Best Damn Poker Show
Saturday, April 11, 2009 - C00LHandNuke
As we came back from lunch break for the Final Table on the Best Damn Poker Show 2, we were four handed. If either Patrick or I went broke next, Team Hellmuth would win. The blinds were 3000/6000 with a 1000 ante and the stacks were approximately this:
Jason (Seat 1) = 239k
Shawn (Seat 4) = 157k
Scotty (Seat 5) = 72k
Patrick (Seat 6) = 132k
But Scotty, facing a four-hand penalty, had walked off the show. With Scotty gone, I would have position on Jason for every hand except when he was the button. On the very first hand back, I looked down at two ten’s under the gun and made a standard raise. In the past four days, this was the biggest pocket pair that I had seen since having KK in the small blind on the fifth hand of my first match. These tens couldn’t have come at a better time! Jason went into the tank in the big blind and seemed to be considering a raise – if he did, all the chips were going in. Even though Jason eventually folded, this was perhaps the key hand, my stack jumped to 169K and Jason now had 232K, if he lost an all-in confrontation to me now, he would be shorter than Scotty. I pounded this fact home every chance I got.
The first time it was Jason’s button, he made a standard opening raise to about 20K. I looked down at K8 offsuit in the SB and moved all in! My move was partly based on my read and the knowledge that King high was actually way ahead of Jason’s range. But more than that, I had to send a very clear message that my chips were in play and that Jason wasn’t going to just steam roll me with his big stack. He folded and all was right with the world.
After that hand, the table settled into a nice little pattern . . . nice for me anyway. When Jason would raise and I had position, I would flat call him and take the pot away on the turn. When Jason would raise my small blind, I would come over the top with any above average hand and he would lay down. Meanwhile, Patrick was bleeding chips pretty badly. Three times in the first four orbits he opened the pot only to have Jason take it away with a reraise. As a result, I found myself folding my button whenever Jason folded under the gun just so Patrick could pick up the antes and Scotty’s small blind. Most of this play didn’t make it through the editing for the show, but if you watch the chip counts, you can definitely see the result.
The hands that did make it on air, have to be viewed in that light. One key hand where my play diverted from Annie’s suggested line from the coach’s booth came when Jason completed from the small blind and I saw the flop for free in the big blind with 97 offsuit. The flop came out 347. Jason bet and I just called. The turn was another 7 – gin! Jason checked and I considered checking but opted to put in a bet instead. My reasoning was this: I had floated Jason so many times at this point that I could tell he was getting frustrated. Eventually he was going to have to check-raise me, just to keep me honest. I was hoping that this would be the time. Sure enough, he check-raised me this time when I had the goods. But now I had another interesting decision – smooth call and try to bust him (assuming I was ahead), or reraise right here on the turn. Again, my decision was based more on psychology than anything. I decided to min-reraise him.
The min-reraise is, in my opinion, really the most annoying move in poker. Sometimes it is really strong. Sometimes it is a really weak made hand or draw that just wants to slow down the other player. But in any case, when facing a minimal raise, you have to ask yourself which of the three lines do you take: (1) do you want to look weak and fold (2) do you want to play weak and just bleed off chips with a call only to face a bet on a later street with no good information defining your opponent’s hand or (3) do you put in a fourth raise and say enough of this nonsense. The only problem with the third option is that so many times when I select it, my opponent snap calls my all-in with the nuts! So most of the time, I opt for the fold – and anytime a fold getting 5 to 1 or better on my money with more cards to come, I’m pretty annoyed! So I chose my line in this hand hoping Jason would feel the same way and either make a big mistake right now, or make one later.
What proved to be my last hand on the show came when I raised to 47k from the button with Ace ten offsuit when the blinds were 8/16k. Scotty was gone and Patrick had just doubled through Jason to take a small lead over me with about 230k. Jason had about 150k after posting the big blind. I started the hand with about 204k and made a standard raise when Patrick reraised all-in. Jason got out of the way and it was up to me. Annie and Phil disagreed about whether or not I should call here. Annie thought it was an easy call and Phil thought it was an easy lay down. Guess what? I think they are both right! In fact, on the show I announce that I’m doing both the right thing and the wrong thing by calling. You can see them debate the issue here:
http://www.pokergrades.com/flv/bdps/season2/UB2_ULTIMATE_HAND_SHOW_7.swf
From a team perspective, Annie was clearly correct. If I call, no matter what happens, Team Duke is playing heads up against Jason with a 3 to 1 chip lead (If I win, Patrick has about 2 big blinds). That means I, along with every other member of Team Duke, is about a 3 to 1 favorite to win an Aruba package valued at $8,500.
From a personal perspective, folding here probably gives me a slightly better chance of winning the tournament and collecting the 12k WSOP package in addition to the Aruba package. So Phil’s analysis which focuses on me trying to win is correct too. But I knew one piece of information that Phil didn’t that sealed the deal for me. During one of Annie’s coaching sessions with Patrick, she had told him not to call with weak aces from the blind. In Patrick’s hand that led to Annie playing the coach’s card, he held an Ace nine against Jason’s standard raise. Annie told him to reraise there if he sensed weakness. I knew this had had an impact on Patrick because he had mentioned it again when we were talking privately about thirty minutes before my last hand came up. When you include hands like A9, A8 and A7 in Patrick’s range for a reraise, I think calling with AT is the right play even from an individual perspective.
In any event, I lost the race against Patrick’s 88’s. But Patrick went on to win, so my 3 to 1 shot came through. At the “wrap” party (see how I worked the Hollywood lingo in there) I got to give some of my thoughts to the powers that be about improving the show. Hopefully, some of them will make it into the next season. For instance, I think the second WSOP package should go to the person that all four coaches feel played the best at the final table. I’m sure they can agree on that, right?!!! Okay, maybe, maybe not. On the whole, the show was a great experience for me. I’d like to again thank Annie, Phil, Shawn Rice and Poker H0, as well as everyone else at UB for including me in the event. Also, I’d like to thank all the contestants on the show, many of whom have become my friends since filming.
My plan is to keep blogging on occasion here at the UB site. I’ll cover my ups and downs in the poker world in both live and online tournaments. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed my ramblings enough to check in on me from time to time. In the meantime, if you see me at the tables, please say hi!
Tags: BDPS, bestdamnpokershow, loyalty, players, VIP
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Saturday, February 28, 2009 - C00LHandNuke
Whew! Two days of intense poker and I finally made it. I was going to play for Team Duke at the Championship Table of the Best Damn Poker Show 2. I couldn’t be happier. The line up looked like this:
Seat #1, Jason (Hellmuth) – Jason and I played at the same semifinal table and got down to three-handed together. He was tough and aggressive. But he had a lot of tells. Unfortunately, he overheard our Team Duke meeting where we were reviewing some of the tells that Annie and I had picked up on. Even with the tells, I figured him to be the toughest competition at the table.
Seat #2, Shaundle (Duke) – he had been playing solid and was a veteran of the show. I was glad to have him as my right-hand wing man. I would avoid confrontations with him.
Seat #3, Mike “Shipitmuppet” (Hellmuth) – This was my first table with Mike. But I knew he played tight in the early stages. My plan was to use position against him on the flop and turn and bluff more than usual.
Seat #4, Me (Duke)
Seat #5, Scotty (Hellmuth) – I really didn’t know much about Scotty but in the hours before play started we struck up a conversation. Actually, Scotty talked a lot and I just listened and egged him on. Turns out we had many things in common: lived in St. Louis, worked in construction for several years, warped senses of humor . . . I used the conversation to try and build a rapport with him. At the table I would try to keep him talking and let him give away clues, while at the same time be his “buddy.”
Seat #6, Patrick (Duke) – I’ve now played quite a bit with Patrick and still don’t have a good read on him. But from Annie and Shawn Rice’s comments he is playing solid, great poker. No reason to get involved with him out of position (but because he’s tight, I might “borrow” his blind from time to time . . . “stealing” blinds just sounds so nefarious).
I was pretty pleased with our line-up going into the final table. Annie let the six remaining players from her team have a vote in who would be on the table. After Shaundle and I were selected we had a very close vote for the third spot. It came down between Patrick and Jamie. Patrick had played solid, but Jamie had shown great instincts, even if she was a bit spewy at times. In the end we chose Patrick. But I could tell that Annie really felt like she needed that “dash of crazy, X factor” to really have a shot at winning the thing. She and I talked privately for a few minutes after the roster was set and I told her that I had a crazy gear, she just hadn’t seen it yet. So with that boast in mind, I felt like I really had to come through.
For the last two days, through nearly six hours of poker I had played pretty squeaky tight. I’ve only had four hands shown down. My tight image is a result of not only my strategy, but my cards. Because Phil and Poker H0 have seen my hole cards the entire time, I felt pretty confident that they will tell my competition that I’m tight – so this fits perfectly into my plan to play like a wild man!
For the first three hours of the show (the part that aired last Monday night) I never held a hand. I had one pocket pair, 6’s in the blind, and had to lay it down preflop when Jason raised and Shaundle reraised. I never held any big aces, or for that matter any small aces! Nevertheless, I was playing more than my fair share of hands and maintaining my stack by capitalizing on my tight image. Most of these hands didn’t make the tape, and it’s too bad. You shoulda seen the swill I was raising with.
Shaundle misread Jason and they got it all in preflop with Shaundle’s Q5 in bad shape against Jason’s QQ. David lost to Goliath this time and Shaundle was eliminated. It looked pretty crazy on TV, and it looked really crazy from my seat. Needless to say I was really bummed that Jason doubled up and that Team Duke got zero points. The next elimination was a result of Mike getting it all in preflop with AJ against Patrick’s AQ. I was really surprised to see Mike get it in so weak against probably the tightest player at the table. But Patrick had been flailing around a lot and losing chips by the handful. So I guess Mike was basically shoving as a bluff hoping that Patrick would fold.
The hand that would literally shape the final table came up when I raised on the button with J7 offsuit (I told you I was raising with swill!). Scotty called from the big blind. The flop came J23 with two hearts. Scotty checked and I made the mandatory cbet. I say mandatory because with the flush draw out there I don’t want to give a free card and with top pair, weak kicker, I would really like to just end the hand right now. Scotty called. Thought flash – CRAP!!!! This can go wrong in so many ways. The turn brought another Jack. With just over 55k in the pot, Scotty bet into me on the turn for 21k. I had just a shade more than 71k in my stack. To me, Scotty’s smallish bet looked like a defensive bet where he might be trying to see a cheap river card. I tried to confirm my read by talking to Scotty a bit. Based on all the clues so far, I approximated his range of hands like this: Flush draw (50%), Pocket pair (30%), Bigger Jack or a Full House (20%). Taking this range into account, I decided to ship my last 52k into the 100k+ pot. Scotty would be getting about 3 to 1 on the call. I figured that if Scotty had me beat, he would get all of my chips on the river anyway. But if he had a flush draw with an over or two, he might make a bad call as a bigger than 4 to 1 dog. Also, if he had a reasonable pair like tens or a slow-played over pair, he might make a really bad call as a 20 to 1 dog. I didn’t want to just call Scotty’s bet on the turn because if the heart came on the river, I might get bluffed out of a huge pot and leave myself short-stacked.
When Scotty didn’t snap call, it told me he didn’t have a bigger Jack or a full house. I was relieved. Scotty wasn’t feeling the same way. In the banter style we had developed before the table began and while the play was going on, Scotty called me a “mother fucker” when I raised him all in. I didn’t take it personally, but I knew that he had just crossed a line that will result in a penalty. Even though I now knew I was ahead, I was still paying attention to the clues about Scotty’s hand that he was giving me. Why? Because, it would determine if I wanted to try and induce a call from a pair (If he had the flush draw, I didn’t have real strong feelings one way or another – both a call and a fold would be good for me). As Scotty talked the hand out it was obvious he had a pocket pair and thought I did too. I tried to manipulate a call, but after a while, Scotty folded.
Even though Scotty had folded, the mental games in this hand still weren’t over. Figuring there was a strong chance Scotty held a pocket pair higher than sevens, I decided to flash him the seven from my hand as I mucked. I knew if he had folded eights or better, he would be on instant tilt. But two things went wrong with my plan. First, Scotty only had 66. So showing him the seven probably made him think I had 77 (momentarily) and confirmed his good laydown. Second, Jason, at the other end of the table, asked to see the exposed card and the dealer incorrectly showed BOTH of my hole cards. Now I was the one on tilt! By exposing both hole cards, not only did Scotty now KNOW he had made a good laydown, but my “tight” image just went bye-bye. Talk about a plan backfiring!
But in the words of Ron Popeil, “Wait, there’s more!” When the hand was over, tournament director Matt Savage told Scotty that he would be assessed a one-round penalty for calling me a mother fucker. Scotty lost it. He thought the penalty of sitting out four hands was unfair and stormed out. Savage also announced that we were on lunch break. When we returned from lunch the blinds would be 3000/6000 with a 1000 ante. The stacks were approximately this:
Jason = 239k
Shawn = 157k
Patrick = 132k
Scotty = 72k (59k after the penalty)
When we broke for lunch, the players weren’t allowed to talk to our coaches. Obviously getting unlimited coaching during the match with the benefit of knowing hole cards would be too much. So Patrick, Jason and I ate lunch together. Scotty was nowhere to be seen. As we sat there eating, we heard a rumor that he had left the casino, checked out of the hotel and was last seen headed to the airport. At the time, I couldn’t imagine someone walking away from a $20,000 free roll, but on the off chance that the rumor was true, I started to work on a new strategy for Jason.
The team situation was basically this: Because Shaundle went out first, Team Hellmuth would win the match if either Patrick or I went out in fourth place. With every member of the winning team getting a $8,500 Aruba package, this was real money in our pocket. So in effect, every member of Team Duke was on the money bubble. But the members of Team Hellmuth weren’t. Jason knew this. We talked about it over lunch. And based on his big stack play in a similar situation during the semifinals, I knew that he would abuse the bubble like Ike with Tina. Given Scotty’s stack, he would be blinded off in 23 hands. I simply couldn’t let Jason abuse the bubble for 23 hands. If I did, the stacks at the end would look something like this:
Jason = 455k
Shawn = 85k
Patrick = 60k
The solution was to remind Jason about the individual prize at stake. The highest finishing team member on EACH team would get a $12,000 WSOP Main Event package. All Jason had to do was not go bust in 23 hands and Scotty would in effect hand him $12,000 cash. I pointed this out to Jason and he was quick to note that he could still play a big pot because neither Patrick nor I could bust him. We were both playing the head games. “True,” I said, “but if I grab one extra round before you double me up, you’ll be shorter than Scotty and then you will have to risk ruin before Scotty goes broke or else Scotty will out last you!” At first Jason was skeptical, but we did the math together and he saw how it could happen. With that seed planted, I went for the kill. Knowing Jason was a highly-regarded on line player I asked him what the message boards would say if he lost first place prize money to a guy who was sitting out. Jason tried to play it off, but I thought I was getting to him. Picking up the blinds at least once was crucial to my strategy. And as we prepared to return to the table, I was psyching myself up to be the one abusing the bubble. Tune in to next week show on Fox Sports to see how it works out . . .
Tags: bestdamnpokershow, players, Poker Poker Poker, tv, VIP
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Thursday, February 26, 2009 - APmedia
As we near the final episode of our 7 episode best damn poker show series II..I look to our players and viewers once again for their input. Our goal in filming series II was to improve on what we learned in producing series I and hence create more loyal viewership by both entertaining and educating them. This would be the same objective we have for producing series III as we desire to deliver a better show each and every time around.
As I anxiously await your feedback I’d like to share what we changed from series I to series II and why. We first decided to change the format by having someone eliminated every episode to be consistent with other top rated reality shows.
After Phil and Annie chose their teams their players competed in three team matches where they earned points for their teams. At the ends of those three matches the team with the most points would earn a thirty thousand chip advantage at the championship table. As it turned out Annie’s team fought back from a big deficit in the last team match and tied the competition, but that all added drama we didn’t have in series one when those team matches had no value, no one was eliminated (after each team match both Phil and Annie had to eliminate another player) nor was the winner granted immunity. It made each episode meaningful to the overall competition.
We also wanted to develop the characters more by offering more interviews both pre and post play but as well, capture their thoughts from the time of the current hand. This was also accomplished by starting with less players so we could give more air time to those likely to succeed. I think we also saw a significant improvement in the level of play from the players chosen this series.
Additionally, we wanted Phil and Annie to support their comments further vs. just shouting out things like “he shouldn’t’ have raised there…or “ I would have like to have just seen a call.” In addition to capturing further commentary to above we ended each episode with an “ultimate hand” feature, taking the key hand of the episode – replaying it and finally directing viewers to the site to hear a more in depth analysis from Phil and Annie’s perspective…both you will find quite opposite from one another.
Unlike other poker television shows we deliver both quality tournament poker supported by behind the scenes commentary from two legendary pros. Commentary that can help viewers understand strategy more clearly and in a more entertaining format. By allowing players 3 ways to qualify and open to anyone, we get a diverse group of offline and online players all who if lucky enough can land their way not into just another tournament show, but directly on a featured table televised on a national network. These are benefits only the ultimatebet.net best damn poker show offers. Phil and Annie charge students and celebrity students almost 50K+ for this kind of one on one coaching and instruction. Aside from what you see on camera the pros are with their teams anytime they are not viewing the action from the coaches studio.
But don’t’ let us tell you how great this show is..please tell us your thoughts on how we can improve for both those who want to participate on a future show and or simply view. We want to thank all of our viewers over the past two series and are committed to delivering quality poker programming.
Thanks,
Garin – Marketing
Tags: Annie Duke, Best Damn Poker Show, Phil Hellmuth, Poker Strategy, ub marketing
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