Thursday, January 22, 2009 - HollywoodDave
Well Merry fuckin Christmas all over again, my people! Today absolutely rocked….for those of you who watched my youtube videos back in November when Obama won the nomination, you know how excited I am for him to be president. And today was the cherry on the top…. I hosted a party at my pad here in Hollywood at 7 am to watch him be inaugurated prez!
Of course, no Hollywood Dave gathering that early would be complete without the requisite mimosas, irish coffee, BK breakfast sandwiches, and other assorted goodies. Needless to say, I was quite drunk by the time Barack ushered Bush onto the waiting helicopter and 8 years of bad memories flew far, far away! Sure, the whole thing coulda been watched hours later on Tivo, but history doesn’t wait & after all the blood sweat and tears that went into this amazing event today, I wanted to be there to watch it firsthand. Even if that meant cutting short my online poker play last nite!!
Speaking of which, I’ve been on fuckin FIRE lately… i told you guys about the 13k i won last month for taking down the UB 50k. Well, just last week i won another UB tourney, this time the $1 rebuy — i know, a sick challenge, but turning $4 into over a grand ain’t bad! Then this past week was UBOC (the UltimateBet Online Championship) and I murdered it — in 9 tournaments, I cashed 6 times, including a 16th place in HORSE, a 19th in the NLH $100 rebuy, and 2 25th place finishes. All in all +5k net, well worth the time and effort.
But that’s not even the craziest part. 2 weeks ago I made my annual pilgrimage to the Blackjack Ball — the once-a-year secret gathering of the world’s most notorious blackjack players in a clandestine, off-strip location — and vote in another member of the Blackjack Hall of Fame. This year it was Richard Munchkin, author and long-time team player who has travelled the world winning millions with some of the most profitable teams of the past few decades. I joked with Max Rubin, the host of the party, on the Rounders Radio show I brought him on to when I co-hosted last week with Annie Duke — “So Max, when am I gonna get inducted??” His response? Try a couple million more in blackjack first, kid, along with developing a couple groundbreaking new techniques along the way. And here i thought acting like a jagoff while taking down every blackjack tourney in my sites was enough!! lol
Now i’m back in LA and taking more meetings about my show, “Grifting Across America” that I’ve been shopping for a few months now. Hollywood shuts down for a month over the holidays but is back in full swing now. A few days ago I had a great creative development meeting with a company I met with right before the break last month, so I’m excited things are moving forward. More details when I have them!
Other than that, I gotta say — I’ve absolutely been killing the Omaha Hi-Lo cash games on UB lately! Now that Cereus launched, its easier to find 15 30 and 30 60 games, with the occasional 50 100 or 100 200 heads-up table….which i love. After Annie transformed my NLH tournament game a few years ago, we’ve been working a lot on my mixed game skills, which online cash game play tests more than any other medium. After some great live results last year, my online game finally caught up as the last cog in the wheel a few months ago and I am actually starting to look at it as my primary source of income now. Sure, tourney wins — and the occasional Hollywood gig — pay more, but for consistency’s sake, give me a solid 15 30 or 30 60 shorthanded O8 game any day!
Oh and before I forget — Annie, Phil and I are rockin’ on this season of the Best Damn Poker Show on FSN Mondy nites @ 11 pm — so make sure you check it out! Since I’m the host this time around, I toned down some of the crazy bad boy antics I love so much, but some pretty hairy situations still manage to pop up without my help. Rock on & holla at ya soon!
-hd
Tags: Annie Duke, Best Damn Poker Show, blackjack ball, blackjack hall of fame, Cereus, election, h.o.r.s.e. tournaments, Hollywood Dave, no limit holdem, Obama, omaha hi-lo, online poker play, Phil Hellmuth, UB 50K, ub tournaments, UBOC
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Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
The player who wins the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament at the World Series of Poker gains the unofficial title of Best Player in the World. Last night 335 players took to the tables to try to win the unofficial title of Best Player at the UltimateBet Online Championships. I myself played in the mini-H.O.R.S.E. event that ran concurrently to the main tourament and all I have to say about that is…razz. (Expletive deleted) razz.
Several familiar names made it deep in last night’s tournament, including The Best Damn Poker Show’s host Hollywood Dave Stann (who finished 16th) and wunderkind James “mig.com” Mackey, who finished just off the final table in 11th. One well-known player who did make the final table was Alex “AKJHoosier1″ Kamberis, the top-ranked online tournament player according to PocketFives. Kamberis finished 5th…actually, why not show who made the final table:
By the time we reached the final table the blinds were big in relation to the stacks and one hand could spell the difference between being warily comfortable and clawing for survival. Player after player fell by the wayside, and in this particular order:
- 8th: HUNTER129 $1,050
- 7th: MAPSFLY $1,550
- 6th: KIDTEXICAN $2,050
- 5th: AKJHOOSIER1 $2,875
- 4th: NHGGSIKE $3,875
- 3rd: ALL-IN $5,375
The heads-up battle between DRY_BENEFIT and HUSSRAMILTON was a drawn-out affair that didn’t conclude until just past 5am ET. At one point HUSSRAMILTON was down to just $50,502 (with the blinds at 12,500/25,000) but spiked a nine on the river during a Hold-Em hand to stay alive. He doubled up against with K-4 against DRY_BENEFIT’s pocket Jacks (flopping a King) and got his stack up to near $350K before slipping again. But he kept in the game, doubling up with A-2 against DRY_BENEFIT’s A-7 when he turned a deuce, but that merely delayed the inevitable. Playing Hold-Em HUSSRAMILTON raised with 8d-7d and was called. The Jd-10s-6c gave him a gutshot draw and he moved in the last of his chips, only to find that he was up against DRY_BENEFIT’S Ah-7s, which took away three potential outs. The turn brought the Jh and the river the 3c and that, at long last, brought an end to UBOC Event #7. DRY_BENEFIT won $13,500 and the title, while HUSSRAMILTON had to console himself with the $7,875 he won as runner-up.
Tags: akjhoosier1, h.o.r.s.e., h.o.r.s.e. tournaments, Hollywood Dave, mig.com, ub, ub tournaments, UBOC, uboc events, uboc3, ultimatebet, ultimatebet online championship
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Tuesday, January 13, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
If you were looking for evidence that Texas Hold-Em’s hegenomy over poker has been broken, look no further than last night’s UBOC Pot-Limit Omaha/8 event. A total of 399 players signed up to play a tournament that wasn’t no-limit, wasn’t Hold-Em, and WAS a split-pot game for cryin’ out loud. People have learned that these other forms of poker are great games as well and that they require different approaches if you want to succeed (split-pot games especially). Plus, in general, people are gettin’ pretty good at this Hold-Em game. So if you’re looking for new aquariums to fish from, sharpening your skills in Omaha/8 is a great place to start.
As, apparently, these nine players did, as they outlasted 390 of their peers to reach last night’s UBOC final table:
For a split-pot game the final table was quickly winnowed down to the final four, with the eliminations (and payouts) going like this:
- 9th: NOCH08 $1,197
- 8th: MOB29 $1,795
- 7th: WHOMPADPG $2,394
- 6th: JEFFRY53 $2,992
- 5th: WWLLLWW $3,591
I covered a few Omaha Hi-Lo events at this year’s World Series of Poker and was glad to see that the other reporters and even the floorpersons had some trouble figuring out who the heck won the pot. I mean, the hand that eliminated WANNA_RETIRE in 4th place isn’t that difficult to figure out, but when you’re watching it unfold in online-time and shuffling through two hands, eight cards, and countless permutations, it sets the circuits to sparking:
The board is paired…there’s no low hand…neither player connected with the flop…so THE_CASHIER’s nine kicker plays and sent WANNA_RETIRE into involuntary early retirement. Though the $4,189 he won for finishing fourth should be a nice addition to his portfolio.
When we reached three-handed play THE_CASHIER had about 1.76 million, OMAHAJOHN had around 420,000 and THE MENTOR had around 210,000. The three played about fifteen hands (with THE_CASHIER losing about 300,000 split equally between the other two players) before they all decided that a deal might be a civilized course of action. They called in UB’s online floor manager, came to a quick consensus, and just like that the deal was done. Variance has not had many opportunities to bedevil the players who have gone deep in our UBOC events.
So it was Pot-Limit Omaha/8 last night, and tonight the game is H.O.R.S.E.! A $120+10 H.O.R.S.E. event (with a $50,000 guaranteed prize pool) to determine who is the best mixed-game player of them all. That event starts at 8:30pm ET, as does our mini-UBOC H.O.R.S.E. event, which might be right up your alley if you haven’t played a lot of mixed-games and want to dip your toes in.
Tags: h.o.r.s.e., h.o.r.s.e. tournaments, pot-limit omaha, pot-limit omaha hi-lo tournaments, pot-limit omaha tournaments, pot-limit omaha/8 tournaments, ub, ub tournaments, UBOC, uboc events, uboc tournament, uboc3, ultimatebet, ultimatebet online championship, ultimatebet tournaments
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