From the Desk of the Poker Philosopher

I was playing a little HORSE yesterday and made a read/laydown that might be standard/uninteresting for serious Stud/8 players but that made me happy. The villain, Berry Johnston, won the 1986 WSOP main event, and actually he and I played together live at Day 1 of the 2006 WSOP, though I'm sure he doesn't know that.

Frankly, he's pretty loose in Razz and Stud/8, so I didn't make too much of the fact that he called two bets cold on 3rd street. His 3-bet out of nowhere on 4th street threw up some red flags, though. At first I was concerned he might have rolled-up 3's, but obviously 5th street eliminated that possibility. However, his next most likely hand was a buried pair bigger than Q's.

Even with the pot as big as it was, I wasn't getting anywhere near the right odds to chase after two pair. For one thing, if my read was correct, Queens up would be no good anyway. And there was only one Queen left in the deck, so my odds of drawing to trips were pretty slim.

FullTiltPoker Game #7320121581: Table Hill (6 max) - $10/$20 Ante $1.50 - Limit Stud H/L - 20:19:34 ET - 2008/07/21
Seat 1: FanProphet ($521)
Seat 2: spadez67 ($89.10)
Seat 3: Berry Johnston ($300.25)
Seat 4: Pink DuffleBag ($2,307)
Seat 6: Foucault ($573.25)

*** 3RD STREET ***
Dealt to Foucault [Ks Qs] [Qh]
Dealt to FanProphet [Qc]
Dealt to spadez67 [Td]
Dealt to Berry Johnston [3c]
Dealt to Pink DuffleBag [5c]
Berry Johnston is low with [3c]
Berry Johnston brings in for $3
Pink DuffleBag completes it to $10
Foucault raises to $20
FanProphet folds
spadez67 folds
Berry Johnston calls $17
Pink DuffleBag calls $10

*** 4TH STREET ***
Dealt to Foucault [Ks Qs Qh] [4c]
Dealt to Berry Johnston [3c] [Qd]
Dealt to Pink DuffleBag [5c] [7d]
Foucault checks
Berry Johnston checks
Pink DuffleBag bets $10
Foucault raises to $20
Berry Johnston raises to $30
Pink DuffleBag calls $20
Foucault calls $10

*** 5TH STREET ***
Dealt to Foucault [Ks Qs Qh 4c] [3s]
Dealt to Berry Johnston [3c Qd] [3d]
Dealt to Pink DuffleBag [5c 7d] [2h]
Berry Johnston bets $20
Pink DuffleBag calls $20
Foucault has 15 seconds left to act
Foucault folds

*** 6TH STREET ***
Dealt to Berry Johnston [3c Qd 3d] [Th]
Dealt to Pink DuffleBag [5c 7d 2h] [4s]
Berry Johnston checks
Pink DuffleBag bets $20
Berry Johnston calls $20

*** 7TH STREET ***
Berry Johnston checks
Pink DuffleBag bets $20
Berry Johnston calls $20

*** SHOW DOWN ***
Pink DuffleBag shows [Ac Kh 5c 7d 2h 4s Ts] Ace King high, for high and 7,5,4,2,A, for low
Berry Johnston shows [Ah Ad 3c Qd 3d Th 8c] two pair, Aces and Threes, for high
Berry Johnston wins the high pot ($137.25) with two pair, Aces and Threes
Pink DuffleBag wins the low pot ($137.25) with 7,5,4,2,A


For what it's worth, Pink's play here is pretty awful on 3rd and 4th streets. AK5 is garbage for a starting hand, especially from first position with several babies left to act behind you.

Labels: HORSE, poker, poker strategy, Stud/8

Stumble It!

Thanks to everyone who's asked about these, and especially to Nick from London who prompted me to make this post I've been meaning to make. I'm really flattered that you all are so eager to read a trip report from the WSOP. I'm going to be publishing the trip report, probably in three parts, in lieu of my usual strategy articles for 2+2 Internet Magazine. Of course there will still be strategy content, but I hope also to maintain some of the "flavor" of my reporting from earlier WSOPs. The first installment, covering days 1 and 2, should be appearing August 1st- I'll post the link when it's published. If you haven't already, may I suggest reading my reports from the 2006 WSOP and 2007 WSOP in the meantime?

Labels: personal, poker, trip report, wsop

Stumble It!

Full Tilt Poker, $5/$10 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN): $2,517
SB: $1,000
BB: $1,888.75
UTG: $5,702.90
CO: $1,017

Pre-Flop: A T dealt to Hero (BTN)
3 folds, Hero raises to $30, SB raises to $90, Hero calls $60

Flop: ($180) K A K (2 Players)
SB bets $180, Hero calls $180

Turn: ($540) K (2 Players)
SB bets $540, Hero folds

Results: $540 Pot ($3 Rake)
SB mucked and WON $537 (+$267 NET)


I knew nothing about this player, but I don't really ever expect a random to be bluffing here. So basically I'm either chopping or losing to quads/Aces full, and a chop isn't that much more likely.

Labels: 6-max, deep stacks, NLHE, poker, poker strategy, session review

Stumble It!

The $15K World Poker Tour Bellagio event always attracts a star-studded field of pros fresh off competing in the World Series of Poker. The six-handed final table this year was no exception:

Seat 1: Ralph Perry - 1,635,000
Seat 2: Luke "IWearGoggles" Staudenmaier - 3,495,000
Seat 3: John "The Razor" Phan - 3,495,000
Seat 4: David Benyamine - 4,860,000
Seat 5: Gabe Thaler - 1,550,000
Seat 6: Mike "SirWatts" Watson - 5,060,000

Watson won over $1.6 million for his first place finish. Sigh, I still recall playing with him at one of my first big final tables, a $10 rebuy on Poker Stars. I've had the privilege of meeting him twice, most recently during the WSOP main event when we were both in good shape on Day 2B.

I love this photo of Watson with all the people from 2+2 who were there to see him win it. There's really an extraordinary collection of talent in this photo, including two other winners of earlier events in the Bellagio series: Tony "Bond18" Dunst, who won a $3K event, and Jimmy "Gobboboy" Fricke, who won a $5K event just weeks after turning 21. What a huge couple of weeks it's been for 2+2. I only wish I could have done my part by final tabling the main event.

Congratulations, Mike!

Labels: Bellagio, poker, tournament, WPT

Stumble It!

I played my first online session in weeks tonight, and it went great. Mostly just running well, though I do think I chose my spots well. I also may not have gotten paid off on the river here if I hadn't gotten tricksy:

Poker Stars, $10/$20 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

MP: $2,187.50
Hero (CO): $2,327
BTN: $2,909
SB: $2,22
BB: $2,000
UTG: $380

Pre-Flop: 7 5 dealt to Hero (CO)
UTG folds, MP calls $20, Hero calls $20, BTN raises to $120, 2 folds, MP calls $100, Hero calls $100

Flop: ($390) 5 2 8 (3 Players)
MP checks, Hero checks, BTN bets $260, MP folds, Hero calls $260

Turn: ($910) 5 (2 Players)
Hero bets $444, BTN calls $444

River: ($1,798) 3 (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $400, Hero raises to $1,503 and is All-In, BTN calls $1,103

Results: $4,804 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed 7 5 (three of a kind, Fives) and WON $4,801 (+$2,474 NET)
BTN mucked T T and LOST (-$2,327 NET)


MP was a fish and I wanted to get into the pot with him. If this were heads up with the button, I'd have folded to the pre-flop raise. I led the turn because I expected BTN to check back damn near 100% of his range. I also thought it might look weak if I bet kind of small.

On the river, then, I expect him either to have a float or a pair. If he's got a float, he's obviously not calling a river shove, but he'll bluff at it if I check. If he's got a pair, he may or may not call a shove, but he'll almost certainly bet it for value if I check. This is why it's important to notice players who will make thin value bets. When playing live, I think you have to bet this on the river because plenty of people won't even value bet Kings here. So I felt like I'd get one bet in for sure on the river, and then he could either call me or not when I shoved.

Labels: 6-max, NLHE, poker, poker strategy, river check-raise

Stumble It!

I'll lead off with the big one. My girlfriend pointed out to me that although a few people posted it as a comment, I hadn't actually made a post that included my finish at the World Series of Poker. Out of 6,844 players, I finished 35th and won $193,000. How sexy is this?


The check is for $191,000 because I left a $2000 tip for the dealers. That might seem like a lot, but 1% is pretty standard, and remember that you only tip when you cash, so in some sense the 10% who make the money are tipping for the 90% who did not as well as for themselves. It's kind of a screwy system, but that's how it works.

The other big news, which would have been the lead item any other week, is that as of August 4th I will no longer be the director of the Boston Debate League. The League is getting larger, serving more students and schools, and partnering with the central administration of the Boston Public Schools. Running it is turning into a full time job for which I have neither the time nor the inclination.

We're very fortunate that the chairman of our Board is also the founder and managing partner of Isaacson, Miller, an international executive search firm for nonprofits. Ordinarily they work with big organizations like museums and universities, but one of their associates, who is also a Board member, helped us conduct a nationwide search for a director. We hired a great candidate who is frankly more qualified than I thought we were going to find. I'll still be working with the League, having a paid, full time employee is going to make a world of difference for us.

July's been an exciting month. I went from being way behind pace for hitting my yearly goal for poker income to being just a hair's breath away. I probably won't end up meeting my goal for hours played since I won't feel like forcing myself to put in hours when I don't feel like playing. On the plus side, I probably will play more non-hold 'em games, and I may even hire a PLO coach.

Labels: boston debate league, personal, poker, wsop

Stumble It!

Frankly, I didn't do a very good job of courting/attracting media attention despite my deep run in the WSOP. But here are a few links to coverage of my play:

Interview with Poker Stars

O By the Way Blog 1

O By the Way Blog 2

PokerNews Photos

Poker Savvy/Cardplayer Round Table

And honorable mention goes to the Hendon Mob, who reported that:

"Only five players -- Andrew Brokos, Pat Dattilo, Marc Friedman, Vinod Jadav, and Stefan Mattsson -- cashed in both the 2006 and 2007 Main Events. All were going for their third consecutive cash this year. However, only one player survived (and is guaranteed to cash). He is Stefan Mattsson, from Stockholm, Sweden – currently in 308th place)."

Really, 308th place? Sick run, Stefan. I'm really surprised there were only five of us who cashed in '06 and '07.

Also according to Hendon Mob, the record for consecutive cashes is held by Bo Sehlstedt, who cashed in 2004-2007 but failed to cash this year. C'mon, Stefan, we can take him.

Labels: Card Player, news, personal, poker, Poker Savvy, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

Seat 1: Craig Stein – 440,000
Seat 2: Niklas Flisberg – 1,264,000
Seat 3: Mark Wilds – 485,000
Seat 4: Andrew Brokos – 4,444,000
Seat 6: Lisa Parsons – 581,000
Seat 7: Peter Neff – 1,275,000
Seat 8: Darus Suharto – 1,057,000
Seat 9: Owen Crowe – 1,050,000

Owen Crowe is Ocrowe online, he actually busted me out the final table of a $1000 WSOP satellite on Stars a few months ago. Definitely a strong player. I don't anything about the others, but I'm happy with their chip counts: big enough to be worth stacking, but not so big that any of them can cripple me. Seems like a favorable draw.

Thanks for all the comments. Don't worry about that "not reporting" thing, for some reason the dealer took a copy of my paperwork before I wrote in my chip count, not a big deal.

Labels: poker, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

Thanks for all the support guys. Today was ridiculous, such a tough table for most of the day, fought tooth and nail to get up to 2 mil then got moved to softer table and picked up quick 2 mil. Alex is an amazing player, had some awful luck today and kept coming back. Even on my right he was ridiculously tough to play against. He deserved to finish higher, but for selfish reasons, not sorry to see him go. Roothlus and Gbecks on my left, also very solid of course. Raptor got moved to table at end of day, but then I was moved not long after. Gah I feel like I've been dangling by the seat of my pants for four days now.

Sorry I don't have a pic with chips stacked up, but believe me that bag was heavy as hell and weighted down with beautiful green chips worth 25K each. I look forward to ripping it open and stacking it all up tomorrow while the rest of my table drools with jealousy.

Here's a wild hand: Alex on my right is super LAG, has been opening like 30% of pots. I've 3-bet a couple of times, recently he called OOP with 87s, check-raise bluffed a K-high flop, and showed when I folded. He told me to stop 3-betting him. I did.

Few orbits later, blinds 10K/20K/3K, he opens to 55K UTG+1, I call, tight player in HJ raises to 200K, Alex calls, I shove for 1 million, tight guy tanks and folds K's face up. Alex folds and tells me he had AK. Deliberately not revealing my hand here, but what do you think of their folds?

Another one, late in the day, I have 3M. Fat middle-aged guy from GA with like 1.5M opens to 80K at 12/24/3, I flat with AKo, everyone else folds. Flop Q44 he bets 125K I call. Turn A he bets 300K I call. River blank he bets 500K I tank. He doesn't seem like the type to triple barrel bluff, and I can't imagine I beat anything he's value betting. I'm afraid he has AQ. I tank some more and try to talk to him.

"Aren't you afraid I have a 4? Did that cross your mind?" No response.

"I wish I knew more about you sir. All I know is you are from Georgia." No response.

Finally I call, he tables KQ. I show AK, and he mucks angrily and asks, "How do you call the flop when I fire?"

I ignore him.

"You call with nothing on the flop?" he asks again.

"Sorry sir, but you wouldn't answer any of my questions," I tell him as I stack his chips.

I'm second overall, with 79 remaining. $77,000 locked up.

Labels: 3-bet, 4-bet, narrative, NLHE, poker, poker strategy, tournament, trip report, wsop

Stumble It!

Seat 1: Garrett Beckman – 515,000
Seat 2: Allen Carter – 413,000
Seat 3: Brad Johnson – 237,000
Seat 4: Reagan Silber – 671,000
Seat 5: Brent Sheirbon – 919,000
Seat 6: Pontus Khosravi – 629,000
Seat 7: Alexander Kostritsyn – 1,137,000
Seat 8: Andrew Brokos – 678,000
Seat 9: Anthony Clark – 397,000

Labels: NLHE, poker, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

I'm listed as Andrew Brooks on Poker News, finished the day with 566,500. That's down a fair bit from my peak of 750K but a hell of a lot better than the 65K I started with. I finished level 1 still at 65K, then won a flip for my life against Brandon Adams AK >JJ. After that I won two more big pots against Brandon when he bluffed into my top pair and another with top pair against another really aggressive guy on Brandon's right. I 4-bet AA pre-flop against the same dude, maybe not the best way to play it, but got a decent pot regardless. Then I busted one guy QQ > TT, then busted Mike Mercedes (whom I later learned was MikeyMer- we dropped the ball on that one, research team) with shoving Q9 over his check-raise on a 984 flop to bust his A8. That was all during level 2.

After that I mostly just played good until the bubble, then dropped a brutal beat on some poor bastard named Mitch. We were hand for hand with 668 players left, I raised to 9K (at 1500/3000/400) UTG with 87s because this shorter stack was in the BB. He called, and we saw a Q87 flop. He lead out, I shoved, he called and flipped 77. I'm a sonofabitch and rivered an 8 to bubble him.

Last level I dropped nearly 200K, but I don't think I did anything spewy. Just raised decent hands pre-flop and either missed flops or folded to 3-bets or called 3-bets in good spots but missed flop. No regrets, and still in good shape for today.

We don't start until 1:00, but I'm going for breakfast now. Here's my table draw, looks favorable at first glance, though I haven't googled anyone yet. I'll be doing some research of my own after breakfast, but anything you want to e-mail to me would be greatly appreciated.

245 Huyen Vo Houston Texas 224000 O22 1

174 Graddus Terwiss Cha Van 0 DNR 318000 O22 2

299 Randy Benton Rolla Missouri 176000 O22 3

89 Hai Bo Chu Melbourne Australia 453500 O22 4

18 James Mills Downey California 757000 O22 6 (2_2)

467 Aleksandar Rasic Troy New York 35000 O22 7

255 Cedric Kolstad Mesa Arizona 217000 O22 8

50 Andrew Brokos 566,500 9

Thank to everyone who's been leaving comments as well. It's great to know people are cheering for me, and I'm flattered to have fans I didn't even know existed!

Labels: 3-bet, 4-bet, NLHE, poker, session review, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

Here's my Day 3 lineup. I've never played with Brandon Adams, but from what I've heard, he's very good. I played with Liv last night, she tells me she's a professional, but I didn't think she was especially tough. Very nice, though, and achingly beautiful. I can't say I mind having her at the table one bit. Benvenuti is apparently a pretty successful internet tournament player, though with his current chip stack he won't be a big threat. Peter Hedlund and Michael Meredith have played several big tournaments around the world this year, but hasn't done anything significant in any of them.

Brandon Adams 353,600 O04 01
Mirza Nagji 109,200 O04 02
Irvin Hoffman 31,000 O04 03
Michael Benvenuti 21,400 O04 04
Dominic Prunko 86,500 O04 05
Andrew Brokos 65,100 O04 06
Peter Hedlund 61,300 O04 07
Liv Boeree 36,000 O04 08
Michael Meredith 83,000 O04 09

Labels: NLHE, poker, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

Wow crazy today. Climbed steadily to 145K by dinner, got 100K in drawing dead, pulled out AK > JJ for a 90K coin flip, sucked out 6c 3c > AQ on a Qc 4c 4x flop (running straight, baby!), won 12K 22 > AK to get up to 180K, then got rivered for 20K, made some bluffs and a bad call, didn't adapt well to my image and kept getting re-raised, finally ended day with 65K. Average is probably like 100K, blinds going to be 800/1600/200. So I'm not in great shape, but very much in the fight.

Labels: NLHE, poker, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

The numbers are in, and 6,844 players entered the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event. Fewer than half survived Day 1, and only about 1/3 of those will survive Day 2. Hopefully I will be among them.

I've done some research to learn my Day 2 seating assignment along with the players and chip stacks against whom I'll be competing. Here's the table:

George Price 35,700
James Viglizzo 10,900
Bernd Hirschberg 32,750
Thomas Wayne 11,125
Andrew Brokos 67,125
Drew Matheson 64,925
Steve Wong 43,350
Duane Woolsey 44,850
J McLane 16,525

There's a lot of good news here. I've got the most chips of anyone and far more than most. Google wasn't able to turn up much on most of these players, suggesting that they are probably amateurs with limited poker knowledge/experience.

The bad news is that the players who are 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in chips are all lined up on my left. This means I will have to act before them in most pots, putting me at a distinct disadvantage against them. There are also not that many chips at our table. While that means there are fewer threats to my survival, there are also fewer chips for me to win. There's no prize for surviving Day 2, and if I do survive, I'm going to need every chip I can get for future days.

The only recognizable player here is Steve Wong. Steve is a professional originally from Hoofdorp, outside of Amsterdam. He was a very successful tournament player online and has now had a lot of live success as well. There's an interview with him on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F9YV6vC6cM.

Be sure to check out the comments to this post throughout the day, as I'm going to ask a few friends to post comments with update chip counts and maybe some key hands as well.

Labels: NLHE, personal, poker, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

I came out to Vegas a few days early to get into the swing of things, to see some friends with whom I play and talk poker regularly online but rarely see in real life, and to take care of some business. This will be my third time playing in the main event, and it amazes me how much has changed since I first came to Las Vegas two years ago. In 2006, I was a nervous kid who knew no one, was known by no one, and was in awe of every famous player I'd seen on TV.

I can't claim to be a poker celebrity, but yesterday I got a taste of what that would be like. After waking early, going for a swim, having breakfast, and putting in some non-poker work at my computer, I made my first trip to the Rio. I wasn't going to play but to meet up with Bill Ordine, a reporter from my hometown paper, the Baltimore Sun, who is working on an article on poker and philanthropy. He'd already interviewed Barry Greenstein, who's known as “the Robin Hood of Poker” for donating over a million dollars in tournament winnings to a children's charity, and Annie Duke, who organized a $5000 buy-in charity tournament called Ante Up for Africa to coincide with the WSOP.

My own story is a little different. I've donated only a little more than 5% of my poker winnings to the non-profit organization that I founded, the Boston Debate League (BDL). My real contribution is all of the time and work that I put into it. Poker is what enables me to do that. I average 20-25 hours of work per week for each, and I make enough playing poker that I can afford to put that kind of time into the BDL.

It's great that Bill is doing this article, because poker sometimes gets a bad rap among the general public. People tend to believe, not entirely without reason, that poker encourages a cut-throat, every-man-for-himself mindset and that it rewards lying, treachery, and deceit. Hopefully an article in a major newspaper that focuses on the good that poker enables people to do will help to clean up that image.

Poker hasn't just given me the financial freedom to do “good work”. It's also taught me valuable skills that a liberal arts education did not. To paraphrase Ms. Duke, poker isn't fundamentally a game of lying, it's a game of pricing and negotiation. I do feel it's given me some business sense that has proven useful in meetings with foundations, prospective donors, the Boston Public Schools, and other individuals and institutions with which the BDL works.

Largely, the interaction between my poker “work” and my urban debate work has been a one-way street. That is, poker gave me the skills and financial freedom to grow the Boston Debate League, but the latter didn't do much for my poker game, except maybe making me feel less of a leech on society by gambling for a living.

Recently, however, that's started to change. In addition to playing, I now make money by coaching poker as well. Sometimes this is with individual students who pay me by the hour, but I also work for a video training site called Poker Savvy Plus. They pay me to record videos of myself playing or talking about poker and then offer these videos on a subscription basis to people who want to improve their game. My experience teaching debate and working with professional teachers has definitely made me a more successful and popular poker coach.

Yesterday, I got to meet my co-workers at Poker Savvy for the first time (in most cases- there were a few I already knew). But first, I had about an hour to kill between my interview with Bill and my meet-up with Poker Savvy. So, I headed down to the Amazon Room, the convention center at the Rio Hotel & Casino where the WSOP is held. I was hoping I might see someone I knew, but the odds were slim. Actually, the odds were good that I'd see someone I knew but slim that I'd recognize them. Since I play poker almost exclusively online, I plenty of people by their screen names but have no clue what most of them look like.

As luck would have it, though, I was spotted by my friend Richard almost immediately. Richard goes by Shorty both because of his last name is and because he is immensely tall. He was just starting a 20-minute break from a tournament he was playing, so I accompanied him for a quick bite at the WSOP Poker Kitchen while he told me how things had been going for him so far in Las Vegas. Mostly he raved about how soft and juicy the side games were and asked what I was planning on playing.

I told him the truth, which is that I had exactly $10,000 in cash on me, which I needed to buy into the main event. My plan was to play $5/$10 or $10/$25 games, hope for the best, and then find a Bank of America (there are none on the Strip, so I'd have to take a cab there and back) to withdraw more if I didn't win. Shorty told me that he was leaving town that night and would be happy to lend me some cash since he wouldn't need it. We exchanged phone numbers so that we could meet up when he was finished playing that night, and then he got back to his tournament.

I wandered around for a bit longer and then headed up to the suite in the Rio that Cardplayer magazine had converted into a studio for the duration of the WSOP. This is where I'd be meeting everyone else from Poker Savvy to record a roundtable Q&A session where we discussed poker topics submitted by Cardplayer readers.

Since I arrived about fifteen minutes early, I had some time to hang out with the Cardplayer crew, including the main reporters/hosts for their internet content: Shawn Green and Lizzie Harrison. Those of you who follow the poker scene may know these two, and those of you who don't probably won't be surprised to learn that Lizzie is an attractive and buxom twenty-something. Her looks have earned her a bit of a cult following on internet poker forums, and I can assure you that she is at least twice as hot in real life. But she, Shawn, and the rest of the Cardplayer crew were also very down to earth and fun to shoot the breeze with.

After about twenty minutes, the other Poker Savvy people started to arrive: Justin “Jurollo” Rollo, Dani “Ansky” Stern, Isaac “Ike” Haxton, Chris “Tribefan” Rhodes, Tony “Bond18” Dunst, and some of the behind-the-scenes guys. We took our seats and waited for the star of the show, Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, to join us during his break from the Ante Up for Poker tournament.

For those who don't know, Mike is, to understate the matter, a character. Though he's had tremendous success as a poker player, winning multiple WSOP bracelets and several six-figure prizes, he's also lost a lot of money to compulsive gambling and spent some time in jail for possession of cocaine. He's called “The Mouth” because he talks non-stop at the table, often berating his opponents' play, singing his own praises, or just generally calling attention to himself.

Lately, he's made some impressive gains in getting himself together. In the last year, he's dropped over sixty pounds, motivated by a $100,000 prop bet to get from 241 lbs down to 179. Just recently, he won his third WSOP bracelet in the $5000 rebuy 2-7 single draw rebuy event.

So we are all sitting in front of the cameras and waiting for Mike when suddenly there is a loud thump on the door. Someone opens it, and The Mouth comes crashing into the suite like a stampeding rhinoceros. “You all wouldn't believe how f---ing fast I f---ing ran to get up here,” he pants, nostrils flared. “Let's do it! Let's go! Let's get this thing f---ing started!” he shouts, clapping his hands. He takes the last available seat, which is in the back.

I'm wondering if the most famous guy here shouldn't be seated more prominently, but it turns out not to matter, because Mike makes himself the center of attention no matter what. He fields the first question enthusiastically and then interrupts whomever is speaking when he decides he has something to add. When he isn't shouting over us, he is gesticulating wildly to the people off-camera that he has to go in a minute or that he would like a bottle of water. We pass it to him, and he consumes the entire thing in a single ten-second chug, then tosses it haphazardly aside.

I don't imagine that much strategy content slipped past Mike's antics, but the clip should at least be good for comedic value. It doesn't appear to be up on Cardplayer's website yet, but I'll let you know when it is.

After the taping, we went out for drinks sans Mike. Truthfully, an afternoon with a bunch of internet poker players is not generally something I'd look forward to. Most are brash, self-absorbed, whiny, and otherwise annoying. But I must say that to a person, my co-pros at Poker Savvy were a great bunch. They are all very successful at poker and have a lot to brag about, but they don't come across as stuck up or anything, and they have some good stories.

For the full-time professionals, the WSOP is a magical time of year. Groups of guys, from four to ten or more, rent palatial houses in Las Vegas and spend weeks playing poker and partying their asses off. I don't think any of the best stories were intended for public consumption, but you can probably imagine the sort of debauchery that a bunch of guys in their early twenties with way too much money can get up to in Las Vegas. I'm only a few years older than most of them, but that whole lifestyle has never really been my scene. There are times when I feel little pangs of regret and a sense that I could be living a seriously crazy life, but for the most part it doesn't appeal to me. I do love hearing the stories, though.

We left the bar around seven, and I got a ride back to the Rio. I'd had only one drink in anticipation of putting in some hours at the tables that night. As I was waiting for a seat to open up, I ran into Shorty again. He had just been eliminated from his tournament and was going to go pack his bags then bring me some cash before leaving for the airport.

About an hour later, I was seated in a tight but not particularly tough 10/25 game when I spotted Shorty wandering the cash game section. I stood up and waved to catch his attention, played one more hand, then walked away from the table for a minute to speak with him. “Here's $7500,” he greeted me, handing me a roll of $100 bills. I pocketed it as he shared some intel on players at my table whom he'd played with in the last few days, then I wished him a good flight and returned to my game.

This really underscores the value of reputation in the poker community. I've known Shorty for about three years online, but we've met only two or three times in real life. Yet, just as a favor, he's willing to lend me $7500 in cash on the understanding that I'll send him a check when I get back to Boston. It's just a reality of high stakes poker that people often need access to large sums of cash, and now to money on various online poker sites as well, and it's infinitely easier to manage the logistics of moving this money among friends than to deal with the hassle and expense of wire transfers, getting to an off-Strip bank, or withdrawing from an ATM.

Poker friends can also help you raise money by staking you in a juicy game that's beyond your bankroll. They reduce your risk by putting up some of the money you need. Then if you lose, they eat the loss, and if you win, they get a cut. In fact, I was up on the WSOP before I even got to Las Vegas as a result of buying 10% of a friend who has had a phenomenal run, making two final tables.

Of course there are scumbags who take advantage of people, borrow money they can't or won't pay back, and rip off their investors. But reputation spreads quickly, and these people can quickly be cut off from the world of poker financing. Because I have been an active and ethical member of the poker community for several years, I know many people who would lend me money in a pinch, stake me for nearly any tournament I wanted to play, or help me transfer funds between online poker sites. And there are plenty of people for whom I would do the same.

Labels: gambling, Las Vegas, Mike Matusow, news, personal, poker, Poker Savvy, trip report, wsop

Stumble It!

I finished my first day at the WSOP with 67,125. I think the average is like 40-50K, so I can't complain. But I was up over 100K with 30 minutes to go and got myself in a really bad spot. I raised K4s to 1100 UTG (tight table, end of the day, especially tight BB) and got called by the CO, who called me fairly often and had nearly 50K in chips.

Flop was Kc 4c 5s, I bet 2000, he called. Turn 2s, I bet 6000, he raised to 24,000 with about 12,000 behind. I had a bad feeling, but 55/44, a total of four combinations, was about the only thing I could plausibly put him on that beat me. I tried talking to him, and he seemed kind of confident but I didnt' feel like he wanted a call either. Eventually I stuck the rest in, and he called so reluctantly that I thought I was good. But he did have 55, and I did not hit my two outer. The more I think about it, the more I think this was a fold.

Oh well, still in good shape. I play again Wednesday. Need to sleep now, but I'll post more later.

Labels: NLHE, poker, poker strategy, session review, tournament, trip report, wsop

Stumble It!

After working most of the morning, I got to the Rio about 4:30 and wandered through the Gaming Life Expo. It was pretty disappointing, way fewer scantily clad women than in past years. There were long lines to meet Chris Moneymaker and Doyle Brunson, but there was no wait for Dario Minieri or David Sklansky. I elected to meet no one.

I planned to get dinner in about an hour, and rather than spend half that time waiting for a cash table, I decided to play a $1K one table satellite, figuring that would take about an hour. Two and a half hours later, I busted in 4th. The blind levels seemed longer than last year, which ordinarily I'd be fine with, but this time I played specifically because I wanted it to be short.

Before we got started, a loud fat guy with a deep voice and unkempt facial and chest hair collected $300 from six of us for a last longer. Two of the six were the first two to bust, which was nice, and they both busted to non-participants.

A few seats to my left was a dude from Indianapolis who owned a business selling sports jerseys. He was talking about how bad the first guys to bust had played and how the pros back in Indiana had warned him there would be terrible play in Las Vegas. In these spots, I am always torn between commiserating because he's right or recognizing that in all likelihood he is also pretty bad.

A couple of hands later, a guy limps in with K2s, overcalls a raise, and ends up stacking KQ when he turns two pair. Indianapolis starts snickering and talking none too subtly about how bad it was to limp-call K2s.

"Oh man [chortle]. Wow. Wow, that is ridiculous. I mean [chuckle] gawd damn, K2s. That's crazy. Whoo. Well, buddy, at least you can get one of those shirts from the gift shop that says, 'But they were suited.' [pause] Wow."

I am glowering at him, and when I catch his eye, I shake my head disapprovingly.

"What?" he asks.

"Don't talk about people who are still at the table."

He laughs at me. "All I said was, 'Wow.'" I sighed and turned up my Ipod. Thankfully I got to bust him when he shoved KQ for 12x UTG and I woke up with AK in the BB. I also won a big flip with JJ > AK to come into a commanding chip lead with five players remaining.

The hairy fat guy was the only other one left in the last longer, and he started talking deal. "You want to each take back our $300?"

I shake my head no. I have more than twice as many chips as he does.

"OK, OK, you take 300, I take 200."

"Whatever. Fine." I shrug and let him have it. He's been going on and on about how he's a professional parimutuel gambler and he makes so much money playing dogs and blah blah blah but he is begging for $200. Whatever.

Then we get down to four-handed, I still have a nice lead, and he wants to talk deal in the tournament. I'm not even engaging him in conversation, just shaking my head no. There's an old Brit at the table who doesn't want it either, so Hairy Fat Fat and the K2 Fish bond over how ridiculous and cheap the Brit Nit and I are.

Blinds go up, some chips change hands, and now Brit Nit is short but the three of us have roughly the same. "Can we take back 1K each now?"

I shake my head.

"Come on, jesus. We have the same number of chips. Just, like, I mean, psychologically, I don't know, I don't like to leave with my tail between my legs. Come on, man. Just take your $1K back then you're playing for profit."

"He's too short," I say, pointing at the Brit.

"Come on, that's like $300 we're giving him. You're being stubborn over $300? OK, can we at least chop up the last longer?"

Jesus, will you shut up with your deals? This guy wasn't awful, but I was clearly better than he was, and I was pretty sure he wasn't going to play well when blinds were big either. I kept shaking my head, and the guy was getting angrier and angrier. "I'm going to enjoy busting you," he tells me. "I'm going to enjoy coming from behind to bust you."

Honestly, I think the retarded deals that people will make increase the EV of these satellites. But that only helps when you are on the good end of them. If you can get someone to let you take your buyin back when you are the short stack, or to chop it 50/50 heads up no matter how big a deficit you're in, that's awesome. But it's annoying as hell when these guys won't shut up about deals that hurt my equity.

Blinds jump from 400/800 to 600/1200, Brit Nit folds, and the other three of us all have 13-16K. K2 Fish open limps the button, which isn't garbage but is far from exclusively primo holdings. I look at Q2 in the SB and decide to shove for 13K. It was the first big move I'd made, having played extremely tight thus far. Unfortunately, Hairy woke up with AJ in the BB, agonized for a while, and called.

I was hoping he would brag or express shock that I had Q2 or something, but instead, the three of them instantly started talking deal. I think my shove is perfectly fine/good, just sucks that he woke up with AJ. I imagine he calls AT and probably folds A9. As for the fishy, I don't know what his calling standards were be, but I'm sure he folds often enough to make the shove profitable.

After dinner I played some 5/10 cash, since there wasn't a 10/25 going. It was a more aggressive table than my 10/25 had been, but I enjoyed that. The first big pot I won, there were two limps and some Asian kid who was constantly on his cell phone or eating or getting a massage or talking to his mom and never paying attention to the game casually tossed in $50. Some old dude called, and I made it $250 with Th9c in the CO. UTG smirked at me, said "Let's get this heads up," and made it $500. I was 99% sure he had AA. The others folded, and I obviously called, as I was getting better than 3:1 and there was nearly $2500 behind.

The flop was Kh 9h 5h, which I was happy to see. Even better, the dude asked how much I was playing then checked. I was happy to check it back. The turn brought another heart, and he bet $300. I called with the fourth nuts. The river was a blank, he checked, and I showed my Th to win the pot. He flipped his black Aces and sighed. I feel like I may actually have missed a small value bet here, since I was so sure he had AA and didn't think he would check the nuts on the river. People just hate to fold AA, especially live.

Anyway, the other big pot I won, there was a Mississippi straddle, and I made it $60 UTG with 43s. I think we were 8-handed at the time. The straddle and the SB calls. The flop comes Ts 4c 3s. SB checks, I bet $150, Button folds, SB calls. Turn pairs the 3, SB checks, and I think. I want to build the pot, but I'm not sure what he'll call with. I don't thin he's folding top pair to me on the turn for anything, but I'm not sure how often he has that, and I definitely don't want to blow him off of a flush draw. I opted for $250, which he called after some though.

The river brought a beautiful spade, and he led $400. Oh beautiful day. I thought for a minute and then shoved another $1400 or so. He tanked and leaned over to get a better look at me. I did my best to drop the occasional twitch or adjustment in my seat, but it probably wasn't even necessary. Live players don't fold flushes. He called, I flipped my boat, and he walked away from the table.

I finished up about $2000 in the cash game, $1000 on the night. The only disappointment was that I spent 20 minutes in line to register for the main event only to learn that they weren't letting people register for Day 1C or Day 1D. Apparently they are concerned about attendance tomorrow and are trying to force people to register for 1B. Well Christ did they not anticipate that this might be a problem with having the tournament during the 4th of July? I am calling their bluff and returning to register tomorrow after Day 1B has started. There's no way in hell they are closing registration for good, especially since they are reported to be below their target numbers already.

Labels: 3-bet, deep stacks, full ring, NLHE, poker, poker strategy, satellite, single table tournament, squeeze play, trip report, wsop

Stumble It!

There's a free sample from one of my Poker Savvy videos up on Cardplayer this week:

Some of the scenarios that Brokos goes over include how to play a strong hand like A-Q after missing the flop or hitting a flop that leaves your A-Q weak. He discusses what kinds of flops are perfect for continuation-bets (C-bets) and when it is better to check and see what develops.

Labels: 6-max, Card Player, continuation bet, NLHE, poker, Poker Savvy, poker strategy

Stumble It!

My first day in Vegas was a blast. I'll get into more detail tomorrow, but basically I got to pretend I was a big shot for a day. I had an interview with a reporter doing a story on poker and philanthropy, then a taping for Cardplayer with the Poker Savvy folks, then out for drinks with them (just one beer for me because I'm getting over a cold and wanted to play later), then 10/25 NL at the Rio with $7500 on the table. I'll get into more detail on the other stuff tomorrow, but here are two quick hands from the cash game. It was a pretty tight/boring but not very tough table.

The first one, I opened for $100 with AJo in the CO, and both blinds called. The flop came Jd 7d 4d, and unfortunately, I did not have the Ad. They checked to me, I bet $200, and the SB called. I hadn't been in the table long, but I'd already seen him make one very loose call for a pretty big bet on the turn. He checked a 4c on the turn, I bet $500, and moved all in for $1600 total. I hadn't realized he was that short, and while I didn't feel great about my hand, I felt priced in. It was definitely borderline, though- I would have folded KJ. He flipped 77 and I was drawing to 2 outs, which I didn't hit. Kind of a cooler, though I don't think stacking off was mandatory. Maybe a smaller turn bet and folding to a raise would have been better.

The next one, I opened to $100 with 97s in MP3, the SB called, and the BB, a Finn who was new to the table, made it $410. He covered me, and I had well over $5000, so I called, again not realizing how short the other player in the pot was. The BTN shoved for $675 total, and thankfully the Finn just called, so I called as well. I was pretty shocked the Finn didn't reraise there, because it was pretty obvious I didn't have a monster. The flop came J98, he checked, and I opted to check behind. Scandinavians are known to be aggressive in weird spots, so I wanted to see what developed. The turn brought 5, giving me a double bellybuster. He checked again, so I bet $1100, and he folded. The river 6 gave me a straight and won me the pot to put me pretty much even on the night.

Labels: Card Player, full ring, Las Vegas, NLHE, poker, Poker Savvy, poker strategy, session review, wsop

Stumble It!

Some of the other Poker Savvy Pros and I are doing a round table discussion with Card Player magazine today. They're accepting questions and awarding one-year Poker Savvy Plus memberships if yours is chosen.

Simply e-mail a question or two that you would like asked during the video tomorrow. We'll put the names of every person who submits a legitimate question into a random raffle, and if your name is chosen, you get the year-long membership completely free of charge.

Labels: Card Player, Mike Matusow, poker, Poker Savvy, poker strategy

Stumble It!

Not that it's really any of my business, but I knew Eric a bit a few years ago and was very surprised/worried, in light of the recent cheating at Ultimate Bet, when I heard that he was joining up with them. So it was with considerable relief that I read on his blog that

After a lot of reflection and thought, I have decided to separate myself from the Ultimate Bet brand. I hope that everyone will respect my privacy, as I wish to not go into the decision in any great detail at this time. At this point in time I just believe that the things I'm trying to accomplish in my career are not in sync with the Ultimate Bet brand.

Labels: cheating, poker, Ultimate Bet

Stumble It!

My latest poker strategy article, Defending Against Bluffs, has just been published in the July 2008 issue of 2+2 Internet Magazine. Here's a teaser:

To discover the true cost of a fold, you have to consider your opponent’s entire range. The next step in building up a defense against is to think about your entire range. Your opponent doesn’t know that you have a weak top pair. He has to make his decisions in light of a range of hands you could hold, just as you must do against him. Ask yourself where your current holding fits into your range. Is it one of the strongest hands that you would play this way, or one of the weakest? It’s OK to get bluffed off of the weakest hands in your range. Your consolation comes when you play a stronger hand the same way, your opponent makes the same bluff, and you snap him off.

If you enjoy this, please check out my archive of my older 2+2 articles and other poker strategy writing.

Sorry for the recent silence, I haven't been doing much of anything poker-related for the last week. I leave for Las Vegas tonight, though, so hopefully I'll have some good stories soon.

Labels: bluff, NLHE, poker, poker strategy

Stumble It!

Hey, a winning month! Maybe I am not so bad at this game after all. There are still a few days to go, but I probably won't be playing much if at all. As you may have noticed, I haven't been playing the last few days either. I leave for Las Vegas on July 1st, and once out there I'll obviously be devoting quite a lot of time to poker, so I'm buckling down now on some of my other projects.

Granted I'm about to turn around and spend all of June's winnings in Las Vegas, but I was going to play the main event anyway, so the winnings are still very meaningful. And if you count staking profits, June turns into a damn fine month.

I was playing smaller stakes, though deep-stacked, and ran at about 4 BB/100 over 19K hands.

Non-poker stuff, which is where I devoted a lot of my time, is going great as well. The school system is really excited about the debate league and committed to investing in it, and we're very close to hiring an extremely qualified new director. I wish I had a bit more time for poker, but as I said, the first part of July will be dedicated to it, and once there's a paid employee working on the debate stuff, I should have more free time as well.

Labels: boston debate league, personal, poker, urban debate league

Stumble It!

I was having trouble getting the ESPN360 feed to work. I finally got it streaming just in time to hear, "There are eight players left, Tom Chambers has busted out." Whoops. I don't know the full story, but apparently he got all in with top set and lost to a rivered flush. 20K's nothing to sneeze at, though. Nice run, Tom.

Labels: PLO8, poker, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

My buddy Tom (LearnedFromTV), who's already been tearing up the 2008 WSOP with a second place finish for $140K in the $2500 Stud/8-O/8 Mixed event and a shallow cash in the $1000 Razz, has made his second final table of the series, this time in the $1500 PLO/8. Once again, I'm very excited for Tom and for myself, the proud owner of 10% of Tom's winnings. It's nice to be freerolling the WSOP before I've even arrived in Las Vegas.

The Final Table:

Martin Klaser: 345,000
Erik Seidel: 320,000
Michael Fetter: 290,000
Tom Chambers: 283,000
Jonathan Maren: 210,000
Casey Kastle: 170,000
Larry Wright: 150,000
Joseph Haddad: 135,000
Chad Burum: 120,000

Average Stack: 216,000

Payouts

1 $216,219
2 $137,985
3 $83,538
4 $68,304
5 $56,019
6 $44,206
7 $34,389
8 $27,027
9 $19,656

This is going to be broadcast live ("with no hole cards and horrible commentary", Tom warns) on ESPN360 at 2PM Vegas time today. I've got a ton of work to do before leaving town tomorrow, but I'll probably have this on in the background anyway.

One Two times, dealer!

Labels: PLO8, poker, wsop

Stumble It!

After spending more than enough money to buy in directly, I finally won a freaking main event seat in one of the last $650 satellites Stars will be running. Counting the spending money and sponsorship deal that comes with the package, I think that I ended up breaking even on satellites almost to the dollar.

It wasn't a particularly interesting tournament, but I did make one tight fold fairly early on. I raised QQ UTG, and the BB min-re-raised me. I didn't have quite the right odds to chase a set, but I called anyway and then folded when he bet half his stack on a ragged flop. Obviously I'm not 100% sure I was beat, and the guy did turn out to be a pretty aggressive player, but I still have my doubts about just how wide his range is for min-re-raising an UTG raise.

I also found myself folding both AK and KK preflop much later in the tournament, but those were actually trivially easy situations. In both cases I had a safe stack, we were one player away from the bubble, and there was a massive chipleader open shoving every hand. There was just no reason to get involved, even with AA.

Speaking of which, here was an interesting spot that I saw at another table on the bubble:

Poker Stars, $615 + $35 NL Hold'em Tournament, 3,500/7,000 Blinds, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

UTG: 42,162
UTG+1: 52,824
UTG+2: 56,370
MP1: 88,111
MP2: 84,791
CO: 12,672
BTN: 169,828
SB: 18,412
BB: 59,926

Pre-Flop: (16,800)
5 folds, CO raises to 11,972 and is All-In, BTN calls 11,972, SB folds, BB calls 4,972

Flop: (45,716) T 8 8 (3 Players - 1 is All-In)
BB checks, BTN checks

Turn: (45,716) 6 (3 Players - 1 is All-In)
BB checks, BTN checks

River: (45,716) T (3 Players - 1 is All-In)
BB checks, BTN checks

Results: 45,716 Pot
CO showed A A (two pair, Aces and Tens) and WON 22,858 (+10,186 NET)
BTN mucked and LOST (-12,672 NET)
BB showed A A (two pair, Aces and Tens) and WON 22,858 (+10,186 NET)


It's to the BB's credit that he played this correctly. I think a lot of people would have reshoved with AA there, but he's much better guaranteeing that the BTN goes to showdown and increasing the odds of the short stack getting eliminated.

Feels good to win this, because now I don't have to waste time and effort booking a hotel, finding someone to pay me to wear their clothing, etc. Just nice to have all that stuff taken care of.

Labels: Las Vegas, NLHE, personal, poker, Poker Stars, poker strategy, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

BryanS, the awesome guy who represents Poker Stars on the 2+2 Forums, just posted a nearly final draft of the schedule for their annual World Championship of Online Poker. As usual, it looks like it's going to be a ground-breaking event for internet poker, featuring some huge buy-ins, some multi-day events, and some new tournament formats like NL 2-7 single draw that to my knowledge are not offered anywhere on the internet.

I don't envision myself playing any of the 10K+ buyin events, as I'd need to get a backer and the fields will probably be pretty tough anyway. But I'm excited about pretty much everything else. I like that a lot of the lesser played games have small enough buy-ins that I can afford to take a chance on them and that that chance will be subsidized by players even worse than myself doing the same.

Hopefully my non-poker schedule for this year will work out so that I'm able to play most of the events. It's nice that, since this is the internet, one can play events that run simultaneously. This is a big complaint from some at the WSOP. Now I just need to build up a bankroll on Stars. Thankfully Poker Savvy pays me in Stars money...




Some notes...

1. The event types "Mixed Hold'em", "Variety", and "NL 2-7 Single Draw" are planned and in development. If for some unforseen reason the development is not able to be completed in time for the 2008 WCOOP, these events will be replaced by other games.

2. The event name "Variety" is perhaps a bit ambiguous. We plan to hold an event which is a combination of the following games: Triple Draw 2-7, all five segments of HORSE, NL Single Draw 2-7, PL Omaha, and NL Hold'em. After much deliberation without coming up with a satisfactory name for it, we're asking our players... what do YOU think we should call such a tournament?

3. We have two "Mixed Hold'em" events on the schedule, though we debated replacing one of them with a second Omaha Hi/Lo tournament. What do you think of this? In terms of what we'll actually spread, this is pretty much the last one up for debate... we want to know what you think! Please discuss.

4. Regarding tournament times: while we would love to come up with the one time on the schedule that is perfect for everyone all over the world, this is of course impossible... no such "one perfect time" exists. We have done our best to schedule the events to reach as many of our players as possible, including our European friends who will no doubt enjoy the 14:30 (19:30 UK, 20:30 CET) tournaments which now appear every day on the schedule. We do regret that some players may miss events they'd play if they could, due to off-PokerStars obligations (work, etc), but we feel that this is unavoidable and that the schedule is rich with many chances to play.

5. Regarding 2-day events: in the end the decision was made that it's best to begin the biggest events on the biggest day. Some players, particularly our European players, will likely have to plan to take Monday off of work if they play in one of the big 2-day NLHE events. It would hardly be fair to say that we're not catering to our European players, though, as a majority of the weekday events are at times which will require our North American players to shuffle their schedules to play at all.

Labels: poker, Poker Stars, tournament, WCOOP

Stumble It!

More often than not I end up regretting big moves like this in tournaments, but I think this one is alright. It worked, anyway.

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 120/240 Blinds, 25 Ante, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

MP: 25,020
CO: 25,268
BTN: 3,120
SB: 6,095
Hero (BB): 6,510
UTG: 7,269

Pre-Flop: (510) 2 A dealt to Hero (BB)
UTG folds, MP raises to 720, CO calls 720, 2 folds, Hero calls 480

Flop: (2,430) K J 5 (3 Players)
Hero checks, MP checks, CO checks

Turn: (2,430) A (3 Players)
Hero checks, MP checks, CO bets 960, Hero calls 960, MP calls 960

River: (5,310) 9 (3 Players)