Party Poker Blog

Phil Gordon & Sam Farha Celebrity Poker Blogs

"Nobody is always a winner, and anybody who says he is, is either a liar or doesn't play poker."
Amarillo Slim

Yup, even good players lose often.
Accepting that truism as a student of poker is one thing. Using it as an excuse for poor play is another. Discerning the difference is what separates the long-term good players from the bad.

Especially when playing at Party Poker.

Russ Gorgiev listed Amarillo Slim on his list of top 100 poker cheats. To be fair, he listed every damn 'name' in poker, including David Sklansky & Howard Lederer, on that list. Apparently Mike Caro is the only guy who never cheated the games.

Poker mafia, my ass.

My humble apologies for missing a few days of posting. I try to be diligent about posting EVERY day but I keep doing well in these damn tournaments and become too drunk tired to blog.

It's been a whirlwind couple of days, I've been busy drinking working on several projects, including my no-limit tournament this weekend. Now I see why event planners make good coin. Because of my altrusitic bent towards promoting poker, I will be taking a financial bath on the running of said tourney. I'm not charging an entry fee and all money is being redistributed back to the players in prize money. Stupid? Probably. But my crack legal team advised me to run things in this manner to avoid legal problems.

But regardless, I'm not putting the tourney on for anything but to simply have fun and let newbies get a taste of sheer terror/joy playing WSOP-style no-limit poker. I truly enjoy mixing an eclectic cast of characters at the poker table. Our home game host doesn't call me "Julie the Cruise Director" for no reason (Love Boat reference for all you youngins).

Allrighty then, ready for some poker links?

For all of us WSOP folks here's good stuff:

Vegas Keeps World Series of Poker
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As Harrah's executives finalize the deal to buy Binion's and employees wait to hear whether they will be hired back on, the fate of the world famous World Series of Poker has been decided, and it's good news for Las Vegas. The World Series of Poker is going to stay right here in it's birthplace, in the casino where it all began -- Binion's Horseshoe.
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Harrah's expected to sell Horseshoe
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There's an element of sadness that this is something my parents worked so hard to build, and I was unable to make it succeed," Becky Behnen said.
--

Where is Jack Binion?
Oh yeah, he's off being successful.

World Poker Tour Launches Licensing Program; Brandgenuity Selected as its Exclusive Trademark Licensing Agency to Capitalize on Demand for World Poker Tour Products.
Business Wire (press release)
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With the enormous popularity of the World Poker Tour (WPT) on The Travel Channel, licensees have been pursuing WPT with requests to license the brand. In this highly favorable climate, the World Poker Tour is turning to Brandgenuity, LLC, an independent boutique trademark licensing agency, to launch a strategic World Poker Tour brand licensing program.
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Online gambling site tangled in Korean politics
Article posted by siliconvalley.com: Complicated issues made doubly so by the antagonism between South and North Korea.

Huge numbers for "Celebrity Poker"
TV Barn
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INAUGURAL SEASON FINALE OF BRAVO'S 'CELEBRITY POKER SHOWDOWN' DRAWS RECORD AUDIENCE WITH MORE THAN 1.7 MILLION TOTAL VIEWERS
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Here's the newest blogger on the block, Ed. He's made several solid, lengthy posts so please take the time to check it out.
Openers: A Poker Blog
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I don't remember who suggested signing up as a female character, but I did that too--we'll see if I can take advantage of any gender bias out there. I like this idea--it's cross-dressing without having to buy a whole new wardrobe.
--

And thanks to Vagaries of an online poker player who found this new blog,
Poker & Devotion, What I'm learning about life as a grinder.

BoyGenius waxes poetic about hot women he'd like to pork sleep with for the second day, along with copious poker content. Great stuff per usual.

Stick and Move has won the Hammer Challenge!! Funny, funny stuff.

For the record, I tried it in a NL tourney and after I typed in "HAMMER" and raised, everyone folded to me.

Good news from Pokergrub:
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After politely hounding Lee Jones at PokerStars again, he responded quickly and said they'll be implementing private tourney capability sometime after the WPT cruise. And when they do, they'll make a big splash about it. So: patience, bloggers!
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Doh, TheFatGuy nearly cut his finger off cutting up some evil veggies. I hope this doesnt hinder his mousing ability on Party Poker no-limit to SLIDE THE BAR ALL THE WAY TO THE RIGHT.

I'm very happy to see Pauly back in the saddle and posting. Go check out his poker trip reports. Lord, Pauly can post.

Poker Penguin continues his fine posting. I especially enjoyed this observation:
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Don't let your past expectations rule your play. Poker is like sword-fighting, if you aren't basing your actions on the most up to date information, you're in trouble.
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And finally, my man Royal is still documenting his foray into the low limits. Royal, a formidable big-bet poker player, is taking the time to tweak his game by playing 10,000 hands at 50.1 limit poker. He can easily play higher but is choosing to start at the bottom and work his way up. I truly admire this and he is gonna emerge with one scary game. Kudos.

Moving to a 2+2 post, here is a David Ross reply to a guy who just got laid off and is looking at online poker for income ala David Ross.
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Good Luck buddy, sorry to hear about the job. I'm sure you'll do fine. THere are over 30,000 people playing Party/Empire each night now, there are some good games. My advice would be to monitor your play always. I find after running real well for a while I get loose and chase too much. Then when the cards go cold you have a problem. Don't panic at a 200 BB loss, it's happened to me several times now. You know you can beat these games so play as many hours as you can handle without letting your play deteriorate.
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Pivotal advice: 'My advice would be to monitor your play always.'

Good luck to anyone not using PokerTracker who "thinks" they are monitoring their play. You are delusional. And quite possibly a fishie.

I've been pleasantly surprised at my no-limit tourney play after grinding in limit for so long. Thanks to Hdouble for the encouragement.

A no-limit tournament truism I'm trying to stick deep on my brain:
Don't get involved where you are either a small favorite or a big dog.

Put Phil Helmuth to this test. Phil doesn't like coin flips. But even more, this principle can be extended well beyond poker. The Lloyd's of London names are the final underwriters of insurance policies. Their profits come from the premiums paid to insure against risks. Their losses arise when disaster strikes. The liability is unlimited and their profit a set sum. Everything went well for 300 years, and the "players" sat back and made their profits with virtually no work. Then an unusually number of high claims in succession bankrupted some very rich people.

Selling short in the stock market suffers from the same problem. The price of a stock cannot sink below zero, but it can rise to undefined heights. If you can't get out in time, sooner or later you are going to go bankrupt.

But I'm certain all fifteen of my readers know this.

Speaking of my favorite poker player, Phil Helmuth was knocked out of Aussie Millions.
Key Hand:
Phil Helmuth is out, after getting involved in a pot that cost him dearly. Phil raised pre-flop and was called by Perth ex-dealer Han Luu. It was always going to be action with two diamonds on the flop and an eight. Han had flopped a set and Phil was on a big flush draw. Han set it up, betting 12K on the flop. Phil went all-in for the rest of his 64K stack. Han called, and with no diamond coming, took most of Phil’s stack, leaving him with only $100 left. He was eliminated in a three-way all-in hand two hands later. Bye Bye Mister Phil Helmuth!

Search traffic weirdness: Someone came here on a Google search for
"fuck my wife poker prize"

Oh the humanity.

Alrighty, I'm happy I was able to post today. Now I'm off to run assorted errands for my tournament tomorrow evening. We're expecting terrible weather tomorrow so that will likely cut into attendance, which is probably a good thing.

And because it's Friday, I'll share one of my all-time favorite web sites with you. Bookmark this sucker for whenever you need a chuckle. Click on the pages on the left side to start digging through the photo's and commentary.

Link of the Day:
Cliff Yablonski Hates You
Cliff Yablonski is making a name for himself in the field of ill-advised personal photographs, observing the physical condition, lifestyle choices and fashion sense of modern humans with anthropological precision. "If you look closely, you can guess its age by counting the fat rings," he writes of one subject.

TJ Cloutier & Dan Harrington Poker Blogs

"For the true gambler, money is never an end in itself. It's a tool, like language or thought."
Lancey, The Cincinnati Kid

I'm saddened that with this post, the vegan bashing goes into the archives. Lotsa good stuff in da archives.

Alrighty then, where was I? Oh yeah, continuing my dissertation on how to choke in large no-limit tournaments, I finished 30th last nite with twenty places paying a seat in the Big One. 500+ players. This time I overplayed AK after three hours of perfect poker. Lost my 90k stack on the turn of one card. Good times!

However, I take solace in that I played very well until that one damn hand. One no-limit concept that I've taken to heart from Doyle Brunson's SuperSystem, is the bet into the pre-flop raiser play. If I had the book handy I'd quote from it. But for now, thank you Doyle.

Check out these numbers from Party Pokers Big Weekend Tournament.

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Buy-In $200 + $15
Entrants 1700
Total Prize Pool $340,000
Places Paid 80

PartyPoker.com’s Sunday tournament drew a maximum capacity Super Mega field! 1700 players competed for a prize pool of $340,000 with yoridori outlasting the field to claim the 1st place prize of $68,000.

1st: yoridori $68,000.00
2nd: sakti $40,800.00
3rd: cibom1905 $23,800.00
4th: callonlyonce $20,400.00
5th: royo1 $17,000.00
6th: Getcher $13,600.00
7th: Steve1219 $10,200.00
8th: Wildcat77 $8,500.00
9th: TjStone20 $6,800.00
10th: imallinn $5,100.00
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THAT'S why I'm playing satellites.

Interesting update from Inthacup on 2+2. If you'll recall my prior post, he is attempting to earn ten grand playing $100 Sit and Go's.
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So far this week, I’ve played in 79 100+9s and 16 200+15s.
100+9 stats:
79 Tourneys
% in money: 45.57%
Gross winnings: $12,400
Net winnings: $3,789
Avg. Finish: 4.47
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Ready for even more incredible poker coverage from the mainstream press? The poker gold rush continues.

Fox News reporting on
Vegas, Baby: TV Bets on Gambling
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"This is a trend that's going to continue," said Kristin Veitch, a TV columnist for E! Online. "The guys need something to watch while the women are watching how to make over their homes."
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Good Lord, if I was Felicia I'd be offended by that statement. I'm happy to see some poker bloggers introduce themselves on her excellent poker mailing list.

Geepers, they are playing hold-em all over Kansas in bars.
Fans flock to new local card tourneys
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Several bars, including Club Groove at 1206 S. Rock Road, offer their own poker tournaments. Ron Denoncourt, who owns Club Groove, said his tournaments draw as many as 500 people a week.

And the new Amateur Poker League, run by entrepreneur Dave Wallace, has at least 1,200 active members who play every night of the week at bars across the city.
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Investigation follows publishing of above article.

From the I can't make this shit up department:
CNN is reporting that online gambling site PartyPoker.com replaces automaker Dodge as sponsor of the Lingerie Bowl, the controversial Super Bowl halftime pay-per-view show that will feature models wearing lingerie playing tackle football.
Lingerie Bowl has new sponsor

Clearly, the decline of Western Civilization is happening right before my eyes.

A long, worthwhile read from Newsday.
The Real Deal
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Poker-loving Americans - estimates run as high as 80 million - plunk down their chips everywhere from posh California card halls to college dorms in Suffolk County. "If you ask me, poker is the new extreme sport," said Kathy Raymond, director of poker operations at Foxwoods, often a site of televised World Poker Tour showdowns. On Web sites, eager players post messages like singles scouting dates for Saturday night.

"Queens boy looking for low limit Hold'em to play with other poker lovers," one entry said. Another declared: "My name is Mark. I live in Lakeview, have a wife, 2 kids, a dog, 2 cats, 2 turtles and an iguana who all play poker. One has to sit out when we play stud. We love Hold'em, Omaha8, and Hi/Lo Stud." An upbeat individual with the tag "brewbro520" proclaimed: "I think Suffolk County has great potential to become a producer of some of the top players in the world. The more we play together, the better we will get...."
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Toronto Star comments on celebrity poker at the end of this column.
Reality TV gets twisted
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Discovery's Travel Channel has had particularly good luck in this regard, pulling in unprecedented numbers with their own World Poker Tour and its all-star offshoot, the Hollywood Home Game — apparently, the only thing their viewers enjoy more than watching people play poker is watching famous people play poker.
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The Dayton Daily News has a blase article on the poker phenomena.
TV poker proves a ratings draw
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"Poker is very hot," Travel Channel Executive Vice President Rick Rodriguez says. "It really is a cultural juggernaut."
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And last but certainly not least, from trade mag, Television Week, we have this about the WPT and TV poker competition:
Flush With Success
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Steven Lipscomb doesn't have much of a poker face. As he left the ballroom stage at the Television Critics Association press tour in Hollywood last week, the "World Poker Tour" creator was beaming like a novice card player holding pocket aces.

Reruns of his Travel Channel series are performing better than the original premieres. The much-anticipated second season of "WPT" is about to launch with higher-stakes winnings and increased production values. Fans are having poker parties to watch the show and flocking to his tournaments-some spending thousands of dollars for a shot at making it to the coveted "WPT" final table.

"We are on fire," said Mr. Lipscomb, whose recent renewal deal with the Travel Channel is worth $40 million over six years. "We spend a lot of time on cloud nine. It will be very tough for anybody else to catch us."
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Wow, I keep waiting for the poker insanity to end, or at least slow down.
What's next, Party Poker hitting 40,000 players? WSOP entries totalling 2,000 players? As I've said so many times before, this whole thing is manna from heaven.

Sadly, still no-go on the poker blogger SNG. You know online poker is red-hot when poker rooms are turning down potential new customers.

And for my loyal audience, I've discovered even MORE new poker blogs. Damn, the work I do for you guys and gals. I almost deserve a shill post. Actually, I'm looking forward to a slow news day so I can blog about the actual damn playing of poker.

wcthurston is a new blogger on LiveJournal. He's been up for a week and consistently posting. Let's hope he keeps it up.
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I am curious, I wonder how much drinking effects my play. Does beer make me more apt to play a hand that I shouldn't? Does it make me more apt to pitch a hand that I should play?
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Beer is your friend, Thurston. Nuff said.

Oh yeah, I wanted to share this thread I sent to HDouble regarding Sklansky and Izmet and Lee Jones. Oh the humanity.
Insanity from the pokerati.

This is especially worthy. To see the final Final Table at Binions Horseshoe go to: History in the making.

PokerGrub rules. For you poker bloggers out there, Grubby is having a hilarious contest entitled The Hammer Challenge. LOL, I won't be in the running but I'm rooting for all of the rest of you.

Thanks for reading. Dammit, sign up with bonus code IGGY on PartyPoker or for you current Party players, take advantage of the bonuses and second user name on Empire and sign up with IGGY1!

Couldn't resist. :)

Link of the Day:
Say Hello to the Wiener Queen
Through what she describes as a "tireless pursuit of wiener knowledge," the Queen of Cockery has developed a guide to the five male personality types as a method of predetermining penis size. "Why bother wasting an intelligent conversation and kitty cat sex appeal on what will eventually prove to be a genital dwarf?"

Russ Georgiev & Phil Ivey Poker Blogs

Russ Georgiev is back on RGP after a brief hiatus, stating that his site, Poker Mafia, will be up in a few days. I think I'll wear my poker mafia t-shirt to the no-limit tournament I'm running next weekend just to see if anyone comments.

My favorite comment from Russ was:

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A tape about ONLINE POKER has been made. I'll let the public decide
how honorable and truthful the people speaking for ONLINE POKER are,
after viewing this tape. Please have your VOMIT BAGS with you. Perhaps
you may want to VOMIT on those that say it ain't so? But you'll see it
with your own eyes.
--

Send me a tape, Russ! I believe you cheat, and cheat well! God only knows what will entail from this tape. He's prolly playing on a dozen different computers and ID's on Party, sitting four deep on three no-limit tables.

He's one determined SOB, I'll give him that. See prior posts for more info.

You NEED to be playing at Party Poker. 42,000 players right now. How many does your site have? Seriously, give Bonus Code IGGY a try - you'll thank me later.

This is a great article about poker in the Daily Racing Form.
Hottest new game is good ol' poker
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A little more than three years ago, a headline on the front page of the business section of the Las Vegas Review-Journal read, "Poker Rooms on Strip Declining" and that "Harrah's Las Vegas, The Venetian become latest casinos to remove game; both properties cite lack of customer demand."

The Review-Journal story reported on the waning interest in poker, which included the previous closure of poker rooms at The Rio, MGM Grand, Treasure Island, and the Santa Fe. Also, the four casinos that opened in 2000, the Aladdin, Arizona Charlie's East, Suncoast, and Terrible's did not offer a poker room at all.
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How times have changed, eh?

GSN's World Series Of Blackjack To Be Taped on Location at Mohegan Sun
Yahoo Biz article about this upcoming show
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GSN, the Network for Games, has selected Mohegan Sun, one of the largest entertainment, gaming and sports destinations in the United States, as the host site for GSN's World Series Of Blackjack. Situated on 240 acres along the Thames River in southeastern Connecticut, Mohegan Sun is a full-service casino and spa sporting over 6,400 slot machines, nearly 300 table games and a state-of-the-art race book facility, among other luxurious offerings. Matt Vasgersian, San Diego Padres lead television broadcaster and former host of "Sports Geniuses" will serve as the host; Melana Scantlin from "Average Joe" will be the show's co-hostess and Max Rubin, casino veteran, gambling consultant and professional blackjack player, will be the expert commentator for the series produced by R.C. Entertainment, Inc.

World Series Of Blackjack will feature the world's top Blackjack players and tournament competitors and will award $250,000 in total prizes. The players will compete for the grand prize purse of $100,000 and the bragging rights to the title of the World Blackjack Champion. The series will air on Monday nights at 10 PM ET/PT beginning Monday, March 15. The show will tape January 24 and 25 in Mohegan Sun's Wolf Den.

World Series Of Blackjack will consist of a series of seven episodes. Players will start with $10,000 in tournament chips and the one who has the most money at the end of each of the first five respective shows will advance to the final seventh episode which pits the winners against each other. However, it is the sixth episode that is adding an extra twist to the series. The sixth episode will feature the second-place finishers from the previous first five shows thus adding an extra incentive for the players to finish in the top two positions. The winner of the sixth show will advance to the final seventh show which will feature six players at the table instead of five. All shows will feature the style of play of "tournament" Blackjack -- meaning players compete against each other as well as the house.
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Poker > Blackjack

After all my Party Poker cheerleading, I finally have a beef. I've had a question for Party customer support for the last week. After dozens of banal emails and non-answers, I finally called the toll-free line today...

Mitigating point: I've actually had Party support CALL ME after I've made a large cash out, making sure it WAS me. Now *that's* cool and inspires confidence.

That being said, today's call was straight out of hell. On hold for 40 minutes before I finally gave up. Is it because it's Sunday?

But I'm not irate about that. While on hold, I'm livid after hearing:

"Thank you for holding. Your call is very important to us. Please continue to hold for the next available agent."

EVERY TEN FUCKING SECONDS. That inane message was spaced in ten fucking second increments. I almost deleted their software from my computer.

But then I saw 25,000 players moving chips around and came to my senses. I really should post to RGP about this but I'm too drunk lazy. I'll call again tomorrow evening and give a full report.

WSOP to be sold?
Today in the Las Vegas Review Journal:
Binion's Horseshoe: Casino to remain closed
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Unable or unwilling to raise the money required to maintain her casino bankroll, Binion's Horseshoe owner Becky Binion Behnen agreed Saturday to keep her casino closed.
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My favorite RGP response to this scenario:
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Whatta joke. Like if Augusta National had gone out of business after
Tiger's first win there, or Wimbledon shut down after the first
Borg-McEnroe final.
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Yet another John McEnroe poker reference. Coincidence? I think not.

And a fun look at, gasp, poker's popularity:
Lights, camera ... POKER
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Thus, the aptly named Mr. Moneymaker now joins a pantheon of legendary card players who are rapidly becoming household names in many American homes -- the scholarly Howard Lederer and his sister Annie Duke, Erik Seidal, the flashy Johnny "The Master" Chan and Scotty Nguyen, quiet Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, the outspoken Phil Helmuth Jr. and Dave "The Devilfish" Ulliott, cagey veterans Doyle Brunson and T.J. Cloutier and the intense, young man they call the "Tiger Woods of Poker," Phil Ivey.

"I played with some of these guys at Fowoods, Binion's and the Orleans in Las Vegas," says Mr. Furtado. "There was Phil Helmuth, who I don't like, Scotty Nguyen, and Phil Ivey, who I do like."

"My favorite players are Howard Lederer and Sam Farha -- quiet, conservative players. I hate it when players wear sunglasses. I've also played with Telly Savalas, Jerry Orbach and Gabe Kaplan -- all good guys."
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Sam Farha; quiet, conservative? Linda would know.

Tourney update: I'm very disappointed with my play in the Big One today. Embarassed and pissed. I really would rather not admit to this gaffe but what the hell, that's why I write this damn blog. To document the good, bad and ugly.

Here's the scenario, over two hours into the tourney, 650 players already gone and I'm a little under the average stack size. I was playing hardly any hands and took advantage of my tight table image by stealing once the ante's kicked in. Then came the dreaded brain cramp.

No matter what the game or limit, there is a major poker truism that I violated. After two hours of navigating tricky rivers with trouble hands and coming out ahead, I blew it. And that's what pisses me off. It was an obvious fold and I called.

See, the truism is that you always need a better hand to call a raise with than to raise yourself.

So here's what happened. Blinds are 300.600 with a 50 ante. There's one of those notorious Bergen Swedes (Bergen must have the highest per capita of poker players in the world) manhandling the table with a giant stack. He's playing nearly every hand, always with a standard $800 pre-flop raise. He's been snapped off once but quickly built his stack back.

Sooo, I'm in the big blind with AQo. A tiny stack moves in. I'm happy until all fold to Giant Stack who moves in from the button. The allin is what threw me. I figured he made that move to shut me and and small blind out of the hand so he could go head-to-head with small stack. I sat and thought and thought, knowing I should immediately muck this easily dominated hand and move on to the next deal. And even if he has something like a baby or middle pair, why gamble? But some unknown force caused me to shrug and call. He flips over AK and I'm bounced.

That's what I get for playing sober, damnit.

I'm really disgusted. I'd rather suffer an egregious bad beat than do what I did. Sigh. Terrible, terrible call. And I'm not saying this through results-oriented glasses. It's poor NL poker.

I got back on the horse tonight and entered another satellite. The beautiful thing about these cheap satellites (outside of parlaying a few dollars into fifty grand) is that you can try different moves and styles on the cheap. Wanna play loose, aggressive Phil Ivey style for the learning experience? Perhaps Dan "Action" Harrington's style is more foreign and you'd like to see how far you can get playing mostly premium hands? Sign up and do it. It certainly worked well for Chris Moneymaker. Let's face it, "tells" and such in poker are vastly over-rated. You can glean much more information from betting patterns and bet size in no-limit. The tournaments help sharpen these skills.

TheFatGuy had a humorous message in his comments. Keep posting about poker, Scott!

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I see that you're writing half of your weblog entries in Martian now. (Speaking as a non-Poker-player.)
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Alrighty then, I've built up to 12k in this satellite (playing like a tight madman, purging my poor play) so I need to post this and concentrate.

Down to 70 players now, have 35k stack.

Thanks for reading. Try Party Poker.

Stewart Reuben & Bob Ciaffone Poker Blogs

"It's not luck - there's probably no such thing as luck, and if there is you can't depend on it. All you can do is play percentages, play your best game, and when that critical bet comes - in every money game there is always a critical bet - you hold your stomach tight and push hard."
Bert, The Hustler

Good God, I'm reading that Guinness-fueled post from last night and scratching my head. I basically reposted old drivel. Oh the humanity.

I was too busy sweating Royal in a massive NL satellite to the big tourney today to properly post. I played as well, building up to about 10k after two hours before getting AA, moving in, getting called in two places (AK & 99) and of course, getting cracked. Damnit, that 30k pot shoulda been mine. I was too drunk irked to play anymore so I just admired Royal run over his table. Top twenty players qualified and I'm happy to report that Royal placed and will be playing today in the Big One. Woohoo!

I'm gonna go read some Pot-Limit and No-Limit Poker by Stewart Reuben & Bob Ciaffone and peruse the football games before the tourney. I'll be back later with a full report and links.

Link of the Day:
Iraqis Love To See Our Privates
A soldier's update from Iraq describes some subjects that Tom Brokaw hasn't covered yet, such as the crime of donkeyjacking, the way to get kids to scream "Buttstroke Me," and how to win a grenade fight on a bus.