What’s up UB?! Hope that all are doing well and life is nothing but good out there. I have tried to play more and more on the site recently, had a couple of winning small sessions playing the $1-$2 game, and then got my ass kicked pretty good one day as well. I just like sitting around with ya’ll and chatting it up as well, so that has been more my focus with playing on the site so far. Seems I haven’t had enough time to really get serious with the cash game playing much, which explains the small stakes. I’ve played the Sunday $200k as well a few times, but haven’t managed to get anything going there at all. I’ll have to check with Cantu about how he does it. That fool seems to win a UB tournament every other week. Wtf? How is he pulling this off? Big wowzers…
I’m writing from Miami airport, on yet another business trip out of the country. I swear, you would think I was more important with all of these trips I am taking all the time. Haha. One this is sickly for sure: I am racking up mad frequent flyer miles. Just flew here from Vegas this morning, where I had just finished up taping my very first episode of “Poker After Dark”…but hopefully not my last. I always think I talk so much more than other poker players that they will want my ass on those shows. We’ll see if this inaugural Seebs episode sparks them to bring me back. I can always hope. My lineup featured Howard Lederer, Ali Nejad, Gabe Kaplan, Mark Gregorich, and Kara Scott and the theme was media-based. Was a total blast. You’ll have to wait for it to air to see who won though.
It’s unbelievable that the WSOP final table is just around the corner, and by corner I mean next weekend. I am sickly excited and am obviously pulling for Phil to work some magic and somehow take down that title. It’s hard for me to see anyone disputing that he is the best that has ever played if he can win that bracelet. I think he will have moved solidly past Chip and Doyle for all around dominance with a win there, and that’s to say nothing of his online game, where he crushes too. The dude is a total machine.
Speaking of the final table, be looking for me to do some commentating on the Bluff show that UB is sponsoring. Should be a blast and I’m excited about it. We’ll also be recording some “PokerRoad Radio” episodes as well, so be looking for those. Basically, it’s going to be a seriously busy weekend in Las Vegas coming up. I’ll also have a pretty big announcement that we are going to be letting out of the bag during next weekend as well, so be paying attention for that.
Here’s your weekly roundup and Congratulations go out to RAAAZIB, HIIAMYANNI, HHHUGO, EDDYTOWN21, BIGFLOPONTRN, TRACILORDS, YANN DION, BOLSHOI, BRANDONCANTU, ZESTFULYCLEAN and ROMOMANIA for taking down the big guarantees!
On the one hand I think that that the four-month hiatus for the WSOP Main Event is too doggone long. You build to this crescendo, you have your final nine players in the biggest event in poker…and then you leave it hanging for a quarter of the year. That’s long enough for the media to write tens of thousands of words about the players and the event, but its also enough time for fans to forget who the heck these guys are. When I was in Aruba some of us reporter types were trying to list the members of the November Nine as quickly as possible. It was harder than you’d think, even for folks working in the industry (Antoine Saout was the name that slipped the most minds).
But as the poker world again turns it’s gaze toward the Rio it almost feels like the Main Event wrapped just yesterday. Watching ESPN’s coverage has reminded me of those happy days ensconced on Media Row, wolfing down Jack’s Links Jerky and wondering which of my strung-out colleagues would be the next to snap. And thinking about that moved me to look at some of the photos I took during the Main Event, which seemed to both go on forever and end before we knew it:
After waiting nearly four months we’re just a few days from discovering who is the latest World Champion. Play will start at noon on Saturday, and when they’re down to heads-up they’ll pause again and resume playing at 10pm on Monday, with ESPN’s final-table broadcast airing on Tuesday. The wait is almost, almost over.
Getting back to the grind after Aruba sure isn’t EZ . The parties were non-stop and the best! The Dan Band was so much fun! The poker was non-stop, and Matt Savage and his staff /dealers ran the best tourneys I have ever played in. All the UB staff need a really BIG thank you for all they did…Melissa, Jo, Gustavo, and Ernesto just to name a few. You and all the other hard working UB employees that came from Costa Rica and all over the world make Aruba the #1 destination in poker.
The best way I know to get rid of the Aruba hang-over is VEGAS BABY !! I leave for Vegas next Thursday to teach at the WSOP Academy, http://www.wsopacademy.com, Nov. 6-8 with Phil ,Greg Raymer, Shawn Rice and a lot of other great pros. Attending one of these camps will surely help take your game to the next level . If you would like to attend our cash academy, coming up Dec. 5-6th, for FREE and get $1000.00 for travel, listen to my radio show every Sunday night at 9pm EST, “The Ultimate Poker Show,” on http://www.roundersradio.com. I will be giving out the passwords for the Sunday night $5.00 and free roll tourneys that can get you eligible for Vegas.
UB is also running steps for a 12k package for Foxwoods and a 17.5k for the Bellagio. I love playing these steps while I’m playing MTTs. The main reason is that when you play steps remember “tight is right”. I find if I am playing these with other MTTs it helps me play a little tighter, and anybody that has played with me knows that I need that. J A couple of nights ago I bought into 3 step 7s for 97.15 each. I lost one and built the other two up to a step 9 and 10. Last night I played the step 10 and chopped the Foxwoods seat with a very good player, “maximilian71”. I was ahead in chips so I got 8,500 he got 7k . My 291.45 investment in the step 7s paid off nicely, plus I still have my 750.00 step 9.
Hope to cya all in the steps soon or better yet loose your hang-over and join me in Vegas Baby…
I say that because at the moment I’m writing this it is 28 degrees outside my front door. Fall is turning to winter in a hurry around here. We have already had snow twice this year. We got 8 inches in a day while I was away in Aruba. Last year the snowfall came 5 or 6 weeks late and it really hurt the economy in my area. The central Oregon area is dependent on tourism because of the local ski resort. When there isn’t good snow, all the local businesses suffer, especially the hotels and restaurants. So although it seems very cold at the moment, it’s actually a very good sign. I can’t wait for there to be enough to get my snowmobile out again.
So what’s in store for me in the late fall/ early winter? The ducks have 3 more home games. This week is a big one. The 5th ranked USC Trojans are in town the face off with the 10th ranked Oregon Ducks. It should be crazy game since it is a night game on Halloween. Besides that I plan on getting back into playing a ton of poker. The winter months have always treated me well playing online. I think It’s because I totally engross myself in it, and have the least amount of distractions during this part of the year. I know something that has been hurting my game as of late is not maintaining a schedule. I plan on getting back on a set schedule and sticking to it. I am going to try to get to 1 more live event before the year is up and I am leaning towards the circuit events in Tahoe.
Other than that not much is going on with me. I am fully recovered from the wonderful Aruba trip and glad to be back home. Bring on the snow!
It’s been just over two years now since I made my first deposit on UB. After 25 months of blood, sweat, and carpal tunnel (there’s no crying in poker unless you have 11 bracelets), I can definitely say it has been a wild, fulfilling ride. Looking back, I don’t regret much at all. Sure there are the bluffs you wish you hadn’t fired, the thin value bets that went horribly wrong, the spazzes, the blowups, the monkeytilt headsup matches, the awesomely bad misclicks, and of course that 7deuce pot where your three-barrel overbet shove just didn’t do the trick. What I’ve found at UB hasn’t just been another site to kill time on, a substitute for late night TV, or a way to scrape up tuition money – I’ve found a lifelong hobby, a passion for what I do, a family, and more opportunity than I know what to do with.
In my time on UB I’ve been fortunate enough to experience more than most 22-year-olds could even imagine. To begin, I doubt many people my age can say they’ve lost a semester’s tuition to Phil Hellmuth in golf. Watching Phil sweat out a $600 putt in Aruba (he had been playing for $10k a hole the day before) was one of the more memorable moments of my life. Also atop my list of memories is a guitar lesson that I got from the one and only Scott Ian. For a handful of UltimatePoints I was able to make a trip to LA to learn from one of the greatest metal rhythm guitarists of all time. Being a bit of a metalhead myself, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t slightly overwhelmed. Sitting three feet from greatness is a feeling unmatched by much else.
During that same LA trip, I received a phone call from the UB VIP team, informing me that they had two tickets available for a masquerade party at the Playboy Mansion. Obviously I snapcalled since the Mansion is a 22-year-old male’s playground and now it’s been checked off the bucket list (twice). As much fun as it was, I’d still say the best part was watching my buddies back home via Skype play a beer pong tournament to decide who got to come with. There were a lot of sore losers but I guess that’s standard when the payoff includes this:
I could easily write for days about all the amazing adventures I’ve had with the people I’ve met on this site, so I’ll just stick with what’s freshly in my mind – Aruba! This year was my second trip to the wonderful little island that houses the best poker experience shy of the World Series, imo. The tournament itself doesn’t match the prize pools garnered by the biggest ones out there, however the event as a whole is incredible, unforgettable, and you can use a thesaurus to figure out the rest. Although I’ve never gotten farther than a few orbits into day two of the main, I’ve had such amazingly rich experiences after busting out that money has always been a complete afterthought in Aruba. Some people do visit the island to make some cash, but I’ve found that for the most part everyone is really just there to party.
This year I was able to participate in the Mercedes tournament, where an ML350 was on the line at a 10 person sit-n-go. My arch-nemesis P0ker H0 agreed on a last longer bet where the loser would have to paint his fingers and toes alternating pink and black for the rest of the trip. Things were looking great as I chipped up early by coolering Shawn Rice and successfully bluffshoving 8 high against one of the toughest players at the table. But of course, like the pest that he is, H0 kept his stack right there with mine, and he eventually took the chip lead by whatever cruel stroke of fate the poker gods deemed necessary for me at the time. Halfway through the tournament we found ourselves five-handed with quickly escalating blinds. H0 opened under the gun, a shortstack shoved for about twice his bet, I peeled AJss and reshoved to iso the shorty, but H0 had AK and snapcalled (luckbox!). After flopping the gin 882ss I figured I was guaranteed at least a chop since I run well. Unfortunately I forgot that if there’s anyone in the world who runs better than me, it’s H0, so when it ran out king-blank I was off to the salon to get my nails did. However brutal, I did find it fitting to be knocked out by the guy who I was wearing a T-shirt of.
I could keep telling stories but I see some juicy tables running so I’ll make these quick.
Although it was probably equal parts my fault, getting a full drink spilled on you by Scott Ian at Hellmuth’s penthouse party is totally worth it, imo.
Adam Levy ladies and gentlemen.
AD, the hardest working man in VIP-business.
This one’s from ‘08. I’m the “robe guy” if you didn’t already know.
Scuba diving next to an old sunken Air Aruba plane (pretty unreal).
And lastly, it wouldn’t be an Aruba party without Phil in the pool.
Poker has taught me a ton of valuable lessons – work ethic, the will to learn and improve, discipline, perseverance, other buzz words, etc. Aruba has taught me even more – the importance of friends, family, relaxation, valuing the connections you make with others and time spent with them even if you only see them once a year, new experiences, putting yourself out there, and simply having fun. That last one is one of the biggest reasons why I’ve been drawn to the UB poker community over any other site. If you take the time to visit Aruba or hang out in Vegas for the WSOP, you’ll see what I’m talking about. Hope to meet as many of you as possible in Aruba next year – I’ll probably be the kid wearing the robe.
This is huge, or at least hugely convenient. We’ve heard your pleas and we’re proud to bring Synchronized Breaks to our Multi-Table tourneys. Now everyone at our Multi-Table Tournaments can count on a 5-minute break at the 55th minute of every hour.
Whether you want to grab a snack, hit the bathroom, recharge, or plot your next move, you’ll love the flexibility that our Synchronized Breaks offer. You shouldn’t have to miss a hand or drag your laptop to the bathroom—and now you don’t!
Synchronized breaks for multi-table tournaments take place at the 55th minute of every hour with some exceptions. If a tourney begins at 10:30 and has the Synchronized Breaks feature enabled, the tournament will go on break at 10:55, but all hands will be completed before the break begins. Once all hands are completed, all players get a 5-minute break. After the 5-minute break is over, the tournament will start. Since breaks can happen a few minutes apart, some tourneys might resume before others.
If you play in multiple tourneys that have synchronized breaks enabled, you’ll get one break for all tourneys. Not all tournaments have synchronized breaks. Check the lobby to see if this feature is enabled in your favorite tournament.
You can find compete details right here. As always, let us know what you think. What will you do with your break?
OK so as much as I loooooove Aruba, its officially time to end the litany of “i heart Aruba” blogs & move on to more poker conquests. That is, just as soon as I add my 2 cents to the field! I’m about to head back to LA to finish network pitch meetings to sell my pilot “Grifting,” but before I go I wanted to leave you guys with a bunch of fun vidblogs I shot while on my 2 week Aruba adventure! Everything from drunken gambling in casinos, offroad jeep adventures, Hellmuth party freestyle rap, and did I mention drunken casino gambling? Plenty of that to go around — and god knows how I managed to shoot the footage I did without security tossing me out! So enjoy that last Aruba memories of 2009, & next time I blog I will have some great updates about the future of my new TV show! Rock on! First the Poker Parties: Then the Jeep Offroading: And of course plenty of live drunken gambling: -hd.
I must confess that I don’t watch much reality TV. See, I live in reality and I get quite enough of it, thank you very much. Then again reality TV bears little resemblance to the reality that you and I enjoy on a day-to-day basis. There’s no jackass in a black T-shirt telling us our heartfelt performance stinks (unless you work at some Trendy Company From Hell), we aren’t whisked off to some tropical hellhole to scrabble in the dirt as we devise devious schemes to betray our friends (though that’s a bit like how Wall Street works).
My friend Ted is a huge fan of The Amazing Race, which he considers by far the best reality show around. And the folks who award the Emmy’s seem to have the same opinion, as that show has won the Emmy for best reality show all seven years it’s been around. As you probably know this season UltimateBet’s Tiffany Michelle is teamed up with her fellow poker player and friend Maria Ho on the show and they’ve been racing across southeast Asia and Dubai the last few weeks. She and Maria are still in the running, but don’t ask me (or her) if they go on to win the thing. I’m pretty sure revealing the winner of a reality show ahead of time is an automatic death-penalty offense. Heck, Death Penalty!! might end up being the next big reality show, especially if Jay Leno’s new primetime show continues to tank.
Tiffany actually missed the Main Event to participate in The Amazing Race but she didn’t miss last night’s UltimateBet Amazing Race freeroll. A grand total of 1,949 racers solved the series of clues that took them all over the World-Wide-Web and led them to the freeroll’s password. There was a cool $1,000 prizepool, with the final pair left standing at the end winning seats in our $200,000 Sunday Guaranteed Tournament.
Alas, though Tiffany is still going strong on The Amazing Race she did not reach the final finish line in this freeroll held in her honor. With her stack short she moved in for her last 1,500 or so when, holding K-Q, she turned a Queen. Unfortunately that not-so-lucky-lady on fourth street gave LONELYLONER (jeez that name depresses me) a straight and sent Tiffany out in 333rd place. On the show Tiffany and Maria spent some time in Vietnam and when I was in Vietnam a year or so ago one of the popular beers there is called “333″. OK, calling that a coincidence is a stretch but sue me, I’m thirsty.
Tiffany didn’t make the money, nor did LONELYLONER (and that makes me even sadder). Neither did 8LUFFMEOKI, who went out in 48th place to become our unfortunate Bubble Person. Normally players fall quickly after we make the money then things tighten before we reach the final table, and that’s what happened last night. In fact some of the players seemed to be stalling as we got down to the nitty-gritty, which was a bit silly as we were playing hand-for-hand and the other table was just sitting there waiting for play to wrap on the other table so they could start the next hand. I was sitting there too, watching it all, screaming “YOU KNOW YOU’RE GONNA FOLD!! SO FOLD!!!” as the clock struck 1AM on the East Coast. In the end it was the desperate SUNNYSTORM who got his money in holding the mighty 2-6, though he’d improved to a pair and a gutshot by the time the money went in on the turn. But ALEX_D22 had flopped a ten holding K-10 and wasn’t going anywhere, and when the river brought a blank SUNNYSTORM was going to the rail and ALEX_D22 was going to the final table, along with these eight players:
I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again–when you make the final table of a tournament, and you’re short-stacked, and you decide to shove UTG with a hand like Kd-Jd. DO NOT do so when a player in the small blind is holding pocket Aces. Which is the exact unlucky scenario that sent TARGETSD out in 9th at the hands of MONEYNIKEME. Not that pocket Aces are infallible–no doubt ELNACHO was feeling good when he moved in with the bullets and was called by JED2006 holding Kh-10h. The flop brought no danger…well, there was a heart on the flop but how threatening is one lousy heart, really? Then came another heart on the turn…and another on the river, and that runner-runner flush sent ELNACHO and his Aces to the rail in 8th place, with $26.22 to comfort him.
It’s one thing to crack Aces with K-10 suited–can you WIN with Aces against K-10 suited? That exactly what JED2006 did a few hands later, picking up pocket Aces and using them to send APA_ATSAA and his Ks-10s out in 7th (good for $32.21). We actually had a decisive hand that didn’t include Aces, as QUINTDRIP’s pocket Queens held up against SWEETENXV’s pocket Tens. SWEET managed to double up like three times but when you start with just 357 chips that isn’t enough, and he soon succombed to finish sixth and pocket $39.62.
Then comes one of those hands that sticks with you for a long time, like when you walk in on your grandmother disposing of a corpse. QUINTDRIP was dealt pocket Kings, ALEX_D22 pocket Queens, and the two cagey players held off getting the money in until after the flop. Which came 3c…Kh…Qs. I’m sure ALEX felt quite confident putting in the last of his chips with middle set, only to see that QUINT turn over his cowboys. “Unreal” ALEX_D22 said as the turn and river failed to bring the case Queen and from a safe distance MONEYNIKEME said “OMG”. ALEX_D22, who had been near the top of the leaderboard for several hours, collected $51.30 for finishing 5th.
A more routine hand spelled the end of THE RAW ONE, as his pocket fours failed to win a not-so-Amazing Race with JED2006’s K-8. The money went in before the flop, which brought a King, and that spelled the end of THE RAW ONE and the increase of his bankroll by $68.69.
We were down to three-handed, with the player finishing third pocketing a hefty $119.42 and the two two getting tickets to the $200K Sunday Tournament. JED2006 open shoved and MONEYNIKEME called from the big blind with Ac-6c. JED2006 turned over a mighty 8s-3s. That hand proved mighty enough as an eight hit on the flop and MONEYNIKEME ended in third place and with a tidy boost to the bankroll.
One that JED2006 had been eyeing. “i wanted third dammit” JED2006 posted in chat, not necessarily an illogical wish. Finish third and your balance definitely goes up, finish first or second and you now have to navigate yet another huge field to get your hands on the cash. JED2006 and QUINTDRIP played a few desultory hands (there was really no difference between finishing first or second) before they got the money in preflop and JED2006 won the final race of the day:
However, I’d like to remind JED2006 of a little story. When Chris Moneymaker won his seat into the 2003 Main Event he played a satellite that paid out Main Event seats for the top few finishers and cash to the rest. In his autobiography Moneymaker said he wanted the cash–he had some credit cards he wanted to pay off and the money would’ve helped. He was going to just tank it and lock up the money when a friend called and offered to give Chris the money in exchange for a piece of what Moneymaker might win if he played and cashed in the Main Event. The rest, as they say, is History. So who knows–maybe JED2006 is our player of destiny, maybe he’s going to WIN the Sunday Guaranteed Tournament, maybe this Amazing Race Freeroll will the jumping-off point to a truly amazing ride to ultimate poker superstardom. Maybe two years from now JED2006 will be sitting down with a poker journalist (someone far more famous and respected than me) and saying, “Yes, it all started with a freeroll and,” here he’ll pause for a self-depreciating chuckle, “I wanted third, dammit”. Time, it will tell.
In 2003, Ring Magazine listed a group of who they considered to be the all-time 100 greatest punchers in Boxing. They picked fighters across eras and classes, creating a comparison that combined the usual pound-per-pound equations with fighting ability and how frequently they delivered a punch. Here’s the top ten:
1. Joe Louis
2. Sam Langford
3. Jimmy Wilde
4. Archie Moore
5. Sandy Saddler
6. Stanley Ketchell
7. Jack Dempsey
8. Bob Fitzsimmons
9. George Foreman
10. Earnie Shavers
There’s a lot of room for debate here, but for me, the ranking of Earnie Shavers is a crime. Shavers is a man who was known as “Black Destroyer,” and compiled most amazing records in boxing history. At one point he won almost 30 fights in a row by knockout. He scored over 20 victories in the first round alone. Both Muhammad Ali and Larry Holmes have stated that he was the hardest puncher they’ve ever fought, and his ability to dismantle opponents who were previously thought unassailable was second to none.
It was his hard punches and fast moves that wore the boxer down – if a match went past round 7, he was likely going to lose. His career was derailed by a retinal problem, but he still was in demand, boxing with Sly Stallone in the leadup to Rocky III and making public appearances. He may not be the best-known, or most respected fighter, but in my eyes, he’s the ultimate puncher, a man that even The Champ respected and still spends time with.
Just flew here from Vegas this morning, where I had just finished up taping my very first episode of “Poker After Dark”…but hopefully not my last. I always think I talk so much more than other poker players that they will want my ass on those shows. We’ll see if this inaugural Seebs episode sparks them to bring me back. I can always hope. My lineup featured Howard Lederer, Ali Nejad, Gabe Kaplan, Mark Gregorich, and Kara Scott and the theme was media-based. Was a total blast. You’ll have to wait for it to air to see who won though.
In 2003, Ring Magazine listed a group of who they considered to be the all-time 100 greatest punchers in Boxing. They picked fighters across eras and classes, creating a comparison that combined the usual pound-per-pound equations with fighting ability and how frequently they delivered a punch. Here’s the top ten:
