Mission WSOP

Christmas has come and gone and now I’m a rock star thanks to Guitar Heroes.  Actually, I pretty much am finding the game difficult on any level other than Easy.  I am looking forward to spending my gift cards at Borders and Best Buy and will smell much better doing it thanks to some new soap and cologne for Christmas.

My bankroll is stuck in neutral lately and after a 4th place finish in a Stud tournament last night, I’m at $2075.

A message to all of you out there who feel compelled to ask me to stake you… don’t!  If I want to stake you, I will seek you out and do so.  In the mean time, I am losing my patience with all of the requests as of late.  I feel like I’m walking through a village of homeless people every time I sign on to AOL Instant Messenger.

Finally, I was so disappointed recently when Yahoo ran a story featuring the Top 40 Most Interesting Sports Figures of 2007 as voted on by bloggers… but no one asked this blogger to participate!  Sure, I have a readership of maybe 43 but still… I have an opinion and I fit their expectation of being "basically a big city white guy in their 20s and 30s."

So, here is my Top 15:

15 (tie). Randy Moss/Terrell Owens
Two guys who just can’t help you win and are a major distraction are on teams with a combined 28-2 record.  Lucy, you got some ’splainin’ to do!

14. OJ Simpson
The former Heisman winner turned retired bumbling detective. (Hint: OJ, look in the mirror… you’ll find what you are looking for!)  Now, he’s a candidate for America’s Dumbest Criminal with a brief summer news affair where he was caught on tape committing a heist of his own stuff.  Way to go, OJ, we knew you had it in you.

13. Tim Donaghy
In the scandal that just couldn’t get any steam behind it, I still think Tim deserves some kudos for costing (or winning) millions of degenerate gamblers everywhere some dough.

12. Floyd Mayweather
I want to make a joke about Dancing With The Stars but I’m afraid Floyd Mayweather might read this and come to my house at 4 am when I’m sleeping and hurt me real bad.  An MMA run in 2008 could make Floyd a Top 10 candidate for sure. 

11. David Beckham
I had something realy interesting and funny to say about Becks but I’m going to hold out for millions and then totally not deliver.

10. Tony Romo
He went from bumbling the snap in a key playoff game to 13-2 and nailing Carrie Underwood and Jessica Simpson.  This guy might be my hero.

9. Roger Clemens
He’s retired… no wait… he’s not retired… no wait… he’s retired… no wait… he’s not retired.  Boy, that’s old.  I guess Clemens thought so, too.  Here’s a new suggestion.  He used steroids… no wait… he didn’t use steroids… no wait… he used steroids… no wait… he didn’t use steroids.  If ESPN makes a reality show about this guy I hope I can account for my whereabouts when the program director is found dead.

8. Tom Brady
All he does is win.  And now they give him some real targets to throw to and he makes the game look easier than ever.

7. Barry Bonds
He probably should be higher but eclipsing the home run record was anti-climactic and the rest of the Bonds story is so played.  Although the highlight has to be the 100s of interpretations of the Hank Aaron speech.

6. Bill Belichick
Cheaters never win?  Someone needs to put out an inquiry on this one then!

5. Brett Favre
It’s always big news when you are able to get off my "I hate how overrated this guy is" list.  Somehow Favre put me in my place in 2007.  Has he always been that good and I was just blind to it?  I’m sure he’ll make two or three well-timed choke throws in the playoffs to help me get to a place where I can put him back on that list.

4. Gilbert Arenas
Agent 00… helped his team in the best way he knew how: he got injured and out of their way.  I’m rooting for him though.  Maybe he can go the route of TO and Randy Moss and end up on some juggernaut of a team and we’ll forget all about the mugging and trash talking.  The Celtics could use one more player.

3. Pacman Jones
Made it rain, wrestled and then disappeared into oblivion as he tries to convince the NFL to let him back.  Adam had such a lock on the #1 spot for me that he only slipped two spots when he failed to make the news in the second half of ‘07.  Someone call up Jones and tell him I got a big stack of $1 bills for his 3rd place finish!

2. Michael Vick
Public enemy #1 finishes #2 on my list and in most eyes, Vick equates to a pile of #2.  Now he’s behind bars and fading out of the hot button topics of the public.  This is a good thing as he was a mine waiting to blow up in the face of anyone who stepped out and commented in any way other than Michael Vick should be burned, stoned, hung, shot by firing squad, etc.

1. Jimmy Rollins
Allow me to go local… he told us the Phillies were the team to beat in 2007 and then went out and backed it up by helping the Phillies storm from behind and put a dagger in the heart of millions of Mets fans.  Plus, he was named MVP and had 20 doubles, triples, home runs and stolen bases in the same year.  And then there was his biggest feat of 2007: he knocked the Eagles out of the top news spot in Philadelphia and put the Phillies into the spot of team most talked about going into 2008.

Christmas is a mere hours away and I noticed that there was some unfinished business in my blog.  I never really did give you my take on online poker staking sites and I figured with me (for the first time ever) being ahead of the game in Christmas prep, I would sit down and write it tonight.

As I returned to playing online poker recently, I never really knew a lot about the ins and outs of it.  First, I never heard of Sharkscope or thepokerdb or Official Poker Rankings.  I was also only vaguely familiar with poker forums online… most notably the official Full Tilt Forum and Pocket 5s, neither of which was I very active.

I started my blog soon after my return to online poker and being the attention whore that I am, began jumping around from forum to forum shamelessly plugging my blog.  While most forums were strictly online communities used to discuss poker strategy, bash Chris Moneymaker and whine about being doom switched (or in the live poker world, receiving a bad beat), I started noticing forums that were mainly created to provide stakes to online players.

Staking seemed somewhat interesting with the WCOOP right around the corner and I thought I would get involved in a couple of sites to see if I could possibly get enough cred on the site to get staked in one of the WCOOP events.  I never really got into any of the sites until I happened upon Surfers Poker.  Surfers intrigued me because they seemed to have a good amount of events and they weren’t overrun by freeroll whores.  What I realized is that the major difference between Surfers and most other staking sites is that Surfers is a poker discussion site with staking built in unlike most others which are focused on staking 24/7.

Now, here’s the good news/bad news on staking sites.  The good news is that if you are a staker and stake the right people, you can make some money.  And if you are a person with some proven online success and a small bankroll, you could get some opportunities to start to build a bankroll.  The bad news is it is on the Internet and in the faceless sea of names that you see on these sites, it is hard to tell the legit players from the non-legit players (i.e. someone looking to scam you).

A couple of things I’ve noticed that might help you avoid a scam if you decide to join a stake site.

1. Establish a relationship with the site members before jumping into the staking part of the site.
On some of these sites, it is easier said than done but it is good to make sure that the major players on the site know you are not just a bottom feeding stake runner.

2. Beware of the player that starts off by being a frequent staker.
You always want to be cautious of these new forum members.  My short experience shows me these are usually the members most likely to run a scam.  Be especially cautious if they stake just anyone and don’t particularly do research on who should be staked on the site.  This is usually a set-up for devious behavior down the road.

3. Get a trusted third party involved when trading money from site-to-site and do it in small increments.
If I want $100 on Poker Stars and I have $100 on Full Tilt, I should have no problem shipping it in $20 increments… or even $10.  And if I’m the one who wants to make the deal, then I should be willing to initiate the first transfer.  If you run into players willing to help you but want you to send more than you are willing to first or require you to go first even if it is their request, I’d be careful.

4. If you fall victim to a scam, the online poker site will not help you fix it.
Unfortunately, there is no recourse is someone were to rip you off on a stake or a money transfer on one of these staking sites.  The only minor satisfaction one can gain from being ripped off is to report the scam artist to the forum and they will most likely be banned.  The money, however, is gone for good.

5. There’s no such thing as an emergency.
The major theme of a scam is usually some sort of emergency where the scam artist needs money right now.  But think about it… even if it were immediately, a cash out on an online site usually takes a day or two to be processed if not longer.  The first place you turn to for a monetary emergency is not your online poker account and your online poker friends.

6. Like the poker table, people are usually the opposite of whatever they tell you initially.
At the poker table, a pretty hard and fast rule is that someone who acts strong is usually weak.  Very similar things occur on a staking site.  If your potential business partner acts like a rich fat cat, they are probably broke.  If your potential stakee acts like they don’t need or care about the money, they probably need it very badly.  And if your potential horse acts like the greatest poker player since Phil Hellmuth, they probably couldn’t play their way out of a brown paper bag.

7. If you stake someone and they can instant message you… they probably will ask you for a stake (every day, all day).
One thing I’ve noticed is that if you stake someone, they can become relentless in their quest to get you to stake them again.  I have not run a stake for very many people but those that I have rarely don’t ask again for a stake… or again and again… or again and again and again.

Hopefully, this gives you some insight on what I’ve learned over the past couple of months.  Personally, I don’t ask for stakes ever and I rarely apply for one when they are posted.  I may request a BAP (Buy-A-Piece) down the road for a bigger tournament but that’s about it.  I also don’t stake people very often and only do so when I’m bored and want to be entertained by seeing what people would actually go through to earn a stake. 

Finally, in a totally unrelated subject, I thought I’d list my favorite 10 songs of 2007:

10. "Stronger" - Kanye West
9. "Crank That (Soulja Boy)" - Soulja Boy Tellem
8. "If You’re Reading This" - Tim McGraw
7. "Big Girls Don’t Cry" - Fergie
6. "The Sweet Escape" - Gwen Stefanie
5. "Umbrella" (cover) - Mandy Moore
4. "Our Song" - Taylor Swift
3. "What Goes Around… Comes Around" - Justin Timberlake
2. "Piece Of Me" - Britney Spears
1. "Stay" - Sugarland

I just hit $2015 for my bankroll… I could easily go backward and I will continue to grind it.  I’m going to bask in the glow of the accomplishment and not risk it tonight.  Mission 2… hit $6k before the WSOP to play a second event.  Going to enjoy the benchmark achievement and keep it short for tonight.  Now, I have to maintain the spot and not go backward which could always happen, too. 

I don’t know if I’ll be doing another entry before this but the home game kicks back into high gear on Saturday with the Pot Limit Holdem/Pot Limit Omaha event.  Personally, this is one of my favorite three events of the season, I can’t wait.

Here’s some super lightning-quick updates and notes:

• Finished 3rd in a Razz tournament tonight on Full Tilt.  A $10 Buy-In and a cash of $70.40.
• Jessica Simpson is the cause of Tony Romo’s poor play?  I guess playing poorly has its’ perks, too!
• Britney’s new video is digitized.  Glad she looks hot again!
• A Fine Frenzy is good music!  I want that CD!
• The Aussie Millions blog entry is fiction.  I hope at some point, it isn’t but for now, it is.
• I think I busted one of the two Surfers controversies wide open… we’ll see.
• Stake discussion blog still to come.
• June 13th, 2008… my WSOP debut?  Looking more likely.
• Negreanu failed in his attempt to move up the all-time money list… he finished 14th when Kings walked into Aces early. 
• Charlie Brown’s has the best filet mignon, parmesan crusted chicken and salad bar around. 
• Trying to come up with some Top 10 of 2007 lists to close out the year in my blog… Top 10 Songs coming soon.
• I haven’t abandoned the GoogleTrends Hot List… just a short hiatus.
• Steve & Barry’s is my new favorite clothing store.

Good night!

My bankroll slid below $1900 and is in the high $1800s now… but I’d rather not focus on that at the moment.  Instead, let me continue to focus this blog on non-poker topics.

The Survivor finale was earlier.  Following Survivor: China all year, I lost a lot of interest in the show once James exited in one of the biggest Survivor blunders ever.  The show wrapped in somewhat boring fashion with Todd taking down the $1,000,000 prize in typical fashion.  There’s a funny pattern that occurs on Survivor.  Two people double-cross everyone and drag a third along for the ride.  One of those two people relishes the role of backstabber and wins $1,000,000… the other tries to claim they have a conscience and they don’t win $1,000,000.  I usually only watch Survivor every other season but it looks like Survivor 16 will be interesting with Super Fans vs. former Survivors in Micronesia.  I guess I’ll have to give it a shot especially with rumors heavy that Jeff Probst is done after 16 and the show is done with him.  Although Survivor’s cancellation is often discussed and has never been true.

The best part of Survivor: China?  The commercial for the return of Jericho!  If you haven’t watched it… what are you waiting for?  Great show and us Jericho-holics need you to watch to keep this show alive.

Speaking of Jericho-holics… on WWE’s PPV tonight, Chris Jericho’s return to the WWE was sent down a boring hell as it looks like it’s not yet his time for a title run.  Instead, he’ll be feuding with JBL who (I guess) is coming out of retirement.  I only mentioned this because I wanted to also make a bold prediction that Hulk Hogan returns to the ring next year after his 8 minute return for WWE Raw’s 15th anniversary where he basically kissed Vince McMahon’s ass.  Hogan wrestled a bit on that edition of Raw and it did not look good but you know, brother, the guy gets the loudest pop of any wrestler ever!  The fans still love, love, love this guy.

The Surfers Poker forum was buried in controversy this weekend during a Christmas event chock full of contests and (apparently) cheating.  There is some circumstantial evidence that two players cheated in a quest to pick up a couple of extra $$$s.  If it were true, it’s pretty sad.  It looks very, very suspect from what I’ve seen.  I failed to win the Drawing Contest but I will post my drawing for everyone’s enjoyment here because I think I was robbed!  And to those who may have cheated, if it is true a lot of people would earn some respect from you if you admitted it.  It looks very, very suspect.

Speaking of cheating (I’m all over the segues tonight), more steroids news dropped and I’m giving a sitting ovation to Andy Pettite.  The guy owned up to HGH use and said he used it twice to help him heal in the best interest of his team.  He stopped after the second use out of guilt but as he said, he just thought it gave him the best chance to help his team win.  These guys are competitors first… sure, it’s cheating but can you blame them?  People cheat as the banker when playing Monopoly, why are we so shocked and dismayed by this?

Daniel Negreanu is the chip leader at the WPT Doyle Brunson Classic, the main event of the Five Diamond Classic at the Bellagio.  18 players remain and Negreanu taking it down would mean he would become the second winningest player in poker tournament history and the 2nd player to ever break $12 million.  Either way, Negreanu will be the winningest player ever soon.  Right now, Jamie Gold’s 1 big win is good for first and Joe Hachem is 2nd but neither of these players cash frequently enough to hold off Negreanu.  The real question, though, is can Negreanu stay ahead of Allen Cunningham and Phil Hellmuth once he gets there?  This is a huge opportunity for Negreanu to put some distance between himself and these two great poker players.  I would say Negreanu, Cunningham, Hellmuth and Phil Ivey are the best 4 poker players at the moment.

The Eagles found a way to win on Sunday… too bad the season is over when the Vikings beat the Bears on Monday night.  The Eagles are the good guys of the NFL for some reason and are getting a lot of credit for the win that got them to 6-8 for the season.  I’m giving them none because the game was truly meaningless for Dallas and most likely meaningless for the Eagles.

In more Philly news, local newswoman Alycia Lane was arrested for punching a cop in the face in NYC.  First, she sends seductive pictures to Rich Eisen, now this?  Lane is no Jim Gardner, that’s for sure.  But she is hella entertaining!

More news pulled off of Google Trends… Dan Fogelberg has died.  I can’t think of one song this guy did but he was only 56.  I know I always see his name on my Sirius radio but I never know the songs.

Finally, stay tuned for a blog entry later in the week about the phenomenon of staking and stake forums in the world of Online poker.  Hopefully, I can get to this before Friday.

Let me start by saying I really don’t care about the whole steroids hysteria.  However, with that being said, I do find it interesting that many of the people who have been condemning Barry Bonds to a life in asterix hell have gone eerily silent on the Clemens bombshell that was the first piece of information to leak from The Mitchell Report.

Two comments, in the court of public opinion I hope Clemens gets shunned as Bonds has over the past few years… their feats are similar and the proof is on par.  They are both arrogant and cocky and have decimated some pretty big baseball standards… and most likely were both "cheating" to do so.  If you have been killing Barry Bonds for the past few years make sure you send some venom Roger Clemens way.

That being said, Armando Rios?  Bobby Estalella? Jack Cust? Tim Laker? Josias Manzanillo? F.P. Santangelo? Phil Hiatt? Ryan Franklin? RYAN FRANKLIN??? David Bell?  DAVID FREAKIN’ BELL?

With some of these names I could make a case that steroids hinders your ability to play the game more than it helps.

Finally, my favorite active baseball player, Rondell White, was implicated in the steroids scandal as well… and he’s still my favorite active baseball player (although my guess is he will be sticking to his guns about retiring).

Next year’s WSOP schedule has 23 different variants of poker and 3 restricted events (1 for casino employees, ladies and seniors) and it would take $230,000 to buy-in to all 55 events (maybe Neverbeg will stake Florence, the 75-year-old housekeeper at The Rio to play in all 55 as you’d have to be a female senior who works for the casino to do so).  After looking through the schedule, I decided to break down the WSOP into various tiers.

Tier One Events (2 Events Total)

• Event #54: $10,000 World Championship No-Limit Hold’em (a.k.a. The Main Event)
  The event that made Chris Moneymaker a household name and launched a poker boom that is still going strong.  This year’s Main Event is expected to start on July 3rd and last 13 days.  My guess is that the plan is for Day 1 to be broken down into 4 days and the estimates will soon be flying around about how big the field will be.  I doubt it will be as big as ‘06 when Jamie Gold won but it should be comparable to last year when Jerry Yang did so.
• Event #40: $50,000 World Championship H.O.R.S.E.
  The biggest buy-in tournament begins its third year as part of the WSOP with its first-ever winner being memorialized through a trophy to the winner.  Now, the player who takes down this most prestigious event will receive a bracelet, the prize money and The Chip Reese Award.  Freddy Deeb won the 2nd incarnation of this in ‘07.

Tier Two Events (8 Events Total)

• Event #1: $10,000 World Championship Pot-Limit Hold’em
  This year’s first new $10,000 event kicks off the WSOP on May 30th.  This was actually part of the ‘07 WSOP but was just a $5k buy-in.  Allen Cunningham was last year’s Pot-Limit World Champion.
• Event #8: $10,000 World Championship Mixed Event (I call it HORSENOPOLOW)
  The most unique event of the ‘08 WSOP.  There are the 5 variants of poker played in HORSE with added rounds of No Limit Hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha and 2-7 Lowball.  I will go out on a limb and say this event will draw in many of the big name pros.  The 2-7 Lowball round should make it very interesting. (Did I mention I have won 100% of all 2-7 Lowball MTTs I’ve ever played?)
• Event #14: $10,000 World Championship 7-Card Stud
  Another bigger buy-in for a non-No-Limit event should excite the seasoned pros.  Chris Reslock won last year’s Stud World Championship.  At 180 players last year, it will be interesting to see if this year’s tournament reaches the same heights.  I’m going to make my first bold prediction and say Phil Ivey wins this event.
• Event #25: $10,000 World Championship Heads Up No-Limit Hold’em
  The exciting part is that the Heads Up tournament returns.  The disappointing part is that while the ‘08 WSOP contains 13 straight No Limit Hold’em events, they stuck by the single Heads Up tournament.  Daniel Schreiber won last year’s 392 player event that was half price.  At $10k, it’ll be interesting to see where the number of players will fall to.  I’m going with roughly 256 players.
• Event #30: $10,000 World Championship Limit Hold’em
  Saro Getzoyan took down the ‘07 WSOP World Championship of Limit Hold’em.  What the effect of the $10k buy-in on events such as this should be interesting as the bigger name pros should be excited about the thinner fields brought on by the bigger buy-ins.
• Event #33: $5,000 World Championship 7-Card Stud Hi-Low
  It kept the World Championship moniker so I figured it deserved Tier Two status.  However, this is one of the World Championship dubbed tournaments that did not increase to a $10,000 Buy-In but was upped from $3,000.  Last year’s final table featured David Sklansky, Thor Hansen, Dutch Boyd, Scotty Nguyen and the eventual winner, Eli Elezra.
• Event #37: $10,000 World Championship Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 Or Better
  Another sign that Omaha community games are becoming more popular is that the ‘08 WSOP contains 3 Omaha Hi-Low tournaments (instead of 1 as in ‘07) and a larger buy-in event as the one here.  The only Omaha Hi-Low event in ‘07 was just $1500 to enter and was won by Alexander Kravchenko.  Kravchenko later made a run at the Main Event finishing at the final table.
• Event #50: $10,000 World Championship Pot-Limit Omaha
  The only other $10k event other than the Main Event and the $50k HORSE returns.  Last year’s final table was amazing with Robert Mizrachi capturing the bracelet and Patrik Antonius, Marco Traniello and Doyle Brunson making the final table.  I almost put this on Tier One but slid it into Tier Two on second thought.

Tier Three Events (8 Events Total)

• Event #4: $5,000 Mixed Hold’em (Limit Hold’em/No-Limit Hold’em)
  For some reason, this tournament lost its’ World Championship status.  Maybe drawing 451 players to kick-off the ‘07 WSOP or having the youngest player to ever win a WSOP event (Steve Billirakis at 21 years, 10 days) wasn’t enough to keep it but it’s still going to draw a strong field. 
• Event #11: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shoot-Out
  This is the first of two No-Limit Shoot-Outs in the 2008 Series.  2007 saw just one Shoot-Out and with 899 players entering the lower buy-in event, a need was seen to add this bigger buy-in event that favors Sit & Go-style players.
• Event #18: $5,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball w/ Re-Buys
  Oddly enough, this event also lost the tag of "World Championship" from ‘07 to ‘08 so I slid it into the 3rd Tier.  This tournament had just 78 entries but generated an amazing prize pool of nearly $1.5 million when there were 226 re-buys.  8 players made the final table and Barry Greenstein bubbled with his 8th place finish.  The rest of the table featured Todd Brunson, Freddy Deeb, Andrew Black, Lamar Wilkinson, Shawn Sheikhan, Chad Brown and the winner, Erik Seidel. 
• Event #21: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em
  The discount Main Event!  The 2nd largest buy-in event of ‘08 for No-Limit Hold’em players.
• Event #22: $3,000 H.O.R.S.E.
  The $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament’s ugly sister.  It’s H.O.R.S.E. without the sexiness of the $50,000 buy-in.  With the edition of a few other mixed games, the H.O.R.S.E. variant dropped its second biggest buy-in from $5k to $3k.  Don’t expect this one to be on ESPN.
• Event #28: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha w/ Re-Buys
  One of the more entertaining final tables from ESPN’s ‘07 coverage was this event.  The prize pool was $2.9 million and the winner, Burt Boutin took down over $800,000.  If you watched the ‘07 coverage, this was the tournament featuring Humberto Brenes, John Juanda, David "Devilfish" Ulliott and Minh Ly amongst its final table.
• Event #29: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em
  Another cheaper version of the Main Event.  These usually bring out big fields and new winners.
• Event #46: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Short-Handed (6-MAX)
  A lot of pros flock to the short-handed games.  This is this year’s largest buy-in of the three short-handed games presented for the ‘08 schedule.  Bill Edler took down the third biggest prize pool in 2007 by winning this event.

Tier Four Events (16 Events Total)

• Event #5: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em w/ Re-Buys
  These re-buy tournaments create some interesting action and sizable prize pools.  Both $1k buy-in events paid the winner over $500k.
• Event #7: $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em
• Event #10: $2,500 Omaha/7-Stud Hi-Low-8 Or Better
  Thomas Schneider won this event on his way to 2007 WSOP Player Of The Year.
• Event #13: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em
• Event #16: $2,000 Limit Omaha-Split-Hi-Low-8 Or Better
• Event #20: $2,000 Limit Hold’em
• Event #23: $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em
• Event #24: $2,500 Pot Limit Hold’em/Omaha
  I went back to 1990 and I can’t find this variant anywhere in the mix of games at the WSOP which makes this a truly unique event for this year’s WSOP.
• Event #26: $1,500 Razz
  The only Razz event of the ‘08 WSOP. 341 players were bested by Team Poker Stars member Katja Thater in ‘07, the only woman to win a WSOP event not specifically for women in 2007.
• Event #31: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em Short-Handed (6-Max)
• Event #38: $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em
  Interesting to see such a large drop-off from the $10k World Championship of Pot Limit to $2,000.
• Event #43: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Split-Hi-Low-8 Or Better
  The only Pot-Limit version of this variant in ‘08.
• Event #44: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em w/ Re-Buys
  These re-buy tournaments create some interesting action and sizable prize pools.  Both $1k buy-in events paid the winner over $500k.
• Event #45: $2,500 Limit 2-7 Lowball
  Last year’s event featured two Lowball events but both had the re-buy attachment.  This one does not.
• Event #48: $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em
• Event #53: $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shoot-Out
  The only Limit Shoot-Out on the ‘08 schedule.

Tier Five Events (18 Events Total)

• Event #2: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em
• Event #3: $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em
• Event #6: $1,500 Limit Omaha Split-Hi-Low-8 Or Better
• Event #9: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Short-Handed (6-Max)
• Event #12: $1,500 Limit Hold’em
• Event #17: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Shoot-Out
• Event #19: $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha
• Event #27: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em
• Event #32: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em
• Event #34: $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha w/ Re-Buys
• Event #35: $1,500 7-Card Stud
• Event #36: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em
• Event #39: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em
• Event #41: $1,500 Mixed Hold’em (Limit/No-Limit)
• Event #47: $1,500 7-Card Stud Hi-Low-8 Or Better
• Event #49: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em
• Event #51: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E.
• Event #52: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em

Restricted Tier Events (3 Events Total)

• Event #15: $1,000 World Championship Ladies No-Limit Hold’em
• Event #42: $1,000 World Championship Seniors No-Limit Hold’em
• Event #55: $500 Casino Employees No Limit Hold’em

I don’t know how I missed this on Tuesday but the 2008 WSOP Schedule was announced!  Here’s the link.

For me, one date jumps out, in particular.  Once the schedule was announced, I quickly scrolled down to June 13th… my birthday.  And there it was: The $1,500 Buy-In Razz event at 5 PM.  Is this my first WSOP event?  I don’t know yet but the stars seem aligned.

Anyway, I’ll break down the impressive schedule of events tonight.  I am so excited to dig into what looks like the WSOPs most intense schedule yet.

The last thing I ever thought was that I would be attending the 2008 Aussie Millions Championship in Australia.  Thanks to an unusual turn of events and a run of two outers that very few people including myself have ever seen, now I’m sitting here on the eve of the final day of the Main Event of this magnificient poker tournament waiting to play at the final table of a major event.  Who knew a poker blogging nobody such as myself would actually have this opportunity.

If you’ve been following along my blog leading up to the event (which there’s a good chance that you haven’t since I’m basically a nobody in the poker blogging world) you know how unlikely the course of events that led to this were that actually made this all happen.

First, there was my unlikely entry into the Battle of the Bloggers Tournament of Champions despite my abysmal and sparse showing in the actually events but my largely unread blogging skills earned me a spot through the backdoor.  Then, there was the oversleeping which led to me being blinded down to practically nothing.  Then there was the miraculous comeback to make the final table of the TOC only to face hardship once again when my ‘net lost connection with the chip lead four handed.  After frantic calls to the cable company and no satisfaction, it took a drive to a local WiFi spot to save my nearly blinded-off self yet again as I wound up heads up with Kajagugu and on break with just 3x the blinds.  Somehow I was able to mount yet another amazing comeback and knock off Kajagugu for the title despite the endless railing about my near blunder of getting disconnected and wiped out.

But the unlikely events didn’t end there as Full Tilt had to investigate my unusual IP change and the blogging world of poker was full of rumor, conjecture and controversy as I came out unscathed and with my Trip of a Lifetime to the Aussie Millions.

Then, there was the nearly disastrous personal crisis of convincing my employer to allow me 10 days off to fly to Australia.  A few back room meetings and the promise of the return to the U.S. with a koala bear for my supervisor’s supervisor’s daughter which looks like it will be going unfulfilled averted crisis #2.  Luckily, I’m at the final table because I may need the money if I’m unemployed when I return… the frustrations of a part time low-limit poker player.

Without a doubt (even if I don’t have a job when I return home) this trip is truly as Full Tilt described, a trip of a lifetime.  The action away from the tables has been neck-and-neck as exciting as the action at the tables themselves.  Parties, golfing, bowling, gambling… it’s been insane.  How one person could experience it all is beyond me but I have found a way to make it happen and have done it with minimal aggravation to my girlfriend who is also enjoying accompanying me to Australia as my guest.

I hope I’ve captured enough of the excitement away from the tables throughout my blogging but I do want to recap the highlights:

• The total embarrassment of offering to play for $5.00/hole with Phil Ivey on the very first golf outing and then whiffing on my first attempt to hit a golf ball in two years followed by the worst front 9 score I’ve ever posted… a 73 (who knew I could ever shoot higher than a 72 in 9 holes?).  That followed by a back 9 of 39 which topped my best 9 hole score of 40 (which I also did on the day I shot a 72). 
• Talking everyone into playing lowball bowling with the challenge being that you had to score the lowest score but the frames only counted if you hit at least one pin each time you rolled the ball.  Sure, anyone can knock ‘em all down but how many players can knock’em down one at a time.  My best lowball score of 25 could not be broken (don’t tell anyone I was trying my hardest).
• Meeting all of my favorite Full Tilters and pulling it off without making myself look like a total tourist as I witnessed many a poker player do during my excursions to the WSOP in 2005 and 2006.
• Breaking the Mr. Peanut-Mike Matusow controversy in my blog first (more to come on that later).
• Still keeping my Iron Man status on Full Tilt going strong by sneaking off to the hotel room to get in 30 minutes of Online play a day.
• Earning a few bounties in the bounty tournament (all while wearing my various "I Busted XXX at Full Tilt" shirts during play… sorry about that time I removed the last one only to realize I didn’t have one more on… talk about embarrassing!  By the way, do I get shirts for these bust outs, too?
• Partying it up and winning some prop bets by being one of the few party goers to not be drinking.  Boy, bets are a lot easier to win when everyone else is drunk.

Then, there’s been the action over the past few days of the Main Event which now features what may be the strangest final table with the strangest conclusion ever.  First of all, we are already down to 6 players and the final table hasn’t even started.

There’s Gus Hansen looking to defend with what looks like a seemingly impossible amount of chips going into a final table.  I think he has the 5 of us covered by a 2 to 1 combined margin.  I guess that’s what happens when you take down 5 players in one hand.  Who knew that T7 could best AA, AA, KK, QQ and JJ?

Then there’s me… who survived 3 short stack all-ins near the bubble of this event when my lower pairs sucked out against bigger pairs.  I guess all those bad beats paid off as the luck is finally coming back to me!

Then there’s Andy Bloch… another Full Tilt pro who is the only player at the table I’ve ever played with before (If you count Online play). 

Joseph Hachem is the hometown favorite although the "Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oy! Oy! Oy!" chant hasn’t been heard often… thankfully!

Sure, John Malkovich is a great actor but who knew a publicity tour for the upcoming "Rounders 2" would prove that John could play poker, too?  I’m a little tired of the Teddy KGB-in character routine.  Don’t I hear it enough in Atlantic City from the wannabe players as it is?  Let’s just hope he doesn’t bring the Oreos to the table again.  Does he have to be in character all the time?

Finally, there’s the most unlikely of final table members: Mr. Peanut!  At first, I thought it was Gavin Smith who lost a prop bet… but he was dressed as Cinderella (what a sight to see that was!) because of a bet he lost with Jeff Madsen.  Bravo, Jeff for creating the most horrific scene in the history of poker since Robert Varkonyi won the WSOP Main Event.  I still don’t know who this guy is but he’s one heck of a player.  Fresh on the heels of Mike Matusow’s retirement from poker to become the new mascot for Planters after Planters sales skyrocketed from his battles with Mr. Peanut at the WSOP, it seems that "the ‘nut" (as we have taken to calling him) decided to exact revenge of his own by proving that he could outplay Matusow at his own game after Planters fired Mr. Peanut to make room for "The Mouth".  Matusow was in attendance as well as Planters sponsored him for a return to the poker world but he was subsequently ousted in the first hand when, in an unbelievable turn of events, Mr. Peanut sat as his table.  "The ‘nut" with his shaded monacle and "The Mouth" agreed to push all-in blind and the results were sick.  Matusow turned over pocket Jacks and Mr. Peanut turned over pocket 7s.  The flop was J-7-5 and at that point Matusow had the mortal nuts.  The turn was a 2 and the river was a 7 giving Mr. Peanut the absolute nuts.  (Kinda hungry for some cashews now!)

Anyway, as the tournament progressed Matusow and Peanut consistently battled but Peanut kept true to character and never said a word, although there was some interesting gestures thrown Matusow’s way… and I thought that battle at the 2007 WSOP was for show.

Time to get some rest so that I’m ready for this final table… who knows what will happen?  I’m not going to try to predict this thing after the course of events that led up to this.  Thanks to Full Tilt for this great opportunity and thanks for following along on my Aussie Millions blog!

The $1900 mark has been passed!  At 95% to my target, it looks like there will be an opportunity to build on top of that minimum threshold.

The weekend has been interesting.  My plan is to take Sunday off from poker for the first time in a while and spend some time with Lisa. 

Saturday, I played in the Silver $15k Freeroll on Full Tilt and finished with two very bad beats that put me out in 27th place.  On the good side, I cashed for $60.  On the bad side, winning both of those hands would have put me in the chip lead.  Here’s the forum posts from the tournament.

I also played in the Surfers Poker After Dark Championship.  I had already won two of the four qualifying events and had to face off with Unaccounted, Thomas Hardy and tramp1579.  After a lengthy four-way match-up ensued, I was able to slowly accumulate chips and then roll over the table on my way to the victory.  I finished off the tournament by beating Unaccounted heads up… deja vu from the 1st Poker After Dark tournament.

This was my fourth Sufers Poker tournament win and it was fun playing with some of my favorite Surfers… even though Ouch wasn’t in it.

In a non-poker related achievement I broke the high score in the Surfers Arcade for Pacman.  It had been on the books since August 29th and now it belongs to me!

Anyone who watches the Bowl games and supports college football after what could have been the greatest season of college football is not doing what needs to be done to get a college football playoff system into play.

YouTube has a new channel: http://www.youtube.com/bj316

This will feature my Online Poker "Strategy" videos.  Strategy is in quotes because these videos are actually going to be parodies of Online Poker instruction that you can find all over YouTube.  Check out my first one and send comments my way!  And before you mention it, I already know the audio quality in my first attempt is not the greatest.