Mission WSOP

To help out my girlfriend, Lisa, I have set up a charity tournament to benefit the Susan G. Komen Foundation and Lisa’s attempt to raise $2200 in support of her 3-Day Cancer Walk in October.

If you want to read more about that here is the link: http://www.the3day.org/philadelphia07/lisagrosso

If you can’t participate in the tournament, you can still donate money through that link if you would like.  If you want to participate in the tournament, you can go to Full Tilt’s Tournament area and click on the Private tab.  The tournament is listed as follows:

Cancer Charity Tournament (Tournament ID # 27556349) on Sept. 30, 2007 @ 5 PM

The Password is: charity

The $5 buy-in will go to the prize pool and $4 of the $4.50 entry will go to charity.  There will be more details as the week progresses as I’m hoping to get a Full Tilt Pro to participate.  Wish me luck there.

Wow… what a hectic week so far and I haven’t even done anything.  Where to start?

The bankroll?  Well, it’s spread out now across three sites: Bodog, Full Tilt and Poker Stars.  The total tally is $966.  The highlight of the week so far was making two final tables last night, finishing 2nd in a $1 Razz tournament on Poker Stars and 6th in a $3 Stud tournament on Poker Stars. 

As for the live games, I played in the US Poker Championship Stud Event.  I did poorly.  The good news is afterwards I won most of my buy-in back at a $1/$2 No Limit cash game.  The Stud tournament at the Taj had a horrible structure and it was very disappointing how poorly it was run.  I started at Table 70 but the Taj does not have a Table 70.  Then it turned into Table 73.  The registration wasn’t spread out so all of the people at my table knew each other because they all signed up together.  The worst part is that our table started 7 minutes after the rest of the tournament started.

Then, the tournament itself.  I was outdrawn every step of the way.  I had made hands on 5th at least three times and they were outdrawn on 6th or 7th.  Two flushes cracked by full houses and a straight outdrawn by a flush.

The cash game was great, I was on point every step of the way.  I made great laydowns and minimized my losses, including only losing $13 with pocket Kings.  Overall, I pocketed +$201 which was most the buy-in for the Stud event.

What about the Phillies?  They won again last night in exciting fashion.  A 14th inning win that pulled them to within just 1 1/2 games of the Mets.  I’m fully immersed now in this playoff race yet again.  Maybe this really is the year! 

And a member of the Dumbest People In The World Hall Of Fame has returned to the news: O.J. Simpson.  O.J. has nearly topped himself this time.  Caught on tape robbing those who apparently robbed him.  You know, I don’t care to know the story all that well but how this guy doesn’t completely lay low after what he did is beyond me.  O.J. should be front page news for at least a few months.  O.J. will be using the "What Happens In Vegas Stays In Vegas" defense with a side order of "I Was Set-Up By The Big Bad Police".  This shouldn’t be as entertaining as it is considering we’re talking about a double murderer who now is accused of robbery and possibly even kidnapping.

I should be heading back to A.C. tomorrow to get in some more cash game play and maybe check out the Borgata Poker Open final table depending on who makes it.  Friday is the Poker Stars WCOOP Razz Event… I can’t wait.  I still have the logistical challenge of transferring the money around but I might have driven my Poker Stars bankroll to that amount by Friday anyway.

A long, fun day of poker and hardly leaving the house.  It basically started and ended with participating in MMC #5 on Surfers Poker.

MMC is a tournament where Surfers Poker members all enter and the winner is the player who can go deepest.  The tournament was a 2922-player $2 buy-in Poker Stars event.  There were 15 Surfers Poker members playing in the event… and yours truly accomplished the feat of outlasting all of my opponents.

Here’s the thread from the forum if you want to check out the highlights… I have to admit, I got very lucky with 10s cracking Jacks and A-10 outdrawing AJ and AQ with all my chips on the line late.

I finished 15th of 2922 which earned me $40 and the deepest finish contest won me another $12 plus $5 from a side bet.  The total win was $57… nothing spectacular but it was a lot of fun.

The other thing I did tonight was follow and report on (for Surfers Poker) the action from the WCOOP Event 5 - No Limit Hold’em.  The event is still going on and it there are a few names remaining.  My watch list of 10 players didn’t even make the money and it was pocket Jacks that ended many of their days earlier than expected.

Daniel Negreanu (KidPoker on PokerStars) made a particularly interesting move when he flopped an open ended straight and put all of his chips in the middle. Negreanu held 44 and a flop of 3-5-6.  His opponent called holding 55 for trip 5s.  The turn brought a 7 and Negreanu the lead but the river spiked a 7 and Negreanu was an early exit.

Of my other players, only Prehlad Freidman (Prefontaine on Poker Stars) came close to a money finish although my dark horse pick, mattymat (partially because he had good statistics and partially because he’s from Philly) lost with Pocket Jacks.  The hand is here.

I don’t exactly know where my bankroll is at because I did some transferring between sites tonight to build my Poker Stars bankroll to be ready to enter Friday’s Razz tournament.  Now, I have to get some sleep.  In 8 hours I’ll be playing in the Trump US Poker Championship Event #1 - Stud Event… if I don’t oversleep. 

A quick Phillies note… they swept the Mets and are just 1 1/2 out of the Wild Card and 3 1/2 behind the Mets.  They have 13 games remaining and they need to win at least 8 down the stretch to give them a shot at the Wild Card but I think it will take 9 wins to make it happen. 

As I inch closer to my first vacation since last October, I also am inching back to the $1k mark as I sit at $940.  I was a one-outer away from actually hitting the $1k mark.

In a $20 PL Omaha Sit & Go, I pushed all-in on the turn with the current nuts and my opponent had just one out to win the hand… and hit it to knock me out.  Not happy times.

Finally, tramp1579 of Surfers Poker decided to stake me for a $3+$0.30 HORSE tournament on Poker Stars and I was cruising along until I took a big hit in the Omaha Hi/Lo round and was crippled due to the high blinds.  I finished 27th or 29th and missed the money which was at 24th. 

Finally, I think I’m going to start mentioning Howard Stern stuff in here because it seems that his listerners are always all over the internet and it could generate me some traffic.

First, a bankroll update… with one Sit & Go still in progress for tonight, the bankroll sits at $900.13.  It’s been a rough go of it in MTTs but I have been holding my own in Sit & Gos, especially PL Omaha Hi.

Where do I start?  As an "Eagles fan" I should probably start there.  I know it is somewhat frowned upon to question your allegiance to your favorite team, especially if they are the hometown team, but if you watched the Eagles blow a prime opportunity to steal a game on the road on Sunday, you would know why I am questioning just that.  I’ve come to expect it with the Phillies.  The Eagles, on the other hand, I can’t used to them letting me down.  Sure, they have fallen short year after year but they have been highly successful and come awful close.  The Phillies on the other hand are 2 1/2 out of the Wild Card with 17 to play and will probably finish 1 game out.

So, why am I so upset about the Eagles?  First, they lost a heartbreaker on Sunday, 16-13 to the stinkin’ Packers.  Second, if their coach got them prepared at all, maybe they would have won this game.  But the Eagles don’t see the value of preseason.  They let Jeremy Bloom (the skiier they drafted two years ago as the savior of the Special Teams) return kicks and punts all preseason only to ditch him the week before the season and throw anyone who they felt the whim to throw back to receive punts and kicks.  I’ll give the Eagles a pass on the fact that they still don’t have a ‘go to’ receiver… but the Special Teams was an absolute joke. 

At this point, I don’t know how much more energy I can invest in being a fan of this team.  The last few years of the Reid-McNabb era have been rough.  There was the TO thing, the opening loss to Atlanta a few years ago, the McNabb injury last year and then salvaging of a season.  I might have to declare my free agency at the end of the season and see if another team picks me up.  The most difficult thing is that I’ve already had the luxury of enjoying a Titans win (I’m a huge Vince Young fan), a Chargers win (my perennial AFC team) and my hatred for the Cowboys is gone.  I know it’s only one game but it is indicative of what this team has delivered since the Super Bowl appearance.

The WSOPE is almost over.  The European version of the WSOP is already conducting the Main Event.  If you blinked you may have missed the 3 event European version of the 40+ event US originated WSOP.  There were 105 entrants into the first event which was a $2500 buy-in HORSE event.  Jennifer Harman, Kirk Morrison, Chris Ferguson, Alexander Kravchenko and Joe Beevers all made the final table and Jennifer Harman finished 2nd.  Some guy named Thomas Bihl won the event.

The 2nd event was a $5000 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha tournament.  Tony G and Andy Bloch made the final table and Dario Alioto won the 165-player tournament.

Before giving a brief Main Event update, I want to mention that Pot Limit Omaha is becoming the new Hold’em of the game.  If you go online and play, the big pros now all sit and play this game rather than Hold’em.  It is a much more action-friendly game and the pros have a distinct edge in this game because there are a lot more timid players in this game rather than the aggressive Hold’em players.

The WSOPE Main Event is into Day 2 after Day 1A & 1B have been completed.  I am guessing that the 362 player field size is a disappointment but the names doing well so far are not.  The biggest of names is Phil Hellmuth who currently sits in 3rd in chips.  I’ll be keeping a close eye on this as it progresses and it may shape up to be one heck of a final table.

Finally, when you are at a poker table, let me give you some advice.  First, don’t announce information about your folded hand by throwing a hissy fit when the board brings 2 Queens and you folded Q2.  If you can’t stand hitting the flop when you fold… don’t fold!  Second, don’t blame the dealer for the fact that you suck.  Finally, don’t ever apologize.  NEVER EVER APOLOGIZE!!!  Not because I have no manners but because you don’t really mean it.  If you were near a staircase, you wouldn’t push a player toward the stairs on purpose and then apologize when they fall down those stairs.  So, when you make a bad play and beat me for $200, don’t f—in’ apologize.  It really is condesending, hollow and rude.  Here’s what I want you to do for me, next time that happens, just give the player the money back if you feel that bad… hmmm… guess you aren’t really that sorry, huh?

How do you want me to paint the picture?  4 consecutive 2nd place finishes if you include the Tournament Of Champions and 3 consecutive cashes.  The 2nd player to hit $2k and top money winner in our home game… or 23 straight tournaments played without a win.

It happened again last night in our home game.  I survived a near disastrous hand where I got called on my all-in when I had AsQs and my opponent had 76.  It looked grim when the flop came 764 with one spade.  A little hope came on the turn when a 2nd spade came but my opponent had 2 of my outs dead, leaving me just 7 outs… and then a fifth spade hit!

Now, with 2 of us remaining, it looked like I finally got a bead on Drew and started mounting a slight comeback.  At 85k to 55k, I had AJ and set up a trap hoping he’d raise from the big blind.  When he did, I pushed and he called, slightly ahead with 6-6.  The flop brought an Ace and the turn a blank, putting me well ahead.  As I started planning my strategy to finish him off and end this ridiculous streak of cashing but not winning, the river was a 6.  I didn’t even get upset… I just went numb.  Granted, I cashed again and I feel like everytime I play there I am likely to finish in the money, I just can’t get the cards to fall the way I need them to.

I haven’t won there since May ‘06 and in that time I’ve cashed 8 times.  8 cashes in 23 tournaments is not a bad clip… but this not winning thing is really starting to bug me especially in 3 of the 5 heads up situations I’ve been in I’ve either lost coin flips or outplayed my opponent but gotten sucked out.  At some point, I’ll break through here but I guess I’ll have to settle for just being the winningest player dollar-wise!

I’m not going to dwell on the poker side as I just can’t seem to find a groove this week.  I’m at $885 which is about $350 down from last week.  It’s been a rough week and hopefully I can make a poker turnaround in my home game tomorrow even though it is not a part of the bankroll.  Still ahead of schedule but I’m eating away at the cushion. 

This is an exciting time of year for me as I always look forward to the Fall TV Season.  Since I was old enough to read and my brother used to buy the TV Guide, I would digest the entire schedule and do my own prognostication of what shows would be hits or misses.  The TV Guide has graduated to Entertainment Weekly and pen and notebook paper has graduated to my blog.  But here it goes:

Shows I’ll Definately Be Watching

Sunday
ABC’s Desperate Housewives (9 - 10 PM)

Monday
NBC’s Heroes (9 - 10 PM)
CW’s Aliens In America *NEW SHOW* (8:30 - 9 PM)

Tuesday
NBC’s Law & Order: SVU (10 PM - 11 PM)
CW’s Reaper *NEW SHOW* (9 PM - 10 PM)

Wednesday
FOX’s Kitchen Nightmares *NEW SHOW* (9 - 10 PM)
CBS’s Kid Nation *NEW SHOW* (8 - 9 PM)
CW’s Gossip Girl *NEW SHOW* (9 - 10 PM)
FOX’s Back To You *NEW SHOW* (8 - 8:30 PM)
ABC’s Private Practice *NEW SHOW* (9 - 10 PM)
ABC’s Dirty Sexy Money *NEW SHOW* (10 - 11 PM)

(One of the three 9 -10 shows is going to make it into my DVR and Wednesday is officially new show night.)

Thursday
NBC’s ER (10 PM - 11 PM)
ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy (9 - 10 PM)
NBC’s My Name Is Earl (8 - 8:30 PM)
CBS’s Survivor: China (8 - 9 PM)
FOX’s Don’t Forget The Lyrics (9 - 10 PM)
USA’s Law & Order: Criminal Intent - It moved to cable!

Friday
CBS’s Moonlight *NEW SHOW* (9 - 10 PM)
NBC’s Las Vegas (10 - 11 PM)

3 New Shows Most Likely To Succeed
1. Dirty Sexy Money (ABC)
2. K-Ville (FOX)
3. Back To You (FOX)

3 New Shows Most Likely To Be Cancelled
1. Carpoolers (ABC)
2. Women’s Murder Club (ABC)
3. Cavemen (ABC) *OK, this is just a hope

Well, that’s my abbreviated version of the Fall TV Season.  Where hell is Jericho, by the way?  Why does CBS keep jerking me around?  I thought it was supposed to be on Fridays… did I miss a memo?

Finally got some rest two nights ago only to ruin it by staying up all night playing tonight.  It was an up and down night ending with a bittersweet 2nd place in a $20+$2 Sit & Go which put me up for the night $12 to $1020.  I lost HU to PokerTiger13 who just hit everything down the stretch.  I pushed all-in with A8 against a board of 8762.  He called and we were about even in chips.  PokerTiger13 turned over 96 and hit a 9 on the river to take down the tournament.  Not the worst suck out in the world but he earlier dodged getting caught bluffing all-in twice including once with 10-4 against AK.

It was a night of bad beats for me so I’m thankful to escape up.  The worst was in The Ferguson HORSE tournament that sent me packing around 45th place to net a whole $1.52 (I know my brother loves to rag on me when I talk about netting anything less than $5).  I had QQ v. J10 v. 65 and the 65 hit a straight on the river when the board went 737-2-4.  That would have tripled me up and put me in about 25th place with some wiggle room.  I wasn’t feeling too strongly though with Limit Hold’em around the corner and that seeming to be my Achilles’ Heel at HORSE.

There was a particularly hilarious conversation going on at the High Limit Omaha Hi game featuring Online Specialist sbrugby and Phil Ivey.  The conversation became all about Robert Varkonyi, the 2002 WSOP Main Event winner.  It was very juvenile but for some reason I couldn’t stop laughing about it.  Thinking back now I don’t think anyone would laugh if I mentioned what was said… just take my word for it that it was funny.  Phil Ivey is an amazing poker player btw.  I never see the guy lose.  While viewing the table, I saw Phil pick up about $10k.  sbrugby did fairly well too.  The other players were non-factors. 

Anyway, need a nap before work.  This Saturday is the first tournament of Season III of our home game and I’m psyched for it.  Even if I do poorly, I can’t wait to play live again.  The online experience really loses points for its’ lack of personality.

PS… Phillies are doing it to me again.  They dropped another one and I think they are 6 out now.  I’m sure in a few weeks they’ll be 1 or 2 out before they drop 5 or 6 in a row again.  And I’ll be on the edge of my seat hoping this is the time they turn the corner.  I’m a sucker.

Let’s start with the crappy news, I had another setback to the bankroll with more bubble finishes and bad beats.  The bankroll is now at $1008.  It was really tough to keep my composure and not push near the end of the night but I held it together and salvaged a minor comeback.  Losing just kills me.  I know it is part of the poker grind but I just can’t accept it.  With the goal here to be at $1000 by January, I am well ahead of target but it’s just the thought of where I really want to take this that frustrates me when I lose.

I had aces cracked tonight for the first time in a while… I rarely lose with Aces because I play them well but it was at a key moment in a 45-Player Sit & Go that probably cost me a cash.  I also couldn’t win a coin flip.

Then, I closed the night in a $30+$1.50 Heads Up PL Omaha Hi Match against Jennifer Harman.  I posted the chat log from the match on the forum on Surfers Poker and unfortunately, I don’t save hand histories on this computer yet.  I posted some key folds in the forum post also.  It is under the Tournaments and Events topic.  The hand that turned the tide was when Harman made a continuation bet on the flop of 8-8-J and I raised the pot with 7-8-9-10 to which she folded.  At that point, I had a 1800-1200 chip advantage… a huge comeback from when Harman had me down 2500-500.  The final hand was basically a coin flip with my Qh-Qd-3d-2c holding up against Harman’s Ac-Ks-Jc-5s.  At that point it was 2400-600 in favor of me but that would have gotten us back to close to even.  She was a slight favorite in that hand (51.5% to 48.5%) but no help came to her hand.

Harman was fun to chat with throughout and I would play her heads up anytime… as long as it is at the $30 table and not the $300!

A tough Saturday led to my first losing day of poker in about a week.  I had bubble-itis on Saturday and finished at the final table of a PL Omaha Hi/Lo MTT but out of the money (finished 9th but 8 cashed) and 4 times in Sit & Gos, I finished 4th with top 3 paying.  The bankroll was down to $1140.

I played very little poker on Sunday and spent most of my day with my girlfriend and caught up on my RSS Feeds on Newsgator.  Here were the highlights… my commentary is free of charge:

• The poker world received "exciting" news that the federal government has put safeguards in place to ensure the casinos take 25% of any cash prize awarded in a poker tournament.  There is now a new law that states that casinos MUST take 25% of any prize over $5000 awarded at a poker tournament.  This should make for some interesting chops.  Anyone want to take a bet that you will see a chop at a tournament of $4999 (or something very close to that)?
• Fox’s Anchorwoman received a lot of hype… and now it is cancelled!  Despite Lauren Jones previously being a Bob Barker beauty, Miss New York and a WWE diva, only 2.7 million people turned out for the first (and only) airing.  If you were one of those people or someone who saw the commercials but are disappointed you missed it, fear not!  You can catch the show on Fox’s website.  There’s 5 episodes over there.  I think they are calling it the Who Gives A S–t channel.
• Dumbest People In The World #3: Anyone who sticks up for Michael Vick.  Look, I’m not crazy about any domesticated animal… especially dogs.  However, I really thought about this argument that a few people are throwing out there (including me at one point) where the public is coming down harder on cruelty to animals than cruelty to humans.  The most recent to come out to defend Vick was comedian/actor Jamie Foxx.  Boxer Roy Jones did too.  The argument presented was that people can shoot someone and not go to jail but Michael Vick fought dogs and he is going to jail.  Let’s get one thing clear about this argument.  If Don King were to shoot and kill one of his boxers after he lost a fight, I think he would be doing some hard time.  I still think there was a rush to judgment here but in the end everyone who did rush to judgment was bailed out by Vick being that stupid. 
• Amy Winehouse’s father-in-law wants us to boycott her music.  For some reason it is our responsibility to put Winehouse in the poor house which will apparently end her drug addiction.  You know, that makes a lot of sense… you never, ever see poor people addicted to drugs.
• I’m shocked!  CBS’s "Kid Nation" is under scrutiny.  The show will premiere September 19th but it will under a cloud of negative press.  First, it was the 22 page release parents had to sign to pimp their kids to the network.  Now, it is the allegations that children were hurt on the set and were forced to work unusually long hours.  I find it hard to believe that kids aged 8 to 15 left alone and without adult supervision could possibly get injured.
• Enrique Iglesias has a small penis!  And in true celebrity-blessed fashion, his small penis has not hurt him.  It seems that now Enrique has a modelling offer for a brand of extra small condoms. 
• Finally, the most exciting movie news since the release date of Transformers is that G.I. Joe will be hitting theaters in 2009.  The project also has a director: Stephen Sommers of ‘Van Helsing’ and ‘Mummy’ fame.  Now that a director has been named, the important question of who will be cast in the roles of Duke, Cobra Commander, Snake Eyes, Bazooka, Destro, Zandar and others.  Mark Wahlberg has been the only rumor so far. 

Well, hopefully, I’ll get back on the winning track soon.