I landed in Las Vegas yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon, two days earlier than I’d originally planned. I’ve got a house for the summer that I can move into on Friday, but Matt Berkey had an empty seat in his inaugural Solve4Why … Read more…
The eighth installment in my Thinking Poker Diaries series, which tells the story of my summers at the World Series of Poker, is now available. Unlike past volumes, this one covers many preliminary events as well as the 2013 Main … Read more…
Depending on your definition of exciting, you might be interested to hear that my latest book has hit the digital shelves! The fifth volume of The Thinking Poker Diaries chronicles my 87th place finish the 2010 WSOP Main Event. Day … Read more…
The second installment of my WSOP trip report is now appearing in Two Plus Two Magazine. After a disappointing start to the series, my next few tournaments offer me some opportunities to regain confidence: “Phil probably forgot about this hand … Read more…
Hopefully a lot of you follow me on Twitter, because I know I’ve been bad about keeping the blog up-to-date. The short version is that I’m still in the Main Event going into day 3. I’ve got about 20K chips, … Read more…
My starting table was a thing of beauty, nine opponents who lay somewhere on the spectrum of weak to competent but none who seemed likely to give me tough decisions, a great example of why I wanted to play a … Read more…
The Millionaire Maker is like the PokerStars Sunday Million on crack, drawing a field of thousands with a relatively affordable buyin and the distant prospect of a life-changing score. It ended up drawing a field of 6343, making it roughly … Read more…
The second and, unfortunately, final installment of my 2012 WSOP trip report is now appearing in the September issue of 2+2 Magazine. As you might guess from the fact that this is the final installment, frustration is the guest star … Read more…
Sylvain is a friend and occasional student of mine whose praises I’ve sung on these pages before. At my request, he wrote up a trip report from his time in Las Vegas during the WSOP prelims, in which I was … Read more…
The full report from my first day of play at the 2012 WSOP main event is now appearing in Two Plus Two Magazine. It contains both strategic insights and a few anecdotes about the crazy stuff you’re pretty much guaranteed … Read more…
Today was ultimately a very good day – I finished with 83,900, nearly 3x the starting stack and more than 2x the average at day’s end – but it was much more stressful than I’d prefer Day 1 of the … Read more…
The second installment of my trip report from the 2011 World Series of Poker main event is now appearing in the September edition of 2+2 Magazine. It covers my experiences on Days 3, 4, and 5: There are people who … Read more…
Part 1 of my trip report from the 2011 WSOP Main Event is now appearing in the August edition of 2+2 Magazine. This covers my first two days and includes everything you could want from the WSOP: big calls, big … Read more…
The exciting conclusion of my 2010 WSOP Main Event trip report, covering Days 5 and 6, is now appearing in the October issue of 2+2 Magazine. Here’s an excerpt: My Day 6 felt like what the World Series of Poker … Read more…
The first installment of my 2010 WSOP main event trip report, covering Days 1 and 2, is now appearing in the 2+2 Internet Magazine: “We began play with 30,000 chips each and blinds of just 50 and 100. On the … Read more…
This year’s WSOP journey ended for me about an hour ago. Out of more than 7000 players, I finished 87th and won just shy of $80,000. There was nothing dramatic about it. I lost two very standard pre-flop hands to … Read more…
The final part of my WSOP trip report is now appearing in the November issue of 2+2 Magazine. It perhaps goes without saying that one’s bust-out day from the WSOP main event is usually a frustrating one, and mine was … Read more…
My latest poker article, WSOP Trip Report Part 2: Jack Link’s and Beef Jerky, is now appearing in the September issue of 2+2 Magazine. Here’s an excerpt: “I was pretty sure I was going to fold. It was the toughest … Read more…
Here’s my clip from last night’s broadcast on ESPN. I’m “Brokos”, appearing about 30 seconds in. That’s right, the lucksack who gets it in with two pair versus trips and rivers the miracle 8.
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 … Read more…
I arrived at the Rio around 3:30 PM on July 4th. I had $4000 in tournament lammers in my left pocket and $3400 cash in my right. My objective was to play satellites (they were running a bunch of $500 … Read more…
Today I played my second preliminary event in the 2007 World Series of Poker. The game was pot-limit, rather than no limit, Texas Hold ‘Em, with a $2000 buy-in. As the name implies, a player may not at any point … Read more…
On Monday, I played my first WSOP preliminary event, a $2500 6-max tournament. This is a little beyond my bankroll, but there are so few opportunities to play 6-max tournaments, and I’m not playing many other events, so I decided … Read more…
I get back to my room about 2AM Friday night, exhausted from another long day of poker, but there are no more days off, and I need to be in my seat at the Rio and ready to play at … Read more…
About 1150 players begin play today, and 873 will win a prize. Obviously no one wants to finish 874th, and so an interesting dynamic will develop: some players, especially those with the fewest chips, will tighten up considerably, passing up … Read more…
Thursday night I’ve got a meet-up with a contingent of online poker players with whom I regularly discuss poker strategy. This is my first time meeting most of them in person, and it was a blast. Unfortunately, I had pre-paid … Read more…
Thursday night, after having dinner with my father and brother, who have come out to support me for a few days, at their hotel, the Stratosphere Towers, I took a cab back to the Monte Carlo. It is only 8PM, … Read more…
As most of you know already, I’m playing in the main event of the World Series of Poker this week in Las Vegas. A lot of people have asked me to keep them updated about how I’m doing, so I … Read more…