Wednesday, March 18, 2009 - HollywoodDave
I’m back in LA after a week in the Vegas desert. This time around I was there to play in the first few events of the Wynn Poker Classic, and finally broke my 2009 live tourney cash cherry. I wanted it to be at LAPC but i’ll settle for LV instead…
The first event at the Wynn was a no limit holdem tourney that despite the low buy in ($545) was chopped up into a Day 1A and 1B. In total almost 500 players came out, making first place over 60 grand. Nice!!
After starting off pretty quickly outta the gate, doubling up and never looking back, eventually the field caught up and surpassed me in the later levels of the first day of play. Even though it was a deepstack event (10k starting chips!!), there was the standard jumping of levels typical to lower buy-in event and after passing out a few double-ups (my JJ running in to AA, as well as losing coinflips to shortstacks with 55 two different times) I found myself on life support late in the day.
But i kept grinding and picking my spots, and finally won a coinflip with jacks to get somewhat healthy, then in a totally sweet hand got it all in against the table chipleader with AK vs his AJ to become a monster chip stack! As we were near the end of the day, I was able to use my newfound chip powers to bully the shorter stacks into becoming one of the top 5 stacks left in action as play concluded for Day 1A.
After combining with Day 1B, 50 players in total returned for Day 2 (45 got paid). Unfortunately i lost a couple early decisions against short stacks and found myself still well ahead of chip average awhile later in what would be my final pot. After raising in late position with Q7 sooooooted, I got the reluctant call from the big blind to see a rainbow 789 flop. I c-bet 65% of the pot only to get min-raised by the BB! Kinda annoying, as i almost always consider a minraise just a weak play made to act stronger than one actually is… but before i made any moves i did the stare down to make sure i wasn’t running into a flopped straight.
Man oh man, this kid was staring right at me, challenging me to call! Totally frozen, looking right at me — and i knew for a fact he was sitting on something like A8 or K9 rather than the straight or open-ender he was representing. So i called the minraise with the worse hand #1 cuz his bet didn’t price me out and #2 cuz i knew i could probably take the pot away from him later in the hand when i convinced him i had more of the pot than he did.
Well, the perfect card hit on the turn — a beautiful fucking 6, putting the 4-straight on the board, and as soon as he saw it he gave me another awesome tell. Checked nervously but then did the thing where as i reached down towards my chips, involuntarily reached down towards his own stack as if to say ‘watch out, i have it and i’ll call you!’ Well that was that, he was definitely sitting on a middle pair only and i knew i could bluff here. So i stuck in the rest of my stack convinced I could take the pot away from him….
Ooops. The good news is, i was 100% dead on with my read. He only had the A8. Bad news is, he still made the impossible call despite the 6789 on the board… god bless bad players who can’t lay down a pair, no matter what. Only in this situation he was actually good and i was on the rail in 29th place, muttering and cursing his call and the fact that my 62 grand had somehow been replaced with 900 measly dollars instead. Oh well. Tomorrow was another day and another tourney…
…which turned out to be a $545 Omaha hi-lo event. Awesome! One of my favorite events… and once again i got off to a killer start, turning my 10k starting stack into 45k by the dinner break (with a 15k chip average!). Sushi for dinner and back to watch myself go not only completely card dead for hours, but the few hands i DID had were cracked ever single time when my draws either didn’t get there, or their draws did. Ugh. Blinds shot up to 2k/4k by the end of the nite and it was only a matter of time before i was busto once again.
So hey, after doing so well in online tourneys this year, at least i added a live tourney cash. Spent most of the rest of my time playing Omaha at the Wynn and Stud at the Bellagio… not a bad life. But now I’m back in LA and back to playing online constantly on UB, so come holla… still got my 10-step prop bet with Annie so hopefully this week i will keep the fire on as I close in on that 12k WSOP prize package starting only from 10 cents!
Rock on –
-hd.
Tags: Annie Duke, LAPC, Wynn Poker Classic
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Wednesday, February 4, 2009 - HollywoodDave
Yes yes yes, the LAPC shenanigans continue…last week I told you guys about a few of the early events I had been playing, and the fun only continued this week! Despite continuing to get very deep, I still have no cash to prove it. But this recent Superbowl Sunday certainly brought up a key advantage; namely, since all the TV’s in the room were tuned into the game, every time a big play went down on the gridiron, I got to make a play on the poker felt! Its true — people were so into watching their beloved teams play that i got to pull off lots of key steals during many of the tense moments in the football game when players were more intersted in watching TV than playing poker.
That being said, the love could only carry me so far, and despite making it all the way to the dinner break as one of the chip leaders, I found myself on the rail when 3 big hands went disastrously! The first hand came up when I was sitting on 19k in chips (average about 11k), had a player with 7k raise in late position to 2k in 300/600 blinds & an ante. I looked down at AQ in the small blind and decided to put the raiser to the test; after asking him how many chips he had left & sensing some apprehension, i re-raised to 7k to put him all in. He made the crying call with tens, which of course despite my inevitable flush draw and straight draw by the turn, ended up being good.
Just 2-3 hands later I woke up in late position with KK and made what i hoped would be seen as an obvious steal attempt, raising to 1600 (i often raise just under 3x as the blinds and antes get larger, regardless of my hand, but tried to sell it like a steal as I splashed the pot with my chips). Sure enough, I got the BB to ship in his last 6k with AK offsuit, which depsite us both hitting the case King (but giving me a monster set of kings!), he went on to 4flush on the river to crack me. Ugh!
The very next hand, i found KJ sooooted (still in late position), and since it had been folded to me, sent my last 10 big blinds in only to find the small blind (who had just made the impossible doubleup with AK against me) make a tortured call of half his freakin’ stack with 77! Obv it stayed good and I was out….what pissed me off here was that the player who made this call was another pro who really shoulda known better than to send half of his stack in on what was most likely a coinflip or worse. A little too much gamble to that play, especially when he had just doubled up to chip average. Oh well, FML i guess…
Over the next few days I get to go back to the basics, with an awesome Omaha8/Stud8 tourney followed by a sweet Stud Hi event. I love the mixed games, baby! Then after the weekend is the 1k HORSE, something I am more than ready to rock. I’ve been killing the HORSE games online lately and playing whatever mixed tourneys I can get my hand on. Earlier tonite I cashed 3rd in a razz event for a cool 7 hundy….hey, that’s a buy-in or 2 at LAPC! 
Last night I went out here in LA down to the Comedy Store to hear some local comedy….and guess who showed up at midnite? Andrew fuckin Dice Clay! You know… “Little Miss Muffet….sat on a tuffet…eating her curds and whey. Along came a spider….and sat down beside her…and said, ‘yo, what the fuck’s in the bowl, bitch?’” Hilarious. I guess he was just bored and in the neighborhood & wanted to come down to do a live set. What really rocked was that there were only like 6 of us in the audience at the time, so it was like our own private half hour show with the Dice Man!
Speaking of that, he also made some cracks in his set about doing the recent Celebrity Apprentice, starring UB’s own Annie Duke! I’m getting psyched for that show to start airing, only a few weeks away now. And in other news, I went in to the studio today and did more voiceover for my hosting gig on FSN’s Best Damn Poker Show, which is about halfway thru the season now. Check it out Monday nites @ 11 pm on FSN, daddy-o! It’s gettin’ good!
Rock on –
-hd.
Tags: Andrew Dice Clay, Annie Duke, Best Damn Poker Show, Celebrity Apprentice, flush draw, FSN, LAPC, Poker Poker Poker, Superbowl
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Wednesday, February 4, 2009 - Scott Ian
Hello my friends how are ya? I apologize for the late blog, I’m still spinning from a combination of the Superbowl on Sunday and coming in 14th in the 200K. Thank god for Tivo as it seemed like every time there was a great play and the whole room would erupt in cheers I was involved in a hand and I’d miss it!! And then as I got deep into the tourney and would announce that I had AA or that I was shoving, the game would get paused and everyone would watch the poker tourney. Thankfully there was a lot to cheer about until I finally busted with 14 left.
Here’s the hand: Blinds 5K-10K, 1K ante’s. Middle position guy shoves with around 16K, SB shoves with 62K and I shove my 60K stack with 66. Middle position guy could have anything and I knew SB had to have something but I’d seen him play 89s and hands like that so I thought my pair was a race if not good. Long story short, SB had 88 and I was done. I guess I could’ve waited one more round but then I’d have 47K left. I had a lot of fun playing and didn’t suck out on anyone.
I’m feeling really good about my game right now. I’ve been consistently cashing in the $100 and $200 Sit & Go’s and going deep in MTT (I bubbled the 5K Sniper today, fucking BOO!!). I’m hoping it carries over live and allows me to do well in the LAPC this month.
I have something in the works for the site next month that I think you all are going to love. I can’t let the cat out of the bag yet until everything is confirmed but I can tell you it’s going to be something that you can’t do on any other site. It’s going to be available to all levels of player and it’s going to ROCK!!! Stay tuned……..
I read about the WSOP removing the rebuy events from the 2009 schedule and then I read what a lot of the pro’s had to say about it. It’s not going to affect me personally because I wasn’t planning on playing any rebuy events but in my humble opinion (if you care!!) I think it’s a good move. The rebuy events definitely give an edge to the pro’s and the high level cash game players or just rich dudes in general. I guess I just feel you shouldn’t be able to “rebuy” a bracelet. OK, start tearing me a new one.
I played in a charity event at the Hard Rock in Vegas last week. It was called POW and it’s all about saving our winters. The field was mostly pro snowboarders and snowboard industry people with a few poker pro’s (saw Todd Brunson) and rock dudes mixed in. It was a lot of fun and I somehow made it down to 25 people with the bad structure and all. At least I was taken out by my buddy John Dolmayan from System Of A Down. I’ll get you next time buddy. My friend Greg from Mudvayne lost his stack set over set (J’s into K’s). It was brutal.
That’s it my friends. See you at the tables.
Cheers,
Scott
Tags: Hard Rock, LAPC, Poker Poker Poker, Superbowl, Todd Brunson, Vegas
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Wednesday, January 28, 2009 - HollywoodDave
So after months of playing primarily online at UB…ever since Aruba, really…. I’ve officially been thrust back into the live poker scene and man oh man what a joy its been! The Commerce Casino LA Poker Classic started a few days ago and HD has been down there in the trenches, playing some tourneys and kickin ass at the cash tables! The first event was INSANE — slated to start at 1 pm, a $300 NLH event with a $200k prizepool that ended up with a 600k prizepool instead!! Needless to say, I was alternate # 606 (!!! no shit !!!!) and, after waiting in line for over an hour and a half to register (read: showed up at the last minute like a douchebag), didn’t get my number called & seated til 4 pm!! 3 hours in, my 3k starting stack ended up only being 15 big blinds. Oh well, time to look for a hand to shove with! I found it when an UTG player raised to 500…and i looked down at QQ and insta-shoved. Action folded around to the original raiser (who’s sitting on like a 14k stack) who begins to hem and haw and stall…he asks me what i have…and then laughs, calls, and flips up the slowplayed KK!! Dick!! Well, you guys know what hit on the river….instant karma in the form of a beautiful fucking Queen! As i raked in the pot, i made sure to ask him if he knew why the queen hit….because that’s what happens when you slowplay, baby!! Unfortunately, that was as exciting as my first LAPC event got…i lasted a few hours but finally ran into back-to-back flushes and found myself in a stud cash game instead. Made some $$$ for my trouble and took off once traffic died down. That’s LA for you — live and die by the freeway traffic patterns! Monday i came back for the first Stud event, and after the first few levels i found myself shortish on chips. I took some quiet time on the first break and realized that i was playing too loose, not only for that early in a tournament, but just peeling off too many cards once i was involved in a pot. We all need to check ourselves sometimes, and I took the time to do just that. Came back from break, played right, and found myself going deeper…and deeper…til i emerged as one of the chip leaders by the dinner break. Had a chance to grab a bite and catch up with friends Frankie O’Dell (also a 2-time WSOP bracelt winner) and Jean Gaspard (who goes by ‘Prince’) who I had the good fortune to not be seated with them the entire tournament — since they’re both pretty good players. The streak couldn’t last, however, as a few missed opportunites after dinner had me treading water til I was finally taken out by Prince hours later in 20th place when my straight ran into his flush. Of course only 2 tables got paid, so close but no cigar, but both Prince and Frankie would go on to make it deep on the final table, so I was glad they both got a nice cash out of it. Most recently, I played Tuesday’s Omaha 8/b event, which due to Annie’s intense training and countless hours in cash games online, I consider it to be one of my best events. And lo and behold, I had what had to be one of the SOFTEST table draws ever for an O8 event — 2-3 complete ATM’s on the table with basically no clue how to play the game just shipping away their money. But unfortunately, after picking up 1000 chips (in the 25/25 blind level!!), they ended up drawing out on me a few times to leave me short as the blinds increased. Eventually the ATM’s busted without me being able to take enough chips from them, and I found myself on the rail a few hours later. No dinner break for me this time! But hey, traffic was bad so I sat in a very juicy stud cash game and picked up a couple thousand, so I guess I’m freerolling in the next few LAPC events! Hopefully I can do more damage as we get into the larger and larger events. In particular i’m looking forward to the HORSE events this time around. I’ve been doing so well in the individual mixed games but so far no major cash in a HORSE event, no matter how deep I go. Rock on, guys — -hd.
Tags: Annie Duke, Commerce Casino, Frankie O'Dell, h.o.r.s.e., Jean Gaspard, LAPC, Los Angeles, Online Poker, Poker Strategy
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Tuesday, January 27, 2009 - Tiffany M
Man, I am WIPED OUT! I’m writing this while sitting on a six hour flight (yuck) from Atlantic City back home to LA from a two week whirlwind poker trip – I had only intended (and PACKED FOR) a five day trip to Biloxi for the WPT Southern Poker Champs.
My plan for January was to stay in Los Angeles to play all the preliminary LAPC events but a few friends were headed to Mississippi for the WPT event and convinced me to come join the fun since it would be a soft field with PCA and Aussie Millions happening simultaneously. ‘Soft field’ for me on Day 1 of the WPT Southern Poker Champs Main Event meant Erick Lindgren, Brandon Cantu and Hoyt Corkins all directly on my right (thank god for that).
During my run in the WSOP Main Event I didn’t actually run into many recognizable pros with that kind of star power at my tables so I have to admit it was a new experience for me to sit at such a stacked one. Knowing these player’s reputations I was a bit nervous when I sat down to play. My brain had a short circuit for a second, wondering what I was supposed to do and how I was supposed to play. Then I just reminded myself that these guys are just poker players like any others. None of them had super powers like being able to see my cards. Yes they have a few tricks in their bag and would probably be more observant and aggressive, preying on weakness and their reads but there was nothing I could do to change my table draw so I made a mental note to stay alert but not to shy away from game. I think that’s a really good mental tip for those of you who might be newer players but making the transition to playing live in pro heavy fields. If you find yourself at a “pro’s” table *Don’t freak yourself out – *Don’t be stupid, but Don’t shy away – *And Don’t lose confidence in your game. This little pep talk I gave myself helped restore my confidence and play a solid tournament.
I made it through Day 1 but I was steaming towards the end of the day when Brandon Cantu got dirty on the button with a garbage hand at the same time I woke up with KJ suited in the big blind… of course as the luckiest player in THE WORLD he hit a miracle flop (while I hit my flush draw and had overs) that left me with 20 big blinds.
Here’s another tip that I’m noticing more at the tables. Coming into Day 2 I was frustrated by the beat Brandon put on me the day before. I was not optimistic about my 20 big blinds but if I’ve learned anything from my Main Event run it’s that IT’S NEVER OVER. Most of you know on Day 2 of the Main Event I was UNDER TEN BIG BLINDS and somehow I managed to survive five more days and take 17th. I see so many players get tilted when they lose a huge pot and most of their chips. A lot of players end their tournament all on their own accord and can’t blame anyone but themself. They get chip envy, they throw a pity party about having a short stack and mentally give up on the game and somehow get all in with a poor hand in poor position when they could actually regroup and with a double up or two be right back in the game. I call it “commiting poker suicide.” JUST DON’T DO IT!
I was dejecting doing into Day 2 as the short stack but I knew a comeback was more than possible so I decided to play patient and grind it out. Grinding it out with a short stack is definitely no fun but I did exactly that. I went between a stack with ten big blinds to 30 big blinds… THE ENTIRE DAY. I’d picked my spots and mentally decided not to give up. The encouragement I always give my poker friends when they take a big hit and are unhappy with their chip count, “Push the rest button and pretend like you JUST sat down at the table for the first time and this was the amount of chips you were given!” There’s no going back once the chips are gone, right? You can only start where you’re at.
At my first table on Day 2 I sat with Bill Edler (directly to my left) and once again Brandon Cantu appeared at my table, I jokingly said that God was giving me the chance to get my chips back. Later on in the day when I worked my stack up to a healthy amount I was moved to a table with Greg Mueller, Anna Wroblewski and Jordan Morgan. After my roller coaster day and finally collecting some chips it took just TWO back-to-back hands to eliminate me. I shipped a majority of my chips when I made a big lay down to Jordan (who is a very solid player) and then the very next hand he delivered the final blow picking up Aces to my 8’s shove.
I thought the poker trip was over when I was kidnapped for a relaxing little weekend in Tennessee (where I got to see a fresh snowfall). But just a few days later I was convinced to jump over to Atlantic City for the Borgata Winter Open since I was still on the Eastern side of the country. The main event was a $3k buy-in and 2mill guarantee, which I couldn’t pass up. While hanging out with Maria Ho, Lacey and Etay we joked about how it was almost impossible to bust out on Day 1 of the event since you start with 50k chips (blinds starting at 25/50)! I guess Maria and I like doing the impossible… we both busted out Day 1 with the same hand scenario; Queens verses Kings! However Maria’s beat was worse than mine, flopping set verses set.
After two weeks on the road, between three different states (from what was supposed to be a five day, one city trip) I walked out of the Borgata Poker room upon getting knocked out, literally threw my clothes into a suitcase, hopped in a limo to the airport and took a flight out of Philly 2.5 hours later. My own bed has never sounded so good.
Oh yeah, besides watching the snowfall in Tennessee the other highlight of my trip was in Biloxi during one of the main event satellites where I flopped QUAD ACES (two in hand, two on board) and got paid off! THAT was fun… thanks Rock 
Tags: Brandon Cantu, Erick Lindgren, Hoyt Corkins, LAPC, Poker Poker Poker, Poker Strategy, Poker Tips, poker tournaments, world series of poker, WPT, WSOP
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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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