Event #9 Preview!

My second shot at fortune and glory this year is going to be Event #9 $1,500 Six Handed No Limit Hold 'em. Two years ago I played the $3,000 6 handed event and did pretty well even though I didn't make the money (I had quadrupled my starting stack before losing QQ to AQ in an all in preflop situation). Also all I do these days is play six handed. Granted it's normally limit cash games, but it's got to be worth something!

Like Event #7 this is a three day event starting at noon with the first day being played down to about the top 10% then the next day being played down to the final table and the last day being the final table. We'll be starting with 3,000 chips, 60 minute levels and 25/50 blinds.

Last year this was Event #12, had 1,427 entrants and a prize pool of $1,947,855 which was split amongst the top 126 finishers. Here are the top ten finishers and what they got paid as well as a few other to give you a feel for the potential payouts.

1 Jason Warner (Vancouver, BC, Canada) $481,698
2 David Zeitlin (New York, NY, USA) $269,778
3 Steve Olek (Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA) $186,020
4 David Mitchell - Lolis (Las Vegas, NV, USA) $123,689
5 Matt Brady (Havertown, PA, USA) $92,523
6 Brian Miller (Atlanta, GA, USA) $61,357
7 William Vosti (Arroyo Grande, CA, USA) $46,749
8 Joe Awada (Las Vegas, NV, USA) $46,749
9 Arturo Diaz (San Diego, CA, USA) $31,166
10 Andrew Webking (Seattle, WA, USA) $31,166
20 Harold Cohen (Los Angeles, CA, USA) $11,882
30 Travis Pearson (Las Vegas, NV, USA) $8,960
40 Erik Seidel (Las Vegas, NV, USA) $5,844
50 Miguel Proulx (Québec, QC, Canada) $4,188
75 Andres Bello (Oxnard, CA, USA) $2,824
100 Christopher Lenahan (Portland, OR, USA) $2,435
126 David Robertson (Henderson, NV, USA) $2,143

As you can see it's pretty important to go deep, but right now I'm looking for any type of cash just get off the schnide.

One of the really exciting things about playing these tournaments is I could actually have good luck! I know it seems like I must have spit in the face of a Voodoo priest the way the cards have been treating me. But there's some chance that I could stumble onto a wave a cards so good that there's no way I could screw it up. If I get a 1 in a 1,000 run of cards in any of these tournaments I'm good enough that in the words of many a NFL punt returner "I'm takin' that shit to the house!"

I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. I'll start with just enough luck to win the hands when I'm ahead! If I make it to day 2 then I'll ramp up the day dreaming. A bunch of my best friends arrive in town tomorrow and I don't have anything planned for Friday so I expect to have a full on rip roaring Vegas night if I go broke without making the money. Wish me luck...unless thats what you did before. Try something new this time!

2008 Event #7 ($2,000 NL Hold'em) Recap

As as walked out of my hotel room today I made sure several times that I had everything I needed. Wallet - check. Tournament entry card - check. Extra money - check. Room key - check. It wasn't until I made it to the tournament area that I realized I'd forgotten something - I forgot to eat! Playing high stakes poker is not something you want to do on an empty stomach! I quickly dashed off to the Starbucks that I knew was close by and scarfed down a muffin and a some other sort of pastry. Not the breakfast of champions, but enough to keep me going.

I looked at my seat card as I walked into the tournament room and saw that I was at table 20, seat 6. So I walked up to table 20, sat down in seat 6 and when I showed the dealer my seat card she looked at me like it was a coupon for a free happy meal. Apparently I was at "Amazon Red" table 20 when in fact I was supposed to be at "Amazon blue" table 20. In past years the tables in the Amazon room were labeled simply 1 to 220. I'm sure they have a good reason for this change, but I have yet to figure it out.

I finally made it to my seat where I found a bottle of "All In" drinking water and a can of "All In" energy drink waiting for me. Right at noon the cards were in the air and my 2008 WSOP was underway.

The tables around me were noticeably lacking stars from the poker world, but there was one minor poker celebrity at my table - Dario Minieri. I actually have played with Dario at least 50 times since until recently he's made a good chunk of his living playing multi table tournaments on pokerstars.com which is my website of choice.

Dario's first claim to fame is he was the first player on pokerstars to exchange his frequent player points (FPPs) for a new Porche which is the most expensive thing you can get with your FPPs. His second claim to fame is he finished about 30th in the main event last year and was featured heavily in ESPN's coverage. If you watched any of that coverage you'll remember him as the young Italian guy with the goofy scarf. In person he is shockingly short and looks like he's about 15.

Now on to the poker action! Here is a phrase I hope to never say again about a WSOP event - the key hand in this tournament for me happened 30 minutes into the first level.

Before the key hand, I'd seen two flops (I folded on the flop both times), stolen the blinds once and folded every other hand. The blinds were 25/50 and I had about 3,500 of my starting stack of 4,000 when I picked up AK in the small blind. Dario raised to 150 one off the button, the player on the button called and I reraised to 600. As soon as my chips were in the pot the big blind moved all in and both of the other players folded.

I stopped to think for about 60 seconds. There was 4,400 in the pot and it would cost me my last 2,900 hundred to call so I was getting about 3 to 2 odds. The only hands I was really worried about were AA and KK since I'd be a big underdog to both. Against any other hand I'd be at worst 45% to win. Interestingly enough in an earlier hand the player in the big blind had raised with AA and then after a call and a reraise he just called. That told me that if he had AA he'd likely just call in a spot like this as well. Furthermore, given that I already had one of the aces and one of the kings the chances of him having AA or KK was greatly reduced. I figured there was about a 10% chance that he had AA or KK, an 80% chance that he had either QQ, JJ or AK and about a 10% chance that he had something else. I'd almost certainly split with another AK and I'd be just under even money to win against QQ or JJ. Since the pot was offering me 3 to 2, I decided to call.

When the cards got turned over my opponent also had AK. He had the A of hearts and the K of spades, while I had the A of clubs and the K of diamonds. The only way we wouldn't split was if the board came with four of a suit. The first four cards off the deck were all spades and I was out. My opponent was not gracious about his victory.

Given the stakes and the likelihood of the given outcome, this might have been the worst bad beat of my entire poker career. There was a 95.65% chance of a split and we each had a 2.17% chance to win.

It really sucks to have all this anticipation and build up and come all this way to lose to someone who had a 2.17% chance of winning the pot. But, the good news is that I actually feel OK about it. Of course I'm disappointed, but I think it speaks to how far I've come as a poker player that I'm not crushed. If I'd lost in a $2,000 tournament in this was a few years ago I wouldn't have been right for a few days. In this case I moped for about an hour. I played some pai gow and had a shot of Grand Mariner and now I feel fine. It helps that I've gone over the hand in my head 100 times now and every time I come to the conclusion that I did the right thing.

Poker is all about making the best decisions with the incomplete information that you have and letting the chips fall where they may. In this case I made a good decision and it just didn't work out. That's poker.

Luckily one of my biggest strengths is putting the past behind me and moving forward! Tonight I'm going to play a $340 buy in tournament here at the Rio. While there is zero prestige involved, there still money to be won and I expect a weak field. I have no idea if I'll be facing 40 players of 400, but I'll put up a short recap along with a preview of my next event either later tonight or tomorrow morning.

Fucking 2.17%! Crazy.

In Vegas and Ready for Action!

So far my trip to Vegas has been great. My flight from Oakland to Vegas pulled back from the gate at exactly the scheduled departure time, the flight was less than half full (I didn't have anyone in my row, in front of me or behind me), and arrived ten minutes early. My bag was the second one off at the baggage claim and showed up the very second that I walked up to carrosel number 6 to grab it. There was even a cab waiting to take me to the Rio (for those of you who have never been to Vegas the cab line in often insane and it's not unusual to wait 30-45 minutes for a taxi) and I was in my room 20 minutes after my plane was scheduled to land.

I brought $15,000 with me on this trip and while it's been a long time since I've felt uncomfortable carrying a few grand with me, having enough in your pockets to buy a new car is a different story. While I wasn't exactly nervous, I did check to make sure I still had it an embarrassing number of times. Of course having that kind of cash with you will make you feel like no matter what you forgot at home it won't matter because you'll be able to just buy a new one!

While my plan was always to get to sleep early (I was out cold by 11:30 and slept until 10) and not do much, I did manage to squeeze a little gambling into my first night. I sat down at a $25 minimum Pai Gow table with plans of playing for about an hour and hopes of unwinding and perhaps winning enough for a nice dinner.

Unlike poker, Pai Gow is a game you can't win in the long run. It's a game you play against the house where you and the dealer each get 7 cards. You then split those 7 cards into a 2 card hand and a 5 card hand with the only rule that the 5 card hand has to be better than the 2 card hand. The dealer does the same with the house hand and if you're 5 card hand is better than the dealer's 5 card hand AND your 2 card hand is better than the dealer's 2 card hand, then you win. If you lose both hands you lose, and if you win one and lose one it's a tie. While you can't win in the long run, it's a game with a very low house edge and it's a slow game (speed is your enemy in the casino!) because it takes a while to set all the hands and there are a lot of ties.

I won the first hand and was never behind for the hour or so that I played. After I was at the table for 15 minutes a guy about my age who was on dinner break for $1,000 with rebuys WSOP event sat down at the table next to me. He bought in for $500 and started off betting $25 a hand. After a few hands he kicked it up to $50 and won. The next hand he bet $100 and won. Then he said he was feeling lucky and pulled a $500 chip out of his pocket and slid it into the betting circle. At first I thought he was asking for change! Plenty of people (including me on occasion) will bet $100 a hand, but it's pretty rare to see someone put a purple chip on the line on one hand of Pai Gow.

He left it out there and won the next 4 hands in a row! I don't think I've ever seen someone buy in for $500 and bet $25 a hand a few times and then crank it up to $500 a hand a few minutes later. Also for those of you who are wondering the chances of winning 6 hands in a row with no ties at Pai Gow are around 4,000 to 1.

I ended up winning $275 which was enough to cover my extra night of expenses, pay for a nice dinner (I had a wonderful filet mignon with a baked potato and some mac-n-cheese for dinner) and have a few bucks left over.

I didn't have any trouble signing up for my tournament and when I went to the tournament area I saw that they'd made a few changes. Most notably instead of trying to cram everything into the Amazon room, they've taken over a few other rooms in the convention area as well. Now there is a whole other room devoted to satellite tournaments and a separate room for the cashier and tournament registration. Also they've split the entrances to the Amazon room into player's entrances and spectator's entrances (every year there are more and more people coming to watch and the doorways can get a little clogged).

The Rio and it's parent company Harrah's have been extremely smart about making improvements. They have a player's advisory council made up of about 10 of the biggest names in poker and they really seem to listen to them. This is my 4th year at the WSOP and every year if I've hear something complained about the next year it's fixed.

I'll put up a post late today regarding my results from today's $2,000 no limit tournament. If I'm still alive on the dinner break might come up to my room and make a quick post about my status. Regardless there will be a post up by tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!

Minor Change of Plans

I was thinking about my departure for Vegas on Wednesday - specifically the getting up at 6 a.m. part - and I decided that it might not be the best idea to get up early, fly to Vegas and then play a $2,000 poker tournament that could go as late as 3 a.m. After a quick call to the Rio to see what kind of rate I could get for another night ($40 which will probably turn out to be zero once I do a little gambling) and a call to Southwest to change my flight I am now leaving Tuesday night.

While it means another night away from my family it also means I should be well rested, I'll be able to sign up the tournament the night before instead of waiting in line for 30 minutes to an hour the day of, and I'll be in the best mental state I can be in.

Welcome New Readers!

I just sent out a mass e-mail to a bunch of friends and family and in anticipation of a few new readers I thought I'd extend a little welcome. For those of you who know don't know a ton about poker I'd encourage you to read the posts "How Poker and Poker Tournaments Work" and "A little WSOP History" which I wrote before my trip to the 2006 WSOP. You can find them by clicking here and scrolling almost all the way to the bottom. You can also see a picture of me dressed as the ace of spades if you go all the way to the bottom.

I'd also encourage you to point out anything that's confusing or that you'd like to know more about in the comments section. I know I had some readers who gave up because I started writing as if my audience was very poker savvy and I didn't know anyone who wasn't was still reading. Especially during my trip to the WSOP I expect to have plenty of poker rookies reading and I'd like to make sure everyone understands what I'm saying.

I've reposted my 2008 WSOP preview below which is followed by a preview of the first tournament that I'll be playing this year. I hope you enjoy reading and if you get the slightest urge POST A COMMENT!!!

WSOP 2008 Preview!

There are a record 55 events over the course of 7 weeks at this years WSOP starting on May 31st. My first glance at the schedule made me feel like I wanted to play about 40 of those events. The vast majority have buys ins between $1,000 and $3,000 which is right in the range that I wanted to target this year and of course most of those are some form of hold 'em which is the main area of my poker expertise.

After many hours over the course of several day of staring at the schedule, looking through my casino offers for room deals, calling to check actual rates at a half dozen casinos, and looking at the prices of flights, I finally came up with a plan! The flights and the rooms are booked now and I'll be in Vegas from June 4th to June 11th. I'm staying at the Rio the first two nights, the Bellagio (Yeah Baby!) the next two, and the Paris for the last three.

I'm planning to play in 5 WSOP events this year (#'s 16-20 of my career). Here's my schedule:

June 4th $2,000 NL Hold 'em
June 5th $1,500 NL Hold 'em 6-handed
June 6th Nothing
June 7th $2,500 NL Hold 'em
June 8th Nothing
June 9th $1,500 NL Hold 'em Shootout
June 10th $2,000 Limit Hold 'em

If I get bounced early or if I feel like playing on the 6th or the 8th I'm going to try to catch a few of the other local tournaments that go off every hour around the clock in Vegas. In fact I have my eye on a $1,060 event at the Venetian on the 8th, but I might be ready for a day off by then. I plan on posting daily giving recaps of my tournaments for my fan (Hey Tom) as well as my backers so look for daily updates.

2008 WSOP Event #7 Preview

I'm off to Vegas early Wednesday morning to catch my first WSOP tournament of the year! I have to admit that I'm feeling really excited. Every time I leave Vegas I'm always ready to come home and for the next week or two the idea of going back doesn't seem like much fun. Then as time goes by it starts to seem more and more appealing. It's been about 7 months since I've been and that was just a day trip (I've been going a few times a year ever since I turned 21 so 7 months is actually a longish time for me). When you add in the 5 WSOP tournaments, the fact that my good friend E.B. (who is going to be there along with Jean, Jen, Jake, Chrissy and Matt - they'll all be there for different amounts of time) is turning 40 on June 5th, and I've got a few nights at the Bellagio it makes me want to stop typing, head to the airport and go!

My first tournament this year is going to be Event #7 $2,000 No Limit Hold 'em. Last year this event was event #10, had 1,531 entrants, and a prize pool of $2,782,570 divided amongst the top 153 finishers. Below are a list of the top 10 finishers and what they got paid. It you want to know what every other place paid you can look at the full results here.

1 Will Durkee (Pittsburgh, PA, USA) $566,916
2 Todd Terry (Hoboken, NJ, USA) $353,875
3 Hunter Frey $231,273
4 Justin Bonomo (Sherman Oaks, CA, USA) $156,040
5 Michael Banducci (Traverse City, MI, USA) $105,884
6 Stanley Weiss (Nashville, TN, USA) $78,020
7 Walter Browne (Berkeley, CA, USA) $58,515
8 Gil George (Dallas, TX, USA) $43,190
9 Ronnie Hoffman $32,880

Like almost all tournaments at the WSOP this tournament takes place over three days the first of which starts at noon and goes until about 2 in the morning. There's a 15 minute break every 2 hours and a 75 minute dinner break after 6 hours of play. If you make it past day 1 you're in the top 10% and in the money. Day 2 starts at 2 pm and goes until only 9 players are left. The last nine players will come back on day three to sit at the table with all the cameras and get filmed by ESPN. I've made it to day 2 twice in my 15 career WSOP tournaments and it's one of my major career poker goals to make it to day 3 and be on TV.

In this particular tournament all the players will start with 4,000 chips and blinds of 25/50 with gradual blind increases every 60 minutes. While I could go broke on the first hand, baring an early bad beat I should have plenty of time to get familiar with my opponents and to do some maneuvering.

As a little aside In looking up these results for last years tournament, I was surprised to see Walter Browne in 7th. While I can't call him a friend I can certainly call him an acquittance. He's a prop player at the Oaks Club where I used to work and I've played against him somewhere between 50 and 100 times. He's also a SIX TIME United States chess champion. Obviously he's an extremely smart guy, but his chess game is much better than his poker game. Not to say he's not a good poker player, but despite this final table appearance he's not a world class player. Anyway I was happy to see his name there and I also discovered that he finished 2nd is the $2,500 HORSE tournament at the 2007 WSOP. Maybe he's better than I thought!