sounds; the relentless beeping of slot machines, grumbles at the craps tables, and some douchebag in sunglasses at a poker table screaming, "One time!" at a weary dealer. It's truly the dawn of a new day.

At this very moment, I wonder if any of the November Nine players are wide awake? Unable to sleep because of the thousands of butterflies thunderously fluttering inside their intestines. Their destiny is only a few hours away. Will they choke and bleed chips from their stacks? Or maybe get lucky and hit a flop early on to thrust them to the front of the pack? Maybe, just maybe today will be the day that the poker gods decide that they are the chosen one.

I wandered around the Rio at the dead hour and only noticed a few hard core gamblers huddled around the table games. The hooker bar was nearly empty and not one hooker was in sight on the entire property. I bought a $5 orange juice and spotted several members of Dennis Phillips loyal following heading out to breakfast. You can't miss them. They are all wearing white Oxford shirts with PokerStars logos and a red Cardinals hat. I love group costumes and early indications suggest that his entire crew will be identically dressed like him.

* * * * *
8:18am... White Badge

I ordered an overpriced omelete from room service and watched ESPN as a rain gently splattered against the windows. I constructed my Fantasy Sports Live team for Sundays with Dr. Pauly and vacillated on a couple of picks in the Pauly's Pub football pool. Gonna miss the games this weekend because of the damn final table.

I made my way downstairs to media regristration. Spectators were already lining up to get inside the Penn & Teller Theatre. Dave and Seth were handing out badges. I got a white badge which will put me in the orchestra. I also got a swanky food comp for the BBQ joint. It's good for two meats and two sides. Seriously, this is gonna be the best Christmas ever!

I bumped into Michael Craig eating breakfast at Sao Paolo. He told me he got to know a couple of the Full Tilt November Nine players really well such as Craig Marquis, who he described as a "good kid." I also rushed past Dave from ESPN. The familiar faces are trickling into the Rio. But will there be an Oliver Tse appearance? Michalski and I have a prop bet on that.

On the way back to my room, there was a Devo sighting at the Hooker Bar playing video poker. On the other side of the bar, a working girl pecked away at the video poker machine and sipped a pinkish cocktail anticipating an early Sunday morning trick.

* * * * *
9:19am... Everything In Its Right Place

At 9am the spectator line was backed up to the cafe. Dozens and dozens of Dennis Phillips disciples were dispersed throughout the crowd wearing their uniform. I saw Darus Suharto weaving in and out of the crowd. Peter Easgate sat at a large table in the cafe with his crew of very serious looking Scandis. I hung out on the side with a group of poker media as the line to get in swelled. Otis. F Train. Owen. Matt. Poker Shrink. California Jen. Change100. Schecky. FlipChip. Ryan. A Reunion of sorts.

Barry Greenstein walked by and he was instantly mobbed by a group of rabid fans like a gaggle pigeons in the park attacking a couple of crumbs. We were eventually led inside the Penn and Teller Theatre. I took a seat in the orchestra section. It a maroon plush couch that you's see in the back of the Rhino (minus the splatter stains).

The final table and No Limit Lounge is set up on the stage. I can't see actual stage.I'll be watching this on big TV screens. It feels a little like Christmas morning meets a Grateful Dead show... minus the presents and all the smelly hippies.

A couple of Chino's backers are already here. This might be the earliest some of them have been up in a very long time.

Ivan Demidov's fans are wearing Russian-themed clothing including old school Soviet era fags with the hammer and sickle.

Kelly Kim's contingency is doing their best to vocalize their support even though they are grossly outnumbered by Phillips crew." K-E-L-L-Y-K-I-M!" they have been shouting.

We got wind that PokerStars paid for the Dennis Phillips uniforms for his disciples and also paid for some of their flights. I spotted a dozen or so of them at the bar. Already juicing at 9am. They better pace themselves or they'll pass out. The rest of them are on the bottom level and mezzanine level in the theatre sporting thunder sticks and various signs of support. A sea of white shirts and red hats are behind me.

They will not let anyone else inside the theatre. A mob of angry spectators are pleading, cajoling,and fighting their way inside. Some of them are friends and family of the November Nine. Others are hardcore poker fans wanting to catch a glimpse at poker history. Some of them are hoping for a last minute miracle and a spot inside the circus tent where a sultry busty blonde in red lingerie and a black cowboy hat is spinning different stripper tunes while the ESPN crew and every other media type scramble around like chickens with their heads cut off.

* * * * *
10:20am.... Waiting on the Man

Of course, we're running late and a bit behind schedule. Cards were supposed to be in the air by 10:23am.

Jack Effel introduced Jerry Yang who said a few Yoda-like words of wisdom to the crowd and the November Nine players such as....

"Today is a great day. A wonderful day."

"Thank you for making the sport more meaningful for everyone around the world."

"We set a record. Jerry Yang is the longest reigning champion in the world!"

Yoda has a sense of humor.

At 10:28am, Jack Effel returned to the mic with an enthusiastic greeting. ESPN's November Nine intro played on the big screen. When Dennis Phillips image showed up, his crew went ballistic. When Chino appeared his backers shouted, "Chino! Chino!" Kelly Kim's posse jubilantly cheered for him.

At 10:31am, Jeffrey Pollack took center stage flanked by showgirls as he introduced the November Nine. The different parts of the crowd screamed the names of their guy as they stood next to one another for a quick photo op.

"Let's go Dennis!" chants erupted, while Kelly Kim's crew screamed over Jeffrey Pollack's announcement.

A couple of suits spoke nonsense and I drained it out as someone with a thick Brooklyn accent shouted, "Come on Ylon!"

At 10:35am, players unbagged their chips. "It was held under the tightest security since July," explained Jeffrey Pollack. Yeah, a Rocco with a shotgun keep a close on eye the chips for the last 117 days.

The circus has been delayed for a few more minutes. I set the over/under ending time at 1:50am. Otis took the over.

* * * * *
11:20am... The Begrudging End

10:57am, at Jeffrey Pollack said, "I'm about to announce the best tournament director in the world!"

"Thomas Kresmer?" someone piped up in media row.

Pollack introduced Jack Effel who read a prepared piece and introduced the November Nine by seat number. The Dennis Phillips crew went nuts. Again. I wonder if they can maintain that fervent energy the rest of the final table?

Scott Montgomery's fans proudly waved Canadian flags when he was introduced.

Chino looked a bit intimidating when he walked onto the stage like a prize fighter with his hoodie covering his head. His numerous backers shouted his name from the rafters.

The Russian contingency is in the crowd waving Soviet flags and wearing fut hats. In the corner a guy who looks a hell of a lot like Teddy KGB is snorting Oreo crumbs.

Kelly Kim has the loudest contingency considering they are outnumbered by 7 to 1 compared to the legion of Dennis Phillips clones. They roared. Roared. Loudly. Deafening. They interrupted Jack Effel who had to let them chant "Kelly! Kelly!" for a few seconds before he continued with reading his bio.

At 11:07am, Jack Effel was done with the intros.

"Let's double up!" shouted one of the folks from Kelly Kim's peanut gallery.

At 11:09am, Jerry Yang uttered the famous phrase.... "Shuffle up and deal."

According to the big clock in front of us, there are 21 minutes and 50 seconds left in Level 33. Blinds are 120k/240k with a 30k ante.

Here are the final table payouts including the interest added:

1st Place - $9,152,416
2nd Place - $5,809,595
3rd Place - $4,517,773
4th Place - $3,774,974
5th Place - $3,096,768
6th Place - $2,418,562
7th Place - $1,772,650
8th Place - $1,288,217
9th Place - $900,000

Kelly Kim moved all in on the first hand from the button and everyone folded.

Chino probably has the most logos at the final table. His arms and sleeves of his hoodie are all pimped out. When you don't have 100% of yourself, you gotta get cash somehow.

And yes, we recorded the first November Nine episode of Tao of Pokerati. Click here to listen to Episode 4.1: WSOPenn & Teller (3:17).

* * * * *
12:20pm.... Jonesin' for Pot and Big Pots

We had a first flop on Hand #13. I popped a big chubby after 42 minutes of passive poker. Ivan the Russian raised 775K. Scott Montgomery called from his big blind and the crowd went apeshit as Jack Effel said, "We're going to see our first flop!" He had to hush the crowd for being too noisy during the hand. Come on, Jack. This isn't golf or tennis or even table tennis. You guys brought the crowd in here for a reason and it's not a damn religious revival, or is it? Back to the hand... on our first flop (the cards are pointless) Montgomery fired out 1+ million and the Russian folded. The first flop-pot goes to the Canadian Rain Man.

We had our first non-Kelly Kim all in involving Ylon Schwartz. Ylon opened, Scott Montgomery re-raised to 2.4m. Ylon insta-shoved for over 11m. Montgomery who eventually folded and Ylon picked up a quick 2.4m. Montgomery slipped under 20m for the first time since the final table started.

During a rare moment of silence, an empty beer bottle fell over and clanked. The crowd giggled. A slight change of pace from all the screaming and yelling of players' names.

Ylon making moves The second time against Dennis Phillips. Phillips opened for 900K and Ylon called. Although Chino wasn't involved in the hand, someone screamed, "Go Chino!" Phillips firded out 2+ million at the pot and Ylon raised to 6 million. Phillips agonized over the call and eventually folded. The aggressive Ylon won the pot and increased his stack to almost 18m. Meanwhile, Phillips coughed up the lead and all of a sudden Ivan the Russian had stumbled into the slight chiplead. He leads Phillips by just 1 million.

Yeah, in the first hour of play (we're 30 minutes in level 34), the big story is that Kelly Kim is not out like a lot of folks had predicted. Ivan the Russian has the seized the lead while Phillips lost chips in the first pot he decided to play. The spoils usually go to the aggressor, and Ylon is slowly inching his way towards the 20 million chip mark.

Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho sighting. They are among the pros on the rail including several of Chino's posse that includes the Grinder, the Brother of the Grinder, Greg FBT Mueller, and Amnon Fillipi. Other pros in the building include Hevad Khan, Barry Greenstein, and Johnny Bax.

There was some noteworthy action on Hand #18. Leave it up to Ivan the Russian to liven things up in this early snoozefest. The battle of the big stacks. The oldest player at the table, Dennis Phillips, was challenged by the young gun. Ivan raised to 1m. Phillips re-raised to 3.5m and Ivan fired back 8.2m. Phillips called. Biggest pot thus far. The flop was Js-10c-8d. Philips bet a sheepish 4.5m. Ivan the Russian moved all in. Phillips tanked and looked like he was passing a kidney stone. He eventually folded. Score one for Ivan as he retained the chiplead. He increased his monster stack to 35 million. Phillips bled even more chips and went from the big dog to a drowning one. He slipped to 8th in chips, while Peter Eastgate improved to second in chips.

Players went on a break and I'm going on a well-deserved smoke break.

Chip Counts (courtesy of PokerStarsBlog):
Ivan The Russian- 35.875M
Scandi Kid - 20M
Ylon - 19M
Montgomery - 18.2M
Suharto - 13.7M
Craig Marquis - 10M
Chino - 9.3M
Dennis Phillips - 8.88M
Kelly Kim - 1.81M

* * * * * 1:20pm... Marching in Silence

Players Remaining: 9
Chipleader: Ivan the Russian

Happy 4:20 to all my East Coast readers. Smoke 'em if you got 'em.

As spectators went outside on the first break, I got caught up in the horde of people exiting the theatre. The Phillips posse looked stunned. Silent. Dejected. Walking with their heads down. Their hero took a massive hit at the hands of the young Russian. On the contrary, the smattering of Russians here supporting Ivan Demidov had shit-eating grins on their faces. They couldn't be happier with the outcome in the first ninety minutes of play. Their boy is the chipleader after he blasted the former big stack.

I wandered through the casino and saw Phil Hellmuth. He was lost and in search of the Penn&Teller Theatre. He followed me into Starbucks. He was immediately swamped with fans. I became the photographer as a couple of groups of people asked me to take the shot. Hellmuth asked me to wait a second before I snapped the photo. He pulled his designer shades out of his jacket pocket and slid them on.

I saw Lara Miller in Starbucks. She's Dennis Phillips PR person and her mood was not as peppy as usual because of Dennis Phillips slide into Hades. She mentioned that he got a blurb on the front page of MSN. That was the only good news and she was obviously worried about Phillips future.

Chops from Wicked Chops Poker fame stopped by the media row and commented that Phillips looks totally stunned and rattled twenty minutes after the break. He needs to get his shit together and grind his way back into contention otherwise he could be the first player to hit the road. His 300+ large posse is absolutely silent. What a difference one hand can make? The air has been sucked out of Dennis Phillips cheering section and the initial excitement and buzz has been replaced by a growing trepidation and murky uncertainty.

Flipchip has joined me in media row (located in the orchestra pit). Fitting that I get to sit next to him at the November Nine as he upload photos of the final table. Flipchip and the Poker Prof gave me my first job as a tournament reporter in 2005 when they hired me to write recaps for LasVegas Vegas.com. We saw some of Flipchip's pics of the hot blonde DJ who was spinning tunes earlier in the day. Otis was visibly shaken at the sight of the picture. We have a confirmed Otis-tilt in media row.

More pro sightings.... Chris Moneymaker and Phil Gordon are in the house. Johnny Bax is sitting int he crowd cheering on Ylon. I wonder how big of a piece JohnnyBax has?

* * * * *
2:20pm... Ylon's World

Players Remaining: 9
Chipleader: Ylon Schwartz

Ylon took over the chiplead on Hand #30 and became the first player to pass the 40 million mark. He got most of that on one hand against former chipleader Ivan the Russian. The pot started out with a 775K raise from Ivan. Ylon called from his big blind. The flop was Kh-10h-2d. Ylon fired out 1.1m. Ivan the Russian called. The turn was the 3d. Ylon bet 2.45 and the Russian calmly called. The river was the 6h. Perhaps, Ylon feared the flush because he checked. Ivan bet 3.7 million and as fast as he could put it out there, Ylon called.

Ylon: Kc-10c
Ivan the Russian: Ad-Kd

Ivan was ahead preflop but Ylon took the lead when he flopped two pair. His hand held up despite a scare card on the river. That hand pushed Ylon over the 40 million mark and he took over the chiplead as Ivan slipped to 27m.

With about 15 minutes to go in Level 34, the room woke up when Kelly Kim moved all in with pocket Kings. The shortstack had dipped to under 1 million and needed help. His Ks-Kh was up against Ivan the Russan's Kc-10d and even faded a gutshow draw to double up. The section of Kelly Kim fans sitting behind us went absolutely berserk. Although Kim has 1.7 million, he still has a lot of work ahead of him as the shortstack.

Kim was all in a couple of hands later. He held Ad-Kc versus Chino's Ah-Kc. Kim's fans screamed, "Diamonds! Diamonds!" The flop was all hearts and Kim's section let out a huge groan as Chino picked up a flush draw. Kim's fans instantly regrouped and rose to their feet shouting, "Kelly! Kelly! Kelly!" The turn was black card and Kim's section got louder and louder. The river was the Queen of diamonds and Kim avoided a potential ugly elimination. He and Chino chopped the pot.

On the last hand before the break, Chino and Phillips were all in. Chino was behind with Jd-Jc against Phillips' Qd-Qs. Chino had Phillips covered and Phillips was all in for his tournament life. His army rose to their feet praying that their hero could dodge a major bullet. The flop was Kc-5d-3s. The turn was 9d. Chino's crew screamed and begged and pleaded for a Jack. The river was the 6h. Phillips doubled up and for the first time since we began, his cheering section erupted. Phillips avoided an early exit and doubled up on the last hand of the level. And just like that, Phillips has sprung back to with almost 10m. On the flip side, Chino is in trouble with 6.6m.

Michalski posted a pic dump over at Pokerati. Check it out. He also has some interesting things to say about the UB scandal and another former WSOP champ who may be fingered as a culprit. Check it out.

Oh, Level 34 is over and players are on a 20 minute break while they color up chips. See you in a half hour.

* * * * *
3:20pm... Down to 8; Craig Marquis Eliminated in 9th Place

Players Remaining: 8
Chipleader: Ylon 36.6m

New Tao of Pokerati podcast! Click here to listen to Episode 4.2: Root, Root, Root for the Short Stack (3:17).

Some random things shouted from the crowd... "May the Schwartz be with you!" and "Who's Chino?"

Jeremiah Smith sighting in the orchestra press pit.

Ylon didn't sit on his lead and got into a scrape with Ivan the Russian. The board was Jh-7h-5h-9h-5s and the pot was worth over 7m. Ivan bet 4.3 million and Ylon tanked for several minutes. Ivan originally raised preflop. They both checked the flop. Ylon tried to take it down on the turn with a small bet, but Ivan raised him. Now on the river, Ylon was faced with a suspicious bet from Ivan. He pondered the call for several minutes. It was very quiet in the theatre and someone in the crowd screamed "Clock!" Someone in the media row joked, "Where's Tiffany to call the clock?" Ylon continued his pensive pose, but reluctantly folded. As the dealer pushed him the pot, Ivan flashed a smirk like he wanted Ylon to make the call.

The action slowed down a bit at the start of Level 35. The 5k chips were removed. I overheard Feldman from ESPN doing a quick podcast with Phil Gordon. He asked Gordon who he thought would would make a move this level. Gordon quickly said, "Craig Marquis." Now does Gordo actually believe that or is he towing the company line and supporting one of the three Full Tilt logoed players at the final table.

Sorry, Gordo but your boy went busto. Maybe he's a cooler or something because Marquis was all in for his life with 7h-7d versus Scott Montgomery's Ad-Qh. A race. A coinflip. The flop was Ah-10s-7c. The crowd erupted. Montgomery flopped his ace, but Marquis flopped a golden seven for a set. He unleashed a sign of relief as his fans unleashed a howl. The turn was a Jd and Montgomery picked up a gutshot. I turned to California Jen and Said, "You know what's coming, don't you?"

She shook her head and a King of spades spiked on the river. The crowd unleashed an collective, "Awwwww!" Someone screamed, "Fuuuuuuck!" Montgomery's fans jumped up and down. Score one for Canada.

Craig Marquis, the young Texan, is the first player out in 9th place. Kelly Kim managed to hang on for this long and avoided being the first guy out.

Down to 8.

* * * * *
3:30pm... Kelly Kim Eliminated in 8th Place; No Love for Tiffany

Breaking news... on the hand after Marquis bustout, Kelly Kim headed to the rail in 8th place when he lost in a three-way pot. The super short stack manged to hang on for this long which was impressive, even though Owen joked that, "Kelly Kim folding oblivion."

Even though Kim went out, his enthusiastic fans gave him one last hearty cheer. With Kim's exit, his boisterous fans also left the room. It's not going to be as loud as it used to be with them versus Phillips legion of fans.

Jack Effel introduced Tiffany Michelle to the crowd as the last female standing in the tournament. The crowd reacted negatively and rained down a chorus of boos. A couple of not-so nice words were tossed in there, like a few of inappropriate vicious c-bombs. Jack had to rush to her defense to stop the boo birds. Good old Jack, way to throw Tiffany under the bus there.

"Tiffany not getting much love here," commented one veteran poker writer.

As Michalksi pointed out, that was the first "WOW" moment of the day.

* * * * *
4:20pm... Small Stacks Double Up and the Tao of Pokerati

Players Remaining: 7
Chipleader: Ivan the Russian 40m

Happy 4:20 to all my herb friendly readers on the West Coast.

The boo birds returned. When Jack Effel introduced Phil Hellmuth, the crowd promptly booed him. It wasn't as malicious as what Tiffany experienced, but almost somewhat playful.

With 7 to go, it was Chino's turn to make something happen. He had been relatively quiet all day. Chino in his hoodie moved all in and Ivan the Russian called. Chino had Ac-Kh versus Ivan's 9s-9h. Classic race. Chino's crew chanted "Chino! Chino!" The flop was 8s-7h-5d. The turn is the King of Diamonds and the theatre erupted as Chino took the lead. He still had to dodge a couple of bullets. Ivan had a gutshot but whiffed on the river. Chino doubled up and made a ton of people in the crowd extremely joyous. He jumped up to 6.5m.

Despite the hit, Ivan the Russian regained the chiplead over the last hour. He sailed past the 40m mark while Ylon slipped to under 40m.

Darus Suharto was the invisible player at the final table. I can't recall a specific hand that he played in the first couple of hours. Suharto has slipped into the short stack with under 50,000. He was all in against monster stacked Ylon. Suharto's Ac-Kh was ahead of Ylon's Qc-8s. Ylon flopped a Queen to take the lead and Suharto's future looked dim until the Kc fell on the turn and Suharto regained the lead. The river was an Ace and Suharto doubled up with two pair.

We have another episode of Tao of Pokerati for your listening pleasure. Click here to listen to Book 4: Episode 4.3: Double Up! Double Up! (1:20)

Players are on a 20 minute break. See you in 30 minutes.

* * * * *
5:20pm... Chino Rheem Eliminated in 7th Place; Dennis Phillips Soils Ylon's Queens

Players Remaining: 6
Chipleader: Ivan the Russian 39m

Yeah it's Sunday and I did not get to see one down of football today. Too bad the sports book wasn't closer to the Penn & Teller Theatre. Then again, I'm such a degenerate gambler that I had to quit sportsbetting cold turkey. I've been getting my gambling fix betting on gold futures and gold options, but that's for another day. Anyway, good to hear that my hometown NY Jets stomped the lowly St. Louis Rams. My brother kept texting me updates throughout the game. I'm also 10-2 in my football pool this week. Otis was winning it all but slipped into a tie for first place. He's been on tilt ever since the Browns lost on Thursday night. It's weird because I usually associate the NBA playoffs with the WSOP, especially this past summer when Phil Ivey had his rumored $1 million bet on the Lakers, which he whiffed on.

Thanks to the shoutout from Nick and Lacey Jones over at Bluff TV. I'd link it up, but the site is overloaded.

Schecky overheard this from a guy on a cellphone in the hallway, "Dude you know I can't be seen in public right now. I Could get killed."

When Daniel Negreanu stopped by the final table, he got a warm applause.

All in action between the former chipleader and the chess whiz. Chino opened for 1m. Dennis Phillips called from the small blind. Ylon raised from the big blind to 4.4m. Chino folded. Phillips moved all in for 10 million and Ylon insta-called.

Dennis Phillips: Ac-Qh
Ylon: Qc-Qs

Phillips was all in and on the brink of elimination. If there was ever a time to flop an Ace... t would be at that precise moment. Phillips loyal fans squealed for an Ace. They all rose to their feet and awaited the outcome of the hand. If he could get lucky, he'd double up and avoid elimination. If not, he'd be going home and 300+ fans would go home disappointed. His fate was decided when the Ace of spades fell on the flop and the theatre erupted in jubilation and screams and whistles. Ylon did not improve his hand and Phillips won the pot. His hundred of red-hated and white shirted clones chanted "Dennis! Dennis! Dennis!"

That hand whipped his fans into a frenzy. "There are a lot of Dennis Phillips fans in the house tonight," said Jack Effel. Thank you, Captain Obvious.

Phillips increased his stack to 21m and jumped into third place in chips. Ylon slipped to 4th with a 20m stack.

"These guys are too nice," said Flipchip. "Back in the day you used to go to see the nasty talk at the tables. Like Stu Ungar and Puggy Pearson. Stu can insult you in five ways."

Sadly, Chino Rheem is out. Short stacked Chino found himself all in as a big favorite with Big Slick against Peter Easgate's A-Q. However, Eastgate flopped a Queen to take the lead and Chino's backers let out an angry grumble. The turn and river did not help Chino and he was eliminated in 7th place.

Down to 6. Ivan the Russian is the chipleader, Eastgate the Scandi is second in chips, and Darus Suharto is the short stack.

* * * * *
6:00pm... Phillips Closing in on Ivan the Russian

Players Remaining: 6
Chipleader: Ivan 30.7m

We're six-handed by 6pm. That's not a bad thing as action slid into Level 36. The antes are 50k and blinds are 250k/500k. Starting stacks were 20k so each hand, players are tossing in 2.5 main event starting stacks.

A group of media folks were patiently waiting in line to interview Chino. If anyone will give you the straight dope, it will be Chino. Despite a medium-stack to start the final table, Chino was a popular pick among seasoned poker pros. They all felt that Chino's ability and style of play gave him the best chance to win out of the other eight players. Chino couldn't get anything going early on and instead of slowly adding to his stack, the opposite happened. He never really bled away any chips but simply couldn't get any momentum going.

One media rep asked Chino how he's feeling after he busted out. Chino lashed out... "Are you being fuckin' serious? What the fuck kind of question is that? I feel like shit. You can quote me."

I hoped that action would accelerate once it got six-handed, but instead it slowed down. I assume that the final six players are taking some time to gauge how their opponents play short-handed at this juncture. After an hour or so, I hope that they get a good read on everyone's short game and start making necessary adjustments. It would be the cat's balls (or the dog's bollocks as my British friends would say) if we could get down to five players by the dinner break and get down to three by Midnight.

At any rate, the crowd seems to fade in and out during the a large gap of inaction at the final table. As Ryan said, a lot of these spectators (a large majority of them from Dennis Phillips crew) are not frequently hitting up the tournament circuit. They are feeling the effects of the dreaded slow down and the ebbs and flows of a poker tournament. And televised events are even slower because of the extra breaks the crew has to take to change film or due to equipment malfunctions.

Just as I was writing the above paragraph, Dennis Phillips and Ivan the Russian were involved in a noteworthy pot. Phillips won the pot and woke up the slumbering clones in the crowd. With over 7 million in the pot, and the board reading Kd-3h-3c-7c-Ks, Ivan the Russian checked. Phillips bet 4.5 million and the Russian went into the tank. The lengthy Euro-tank as Martin Derbyshire would call it. Ivan eventually made the call and was not happy to see that Phillips won the pot with a full house. That hand thrusted Phillips up to 27 million and second in chips. Despite the loss, Ivan the Russian retained the lead, but Phillips was right behind him in second place.

Phil Hellmuth introduced Johnny Chan but not before he got booed. Hellmuth welcomed the boos and then handed the mic over to Johnny to shamelessly plug his second-rate energy drink that is nothing more than glorified sugar water that turns your urine bright orange if you drink to much.

Players went on a dinner break. Action resumes at 7:15pm local time.

Dinner Break Chip Counts:
Ivan the Russian - 30.725
Peter Eastgate - 27.17
Dennis Phillips - 26.95
Ylon - 20.47
Scott Montgomery - 20.3
Darus Suharto - 10.6

* * * * *
7:15pm... Hall of Fame Inductions

Jeffrey Pollack said that 37 people were in the poker Hall of Fame. Two more would be going in tonight... Dewey Tomko and Henry Orenstein. Pollack introduced Doyle Brunson who spoke a few minutes about his good friend Dewey Tomko - poker pro and golf hustler.

"It takes talent to get to the top," he said about Tomko's skills.

Henry Orenstein was next up to be inducted. He couldn't make the trip. The former Holocaust survivor endured some horrific experiences in concentration camps and had his entire family murdered by the SS. Orenstein has over 100 toy patents including the Transformers. He also revolutionized poker by creating the lipstick cameras. A true innovator, Orenstien is one of the principle reason why I have a job in the poker industry today.

"It is privilege to be included among the poker greats," wrote Orenstien in a statement that was read aloud to the crowd.


* * * * *
8:20pm... Here Comes the Scandi

Players Remaining: 6
Chipleader: Peter Eastgate 37m

We have a couple of episodes of Tao of Pokerati...

Episode 4.5: Boo Berry (4:18)
Episode 4.6: Poker Rogue (1:05)

The money was brought out and placed on a table near the final table. It's fake of course. It's either real $100 bills on the outside wrapped around stacks of $1. Or it's straight up fake money. Depends on the casino and tournament circuit. Flipchip said that back in the old days at Binion's, they really dumped the prize money on the tables and the thuggy looking goons with shotguns actually had live shells in the barrels.

Action resumed at around 8:00pm. There was 90 minutes left in Level 36.

Otis is in trouble. He already started drinking All In. His second so far. Trying to stay awake after a tasty dinner at Rub BBQ. We got a $20 food comp, which was good for two meats and two side dishes.

After Peter Easgate won a big hand that thrust him into the chip lead, his Scandi friends (that included Jesper Hougaard) chanted an odd song. A lot of us looked on totally stunned and didn't know what to make of the performance.

Here's the big hand... Eastgate raised to 1.25m from the button. Phillips re-raised from the small blind for 3.5m. Eastgate called. The flop was Kd-2d-2s. Phillips checked. Eastgate fired out 3m. Phillips check-raised to 7m. Eastagte re-raised all in. Phillips tanked and folded. That's when Jesper and the Danes started singing. Weird shit, man.

Eastgate jumped up to 37.5 million and took the lead for the first time at the final table, while Phillips slipped to 5th in chips.

* * * * *
9:00pm... Darus Suharto Eliminated in 6th Place

Players Remaining: 5
Chipleader: Peter Eastgate 37.5m

Breaking news.... Canuck on Canuck crime. Darhus Suharto was busted by his fellow countryman in 6th place. Suharto was shortstacked and shoved with A-8. Scott Montgomery called with A-Q. Suharto could not come from behind and he went out in 6th. The accountant from Toronto won $2,418,562.

Down to five. Updates chip counts... Peter Eastgate 37.5M, Scott Montgomery 32.7M, Ivan the Russian Demidov 26.3M, Dennis Phillips 20.27M, Ylon Schwartz 19.3M

* * * * *
9:40pm... Scott Montgomery Eliminated in 5th Place

Players Remaining: 4
Chipleader: Ivan the Russian 50m

When action became five-handed, Scott Montgomery made a run. He ran his stack past the 30m mark and took over second place in chips behind Peter Eastgate. Ylon won a small pot to climb out of the cellar, while Dennis Phillips found himself as the shortest stack remaining with 18.7m. However, if he doubled up, he would jump into second place in chips.

Ivan the Russian had been quiet ever since the break ended. He hovered around the same stack while Eastgate and Montgomery started to pull away from the pack.

At this point in the tournament, there is no longer a massive line to get in. There are plenty of seats. Dennis Phillips clones are not as vocal as they once were. It's the fatigue and the fact that he's the short stack.

Just when I thought it was slowing down, Ivan the Russian woke up with a monster and Montgomery got caught speeding. Ivan had the Ks-Kd. Montgomery had Ad-9d. Ivan had around 24m and Montgomery had him covered. The Russians in the crowd began chanting and rooting on Ivan. The flop was 6c-6d-4d and the crowd unleashed a collectibe, "Oooooooooooooo!" Montgomery flopped a nut flush draw. The turn and the river were blanks. Ivan the Russian faded the Ace and the flush draw to win the pot. He doubled up to almost 50 million and regained the chiplead. Montgomery slipped to 7m and was the shortstack.

On the last hand before the break, Scott Montgomery was all in with A-3 against Peter Eastgate's pocket sixes. In true luckbox fashion, Montgomery flopped an Ace and turned and Ace. Eastgate was down to one out since Phillips mentioned that he folded a six. The river was the case six and the entire crowd erupted in dismay and disbelief when Eastgate spiked his one outer. Eastgate won the hand and Montgomery busted out. The Danes started singing as Montgomery headed to the rail in 5th place. The last Canadian in the WSOP has left the building. He won $3,096,768.

Down to 4.

Level 36 has come to a close. Players are on a 20-minute break. Smoke 'em if you got 'em.

* * * * *
10:40pm... The Final Four

Players Remaining: 4
Chipleader: Ivan the Russian

Level 37. Blinds are 300k/600k with a 75k ante. We're down to the final four. Two Americans. Two Europeans. All of them are PokerStars players. As Michalski wrote over at Pokerati... PokerStars has won the 2008 WSOP. Ah, the battle for the hearts and minds of online poker players is officially in PokerStars hands. The crew at PokerStars had the final table dominated with 6 players compared to 3 sponsored by Full Tilt. They were the odds on favor to be the primary logo on the eventual winner especially sine they had teh chipleder and two of the strongest players at the final table in Chino and Ivan the Russian.

Anyway, with four to go, the two twentysomething Europeans are 1 and 2 in chips while the two older Yanks are at the back of the pack.

The Rio is making some serious bank on the drinking habits of the Dennis Phillips clones. Every time I pass the bar in the Penn & Teller Theatre, there are no less than a dozen of people in white shirts and red hats ordering more cocktails. And they are also camped out at the Hooker Bar and McFadden's as well. Shit, they are everywhere and drinking up a storm. One of them has been shouting things in drunkenese. We have no idea what he's been saying.

When level 36 ended, Ivan had a marginal chiplead over Eastgate. He's added a few more chips since then and is closing in on 50 million.

Ylon and Eastgate were all in with A-K versus A-K. The flop was all diamonds and Eastgate held the King of diamonds. He was freerolling the flooooosh draw. Deja vu all over again. Ylon needed to fade a diamond otherwise he was going home. The turn was a blank and the river was also a blank. Ylon let out a sigh of relief as he chopped the pot.

* * * * *
11:40pm... Slowdown and Burn One Down

Players Remaining: 4
Chipleader: Ivan the Russian 51m

We have another new episode of Tao of Pokerati...

Episode 4.7: Pokerstarzistan (2:04)

Here's Michalski's description... At dinner break, Dr. Pauly and I discuss Chino Rheem’s bustout interview and its political inspiration, along with PokerStars’ domination over Full Tilt. (Four Stars players left, one Full Tilter.) In fact, there’s even a rumor we start discuss about PokerStars’ intentions to start its own country - which would be theoretically feasible, and would probably have the best prisons.

Players returned from a break. The video screen wasn't working so everyone in the audience got restless and starting a mutiny. Instead of seeing the final table, an old chip count screen was displayed instead. "Where's the video?!" people shouted. The technical difficulty was quickly resolved and the video was back up. "Where's the chip counts?" one wise ass shouted out. Maybe I'm getting tired, but that shit was funny.

Here's a chip count since there hasn't been too much going on...

Ivan the Russian - 51,250,000
Eastgate the Scandi - 45,050,000
Dennis Phillips - 20,800,000
Ylon - 19,125,000

* * * * *
12:01am... Ylon Schwartz Eliminated in 4th Place

Breaking news.... we're down to three after Ylon Schwartz busted out in 4th place. Eastgate raised 1.5m and Ylon called from the big blind. The flop was Kh-8h-2s and both players checked. The turn was the Kd. Ylon checked. Eastgate bet 1.75m and Ylon called. The river was the 5d. Ylon checked. Eastagte fired out 4.6m. Ylon check-raised all in for 12.4m more. Eastgate called.

Eastgate: 5s-5c
Ylon: Ah-10c

Yikes. Ylon got caught bluffing off all his chips. He probably should have check-raised the turn and Eastgate would have folded there. Alas, Eastagte rivered a boat and Ylon was history.

"It could have gone my way, but I'm happy," said the always aloof Ylon in a bustout interview.

It's now Dennis Phillips as the shortstack against two young Europeans in Peter Eastgate and Ivan the Russian. I sorta predicted a Scandi/Russian heads up battle. It might happen.

Final 3 Chip Counts:
Peter Eastgate - 64.925M
Ivan the Russian - 50.575M
Dennis Phillips - 20.725M

* * * * *

12:35am... Dennis Phillips Eliminated in 3rd Place; Heads Up Battle Set

Players Remaining: 2
Chipleader: Peter Eastgate - 79.5M

Dennis Phillips and Peter Eastgate entered the Octagon. The fight was to the death. The flop was Jc-4d-3s. The cagey Eastgate fired out 1.5m. Philiips moved all in. Eastgate quickly called. Eastgate flopped a set with 3d-3c. Phillips was way behind with 10c-9h. The turn was As and Phillips was drawing dead. The last American standing was eliminated in third place and won $4,517,773. His clones gave him a roaring send off.

I won my prop bet with Otis on the ending time. 1:50am was the line I set. He took the over. I won. Otis money is the sweetest money.

It took 169 hands, but the heads up match is set. Play is over for the night and will resume tomorrow. The final two are Peter Eastgate and Ivan the Russian.

The Final Two:
Peter Eastgate (Denmark) - 79.5M
Ivan Demidov (Russia) - 57.725M

1st Place - $9,152,416
2nd Place - $5,809,595

Eastgate will be trying to become the youngest ever WSOP champion tomorrow night. The final heads up match will begin at 10pm local time. Check back in with the Tao of Poker for live updates.

You guys have been a great crowd. Thanks for tuning in. See ya tomorrow night.


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 11/09/2008 08:31:00 AM | Permalink |

 
2008 WSOP Final Table Profiles: The November Nine

By Pauly
Las Vegas, NV


2008 WSOP November Nine
Photo courtesy of Flipchip
Just in case you have no idea who made the final table, here's a quick refresher...

The 2008 WSOP Final Table - Seating Assignments and Chip Counts
Seat 1: Dennis Phillips - 26,295,000
Seat 2: Craig Marquis - 10,210,000
Seat 3: Ylon Schwartz - 12,525,000
Seat 4: Scott Montgomery - 19,690,000
Seat 5: Darus Suharto - 12,520,000
Seat 6: Chino Rheem - 10,230,000
Seat 7: Ivan Demidov - 24,400,000
Seat 8: Kelly Kim - 2,620,000
Seat 9: Peter Eastgate - 18,375,000

And now, let's meet the players...


Seat 1: Dennis Phillips - 26,295,000
"When you've seen the world a few times, it's easier to keep emotions in check and not let things bother you. These guys are going to have a real, real hard time putting me on tilt out there. They haven't had the experience or the relationships those of us with a little gray on top have had." - Dennis Phillips

Dennis Phillips is from St. Louis, MO if you couldn't tell from his red Cardinals hat. Phillips has gotten the most attention for a) being the chiplead and b) being the oldest player at the table clocking in at 53 years young. Phillips is easily a huge favorite among 50+ year old poker players and Cardinals fans. Phillips works for a trucking firm and seems like one of your father's friends... just a casual ordinary guy that enjoys baseball and poker. He won his Main Event seat through a satellite from a local Harrah's property.

The big question on everyone's mind... when will Phillips cough up the chiplead or can he go wire-to-wire and win it all?

Because Phillips left Las Vegas in July as the chipleader, he bore the brunt of the media attention. He seemed to handle the spotlight without any problems. He definitely has a tough task ahead of him since everyone at the final table will be eying his big stack.

Phillips has already stated that he's donating a percentage of his winnings to charity including Multiple Sclerosis Society (a terrible disease that his brother endures) and Put a Bad Beat on Cancer. Phillips will also donate money to Boys and Girls Hope.

Last time I checked, Phillips was a 4/1 favorite to win. I like his chances because of his deep stack and his abundance of good karma from pledging to donate a percentage of his winnings. What he might lack in overall skill (compared to the level of play from Chino or Deminov), Phillips definitely makes up for it in age and wisdom.


Seat 2: Craig Marquis - 10,210,000
"I'm saving up all my luck and run-good for the Main Event." - Craig Marquis

Craig Marquis from Arlington, TX became curious with poker when he went to David "Raptor" Benefield's New Years Party and saw a ton of baller shit. The allure of money is what initially got Marquis into the game, just like so many of us, who all thought that we can buy a lot of cool things from our poker winnings. But Marquis has distinguished himself from the rest of the pack of poker enthusiasts because in a very short time, he put himself in position to go from being a dreamer to an actual champion with a shot at winning $9 million. Marquis has a tough road ahead of him since he's one of the shortstacks. But everyone knows that a timely double up at a final table can mean a huge difference between 9th and 5th place.

I'm rooting for Marquis because he's and underdog (and listed at a 13/2 shot) and he's a reader of the Tao of Poker. Plus, if he does win, the 23 year old will instantly become the youngest player to ever win the Main Event thereby smashing Phil Hellmuth's record in the process.


Seat 3: Ylon Schwartz - 12,525,000
"Empathy is the most important thing in poker. You have to really be aware of what your opponents think. The best thing about poker is that it exposes all your weaknesses." - Ylon Schwartz

Ylon Schwartz is 38 year old native New Yorker who currently lives in Brooklyn. He was the first and only member of the November Nine to have their photo appear on the Tao of Poker prior to the 2008 WSOP. I came across him while covering an event at the Borgata Casino in Atlantic City in January of 2006. He looked way too funky and too cool to be an actual poker player. My buddy Frank took a photo and I posted it on the Tao. Little did I know that 2+ years later, he'd make the final table of the WSOP.

Ylon started out as a pool hustler and chess player. He frequently played chess in Washington Square Park. He probably played at the same time as I was a jonesin' teenaged pothead looking to score weed from the rastas in Washington Square Park. Sometimes you get lucky and get the good shit. Some days you catch a bad beat and purchase a dime bag of oregano. That's just par for the course in the NYC weed scene circa 1990.

Despite all the crack slinging and spliff smoking around him, Ylon managed to squeak out a decent existence playing chess for cash in the park until a cat named Fat Nick taught him how to play poker. He's been a pro ever since despite the fact he's gone busto a few times. He has almost 250K in career earning including an impressive 12 cashes in WSOP and circuit events.

Ylon wrote the funniest stuff down on his bio sheet. The guy has a tremendous sense of humor and since he's the only New Yorker in the mix, he's on my list of guys to root for. I also think he has a decent shot to win it all despite the fact that he's listed at 15/2 odds. I already have a bet down that Ylon will win it all.


Seat 4: Scott Montgomery - 19,690,000
"Two days ago I was nobody and today I'm famous!" - Scott Montgomery

Scott Montgomery is one of the two Canadians at the final table. He hails from Perth in Ontario. The eccentric 26-year old has been a pro for four years and has earned almost $500K in career earnings prior to the November Nine.

Sometimes when he spoke on ESPN's broadcast I thought he sounded more like Rain Man than Don Cherry. Montgomery was involved in the now controversial hand with Paul Snead where Tiffany Michelle called on a clock on Snead. Montgomery was trying to pull off a huge bluff and Snead called at the last possible second. Although Snead was ahead at the time, Montgomery made his hand on the river to win the pot. He would not be at the final table if he did not win that decisive hand.

Montgomery was one of the players at the final table who could play any two cards no matter what his position was at the time. That's the type of opponent that can drive you crazy... but it's also the type of opponent that you can pick off if the timing is right. If Montgomery busts out early it will because he got his hand caught in the cookie jar and he bluffed off most of his stack. The bookies like Montgomery at 4/1.


Seat 5: Darus Suharto - 12,520,000
"I began playing on PokerStars. I just wanted to be able to pay off my mortgage. That was my main objective!" - Darus Suharto

Darus Suharto is the guy who no one thinks will win but ends up winning it all. It's sort of like when Joe Hachem won in 2005. The accountant from Toronto flew under the radar during the final three tables sort of like Hachem did three years ago. The players, media, and spectators were focused on the other players at Hachem's final table including Andy Black and Mike Matusow. With everyone's eyes watching the other November Nine players, don't be surprised to see Suharto make a run. The bookies list him at 13/2 and I think there's some decent value in betting on him to win.

Suharto won his seat online at PokerStars. He has only been playing poker for a few years. Like Chris Moneymaker, Suharto worked for one of the big time accounting firms in Deloitte and Touche.

The Canucks have two shots at a 2008 WSOP champion... Scott Montgomery and Darus Suharto. One plays like a maniac and the other cool and steady. Suharto is originally from Indonesia and currently lives in Canada. He went to school in Indiana. Wait, that means he's a hooiser hoser, eh?


Seat 6: Chino Rheem - 10,230,000
"I'm Asian and gambling is in most Asian people's blood." - Chino Rheem

Chino has an uncanny ability to know his opponents' holdings. That's a trait that separates superstars from ordinary pros, especially in NL where you are playing the players and not the cards.

The 28 year old was the first and only member of the November Nine to get any sort of negative publicity. Early on it was discovered that he fought the law and the law won in Florida many moons ago. Seems that at least one of the November Nine is 4:20 friendly and has a penchant for the bitter herbs. Cannabis. The wacky tabacky. The dank. Mary Jane. Grass. Buddha. Homegrown. Ganja. Alice B. Toklas.

Alas, Chino's minor scrape with the law was just that. And since then, his legal problems have been swept under the rug or smoked like a cheap bag of ditchweed. Yeah, it goes without saying that Chino is the one guy at the final table that I'd most likely smoke a blunt with.

I stood on the rail and caught that crazy hand when Chino was all in preflop with 2-2 against Joe Bishop's A-3. Bishop flopped two pair, but Chino rivered a Wheel against two pair to bust Bishop in 11th place. His entourage/posse/friends/backers went berserk. That crew included Greg 'FBT' Mueller and two of the Mizrachi brothers. Chino met them a decade ago when he was cutting his teeth at the low limit tables at the Hard Rock Casino in Seminole, Florida. Man, I played in that Godforsaken 1-2 Limit game and you were better off shooting craps.

I don't know exactly how much Chino has of himself. Word on the street says he has as little as 14% and as high as 50%. The rumored list of people who own a piece of Chino is too long to list. I guess the real question is... who doesn't have a piece of Chino?

The experts suggest that Chino is the best player at the final table with Deminov being the hottest. Chino has over $700K in career earnings. He begins the final table with around 10 million in chips and is listed as a 5/1 favorite. If anyone picks off a massive bluff early on at the final table it will be Chino. I'm predicting a big hand where Montgomery tries to steal a pot away from Chino and Chino calls him down with Ace high to win the monsterpotten.


Seat 7: Ivan Demidov - 24,400,000
"You can't win with just math. You really have to learn to play the players you're up against." - Ivan Demidov

For the second year in a row, a Russian has made the final table. I have been talking about the prowess of the Scandis over the last few years, but here come the Russians! The 27 year old Moscow native is a former math whiz turned professional poker player. His idol is Alex KGB Kravchenko and Demidov is backed by a mysterious Russian gajillionaire who also backs several other young guns.

Demidov's screen name on PokerStars is "Soul" and the kid has tons of it. Demidov has had the most impressive results since the final table went on hiatus. Demidov went deep in London at the WSOP-Europe main event and advanced to the final table. He finished in third place while his fellow Russian Stanislav Alekhin was the runner-up to the eventual champion John Juanda.

Several of the top pros picked Demidov to win it all based on his gutsy performance in London. The bookies have him as one of the co-favroites at 4/1. Demidov is second in chips and seems like a lock to make the final three.


Seat 8: Kelly Kim - 2,620,000
"In America we root for the underdog and I'm the underdog." - Kelly Kim

I guess you can say that Kelly Kim is freerolling at the final table. He's listed as the longshot on the board at 15/1 and begins the final table as the shortstack. He also seems to be having the most fun since he's simply happy to be one of the November Nine.

Kim is a 31 year old from Whittier, California. He has a degree in economics and has around $350K in career earnings. If he can go from the short stack to champion, that will be one helluva story.


Seat 9: Peter Eastgate - 18,375,000
"I really don't care about (breaking) Hellmuth's record. I want to win the entire tournament." - Peter Eastgate

What is a WSOP final table without a Scandi in a hoodie? The thing about 20-something Scandis is that they could have been pros for almost a decade. The young gun from Odense, Denmark is no different.

The bookies must have a man-crush on Scandis. They list Eastgate as a 5/1 favorite to win it all. The kid has a big stack. He's impossible to read. And that's why a lot of pros have picked him to win it all. Unless he donks off his chips early on like Philip Hilm promptly did last year, there's a good possibility that we could see a Demidov and Eastgate showdown.

Eastgate is also the youngest player at the final table. Along with Craig Marquis, they both have a shot at knocking off Phil Hellmuth's record for being the youngest ever world champion. I know that Hellmuth will be sincerely rooting against the Scandi.

* * * * *
Thanks to Flipchip from LasVegasVegas.com for all the photos of the November Nine players.

Final table starts at 10am PT on Sunday. Check back in with Tao of Poker for live coverage and to get the straight dope on the WSOP final table.

And for all you hardcore poker junkies, you can get Twitter updates if you prefer that method. Sign up today. Click here to follow me on Twitter.


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 11/08/2008 10:46:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Prelude to the November Nine

By Pauly
Hollyweird, CA

Over the last few months, Change100 admitted that instead of counting sheep to fall asleep, she tries to recall the names of everyone from the November Nine. I can always get eight but I always seem to miss the elusive ninth. Try it sometime. It will either drive you mental or put you into a deep slumber.

Dennis Phillips, Craig Marquis, Ylon Schwartz, Scott Montgomery, Darus Suharto, David 'Chino' Rheem, Ivan Demidov, Kelly Kim, and Peter Eastgate.

One of those nine players will join the ranks of poker's elite as the newest member of the small fraternity of poker players who are former WSOP Main Event Champions. One of the November Nine will get to rub elbows with the likes of Stu Ungar, Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Scotty Nguyen, Jesus, Phil Hellmuth, Fossilman, and Chris Moneymaker. But which one will it be?

Say all the shit you want about Jerry Yang or Jamie Gold or Robert Yarknonyi or even that cheating asswizard Russ Hamilton. They each earned something that you will never achieve.... a victory at the WSOP Main Event.

Super side note... Flipchip told me that for years Russ was considered a cheat at the tables. We saw what he did at UB, I wonder if he cheated his way to victory in the Main Event? And I wonder if any of the November Nine were approached by other members or by external forces to manipulate the outcome? This is not an accusation by me whatsoever, I'm just super curious to see if anyone decided to work out a deal...straight up or on the sly.

I know, I know... Pauly, you're not supposed to talk about or write about deals, especially in a televised poker tournament that includes the letters WPT or WSOP. But what can I do? Chopping and deals are a part of the game that a lot of poker fans don't know about because they only get their poker knowledge from the TV or mainstream poker publications that will not report dealmaking. And since TV people ignore or try to hide the fact that deals are made all the time sort of distorts the reality of the situation.

Last weekend at the EPT Budapest, there were three players remaining at the final table. They went on a break that last much longer than originally scheduled. I knew what was up. So did everyone in the media room. A deal was being discussed. The final table had already been going at a fast pace and the deal ensured that we'd all have a proper dinner and be able to enjoy our a Saturday evening in Budapest. That deal took 35 minutes to hash out. Makes me wonder if anyone had been working out a deal over the last couple of weeks?

I have to admit that going into the final table, I was vaguely familiar with only two players... Ylon Schwartz and Chino Reem. I knew Ylon from playing at the Borgata in Atlantic City and I followed Chino on the tournament circuit many times before. The other seven were a mystery to me. I guess that's what the four month layoff was for... to get to know everyone.

Maybe I'm lazy or just jaded or was simply too busy with other projects, but I blew off every single opportunity to interview members of the November Nine. I'm friends with the PR people at PokerStars and they gave me more than enough chances to talk with their represented players. Lara Miller does PR for Dennis Phillips and said I had an open invite to talk. Even the agents like the crew at Poker Royalty gave me a shot to talk to their players. I respectfully declined all offers. Yes, only I can be lazy and busy in the same breath.

While the Main Event was paused, my life continued. I made a promise to fit poker into my life instead of vice versa. I went on a couple of trips. I saw two kick ass music festivals in Denver and San Fransisco and I saw concerts in New York City, San Diego, and Providence. I visited friends all over the country and went back home to New York City. I also covered a handful of other tournaments in Atlantic City, London, and Budapest which included stops on the WPT, EPT, and WSOPE.

In short, the last four months have been hectic and busy but I generally don't like interviewing players. They are sort of a waste of time because you really can't ask the questions you want to ask and if you do, you'll rarely get an answer that you're looking for. And if you piss off the wrong people, the publication that you write for will no longer get access to that player or pool of pros from a particular site. Ah, there in lies the rub of the media. I'm here to fluff it up instead of to dig deep. So rather than be conflicted and piss off my clients, I just don't bother with interviews. Sure, I can do them on Tao of Poker, but very few pros will be that candid with me... on the record. They'll tell me stuff but won't let me use it on Tao of Poker. I have to save it for the book.

However, there was one interview by Shamus that I enjoyed. Check out his interview with Dennis Phillips.

Instead of a traditional interview, I'd rather spend a week with someone and really get to know them better and make my observations from that experience. Sadly, that wouldn't be possible for each of the November Nine. Neither of had the time. And at this point to sit down with any one of the November Nine is pointless. Everyone has gotten a crash course in media relations and some were coached to say the right things.

Plus, everyone has already made judgments about the November Nine. ESPN aired all of the episodes and everyone has their favorite heroes and villains. No matter what got captured on film, if you love the player you'll find a way to justify their actions and vice versa, if you loathe them, you'll find a way to vilify their every move.

I hung out with Craig Marquis in London and watched some football with him. I could have slithered my way into an opportunity to interview him and sell that conversation to the highest bidder (magazine/website) as fodder for their WSOP coverage. We were enjoying the moment so I didn't want to alter the flow of events. I'm not one of those media vultures who tries to befriend the pros to use them at a later date.

I saw several other members of the November Nine on the tournament trail including Ylon Scwartz, Chino and Dennis Phillips at the Borgata and Ivan Demidov, Darus Suharto, and Peter Eastgate in London. I simply let them be instead of pestering them like the other vultures. Or as Benjo would say, "like vampires sucking the blood out of them."

The time to interview the November Nine would have been moments after the WSOP ended. Alas, I was mentally drained, physically exhausted, and still reeling in waves of pain after a car accident. And as the last day of the WSOP began when they were down to the final three tables, the Tiffany Michelle/Tony G saga was a raging inferno. That was the story at the time and I focused all my efforts on getting to the bottom of that story instead since it involved everything that's both good and bad about poker.

But now, the big story in poker is about the lack of stories about the November Nine. Yeah, the TV ratings are positive and the best in years. But aside from one excellent NY Times article on Ylon Schwartz and Dennis Phillips getting to throw out the first pitch at a Cardinals game, there hasn't been much hype on the November Nine. Heck, the Ruskie kid almost won the WSOPE in London and that barely made any ripples in the vast poker ocean.

Does mainstream America really care about poker?

Does mainstream America really care about tournament poker?

Does mainstream America really care about a made-for-TV event?

Does mainstream America really care about poker during an Olympic year and in the middle of an election year?

The short answers are... no, no, no, and no. I have to call out the November Nine decision makers for a poor choice. The concept was unique however, the timing was ill advised. They should have waited until 2009 to do this and not in 2008 when there was too much to distract the masses. The November Nine lost the focus of the sporting press when everyone headed to Beijing to cover the first ever Olympics in China. And the rest of the press sort of got lost in the shuffle during an election year and Obamamania.

And to broadcast the November Nine one week after the election was another bad move. Maybe the mainstream media doesn't give a rat's ass about poker. However, on a slow news day, the media vultures will latch onto any story whether it's Lindsay Lohan's lesbian girlfriend, a baby falling down a well, or another suicide bomber blowing out the brains of US troops on patrol in Iraq. On a busy news day (or rather news cycle) stuff like winning poker tournaments is an afterthought.

Lou Krieger had some interesting things to say on the November Nine in a post titled... The WSOP's November Nine: Seduced, Abandoned, and Forgotten.

Here's a bit from Lou...

Even the poker media—and as editor of Poker Player Newspaper, that includes me—hasn't gotten much publicity material about the Novembrists. All I receive is a weekly email from a PR firm containing about two to three paragraphs about another one of the nine finalists, and that's not nearly enough to tell compelling stories about these players. It's certainly insufficient to build the kind of rooting interest needed to grab curious, casual poker fans and viewers by the throat and make sure they're in front of their TV sets and not moving during the "almost live" telecast. And it won’t provide the kind of publicity needed to generate endorsement deals.

I have tons of respect for Lou and have to agree with his post. Perhaps if there was a more assertive effort done by all parties involved, the November Nine would be bigger than they are today. Maybe that's something that will be improved upon next year if they decide to repeat the November Nine.

Next year's November Nine will be much bigger than this year's installment. The timing will be better in 2009 since there's less to distract the masses. Perhaps the economy will perk up and the murkiness of the online poker legislation will improve and people who see the Full Tilt and PokerStars logos will sign up and fund their accounts and donk off millions of dollars to help pump the poker industry back up to pre-UIGEA numbers.

And in Harrah's defense, although they have been slow to make changes and address serious problems with the WSOP over the last four years... they eventually fixed some things. It might take longer than we'd like, but I have a feeling that the next WSOP will be better than this year's... including the November Nine if they decide to do it again.

That's the good news. Next year's product should be better. However, we still have to finish this year's November Nine. It was hyped as the greatest event in poker history. We'll find out in 48 hours if that is true.

I'll be in Las Vegas providing live coverage on Tao of Poker. Check back in starting at 10am PT on Sunday for the final table of the 2008 WSOP main event. I will also record a couple of episodes of Tao of Pokerati with Michalski.

In the meantime, feel free to re-read my 2008 WSOP archives.

And of course, for all you hardcore poker junkies, you can get Twitter updates if you prefer that method. Sign up today. Click here to follow me on Twitter.

See you fuckers in Vegas.


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 11/07/2008 11:17:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Tao of Benjorati

By Pauly
Hollyweird, CA

Update: Part 4 has been posted! See below...


We unofficially fired Dan Michalski and outsourcing our podcast with a cheaper European equivalent... Benjo. Ah, just kidding! The Tao of Pokerati is back. I taped four episodes with Benjo while we were in Budapest last weekend. Michalski posted threeall of them. Episode 3.1 might be one of my favorite all-time episodes.

Tao of Pokerati Book 3: Budapest (w/ Benjo)

Episode 3.1: EPT Afterparty (3:39)

Description by Michalski: Pauly heads to Hungary for EPT Budapest with Benjo, and unexpectedly hosts Johnny Lodden, winner Will Fry, and other final tableists in his flat for some celebratory 420 and beer — giving insight into the much heralded EPT circuit experience, the value of Hungarian forints, and "dodgy" Euro strip clubs.


Episode 3.2: Hungarian Hooker Halloween (4:14)

Description by Michalski: The post-EPT-Budapest shenanigans continue as Benjo and Pauly discuss whorehouses and the Tarantino-esque experiences of French and Scandi bustouts with Hungarian women-for-hire. A tad of religious guilt kicks in as the poker media duo contemplates the Day of the Dead on the Danube.


Episode 3.3: Competitive Apple Eating (4:08)

Description by Michalski: Prop bets among the international press break out at the EPT afterparty, and, of course, Benjo and Pauly are there to moderate/get in on the action. The big bet comes when Matt Showell challenges his PokerListings colleague Rod Stirzaker's claim that he can eat 50 apples in 90 minutes. Legal concerns emerge (what's the rule on a prop bet that leads to death?) before it turns into a scavenger hunt to find 50 edible Granny Smiths at 3:30am in Budapest.


Episode 3.4: Euro Core-tossing (3:17)

Description by Michalski: 5 am: The prop-betting evolves... as Pauly discovers (much to Benjo's dismay) the Hungarian offshoot of lime tossing: trying to hit bums with apple cores. The ethically questionable game of skill comes up as Pauly is on prop-bet tilt after losing a scaled down apple bet. From there, the good doctor and his Euro-conscience debate what games of bum abuse may or may not be acceptable.

Stay tuned for the last episode which should be posted shortly.


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 11/06/2008 08:10:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Budapest Part II: No One Can Eat Fifty Apples

By Pauly
New York City

Somewhere late on Day 1A of the PokerStars.com EPT Hungarian Open at the Las Vegas Casino in Budapest, Annette15 surged to the chiplead. While the Norwegian wunderkind was out in the tournament area schooling online qualifiers and other Eurodonks, an interesting prop bet germinated in the media room.

"I can eat fifty apples in ninety minutes," blurted out Rod in his very distinct English accent.

Like most Brits, Rod is a reserved guy. He's a veteran journalist with several years of experience at Blonde Poker and PokerListings. I saw him everyday at the 2008 WSOP in Las Vegas but it wasn't until the Main Event when I discovered that he was British and not Canadian. I just assumed he was Canadian since he worked for PokerListings. It's just that Rod is not a man of many words. He doesn't say much so everyone dropped what they were doing to listen after he uttered, "I can eat fifty apples in ninety minutes."

Over the next few days, the terms of the fifty apples prop bet were eventually worked out between Matt and Rodd. Matt didn't think he could do it. Neither could I. Rod was determined and over the course of a week, a philosophical discussion broke out about competitive eating. It was always on the back burner because we all had a tournament to cover.

The Hungarian team from PokerNews helped me figure out which local players to cover on Day 1A and Day 1B. Peter and I walked around the room and gave me a crash course on the locals. Europeans don't like to physically point at someone so he would whisper seat numbers to me. At one table, a gentleman who could have been an Elvis Costello impersonator quietly sat behind a stack of red chips. His name was Attila Foris and one of the best cash game players in Eastern Europe. Peter told me about Richard Toth sat. Among his peers, Toth was considered the best tournament player in all of Hungary. He's third on the all time Hungarian money list and almost won a bracelet in 2006, but finished in second place in a $1,500 donkament. Peter also showed me where Kwaysser Valdemar Akos was sitting. Otherwise known as Luigi at the virtual tables, Kwaysser won the first ever PokerStars.com Latin American Poker Tour in Costa Rica last May.

I only recognized one Hungarian pro... Denes Kalo who took second place at the EPT Grand Finale in Monte Carlo earlier in the year, a similar feat that Brandon Schaefer did back in 2005. Kalo was the number one money winner in the history of Hungarian poker with almost $2.5 million in career earnings.

There was also one guy that everyone seemed to know. However, I had never seen him before because he was a Hungarian reality TV star. Peter 'Majka' Majoros was one of the most lively players in the room. Known around town as Majka, he was considered a huge celebrity in Hungary because of his appearance on the reality show called Való Világ. Majka came in second place but won the hearts and minds of all Hungarians. He parlayed his celebrity status into a music career and became an even more famous Hungarian rapper. I wish I was making this stuff up. Majka caught the poker bug and he was considered one of the noteworthy celebrities playing in the EPT Budapest.

One extremely loud Hungarian that stood out that Peter never mentioned to me. His name was Joseph Rutkai and he wore clothing that was as loud as his booming voice. One media rep described him as "looking like a total tool." He could be considered the Hungarian Mike Matusow but that's an insult to Matusow since Rutkai is no where near the level of skill as the real Mouth.

Dana and Matt witnessed one hand before the first break on Day 1A. It was a battle of the blinds between Rutkai and a young Scandi. Rutki's A-J beat out his opponents A-K. Rutkai four-flushed his opponent and busted the Scandi but not without a display of poor sportsmanship. Dana wrote...

"Not content with the outdraw, Rutkai went for the rubdown too -- he shouted something that sounded rather like, 'Hasta la vista, baby,' before getting out his car keys and offering them to his hapless and now busted opponent, saying, 'Here, take the keys to my Hummer, go see Budapest.' Extraordinary."

Dana is from the UK and I love how the Brits drench their posts in utter sarcasm. I was told the poor Scandi kid was devastated at the bad beat and then stormed away after being humiliated by Rutkai.

"What a dick," described one member of the media.

From that point on we described him as Joseph "Take the keys to my Hummer" Rutkai. He even parked his Hummer out front in an illegal spot. I told one of the Swedish reporters that the kid should get revenge on Rutkai and key his beloved Hummer.

Rutkai showed up on Day 2 wearing all yellow. Bright canary yellow pants and a matching shirt. I needed sunglasses to protect me from the glare. Change100 would have taken this guy behind the shed in one of her infamous fashion update posts. Garish clothing on a foul-mouthed man. Just another day on the tournament trail.

Here's a hand Joseph "Take the keys to my Hummer" Rutkai had on Day 2 with Johnny Lodden...


The guy has tons of class as you could see in the above video. When he won the hand, he screamed, "I beat the pro!"

Overall, there were 71 Hungarians in the field. That was the second highest number of players from a single country according to PokerStars. The Huns were outnumbered by the Italians. There were 86 of them in total. EPT Player of the Year Luca Pagano bought into the event along with his dad. Two Italian bracelet winners were in the field including Max Pescatori and Dario Minieri. I didn't know Dario was playing until I saw him show up very late.

"I think Dario has officially lost his virginity," mentioned on member of the international press. "Look at that shirt he's wearing. Influenced by Isabelle of course."

It wasn't so much as Dario's shirt as it was the fact that he didn't have it buttoned all the way to the top. Gus Hansen and Patrik Antonius can get away by showing off their chests. Dario? Not so much. An expensive and rather large silver crucifix dangled around his neck as he exposed his bare chest. It looked smooth, like a seal. I couldn't stop from giggling every time I walked past his table.

There are no racks in Hungary. At least, I did not see any. When a table broke, players were given a bucket. Similar to the one your grandma used to use at the slot machines to haul around quarters rotating from slot machine to slot machine. Yeah, you would frequently see players carting away their chips in massive cups and dumping them onto the table. It slowed down the game because players had to restack every time they got moved instead of sliding their chips out of racks.

This was an unconfirmed rumor.... but supposedly there was a local player who won a satellite to the EPT Hungarian Open from a different casino or maybe it was online. Anyway, the tournament was hosted at the Las Vegas Casino in Budapest which is a part of the Sofitel complex. Well according to the rumor, the idiot flew to Las Vegas, Nevada because he thought the tournament was there. Even if it's not true... it's still a funny story.

On Day 1B, the Hungarian press was buzzing because Andy Vajna was in the building. Vajna was the owner of the Las Vegas Casino in Budapest and also a major player in Hollywood. He produced several mega-hits and was a integral part of the "Rambo" and "Terminator" series. His current project is The Sarah Connor Chronicles, a popular TV program which is pulling in tons of dough. Vajna also produced art house films such an influential Hungarian film called Children of Glory, which detailed the aftermath of the Hungarian Revolution and push for independence that was squashed by the Soviets in 1956.

Vajna's filmography as a producer is massive and includes such films as Basic Instinct 2 (2006), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), The 13th Warrior (1999), Evita (1996), Nixon (1995), The Scarlet Letter (1995), Judge Dredd (1995), Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995), Color of Night (1994), Renaissance Man (1994), Tombstone (1993), Jacob's Ladder (1990), Air America (1990), Total Recall (1990), Red Heat (1988), Rambo III (1988), Angel Heart (1987), Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), First Blood (1982), and Victory (1981).

I told him that Victory was one of my favorite Stallone flicks of all time. I wussed out and didn't tell him that I dropped acid the first time I saw Jacob's Ladder and it made perfect sense. I think it was a good idea that I held back that bit of personal information. The last thing he needs is a known acid freak running around his casino.

Change100 used to work in Hollyweird and mentioned that Vajna is an elite category. He's richer than rich. Vajna has what Hollyweird insiders call, "Fuck you money." When you have that much money, you can tell anyone to fuck off.

I briefly met Vajna and he was a polite and warm guy, nothing like the slithery snakes you'd find holed up in the hills of Hollywood. Vajna looked a bit like old Ernest Hemingway. The crew at Hungarian PokerNews conducted a brief interview with the legend, which they helped translate into English. Vajna was happy with the turnout since he heard it was not going to be a sell out. The EPT Budapest was actually oversold. He also said that he'd like to play but his skill level is nowhere near the superior levels of the European pros.

The EPT Budapest had plenty of members from Team PokerStars, but the event did not attract as many big names as other EPT events. The main reason was that although the EPT expanded into Hungary for the first time, they made a decision to not televise the event. It wouldn't be a part of the TV package. That kept a few named pros away.

Johnny Lodden from Norway used to play under Betsson, but he got sponsored by PokerStars for Budapest and Prague. Like his fellow Norwegian, Annette15, Lodden is a master at amassing a massive stack early on in a tournament. His hyper-aggressive style is tough to keep up with. Lodden's problem has always been his inability to switch gears and slow down. Selective aggression is the key to a winning formula. Guys like Lodden can only play one speed.... fast.

Perhaps he wants a full time sponsorship with PokerStars, or maybe he's evolving his game. Whatever the reason, Lodden played a lot different that normal. He picked his spots more carefully instead of trying to steamroll the table on every single hand.

As the field thinned on Day 2 and eased into Day 3, Lodden was still hanging around. He always had a ton of media around and as the action approached the bubble, more and more reps circled his table. He was one of the biggest names remaining along with Kara Scott. She's the EPT hostess and was able to play since they were not taping the Budapest event. She's been a fixture on the EPT and finally had a breakthrough in the US during this summer at the WSOP. Kara went deep in the Main Event and cashed. Norm Chad couldn't stop drooling over he and kept referring to her to "Kara Scott Chad." It was funny the first time, but got old after a while.


Kara Scott
(Photo courtesy of Adam Steiner)
Anyway, Kara never had much to work with stackwise for most of the tournament but she's a true grinder. She was one of the notable who made the money which also included Sorel Mizzi, Ludovic Lacay, and bracelets winners Alex KGB Kravchenko and Ivo Donev.

Ludovic Lacay was involved in a wacky pro bet with one of his fellow Frenchman. Lacay lost the bet so he had to hold a toothbrush in his mouth for the entire duration of Day 3. Lacay busted out late in the night and finally removed the toothbrush.

Ivo Donev is a Hungarian who lives in Austria. He's known as the "Chess Master" and bubbled off the final table in ninth place. He loved to complain about the play of Zoltan Toth, the longest lasting Hungarian who made the final table as the chipleader. Donev repeatedly chastised Zoltan for being a calling station.

"He thinks he's playing bingo!" bitched Donev who got beat out in a few pots with Zoltan.

Alas, that's poker. The best player usually doesn't win. Zoltan advanced to the final table with the chiplead and properly imploded. He finished in 7th place.

Johnny Lodden was probably the best player at the final table. He was definitely the most popular. The 24-year old played in 15 EPT events and cashed in 7 of them. We were seeing the new and improved Johnny Lodden. Although he was in the middle of the pack in chips, almost everyone picked him to win it all. Sadly, Lodden was the first player to bust from the final table. It was a nasty beat too.

Here's what I wrote for PokerNews...

Hand #16. Johnny Lodden raised 55,000 from under the gun. Zoltan Toth called. Ciprian Hrisca made a few jokes with Johnny Lodden and folded. Martin Jacobson called.

The flop was Jd-8s-2d. Lodden bet 125,000. Zoltan called. Jacobson moved all in. Lodden called. Zoltan called and had everyone covered.

Lodden: Kd-Kh
Jacobson: 10d-7d
Zoltan: Ad-Kd

Massive pot. Lodden was ahead with pocket Kings against Zoltan's nut flush draw and Jacobson's gutshot and smaller flush draw.

The turn was the 7h. And the river was the 9c. Jacobson won the pot with a straight. He doubled through Zoltan. Lodden was eliminated in 8th place. Jacobson took over the chiplead and has almost 2 million in chips. Zoltan was crippled and left with around 40,000.

Lodden was a slight favorite after the flop. We expected he might get flushed out. No one saw the gutshot coming. Alas, Lodden was out and he quickly headed to the bar. Because when I saw him several hours later, he was three sheets to the wind or what the Norwegians say "beruset som skunk" or drunk as a skunk.

The EPT Budapest final table went faster than usual final tables. 76 hands. 4.5 hours. As a tournament reporter, you couldn't ask for a better final table. Once action was three-handed, the remaining players took a break and cut a deal. They took almost 35 minutes to hash out the details. So out of a 4.5 hour tournament over 1/9th of that time included the deal discussion. Once the players agreed to a fair deal, the tournament was over shortly after.

Will Fry from Nottingham, UK won the EPT Budapest and a seat into the EPT Grand Finale next spring in Monte Carlo. Fry was involved in a controversial hand early on Day 2 with "Take the keys to my Hummer" Rutkai. The floor made a sketchy decision against Fry. He was furious but he managed to stay calm and cruise to victory, while "Take the keys to my Hummer" Rutkai busted out soon after.

Fry is one of the good guys in poker and a modern day Robin Hood. He said he was going to donate a percentage of his winnings to charity. He wants to help raise awareness to third world hunger. He's going to be researching various groups over the next few weeks to figure out which one he'll support.

Since the event ended early, my friends in the media had time to finish up their assignments and eat a proper dinner. Dana and I feasted at a local Hungarian restaurant before we joined the party. A group of 30+ took over a bar around the corner from the casino. Lucky for us poor journalists, a couple of the players who cashed showed up and help picked up all of the tab. Johnny Lodden, Kara Scott, and Will Fry all made cameos. A drunken Johnny Lodden sat next to me and chatted up a storm. Most Scandis are very reserved, but they finally loosen up when you get a few drinks in them. Lodden was telling me about playing a couple of hands blind and or raising a couple of times with the Hammer when he knew his opponents were weak.

The bar closed early since it was a public holiday. All Saints Day. Most of the locals went to cemeteries to pay honor to their loved ones who passed away. We still wanted to party, but options were limited. I offered up my apartment to host the afterparty. 20+ people showed up and we partied until sunrise including Will Fry and his entourage. They brought tons of beer.

At some point, the discussion came back around to Rod's 50 apples bet. Benjo and I wondered if we could get him to do it that night. The difficult part was finding 50 Granny Smith apples since that was the specific ones Rod said he'd eat. I snuck out and headed to the 24 hour store on the corner. Luckily they had apples, although most of them were bruised and shitty looking. I picked out five of the best they had and ran back to the party.

I offered Rod €50 to eat all five in 15 minutes, but he backed down. He had never eaten more than three apples in one sitting and needed tons of practice. He tried to eat one as fast as he could, but decided against taking the bet. I offered Matt Showell €50 to eat three apples in ten minutes. He quickly said yes. I got smoked. He ate three of them in roughly 8.5 minutes. He admitted that it was not an easy task and that Rod would have a tough time eating 25, let alone 50.

Rod is confident that he can train over the next few months and achieve his feat. I set the over under at 36.5 apples in 90 minutes. Despite pleas from various media reps to have the prop bet settled in Monte Carlo after the EPT Grand Finale ends, Matt wants a showdown at the 2009 WSOP in Las Vegas.

As the line in Cool Hand Luke goes, "No one can eat fifty eggs."

Yeah, no way Rod can eat fifty apples. No one can eat fifty apples.

* * * * *
I uploaded pics from my trip to Budapest. Check out the Budapest gallery.

I also have dozens of other galleries from various other trips and music festivals and different collections of food galleries and Pauly paintings. Click here to view all of my photo galleries.


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 11/05/2008 06:23:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Sundays with Dr. Pauly and Fantasy Football Updates

By Pauly
New York City

Over in the Tao of Poker football pool, there's a three-way tie for first place with jaguar9499, Scotty's Mich Ultr, and Rummy's TaoPicks leading the way.

Week 8 Winner: Any Given Sunday - 13 Wins
Week 9 Winners: Rapidrowe, Zappa, Hitwise14, BigHeeb's Creepy Avatar, VinNay, and wndywitch - 11 Wins

Tao of Poker Football Pool - Top 5 Thru Week 9
1 jaguar9499 (r. zacharki)89
1 Scotty's Mich Ultra (P. Grotjohn) 89
1 Rummy's TaoPicks (E. Rummel) 89
4 PokerFool's Purple Power (P. Fool) 87
4 PatsRevenge2008 (E. Kalis) 87

Click here for complete standings.

* * * * *
I'm having an awful year at Fantasy Sports Live. Yikes.

Fantasy Sports Live blog has full updates for Sundays with Dr. Pauly. Head over there for more information including who qualified for the TOC.

Congrats to jrf361 for winning Week 8 and belly2bar for winning Week 9. One more week left in Series 2.

Series 2 Update - Top 10 Thru Week 9:
belly2bar 467.8
jrf361 451.8
ebk03001 448.5
Resino 446.3
Expensive Wino 445.6
Buffalo66 435.5
Chuckdnb 431.7
spitball 431.7
repete oiffenders 412

Series 3 starts next week. Click here for more details how you can participate for Weeks 11-15.

And if you don't have a Fantasy SportsLive account, you can sign up for one today! It's legal in the US and you can fund your account with a credit card.


And by the way, the NBA season is off and running. Head over to Fantasy Sports Live for daily NBA contests.

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 11/05/2008 01:55:00 AM | Permalink |

 
2008 WSOP Main Event Coverage on the Tao of Poker

By Pauly
New York City

Ah, the final table of the 2008 WSOP is only a few days away. I spent all morning re-reading my coverage in order to get reacquainted with the nine chaps who were dubbed the November Nine. I will be in Las Vegas this weekend live blogging the final table on Sunday and the heads up match on Monday.

Anyway, just in case your memory is a little rusty, take a peek at what I wrote during the 2008 WSOP Main Event....

Day 35: Main Event Day 1A - Cokeheads, Crybabies, and the Green Box Conspiracy... One incident happened in the men's room across from the Brasilia Room which I mentioned in the live blog. I overheard one guy sitting in one of the stalls and making odd sounds. I assumed that he was taking a rough dump because I thought I heard squealing in agony. Actually, he was sobbing and telling a loved one his bad beat story of how he busted out of the WSOP. Wow, that blew me away. A grown man brought to tears over one little poker tournament. There's no crying in poker! Alas, he was yet another helpless soul violently crushed in the existentialist meat grinder of the WSOP. If you want a happy hobby, try a ceramics class. If you want to have your balls shaved by a cheese grater every couple of hours, then poker is for you.

Day 36: Main Event Day 1B - Yawn... Varkonyi busted Phil Hellmuth at the 2002 WSOP main event. Hellmuth ranted and raved and said Varonkyi was an awful player. Yeah, some things never change. Hellmuth then made a ridiculous bet that if Varkonyi won it all, then he would shave his head. Well, Varkonyi won and everyone held Hellmuth to his word. At the end of that telecast of the final table, Hellmuth sat down and Becky Binion took an electric razor and shaved it all off as Gabe Kaplan tooled on him and Matt Savage milled around in the background and Devilfish was mugging for camera time.

Day 37: Main Event Day 1C and the Tao of Five with Flipchip... It felt like Ground Hog's Day. The third Day 1. 38th day in a row. My brain is/was/is/was fried. Anyway, the biggest field showed up so far at the WSOP world championship and when action ended on Day 1c, Harrahs dodged a bullet and got more entrants signed up than last year with one more flight to go.

Day 38: The Kitten Fields... The majority of their brethren never made it out alive and perished in the existentialist meatgrinder of the world series of sadism. That's why every PokerStars 'premium' schwag bag can be converted into a makeshift body bag. Poor Otis and Howard and Bartley scrambled across the killing floor every hour to retrieve the leftover carcasses from the plethora of online qualifiers. The bottom of the PokerStars shuttle bus was a makeshift morgue which Otis and his crew constantly filled up every inch with the leftovers. You could see the malnourishment in Otis' eyes. The sorrow. The misery. The agony. And you wonder why Otis writes such sad posts. He can't shake the post-traumatic stress syndrome of being the first on the scene after the initial slaughter. If you have to slosh around knee deep in the fish guts and animal intestines for 15 hours a day, you'd be in a somber mood as well.

Day 39 - Off

Day 40: Main Event Day 2A - Isadario... We are what we are... a gaggle of sex-crazed degenerate gamblers. But that's what I love about America... is that or founder fathers laid out the groundwork so that we can become what we choose to be without the government interfering in our lives. Fly to Vegas. Play in the WSOP. Get sucked out by a donkeyfish. Get wasted. Gamble until sunrise. Fuck a hooker. Eat a buffet. Piss next to Johnny Chan. Buy an ashtray. Buy a tube of cream for that rash you picked up. Good bye Vegas. See you next time.

Day 41: Main Event Day 2B - Formula of Donkey Liquification... You can drink beer while playing poker so it's not a sport. Scotty Nguyen. Men the Master. Minneapolis Jom Meehan. They all like a good cocktail at the tables. Sure, old school professional athletes drank during games like Night Tran Lane and Babe Ruth probably knocked back a cold one in between innings while he stuffed his face with hotdogs. Joe D used to smoke in the dugout and the bat boys used to make sure he had a lit ciggie waiting for him when he came off the field and into the dugout. But today? You couldn't see Pedro Martinez walk to the back of the mound, bend over, and take a huge pull off of a tallboy. I'd love to see Mikael Samuelsson do a shot of tequila on the bench before a line change. But that's just not gonna happen.

Day 42: Main Event Day 3 - Bubbles... An assortment of 1,307 people from all different areas of life... online pros, Vegas pros, amateurs, semi-pros, guys who are muppets who think they are pros, and straight up dream chasers... each walked into the Amazon Room with one thing on their minds... survive Day 3 and advance to Day 4. The simple goal? Be among the 666 players who cashed in the 2008 WSOP Main Event. Once you sign your slip at the end of Day 2 and bag up your chips, all you can think about is making it to the end of Day 3 to almost guarantee a $21K cash. And for online qualifiers or satellite winners, the rest of the WSOP is a freeroll. Almost all of their earnings are pure profit.

Day 43: Main Event Day 4 - Early to Bed and Iggy's Run... Once the cameras are in position, the producer tells the dealer to proceed. Not a floor person or Harrah's staff... but someone from ESPN. The big crowd attracts more people. Staff, players from adjacent tables, media reps. Even the occasional rule breaker who sneaks inside the ropes to check out the action. A massive circle engulfs the table. When the hand is over,one player is usually sent to his death, while all of the vultures disappear and flock to another table where a familiar situation is arising. It's almost like watching pigeons in the park peck and fight over a couple of crumbs. Throw the bread in one direction (all in and a call) and hundreds of pigeons (hungry media) will go apeshit and peck each others' eyeballs out just to grab a crumb. A morsel. Anything they can get their beaks on. As that song goes, birds of a feather are flocking outside.

Day 44: Main Event Day 5 - The Wretched Squall of Hellmuth and Matusow... I waited 44 days for the sure thing. The defining moment of the summer. The one incident that would set the 2008 WSOP apart from the previous four years that have blended into one long blurry flashback of bracelet winners, bad beat stories, excursions to strip clubs, binge drinking at the hooker bar, pot-bellied mulleted children running amuck at the Redneck Riviera, and lime tossing out back with a sad, tilty, and often suicidal Otis. I stumbled upon a story that could have wrote itself before I even got out of bed in the morning. Phil Hellmuth and Mike Matusow. At the same table. Right next to each other. With Hellmuth having position on Matusow. At the featured TV table in front of hundreds of drooling, blood-thirsty fans. They were starving lunatics. Broke dick swine. Some drunk on cheap swill. Others mentally imbalanced. And those were my friends. It was almost like the Romans waiting for the Christians to get tossed to the lions. The featured TV table was standing room only. The spectators were spilling out of the Beast Lounge with limbs dangling over metal rails waiting... waiting... for a meltdown. For a blowup. For the bloodshed.

Day 45: Main Event Day 6 - The Battle for Tiffany Michelle's Breasts... I would not want to be Tiffany Michelle right now. The entire fate of poker and all of Western Civilization has been thrust upon her supple shoulders. Should a 24-year old have that much pressure on her? Tiffany Michelle is poker's most marketable asset right now. Michalksi said that out of the last 27 players, she has the potential for the biggest "Moneymaker Effect." In three years, will I be writing about another poker renaissance in America and citing the "Tiffany Michelle Effect?" Come to think of it, that wouldn't be a bad thing. The poker world could use an influx of young women.

Day 46: Main Event Day 7 - Nonagon... I have seen what money does to people. It destroys lives. It tears friends apart. Too much money and it poisons your soul. Too little money and it makes you do desperate an unthinkable things. And during the pursuit of huge sums of money in the seven and eight figure ranges... your once astute judgment becomes clouded in the fog of war. Poker is a simple game. Played among friends, it can be one of the most entertaining experiences in life. But when poker is played in a tournament for millions of dollars in a forum where dozens and dozens of corporations can profit from it... things can get ugly. There is no longer white and black, just shades of grey. Working for four plus years in the poker industry taught me that the more money that is involved... the more complicated things can get.

* * * * *
If you would like to read the rest of my coverage from the 2008 WSOP, check out The 2008 WSOP: Tao of Poker Review which lists links and excerpts to every single post I wrote this summer.

And don't forget to check out the Tao of Pokerati archives to listen to all of your favorite episodes that we taped this summer.


Here are a couple of WSOP Main Event podcasts that we did...

Episode 26: Agents, Frenchies, and Polacks featuring Benjo (3:48)

Description by Pauly: This episodes starts out slow but ends with a hysterical bang. I consider this one of my all time favorite episodes of Tao of Pokerati which includes a cameo from Benjo. We riff a bit on sleazy agents and how the French and Polish players fared at the WSOP. Benjo also suggests that we fire Michalski and do the podcast on our own.

Episode 28: Exit, Stage Tiffany

Description by Michalski: We're not done yet... still have a few more episodes to share with you, and Brian Balsbaugh and Oliver Tse our agents are in negotiations with French authorities over possible continuation of the show.

It's a 6-minute double-episode — that seems particularly timely with the benefit of hindsight was recorded from the dead-center of an emptied out Amazon room, shortly after Tiffany Michelle busted out in 17th place. Here Dr. Pauly and I survey the atmospheric damage as "the last hope" of the main event exits the building... and I argue that she was the only one of the final 27 players with true Chris Moneymaker potential — meaning her performance wasn't so much about her own abilities to win big cash as it was about the future of poker. Comparisons to Scotty Nguyen and college basketball as well, before one of your not-so-gracious hosts goes through severe WSOP separation anxiety.

Episode 28.5: Fashion Report (featuring Change100)

Description by Michalski: Dr. Pauly chats with Change100 (his personal fashion yogini) about Tiffany Michelle's attire before her Ultimate Bet patchwork became such a major wardrobe malfunction. It's sickeningly cute as this pokerblogging duo draws the fine line between rocker-chick chic and Tijuana hooker — and further fashion analysis tries to differentiate between the new-money stylings of Alexander Kostritsin, typical "online douchebag" and Mean Gene, and the poker-prep ways of Shronk and Brandon Adams.

That's it for now. If you want to avoid all the election coverage, check out ESPN tonight at 10pm for the 2008 WSOP special. I know that what I'll be doing!


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 11/04/2008 08:51:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Budapest Part I: Danube Waltz

By Pauly
Budapest, Hungary

I party frequently. I'm a multi-bracelet winner when it comes to throwing down and having a good time. However, there are a couple of times a year that I think I'm 18 years old again and can drink anyone under the table. I've come a long way the mid-1990s when I had Jim Beam pumping through my veins and I ran through the streets of Atlanta like a lunatic. Boys will be boys and former frat boys are a dangerous pestilence upon this land. I know because I am one.

Alas, my thirtysomething body takes a pounding whenever I found myself caught up in a whirlwind bender. I've been wiser and more self-aware about those epic moments of celebration and do my best to avoid a hellacious hangover of the Category 5 variety. Pace myself and drink lots of water. Don't mix and all will be well. Ah, of course I forgot all of those basic rules to drinking. I have those mental lapses about twice a year. It's the my former teenaged soul trying to escape from my body. Everyone once in a while, he takes over the bus and I just go along for the savage ride as I embark on a bender of all benders. A bender of Barbaric proportions.

The last mishap was in Melbourne during the Aussie Millions. I has a momentary black out and made a run to McDonalds in the Crown Casino and totally forgot about the 4am munchies until I woke up the next morning and discovered a grease-stained McDs bag on the floor next to the bed.

Hmmm, what else did I do last night that I don't remember? That's one of the most humiliating conversations to have with yourself, usually done in the middle of a wave of dry heaves as you clutch the porcelain god. Check your pockets for clues. Inspect your bodies for UDIs or unidentified drunken injuries. Look at your cell phone for traces of drunken texts or phone calls and get those apologies ready for the next day.

The culprits were Palinka, Unicum, and two salacious Hungarian women that I was convinced would make out on camera for me if I got them shitfaced enough. The locals drink the local liquors such as fruit-flavored Palinka with ease. Me? Well, I foolishly attempted to run a marathon in flip flops. And my innards were spewed across the tiles of my bathroom floor. There's a reason why it's called Black Death. And my Hungarian landlady is gonna be wicked pissed when she has to clean last week's goulash off of her walls.

Dana saw the shoddy condition of my soused self during my first night in Budapest. 'Peaks Too Early' should be my Native American name. It was not flattering. I fell down. Hard. I couldn't get up as a seizure of laughter fell over my entire body. I fell down again. Otis would have shook his head. I was more than Bad Iggy drunk, hell, I flew past that truck stop on the edge of the Nevada desert miles down the road. I found myself at a destination where no one ever intends to wind up.

I couldn't believe that I puked on that naked chick and got tossed from a strip club. In the same night. Bad bad, Pauly.

There's always a price to pay for your actions. I didn't have to wait until karma swung its sledgehammer down upon my cranium. Splintered into thousands of shards piercing my brain. I woke up on the first day of an assignment on the verge of death. No,wait... death would have been a plausible alternative to the living hell I had to endure over the next horrid day. The longest day of the year is always the day after you get flagged for multiple excessive celebration penalties. Alas, I chose a path and had to endure the pain. The throbbing. The waves of nausea. Ghastly pains from the spots where I fell. And not to mention the utter torture of being locked inside the sweltering basement of a casino for 12 hours to watch the opening flight of a poker tournament where I only knew a dozen or so players. Pure fuckin' joy.

I rented a flat with my work colleague Dana from London. She is also known as Snoopy's girlfriend and best friends with Jen from Blonde Boker. She's an amazing musician by trade and does a few freelance writing assignments on the side to pay the bills. We were teamed up together by PokerNews for the PokerStars.com EPT Budapest. We decided to stay off the casino property at an apartment. It was cheaper than staying in a hotel near the Las Vegas Casino adjacent to the Sofitel. And the Sofitel is fuckin' pricey. A baller, I am not. I'd rather save my money on less wasteful things. I didn't want to have to take taxis everyday so staying in a fleabag on the other side of town was not an option either. Schecky suggested an available apartment to rent near by. I contacted the owner. He was German and owned a two bedroom flat which he would rent to me for next to nothing.

The swanky place was a block from the Danube and about a twenty minute walk to the casino. It ended up a clutch move. The best in a very long time. Staying in hotels has worn thin on me and I've been opting for short-term apartment rentals like Change100 and I did in Barcelona, Amsterdam, and London over the last year or so. The alternative to a hotel is cheaper and puts me in a better mindset. Makes me feel normal while I'm on the road following the circus. Yes, the circus came to town. This stop was Budapest and I was about to begin the show with a sadistic hangover. Clown music drives me me to thr brink of utter insanity.

Dana and I slowly walked from our rented flat in Budapest to the Las Vegas Casino through the winding shopping streets that catered to tourists such as plenty of crappy Hungarian folk art souvenir shops with overpriced scarves and chess sets. Those were too many to count and were sprinkled in between the collection of old buildings, department stores, tourist trap restaurants, and dozens and dozens of money exchange booths that offered up shitty rates to convert Greenbacks to Forints.

Dana and I stopped at Subway for a meal to go. I did not want to eat it in the media room for fear of embarrassing myself and yakking it up on my new British laptop while chatting with Bartley or Howard from PokerStars. I struggled to eat a bland and rubbery my six inch Subway as I sat outside and groggily gazed at the Danube. The last time I ate Subway in Europe, I watched in amazement as a lewd sex act was performed in front of me.

Hungover in Hungary. A stranger in a strange land trying to drink strange drinks with strange women. I knew if I could keep down the sandwich then I could make it. I had to rally for work. I get paid a lot of money to travel the world and cover poker tournaments. The G doesn't care what I do in my spare time but when cards go in the air, I'm on his dime. I glanced back at the grey waters of the river that split the sections of Buda and Pest. I didn't want to become a floater in the Danube. Time to suck it up and rise to the challenge.

I struggled on Day 1A of the PokerStars.com EPT Hungarian Open. I had a new photographer to break in for a second event in a row. He was a local who spoke great English and played some poker which helped immensely. I also had to quickly get to know the Hungarian crew of PokerNews. Peter and Monika gave me the rundown on the local players that I should keep an eye out. 71 Hungarians played in the first ever EPT stop in Hungary and represented 1/8 of the field. I only knew about one or two Hungarian players and got an intense crash course in the history of Hungarian poker.

The free drinks in the media room saved me especially the Hungarian version of ginger ale. For the first time at the EPT, the media room had assigned seating I was in the first row out of five. I noticed that they also grouped us by languages, or maybe it was just a coincidence? The front row had all English speaking media which included folks from Canada (Matt), UK (Dana & Rod), Ireland (Brenden & Rebbecca), Scotland (The SikTilt gang), and of course myself... the lone American in the room full of Europeans. The members of the Italian and Hungarian press were behind me along with Caco from Portugal. The Germans were huddled together, while Benjo sat in the back with his fellow Frenchman nearby along with the Scandis and reps from Poland and Serbia. The air was cluttered with a mixture of poker slang and foreign words. I enjoyed covering tournaments in Europe. It's a totally different vibe than the hackneyed scene overrun by nimrods in America.


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 11/03/2008 02:44:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Jeciimd Wins Saturdays with Dr. Pauly

By Pauly
Budapest, Hungary

Congrats to Jeciimd for winning this week's Saturdays with Dr. Pauly. I was unable to play unfortunately. I posted and folded my way to 13th place.

22 runners overall. Top 3 were paid. Pings was Gigli. Arctic Action was the bubble boy.


Hopefully, I'll find some time to play next week. I'll be in Vegas for the November Nine.

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 11/01/2008 11:42:00 PM | Permalink |

 
PokerStars.com EPT Budapest Final Table

By Pauly
Budapest, Hungary

I'm covering the final table of the PokerStars.com EPT Budapest for PokerNews.com. Head over there if you are dying to read live updates of the final table. It begins at 1pm local time.

Seating assignments and chip counts:
Seat 1: Marino Serenelli (Italy) - 357,000
Seat 2: Will Fry (UK) - 572,000
Seat 3: Ciprian Hrisca (Romania) - 1,038,000
Seat 4: Gino Alacqua (Italy) - 466,000
Seat 5: Martin Jacobson (Sweden) - 306,000
Seat 6: Albert Iversen (Denmark) - 1,017,000
Seat 7: Johnny Lodden (Norway) - 500,000
Seat 8: Zoltan Toth (Hungary) - 1,059,000

Final Table payouts:
1st - €595,839
2nd - €342,608
3rd - €197,904
4th - €153,216
5th - €127,680
6th - €100,016
7th - €78,736
8th - €53,200

Been super busy with work. I'll write up more about my experiences in Hungary as soon as the final table is complete.


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 11/01/2008 04:20:00 AM | Permalink |