From the Desk of the Poker Philosopher

I'm going to be publishing my trip report from my 35th place finish at the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event in three installments in the Two Plus Two Internet Magazine. The first installment, covering Days 1 and 2, has just been published in the August issue.

You can read trip reports from other events, including the 2006 and 2007 WSOP, in their entirety on my website.

Oh and for those of you who have been getting e-mails from me, there is some additional information in this version of the trip report, though not a lot.

Labels: Las Vegas, narrative, personal, poker, poker strategy, tournament, wsop

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This incident occurred a while ago, but I just came across this first-hand account from a hired chef who was not playing in the game posted on The Agitator:

The raid occurred around 7:40 p.m. I was in the kitchen area which was just inside the front door when suddenly there was loud banging from the door. Within seconds, the room was full of Dallas SWAT officers yelling for everyone to put their hands in the air. Behind the Dallas SWAT team came many more law enforcement officers and several camera crews for the A&E reality show, Dallas SWAT. The camera crew’s chests were clearly marked as “A&E Film Crew.”

Bear in mind that, prior to police entering, the place was virtually quiet. There was the sound of poker chips in the air, but not much else. The players were essentially professionals and working stiffs having fun…there were doctors, lawyers, accountants, and other professionals. There was hardly anything “dangerous” about the place at all. In fact, the cops found no weapons in the facility or on anyone there. The show of force and weaponry brought by the cops was simply outrageous and unjustified, given the circumstances, but, then again, are they enforcing the law or making a TV show?

Among other things, I think this is an interesting comparison with the way decisions made by Harrah's and the hosts of World Poker Tour events are driven by camera crews and the needs of the networks that broadcast poker.

Labels: Harrah's, narrative, news, poker, underground poker club, WPT, wsop

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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!

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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!

Even though I eventually won a WSOP seat through Stars, they were out of hotel rooms at the Palms, so my only option was to take $1000 in exchange for their sponsorship. Cheapskate that I am, I spent my first few nights at the Imperial Palace. The room was nothing special, but it was better than I expected. It even had a little balcony with a decent view of Caesar's and Bellagio:


Having survived Day 1, I decided to treat myself on subsequent days. I booked a suite at the Rio, which was remarkably cheap (I'm paying barely more than I did at AP), and is way bigger and more badass:


It has a slightly better view as well:

Labels: Imperial Palace, Las Vegas, personal, Rio, 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!

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!

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!

Man I was around Vegas for most of the WSOP last summer and nothing spectacular happened. Then I sit it out this summer and all of my best poker buddies start kicking ass. Guess I am a jinx.

Payouts

1 $434,789
2 $277,452
3 $167,973
4 $137,343
5 $112,641
6 $88,927
7 $69,165
8 $54,344
9 $39,523

Seats and Chip Counts

Seat 1: Sebastian Segovia (Guatemala) -- 128,500
Seat 2: Alex Bolotin (Brooklyn, New York) -- 534,000
Seat 3: David Singer (Las Vegas, Nevada) -- 334,000
Seat 4: Thuy Doan (Williamsburg, Virginia) -- 369,500
Seat 5: John Phan (Stockton, California) -- 396,500
Seat 6: Matt "Plattsburgh" Vengrin (Red Hook, New York) -- 1,007,500
Seat 7: Stewart Newman (Coral Gables, Florida) -- 398,000
Seat 8: Johnny "Schwah" Neckar (Madison, Wisconsin) -- 796,000
Seat 9: Tony "Bond18" Dunst (Melbourne, Australia) -- 333,000

There are a few other notable players here as well, including FTP pro David Singer, who recently won the $25,000 heads up tournament on that site, Thuy Doan, who posts as Shes on 2+2, Matt "Plattsburgh" Vengrin, who's been backed and ghosted to some big internet scores by the infamous JJProdigy, and Johnny Neckar, who's well-known to 2+2 MTT community as Schwah.

Play is scheduled to start in about an hour. Good luck Tony!

Labels: NLHE, poker, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

Sweet run, bro, congratulations. Rouhani wins it, but Chambers down 140K for 2nd. Not too freaking shabby.

Labels: O8, poker, Stud/8, wsop

Stumble It!

Tom Chambers, 2+2's LearnedFromTV, has just made the final table of WSOP Event 10! It's a $2500 tournament that alternates between Omaha 8-or-better split and Stud 8-or-better split. Tom is a former math teacher and a mixed games expert (he's got a win in the Stars $200 Sunday HORSE under his belt), so it's no surprise that he kicks ass at these games. He's also a good friend of mine, so I'd be pulling for him regardless, but I'm especially excited because I have 10% of his action!

Here's the final table chip counts according to CardPlayer:

Farzad Rouhani - 513,000
Greg Pappas - 304,000
"Miami" John Cernuto - 285,000
Tom Chambers - 235,000
Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi - 231,000
John Racener - 180,000
Daniel Mowczan - 122,000
Yueqi Zhu - 87,000

At 4 p.m., the eight of them will battle it out for the bracelet and $232,911 first prize. Stakes start at 10K/20K and the average stack is 195K, so Tom's 235K puts him in pretty good shape.

One time, dealer!

Labels: O8, poker, Stud/8, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

I complained recently that I felt Harrah's was improperly prioritizing ESPN and other sponsors over the players in its decision to delay the final table of the WSOP main event. At the risk of boring everyone to death on this issue, I'm going to share some recent, competing thoughts from prominent poker players/bloggers.

First off, Michael Craig, editor of the FTP Strategy Guide, argues that in fact this will cost Harrah's (which apparently is now called Caesar's) money and should be seen as a far-sighted gamble rather than mere pandering to ESPN:

This move is the opposite of slapping a logo on the final table for a few million bucks. Caesars makes no money off this change in the presentation of the final table in the short term and, in fact, it has to spend more money. Caesars has three years to run on its contract with ESPN and the contract doesn’t provide more money for better ratings or more advertiser money. The Rio has to tear down the World Series and put it back up in November, probably shutting down some revenue-producing showroom for a crowd that doesn’t have to pay. That’s not a huge additional expenditure but it’s worth noting: this is no cash-grab.

Craig also strongly disagrees with my claim that tournaments ought to cater to the players simply because we pay entry fees:

Even though we’re still playing for our own money in nearly all tournaments, not to mention paying for the privilege of playing for our own money, we benefit from poker’s popularity in the form of more entries (usually newer, presumably less-skilled players) and potential secondary sources of income (e.g., endorsements, product placements, media opportunities). That we are still making a living off the boom times of 2004 and 2005 does not mean that poker is still hot. WSOP ratings on ESPN are down. WPT ratings have plummeted. Hasn’t Celebrity Poker Showdown - a good barometer of how interested the general public is in watching poker on TV - left the air for good?

Daniel Negreanu similarly argues that poker, in the US anyway, badly needs a shot-in-the-arm such as this:

I don't have any idea how much money Harrah's makes off the WSOP. I'm guessing, though, that the number people assume is far greater than the actual amount.

As a poker community we need to wake up a bit and realize the situation we are in, specifically in the U.S. Attendance is down in most tournaments, ratings for the premiere poker shows has also dipped. Poker is no longer seen as this "gold mine stock" amongst the mainstream public. There has been a lull in mainstream interest (a lot of that can definitely be credited to the UIGEA to some degree).

The poker players DON'T hold all the cards, despite the fact that many of us would like to believe that. We don't have a ton of well funded companies chomping at the bit to get in on the poker craze at the moment.

I daresay my own initial reactions may have been a big misguided.

Labels: poker, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

My latest article, Off the Deep End, is now appearing in the May issue of 2+2 Internet Magazine. It's designed to help tournament specialists adapt to playing deeper stacks such as those prevalent in the WSOP main event. Here's an excerpt:

With deeper stacks, blind defense is less important but button defense is more important. The button is like a gold mine that you have to share with eight other prospectors. When it’s your turn to reap the gold, you can’t let the others beat you to it. An aggressive player on your right who regularly raises the pot ahead of you needs to be discouraged with frequent calls and re-raises.

If you have any questions or comments about the article, please leave them here or in the 2+2 Magazine Forum.

If you enjoy this article, you may be interested in my other poker articles, especially Your First WSOP, which is also about preparing for the biggest poker tournament of the year.

Labels: NLHE, poker, poker strategy, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

I've been reading some good comments here, on other blogs, and in the 2+2 thread about the final table delay that I mentioned yesterday. I want to clear up a few things, clarify my own opinion a bit, and share some of the better discussions I've seen elsewhere.

First, a couple important details. My understanding is that everyone at the final table will be paid 9th place money in July. The rest of the prize pool will be kept in a CD, and the interest will be added to the payouts. Harrah's has tried to make it sound like this is akin to adding bonus money to the prize pool, but really it's the least they could do and possibly even their legal obligation.

Furthermore, according to the official press release,

"Each of the players who make it to the WSOP Main Event Final Table will receive ninth place prize money on July 14, when the finalists are determined. Harrah’s will then provide each of those players with an all expense paid trip for two for their return to Las Vegas in November to play the final portion of the tournament.

From July 14 to November 9, a span of 117 days, players will have an opportunity to line up sponsorships, coaches, review the play of all their competitors, participate in other tournaments, and take advantage of the new publicity and promotional opportunities that will be available."

I still think this is kind of tacky and crassly commercial, but I do like the idea of the WSOP gaining popularity as a world-class sporting event. Suspense about the outcome should increase the excitement of earlier WSOP broadcasts, and if Harrah's/ESPN do a good job of publicizing the final table contestants, they could be minor celebrities by November. Obviously the player themselves will have mixed feelings about that, but it will probably be good for poker in general. I found Daniel Negreanu's analogy on this point compelling:

The way the WSOP main event airs now, the public is usually already aware of who won. The final episode plays out more like a documentary, a la, this is "how they won." That will now change. Everyone will know who is at the final table, but for three months, the question will change to "who will win" which I think is more exciting.

On the other hand, the delay greatly increases the likelihood that players will make a deal and/or sell off their equity, which could actually decrease the excitement of the final table. Harrah's understandably refuses to assist players in deal-making, and in past years there's been very little time for players to bargain amongst themselves. But four months raises all sorts of possibilities, including the involvement of lawyers, insurance firms, and other professional deal-makers. The players may well end up playing for five rather than seven figures when the dust settles.

More troubling is the risk of collusion. It would not be difficult at all for two or more of the final tablists to become friends over the course of four months and reach an informal agreement to softplay each other. Of course, more large scale cheating is a possibility as well. Several members of the media who were on a conference call with WSOP commissioner Jeffrey Pollack found his response to these concerns lacking. He basically said there would be a new code of conduct and that punishments would be "severe" (no elaboration) in the event of collusion.

Overall, I appreciate the potential benefits, though I'm a bit skeptical since the higher-ups seem not to have given ample consideration to the drawbacks. Most troubling, though, is that such a drastic decision was made primarily for the interests of ESPN rather than the players. If the WSOP is going to be run for ESPN, as this and previous decisions have suggested it is, then the players should not be paying for it. The full $10,000 entry should go into the prize pool, and ESPN, Milwaukee's Best Light, and the other sponsors should be the ones paying for staff, space, etc.

But I suppose it could be worse. If the WPT were doing this, they'd probably claim exclusive rights to market the final tablists themselves the way American Idol does.

Labels: news, poker, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

The main event of the World Series of Poker starts on July 3, with the second-to-last day scheduled for July 15. Thanks to a recent decision by Harrah's and the WSOP, the final table will be played on... November 11th!

Granted, anyone who makes the final table should be excited enough to put up with this. But that doesn't make it any better of an idea.

The idea is to enable ESPN to broadcast the final table within hours of its conclusion. I suppose that's a good thing insofar as they are treating poker like other sports, where the excitement of seeing who wins is a big part of the audience's enjoyment. But if Harrah's is going to inconvenience (to understate the matter) the players for the sake of sponsors and a broadcast audience, the players should see something out of it.

In the past, ESPN has been accommodated at the players' expense in a variety of ways. Play has been extended so that camera crews do not need to incur the expenses of returning for another day. Tables have been broken to allow ease of movement of camera people. And now players anticipating the biggest game of their lives are required to wait four months, return to Las Vegas, and presumably perform for the cameras in the interim. (According to USA Today, "ESPN will air a special Nov. 4 showing what the players have done between the July determination of the final nine and the final table.")

In many cases, of course, "what the players have done" will include hiring coaches, studying each other's play, and changing up their own games. Reads that players have gathered will be lost or diminished and skill differentials will shrink.

In some ways, I suppose, that's good for the game. It's indisputable that televising the WSOP led directly to the current poker boom from which I have benefited. Presumably, a more dramatic and competitive final table might give the game more legitimacy and make it more interesting to a wider audience of sports fans. If that means more people playing and watching poker, then indirectly it's good for my bottom line.

At the same time, this is a major pain in the ass for all of the players and a blow to the equity of every strong player who enters the main event. A substantial portion of your equity is tied up in the off-chance that you make the final table, and knowing that weaker players will have months to diminish your skill edge there definitely reduces the expectation of every strong player in the tournament.

Most laughable is Harrah's "solution" in the unlikely event that a player is unavailable for the final table:

"What if something happens that precludes a player from playing at the final table? The WSOP has accounted for that. A player who does not appear will have his chips "blinded off," which means they will be paid into mandatory bets for each hand. When a competitor's last chip is played, he will be paid for where he finishes."

That's not a solution, that's standard operating procedure that absolutely tanks the equity of the affected player. Do I have a better idea? No, but I'm not the one who wants to delay the final table.

As I said, this isn't all bad news for the professional player. Presumably there will be opportunities for the players to seek sponsorship and endorsement in the interim as well. Nevertheless, it's preposterous that Harrah's continues to favor the interests of ESPN over those of its players without compensating those players in any way.

If the tournament is going to be run for ESPN, then ESPN's sponsorship should pay the costs of running the tournament. No portion of the prize pool should be withheld to pay for staff, space, equipment, etc. As long as the players are the ones paying for the event, then the players' interests deserve more consideration than they c