Full-Philled!!

History in the making early this mourning as "Poker Brat" Phil Hellmuth tied legends Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan by winning his 10th bracelet. As mentioned earlier, Phil had a tremendous opportunity in the $5000 Holdem Event, but the poker gods had contradicting thoughts and wanted to see a Hellmuth blowup. Well, to the surprise of many, there was no Hellmuth erruption after he blew a huge lead HU vs. Jeff Cabanillas.

The $1000 NL Holdem Event w/Rebuys saw Hellmuth enter the final table as the chip leader. Things looked stellar as Phil maintained and developed an adequate chip lead. However, when the final remained between Hellmuth, WPT Paris Finalist Juha Helppi, and Dayrn Firicano, Phil was the shortstack. Could this be another debacle/choke?

A key hand in the tourny where Phil is getting shortstacked and pushes with pocket fives and Juha's makes the call with Ah, 6d. Presto, as a five peels off but so do 3 diamonds which gives Helppi the flush draw. The Queen of diamonds hits and now Phil is one card away from falling short of number 10 again. The board pairs Queens and now Phil is rejuvinated and the chip count is about even.

The poker gods wouldn't be able to stop the man that has been claiming to be playing the best poker of his career this time as my man Phil Hellmuth rose above the challenge and pressure and finally captured number 10!! Well, the poker gods will definitely see an erruption from Phil this time, but this time, it will be a that of a joyous celebration instead of a ranting tantrum. Congrats Phil!! Most deserved and long overdue!!

Unfull-Philled Still... Is Tonight the Night...?!

So far, Phil Ivey has made two final tables at this year's WSOP and has finished 2nd and 3rd which is good enough for multi-thousands of dollars of pay, but no bracelet.

My man, Phil Hellmuth, also making two final tables, blew one big lead heads-up and finished 2nd along with a 6th place finish is good enough for well, basically nothing. Phil has said numerous times that he doesn't care about the money. Well, tonight, Phil Hellmuth enters the final table of $1000 + 1000 rebuy tournament in 1st place and has another sublime opportunity to make history. I'm pulling for ya Phil!

I am also pulling for ESPN to actually put this event on TV for future broadcasting. Rumor has it that when Phil Hellmuth finished 2nd in the $5000 Holdem Event, they only had one frickin camera sent to the table and decided to feature another event that day. Well, dammit, you (the chip leader) whose name is Phil Hellmuth and you got (short stack) Tong G at the same final table. "Poker Brat" vs. "The Australian Airbag" = RATINGS!! Could this get any better?! ESPN, don't muck this up!!
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My slump of winning/cashing decently in a tournament slump is finally over. I cashed for $187.5 (big to me) last Saturday but am unfullifilled because I also blew a good chips lead after being down heads up, somehow recovered, and then choked.

Hellmuth Gets a Second Chance at History

Oh boy. Legend poker brat Phil Hellmuth recently came up just shy of capturing his 10th bracelet in the $5,000 NL holdem event at this year's WSOP. Tonight, Phil gets another chance to join godfather of poker Doyle Brunson and the Oriental Express Johnny Chan to hold 10 bracelet. However, all of Hellmuth's bracelets have come from Holdem events. The event tonight will be Omaha 8/B. Currently, Phil is in 2nd in chips so it's not a long shot and it's about time Hellmuth captured a bracelet in a WSOP other than Holdem.

I meant to write about this earlier, but I somehow forgot. On a different note, the poker site PokerHost appears to be going south. When I went to Reno, they had a whole bunch of people from their brand at tables and wandering around trying to get their cards out. Well, at Vegas, there was no site of them. On another interesting note, I've noticed that all of their pros that have sponsored them have abandoned their ship. Men "The Master" Nguyen has made a move to Poker4Ever, Hoyt Corkins has moved over to Doyle Brunson's site, and Ted Forrest, who recently wore a PokerHost shirt at the NBC Headsup Championships, has switched over to join Yosh Nakano as co-captain at PokBlue. What does this mean for PokerHost? Well, I don't really give a damn as I've don't have an account there and probably won't because of all the flaky things I've heard about them, and I guess the pros have discovered the same. I thought I'd pass this along with some free time on my hand.

Hope you enjoyed.

I Got My Ass Whipped in Vegas

I thought my performance in Reno was pretty bad the first 2 hours of that tournament but if I thought that was horrific, the $1000 WSOP NL event was even worse as I didn't even make it to the 2nd hour.

A combination of bad luck and bad playing on my behalf that could be equivalent (or worse) to James Van Alstine's WPT World Championship performance would be a good analagy (or the way David Matthew shuffled his chips) to the way I played. Starting off with a meager $1000TC instead of $10,000TC limited you to make mistakes early. The fact that I was dealt pocket kings about the 10th hand of the tourny on the cutoff (sounds good) only to lose to the big blind's spectacular hand of J8 (this guy was very loose throughout my stay didn't make things worse (good thing an ace hit or I probably would have been broke there).

Twenty minutes into the tourny, "The Hitman" Ted Forrest shows up to the tourny 2 seats to my left. I had a feeling that maybe the great Phil Hellmuth had a seat next to me because of his many infamous appearances. I even joke to Ted that I thought Phil had that seat reserved but it was fine that he appeared (actually no, I wanted a table change!) Even Ted has to show his ID to the dealer before he can go on and I remark, "Even Ted has to show his ID. I see Ted and his aggressive style bluff his was to a good amount of chips with one hand with an AK to the loose-goose that cracked my kings where Ted bet out every street and won with Ace high.

Then, this doozy of a hand came up. Blinds are at 25-50. Ted smooth calls in early position and the small blind calls and check for free from the BB with 5-7. Flop comes A-7-2 with 2 clubs. I bet 100, Ted calls and the SB folds. Right now, I am putting Ted on a flush draw. Turn is another ace. I decide to check and Ted bets 200. I think and put Ted on a hand like QJ or J10 of clubs seeing his aggressive style. River is a 7 giving me 7s full of aces. I check and Ted fires 400. I stare at Ted, and he doesn't flinch like one of those London guards. I call and Ted flips over an Ace-rag for the better full house and am crippled to 125 chips and was never able to recover. At least I can say that I got my ass crippled by Ted Forrest.

Highlights

With an early bust out, I decided to check out some of the poker sites' lounges. Some highlights included an autograph from Hoyt Corkins and Doyle Brunson. When meeting Hoyt, somebody asked him, "Hey Hoyt, are you playing today?" Hoyt replies that he had already busted out which got some chuckles. Then when meeting Doyle, somebody asked, "Hey Doyle, are you gonna play in the Senior's Event?" Doyle says, "Nah, I'm probably gonna play in the HORSE Event on the same day. Besides, I'm not old enough to play in the Seniors Event yet. That got some chuckles as well. Turned out to be a wise decision as Doyle made the final table in the HORSE Event.

Other highlights included pictures below. In particular, the most popular player had to be "The Flying Dutchman" Marcel Luske. Luske wasn't wearing any poker site's swag. Dressed for success in the $5000 suit and probably limousine riding, jet slinging, son of a gun (wooo!!), he probably had 1000s of people swarm him outside taking autographs and picture. He even got "Bobby" John-Robert Bellande to bend over to use his back to sign shirts!!

Me and 2 time WPT Champ Erick Lindgren


Me and Chris "Jesus" Ferguson


Me and Marcel Luske. He even let me wear his sunglasses upside-down! Picture is off-centered but thats the idiot's fault who took it.


Me and reigning 2005 WSOP Champ Joe Hachem. Very genuine and cool guy. Signed my shirt, "Pass the sugar!"


Me and eROCKtica girl! She was passin out ticket discounts to the show eROCKtica. My eyes aren't that small.. they happened to be blink-closing when the camera snapped... :-D

Phil Hellmuth Goes for History Tonight

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, "The Poker Brat" and nine-time WSOP Bracelet winner Phill Hellmuth tries to make history tonight as he has made the final table (2nd in chips) of the NL $5,000 buyin. On the line will be a possible 10th WSOP to tie the legendary Johnny Chan and godfather Doyle Brunson.

All I can say is that Phil is due. Out of the nine-winners last year, Phil obviously was the one that came up short and of course in the WSOP Main Event, some donkey named Jim Pittman put it all in with KJ vs Phil's AK to get jacked on the river by a Jack. I am pulling for you Phil. Best of luck.

Even More Reasons to Download Poker.com

If you don't have a poker.com account, this is the time to get one. Poker.com is offering its 1st time depositers a chance at a seat to the WSOP for free. Use this link now and deposit using bonus code "WSOPFREEROLL" to receive an entry to this prestigous event!! Use must hurry though!! The event is on July 15 and you must have made a deposit no later than July 14th! As of right now, there are only 75 players! Your chances to get into the WSOP Main Event with this few amount of people for free!! What could be better!! You will also receive a 100% matching bonus on up to $100!

Three strikes at WSOP seats at Poker.com and I am out and 1 at Titan.

Well 2 hours down the drain playin for a WSOP Main Even seat at Titan. Out of about 200 peeps, yours truely finishes in 11th for no seat, no pay, and another groggy feeling in my gut. The final hand of the tourny, I get dealt AKo in the BB. I have about 7500 total with blinds being 750-1500. It is 6 seated. UTG raises to 3000. Folded to button who puts his 900 all in. I push and get called by the initial raiser who flips over 10s. No help on flop but an Ace hits on the turn only for the river to hit the miracle 10 and I'm sent to the e-rail.

BPT at poker.com coming off 2 "suspended" tournaments that had WSOP seats online. And when the third time came around, I (and 29 others) weren't there to playing leaving a private tourny for 11 players to win a seat to the big dance at the WSOP Main Event!! Good deal huh?! Luckily though, I didn't leave empty handed as the poker.com support and my favorite rep out of all the sites Kris came to the rescue and compensated my account wish some good cash. Thank you again Kris. With great support like Kris, (unlike the crap I got with Absolute), I will continue to support poker.com despite missing 2 golden opportunities at a WSOP seat.

Now, here comes strike three in the BPT. I am out early and probably played it too aggressively.I have J8 of diamonds and see a cheap flop of AK8 with 2 (AK)diamonds. The BB bets out 200 and I raise it to 700. He calls and I put him on a King for 2 weaker diamonds. Turn is a 4 and he checks and I bet a 1000. He calls and I am now convinced that he has a flush draw. I say this b/c BPT players are pretty good solid players that normally don't chase gutshots at this price. Turn is a Jack giving me 2 pair. He checks and I put my 2500 or so into a 3200 pot and he calls and flips over the A4 for a higher 2 pair.

This week has been a nightmare for me and am glad is almost over. Guys, Steve "Sharky" Hathaway and "beerman" Mike still runnin in the tourny (sn: steamrayz and imjusther4thebeer). Been playin 2 tournys all day and now its time for my break. Drop bye and say hi and gl to those LAGs!!

Thoughts on Tonight's WPT Event

First off, I got the privilege of seeing myself on TV a few times on last night's broadcast so wahoo!!

I was a little stunned on the editing of the show. First off, that Jonas Normmas played very weak throughout most of the broadcast and the only time they showed his lack of skills was when he did a string bet, in which he did multiple times throughout the broadcast (hint to why Jason was throwing a fit the only time they showed him doing this). Jonas, besides Tom, was probably the tightest player at the table and many times when he raised, he would get re-popped and then fold (also known as my man "Phil Hellmuth-poker" as he quoted during a PokerSuperstars tourny). They said that Normmas was the $6 man, for winning multiple satellites and reaching this event and saying this was his 2nd live tourny. The build him up as a Cinderella but he was more like Humpty-Dumpty ready to fall off the wall.

They called Tom "TheDonkey" because last year's champion Arnold Spee dawned the nickname to him. However, I thought Tom's play was fairly well and that the name should have been given to one Michael Simon. Did you see this guy's $600K with KQo raise with the blinds being 40K and 80K and Greg "FBT" Mueller picked him off with A8 and got rewarded with a first-class ticket to the rail?! There was a hand I recall that happened earlier that wasn't broadcasted on TV between Simon and Mueller when the blinds where very small (30K and 60K I believe) where Simon raises allin UTG PF for a little over a million total. Only Stern has him covered and he folds and so does everyone else. Mueller is in the BB w/AK and has about 700TC and calls and surprisingly Mueller doubles up b/c Simon was known for winning when only having 3 outs. This put Simon on the short-stack but then he'd win literally every all-in he'd play from there.

How about Jason Stern?! When I first saw him before the tourny and his chip stack, I didn't think he could pull this out. And how about all the times he kept on getting pocket Kings?! Wowzers! When I saw him play so aggressive after all these raises in person, I thought that this guy had some big cajones. I couldn't believe when seeing the broadcast on The Travel Channel that he had Kings all these times. Well, this still made me think he was playing extremely well. When it got to headsup between him and Simon, Jason definitely had this won. Jason won so many little pots with 5-high, 8-high, and so on. Despite his 2-7o debacle, Jason gets Simon in a dream position where Stern has about a 4-1 chip lead and gets the AKs of hearts vs. Simon's K6o. Flop came 4-5-7 all spades and now I get to see Stern's priceless emotions close-up. River a useless 10 but the river was a 6 to pair "The Donkey" Simon.

Here a HUUUGGGEEE headsup hand that was NOT on TV where Jason is probably ahead of Simon by a million chips. I am shocked this one wasn't on TV but if you listen to Mike Sexton's postgame interview with Simon, he says something in the likes of "those were probably the most back-to-back beats he had witnessed on the WPT", this was the other hand he meant. Simon is on the button with J-10o and raises. Stern re-raises all-in with a Q-J and Simon calls. Again, Stern has Simon in a dream position (or should I say Simon has him in a dream position being a huge dog) and the 10 flops and there's no help for Stern and now Simon is the 4.5-1 favorite in chips.

Was happy to be apart of the final tapping and enjoyed seeing these guy's cards. From watching the broadcast on TV, I picked up a tell on Stern. Did you guy's notice that whenever he went for the sip of water, he was weak...? Use this tip; if you're playin against him one day (I'm sure we'll see his face again, lots of skill), it could have you thousands of chippies.

Hope you enjoyed reading/skimming through my post.

The Heat is on...

How appropriately titled is this anticipated entry for my fellow blog readers (probably 8 of you ;-D). The first day of summer, Mark Cuban's tantrums costing him a cool $250K, and the Miami Heat are somehow the NBA champions after Shaq's spectacular 9 point game. I tell ya something. Dwayne Wade played just like MJ. Playing sick didn't even stop him as he was the undestructable phenom. If it weren't for him, they don't get past my Pistons, and they would be out in 5 games vs. the Mavs. I tell ya what though. This has gotta be the biggest choke EVER in playoff history; even more than our beloved Blazer's choke of Game 7 vs. the Lakers back in 2001. The Mavs literally where up 3-0 (or 2.87 games to 0) when leading by 13 with six and a half to go and Game 3 and it went down the toilet from there. Sure, I thought the refs where conspired to help the Heat in all the games, but last night, the Mavs struggled like a fat kid in PE class. After blowing a 14 point lead in Game 6, the Heat comeback and never trail again as they (or should I say Dwayne Wade) take 'er down. I am happy that GP (Gary Payton) finally got his ring but am pissed that Zo' Mourning (who I've always thought to be overrated) and bum and former Blazer Derek Anderson now also have 1 championship to their name.

Enough of the NBA. Tonight marks the premiere of the televised WPT World Poker Challenge that I played in and attended the final table. I was pretty animated and wild throughout the big hands so look for yours truely on TV. I even still remember all the big hands that happened, even the 1 being advertised on TV (spoiler coming up so stop reading if you don't want to be spoiled) where Jonas (the guy with the huge sunglasses and weak play) puts it all in w/an AJ vs. Jason Stern's (who probably deserved to win this whole thing if he could only win the hands where he was a 3-1 favorite or better) pocket Kings. You guessed it... ace on flop but thats not all. You are gonna have to watch the HU match to see how brutal of the beats that this man takes. Let's say it'll make Tuan Le proud.

Done w/Finals.. Time for Some Mo' Pokah

The title of this says it all, although in about 9 days, I'll be taking a real estate class instructed by some of Donald Trump's finest employees. I sure hope this works out for me as they said, "If you can't get rich with the help of the Donald, then there's no hope for ya." It will be a 2-day class seminar on Sat June 24 to Sunday the 25th from "Dolly Parton" 9-5 as Vince Van Patten always says with this hand.

I recently just got some mo' pokah gear. I just receive at College Poker Championship hat, shirt, and sweater in the mail yesterday. Looks GQ... well maybe that extreme but I likey. I would like to thank RVP and the CPC for putting these tournaments together and for sending me this swag despite my unimpressive 34th place or so finish in the finale.

Ok, enough of the yappin'! Time fo' some action!

Joe Rogan Throws Down

It's been a while, bad luck at the e-felts so I won't ramble about that. Imagine that: finals week and ol' Joey fits time in the week to play pokah.

I just checked out one of the sickest (if not the sickest) tag team matches ever from TNA's Turning Point 2004 that featured America's Most Wanted's (AMW) "Wildcat" Chris Harris and "Cowboy" James Storm vs. the now defunct Triple X tag team of "Prime Time" Elix Skipper and "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels. Within the 1st 3 mins or so of the match, Daniel's gets busted open from gettin' darted into the cage and continues to work (close to 20 min match). If you guys aren't the wrasslin' fans, you gotta check this match out. Nineteen minute mark spots Elix's monsterous and unbelievable Hurricanrana from the top of the cage and that's followed by the ginormous quad suplex.

Speakin of wrasslin, UFC Commentator and Fear Factor host Joe Rogan had a pretty good battle on his reality show. One of the contestants (from The Amazing Race) got into a fight after his wife punched Survivor heel (and my personal fav Survivor) Johnny Fairplay. Of all people to defend, Joe defends Johnny and gets into her face only to have that a-hold Amazing Race guy come in and Joe handles his own and gives him what looked like to be a front tranchea (headlock)! Boy, I would have liked to be the ref in that match or in the demolition derby stunt and run that clown over. Don't mess with Joe!!

Phil Hellmuth vs. Randy Savage... Let's get Ready to RUUUMMBBLLEEE!!!

http://www.powerwrestling.com/news/board.php?Show=2537

"A professional poker player by the name of Phil Hellmuth did an interview on Sirius Satellite Radio earlier today. He said that he will be on the next season of VH1's Surreal Life along with Playboy Playmate Tina Jordan, rock musician Peter Steel, and "Macho Man" Randy Savage. At the moment, there is no word yet as to when the new season will kick off."

In this corner, from Sarasota, Florida... weighing in at 230 pds... "The Macho Man" Raaaaaandddyyy Savaaagggeee!!



O boy!! The last time I saw the Madness of the "Macho Man" Randy Savage was in was in the good ol' WCW days when he was part of the one-time most dominate group in wrasslin: the nWo. O wait, Savage was Bonesaw in the Spiderman movie. Man he was still ripped in the movie. I hope he ain't takin the juice if ya know what I mean. I missed his 1 day stint in TNA (b/c it was PPV) and do not recall the grey-bearded Savage pic I've recently seen of the Mach'. Though I am not a big fan of the Surreal Life show, I know that the past couple seasons have included ex-pro wrasslers like Chyna (yikes) and this season Maven. Not a fan of both of these ex-stars, but am actually looking forward to seeing Hellmuth and Savage with Playboy bunny Tina Jordan as the ref inside the 6 sides of steel baby!! Let's get ready to suck it... Well wrong line here but hey, it looks like D-Generation X could be making a comeback with HBK and HHH taking on The McMahons and/or The Spirit Squad.

On a downer note, my Pistons have been blown away by the ever powerful D-Wade and Shaq's body odor and Heat. Here are the great 8 things I'll miss in the NBA Finals:

- Sheed taunting refs after picking up fouls he though he didn't commit.
- Sheed getting technicals that would not be called on other players, thus causing a blowup.
- Sheed getting tossed out of a Game 3 or Game 4. Sheed flings headband and starts arguing with Dallas (yeah I said Dallas) fans.
- Sheed's post game rants/interviews. Sheed then guaran-sheed's victory next game
- Pistons PA announcer Mason introducing the team. Only in the Finals is where they show the intros of the team and there ain't none betta than Mason dammit!
- Mason saying, "Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba Ben...!" (just wish he could shot a damn free throw)
- Mason saying, "Chaun-cey... Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba!"
- Mason saying, "Pistons basketball on the da side-lin!'
- And of course, Mason's, "DEEETROOIITT BASKETBAAALLL!!!

I Can't Take or Stand the Heat...

Ninety degree weather in Portland this time of year is pretty unbelievable, but wait, that's not what I am referrin' to.

With basically the same dominant Piston team last year that triumphantly beat the heat last year, I thought that the same would happen again this year. Unfortunately, with the new supporting cast of Walker, Posey, and Williams along with Dwayne Wade's drastic rise in his game (IMO the leader of their team or at least in this series with Detroit), I feared that the Heat would take it to my Pistons. As I write this, the Heat lead 3-1. The Pistons play their best ball when there backs are against the wall, but I fear that this task is gonna be Mission Impossible.

If this is "Mission Impossible Hollywood", some how the good guys (or the "bad boys" as the Pistons are known as) will some how light a fire from their asses and pull this cinderella off. Come on Sheeeeeeddd!!

Back from Spirit Mtn Again...

First off, I have to say I feel for JC Tran after watching last week's airing of the WPT LA Poker Classic. I got to meet and shake JC's hand in Reno and was appeared to be a down to earth guy. Seeing that 1 outer that Alan Goehring hit on Tran on the riva made me wanna vomit. This also made me think of the other two bad beats on the riva on previous WPT tapings that I'll never forget... Fishy Danny Nguyen's A-7 cracking an A-K after a King flopped and the donk hit running 7s to win the pot and Daniel Negreanu's 1 outer vs. Michael Mizrachi, but I must say, JC's one had to be the worst as it literally cost him $2.4 million dollars.

Just got back from Spirit Mtn about 2 hours ago. The poker room was flooded with a mine field of players. Probably was a 1 hr plus wait and didn't have the patience. I decided to stick around a lil' and watch the table in the entry that was a $3-6 FL table. One young and arrogant gun was dominating the table basically raising or betting the pots post flop and taking it down. Two donks at the table; an old guy and a young Asian guy felt the charity cause as they kept donating their mollah to him. I saw the old man chase an Ace high to showdown when the board came K-7-7-K-8 and the dominating young gun flipped over the double chickies (Queens). Another hand vs. an unexperienced Azn (in the BB) came where the young gun limped in middle position vs. the BB who had K5o. Flop came 5-4-2 with 2 hearts. BB bets and gets raised by our hero (the winning playa). Ace on turn which 4 straights the board. Donk checks; Hero bets and donk calls. Riva is Jack and check-bet-call. Hero flips over 4-2 of hearts for the straight. Wow what a table.

I go over to the Pai Gow table and tray my luck at it again as last time, I faired pretty well. Its hard to get into depth of Pai Gow since it basically is a lucky game with little or no skill. I start off well. I go up about $60 and buy the end of the day, I increase my bets (jinx) and go down $71 total in about 4+ hours of play. The majority of my ass-lashing came from the final dealer of the day (Fuck, thats normally the case. Why can't I just quit while I'm ahead at this game called Pai Gow?). Fat 280pd Stan blubbered his way to the felt and Dealt out Pai Gow's gallore. Stan, you ain't the man! Stan made my $50 profit into a $121 reverse into oblivion. A good leason one can take from this is to get away from hot (not sexually but card-wise) dealers because it was fuckin contagious and outragious and made me egregious.

Upsets

Upset 1

Well another brutal week at the e-felt. Numerous times that my top pair lost to 3 outin' 2 pairs (i.e. this last one was a doozy where my K-Qs that I raised PF on the cutoff seat 6 handed got beat by some1 UTG who just posted his bet and called my raise w/Q-2o in which he hit a Queen and a duece on the flop).

Upset 2

Played in the College Poker Championship finals and finished an unspectacular 34th out of 102. 1st place paid $50,000 in scholarships where $10K was donated to a charity of your choice so $40,000 was 1st which is no chump change. Card dead throughout tourny and brutally placed at tables where there were monster stacks with a few times with 3 of the top 5 chip leaders. Bust out hand where I am 2nd to act at a 10 seated table with AKo. Blinds are 150-300 and I have 2,930 left. I pop to 1,000 and am re-raised all in. I call it and he flips over AKs of spades. Flop brings 1 spade, turn brings another, and so does the damn river and I'm sent to the e-rail.

Upset 3

Thank goodness it wasn't the Pistons as they struggled early but turned on the jets in the 4th quarter and defeated a very good and up-and-coming Cavs team. Ballah of the game had to be Tayshaun Prince. This guy is so underrated and so damn smooth on the court, I don't see how he was overlooked as an all-star. Remember his block shot on Reggie Miller 2 years ago...? If Prince doesn't do that, Pistons don't beat the Pacers and don't win the championship that year. Strong slasher, superb defense with his branch like arms. I remember when (the overrated) coach Larry Brown let this guy warm the bench as he did with Darko. Only because of injuries did Brown let Prince play and boy did he make the best out of it. No rest as my Pistons take on the Heat tonight. It's burning up in here!!

Whoops back to the upset part. So my pick of the Clips clipping the Suns didn't happen but damn, how about the resilence of the Mavs? To go into a game 7 on the road after blowing game 6 and to have a 20 pt lead evaporate and still somehow manage a way to victory is mind-boggling to me. Dirk Nowistski is definitely the da man. Should be interesting to see if MVP Steve Nash can lead his team vs. his old team and IMO playoff MVP so far, Mr. Dirk himself.

My spiel is over... Go Pistons!!

May Mayhem

Another atrocious weeks of poker so I'll spare you my bad beat stories and what not. This month has definitely caused some mayhem and has severely made my ass turn black and blue from the lashing I've received.



Speaking of mayhem, how about the "May Mayhem" of the NBA playoffs. I know the craze of College "March Madness" is insane but holy shit, this year's NBA Playoffs have been one of the best I can recall. So many great matches and close games every night that you shouldn't be oblivious to. My Pistons just barely escaped Game 6 vs. a very talented, and unbelievable Cavalier team led by King James, but I must say, he sort of choked there at the end when he didn't shoot the three-ball. My man Sheed was cool as the other side of the pillow scoring a monstrous 24 points and shot 4-8 from downtown. You see, he does walk-the-walk and talks-the-talk... Whoooo!!! Although he missed some crucial free-throws late, "Mr. Big Shot" Chauncey Billups made some key shots and free throws to bail the Pistons out. I can't forget Big Ben and Prince for keeping the ball alive on those huge 3 offensive rebounds during the final seconds of the game. And what about Sheed's post game interview that went something of the lines like this:

Interviewer: What was going through your mind after you missed those two free throws down the strech?

Sheed: I f'ed up...

Ok, now for Joey's pics for all the Game 7s coming up:

- Pistons over Cav's and hopefully, it's guaran-sheed!!

- Spurs over Mavs. I really thought the Mavs would win this series when they were ahead 3-1 and last night's lost may be to devestating to overcome. I expect this game to be close, but since the Spurs got the home court, I'll roll with them.

- Upset special pick: Clips over Suns. Yes, you heard me right and I can't believe I'm predicting the Clippers will make the Western Conference Finals. Has hell really frozen over?! Amazingly, some of the experts picked them to beat the Suns before this series started and I was like WTF. Now after watching this series so far, I don't believe they were smoking crack. Momentum is on their side and lets not hope the Mike Dunleavy jinx takes into effect like he did with the Blazers against the Lakers (ugh).

Living "The College Life" (See Title of the Blog Page), BUT Came up Short Again...

"Close but no cigar" as the saying I've once heard. Play in Royal's College Poker Championships quarterfinals where it'd pay the top 10 with a $2500 prize pool with a cool $1000 for first. Another catch was that the top 10% would make it to the finals which in this case would have been the top 12 since there were 112 peeps representing the West Side!

Start off w/2K and 12 min blinds. I bluff my way to some pots early and win a pretty good pot w/3s full of Aces vs. some guy that mucked his hand and am in 2nd early. A good catalyst for me as I remain in the top 15 for alot of the tourny and survive bubble boy 12th and make the final table. I had two tight people to my right but so was the monster chip leader and the 2nd monster stack of my left so my seat was decent.

The big stacks took care of some small stacks and we are down to five. I make some bad bluffs but I had to try to make some moves or I'd be anted away. The short stacked tripled up with A-A (tight player) and ended up taking the chip lead and knocking me out eventually after I'd had bullied him so many times. He finally got tired and called my all in with 6-4 after he'd limped from the SB (blinds are 2000 and 4000). I had an unspectacular Dolly Parton 9-5 but decide to try to press my luck against the tight-wad but he calls over 16K more with the 6-4o and know his excuse was that he had chips... So I unhappily go out in 4th and get $225 for my 3 hours and 20 mins of play.

CPC Finals are on the 21st. Wish me luck!

"Miz-step" and a Disappointing Finish in the BPT

First off, I re-watched the beginning of this week's WPT event where Michael Mizrachi really shot himself in the foot with that one blunder hand (nut straight vs. a set) that would have crippled Scotty Nguyen, who ironically would beat "The Grinder" heads up. Turns out that its not all Mizrachi's fault for his "miz-step." Scotty first says, "I can't believe I'm gonna call you with this hand" and then delays and then says, "raise" and puts some of his chips in and then Linda Johnson says, "Scotty calls" and then Mizrachi immediately turns his cards over... I know Matt Savage was removed from last year's WSOP b/c he screwed up how will this affect Linda Johnson. Did anybody else even notice this?! Being the gentleman and professional Mizrachi is (or unshown because it was edited), "The Miz" mentions nothing about Linda or Scotty's remark of "I can't believe I'm just gonna call you" (word bets are binding right?), but it cost "The Grinder" $500K and a WPT Title!

On to the BPT. I got dwindled away early bluffing and somehow managed to hang in there and get a good stack. I won't run through many hands that helped but a good KJ vs K10 where we got all the chips in gave me a comfy chip lead and was chip leader with about 20 to go and started at the final table in 2nd. Took small pots here and there and got to the final 3. I'm in the BB with J8o and the SB raises minimum. I call and hit an 8 with 3 clubs. I bet and he calls. Turn is a paint I believe and it goes check-check. River is another 8 and he bets out 6000... I take my time and raise minimum and he calls with AK of clubs for the flush. I am down to 9000 and don't recover and finish in a disappointing 3rd. Three previous bloggers made the final table including PearlSnapMan who has placed in 3 events I belie

Scotty Baybee!!

After 5 previous WPT final tables, "The Prince of Poker" Scotty Nguyen took down his first WPT Championship at Gold Strike! The poker gods were definitely looking down on the phenom early as his set of 4s were rivered by Michael Mizrachi's nut straight only for "The Miz" to accidently show his cards to save about 90% of Scotty's chippies. With luck like this, you are probably destined to win. Other than this hand, I don't recall a sick/bad beat televised for this episode. Great poker with lot of bluffing as Raul Paez was everybody's whipping boy!

The lucky jade of Scotty vs. Gavin Smith's new lucky charm of the buddah would clash head-on as Smith's Q-7 took Nguyen's 7-5 to the flop where both players hit top pair of 7s and get all their chips in. A duece pairs the board on the turn giving Scotty some "chop" outs with a King or an Ace or a five to win and low and behold, a King rivers and Scotty celebrates as if he'd won the pot. Probably the happiest chop pot I've ever seen.

Headups featured Mizrachi vs. Nguyen and how ironic that Mizrachi could have severely crippled Scotty earlier on. One hand was only needed as "The Prince Of Poker picked up an AQ of spades on the button and pops it. "The Grinder" gets dealt AJo and recaps it to about 1.2 million as Scotty then puts the rest in (remember the saying don't go broke with a queen in your hand, well not for Scotty baybee!!) and Mizrachi has to call. Scotty hits an overkill flush on the river and finally gets the monkey off his back!

Interesting notes:

Nguyen and Mizrachi both made the final table at the previous year's event which was the 1st time ever on the WPT that 2 players have ever accomplished. Congrats to both.

Last year's 1st place prize that John Stolzmann won was over $1.51 million compared to Scotty's win this year of $969,000. This is the biggest drop I've seen so far in the prize pool/entrants from last year's event to this year's event but every other event has increased.

To Spirit Mtn. Casino and More...

Live your dream at DreamPoker

First off, I've added a DreamPoker banner to the left of this page. There is a $10 freebie with no deposit necessary and offers to win a "dream" of yours. Isn't it ironic that my screen name for this blogger site is "PokerDreamer" and my slogan is "Eat, Sleep, Poker" is both similar to the site name "DreamPoker" and its slogan, "Eat, Sleep, DreamPoker." I could have sworn they took this idea from looking at my blog but what can I say, I guess we are a dream match.

What a Rocky Start: Fucked by the Traffic Officer! That's not the Spirit

To take a break from school and online poker that has been pretty atrocious to me the past couple weeks, I decided to acompany my parents to Spirit Mountain today. They even let me drive the Mercedes! We stopped by a little down called Manzanita to look at some real estate property they had purchased. As I tried to drove out of the little down, I see the most dreaded thing I've seen in a while... that's it... a copper with his lights on. He pulls me over as I was "speeding" in a 25 MPH zone at 41. Funny, I didn't see the sign as I was yappin with my pappy and when my dad saw the sign, he said I should slow down and I did and when I look at my rear view mirror, the cop has suddenly darted out and I am at about 30 MPH and pull over immediately.

He comes up and actually appears more gentleman telling me that I sped and my pappy and I tell him we were talking and didn't notice the sign fast enough hopping to catch a break. He appears cool and just asks for my license and insurance and says he'll be back. Maybe w/my parents and legitimate excuse and ability to slow down at some point, I would catch a break. The mother-fucking pig comes back and says, here's your citation, directions to the Manzanita court house, date, etc, and then tells me to don't speed and darts off immediately like The Flash. Fucking, c***-sucking, bastard appeared cool and then hit me hard and hits it before we can get a rebuttal. Like I'm gonna drive a 90 minutes or so to fight the tix. What a prick, asshole, shithead, you name it. Basically, the $150 ticket ruined my day and the only thing that could save this was a good day at the casino. Advice to all: Be careful if you ever drive through a small town in Manzinita, Oregon.

Spirits Slightly Strengthen

We arrive at the Spirit Mtn. and check the tables. My parents are a sucker for Pai Gow Poker and head toward the 3 tables that offer it. I head to the back poker room. To my surprise, it's not full but I figured people had to work tomorrow so it wouldn't be full. The only tables open were $3-6 and $4-8 which was beyond my limits I planned on playing. I go back out and check the Pai Gow tables and my parents are there and there is an open seat. I decide, why not get away from hold'em for a day and try my luck at Pai Gow, the game with no bad beats right?

I buy in for $100 and bet $10 a hand normally with no gimmicky "Fortune Bets" that usually cripple my parents. I start off shitty immediately losing 3 $15 hands to this brutal dealer and think about quitting and going back to the hold'em room, but the dealer change was next. It was a fellow Asian; young female and I start winning with mediocure pair-pair up and down or Ace-paint up and 2 pair down and even Pai Gow hands (junk/nothing hands) vs the dealers Pai Gow hands. A battle of who's shit is worse and for once this month, it's not mine!! If I'd had fortune bet these, I'd have lost my shorts as they only pay 3 of a kind and better. Not many monster hands as I only hit 3 of a kind 2 times, a straight 2 times, and a flush once and nothing higher for the night. Take that fortune/sucker bets.

Dealer change and its another Asian female. I start off rocky with her but then get a nice rush of mediocure cards and lucky higher Pai Gows. High hand of the night came when this fat lady comes to the table and buys in for $50. She practically loses every hand and is down to her last $10 as she puts $10 on the bet and $5 on the bonus and is dealt an 8-4 and then an authentic 10-J-Q-K-A of clubs for a Royal Flush!! She picks up $625 for that one hand and does the old hit and run! Never seen a fat lady move so fast to the exit before in my life either! By the time this dealer was done, I turned my $100 into $240 in two hours! I almost had enough to pay for my dreaded ticket.

Next dealer was a Caucasian zit-prone named Desiree. Scary face and creepy name. Not a good combo. However, she was very polite and chatty but my luck was about to change. Pai Gow after one another and her hitting staights, 3 of a kinds, 3 pair in consecutive hands but a dent in everybody's bankroll. I decided to quit and end up on top $84 but with the ticket, I am down $66. My mom went up $48 total which is good compared to her normal loses at this game and my dad went up a superb $150 in just over 2 and a half hours for us all. This was the 1st time we all ended up in the green ink and hopefully, won't be the last time and hopefully is the last time I run into the pigs of Manzanita or anywhere else.

Worst Weak of Poker for Me Ever...

"I'm glad I didn't get jiggy with it that hand." - Phil Hellmuth, Jr from Poker SuperStars III.

Hellmuth played some superb poker in this episode making incredible reads and then of course finished 2nd after 2 bad beats heads-up vs. Freedy Deeb where his K-Q lost to Freedy's unspectacular 4-9 after Phil flopped his Queen and Freedy hit running cards for a straight and then Phil's AK lost to Freedy's KJ after the KJ flopped. Boy, this guy is truely unlucky :-D

This quote also gets me wondering what kind of music Phil listens to under his headphones. I couldn't imagine him listening to some gansta rap but after this quote, I picture him being the next Vanilla Ice... o wait, he's gone... Eminem??

The quote I wish I had done this week as I suffered a 100% ass-kicking at a combined 3 poker sites. A week where I wish I did my homework instead of play poker. So many damn rivers that I lost track of (and don't remember all my beats so don't worry, I won't be ranting on them) and so many missed draws between the $2-4 and $3-6 really put a dent in my bankroll. They said there'd be days/weeks like this and this was it.

Does this mean I will stop playing? Will I stop playing at these sites? Of course not. Every fish has to have his day otherwise they wouldn't come back. Sure $800 is alot for a college student like me. I could have bought a nice laptop or an X-BOX 360 with that kind of money, but I am confident that I can regain my dough back. Maybe not in a span of a week, but that's poker. A game of patience grasshoppers.

Rehne Who...

First off, I never thought last year's WPT suckouts that Tuan Le (and others) had last year were definitely unbelievable, but you know what, I think this year could very well top it, especially the heads-up part of the shows.

I must say that the table was very, very loose. It was almost like they were playing with play chips and that the $2 million+ 1st prize was monopoly money. Phil Laak made a move early w/K-3o after a raise by human-card rack and model Patrik Antonious Aces and put all his 2.1 million in chips or so in PF and was sent to the rail.

Next Darrell Dicken would be a victim of the whole table as he couldn't get a break from the dealers and made the good folds when his bluffs didn't work. IMO, I though he played the best out of everyone This had in particular where Dicken raises junk in the SB vs. Antonious calls with J-10. Flop comes 10-8-8. Dicken bets and Patrik calls. Turn is another 8. Again, it goes bet-call. River is an Ace and now Patrik bets... WTF!! Patrik calls all the way down with the best hand and then when an Ace hits, he bets out when it can beat him?!

The next to be sent was another new woman at the final table named JJ Liu. In her interview, she said she never played poker before yet she had the chip lead going into the event and had it for some time. Her call of over 4 million with pocket 4s after only investing 250K was pretty bad and she paid for it and ultimately finished 4th.

The living legend Doyle Brunson was next to go. One hand that gave the cowboy a chance at another WPT title was very questionable. Doyle calls the BB of 300K I believe w/pocket 3s. Patrik moves all in w/A-2 where Doyle called another 4 million almost immediately. Same situation w/Josh Schlein vs. Freedy Deeb and new phenom Nick Schulman had vs. that donk Licardo. After dodging a ton of bullets on the river, Doyle doubles up to 8 million but couldn't win an all-in after that.

So the European model and a Danish poker player named Rehne Pedersen are the final two. Rehne didn't look like he was from Denmark (Europe) as his play was very weak, tight, and unimpressive at times but I guess he figured it out cuz the table was so damn loose and he picked his spots when 3 hands in particular: K-K 2 times and Q-Q all-ins held up for him. Vince made a poke at him and criticized his play knowing that he was gonna fold before his turn. It really did look like Pedersen was from the "ROCK of Gibraltor" instead of Denmark nowhere near the likes of "The Great Dane" Gus Hansen. Rehne, did have some of "Gus-luck" at the end as his all in call w/A-4 vs. Patrik's AK hit a 7 high straight on the turn tha crippled Antonious. Did you see how happy Rehne was after this hand?! He was more happy here than the final hand and the toast.

Skill-wise, I thought Rehne didn't depict much as I thought he could make a good shirt folder at Nordstroms...

The (Average) Joe is Ready to Throw Down Again!!

Well, the final WPT event for Season 4 is in the books and low and behold, another young gun rises to the top and finds his way to multi-millions as Joe Bartholdi takes down the $3.7+ million 1st prize. I don't recall this young pro but after seeing some pictures of him, I recognized him from one of the rare UPC (Ultimate Poker Challenge) shows that I saw in which he took it down!! This guy must be the real deal now capturing IMO the most prestigious title in poker. Yeah the World Series of Poker Championship had over 5K people this year and this year's estimate is probably gonna exceed 8K peeps but probably 80% of the field is scattered with mine fields of donks. The WPT brings out the best with probably 80% of the field are sharks (Personally opinion; playing in the WPT Reno event, I don't recall a donk except for maybe that guy I had on tilt that got rewarded for his bad play putting it in w/a King high vs. my Q-Q... enough said). The popularity of the WPT is exponentially growing that I believe that maybe in a couple of years, the field will have a good share of fishies in the field.

Ok, so Joe Bartholdi threw it down like Shaq giving a monster dunk-facial to Erick Dampier... Now, like that Joe, this Joe (me) is determined to achieve something in the poker world. I have decided to fork over some of my online winnings to invest it into at least one of the $1000 buyins at this years WSOP. Gotta hit something so I can buildth my bankith-roll so maybe I can one day drop out of school like all these young guns and try to live the poker dream :-D

Shieky "The A-Hole" and More

The 2nd episode of the HU-Championship just aired yesterday that featured a match between "Kid Poker" Daniel Negreanu vs. his ex-girlfriend Evelyn Ng. I couldn't believe Evelyn folded the pair and the flush draw to Daniel's all in re-raise. This hand probably put her on tilt with led to her demise.

The next feature table was with Mr. Hollywood James Woods versus one of my favs and probably the hottest, young poker studs today (that doesn't sound right but only refers to pokah baby) Scott Fischman. Woods ends up going down with my new least favorite hand Q-Q to Scotty's AK when a King flops and no Hollywood ending in this tourny.

Alright, the most entertaining part of the night had to be Shawn Shieky vs. the unpredictable Gus Hansen. I've been watching Gus on TV lately and he has not been winning the coin flips!! What's up with dat?! The "cooler" hand of the night most definitely when Gus holds a mediocure 10-6o vs. Shawn's 9-8s. Flop is 10-8-8 and it looks like Gus is in serious trouble. Turn is another 8 and Shawn milks his hand to the death. River is a 10 and I don't see Gus getting away from this. Gus say he's got the loser and Shieky slow-rolls his hand and finally spikes it down. Total jackass attitude of this man. And yes, this is coming from my mouth!! He'd make Phil Hellmuth earn Allen Cunningham's nickname, "The Nicest Guy in Poker!!" Well, Gus never recovers and the assclown Shieky advances.

The WPT 5-Diamond World Poker Classic Finals are tonight. I just hope to hell that jabroni named Roland doesn't come out on top. Did you guys see this guy's (lack thereof) skill at the WPT Paris event? Folding, folding, folding before other people put their chips into the pot and then catching a lucky river HU against Juha that cripples Juha. I'm pulling for James Van Alsyne and of course, Men "The Master" who is on the short stack, but if anybody there that can do it, it's da masta!! Surprised not to see more "household pros" at the final table. When I saw the number of recognizable pros in the top 100, I could have sworn the event would form the most dangerous WPT final table yet but with a rudy-poo named Roland, that ruins it!

WPT Foxwoods

Boy, what a rolla coasta of a show that was and holy shit!! Nick Schulman, only 21 years old, has become the youngest WPT Champion and is $2.1 million richer!! Well, maybe not all the $2.1 as he said he'd give a good chunk to his parents. What a guy, if I'd came through in Reno, I would have definitely given my father a good chunk of it.

Back to poker. A pretty scary table of poker hall of famer Lyle Berman and FT superstars Bill Gazes and "The Nicest Guy in Poker" and 2005 WSOP Player of the year Allen Cunningham. We all know these guys can play so now I'll move on to the donk of the show (seams like there is one lucky son of a bitch in all these final tables this season.

Now you've heard me rant on donkey Michael Simon, who somehow won the WPT World Poker Challenge. You will all see his donk powers combine when the show airs this summer. I thought he was the 2nd donkiest player ever to win a prestigious WPT Event (the worst being Danny Nguyen hands down!!) Well, the show tonight had somebody that could have topped Simon. The MIS ("move in specialist" according to "Kid Poker") Tony Licastro aka the all-in donk you normally see at an online freeroll over over 1000 people. We've have all heard of "Tony The Tiger" and now we've been introduced to "Tony The Donkey!!" Somebody put him on the cover of the new cereal "Donkey Flakes: The Breakfast of an Ass." This guys was unbelievably bad and definitely reminded me of playing a $50 freeroll vs. 1000+ players. Whenever he didn't raise all in, he got outplayed like he was Rick James' woman!!

Somehow, the donk powers have been in strong forces as Licardo or "Li-lardo" made it to the top 3 when this pretty hand came up. Bill Gazes on the button raises w/the weapons of mass destruction A-A. Our hero for the show, Nick Shulman, figures Gazes has been on a rush and can't still be so he pops it back up w/8-3!! I love this guy!! Then, the donk powers unite as Tony goes all-in IMMEDIATELY w/an unspectacular K-10o after 2 raises!! I know he was either folding or going all in 95% of the hands but WTF!! King high after 2 raises!! Of courses Gazes calls and gets rewarded by hitting 3 aces only after Tony flopped a straight with his donk powers. Bill is now crippled.

After Bill's exit, he tells Nick to "take his time," which I think is a reason why Nick holds off King Fish Tony. Remember Josh Schlein's (bad) putting over 2 million in w/3-3? Well, Nick had a similar situation. Nick had played pretty flawlessly catching cards at rushes and making good bluffs and this play HU was probably the biggest. With the blinds (40 and 80K I believe) being so minute compared to their stacks of 2.5 and 5.1 million or so, "El Buro" (donkey in Spanish if I remember right) raises it all in w/QJo and Schulman has a pair of 4s. He takes a good amount of time before making the good fold IMO. Nick gets rewarded later by making a big hand of a flush to Licardo or "Li-Lardo's" 2 pair and the flush holds up making Nick the King!! Maybe us college students just turning 21 (or 22) like me should invest our savings into poker afterall... I mean look at all the young guns that appear to keep taking these events down...

TV Premier of The Nation Heads-up Championship and More

The National Heads-up Championship

The unique HU Championships made its return yesterday and featured non other than last year's champ and my hero Phil Hellmuth. Thanks (or no thanks to CP for spoiling the event even though I love them), I already knew the outcome of this bad-boy. Phil got the unlucky draw of matching up in Round 1 of the Club Bracket against the ever dangerous high-stakes cash-game specialish Chip Reese. Although edited, you know Chip was on his "A" game. Chip usually isn't known for needling his opponents and the cameras didn't air any table talk so Chip was definitely on. Phil, however, had one crippling hand where he flopped top pair when the flop came Q-J-9 (or something close to that) while Reese flopped the nut straight. The Poker Brat couldn't get away from the hand and when a 3rd Queen hit on the river, you knew Mt. Hellmuth was going to erupt!!

Phil had a chance to get back into the match when this doozy of a hand occurred. Phil gets the K-9o versus Chip's K5o when the flop came King high and 3 spades where Hellmuth had the 9 of spades and Reese the 5 of spades. Phil bets out and Chip recaps all-in... The 9-time WSOP bracelet winner takes his time and folds even showing Reese his hand and surprising, Chip tells Hellmuth his hand which probably puts more madness into our hero's head.

The Poker Brat ends up losing to Reese w/a Q-8 after a raise from Chip who had pocket 10s. Hellmuth said that he thought Chip was bluffing and put it all in. Reese already had over 5K in the pot and it would only cost less than 5K to call so he obviously did and hit a set and the defending champ was sent to the rail not before giving Chip his props.

Great episode but without Phil's antics, who's gonna put some good antics and entertainment for me?!

DamnRiver

No, not my screen name. This is what happend the past 2 nights at Titan Poker. 5 bad beats on the river; 2 holding A-A and others with other big pocket pair. These 2 in particular where absolutely donkalicious:

6 seated at a $2-4 FL table; I am UTG w/A-A. I raise to $4 and the next guy next to me calls who has been pretty lose. BB also calls who is pretty lose. Flop is 8-4-5 with 2 spades. BB checks; I bet and the lose guy raises. BB calls and I call. Turn pairs the 5. BB and I check, he bets, BB calls, and now I figure some1 mite have a full boat possibly or 3 of a kind but with the way both of the players have been playing, I don't believe and call. River is a red 3 so the board is 8-4-5-5-3. BB and I check, then bet and then raised by BB... I'm thinking I'm beat but make a cry call (terrible mistake) and then the initial bettor calls. BB flips over 3-3 hitting a boat on the river!! Are you kidding me?! 3-3 and stayed for that?! Does it get any donkalicious than that?? (BTW, other guy had K-8 of spades; had top pair and flush draw on flop)

Next hand: 6 seated at a $2-4 FL table; on the button with Q-Q (my new least favorite hand. It's raised in 2nd position by a fairly tight player and I recap. BB also calls who's a donk. 3 to the flop that comes 9-4-3 rainbow. 1st position bets; I raise and BB flat calls and 1st position calls. Turn is an 8 (no flush draw possible). Goes check-check and I bet and is called by all. River is a King. BB bets now and I'm thinking motherfucker... do I pay this off again. It's limit and the pot is already huge. 1st position and I call. 1st position had pocket 10s and the BB has a K-3 hitting 2 pair on the river (though the King was enough).

Rough day; went down over $100 but got it back to only to a lose of $30 in about 2+ hours, but I probably also need a new mouse!!

BPT Event # 3

Woah!! I write to you guys after just completing about 3 hours in the BPT: the battle of bloggers and it was a blogfest indeed!! My buddy Steve "Shark" Hathaway had the privilege of hosting this prestigious event (congrats on that), and happened to be at the same starting table as Master Shark, but unfortunately, he was launched to the e-rail pretty about an hour into the event.

Also played w/fellow Shark member, stewnana and he had a monstrous chip stack early and was punishing me (and Shark) when he got moved to the same table as us. Table change please!!

Not very many big hands for me today, never hit trips, a straight, or even flush that I recall that won me a big pot. Biggest pocket pair all day were those dreaded Queens that screwed me over at the WPT World Poker Challenge, but today, they held up and didn't run into even bigger monsters.

I went into the final table as the chip leader and was fairly aggressive early w/my gigantic stack over 44K until I raised w/an unspectaclur J-10o and got recapped by the short stack of 9K or so and had the odds to call and lost to his A-A.

I remained in the top 4 for most of the final table and did get lucky this one hand where I pushed w/A9 and got called by an 8-8 and hit an Ace on the river. With this heater, I drove my way to the final 2 playing headsup with player "actyper." Actyper played phenomenally. He about just about a 3.5-1 chip lead when we started (over 100K vs. my 33K) and pushed me around early. Was a battle of ruthless aggression indeed. However, when I hit top pair of kings, and actyper bet out 1st, I reraised, and then he recapped all in. I figured I was beat but most my chippies where in there and had to call. To my surprise, I have him beat (mid pair) and my hand holds up. He never really recovered from that and yours truely took it down!! Again, congrats to Actyper and the final 4 for qualifying for the big event!!

Have a blog and want to get into the fun and possibly win free cash, I-pod, or even a seat into the WSOP, click here

I completely ignored lunch and am starving now. I'm so hungry, I could eat a vegetable (though I do)!! Hope you enjoyed. Chow-now!!

Bad Action (Beat) for Dan-o

*** First off, tonight is the debut of TNA Impact on its new night of Thursday at 11PM on Spike TV!! So if you aren't gonna be playing late nite pokah, check it out!!

The Doyle Brunson North American Championship final table had its share of all-star players at the final table that included95 WSOP Champion "Action" Dan Harrington, high-stakes cash game specialist Minh Ly, and WPT Mirage Showdown Champ Gavin Smith.

Again, IMO, the best player got short changed again. Gavin Smith seemed to play impeccable poker, as Harrington was also on his "A-game" not to far behind. If Gavin would have won the monster hand vs. Minh K-8 vs his A7s, Gavin would be a 2-time WPT Champ and undoubtably the WPT Player of the Year thus far going into the WPT Championship later this month, in which I believe he deserves. Gavin made the right read ono this hand(Minh has alot of tells that I've picked up on; i.e. antsy w/A-A and the pausing check when he hit the nut str8 on Smith) but got rewarded with nothing as a King hit and crippled Smith to 3rd place.

Minh Minh was definitely on tilt and the luckiest out of them all. His all im reraise all-in over 2.5+ million on the 1st hand HU w/a mediocure KJ against a ti-zight Harrington (had A-J) was very questionable and in essence gavie Harrington a 4.5-1 chip lead or so. Next broadcasted hand was a dandy as the ol' 3-outer of reraising all-in w/10-9o after Harrington's raise w/A-9 to only see a 10 flop than saved his ass made me nausious but not as sick as Michael Simon's performance at the World Poker Challenge. I guess it was only suiting that a friend of Doyle's and some1 wearing the Doyle t-shirt won the Doyle Brunson North American Championship.

How About that 20 Year-old!! A True Kid Poker!!

I must say this year's broadcast of the WPT have been unbelievable. I may not like the new graphics like the modified theme song and they no longer keep the amount bet on the graphics so you have to go by memory now, and of course, no Shana Hiatt... :-(. Is it me or has the person that has played the best at the broadcast table always came in 2nd?! Look at Juha Helpi's superb performance from last week's broadcast at the Paris event and who could forget Kenna James' phenemonal effort only to get rewarded by finishing second to a guy that was "tired."

From this week's Aruba broadcast, you could make the same arguement. 20 year-old (wish I could have started this early) Josh Schlein made his way as the longest WPT contestant ever taking on the likes of veteran WPT finalists Johan "The Rock" Storakers and pro Freedy Deeb.

Schlein had the aggression of one Gus Hansen and how about that bluff that he made w/7 high on the river!? Schlein would go on making the final 2 going HU w/Freddy Deeb. How would the youngster act going up against one of today's top pros?

IMO, Schlein totally outplayed Freddy. I bet Deeb was thinking about the previous time he was at a WPT where one Gus Hansen who completely dominated Deeb. Schlein comes back from about a 2-1 chip deficit or so and takes the lead! It appears that we might have a new youngest WPT champion and he ain't even old enough to drink the Budweiser yet!! Schlein has got Deeb on tilt and in this hand on the button he raises w/pocket crabs (3s). Deeb on tilt immediately goes all in w/A-4 off. Josh takes his time, but not enough I guess. Although he had the best hand, he couldn't know that and should have folded. What happens if Deeb had a higher pair likes 5s? Josh should have realized he was outplaying Deeb and could have kept on doing that rather than getting into a coin race pre-flop. Deeb caught a 4 on the river and the 20 y.o never recovered.

Great episode and for all you youngsters getting into the poker boom, this has gotta be a great inspiration for us all. Next week, we get "Action" Dan Harrington and Minh Ly (I believe thats his name and correct spelling; he lost to Doyle at a WSOP event this year where Doyle captured numba 10 w/10-3 off suit).

Photos from Reno and More!!

Here is a blurry picture of me and poker pro John Juanda. I had the honor of playing at the same table with the Asian Sensation. During break, we bumped into pro Hasan Habib and got him to take our picture. He took 3 tries and it ended up being all blurry! Would have gotten more pics but every1 had the gold rush to the bathroom!!




I met this lovely lady outside the Silver State of the Reno Hilton 3 hrs before they allowed people to wait in line to watch the WPT Final Table Taping. She said her name was "Nancy" but I noticed she looked like Poker Pro Clonie Gowen. Even sounded like her to. Then every1 else saw the resemblence. Was like Clonie's clone and lost twin. No one believed her... until the real Clonie showed up. Wish I got a pic of both of them together...






Here is a pic I got w/TJ Cloutier. Looks like TJ wasn't ready for the picture. TJ is a giant and if I thought I couldn't feel any smaller, this did it.




Me and the best voice of poker on TV Mike Sexton!! He (and Vince) truely makes the WPT that much more entertaining. Wish I got Vince's pic as well. Throughout the broadcast, I could count at least 5 times where Vince yawned. Someone in the crowd from Greg "BFT" Mueller's side pointed it out and told him to stop yawning. Hehe. Later, Linda Johnson made a similar remark. If Vince ever wants to reconsider or leave his job (though I don't recommend Vince leaving), I wouldn't mind being his replacement!




This is me and Barry Greenstein's son Joe Sebok. I got the opportunity to play at the same table with young Joe. Joe is quite an accomplished player. He unfortunately busted out (he had A-A and it got cracked by 10-10) before I could get a pic with him in the tourny. This is me and him goofin around before the final table taping going to support his father Barry in at the final table.




Here is a picture I got with Courtney Friel. Waiting in line at about 1:20 or so, Courtney happened to walk by but didn't say hi to anybody. I was turned to the other side talking to Nancy and it wasn't until somebody said, "Hi Courtney" before she was noticed. She then said hi and proceeded to the doors. I tell you, if Courtney ever wants to gain the popularity that Shana had, she better interact with the fans. I remember a CP poll that asked who is the better WPT host, and Shana had 90% of the votes. People I chatted with at the taping also had the same opinions. I don't know what was the case was with her after the taping cuz we left b/c the donk Michael Simon won (didn't want to get a pic with him) and it was 11PM and we hadn't eat since noon (no dinner break during the taping)!!




Here is a pic of the final 2 between Jason Stern (bald guy on the left) and Michael Simon (on right). Now, this headups play lasted probably over 2 hours itself. As you know, the total show that airs on the Travel Channel is 2 hrs long. Well, this match should have been over way before the 2 hour mark HU. Jason probably won 70%+ of all the pots being the aggressor stealing many pots. Jason's only debacle was that (IMO), he had so much momentum and pushed all-in w/7-2o and got a reluctant call from Simon's K-2 and doubled up and the 2 are about even again. Ok, that was god-awful but nothing could compare to what would happen next.



Jason con't to steal blinds and basically got a huge lead (one time 4-1) when this dandy occurred. If I remember right, Mike goes all in w/a K-6 and Jason calls him with the A-Ks. It should be over and we should be getting some grub after this. Well, flop comes 4-5-7 all spades I believe but no1 had a spade but now Simon has the OESD. I look at Jason, and I see pain in his face like he knows whats coming. Turn is a blank of a 10, but the river is a 6 pairing Simon and we are back to even-Steven again. Micheal goes over to his peeps and cameras and says something of the likes, "That's what I do best!! Sucking out!!


If things couldn't get worse from earlier for Jason, think again. Blinds are now enourmous so a fold is pretty rare. Micheal is on the button with J-10o and raises over a million. Stern goes all in w/Q-Js and Simon calls. I jokingly say to the guys next to me that Michael has got him where he wants to be referring to his ability to pull Tuan-Le suckouts. Well, the flop, brought a 10 for Jason and there was no help for Jason after this. God, I feel awful and am about to hurl. Again, donkalicious Michael goes over and makes his suckout remark again. Some heckler in the crowd says, "No skill involved" and the guy next to me yells to Michael, "Michael, you gotta fold the best hand next time." Of course you never hear these remarks on TV from the audience. Linda Johnson pointed out earlier not to make negative remarks and to only make positive/cheer for the players. Of course, it can always be edited which will probably be the case.

So now Michael has the 4-1 adv. Jason won some hands after this and got to about 1.2mil. Then this hand occurred, Michael goes all in w/K-4o (same shit that knocked me out) and Jason takes a long time and says something like "he'll be embarrassed if he flipped over these cards." We in the crowd are thinking 2-7 again?! I'm thinking fold if he has that hand. Well, he finally makes the call and flips over J-8s which isn't that bad. No help on the flop but a holy JACK comes on the turn and Michael is drawing to a gutshot staright or a King and low and behold, the King hits on the river and I think Jason is on suicide watch!!

Other tidbits: The crowd was pretty psyched throughout the taping but lost alot of it probably after the first half hour as Barry Greenstein was the 1st to exit after a cooler flop. Barry had raised PF on the button w/K-8 and was called by Michael Simon, who had A-8. Flop came 8-8-10 and there was no way Barry was getting away from this. I yelled from a "King" to come so if you here that on TV, that's me. Many other people were yelling for a 5th 8 to come for a crooked deck blaming the dealer I guess for that flop. Barry went from about over a million in chips on that hand to about 60K and there was no coming back from that.

Hope you enjoyed; I probably can answer any other questions about the show if you have them.

Back from Reno

Updated 3/32/06 8:00PM PST

Woah!! Reno was a blast. Despite only coming in 120th out of 592 players, I had the time of my life and met some pokah pros.

Day 1

I start off looking for my seat after getting all my info to the registrar. I see David "The Dragon" Phan in the payline looking to get his seat. I approach him and say "Hi David." He says hi back and shacks my hand and I wish him good luck as he heads the opposite direction. Wow!!

1st hour of the 1st day of the tourny was something I'd like to forget. Table 54; Seat 8. 1st bad hand of the day. Guy in middle position raises the pot to 3x the blind to 150. Guy next to him says "You must really like your hand" as I too noticed how excited and how wide his eyes were. It's folded to me and I have QQ. I take a flop and it looks like a good one on 9-7-3 (something like that) and is rainbow; I bet and he raises. I take a good 2 minutes and end up folded this bad boy. I asked him what he had and he says he had a big pair. I believe him. Do you guys like this fold?

Next crippling hand w/in the hour. My AK gets flushed out by an A4 and I am down to about 1500 chips of my original 10,000. Despite being a great favorite here, I played this hand terribly and is a big reason why I struggled.

I get moved to Table 14; Seat 2 and things don't start off well. A pretty aggressive table and now I am down to 900 chips. Hard to raise and re-raise with this low of chips even at the 75-150 blind levels. 20 hands at this table or so I finally get to act in an un-raised pot and look down at 8-5s in mid position. I push it all in and is folded around to the small blind who takes his time and stares me down for 2 mins or so. He finally folds and so does the BB. SB says he had a small pair. Phew. 2 hands later, I get dealt an AKs. UTG (Under-the-gun) raise and I push all in and its folded around. He shows his pckt 9s and my AK is a fitty-fitty. An Ace flops and it holds up!!

I make moves now with my ever small stack and get it up to 5000 at a break. Blinds and antes are moving up. 1st hand after a break I get a K-K dealt and raise 3x and am reraised a few seats down (the guy that folded the small pair earlier in the SB). I put the rest in and he called immediately. I say "you got aces" he says no to my relief and then says "you got kings" and is right on. It holds up and now I'm over 10K!!

I later get it to about 25K and then take a hit as my JJ gets cracked by a fatman on the short stack who put in his last 7K in PF w/KQ and hit a K on the turn. This fat guy was on a heater. He got me and cracked Joe Sebok, Barry Greenstein's son's Aces w/a set of 10s on the flop before I could get Joe's picture taken with him. The fatman (but was very nice and humble) would also take another pair of pocket 10s and crack J-J w/a runner-runner flush. Goodness!!

Another person at the same table who was on a heater was Kevin Song. This guy's style is much like Tuan Le's and so was his luck (for 3 days). He ended the day w/96K and had re-raised a couple of hands that I initially raised. My end day chip count was exactly 13,000. I survived Day 1 from 900 chips!!

Day 2

I am at the same seat and table but nobody from the previous day is there. Will this seat continue to be lucky? Well, I decided to take a stand earlier after one of the pros (1st name Jonathan. I can tell he was a pro; good poker face and Evelyn Eg came by and gave him a hug!! Also hung out w/pro JC Tran) raised on the cut-off. I get AQs in the BB and push all in. He counts his chips and stares me down. I have the "Jesus" stare at him. He finally calls. I ask him if he's got a pair and he turns A8s over. I hit a Queen and am up to almost 30K now!! Was shocked too cuz the dealer had been dealing a few bad beats at this table with one not long before where A6 cracked AJ.

To my surprise and delight/fear, John Juanda has been moved to our table 3 seats to my left!! Juanda has a decent chip stack and was actually table talking at our table which was not very common to see him do. We even crack remarks about my man Phil Hellmuth who was MIA in the tourny so it was ok to do that. Made it to the break and asked him if I could get a pic with him. He agreed as Hasan Habib walked by and we ask him to take it. He takes about 3 tries and finally gets it but its blurry as hell (will post later). No time to get another pic or to get one with Hasan as everybody makes a mad gold rush to the bathroom before the break is over!!

30 mins into the next round where blinds are 600-1200 with 100 antes. I had set up the 2 people to my immediate left with position raises the past 2 times around. They had more chips than me but I had the cahonnes to bet into them. This hand unfortunately finally ended my tourny run. It's folded around to me in the SB and I get those Queens again. I raise to 3400 and he immediately goes all in!! He has 60K and could have easily raised 3x-4x what I raised because he was only gonna get called by a hand that had him dominated. Good play but bad raise amount. I put him on a small pair or weak ace and call. He says "you got me" and flips over K4o. Here comes the "you got me" jinx as I see this nightmare flop of K-3-3. I see no help on the turn and the river is a "paint" but its another King and now my 28K or so is all gone and rewarded to this donkey hitting his 3 outer. Got to shake Juanda's hand again and gives me some kind remarks.

This is a long post and am surprised if you read all of it. I also attended the Finalt Table Tapping which I will write about later tonight or tomorrow. I will also get my pictures up. If you have a facebook account they are up there. I will try to post them here later as well.

Premium hand stats:

- JJ went 0/2: The all-in that I couldn't avoid cost me about 7K on day one. Also on Day 1 on an early hand, it went call-call and I popped it and 3 saw the flop w/a King hitting and the 1st caller bet leading to a fold. Loss was minimal in this case.

- QQ went 0/2: Wish I had Johnny Chan's luck with his fav hand of whores. Of course, I folded it early in the 1st hour w/the dude's eyes getting huge like Chris Tucker's and the obvious backbreaker all in versus K4o

- KK went 1/1: All in PF vs AK and it held up for about 5,300 on a double up.

- AA went 2/2: Wow, I actually thought this hand would bust me. 1st time I get this hand, was at the 2nd table I was at on the 1st day. I have about 11K - 12K. The UTG player (the fatman Doug before he caught his heater) raises the minimum. I and my neighbors have caught on this guy that when he raises huge, he has a mediocure hand of 2 overcards or a small pair and when he raises small, he has a monstrous hand. Knowing that, I think I'm out immediately. Then 2 seats from him, it's popped up again. It's folded around to me and I'm thinking I probably should fold before looking at my cards. Low and behold I get dealt "America Airlines," "The Weapons of Mass Destruction," pocket aces and do an acting job before I push. The fatman immediatelly calls (if I had QQ there, I'd muck) and we got the PartyPoker special: QQ (Fatman), KK, vs. AA. No paint on flop but the turn put a 4 flush for the QQ. River was irrelevant and I built my stack to about 30K.
Next AA, I limp UTG and I get a call from 2 seats away from my nemesis Kevin Song. Cuttoff or Button position calls and then reraised by the BB. Here we go again?! I push all in. 2 limpers fold and BB takes about 5 mins to make his decision and finally folds.

Rock-Solid Luck

First off, I just completed my finals!! Wahoo!! Just got out of the dreaded Art History class for the last time. My grades don't appear to be A, B, or even C worthy unless the "A" stands for "Atrocious," "B" for "Butt-ugly" or "C" for "Catastrophic"!

Well after yesterday's unbelievable episode of the WPT, I had to give my thoughts about it. First off, my heart goes out do David Singer. Monster chip leader from the get go and after that runner-runner draw out he suffered to rudy-poo named Ricardo?! There was no climbing back either as he was surprisingly the first to get sent to the rail.

Onto heads up, between the 2 satellite qualifiers of Ricardo Festejo and amateur (that's saying it lightly)Al Ardebili. Ardebili had to be the tightest mo'fo I'd ever seen. Throughout the touny broadcast, he was folding machine. He did so well in doing that that he should apply for a job at Nordstrom and be the guy that folds the clothing! The broadcast (or Al) didn't bluff or outplay his opponent in any hands. The 3 hands that he "played" were 2 times where he got Q-Q and doubled/ko'ed somebody and the 3-3 (short-stacked) and miraculously hit quads. Now HU, Ricardo is dealt A-2 off and pops it. Mister Turtle Rock, has the 2-3 of diamonds and comes out of his shell and calls the raise!! Somebody call the paramedics! However, I like the check raise Ardebili made trying to steal the pot away from Ricardo. If I were Ricardo, there is no way I call that hand despite being a 87% but the thing is, he doesn't know that and here, I think you have to play the opponent. The guy has been rock, solid and beyond and even if you think he has a flush draw, you're not that big of a fav and there is a better spot to get your money in. Well, Ricardo obviously calls after taking a long time and my jaw tried to hit the floor!! That is definitely the most unbelievable call I've seen in a long time if ever!! The 3 outer hits on the turn and Ricardo is now thinking "Oh-no-no!!"

Spring break technically starts right now for me. I hope all ya'all have a wonderful and safe break!!

More Random Thoughts

Chalk One up for WWE's SNME

Even though the ratings weren't tremendous, I must say that the WWE put on a great show with their Saturday Nite Main Event (SNME) over TNA Impact this week. The show didn't have any week segments and the Detroit crowd appeared to be hot all nite (too bad Sheed had a b-ball game or I'm sure he would have been there and got some air-time). The night was capped w/a "real" main event between "The Has-been Kid" (as Jericho called him. ok, hes not done yet; hes still the heart-break kid for now) Shawn Michaels vs. "The Boy Wonder," "Shane-O-Mac," Shane McMahon. Every PPV, main event match w/Shane that I recall never disappoints. And technically, he isn't a "real" wrassler. He's the bosses son how makes "special" appearances and always puts on a show. I don't recall him ever winning a match but still, the guy gives 150%. How about that superplex off the ladder to the tables outside. Holy shit!! How the hell is that not the end part of the match?! What an unbelievable spot! Noticeable, you can see that Shane's face under his left eye is bruised and HBK's elbow is bleeding. Lots of props for the matching continuing after this spot but the ending of the match, that could have been abolished. Hmmmm, I wonder what "The Hitman" thinks about that?

Finals Week

The dreaded week known as finals week has dawned upon me. 3 test this week w/finance today, business tech tomorrow, and the ever ridiculously difficult art history class. Don't get me wrong, art history paintings are nice and dandy and all but trying to remember 200 paintings, artists, and vocab that I'll probably never use again for a introductory AH class and for a BA requirement (more like a BS requirement but the BS doesn't stand for bachelor science) is too farfetched to me.

Oh, the suspense! 5 more days til' I fly out to Reno for the WPT World Poker Challenged! I emailed the PokerBlue support (the site I'll be representing) about the tourny. Their support has been slow so I am getting more anxious. So far, they have been trustworthy as I've cashed out a nice 4-figure sum w/in 48 hours.

If this is my last post in awhile, I hope to return to you and share my success/disappointment from the tourny. Wish me luck.

Random Thoughts

Taking down the Sharks... That is the Steve's OnlineShark Member

Woah!! Me, TheStudent, has been MIA with Sharky's tournys lately with a shitty thing called school I have to attend to. Lil' of me had been in the biggest funky funk since Marky-Mark and the Funky-Fresh came out with "Good Vibration" (was that Mark Walberg's group's name?)

So after 2 grueling, diabolical weeks of school torture of presentations and papers, I had some time to acutally focus on a tourny. Black, Shark shirt attire on and game face ready! Sometimes, I'd play ring games of 30 to 45 minutes. Not very effective as its hard to get your grove on and recover from bad beats or getting "out-set." So anywho, I enter Steve's ("Sharky") $5 buy in at "pokahdotcom." Surprisingly, only 21 die hard Sharky's enter. I guess every1 else is out on good ol' St. Patty's day. Probably ol' Sharky too takin out Ms. Shark (also named Patti) as I didn't see him there. Got into deep shit early bluffing my chips away. Down to about 500 w/1st 20 mins or so. Got no cards early and con't to get bad cards but "stole" some pots. One hand that got me going where I played a 3-7 from SB and flop came 7-9-A. 3 handed, I lead and bet and get called by Shark veteran CharterBoss. Turn is 7 and check it to Boss who bets. I believe hes still got the flushy draw and put him all in. My hand holds up.

Final table, I have gain chip lead with blinds still fairly low. I get the AK of hearts on the cut off and raise 3.5 the blinds. I get called by another Shark vet Lazrus. He's got just a lil under than me. Flop is 6-5-6. He pushes all in and I fold like a lil school girl. Laz says he had A2. Tilty bird coming for me.. or not. Still in 2nd in chips w/6 to go.

Heads up w/Scotty baby! Scotty was complaining of me stealing to much. Well... no comment. Heads up, Scotty played tremendously changing gears and taking it to me. I fought back with some "moves" and ended up taking it down like a drunk girl on a coach (yea I wish... nevermind, I'd never do such a thing. Seriously).



TNA (no, not "T & A") Thoughts

Last Sunday marked the return of Sting to TNA returning as Steve Borden (real name) and (My goodness) "Big Pappa Pump" Scott Steiner sporting a new tatoo on his chest. Good god; Steiner's left arm itself weighs more than me total!! The suplex machine annihilated my man but it looks like we will see the Stinger once again!!

Congrats to "The Fallen Angel" for winnin the "X Title" vs. Samoa Joe and AJ Styles. With my poker winnings, I should go and get these PPVs on DVD. Seriously, this is "real," innovative, and well-choregraphed wrestling. If you never thought a big 300 pd Samoan could run and suicide dive thru the middle rope to attack the oppenent, you've gotta see this!! Right now, I am trying to get their name out there so they can survive and compete with the WWE. Click on the link on the right for the website. Check out wrestlers like Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Chris Sabin, and Petey Williams. They never disappoint like that you see of HHH in the WWE. TNA airs on a terrible timespot of 11PM on Saturday nights but if you're at home and a die hard wrestling fan (like yours truely), you've gotta watch this. Sometimes, watching 1 minute of their "X-Division" matches is better than watching a whole main event with HHH in it.



My spiel and rant for tonight/today... Might be the last one in awhile so I hope you all enjoyed. 8 days (9 til tourny) till I fly down to Reno to take care of bid-ness. I hope this recent tourny dubya can get me rollin' rollin' rollin' like Limp Bizkit.

"You're playing for $500K...!?" or Not

Those words uttered by one of my new fav. poker players Kenna James. Not only is he a great and spirited character, but this guy can play poker. This guy was absolutely incredible at the WPT Legends of Poker. What a laydown he made with AJ in the BB after an UTG raise and predicted the hand of his oppenent (Forgot his name) as he then immediately throw his cards away (JJ) in a flash as VVP commentated humorously. Again, making unbelievable laydowns and calls; reading people like reading a Dr. Suess book. The only problem was that he had a nemesis and big donkey by the name of Alex Kahanar. Ugh. This guy's name and play reminded me of Aaron Kanter from last year's WSOP. The name that rolled off my toungue when I saw his name even reminded me of Kanter. Rumpulstilskin butt-ugly mofo who sucked out on massive pots against Kenna James 3 times (broadcasted). In particular, the heads-up hand: James gets dealt A4o on the button and raises. Dannanmen/Kanter, I mean Kahanar looks down at J10o. He goes on and asks for the time like he's tired (just like Dannenman's excuse for playing the last hand at the WSOP so terribly) and asks for the time. Finally, he decides to raise (I would actually put him on a strong hand here cuz he acted very weak and then strong w/the raise). Kenna, however, has had a phenomenal read on this donkey after seeing him show many hands and act particularly and decides to push all you can eat baby (Men "the master" Nguyen's all in saying). Now, from watching I noticed that Kahanar had been weak as Kenna said earlier "The last time you stood up, you had 8 high" and remembered that. Any movement of getting up or talking signified weakness in Kahanar. When Kahanar flopped 2 pair (Q4)HU vs. James, he was dead silent. So Kenna, trusting his read, made the right move. Kahanar than admits he will make the bad call and Kenna goes on to say "You're playing for $500K?!" Unfucking believable!!! Did he think that Kenna meant that they were playing for $500K in play chippies at a home game with his buddy Kenna?!This play was by far worse than Dannenman's. Like only the poker gods know, they again reward the donkey, and in this case, its the 3rd time that he outlucked the shark Kenna James. After this, I look at Kenna from chanting "Ace Ace Ace, to a dejected and dumbfounded by what just happened. It even looks like he aged 8 years after that hand.

Again, another great episode but "the best player" (IMO) at the table got unlucky and came up short. You'll be seeing Kenna more not only on Poker Royale as a commentator, but at the final tables of major tournys.

What a show!!

The start off to season for of the WPT did not disappoint. The Mirage Showdown had its share of great skill, emotion, and diabolical beats. Four pros that consisted of "Kido" Pham, Chris Bell, Gavin Smith, and Ted Forrest. I remember the last time I saw Kido, he wasn't near as aggressive as he was yet Mike and Vince kept saying he was known as an aggressive playa. Maybe, the show didn't show it as we all know, you gotta be hardcore (aggressive) to succeed.

To my surprise, Ted Forrest, who Vince once called the "Junk Man" didn't play a hand in the 1st hour of the broadcast. Of course, its edited by I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Go back and watch: Ted "The Hitman" (as VVP was callin him that broadcast) didn't "play" a hand until 7PM on the dot with the 4s. I must admit, I was not the biggest Ted fan but damn, he played the best that night. Changing gears, making phenomenal reads and laydowns that I thought were possible from Ted. Mad props Ted; I knew who already won before the broadcast but on the WPT website, it has a poll on who deserves a 2nd chance at the final table: Ted Forrest w/68% of the votes as of this moment.

How about Chris Bell? he played pretty well at the start against the amatuer Eugene Toddthat kept making great facial expressions (should have put that guy in the new FTP commercial with Howard Lederer; would be funny as hell) and then getting lucky against Ted when he hit the "slot machine" on the river against Ted. Damn, I got my tell on Chris there (gotta love all those new cameras installed). When Ted called the re-raise on the flop, Chris showed fear (watch the re-runs if you missed it). Then the river came and he coulnd't contain himself. Still, it takes a lot to laydown top pair and top kicker in that situation, but I probably would have done the same thing after that read.

Oh, other than Eugene Todd's antics, the funniest thing on the show had to be when Mike Sexton said that Eugene Todd was a "bid-ness" major. I about choked on my Gatorade there. :-D

Hectic weeks. Finally a day for a break... until tomorrow

Presentation, 15-page paper out of the way this week. I think I am about dead. You must be thinking, "well that can't be so because I am writing this write now." Next week gets even better as I have a paper due for my fav class AH otherwise known as Art History or otherwise known as Absolute Hell!! Also got another presentation (lighter than the one I gave today at least) and a project to due for the final week before finals. I probably gonna wish I were in a tombstone or something after this term as I've been punished, annihilated, and raped by this term (aka AH class).

Today marks the start of the new season (broadcast wise) of the WPT. Am looking forward to it but ever since I found out about CP, I know who already wins. Hell, I also know who wins the upcoming National Heads Up Championship which should be really tight as my man Philly Boy (as Shark calls him) played stellar and took it down.

Countdown to Reno is only 18 days away!!

WPT Tourny of Champions

As we are on the verge of the new season of the WPT (TV wise), yesterday marked a new episode of the WPT Tournament of Champions. I must say that the advertisement for this was terrible as all I've seen for TV commericials were hyping the new season started on March 8 and completely ignored the show yesterday (which was a new episode) or at least I'd never seen it on the Travel Channel before.

My man John Stolzmann was there. He looked quite different without his hat but hey, I guess you dress differently after you win over $1.5 million!! Along with "Johnny Blinder" are WPT Player of the year "Kid Poker" Daniel Negraneau, Micheal Gracz, Alex Brenes, Eli Elezra, and the maniac/lucky horse shoe known as Tuan Le. The first first to exit the felt was Stolzmann. He had played very tight and decided to take a stand w/8-9 after a raise by the poker tramp Tuan Le. I tell you want, anybody else at the table would have folded (K-J off suit), but not Tuan. I really doubt that his reading tells of others is that good (as shown in a previous tourny against Bradley Burman; failing to laydown AK and spiked an Ace on the river). Tuan has about $60K invested and will cost him over $500K to call and does so with a K-J off suit. A delayed flop as the cards were stucked with sticky glue or something but the window card was an 8 giving hope but to only be shattered as the next 2 cards came K-J and no help afterwards.

Tuan eventually abolished the field and took out every player; literally Not only that, I don't recall him being the favorite PF (pre-flop) whether it was a coin flip or being a 3-1 dog. Good mother of God!! I have never seen somebody this lucky before in my life (at least he admitted it in his interview at the end). His 1st WPT Title, the same lightning kept striking him and in the WPT Championshiip, he got some "help" (cahoots with him?) from his friend Hasan Habib (Oh and don't forget his mircacle gut shot straight HU against Paul Maxfield).

On a side note, those cameras they installed in the middle of the tables look weird. I do think its a good addition as now you get an even better chance to study the players on TV better than before. I did pick up some tells on Tuan Le so I'll put it to good use if I see the 3-Time WPT Champ at my table.

Also, I missed Shana Hiatt. I don't think anybody can replace her charisma, hotness, and awesomeness that she brought to the table. Let's all hope we get to see her on the big screen or something soon cuz its killing me (ok maybe not killing but it still hurts). :-D