For the first time ever, there will even be t-shirts available for purchase! There’s one design, but it’s available in a number of different colors & styles of t-shirt, including ladies cut, and sizing details are included on the order site.

IF YOU WANT A SHIRT YOU GOTTA ORDER ONE!
We’re asking folks to pre-order so we get the right number of shirts and sizes for folks that want one. We won’t be ordering very many extras to avoid waste, so if you want a shirt, order now! The deadline to order is Wednesday, June 14.

PICKUP ONLY
Shirts will be available for pickup in Vegas during the WSOP. If you won’t be in Vegas, we will NOT be mailing t-shirts at this time, but if we get enough interest we’ll put some items online for direct sales. If that’s something you’re interested in, please let us know here: https://goo.gl/forms/18PWzHn1DrDCoaII3

PAYMENT ON PICKUP
Shirts are $20 each, and you can pay cash when you pick them up. The easiest time to pick them up will be at the meet-up, but they should arrive around June 19, so if you’ll be in Las Vegas for the second half of June but not the Main Event, it shouldn’t be too hard to find a way to get you your shirt.

Cliff’s Notes: Selling action in a full slate of Las Vegas summer tournaments. Increments as small as 1% are available, with discounts for larger pieces. I run my packages a bit differently than most, so if you’re interested, please read carefully: 

This Google spreadsheet lists all of the tournaments that could be played on the stake, but there are no guarantees. I’ll collect money up front that hopefully will be enough to cover the entire summer, but depending on how things go there’s some chance that further investment will be required in order to have a piece of some of the final events. Any unused buyins will be returned along with your share of winnings at the end of the series (mid-July).

This package does not include the WSOP Main Event. I will be selling that separately and posting details in the next few weeks.

In the left column are the events I’m more likely to play, on the right are other possibilities. Even among those on the left, some are much more likely than others. The idea is, on any day that I feel like playing a tournament, to have an easy answer to the question, “What is the best tournament to play today?”

Largely for my own reference, tournaments with multiple flights are generally listed more than once. Any flight for any tournament on this list is authorized, even if that particular flight isn’t explicitly listed. In other words, if I only listed Flights A – F for the Planet Hollywood event, but I end up playing Flight G, that will still be on the stake.

I’m going to start by collecting money based on $40K worth of buy-ins. That’s a pretty conservative number, but again, there is no guarantee that this will be enough to cover all of the events, so additional investment could be required if you want a piece of the later events. I’ll keep you updated on progress throughout the summer.

Mark-up will be 1.3 for pieces smaller than 5%, and 1.25 for 5% or more. That means each 1% share is $520 up front, and each 5% share is $2500. I’m looking to sell 50% of the package, and 35% is already sold as of this posting. I will update when sold out.

Please comment here or email andrew (at) thinkingpoker (dot) net with questions or if you’d like buy a piece.

Terms:

1. Several of these events are re-entries. I will not forfeit a stack in order to re-enter on a subsequent flight, except in an extreme circumstance where I believe this decision to be +EV for the stake (and not merely for my own hourly rate). This would require the stack to be quite miniscule and the value of playing another flight quite high, a situation that’s unlikely to arise.

2. Decisions about which of the listed tournaments to play and whether to enter late will be at my sole discretion. There’s a real chance that, if I bust a Primary tournament early and it is not a re-entry, that I will late register one of the Secondary tournaments. If I do so, I may reduce the mark-up on that event, but that will be at my discretion.

3. My winnings as well as any payments I make to you may be reported to the IRS, and you will need to provide address, social security number (or equivalent, for non-Americans), and any other information required for this purpose. This isn’t information that I need in advance, but in the event that I need to pay out profits to you, it’s information I’ll need to collect before paying out your share of the winnings.

4. Payment can be made via Venmo, customer-to-customer bank transfer (I have accounts with Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Capital One 360), in-person deposit into my Wells Fargo or Bank of America account, or cash in Vegas if you can get it to me around the start of the series. Paypal insists that I pay a 3% fee on this sort of transaction, so I’m inclined not to use them, but if it’s your only option we can discuss it. I will do my best to pay you back in the same form in which you paid me, but especially in the happy event that I owe you a lot of money, I can’t guarantee that.

5. Only the tournaments listed on the linked spreadsheet are part of the stake. Any other cash games or tournaments I play during this time, whether or not they are part of the WSOP, will not be paid for using stake money, nor will stakers be entitled to anything I win in them.

6. Sponsorships, promotions, and anything else I receive as a result of playing these tournaments will not be shared with stakers unless they are funded from the prize pool (I don’t believe there’s anything that fits this bill, but I could be mistaken). That’s right, if I make quad jacks, I’m keeping the jerky for myself!

Please let me know if you’re interested or if you have any questions. Thanks as always for considering it!

There was such a great mix of types of teams! Of course in some cases it was just a few great players who happened to be friends playing together, but lots of people were playing with family members (George Danzer, his girlfriend, and his father were at our table for a while!), and in perhaps my favorite story from the event, Niall Farell, who lost heads up to Safiya Umerova in the $1500 no-limit shootout, tweeted “If you can’t beat them…” along with a picture of a registration receipt for a Niall/Safiya team for this event!

I wouldn’t be surprised if, for many of these teams, this was the only WSOP event they played, which means that the event was also successful in bringing in new players. There was a lot of joking and speculation about whether the event wouldn’t ruin friendships or even marriages (someone tweeted that he hoped it wouldn’t be the end of the podcast!), but from what I observed, everyone, from the most recreational players to the most serious pros, seemed to be having fun.

My girlfriend raised an interesting point that hadn’t really occurred to me: this event gives recreational players the opportunity to enter a WSOP event for less even than the $500 Colossus. Ordinarily, if four friends wanted to pool their money to enter a $1000 WSOP event, only one of them could actually play, and although this does happen, it’s surely a bit disappointing for the other three. The team event enabled all four to get a taste of the WSOP experience for a cheaper price than they could anywhere else.

You might think that because it’s a bracelet event and there are also a lot of grinders taking it very seriously, that might ruin the fun for the amateurs, but that doesn’t seem right to me. I don’t imagine those folks enter an event like this thinking they are favorites to win it. In many cases, I imagine they want the full WSOP experience, they want a taste of the competitiveness and the famous pros as well as the kids in sunglasses and hoodies, etc.

All in all, it seemed a resounding success to me, and I can’t wait to play it again next year. My only regret relates to Tommy Angelo’s famous proclamation that the pleasure:pain ratio is all out of whack in a poker tournament. I misplayed two hands that resulted in our elimination, and I can say that it hurts a LOT more knowing that your mistakes brought an end to the fun for you and your friend.

Sorry Nate! Thanks for playing with me, and we’ll get them next year!

My Personal History with Full Tilt Poker

I had more than $60,000 on Full Tilt Poker on Black Friday, and although I eventually (after more than two years) got it all back, for a long time I had no idea what was going to happen to it. And I was one of the lucky ones: there were people with a lot more than that jammed up, and there were people with less who needed it more. Although I would have rather had that money earning interest somewhere, neither my life nor my bankroll were badly affected by not having access to it.

That’s absolutely not to say that it wasn’t a lot of money to me. It was and is a significant chunk of my net worth. As many of you know, though, I try to live well within my means (#nitcast), so it wasn’t money that I needed to pay my rent nor even to be adequately bankrolled for the games I wanted to play.

What upset me most was the gall of the whole thing, how they stonewalled and lied to us after Black Friday, even as it slowly became clear that Full Tilt did not have our money, and that the reason they did not have our money was that they had mismanaged it, making reckless loans and paying out huge disbursements to shareholders. As far as I’m concerned, getting my money back after two years didn’t make any of that go away, and it didn’t make us square. I’m holding my breath for any further compensation, but I’m not eager to welcome Ferguson and Lederer back into the good graces of the poker world, either.

I’ll admit that I don’t know Ferguson’s exact role in what went wrong before and after Black Friday. That’s not willful ignorance: there’s just not a lot of hard information available. According to Mike Sexton, whom I do consider to be a broadly reliable source, Ferguson actually did more than any of the other principals at FTP to help protect and restore player balances.

That’s to his credit, but it doesn’t change my opinion that he played a role in screwing me and took home millions of dollars in the process. As a member of the Board of Directors, he had an obligation to ensure the safety of player deposits, and he didn’t do it, and although he may have lost or given back some of it, I believe that there is to this day there’s money in his bank account that isn’t rightfully his.

I’d more or less put all of this behind me, until Lederer and Ferguson summoned up a new batch of gall and decided to start making noise in the poker world again. Lederer recently claimed “full responsibility” for Full Tilt’s failure, though that doesn’t seem to entail any monetary sacrifice on his part.

Ferguson Arrives

As far as I know, Ferguson has never made any kind of public statement about Full Tilt and certainly hasn’t offered a public apology. I knew that he would be been around the Rio, and I even passed him in the men’s room once, but it never occurred to me that he would land at my table. I assumed he only planned to play a few of the higher buy-in events. What he was doing in an $888 tournament is beyond me.

When he arrived at the table, it was a shock. I couldn’t believe it was happening. I had no idea what to do. No real good could come from confronting him: what did I think, that he was going to cut me a check on the spot? That he was going to break down in tears and confess to everything? I knew that it would only upset me and distract me from the game. Besides, was I just going to attack him out of nowhere? How do you start that conversation?

Still, it irked me that he was able to pony up to the table like it was no big deal, like bygones were bygones, like he was just another poker player. I’d been vocal on the internet about how Full Tilt players were never made whole – was I just going to sit there quietly when I finally had the chance to confront one of the owners directly?

My hands were shaking and my mind was spinning. I could hardly pay attention to what else was going on at the table. Thankfully, my stack was short enough that all of my decisions were binary and didn’t require much thought.

I remembered some wisdom I picked up from Tommy Angelo, though I’m sure it’s not unique to him: forgiveness isn’t something you do for the person you’ve forgiving, it’s something you do for yourself, because anger and bitterness are poison and you shouldn’t keep them inside of you.

What did I really know about Ferguson’s side of the story? I was rushing to a judgment that, though I had a high degree of confidence in it, was not 100%. Maybe he really was some hero operating behind the scenes. It wasn’t likely, but it was possible.

The nice way to put it would be that I decided to take the high road. Maybe I just chickened out. But I decided not to say anything to him and just focus on playing cards.

That peace lasted for a few minutes, until another player at our table was eliminated. After gathering his things, the young man reached out to shake Ferguson’s hand. “It’s an honor”,  he said. “Glad to have you back.”

That was the final straw, but it was also the icebreaker I needed. “I don’t agree with that, for what it’s worth,” I declared to the table at large. “Anyone else here have money on Full Tilt Poker?”

No one responded. I didn’t know whether the answer was no, or whether I was just speaking so agitatedly that they couldn’t understand me. I locked eyes with the guy who looked most like a former online player. “Did you have money on Full Tilt?”

He removed his headphones. I asked him again. “No,” he told me. I could feel my face reddening. Ferguson still hadn’t said anything, but I certainly had his attention.

“I had $60,000 locked up for over two years,” I said.

“And did you get it back?” Ferguson asked me, as though that would make everything OK.

“That was $60,000 I couldn’t access for two years. No interest.”

“Sorry about that. But you got it back?”

Finally, someone else chimed in. “I had over $9000 in bonuses that I never received,” he said.

“But you got the balance back?” Chris asked.

“No,” I interrupted. “You asked whether we got paid back. The answer is, we got some of what we were owed.”

We just stared at each other for a few seconds after that. There was nothing more to say. I sat back down. My hands were still shaking, and my face was burning, but it was a relief to say something to him.

I’m relieved that I didn’t say anything nasty, and I truly don’t wish him harm or misfortune. But for him just to return to the poker world like nothing happened feels like a denial of all of the harm that Full Tilt did to so many individuals and to our community in general. When I saw him literally being welcomed back, I felt compelled to offer a counterweight to that sentiment.

Ferguson Departs

Ferguson had late registered, so he was playing a short stack. The first time he shoved, it was for about 8BBs in middle position. I was holding A4s in the CO and briefly considered calling him, but I realized my emotions were getting the best of me and folded.

A few orbits later, he jammed 6BBs UTG, and I was in middle position with ATo. This, I decided, was a call. Not a spite call, just a good call. I called.

The Ace came right on the flop, and it was still good on the river. I’d busted Chris Ferguson. He tapped the table, looked me in the eye, and nodded at me. “Good luck.”

I nodded in acknowledgment and quietly stacked my chips.

(i) I need paperwork from backers (just a SSN or TIN, really) if I cash;
(ii) 5% minimum, though I have no objection to people subdividing a 5% among themselves as long as I only have to deal with one person;
(iii) Any endorsement money, prop betting money, or other money I make on the side because I play in the tournament is mine to keep.
(iv) I can receive and send money with BoA, check in the mail, cash in Boston, or cash / chips / tournament lammers at the Rio July 2-4. I’d rather get the money beforehand because it’s one less thing to worry about while I’m traveling.
(v) I’m allowed to make swaps, sell small pieces to family and close friends, etc.; that is, although I’ll have significant skin in the game, I don’t want to create the appearance that I’m only selling/swapping 60%.

I really appreciate everyone who was cheering here, on Twitter, etc., and I hope I’ll be able to deliver another nice sweat for you all in the Main Event next month. I won’t be playing any poker between now and then, but I’ve still got plenty of WSOP stuff to write about so you should continue to see new content going up here.

Also for reasons having nothing to do with this, this week’s podcast is probably going to be a little late going up, most likely not until Thursday. It was recorded last week, so there won’t be any PLO8 talk, but you can definitely look forward to hearing that next week! Nate’s got a great head for the game, he was a big help to me in preparing for the final few tables, and we’re going to try to get a good guest for the subject as well. Stay tuned!

Nevertheless, I feel like they still cater too much to the lowest common denominator. I realize there are (hopefully) tons of people watching who aren’t going to care one lick about table dynamics or anything like that, but I don’t see how it hurts them to include some information that is slightly beyond their understanding. I feel like that’s generally how sports are covered. Presumably football commentators sometimes talk about plays or factors that are beyond the understanding of some appreciable chunk of their audience, but they get away with it.

Given that they are making some effort to speculate as to why players are playing hands the way they are, I believe that they ought to try to get it right. On the 2+2 Pokercast recently, Lon Mceachern said something to the effect of, “There are 100 different ways to play a hand, so no matter what explanation you’re going to give, you’re not going to please everyone.”

That strikes me as a total cop-out. I remember seeing a hand once where UTG raised with 88 and a good player in early position called with A4s. The flop comes down A72, both players checked, and the commentator said something like, “He’s checking the Ace to set a trap for his opponent.”

I don’t see why it would be so difficult to say instead, “He’s flopped top pair, but he’s got to play it carefully. He’s only got a 4 for a kicker, and if too much money goes into the pot, he could be in big trouble.” There’s nothing particularly complicated about that explanation, and it’s far more accurate.

The hand that really disappointed me from this year’s final table was Cheong’s infamous 6-bet with A7 into Duhamel’s QQ. This was such a critical hand that I feel like it deserved more explanation than it got. Basically they just made it look like Cheong’s head exploded or he made some atrocious play or something, and while I do think it was probably a mistake, I’m sure his reasoning for it was a lot more complex than 99% of the audience could intuit for themselves. At the very least, I feel it deserved some explanation such as the following:

“Cheong’s made excellent use of aggression this whole final table, and now it’s really time for him to turn up the heat. Duhamel has Racener outchipped nearly 3:1. If he can outlast Racener, he stands to earn an extra $1.5 million, which means that he shouldn’t be looking to tangle with chipleader Joseph Cheong. Here we see Cheong trying to leverage his chip lead with an aggressive move, and unfortunately for him, he’s run into one of the few hands that is simply too good for Duhamel to fold.”

Over time, this kind of commentary would probably raise the audience’s sophistication and improve their ability to appreciate the strategy behind the hands that they see. We’ve already seen this effect in the first few years of serious WSOP coverage, as they are now comfortable presuming a level of knowledge that they couldn’t take for granted back in 2005. I believe they owe it to their audience to keep raising the bar, and hopefully we’ll see more of that in future years. If we do, I might even start watching again.

Poker News Video Interview

Poker News Hand Analysis

Let me explain for the record why I am wearing the ridiculous backwards hat in the video. I’d been wearing a hat all day, which I usually do when playing poker. They wanted me to take it off because the brim was casting a shadow over my face, but I had awful hat hair. So we compromised on a backwards hat.

Seat 1: David Baker (951000) NOT Bakes of FTOPS final table fame, I’m told
Seat 2: Andrew Brokos (1223000) table chipleader
Seat 3: Eric Baldwin (292000) Basebaldy online, 2009 Cardplayer player of the year, WSOP bracelet, UB sponsored player
Seat 4: Russell Rosenblum (152000) lawyer from Bethesda, MD; final tabled the main event in 2002
Seat 5: Brian Jensen (521000) 2007 PCA winner; played with him on Day 3
Seat 6: Rafael Sansrodrigo (440000) can’t find anything but chip counts
Seat 7: Breeze Zuckerman (738000) last woman remaining (I played with the second-to-last yesterday)
Seat 8: Paul Evans (305000) middle-aged guy, a lot of lifetime cashes, including two 2nd places in WSOP prelims
Seat 9: Adam Levy (1147000) Roothlus online, played with him deep in the 2008 WSOP, also UB-sponsored

Sure would be fun to bust both of UB’s horses today….

Seat 1: Vincent Chahley (167000) investment banker
Seat 2: Dorothy VonSachsen (112000) has final tabled WSOP prelims
Seat 3: Dimitri Rassam (529000) there’s an actor by this name, but he looks too young, as the poker player took second in a senior’s event at the Bellagio
Seat 4: Neil Tyler (220000) online player TheOracleAA
Seat 5: Andrew Brokos (487000) 4 for 5 in WSOP ME cashes
Seat 6: Steven Burkholder (356000) PiKappRaider online, won two FTOPS events, a WCOOP, and several Sunday majors, runner up in a $1500 PLO WSOP event
Seat 7: Gary Kostiuk (253000) no info
Seat 8: Lou Barlow (361000) not the musician. He won an online contest (not a satellite) to get his seat
Seat 9: Nikolay Losev (181000) a lot of deep cashes on the European poker circuit. I do like that his last name is “Lose EV” though.

Vincent Lodato 134,700 AMAZON/322/1
Andrew Brokos 503,300 AMAZON/322/2
Andrew Jeter 124,300 AMAZON/322/3
Simon Ravnsbaek 233,200 AMAZON/322/4 (couple of shallow cases on the circuit: WSOP, WPT, EPT, Aussie Millions)
Daan Slutter 172,900 AMAZON/322/5 (sponsored by Everest Poker, but only one live cash)
Spencer Hudson 167,600 AMAZON/322/6 (online player UHBigTex, won the Sunday Million, second in a WCOOP FLHE event, his P5’s profile lists JJProdigy as one of his favorite players WTF)
James Coca 121,000 AMAZON/322/7
William Schweinebraten 200,500 AMAZON/322/8 (5th in a WSOP circuit event, no other cashes)
Shane Rose 414,400 AMAZON/322/9 (LA live player, won the CA State Championships but no other notable cashes)

Danny Dam 198,000 AMAZON / 264 / 1 No info
Vincent Van Patten 174,200 AMAZON / 264 / 2 Celeb/Pro [wpt color commentator]
Thong Tran 57,100 AMAZON / 264 / 3 Vegas Pro w/ 3 cashes this WSOP
Cristian Busi 151,400 AMAZON / 264 / 4 No Info
Andrew Brokos 110,400 AMAZON / 264 / 5 philosopher
Michael Bunin 26,200 AMAZON / 264 / 6 no info [actor on TBS sitcom “My Boys”]
Brian Jensen 55,000 AMAZON / 264 / 7 pro from Denmark [won 07 PCA]
Vincent Elkael 25,000 AMAZON / 264 / 8 cashed Venetian deep stack 09 and 10
Dan White 56,900 AMAZON / 264 / 9 few small cashes 2009, non WSOP [active online player]

Play starts at noon PST with occasional updates on twitter.com/thinkingpoker…

Ralph Blanco 47,175 AMAZON / 353 / 1 no info
Andrew Fegan 49,325 AMAZON / 353 / 2 played some prelim events in past WSOP’s but no significant cashes
Brad Jarrett 99,000 AMAZON / 353 / 3 satellite qualifier who’s been running hot
Anthony Scherer 39,000 AMAZON / 353 / 4 16th the year that I finished 35th
Mark Marcellus 11,050 AMAZON / 353 / 5 won a live satellite two years in a row, 118th last year
Martin Perez 16,000 AMAZON / 353 / 6 cashed in a few prelim events over the course of several years
Andrew Brokos 26,500 AMAZON / 353 / 7 fish
Csaba Knokoly 54,100 AMAZON / 353 / 8 no info
Jay Keeler 29,950 AMAZON / 353 / 9 no info

If you recognize any of these names, by all means let me know! I’m really bad at matching names/faces with screennames that I probably know well and have played with many times. It’s just one of the disadvantages of being an internet donk at a live tournament.

Overall seems like it could be a pretty decent starting table. Not a lot of chips, so we’ll probably lose some people early on. Hopefully I’ll be on the receiving end of those chips, and then we’ll see who shows up next. I’ll be back on Twitter of course, sans “a” key (if you see it occasionally, by the way, it’s because my phone auto-completes words and sometimes I get lucky and it does that with an “a” word.)

Thanks to all those who are rooting for me!

I’ve never played the game myself, and apparently Bakes has only been playing it for six months!

I’m particularly happy for the guy since I brutally cold-decked him, AA>KK, at the final table of the FTOPS 2K event that I went on to win. Of course, I felt only so bad because Bakes final tables major events like once a week.

They may not look like much, but this is millions of dollars of top poker talent helping him celebrate:

Like I say, I’m embarrassed I hadn’t heard of him, because it’s clear to me that he’s soon going to be recognized as a top-tier player. He final tabled the most recent WSOP Europe and now has won his second bracelet in a huge field $1500 NLHE tournament. I’m looking forward to seeing more of Praz, but hopefully not at my tables.

I’m not sure if they just neglected to mention those or if I for some reason just don’t qualify for them, but it doesn’t really matter. The package with Poker Stars, from whom I’ve also won a seat, includes $1000 or 8 nights’ accommodations plus a PCA package worth about $16K to anyone who cashes. Their incentive for winning the whole thing is a lot smaller, but that’s obviously a remote consideration and offset by the opportunity to negotiate a lucrative arrangement with a variety of companies. So basically it seems like there’s no reason to go with FTP over Stars if you have the opportunity to do either, unless you realllllllly want to have dinner with Roy Winston and Eunjong Byun.

Here’s the full e-mail from FTP:
Congratulations on winning the FTOPS TOC, you have won a $10,000 prize
package to the 2010 Main Event. To redeem your prize package, please
select one of the following options:

a.) Approximately four (4) weeks prior to the start of the main event, we
will deposit the remaining $10,000 into your player account to be used for
your Main Event buy-in. Please note you are responsible for your own
tournament registration as well as getting to and from the event. Your
package will also include three (3) days accommodation at the Rio
All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. This period of accommodation
begins on or about your first day of play in the 2010 Main Event. Should
you still be involved in Main Event play following the initial
accommodation period, continued accommodation for your Main Event play
will be provided on an individual basis. If you choose to not accept
accommodation at the Rio All-Suite Hotel, you will NOT receive any cash
reimbursement. You are also invited to join several of our Red Pros in a
pre-tournament dinner. We will send you more information regarding the
dinner as we get closer to the main event.

As part of option (a), you will receive an assortment Full Tilt Poker
gear, the gear will be issued at the event. Remember that you must wear
this gear while playing in the Main Event and you cannot wear any
competitor’s logo.

b.) Do not play in the 2010 Main Event. If you choose not to play in the
Main Event, we will credit your Full Tilt Poker account in the amount of
10,000T$ to use at your discretion on our site.

Please reply to this e-mail as soon as possible with your selection, if
you are selecting option (a), please include your shirt size and your
preferred Main Event start date:

Day 1A
Day 1B
Day 1C
Day 1D

Your hotel accommodation will be reserved based on the preferred start
date you provide above.

We look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas!

Regards,
Full Tilt Poker

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.

Even against bad players in a great structure, that’s an awfully huge edge. Then again, if Ivey does make it to the final four with a decent stack, I imagine he takes it down a large percentage of the time.

What do you think? Was Ivey getting the best of Bloch when he took 99:1?

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!

Toriani, Keith 110,200 BR224 1
Lezcano, Ed 23,900 BR224 2
Hai, Le 113,100 BR224 3
Brokos, Andrew 92,200 BR224 4
Phung, Steve 26,500 BR224 5
Bykov, Andrey 27,500 BR224 6
Pages, Fernando 87,100 BR224 7
Fiala, Miroslav 103,500 BR224 8
Stanchewski,Paul 12,200 BR224 9

Keith Toriani- Nothing on him

Ed Lezcano- Nothing

Le Hai- Name is way too similar to common French, Italian, and Chinese words for accurate googling

Steve Phung- A couple shallow cashes in small live events, can’t find anything else on him

Andrey Bykov- He’s from Vladivostok and either is or shares a name with one of Putin’s top economic advisors. If it’s the former, I might have a new “Table of Death” to worry about!

Fernando Pages- According to his World Poker Showdown profile, he lost his job in December and has since been earning a living in local bar leagues and casinos. His interests include “meeting hot girls” and “poker cruises”.

Miroslav Fiala- Nothing in English nor anything in any other language that looked promising

Paul Stanchewski- Final tabled a $1500 Bellagio tournament.

Not much here, but this is one of those “no news is good news” situations. Seems like an unremarkable table, which is very welcome.

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.

Not a lot of chips at the table, but that could change quickly if one of those short stacks (the other one please!) busts. Here’s what my research team (read: girlfriend) has produced so far:

Tom Ahlberg: Not much

Robert Boyette: May or may not be the same guy, but shares a name with the producer of Full House! Please oh please let it be him.

Cedric De Bon: Not much

Grant Levy: Live tourney player, has had like 10 cashes, one of them big

Lucay Ludovic- French pro with a rarely updated blog. I can read French decently well, but the blog didn’t seem to contain any strategy thoughts. If you can read French, here’s an interview with him from the end of Day 1A.

Luca Pagano: Italian pro, the only guy at the table I’d heard of. He was the EPT Player of the Year in 2008 and blogs in Italian.

Shane Warne: Though I’ve never heard of him, Shane may actually be the most famous guy at the table. Apparently he’s a well-known Cricket player in Australia.

Mike Wissler: Not much.

If you happen to be one of my opponents reading this because you googled my name… good luck today!

They are only playing four 2-hour levels today, instead of the scheduled 5,  so they’ll come back from dinner at a little after 6pm PST and then play until about 10:30pm with a break around 8pm…

3:35pm Fish wins huge pot off of best opponent. this is a very very good thing.

First Break- 2:15pm Just over 30K starting stack at break. Table is awful- mostly unspectacular tourney guys but one seemingly very very good guy on my left.

2pm 3bet k8s on button turned nuts guy bet folds a one card straight

12:15pm Shitty table. already double barreled and called down two streets with k high.

Level 3 I got into some good spots vs the fish (there are 2 now). Once had three to a low flush that turned into a 7 low and lost to a better low from fish who limped 9(62). Also mde 3456 on 4th in a multiway pot and busted everything.

Didn’t play a single hand for first 55 minutes of level 4, which wasn’t the end of the world since the ante was tiny and I didn’t get many bringins. Then last 2 hands I chopped a small pot with a flush out of my bringin and scooped a smallish pot with 34567.
via BlackBerry

It’s a lot of fun playing live s8 but also tough keeping track of everything, way harder than online.
via BlackBerry

As reporter Marshall Kirkpatrick notes, “Big name players are Tweeting but small timers at the big show are too. Traditional poker reporting didn’t shed much light on the experiences of amateurs, but Sebok says those players on the margins can now tell their families and friends to check Twitter for play by play accounts of their experiences in Vegas.”

As it happens, I myself will be Tweeting from the WSOP on @thinkingpoker. So follow along!

The field featured 201 players, including most of the best in the world, and the final table definitely represented that. Dani had to tangle with the likes of Ted Forrest, Greg Raymer, Justin Bonomo, Alec Torelli, and former Poker Savvy pro Isaac Haxton, who finished second to eventual winner Vitaly Lunkin.

Congratulations Dani!

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.

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!

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!

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!

Registration Room-remember the hectic lines leading into the Amazon room? Well, there is now a completely separate room solely dedicated to tournament registration. Probably the greatest change to the set up for this year’s WSOP is the usage of space. Things are well spread out which should help in dealing with congestion issues in years past.

Color Coded Time Clocks-remember last year looking over at a tournament clock and not having a clue what tournament it’s for? Well, this year the clocks will be color coded. So if you are in, say, the $1500 NL your clock may be purple, and if you are in the $2500 Omaha 8 it might be blue. Also, there are plasmas everywhere so you should never be in a spot where you can’t see one. Lastly, the table breaking order will also be posted on these clocks!

The cashier and tournament registration cages created some really bad crowding and long lines last year. Lines backed up out the doors, clogging up doorways and making it very difficult to walk around the Amazon Room, especially when carrying precariously stacked chip stacks. It sounds like things will be a lot more spacious this year, with separate cages and tournament payout areas and a whole other room for satellites.

The color coded time clocks are a nice improvement as well, for obvious reasons. Posting the table breaking order is a great idea, as well!

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.

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.

Although I thought this was funny and probably not without some truth, it doesn’t gel with my own limited experience. For instance, this blurb about me busting Barry Greenstein from the 2007 WSOP main event makes it seem like he made an overly large re-raise with QQ:

“Andrew Brokos made it 6,000 to go and Barry Greenstein raised it to 33,000. Brokos made the call and saw a flop of {J-Diamonds}{10-Diamonds}{7-Clubs}. Greenstein found himself all-in on the flop with pocket queens against Brokos pocket aces. The aces held up and Greenstein was eliminated. After the hand, Brokos is up to 285,000.”

In fact, my raise had already been called in front of him, so there was something like 20,000 in the pot already, making his reraise to 33,000 perfectly reasonable.

One new rule that I like is Rule #36 which states: “Excessive celebration through extended theatrics, inappropriate behavior, or physical actions, gestures, or conduct may be subject to penalty. Hevad Khan and Humberto Brenes could be in real trouble in 2008.

Rule #43 (i) states: “Advertising a .com gaming site that conducts business with U.S. residents” refers to the once-blanket ban against “dot-com” appearances. That ban goes away, and it will again open up the logo wars to many online companies around the world. However, online poker sites that accept US business (such as Full Tilt and PokerStars) will not be allowed to use the “.com” suffix, and must use “.net” advertising instead.

Make sure you get a good look at Rule #88, the new “Cell Phone Rule”: “Penalties will be given for using the phone at the table, whether in a hand or not.” Also, note Rule #89: “iPods, iTouch, Treos, Blackberrys with headsets are not allowed.”

Elsewhere, he mentions that the “show one, show all” rule, which required a player to show both of his cards if he chose to show one of them after a hand, has also been eliminated. I never much cared about this one one way or the other, but it was very unpopular, and Daniel Negreanu in particular has been actively working to get it eliminated for some time.

Like Savage, I am glad to see the penalty for excessive celebration. Not only is this rude and unsportsmanlike, but it wastes the time of everyone at the table. I’d rather get dealt an extra hand or two than watch Brenes’ shark psychologically devour his opponent.

There should be more tomorrow, including information about “changes to the facility” that will hopefully be welcome news to anyone who had to play in the tent last year.

The other disappointment is that it’s still being held at the Rio. I’d heard rumors that it might not be, but I guess that was just wistful thinking. Satellites will probably be starting in a month or so. Those were such a cash cow last year. I’ll probably still play the biggest ones, ie the $300+ entries, but I don’t know that it will be worth my time to do double shootouts and such. I should be more diligent about checking out the satellite schedule for FTP, since last year I played Stars almost exclusively.

Seat 1 – Doyle Brunson – 510,000
Seat 2 – Patrik Antonius – 650,000
Seat 3 – Marco Traniello – 420,000
Seat 4 – Rene Mouritsen – 775,000
Seat 5 – Tommy Ly – 1,895,000
Seat 6 – Jonas Flug-Entin – 445,000
Seat 7 – Steve Sung – 175,000
Seat 8 – Stephen Ladowski – 360,000
Seat 9 – Robert Mizrachi – 1,090,000

I’m pulling for Jonas, but a win for Brunson would give the legent his 11th WSOP bracelet, tying the record recently set by Phil Hellmuth. Seeing Phil’s glory temporarily squashed would not break my heart.

Check out his blog, too. Good luck, Ray!

In other news, 2+2’er T_Mac has final tabled the $1500 NLHE. I haven’t been reporting on all of it, but I’m pretty sure there’s been someone from 2+2 at the final table of damn near every NLHE event so far.

I’m playing my first prelim today, the $2500 6-max NLHE. I think this field may be a bit tougher than some, since live fish don’t like playing short-handed, but there are so few opportunities to play a live, 6-max tournament….

“Andrew, I should be available that day. I am in Vegas on June 12th. I can take that day off from tournaments if it is definitely going to be on the 15th. Sounds interesting. Yes that is my number still. ~Justin”

I sent him an update with more details the day before, and here was his respone:

“andrew, i would love to go but I am playing the $2k tomorrow which starts at noon I believe. let me know if you meet up another night. ~justin “

At the time, I was like, ‘What a degen, this guy can’t skip one day to have lunch with two of the best poker players in the world?’ Guess it worked out well for him. Last I checked he was like 3/8, first place is nearly $600K!!!! Gogogogogogogo!

Friday, June 15th. $2000 NLHE 3-day event.

Saturday, June 16th. $1500 NLE 3-day event.

Sunday, June 17. $1000 Razz 2-day event.

Monday, June 18. $2500 NLHE 6-Handed 3-day event.

Thursday, June 21. $1500 NLHE 3-day event.

Friday, June 22. $2000 PLHE 3-day event.

Saturday, June 23. $1500 NLHE 3-day event.

Thursday, June 28. $1000 Stud/8 3-day event.

Friday, June 29. $2000 NLHE 3-day event.

Saturday, June 30. $1500 NLHE 3-day event.

I’m probably going to play 3-5 of these, and I’m trying to decide which. Obviously it will depend somewhat on how I do in the earlier ones and how my work is progressing, but I’m curious to get people’s thoughts on this. The non-NLHE events are going to have smaller fields, but I don’t know whether the play will on average be more or less difficult. I’m certainly less good at the Stud games than I am at NLHE, but I think that’s probably true of the poker population at large, as well. Any thoughts on this?

Also, does anyone have any experience with the structure in the prelim events? Are the $1500’s even worth playing?

Lastly, these are somewhat out of my bankroll (thought I do have like $W8500 and hopefully more in a few weeks to spend on this), so I’m probably going to sell some of my action for like 1.33% of the buyin per 1% of my winnings. Let me know if you’re interested.