Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - P0ker H0
It’s great to be home after a long 5-day weekend getaway with the “boys”. It started last Thursday when John Orr, Jon Green, Wisco, and I flew from Madison, WI, out to Portland, OR, to meet up with Phil Hellmuth and a couple of other buddies, for a golf extravaganza. We got to golf at some of the nicest courses in the United States…..Pumpkin Ridge and Riverside. Two beautiful courses in Portland and some of the most unbelievable scenery there is! Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, and the Columbia River were some of the sites we saw. There were many excellent restaurants, too. The food was unforgettable! Now I understand why Debo has been trying to get me out there for all these past years. Lots to see and do.
After arriving Thursday evening and a 4-hour poker session, we called it a night so we’d be in good shape for golfing in the morning. We headed out for Pumpkin Ridge on Friday, and wow, what a place! They treated us like kings (Not sure if that was because we were with Phil or not! ). I teamed up with Wisco and John Orr against Phil, Jon Green, and Jon’s brother-in-law Steve (an obvious ringer!). We sure took a thumping! Between Steve’s 300 yard drives, Jon’s irons, and Phil’s one-handed putting, we lost too much $$$$ to say in a blog. My wife might read this! That night I tried to get even by playing poker. I lost too much $$$$ to say in a blog. My wife might read this!
Saturday, same teams at Riverside this time. The course was a lot tougher and Phil wasn’t making his one-handed putts, so we broke about even for the day! So, I really felt more like a winner! We went to one of the nicest restaurants in Portland, El Gauchos, for dinner. After running up a bill of about $2400 between seven of us, Phil rented their cigar and wine room for a night of poker. The game was really wild. We played five-handed in a 5-10 game. Near the end of the night, I got into a big hand with Phil. Phil opened the pot for 25 and everybody called, as did I in the big blind with 5-8. The flop came 4-6-7 with two diamonds. The fact that I had the nuts made me feel good until Phil led out for 200. I reraised him 500 more, and he called. Phil was playing really loose all night, so I put him on either a diamond draw, a set, or who the heck knows with him! The next card off was the ten of diamonds. Now I’m in a tough spot. I have about $2700 in front of me, as does Phil. There is about $1500 in the pot. I don’t want to check raise here because knowing Phil he could have just about anything or just a diamond which I don’t want to let him see for free, or a free card for his set, two pair, or whatever. So I shove the $2700, like an idiot! Phil snap calls with the nuts and rakes about a 7K pot. GG me!
Sunday, Steve and Wisco were done playing golf. So, the new teams were John Orr paired up with Phil, and Jon Green with me. Jon and I golfed out of our minds and had Phil crying like a little baby, especially at the end when I won almost every dime back that I had lost the previous two days! (I called my wife. We took the house off the market! 
Weekends like this I’ll remember the rest of my life. But the one week I guarantee you’ll always remember is coming up in October….Aruba, Baby! See you on the beach! H0
Tags: Aruba, Debo34, Golf, John Orr, Jon Green, P0ker H0, Phil Hellmuth, Poker Poker Poker, Wisco
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Sunday, August 23, 2009 - Debo34
Well Aruba is just a little over 5 weeks away, and I can’t wait. This week my son turned 15. My wife and I took him and some friends on Friday to a water park about an hour away. Next year he will be driving on his own ( if he gets his grades up). The only other news of the week is that my Oregon ducks season tickets arrived!! I am really excited about the upcoming season. The Ducks have an insane home schedule this year which includes playing 3 straight bowl teams from last year in Purdue, #2 ranked Utah, and Cal in 3 consecutive weeks. They also have home games against 2 other ranked teams in USC and Oregon St. Should be an amazing season.
Aruba moment # 4. My first Aruba main event.
I remember the day well. It was October 16 2003. The reason I can remember the exact date is because October 16th is my birthday.
As I mentioned in a previous blog I was pretty green when I won my first Aruba package. I came in a little nervous and tight, but the structure was good enough for that style of play. I didn’t recognize anyone at my table, which I felt was a good thing. I pretty much played ABC poker for the first half of day 1 and picked up some decent hands. I was surviving but not really going anywhere. I was hanging right around 20-25 big blinds late in day 1 when the following hand came up with 4 minutes left in the day. The action was folded to me and I picked up AQ suited on the button and made a standard raise. The small blind folded and the big blind instantly moved all in. I really wasn’t sure what to do at that particular moment. I really felt like there was a good chance I was ahead, but I also really wanted to make it to day 2 on my first big event. As the clock expired ending day 1, the guy looked at me and said, ” just fold, and we can go get a drink”. I asked him if he wanted me to call and he told me ” not really”. I decided to go with my gut and finally called. He flipped over KQ. Yessssssss, I made the right call! Well as we know in poker sometimes that’s not enough. I was clear on the flop, but the turn brought a king and I had lost the hand. The dealer counted the chips out and I was still alive. 2850 chips is what I had remaining. I made day 2 with almost 3 big blinds..lol. The very first hand I picked up on Day 2 I moved my 3 blinds in with AQ and ran into AA and QQ. That was the end of my first APC.
An interesting side note to this story. That starting table I had, where I didn’t recognize anyone. Well 3 of those guys from that starting table made the final table that year. Daniel Larson, Anthony Fagan, and eventual champion Erick Lindgren were all at my starting table.
See you in Aruba
Debo
Tags: Anthony Fagan, Aruba, Daniel Larson, Debo34, Eric Lindgren, Oregon Ducks, Poker Poker Poker
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Wednesday, August 19, 2009 - Debo34
I can’t believe it…my son Jarod turns 15 this week! For those of you who have met him before he is a little taller than he was 3 years ago when I brought him to Aruba. WTF he is over 6′1″ tall now. He has been reading the learners permit book and is ready to go in and get that done. Now I know why my parents were the way they were. This next weekend I have plans to go up to Portland and meet up with the Wisconsin boys, H0, Wisco, Jon Green, and of course Phil to hang and do some golfing. Should be a fun time.
If you have read my last 2 blogs you know that they have been 2 of my ” favorite Aruba moments”. They are in no particular order, just fun memories I have of my 6 straight years going to Aruba. Aruba moment #3 – The Debo. This moment was pure circumstance, I believe it was Aruba 2006. This was the first year that Phil’s Penthouse party was partially planned. In previous years it was a small, impromptu get-together. Soon after word spread about the fun that was had at these parties and UB stepped in and gave it a little structure. So that day wisco, H0 and I were hanging with Phil watching college football before the party started. The people from the Radisson started coming in and bringing some food and drink to cater the party. The selection was fairly small for drinks, consisting of Champagne, Grey Goose vodka and for some reason they had a couple of bottles of watermelon pucker. Just before any of Phil’s guests arrived Wisco, his friend James (Madtownmell) Mell and myself headed to get a drink at the bar. Wisco asked what I thought we should drink and I told the bartender to give us 3 Vodka with Sprite and a splash of pucker. We made a toast and started drinking. After a couple rounds of these, Wisco and James decided this name needed a drink and decided this drink was forever to be called “the Debo”. As the night went on people would ask what we were drinking, and of course we would just simply say “the Debo”. By the end of the night I would estimate that 50+ people had a Debo in their hands at one time. When all was said and done 44 bottles of Grey Goose Vodka were empty.
The next night something funny happened. We were at the awards party at the Radisson pool and we walked by the bar, and the bartender who we still swear to this day was not at Phil’s party, yells out “Hey, you guys ready for a Debo”? We of course got a big kick out of this. The Debo is still a drink of choice for a few people on the island and has since spread to the drink menu at Players Sports bar in Madison, Wisconsin. I know from time to time The Debo is mentioned in the writings of UB blog master Gene Bromberg. He took a liking to the Debo on that first night and was cussing me the next day. Gene and I talked about ordering them at this year’s WSOP party but decided that the Debo should be reserved for Aruba. If you are one of the fortunate people who get to experience Aruba this year, come find me and your first Debo will be on me.
Debo
Tags: Aruba, Debo34, drinking, Gene Bromberg, Golf, Jon Green, P0ker H0, Phil Hellmuth, Radisson, ub, Wisco, WSOP
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Thursday, August 6, 2009 - Debo34
With Aruba less than 2 months away I figured I would write once a week about my favorite Aruba moments. I should be able to get 8 or so of them in before Aruba sneaks up on us. So here goes… These will be in no particular order.
Aruba moment # 1 - It was February 2003 and I had been playing on Ultimate Bet for the better part of 6 weeks so of course I thought I was a pro. I logged in to play on a Saturday morning and decided to try a satellite for entry into the $109 Aruba tournament that was taking place later that afternoon. I ended up getting into the $109 Aruba and what happened after I believe changed my life forever. 52 people signed up that day for what was a winner take all trip to Aruba to play in the Aruba poker classic. The crazy thing about this tournament was that I never really had any chips until the end. When we hit the final table I was 9th out of 10 in chips. When we were 5 handed I was 5th in chips. There was a player controlling all the action, his screen name was Stoner. What I later found out was that stoner, was David Plastic, a well established poker pro. David continued knocking everyone else out until he ended up heads up with me. He had around a 88k to 12k chip advantage on me. I remember being pretty nervous that I was so close to winning this, yet 2nd place was 0. In the middle of David running me over like he did everyone else that day, something crazy happened, I started making hands.
I started to get back into it, when I turned a flush against top pair top kicker and doubled up. I now had the chip lead!! I still remember to this day the butterflies I had. I had never played in a poker tournament higher that 20$ and now I’m heads up with a chance to go to Aruba and play in a 5k event. I believe it was 2 hands later that I found myself flopping bottom 2 pair vs. a flush draw. I remember when the chips went in telling my wife that if my hand holds we go to Aruba. David had a flush draw and when the river was dealt I opened my eyes to see the pot going to me. I couldn’t believe it.
I really believe that had I not won that trip and tasted success I may not be writing this today. It’s funny how certain moments can change big parts of our lives.
In kind of a funny side note to this story. During the opening party I was standing there when a guy came up to me and looked at my nametag and said.. ” oh you’re debo34. I’m Stoner and you’re the reason I am buying into this tournament.” He then told me how lucky I had gotten in which I couldn’t disagree at all. Everything that had to go right for me to win, went right on that day. David and I are good friends now and still joke about that moment.
I really hope to see you all in Aruba
Good Luck,
Debo
Tags: Aruba, Debo34, Poker Poker Poker, poker tournaments, ub
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Tuesday, June 30, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
With the Main Event kicking off in a few days that means there will be a huge World Series party just about every night of the week. Last night was the first major WSOP blowout of the season, as UltimateBet welcomed players and fans to Studio 54 in the MGM to drink, dance, drink, stare at the amazing acrobatic dancers and trapeze artistes, and maybe have another drink. I didn’t bring my big camera but I managed to take a few pics here and there…though for every person who said “That picture had better be in the blog!” there were three who screamed “That picture better NOT be in the blog!” I think that’s the sort of ratio you find at a really good party.
In keeping with the Roman theme of UltimateBet’s Tenth Anniversary celebration, there were some appropriately-dressed ladies there for the occasion…though “dressed” might not be the correct word as they were outfits were painted rather than tailored:
I’m afraid of heights so the idea of hanging 20 feet of the ground and performing synchronized acrobatic moves is something akin to magic. And some of the routines performed during the party were downright magical:
Admittedly the performer in the last photo was on the ground, not suspended in mid-air, but ask yourself how many weeks you’d have to spend in the hospital if you tried to arrange your body in that way. Amazing.
As was seeing this as it happened:
Phil Hellmuth, descending from the heavens (well, the ceiling) to address the crowd and raffle off a seat in the 2009 Aruba Poker Classic. Oh, if you were at the party and plan on going to the Aruba Poker Classic in October keep your ticket from last night–Phil said everyone who was at the party last night can use their ticket to attend the party he throws every year in his penthouse suite. So if you had a good time last night and would like another go-round, hang on to those tickets.
Of course it wouldn’t be a UB party without a shot of P0ker H0…ruining a FANTASTIC shot of Debo and Liv Boeree!! Where’s the crowbar tool in Photoshop…
Liv Boeree’s opponent in the Rumble at the Rio, Melissa Castello, tunes up for the bout by giving H0 a tune-up during the party.
For the most part those are the photos that are fit to print. Those that AREN’T fit to print, mercy, there’s some good stuff there. But this blog is rated PG (well, PG-13) and I’m a man of good taste and discretion. Well, that’s not true, but I certainly wouldn’t want someone publishing pics of ME in some of the compromising positions a few revelers found themselves in last night. So let’s end with a nice, wholesome photo of Phil Hellmuth dancing with a couple of women in body paint.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, Debo34, Liv Boeree, P0ker H0, Phil Hellmuth, ub, UB Party, ultimatebet, ultimatebet 10th anniversary, ultimatebet party, world series of poker, WSOP, wsop parties
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Thursday, June 18, 2009 - Shawn Rice
I know the WSOP is well underway and I had to do a little business before heading out and I will be out there this weekend off and on til the main event. If at all possible please try and come by on June 29th , UB will be having a monster party at Studio 54 at the MGM. Let me tell you if you have not been before the UB party’s ROCK! Its great to see old friends and meet many of the players you play online with often. I just got a call from Gary “Debo34″ Debernardi and he invited me to a Stone Temple Pilots concert at the Palms on July 2nd, we seen them there last year with Scott Ian and Pearl Aday and a few other friends, It was a killer show and we all hung out at the bar after the show and tons of people wanted pics and autographs from Scott… he handles that stuff so well. I have seen my share of jerk who hate to be bothered when in public, Scott was way more than happy to take the pics and all. He is a very down to earth type of person who has a strong passion for the game we all love and has been kicking ass online. In fact he won the Sunday 200k a couple of months back. I won it in December and he had to go and show me up! I am super happy for him. If you go and read his blog he writes about being really sick that weekend and having to miss a family reunion.. It’s no fluke I know Scott well and his game is really solid. I can honestly say he is the most improved player I know over the past year or year and a half.
After the WSOP I plan on playing lots online and getting ready for Aruba. That’s always the best trip of the year, I am the type of guy who never really gets sick and when I do it’s really bad. I was really sick last year there for too many of the days there. I even missed Phil’s party in bed with the cold sweats and running a very high temperature. I can’t wait to make it all up and bring your camera as this will be filled with a lifetime full of memories. Last year Annie had to leave a lil early and head to New York to film the Celebrity Apprentice. I must admit I was addicted to the show, I loved them in years past and this last season was the best ever. I so hated the ending as it was given to one of Donald’s pals. Annie was so deserving and I am so sick about the results I know I can’t stomach to watch another season after feeling punked.
I have been pretty busy doing some private poker lessons and let me tell you. You better be on your toes with the questions I get. They are very very deep type questions. I think it’s a really smart thing to do to try and better your game. I’ve been playing lots of Pot Limit Omaha 8 or better live in Amarillo and I have learned a lot from the local guys here. Mostly from a player named Nathan Wiesner who sometimes comes over to the house to play online tourneys and lets me watch him and ask tons of questions. Last time I seen Annie I asked her a few questions that helped me tons in that game. I feel like my PLO game is very solid and has been for years as that’s the game I was first taught how to play about 20 years ago. It would seem that it’s not hard to adjust from one game to the other but on a higher level it’s played very different. I took forward to learning it as that’s where the money is at around here in the local games. West Texas has been famous for having good players over the years and let me tell you there are still many here. I just know it’s a matter of time before you will hear of them, they just need a little volume to get these great results, They are already kicking butt online and play live really well.
I have also been playing a lil golf on the par 3 course that was formally owned my Amarillo Slim with a lot of the guys I regularly play cards with. It’s great exercise and I even hit a hole in one about 6 weeks back, let me tell you it was all 100% luck. I know many good players who have never hit one including my dad who used to play 6 days a week and was close to a scratch golfer. I know better than play the bigger course as the last time I was out there I lose a lil over $10,000 to some guys from a surounding town. I played in a scramble and I was never any help to my partner. I am hoping to match up again so I have lots of incentive to better my golf game.
Come by and say hello at the WSOP and hope you can make the party in Vegas, If not win your seat to Aruba, It’s the time of your life. Hope to see many of you soon and if you have any poker questions, please write into to “Ask a pro” and we will try our best to get your game back on a winning course.
Proud UB Team Member
Shawn Rice
Tags: Annie Duke, Aruba, Celebrity Apprentice, Debo34, MGM, New York, Palms, Pearl Aday, Phil Hellmuth, Scott Ian, Stone Temple Pilots, Studio 54, ub, Vegas, WSOP
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Thursday, March 19, 2009 - smokin_aces
Last week we announced that Debo34 would be answering this weeks ‘Ask a Pro’ question.
The question that Debo chose to answer (by default 
is the most non poker related question we’ve had so far. It has to do with getting a little ‘tipsy’ while playing poker, and whether or not this is something that should be done. Debo34 gives some great wisdom. Every poker player that enjoys the odd dose of spirits has been faced with the question. To drink or not to drink. Sure it can loosen you up, but that is not always good!
Check out Debo’s response in the thread here. http://blog.ultimatebet.com/2009/03/pro-debo34-2/#comments
Check back tomorrow (Friday) afternoon to see who is answering next weeks question. You can take your shot at getting direct poker insights from an Ultimate Bet pro.
GL
Aces
Tags: Ask A Pro, Debo34
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Thursday, March 12, 2009 - smokin_aces
Gary ‘Debo34′ Debernardi is one of our online pros here at Ultimate Bet. You can see him in tournaments of all shapes and sizes and his poker knowledge is vast.
This week you can ask Debo34 a question in the comments section of this blog and one lucky reader will get their question answered by Debo34 next Thursday.
Check out his Bio at Ultimatebet.com.
All you need to do is ask Debo34 a question in the comments section of this blog post.
So fire away and learn from an Ultimate Bet pro!
Tags: Ask A Pro, Debo34, online poker pros, Poker Strategy
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Sunday, January 25, 2009 - Debo34
The thing I value most in my life is my family. Spending time away from home many times throughout the year can be tough, but that’s the life of a poker player. I’ve been home for about 2 months straight, and have loved every minute of it. I always enjoy being home for the holidays. It’s at this point every year that I start to get the itch to get out and play some live tournaments. The time that I try to layout most of my years schedule and start booking flights and hotel rooms. The past 2 years I have been in Los Angeles for the LAPC in February. I decided to skip that event this year and spend a few extra weeks at home.
The first trip I plan on making is to Reno. Reno is always an easy trip for me only being a 6 hour drive from my home. I have always had good success in Reno and have enjoyed the tournaments there. It’s always a place where tons of my friends go, and we can usually get away and do a few fun things away from the tables. This trip is planned for late February through early March.
Something that caught my eye this week, which I had no idea even existed was the poker in the Alps satellites on UB. I have never been anywhere in Europe before and this looks very appealing to me. I am going to take a few cracks at the satellites on the site and see if I can win one of the 8k packages. This looks like it could really be a cool place to go play some cards. You can see the all the details of the event here.
http://www.ultimatebet.com/poker-promotion/poker-news-cup
After these events I am undecided as to what will be next for me, but I am leaning towards the WSOP circuit event at Caesars Las Vegas. I love the poker room at Caesars, and the event schedule looks very good as well. About that time it will be time to start making my WSOP plans for the summer.
I have a few weeks home before I head out for some live events and I plan on enjoying it. Tomorrow I am heading up into the mountains to a place called Diamond Lake. 10 of us have rented two cabins for the weekend to do some snowmobiling and play some cards. This trip is guys only weekend so I also planned a trip Valentines Day weekend for my family. I will be taking them to a similar trip to a different location called Elk Lake. Both should be a blast, and I am really looking forward to them.
Hope everyone’s New Year is off to a great start.
Good luck,
Debo
Tags: Austria, Debo34, family, LAPC, Reno, WSOP
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Saturday, January 24, 2009 - C00LHandNuke
Hmmm. What do you say in your first blog ever? I guess you start with an introduction. My name is Shawn, but I play under the handle C00LHandNuke on Ultimate Bet. I use the same/similar name on some of the other sites. I’ve been playing “professionally” now for about five years, but am relatively new to the UB scene. I started playing on UB this summer after trying out for the Best Damn Poker Show 2. I gave Gary Debonardi (Debo34) some cash at this year’s WSOP and he transferred $300 to my account. Why didn’t I just use a credit card? Well it has to do with over $40k getting stuck on NetTeller for about a year and a growing distrust of the whack-a-dos in Washington – but I’ll save that for a later blog.
I gotta give some props to Debo, P0ker H0, Shawn Rice and all the other UB Pros. They are great ambassadors, always willing to talk and (as in my case) go out of their way to add players to the site. I had sat at live tables with Shawn and H0 before. And through a mutual acquaintance, Debo ended up sweating me about a year ago when I won the Sunday Million on PokerStars. So I had a little history with these guys, but I know for a fact that they’ve each done similar things for complete strangers. Thanks again Debo!
Anyhow, on with the blog. I made it onto the Best Damn Poker Show 2. It was a great experience. The first episode aired last Monday on FoxSports and was pretty entertaining. My first table plays this week, so I wasn’t in the first episode for more than a few seconds. A lot of the first episode was set up for what is to come, but I’m hoping that as the show progresses the poker will take more of the center stage. Hopefully it won’t get lost in the editing. I hope you watch and if you can’t get enough from the TV, check back here after each episode. I’ll be posting a blog for each episode with my own personal behind the scenes extras. If you haven’t read some of the posts on Pocket 5’s already, there was definitely some drama on this year’s show. And as usual, I was right in the middle of it.
The UBOC has started and Debo and I are a team in the UBOC Poker League. You can check out the standings at http://ubpokerleagues.com. So far we’ve had some minor success and are sitting in fourth place. I busted out of UBOC event #2 in eleventh place. The finish was okay, but I feel like a really could have done better. I had a very playable stack and the first big bluff I tried in the tourney crippled me when we were down to twelve players. Basically my opponent called off 30% of his stack on the turn and another 60% on the river with fourth pair (sixes) when the board was four-straighted to two gutshots and the river also made a three-flush – the villain had no draws. Ugh! A few days later, I took eleventh again in the PLO/8 UBOC event. This time I just went card dead at the wrong time and, in retrospect, probably passed up an opportunity to gamble once too often.
The idea for a poker league is awesome. The extra money involved is a nice incentive, but really it is about more than that. It’s about bragging rights and pride, even more so than just the typical leader boards that every site has. The leagues allow groups of people to opt into a certain schedule and put up some extra money behind the boast of “Hey, I think me and my partner are better than any two players out there.” My prediction for 2009 is that soon other sites will begin to emulate this. But I’m not sure how well it will work for them. What I’ve come to realize in the short time that I’ve been playing on UB is that there really is a sense of community and greater opportunity to meet other people who love poker. I guess that, more than anything else, is why I’m writing this blog and why you’ll see more of my online daily bankroll dedicated to buying into tournaments at UB. So I hope to see you at the tables, and maybe I can get over my 11-and-out syndrome and it will be a final table where we meet. If you see me, please say hello.
Cheers,
Shawn
Tags: Best Damn Poker Show, Debo34, fox sports, P0ker H0, players blog, plo8, poker tournaments, ShawnRice, sunday millions, ub pros, UBOC, uboc poker leagues
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