Posts Tagged ‘WSOP’

I had the pleasure of playing with Liv Boeree in the 2008 WSOP, spent basically an entire day sitting on her immediate left. Poker media are generally pretty quick to promote anyone who can handle chips and has two X-chromosomes as both ravishing and a competent card player, and it’s a nice change of pace to meet a woman who actually fits the bill. She was certainly easier on the eyes than most of the greasy, overweight slobs I find myself staring down (and yes, I’m aware that I could fairly be described as a greasy, overweight slob myself- thanks for pointing it out, though).

That said, I don’t think this Maxim spread is particularly flattering to her. I bet you’ll look anyway though. Just be warned- I chose a pretty tame one for the blog, but obviously some of the pictures are Not Suitable For Work. Oh, and thanks to Wicked Chops Poker for first bringing my attention to Liv Boeree’s photos. If you weren’t satisfied with these pictures, they’ve got quite a few more of other women, most of whom have no connection whatsoever to poker. You’re welcome.

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 decision I’d had all day, and I spent a good five minutes thinking and staring my opponent down. He was impassive, leaning forwards with hands covering his mouth and eyes revealing nothing. I’d nearly talked myself into a fold, but I decided to count out the chips for a call and see how my opponent responded to that. I slowly stacked up the 7,000 chips I would need, which at that point was about 1/3 of what I had left, and watched for a reaction. Still nothing.”

Enjoy!

Wicked Chops Poker is reporting that, with 2400 players left in the main event, Phil Ivey accepted a $20K wager from Andy Bloch at 99:1 that he would win the main event. Now that he’s made the final table, Bloch’s got to be sweating the $2 million loss.

My first reaction was that, this close call notwithstanding, this was a pretty good spot for Bloch. Granted everything I’ve heard about Ivey is that he’s both incredibly good at poker and insanely intimidating in person, but is he really 24 times more likely than the average player to take it down? The one thing I don’t know, which would make a big difference, is what his chip stack was like at the time. I guess if he was already at like three times the average when he took the bet, it might not be so unreasonable to think he’d close out eight times as often as anyone else sitting on a stack that big.  Read the complete post...

Villain is Matt “Mattg1983″ Graham. He’s got a bracelet from the 2008 WSOP PLO $10K, but I don’t know how his PLO8 game is.

PokerStars Pot-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo Tournament, 15/30 Blinds (8 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t5430)
BB (t4450)
UTG (t2960)
UTG+1 (t2520)
MP1 (t5635)
Hero (MP2) (t3005)
CO (t2945)
Button (t3055)

Hero’s M: 66.78

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with 2, 4, K, 3
3 folds, Hero bets t90, 1 fold, Button calls t90, 2 folds

Flop: (t225) 3, K, 9 (2 players)
Hero bets t155, Button calls t155

Turn: (t535) K (2 players)
Hero checks, Button checks

River: (t535) 3 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets t295, Hero raises to t1060, Button calls t765

Total pot: t2655

Results:
Button mucked A, Q, 10, A (Hi: two pair, Aces and Kings).
Hero had 2, 4, K, 3 (Hi: full house, Kings over threes).
Outcome: Hero won t2655  Read the complete post...

Just finished up the first break of the day, Andrew is down to 26k after a couple hands didn’t get there. Table is much less intense than days 1 and 2 though, so we’ll see.

Updates on twitter fairly regularly, you can view the feed at www.twitter.com/thinkingpoker

Thanks to everyone for following along and for the good luck wishes!

I did a “Turning Point” segment today with Cardplayer’s Kristy Arnett about a key hand from Day 2A of the WSOP.

Just to provide a little more detail about the hand: blinds were 300/600/75. I opened to 1500 with KJo, Luca Pagano called, Grant Levy made it 4500 on the button, I made it 11K (not 12K as I say on the video) to go with 33K behind. This isn’t a spot I’d put myself in against a player who can 5-bet bluff but I wasn’t worried about that here. The flop was QTx with a spade draw. I bet 16K, he tanked for what felt like forever and folded.

Andrew is actively twittering away, view notes at www.twitter.com/thinkingpoker.

He’s in decent shape, but at a tough table. The pros beat him to the dead money early on and then the 2 fish that busted were replaced by more pros.