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.

My blogging has been slowed recently by other distractions like that four-letter ‘W’ word and my poker has been limited as well.  I have, however, had some minor success and been able to slightly increase my bankroll but still have not eclipsed the $1600 benchmark.

What I can’t figure out is why am I so much more successful on Full Tilt than I am on Poker Stars.  I made another final table in my favorite tournament last night… the $1 Razz Tournament (called The Ferguson) on Full Tilt.  I finished 4th for the 2nd week in a row and this time it was out of 509 players.  I won $38 which is a 3800% ROI.

Over the weekend, I struggled in the Razz tournament for the Team Event despite being the early chip leader.  However, Poker Stars extremely slow structure allowed some players to dig out of their holes and I slowly fell back to the pack and finished 6th.  My last chance in the Team Event I was able to finish 3rd in the Hold’em event and score 7 points for my team.  My other team member, lapchong, finished 2nd and we were able to finish 2nd overall in the team event.  It was where I saw us finishing as we had some holes but if I would have played better in the Stud and Razz, we might have had a real shot at taking it down.

What was Cam Cameron thinking on Sunday?  My +10 Dolphins bet looked like a lock at halftime but than a series of unfortunate events (including the ineffective Donovan McNabb going down) led the Eagles to a resurgence in the second half and the Dolphins found themselves down 10.  On 4th & Goal with about 5 minutes to go, Cameron not only goes for it on 4th down instead of taking the 3 points and getting within one score but also runs a horrible sweep play where no one blocks and the Eagles put up a great goal line stand.  The game ended as a push so I didn’t lose anything but it was frustrating.  I got a push in the Browns game too after that goofy end of regulation play… quite a bizarre weekend.  At least I was able to pick up one win with the Vikings over the Raiders and I stayed away from the Titans on Monday night for a small profit.  Sports betting is not good for the heart.

Jimmy Rollins was announced as the National League MVP today… a well deserved reward for the greatest short stop in Phillies history and a fun player to watch.  I’m really looking forward to baseball season to see if this team can improve.

I was promoted today on the Surfers Poker Forum to Green Room access granted.  There’s only 10 of us and I’ve only been on there since August.  I guess I’m adding to the value of the forum.  I’ve only been on there since August and I think I’ve posted 1100+ times… that’s pretty disturbing when you think about it.  I think I average about 10 posts a day.  I really find it to be more of a credit to the forum and not me because the people on there are fun to interact with.  I am on many forums and rarely post on others… this one just always catches my attention.

This holiday season is going to be rough… I have no idea what anyone wants and I always wait until the last minute. 

Y2J, Chris Jericho, is back on WWE.  I can’t believe I still watch wrestling every week and was slowly starting to lose interest with John Cena gone.  Jericho returning should be enough to keep me entertained until the Royal Rumble and then I’m hooked until Wrestlemania.

Heroes is getting really good again… it’s about time!  The hero/villain who bleeds black from her eyes was not on last week… that’s good for me.  George Takaei was back on as Hiro’s dad but I think he is really killed off this time.  It’s tough to say with there always being an opportunity to do some time travel. 

Since I haven’t done this in a while:

GoogleTrends Hot List - 11/20/07 @ 8 PM

• Lakers trade
  It didn’t take moving Kobe for a Lakers move to register on GoogleTrends.  Brian Cook and Maurice Evans to Orlando for Trevor Ariza.  Ariza is a former UCLA product and is probably going to be a popular move with the fans. 
• Johnny Estrada
  Estrada was traded to the Mets for pitcher Guillermo Mota today by the Brewers.  (Is everyone on Google while they watch SportsCenter?)  It looks like Estrada will join the ranks of the many in baseball who play for a number of teams.  Estrada, originally a Phillies product, will be suiting up for his 5th team in 8 seasons come opening day.  This gives me an opportunity to say that I don’t like the Mets and I hope they get off to a great start in ‘08 only to crumble and finish a game out like they did this year.
• Trevor Ariza
  The key player in the Lakers-Magic trade today. 
• Monique Idlett
  Have a baby, die or get engaged and you are almost a lock for the GoogleTrends list.  Idlett gpt engaged to uber-producer Timbaland AND they had a baby.  It’s a ‘two-for-one’ Hot Lister. 
• Oprah’s favorite things
  Oprah makes Christmas come early for whomever she decides to grant most favoritest product status.  This year it is the LG HDTV Refrigerator, the Clarisonic (a skin care device), the Scrabble Premiere edition, The Pillars Of The Earth by Ken Follett, a $100 panini press and a whole bunch of other crap no one needs… but you’ll click on Oprah’s Favorite Things anyway… sucker!
• Scott McClellan
  In his memoirs, former White House press secretary admits he was a mere pawn of the public deception machine that was the Bush Presidency.  I have no respect for these people who do such a thing and then wait on the information until they can profit from their inability to do the right thing at the right time.  Thanks, Scott for becoming this week’s Captain Obvious!
• Clarisonic
  One of Oprah’s Favorite Things!  Can someone write Oprah and tell her about my blog and see if she’ll declare it one of her favorite things… I really didn’t mean the sucker comment, I swear!!!
• toy watch
  Another day, another dangerous toy!  It reminds me of that SNL skit with Dan Akroyd with the dangerous toys… Bag O’ Glass… good stuff!
• Planet Earth DVD
  On behalf of the Discovery Channel store, I would like to thank Oprah for her designation of this product as one of her favorite things.  I can see the mass-manufacturing of that sticker now to be thrown on a box.
• Sweet Caroline lyrics
  Neil Diamond revealed that his muse for this song was Caroline Kennedy.  I also learned that the BOMP, BOMP, BAH is not actually in the lyrics at all.  Who knew?

I increased my bankroll by about $10 since my last blog, thanks to cash game success… and no thanks to tournament play.

Through my tournament play, I ended up dropping a decent amount of money over the past two days only to have to win it all back in the cash games.  The only real cash I had in a tournament was in tonight’s $1 Rebuy on Full Tilt for $6.16.  This cash occurred after re-buying 12 times and adding on for a total cost of $14.  I walked into Kings when trying to take down the blinds with AJ and failed to suck out to finish 42nd out of roughly 350 players.  It was a fun tournament though.

The cash game tonight was particularly spectacular as the table was perfect for me.  I played my typical $0.25/$0.50 CAP NLHE table and bought in for $30.  By the time I walked away, I was up $52 in just under 2 hours of play.  At a $0.25/$0.50 CAP NLHE (6-MAX) table that is a pretty good $26/hour clip.  Here’s a glimpse at my stats:

Hands Played: 158
FLOP SEEN - 50 (32%)
TURN SEEN - 23 (15%)
RIVER SEEN - 16 (10%)
SHOWDOWNS - 11 (7%)

Hands Won (30)
PRE-FLOP - 11 (7%)
FLOP - 7 (14%)
TURN - 1 (4%)
RIVER - 3 (19%)
SHOWDOWN - 8 (73%)

Very solid statistics and I was extremely happy with my play at the cash table. 

The Rockies won tonight… they are on fire!  The Phillies off-season has already kicked off quickly.  Charlie Manuel is back for 2 more years.  Barajas and Nunez won’t be coming back.  Abraham Nunez was the definition of irony.  An excellent fielding third baseman who couldn’t hit to save his life.  The irony in it all is that the guy couldn’t bunt.  The rule in baseball is if you can field but can’t hit, you probably are fast and definately can bunt… Nunez just couldn’t bunt.

Speaking of bunting, I would love to see Ryan Howard lay down a bunt out of nowhere next year.  Look at the defensive alignment out there when he is at the plate and the guy could shock everyone with a bunt that might make the other team think twice when setting their defense against Howard.  Maybe i’m just crazy.

From a sports betting standpoint, it was a good weekend:  UNC over Miami on Saturday, Atlanta with the points over Tennessee, Jacksonville over KC, San Diego over Denver and New England was a push.  I did take two losses with New Orleans and Green Bay but 4-2-1 is not bad. 

The poker bankroll is right around $1220 again.  I had a rough Saturday but played with a maniac who tripled me up at a cash game.  He’s a person I know from Surfers and decided to push all-in every hand for $30 and I picked him off a few times.  I missed once and that cost me $90 (the $30 I put in and the $30 the other two put in) when my AT failed to hold up against K8 and 74.  But I still managed to have a healthy recovery thanks to his action.

The Phillies are out?  In 3 games, the Phillies came up small and showed their playoff inexperience.  Only thing that could salvage this baseball postseason is an early Yankees exit.  Looking forward to the Phils in ‘08 though.. Hopefully, they get an answer to their pitching problems and not go as thin as ‘07 thanks to the injuries.

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

 

Registration code: 9834686

Above is a link to the WBCOOP, the World Blogger Championship Of Online Poker, which I hope to earn entry into based on (A) I play poker and (B) I blog about poker and (C) I put that banner in my blog.  Prize pool is juicy and from what I have heard, it is a good event.

I came up short in the WSOSP events this weekend, an mid-exit in the Freeroll on Saturday and a disappointing 6th place in the 5-Card Draw event on Sunday. 

Where to begin?  I decided to not update my blog until after the Charity tournament on Full Tilt on Sunday but a lot has happened.  I’ve attached a picture here of the donation thanks to the tournament as $54 was raised and I matched it for a total of $108 donation.  Thanks to all who participated including Tramp1579 from Surfers Poker who won it all and Lynette Chan, a Full Tilt pro, who also participated.  Tramp also eliminated Lynette in 4th on his way to the win.  I was too busy celebrating the Phillies playoff-clinching win to concentrate and went out 12 of 12.

THE PHILLIES ARE IN THE PLAYOFFS!  I didn’t realize my emotional investment until it finally happened.  The Brett Myers pitch to win it was close to an emotional moment for me… thankfully I didn’t have to talk to anyone at the time.  This team is really likable and a lot of guys on there you want to see win.  If Jimmy Rollins isn’t MVP then I don’t know what the criteria is for such an award.  His historic 20th triple was amazing and I’m glad to find out my brother’s heart is strong as he might still be screaming.

The live home game drought continues… kinda.  I cashed for the 4th consecutive tournament but failed to win for the 23rd consecutive time.  I got really unlucky at the end but my opponent was getting nearly 2 to 1 to call.  I had 99 and he held 74 which made me about an 80-20 favorite.  The flop brought a 7 and the turn a 4 which made me a disappointing 3rd place finish.  I collected 3 bounties during the tournament so I netted $25 for the tourney and became the first player to ever cash in 4 consecutive tournaments.

Now, a rant about live games and psychology.  Whatever I say during a poker game is completely to affect my opponent.  I love to get inside another player’s head and make them think about something other than the game when we play.  I obviously got inside the eventual winner’s head, my friend, Chris.  Although he crossed the line that I try to never cross which is taking the verbal jousting to beyond the game itself.  Once I was eliminated, Chris decided to tell me how he really felt about my constant commentary on the way he was playing.  So, either he is completely oblivious to my attempts to shake him or he didn’t care but he was very unhappy about my comments about his tight passive play with the big stack coming down the stretch.

Now, in my defense, the only reason I was especially verbal about his play was due to his undying need to tell the remaining 2 players how aggressive he was going to be on the next hand and how frustrated he was that he was playing so late.  For nearly two hours, Chris said over and over again how he was going to go all-in and he was ready to give up… over and over again.  I would have chalked it up to psychology on his part but he also made the same comments during the week during a 45 minute call we had about how he was going to play different this tournament because he just didn’t care. 

This "new" style for Chris really chalked up to it being his old style minus an early ultra-aggressive move on the flop with AK and called all-in by Kings by Danny Doops who was sick to see a 3 outer on the river for Chris.  Then Chris returned to his completely invisible style and waited out the rest of the players as Drew and I did the leg work eliminating 8 of the 10 players getting down to the final three.  Then Chris outplayed Drew and took it down.

I’m not questioning Chris’ play at all.  The only reason I said anything during the tournament because of his constant BS about how he was going to play differently when he really wasn’t.  And then to take it beyond the game was completely uncalled for, in my opinion.  The worst was that you could see he was waiting for that moment to sink his teeth in because as soon as I was eliminated, Chris was all of a sudden the most chatty player in the world. 

Just a reminder, it took a 4-to-1 underdog suck-out to get rid of me and I didn’t need a 13% suck-out to get that deep.  I’ll continue to say that as long as I don’t get unlucky, I will always be there at the end.  I have 4 consecutive cashes to prove it, too.  And if you want to take a shot at me, do it while we are in the game because as soon as the game is over, I figure we are friendly again but I guess sometimes the truth might hurt!

Finally, I’m 0 for 2 in WSOSP events but am looking forward to the Shorthanded Freeroll and 5-Card Draw tourney this weekend.  Also, I am officially qualified for the Bronze Iron Man Freeroll in two weeks on Full Tilt.  It’s my second Iron Man event and I hope to cash in this one.  Top prize is $1500 and a chance to get to the heads up vs. the pros round.  I’m feeling like I’m running OK so I got a real shot at it.  We’ll see!

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. 

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?

Lots of random stuff today.  I continued my hot streak with a few more cashes and two more final tables.  One final table in a PL Omaha Hi/Lo tournament (I think it is my first ever MTT cash in PL Omaha Hi/Lo - a game I don’t play much) and a disappointing 7th place finish at the $2000 Guaranteed Stud tournament last night.  It was disappointing only in the fact that I always expect to win when I play Stud.

Through my play the bankroll has been bumped to $1275+.  I am playing “lights out” poker right now.  Last night, John Juanda was holding a chat session on Full Tilt and I got to ask him a few questions since the chat session was at around 5 or 6 am.  I talked to him about cashing in tournaments and he basically said you need to Top 3 in tournaments and don’t sweat the cashing part.  That’s always something I struggle with when I get really close and I tend to tighten up a little more than I probably should. 

I texted myself yesterday to remember to mention a few things during my next blog and hopefully I can cover those here.

It’s fantasy football season again and I am still retired from playing.  The last season I played of fantasy football I went undefeated and the season before I lost only 2 games.  I just can’t get into it anymore.  If you play, draft a strong running back and if you have the top pick and pass on LaDainian Tomlinson, you are insane!  You are going to hear something from me that you never hear from any other person talking about fantasy football… the quarterback position is overrated and the tight end position is underrated.  I’m not saying that you should draft a tight end high and wait until your 5th or 6th pick to grab a QB but I have done that before and it can work out.  The reason?  Take the #1 QB and compare him to the #8 QB and then take the #1 TE and compare him to the #8 TE… you’ll see a huge productivity difference.

Here’s this year’s example: (Using a random fantasy football prognosticator online)

QB #1 - Peyton Manning - 360.4 points
QB #8 - Tony Romo - 296.1 points
Difference of Production - 64.3 Points (4.0 PPG)

TE #1 - Antonio Gates - 160.9 points
TE #8 - Alge Crumpler - 94.6 points
Difference of Production - 66.3 Points (4.2 PPG)

Now, this may not seem like a huge difference but the key to fantasy football success is beating your opponent position-by-position.  When you look at the combination, which one would you rather have?  Manning & Crumpler or Romo & Gates?  You know if you have Manning or Gates you are going to get exactly what is expected but the upside of Romo is huge compared to Crumpler.  And the downside?  If Crumpler gets hurt, his replacement will be lucky to receive for 40 yards per week.  If Romo gets hurt, the biggest gold mine in fantasy football is nailing the right backup quarterback.  Don’t neglect the tight end!

Quick Top Ten

My Top 10 Favorite Sports Jerseys I Own:

1. 2007-08 LaDainian Tomlinson #21 Chargers Jersey (Powder Blue)
2. Vince Young #10 Titans Jersey (Dark)
3. LeBron James High School Jersey
4. Randall Cunningham UNLV Jersey
5. Randall Cunningham Vikings Jersey
6. Personalized Sixers Jersey (Joseph #13)
7. Terrell Owens Black #81 Eagles Jersey
8. William Thomas #51 Eagles Jersey (Been Worn Out)
9. Cris Carter Ohio State Jersey
10. Carmelo Anthony Dark Blue Nuggets Jersey

Sure, it isn’t the traditional top ten and sadly enough, some jerseys missed the cut!  What was I thinking when I bought that Mike Modano Dallas Stars jersey… I hate hockey!

So, why did I bring up jerseys?  I noticed something about 6 months back and it keeps coming up time and again.  The reverse racism of football jersey choosing.  Before I see the person, if I see an Eli Manning jersey, I know it is going to be worn by a black guy and if it is a Plaxico Burress jersey it’ll be worn by a white guy.  On the field Marvin Harrison is black and Peyton Manning is white… off the field Harrison is across the back of a white guy and Manning is across the back of a black guy.

Yesterday, I saw 6 jerseys and it was the same thing:  Jeremy Shockey, Drew Brees and Tom Brady were all worn by African-Americans and Larry Johnson, Donovan McNabb and Brian Westbrook were all worn by Caucasians.  It’s such a weird phenomenon.  Maybe it’s just a coincidence.

The Phillies are hotter than ever.  They swept the Mets and have won 6 straight and are now 2 back… this is where they suck me in and it ends in disappointment in October.  You know what… i don’t care!  It was lots of fun the last two years and will be lots of fun this year too.

Finally, the final numbers are in for the month of August and I’ve had a few more visitors this month than last but still not a ton.  Thanks to those of you who have stopped by.  I’m thinking of a way to drive traffic to my site.  Any suggestions, please e-mail me at bjoseph22@comcast.net. 

The best feature though is anyone who found my site through a search.  Here were the two searches that clicked on my site:

“Where can I buy a spiderpig?” and “Pearljammer interview”.  I can’t wait to see why people accidentally come across my site through searches.  Maybe I should just start typing Britney Spears and random thoughts afterwards… I’m sure that’ll get some net attention. 

You know… I almost forgot to mention that David Beckham is most likely out for the rest of the season in his MLS debut year.  This will bring the Year 1 Beckham season to status of huge disappointment.  So much for Becks revolutionizing soccer in the US… he may have actually set it back this year.

So, on a whim, instead of playing in the $10+$1 Razz tournament tonight, I decided to give The Ferguson a shot.  The Ferguson (named for Full Tilt pro Chris "Jesus" Ferguson and started due to Chris’ challenge to turn nothing into $10,000) is a $1 tournament in various formats nightly.  Tonight was the $1 HORSE tournament and featured Lee Watkinson, Michael Craig, myself and 540 other players.

A long night ended disappointingly after I lost a big hand in Razz when my 97 low failed to improve or hold up and my opponent caught 95 to take down the hand.  Then, I was finished off in Stud as the chipleader hit a straight on 6th and I was practically all-in and failed to hit my flush draw… I finished 3rd out of 540 or so players.

For the win, I received $55 and I’m up to $1238 and still doing well when it comes to my quest to hit $2000.  I’d like to accomplish it before the end of the year being as ahead of the pace as I am.  We’ll see.

Adding to the fun was the group of railbirds from Surfers Poker.  Lord Jenkins, TomPerez and Michaelandros stopped by to root me on and hung out most of the way.  At the point of hitting the money, I was at 16th out of 56 and then won a huge hand when I scooped in Omaha Hi/Lo with the nut straight and the near nut low that skyrocketed me to 1st place.  Unfortunately, my night ended in 3rd but I was SOOO close.

Now, I have 2 days to post a few more strong finishes to take down the Sharkfin award on Surfers.  I’m at 18 points (I think) and need to pass DrJustice who is currently at 20 points.  With two days to go, I’m going to have my work cut out for me.  We’ll see.

The Phillies are on the verge of sweeping the Mets and getting back into serious contention for the playoffs.  It’s been an amazing three nights of games that ends in a day game today.  I wish I could blow off work and go but I, unfortunately, can’t. 

I got my new laptop… I appreciate the guy at Circuit City who only tried to sell me what I need… greatly appreciate that!

I’m spent… time for bed!