Mission WSOP

After a couple of weeks of watching fellow Surfers member Ouch Bad Beat go deep over and over again in the 2-7 Lowball MTTs on PokerStars, I decided to give one a shot.  Shockingly, I took down the tournament of 60 players and (after a small concession of a deal when down to final two) I walked away with $220 on a $11 entry… 2000% ROI is not bad for my first shot at 2-7 Lowball.  Here’s the link on Surfers if you want to check out the action at the final table. (If you are not a fan of Hand Histories stay away)

My bankroll is now at $1800+ and, at this pace, I will hit my goal before the ball drops in Times Square.

I just watched the Curb Your Enthusiasm finale, finally!  It was extremely funny.  I regret getting into the show so late.  I have to admit that it is good… prettay, prettay, prettay good.

In November, I was awarded the Surfers Poker Member Of The Month award and also earned a Thread Of The Month award to for my posting about the FTOPS Main Event final table.  For that, I was also awarded $33 in prize money.  Thanks to Venice for running a great forum and a great site.  I am on there every day and always find something to post about.

I have a STAR next to my name on SharkScope now.  Currently, I’m 15th on the “Mixed Game 8 Seat @ $2 or less Buy-In Total Profit” Leaderboard.  It’s not a huge accomplishment but I now have a shot at climbing the leaderboard with a little focus.

More achievements: I just noticed I was the 37th player in the Online Poker world in low buy-in Razz tournaments in November according to thepokerDB on Bluff Magazine’s website.  For 2007, I’m ranked 186th which is a pretty amazing feat considering I didn’t start playing until July and have played just 32 Razz tournaments that qualified.  Of the players ahead of me, only 2 have played in less games with many in the triple digits.

I qualified for Full Tilt’s Iron Man contest again.  I’m a Silver Iron Man again.  December is important for me to qualify for because I will earn a $175 bonus in January if I qualify, in addition to the normal Freeroll entry.

Lindsay Lohan earned the dubious distinction of being recognized as the dumbest person in Hollywood.  I don’t remember who put up the list but it had the usual suspects.

Looking at my Web Server Stats, searches have been sending people the way of my blog more than ever.  I’m sure it has a lot to do with adding the GoogleTrends Hot List.  Most of the searches were for women or sports.  Here’s the list of searches:

    3: 15.00%:    3: 14.29%: anna lynne mccord nude pics
    3: 15.00%:    3: 14.29%: anna lynne mccord
    2: 10.00%:    2:  9.52%: randall cunningham unlv jersey
    1:  5.00%:    1:  4.76%: nhl picks winner cash prize
    1:  5.00%:    1:  4.76%: anna lynne mccord nude photos
    1:  5.00%:    1:  4.76%: brian williams wsop
    1:  5.00%:    1:  4.76%: victoria schattauer
    1:  5.00%:    1:  4.76%: annalynne mccord nude pics
    1:  5.00%:    1:  4.76%: wsop ron kubler
    1:  5.00%:    1:  4.76%: brandi ryan nude
    1:  5.00%:    1:  4.76%: annalynne mccord nude pics video
    1:  5.00%:    1:  4.76%: donna rosetta
    1:  5.00%:    1:  4.76%: luke zeller you tube
    1:  5.00%:    1:  4.76%: mark mcmillan football player
    1:  5.00%:    1:  4.76%: pokerstars $1.20 45 tournament strategy
    0:          :    1:  4.76%: clonie gowen cocaine

My favorite is that someone was searching for Mark McMillan… talk about obscure searches!

GoogleTrends Hot List - 12/05/07 @ 2:30AM

• female circumcision
  My guess is a quick scene in tonight’s “Law & Order: SVU” catipulted this to the top of the GoogleTrends list.  What do you say to that… way to go, female circumcision!!!???
• Amanda Ireton
  Tila Tequila’s “Shot At Love” has generated another hot search item in the form of Amanda Ireton.  She’s currently the 6th most viewed Verified Personality on IamonMTV.com.
• Pimp C
  Rapper Pimp C was found dead in an LA hotel.  Anyone have Pimp C in their 2007 Dead Pool?  Anyone surprised to see a death push a name high up in the GoogleTrends list?
• Debra Lafave
  On probation for sleeping with one of her students (well, not really sleeping!), Lafave was found to have violated her probation by talking to one of her co-workers at her new job.  Lafave, under house arrest, was ordered to not interact with any minors but decided to share her history with a 17-year-old girl that was also waitressing with her at her latest job.  The 27-year-old working at Danny Boys’ Restaurant in Ruskin, FL is facing a few years in prison for her conversations about family problems, high school, friends and sex.  All I have to say is… duh!  Here’s a pic of Lafave.
• Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show
  A recent Paris Hilton incident put this into the top searches… I’m finding it hard to care!
• Miranda Kerr
  The incident involved Miranda Kerr.  I’m starting to care a little more.
• Seal’s face
  My guess is Seal was on TV and a bunch of people were inclined to find out what the hell was going on with that face of his.
• David “Chip” Reese
  Another death hits the GoogleTrends list.  This one is from the poker world.  56-year-old high stakes poker player and WSOP bracelet winner Chip Reese died from complications due to pneumonia.  The poker world will be mourning a tragic loss.
• Peter Davi
  First it was the world of hip hop, then the world of poker and now the world of surfing that suffered a loss.  45-year-old Davi drowned off the Pebble Beach coast.  A surfing location known as Ghost Trees claimed the life of a known surfer in the area.  Add this to the list of crap I’m too scared to do.  Here’s a pic of an example of the waves in the area.

Had a horrible night at the tables and a huge setback.  I dropped $46.45 and am back to $261.06 which is still ahead of schedule but only by 3 days.  Just could not have anything go my way and added in some missteps also. 

The biggest misstep of the night was going to see "I Know Who Killed Me", the new Lindsay Lohan ‘thriller’.  What a horrible movie this was.  It was like watching a train wreck into a car that just had a plane land on it.  Think of the worst movie you ever saw, then multiply that by 125% and make it just bizarre enough that you HAVE to see every second of it.  I will have to admit that Lindsay’s got a nice ass in the movie.  Other than that… wow… was that painful!  The performances in the movie reminded me of those performances you would see in those Mystery Science Theater 3000 movies.  The worst part was I went to see it by myself and up until the last preview I was the only one in the theater.  Then a group of 4 girls walked in who were so unimpressed with the movie that they didn’t even bother ruining it by talking through it.

The Phils won again and inched closer to the division lead… I think they are 3 out now and 1 1/2 out of the wild card but I could be wrong.  Both Shane Victorino and Michael Bourn went down with injuries though… hopefully that isn’t too serious.

My eyes are barely open at the moment.  I didn’t arrive home from work today until 10 PM and spent a little bit of time with Lisa and hit the gym for only an hour because I am totally spent.

On the good side, apparently I play online poker well totally exhausted because I was able to bring my WSOP bankroll to $253.42, a +$18.99 increase today.  And I only played for 30 minutes tops.  That puts my 1/8 of the way there in about 30 days.  I am 9 days ahead of schedule and have had just 2 losing days since starting my endeavor and 2 losing days since blogging.  That’s 8 winning days and 2 losing days… not too bad.  Throw in the days pre-blog and I’m 90% winning days and $45 ahead of target.

Looks like if you put a chunk of money on the arrest of teen celebrities, Lindsay Lohan (technically no longer a teen) just cost you a notch by getting arrested a week early.  Lohan was arrested Tuesday for DUI, driving with a suspended license and cocaine possession.  Lohan later denied the charges but in the court of public opinion, I’m sure this isn’t going to help her 2nd movie of the summer coming this Friday.  You know the movie that is not The Simpsons Movie. 

Game 2 of the Beckham ERA in LA went off… and no Beckham.  Sadly, the LA fans will just enjoy Beckham parading the sidelines.  Despite Beckham playing just 1/15th of the first 2 games, ESPN announced that Beckham’s debut was the highest rated soccer game ever televised on ESPN.  1.5 million people watched the 1-0 loss that had Beckham appear for 12 minutes.

Finally, one of my favorite baseball players announced that he was retiring… then turned around and hit a grand slam.  Astros’ Craig Biggio announced he was retiring at the end of the season.  Biggio has 3000 hits and he’s the only player in major league history with 600 doubles, 250 HRs, 3000 hits and 400 steals.  He’s a 7-time all-star and played numerous positions including catcher despite mostly being a second baseman.  Biggio might be the most underrated player due to his under-the-radar workman-like effort.  He made the playoffs four times and the World Series once. 

If Biggio ain’t a Hall Of Famer on the first ballot, I know nothing about baseball.

The first negative hit to the bankroll occurred.  I guess i was bound to happen as my 3+ week winning streak has ended with a -$13 day.  Back to $190 but still ahead of schedule.  I got killed playing heads up 7-Stud Hi/Lo by a guy who just couldn’t miss on 7th street.  In addition, I made it through Round 1 of the Gutshot.com qualifier for the Borgata Poker Open.  All I had to do was outlast 91 other players to make the top 9 of a 100 player tournament.  Now, I’m set to play on Sunday and will have to outlast at least 100 players to make the top 10 again.  If I can do that, then I get a shot at one of 9 trips to the Borgata with the top spot being a $10,000 seat in the Borgata Poker Open.  The other 8 spots are $1,000 satellite seats.

It’s scary what is considered news these days.  Even scarier that I read most of it.  Apparently, Lindsay Lohan is out of rehab again.  She was spotted her first night out at PURE in Vegas with an alcohol monitor on.  At the end of the night, she was seen headed back to her suite at Caesar’s with Criss Angel.  I was going to put some crude joke in here about Criss Angel making something disappear but I thought the better of it.  So, why is it that every time I see Lindsay Lohan’s name I have to read the story?  I know it is going to be a complete waste of time but I’m still fascinated for some reason.

Star Jones is going to reveal how she lost all that weight.  I would tell you more but once the headline said Star Jones I clicked to the next story.  the only reason I know the rest is because I read really fast and I accidentally saw the rest of the headline.

In other former "The View" panel member news.  Rosie O’Donnell received an offer from Donald Trump to appear on the next edition of "The Apprentice".  I am a big reality TV watcher… American Idol, Survivor, So You Think You Can Dance?, Hell’s Kitchen, Celebrity Fit Club just to name a few.  Heck, I even watched Pirate Master this summer.  However, "The Apprentice" has never really caught my attention.  Despite declining ratings every season since its’ inception, "The Apprentice" is coming back with a group of celebrity contestants and The Donald has asked Rosie’s people if she’d do it.  She’s declined already and no one has been named to the cast but I might be enticed to watch if there’s a chance I get to see Donald Trump fire some C-List celebrities.  I’m still waiting for Survivor’s celebrity season.  Guess it hasn’t quite jumped the shark yet to make that happen.

Finally, onto Final Table news.  The Final Table is set and there are 9 players remaining that will begin play in the next few hours.  If you want to see if live, you could plunk down $20 and watch the "action" unfold on PPV.  The "action" will be extremely slow paced as all live events are at this point and the only thing that could save such a telecast is great commentary and guests throughout.  Plus, a ton of the pros who come around and watch get completely sloshed and then say whatever on a live feed.  It might be worth the $20.

Here’s how the final table sets up (Where’s Phil Gordon to do the chip counts?… Oh wait, he’ll be doing the PPV broadcast tonight):

Seat 1 - John Kalmar ($20.32 million in chips - 3rd)

Kalmar, from Chorly, Lancashire (UK) is a 34-year-old professional poker player who rarely makes it to the States.  He actually tried to leave early due to a bad run at the WSOP, failing to cash throughout the lower buy-in events.  When he attempted to change his flight and found out it would cost $600, he instead entered a $500 Satellite for a seat at the Main Event, the last satellite run at the Rio.  The rest as they say is history.

Seat 2 - Lee Childs (13.24 million in chips - 5th)

Childs is 35 and from Reston, Virginia, a suburb of Washington DC.  He is an aspiring poker pro who recently quit his job at a high tech firm affiliated with National Geographic.  Every bio I read says he loves his incredible wife.  So, he must love his wife.

Seat 3 - Philip Hilm (22.07 million in chips - CHIP LEADER)

The 31-year-old from Cambridge (UK) is currently on top of the poker world’s biggest tournament.  He’s a native of Denmark and spent 2 years living in Poland getting to know his mother’s side of the family.  I’m sure his bio will bulk up the deeper he takes this chip stack into the Main Event.

Seat 4 - Jerry Yang ($8.45 million in chips - 8th)

Yang is a 39-year-old psychologist and social worker from Temecula, California.  He has 6 children and was born in Laos.  He’s only been playing poker for two years and he won his seat playing a $250 satellite at the Pechanga casino in California.  He’s pledged to donate 10% of his winnings to three charities - The Make-A-Wish Foundation, Feed the Children and The Ronald McDonald House.  If he wins it all, that would be an $800,000+ donation.  Exiting first would only be around $50k. 

Seat 5 -Raymond Rahme ($16.32 million in chips - 4th)

Rahme is the oldest player remaining in the field at 62.  He’s also the first player to ever make the final table from the continent of Africa as he calls Johannesburg, South Africa.  He took fourth place in the "All Africa Poker Championship", the largest poker tournament ever held in Africa.  This entry was part of his prize.  His supporters have a habit of yellling "Ship It To Africa!" when he wins a pot.  I guess it isn’t any worse than "Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oy! Oy! Oy!"

Seat 6 -Tuan Lam ($21.31 million in chips - 2nd)

Lam was born in Vietnam on New Year’s Day in 1966 during the Vietnam War.  He immigrated to Canada at age 19 and calls Mississauga, Ontario home.  This is his third year at the Main Event and he’s cashed in other tournaments in previous years.  This will be his biggest cash yet.

Seat 7 - Alex Kravchenko ($6.57 million in chips - 9th)

Kravchenko is the short stack and I find it incredibly odd that I’m calling over $6 million in chips the short stack.  The 36-year-old businessman originally from Archangel, Russia now resides in Moscow.  His 8 year poker career took off this year as he became the first ever Russian citizen to win a WSOP bracelet, taking down the largest field in an Omaha Hi/Lo event in the history of the WSOP.  He has won other tournaments in Europe including the Austrian Masters Pot-Limit Championship in 2001 and Russian Pot-Limit Championship the same year.  He won a limit title in the Helsinki Freezeout in 2002 and has cashed over 30 times in his poker career.  Kravchenko will be cashing for the fifth time this year at the WSOP.  What’s more amazing is that he has been short stacked throughout the round of 36 and comes in as the shortest stack at the table.  From what I remember, Joe Hachem was in a similar situation two years ago when he won.  He may not have been the shortest stack but it took a few double ups for him to get back into contention and win.

Seat 8 - Lee Watkinson ($9.92 million in chips - 7th)

Watkinson is an accomplished poker pro and can occassionally be seen playing online at Full Tilt Poker.  He’s 40 and from Cheney, Washington.  He owns a WSOP bracelet and got his by winning the Pot-Limit Omaha Championship in 2006.  He’s cashed numerous times at the WSOP and has been seen on the WPT also.  He qualified by playing at Full Tilt and would receive an additional $10 million if he were to win the event from Full Tilt.  He and his fiance Tammi Derosa are committed to rescuing and retiring captive chimpanzees that are used in everything from research labs to movies.  Watkinson is a heavy supporter of these types of charities and expect a decent donation going that way when Watkinson exits.  He’s probably the favorite to win due to his experience.

Seat 9 - Hevad "Rain" Khan ($9.02 million in chips - 8th)

The youngest player in the field, Khan is 22.  Originally from Poughkeepsie, NY, Khan has moved around the country since attending State University of New York-Albany including San Francisco and Vegas.  He is infamous in the online poker world as screen name "RainKhan".  Khan was once booted from Poker Stars as they identified him as a bot (a computer program set up to play poker).  Khan was spotted on Poker Stars sitting at over 40 Sit & Go’s at one time.  It wasn’t until he sent Poker Stars a video of himself playing in 26 Sit & Go’s that they believed he was not a bot and reinstated him.  Khan has been one of the more interesting characters to remain.

As for my fearless prediction, it’s really a crap shoot as no one has dominated the tournament to this point.  I’m going to go out on a limb and take the longshot on the board, Alex Kravchenko as he has just seemed to play the most consistent poker throughout although it has never shown in his chip stack.  Following the results the last few days, it never seemed like Kravchenko was in serious danger despite being the small stack.  If not Kravchenko, I’ll take Watkinson.

The final table is truly a World Series Of Poker final table as the table has many players from foreign soil.  Two are from England (but one of those was born in Denmark).  One is from Canada (but born in Vietnam).  One from South Africa and Russia.  Of the four players from the US, one was born in Laos and two are from the East Coast and two from the West Coast.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out.  I think whomever wins this year may get a little more respect than the last few winners as there are some accomplished players at this year’s final table.