Sunday, June 7, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
The $10,000 Omaha/8 World Championship event just started over in the Brasilia Room, and to say the field is stacked would be an understatement. Walking through the room the question wasn’t “Who do I know here?”, it was “Who DON’T I know here?”. Seated at one of those tables was Annie Duke, who arrived to find Greg Raymer, Ted Lawson and Bruno Fitoussi at her table. As well as Thang Luu, who won the $1,500 Omaha/8 event held last week. He also won that event last year. And came second the year before that. Annie at least has Luu on her left, but seated directly to her right is the 2004 World Champion:
Also in the field today are Michael Binger, who scooped a pot as I shot this pic:
And a jovial Brandon Cantu:
Also in today’s field is tournament director extraordinaire Matt Savage, who of course has helmed the Aruba Poker Classic the past two years and turned it into one of the best-run and best-structured tournaments in the world. Matt played in the $1,500 Omaha/8 event last week–cashing in 60th place–and once again he’s put down the microphone and taken to the felt.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, Annie Duke, Brandon Cantu, bruno fitoussi, greg raymer, Matt Savage, Michael Binger, Poker Poker Poker, thang luu, ub wsop, ultimatebet world series of poker, ultimatebet wsop, world series of poker, WSOP
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Sunday, June 7, 2009 - P0ker H0
It’s finally arrived. The 2009 WSOP, and what a great start I’ve had to it. I haven’t even played an event yet either ! Last Friday, I flew out to Vegas with my good friend Wiscomurray. We got in late Friday, and checked into our room. It wasn’t going to be that big of a night, because the rest of the week was busy. I was gonna be teaching at the WSOP Academy, while Wisco was going to play the 1k WSOP Stimulus event. All Saturday, I was busy teaching the Academy, and It never gets old. Each time I get to teach along side someone who has an extremely intelligent poker mind. This time it was Mark Seif. We taught a cash game academy, and being that I focus mainly on tournaments, it was a great thing for not only the campers, but me too. I added some of the innuendos of online poker that aren’t apparent in the live game.
After we were done with the camp on Saturday, I headed back to my room, and when I got there, Wisco was playing online. I was really hungry so I went to go grab a bite to eat, and when I came back 2 hours later, and 10 cocktails deeper, Wisco was out. I was feeling really good at this time, so I looked at him and asked him if he wanted to be a part of history. With a confused look he said, “Sure”. “Give me $400″ was my reply, and to make a long story short, we went down stairs and turned our $800 into $12,000 playing blackjack. Did I forget to mention it was my birthday? Well, if you can, imagine the 2 of us in Vegas, on my birthday, both 4.0 BAC, betting 800 a hand, 11 hands in a row, and winning every one! I want to personally thank Hollywood Dave for turning me into the blackjack phenom that I am today! Crab Cakes and Blackjack. It’s what we do.
For the rest of the trip, all I did was teach at the academy, and relax. It was kind of nice. I did play a few Single Table Satellites for Lamers. Lamers are chips you can use to register for any WSOP event you wish. I highly recommend playing these, as most of the time, deals are made, and its easy to grind a profit. I will be back out there this Wednesday on the 10th, and I will be staying for the rest of the series. Best of Luck to everyone, and hope to see you all at the ‘09 WSOP! Don’t forget the grrrreat UltimateBet WSOP party at the MGM Studio 54, June 29th. Be there or be square!
P0ker H0
Tags: Hollywood Dave, Mark Seif, MGM, Poker H0, Poker Poker Poker, Satellites, ub, Vegas, WSOP, WSOP Academy
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Sunday, May 31, 2009 - Shawn Rice
Hello Fellow UBers
It’s World Series of Poker Time again.
I don’t know if you have been or not but it’s massive ball rooms filled with tables with people from all over the world trying to win a bracelet. I was lucky enough to get 2nd in 2004 on the first televised event. It aired the other night on ESPN Classic and to be honest with you I can’t watch the end of it. It makes me sick to think of how close I was and not win one. On the good side, I feel by not winning it made me a much better player, I have worked very hard on my poker game in all areas. I have made it my mission to be the best player I can possibly be. I try and learn poker all the time anyway possible. I have not only taught at many poker camps over the years but my favorite part is listening to the world class pros that also teach. When people ask me who taught me poker it’s a very very long list mixed with many names you know like Annie Duke, Hoyt Corkins, Amarillo Slim, Mark “P0ker H0″ Kroon and Gary “Debo34″ Debernardi and the mental aspects of dealing with pokers ups and downs from Howard Lederer and many you may not of heard of like Chris “Brsavage” Savage, Paul “Beanie” Nobles and Aaron “Loewa79″ Loew. I have also learned a lot from players with lots less skill. Don’t think you can’t learn from players with less skill because you can learn from their mistakes as well instead of you having to learn the hard way. I found out over the years that I really do love to teach this game I very much love. I am not going to give a list of names of whom I have spent many hours on the phone with helping them with their poker game because I don’t want to turn this into a bragging blog but I can say that I am most proud of that part of my poker career. I love seeing my friends doing well and kicking ass in the poker world. This will be a life changing experience for many poker players whom will attend. It’s a great value for the good players as there will be tons of money to be won. I hope if you attend you win your share.
I am going to play a few events and play tons of cash games while I am there. I have learned over the years it’s hard to make steady money playing bigger buy-in tourneys. The cash games is where the steady money is without the major swings that a tourney has. I have been working a lot on my cash game play over this past year and hope I can take what I have learned and apply it and come away with a very successful series.
UB has already started tourneys for the Aruba Classic, This will be my 7th year playing this event and let me tell you it’s the best tourney you could ever wanna play. Matt Savage will be the tourney director and he runs the best structured tourneys anyone could ever ask for. Everyone is there having the time of their life, The nightlife and the beaches are awesome and you have a good chance of winning close to a million dollars. A few years back I got 12th, I was the chip leader and lose a monster race with Layne Flack, I had AcQc vs JJ, we get all in preflop and flop come Jack high with 2 clubs and I could not improve and I was cripples and out shortly after, I will let ya know when I am over it, 1st that year was a million dollars and filmed for the WPT. P0ker H0 got 11th that year and it would of been a blast if we both made that final table.
Come by and say hello to any of the UB pros while we are there, We love hearing from you and I am involved with a bunch of great people.
Proud UB Team Member
Shawn Rice
Tags: Annie Duke, aruba classic, espn, Matt Savage, Poker Poker Poker, Poker Pros, ub, WPT, WSOP
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Thursday, May 28, 2009 - P0ker H0
I can’t even try to tell you all the great things poker has brought me. Friendship has to be #1; from Aruba to Vegas, Canada to Costa Rica I have been able to meet some of the nicest people from all over the world. 6 years ago I went to my first Aruba trip and to this day i consider the people i met there some of my closest friends in the world. People like the GREAT Legggggggggggy, knucklehead, Brsavage, Fatcats, Cunningham, Krazykanuck and Westtexasman. These are players that when I first started out i looked up to and watched play for hours on end.Then when I got to Aruba and got to meet them, it was one of the best experiences of my life. But after that, it really started to snowball with every Aruba after. Every time I go to Aruba the list keeps getting longer and longer. I can’t even come close to telling you what these friendships have meant to me. In poker the money will come and go ” for me it go’s faster than it comes” but the real prize pool for me, are the friends. Last week I had 40 players fly/drive into Madison to play in a couple of small tournaments at my bar. To have players come from Oregon, Texas, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona and Illinois to play in a 10 dollar re buy meant a lot to me. I want to thank the Rounder’s guys Ace, Lake and Nikki, Susie Q and her Crew, my good buddies Debo, his buds Curt and Steve, Wisco, Low__chicago, Big Sh00ter. I can’t wait till September when we do it all over again. Maybe I can get Debo and Victor to pay their 2k bar tab then 
. I also want to say hi to all my friends that work behind the scenes at UB; the hard working people in Costa Rica without them there would be no UB. Thank you guys hope to cay all soon. And to the hardest working lady in poker Joanne she is the glue that holds it all together. Thank you Jo Jo!!!
With the WSOP starting up this week. Things are starting to get a little nuts. I start with the WSOP Academy this weekend where I will be teaching at Caesars, Saturday and Sunday with Mark Seif. Then on June 5-6 I’ll be teaching at the Lady’s Camp with Annie Duke and FBI profiler Joe Navaro. And then on June 29 – July 1st the WSOP Pimer with Annie, Greg Raymer, Phil Gordon and the GREAT Phil Hellmuth. If you’re gonna be in Vegas I highly recommend attending one of these. They really are life changing weekends for anybody who wants to take their game to the next level. Then in between camps there in a little thing called the WSOP. I can’t wait!!! To be around these great players all month and then be able to play poker at the WSOP on top of it. This is gonna be a really good month for P0ker H0.
Tags: Annie Duke, Aruba, Ceasar's, P0ker H0, Phil Hellmuth, poker players, Poker Poker Poker, Vegas, WSOP, WSOP Academy
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Wednesday, May 27, 2009 - Tiffany M
This will be a quick blog since there is so much madness surrounding the upcoming World Series of Poker AND because I’m WIPED out from the exhausting day I had.
I drove up to Vegas yesterday and moved into my home for the summer that I’m renting along with Maria Ho during our next few WSOP months. I was up bright and early this morning to head over to the penthouse at Hard Rock where I did a “hot girls of poker” photo shoot with Evelyn Ng and Erica Shoenberg for Knockout magazine. We had a fun time together getting the chance to be a little sexier than we usually are at the poker tables. I jetted straight from the photo shoot to catch a flight to LA which was grounded along with all of the rest of the flights from Vegas since President Obama was arriving in town. I was a bit peeved at my flight being delayed since I was already late getting back to LA for a meeting but getting to see Air Force One land was quite amazing… you don’t see THAT everyday!
Last time I blogged I was playing some really good poker resulting in consistent online cashes and final tables. My streak has continued and I recently took 32nd place in the first event at Commerce’s Cal State Poker Championships out of 1,800 players. I’m hoping this “good poker” trend carries into the WSOP, my first event will be on Saturday. I have realistic expectations for this year’s WSOP knowing how large the fields are in each tournament but that doesn’t mean I won’t remain optimistic. I’ve got my sights set on winning myself a purty little bracelet for my birthday next week! I’ll keep you posted.
(The photo below is one that I snapped on my phone with Erica and Evelyn at our photo shoot today.)
Tiffany Michelle
Tags: Air Force One, Erica Shoenberg, Evelyn Ng, Hard Rock, Knockout Mag, LA, Maria Ho, Obama, Poker Poker Poker, Vegas, WSOP
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Sunday, May 24, 2009 - Annie Duke
Phew—thank god that whole Celebrity Apprentice thing is over. I feel like I got sucked into a vacuum and was hardly able to get anything done over the past phew months, much less focus on my main passion in life: poker! Well, I have come back up for air just in time to get happily drowned by The World Series of Poker! Yay! It is a week away and I am super excited for this year perhaps because I have felt so disconnected this spring with all The Apprentice shenanigans. So…what’s in store for me this coming month? Poker poker poker!
To start, I am going to be teaching 3 different WSOP Academies this month. The first one is a Ladies Only camp on June 5th and 6th. This will be my third year in a row kicking off the WSOP with the Ladies camp. The very next weekend I am going to be teaching an open camp (men and women) that will focus mainly on tournament strategy but, honestly, is really just a pretty complete strategic guide to No Limit Hold’em, tournaments or cash games. The folks over at WSOP Academy just like to label camps as tournaments or cash games. Personally I hate labels, so there ya go.
The camp I am most excited about is The Main Event Primer which is the big camp they put on every year right before The Main Event. New this year, you can win a VIP package to this camp right here on UltimateBet.com. http://www.ultimatebet.com/poker-promotion/shuffle-up-and-learn The package includes a private dinner with me and Phil Hellmuth!
You can find out about all these cool upcoming camps at http://www.wsopacademy.com/
Aside from all that teaching, I am going to be playing a ton of events this year starting with the $40K buy-in No Limit Hold’em event to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the WSOP. I was really undecided about playing this baby because I think the turnout might be kind of low and I honestly think I am just going to be sitting there facing the best NLH players in the world. Until a few days ago I was really on the fence about this one. What swung me? TV of course! ESPN is only televising 4 events this year and I am not even eligible for one of them (the Main Event champions tournament)! So what is a girl to do? I guess sail off for $40K against great NLH players!
Wish me luck!
Tags: Celebrity Apprentice, NLH, Poker Poker Poker, tournaments, ub, WSOP
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Tuesday, May 19, 2009 - Miss C
Hey Everyone,
Poker, even though it has grown and in some markets it is truly saturated the poker world is still so small. I am originally from Australia and I am heading out to Vegas within a week and after being in the business for 15 years, you get to know a lot of people! The emails, skype and msn messages, sms’s and facebook posts are banking up. It is funny to see that the wave the poker world rolls on. Some people you see there every year and then others fade away and then the very next year they pop up.
Poker players…I love them and I adore listening to their stories. So much history and the way the game has become accepted and been brought out from the underground back room. When you catch them at the bar and you are sitting down chugging a beer and having a chat, it is like there has been no time lost. Many friendships are kindled at events like these. Some of my oldest and dearest friends in this world are poker players. Going to the WSOP is like a magical mystery tour….who will surprise me this trip?
After the discouraging numbers at the WPT back in April, I wonder whether this trend will impact the numbers at the WSOP? I do like the WSOP idea of having the 40K No Limit Holdem at the start of the 7 week long trek, but on the other hand I am really surprised that they are only filming 4 events this year- 40K NLH/50K HORSE/10K ME/5K AUFA.
On the upside, it has been 3 years since my last WSOP experience and I cannot wait. I must admit being in Vegas for what sounds like forever (8 week) scares the living day lights out of me, but I am a huge fan of the “de ja vu” feeling! I am lucky enough to be staying at my favourite place on the Strip – Bellagio.
Till next week, where I will be coming to you live from Vegas…ENJOY!
Cheers,
Miss C
Tags: Bellagio, Poker Poker Poker, Vegas, WPT
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Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - Jim
I know you guys have been playing a lot these last weeks climbing your way in the 220K Rake Race in March and now in the UB 500 Race, of course aiming the $25,000 first place. It is easy to understand why you invest a significant amount of your valued time in this exciting journey. Maybe people who isn’t really into poker could find it fanatical or obsessive, probably the truth is that we are all crazy about Poker, myself included.
I clearly remember more than a year ago when I had no idea about Poker, I have some flashes on my mind about myself watching a Sports TV channel, there were some guys at a poker table with cool gear throwing chips in the middle, and rolls of Benjamin’s waiting to be claimed by the winner. I guess it was the WSOP, but never understood very well what they were doing.
When I first came to UB, the only clue I had about the game was that a deck of cards was involved, some chips, and of course a lot, lot of money. In a blink of an eye I found myself learning all kind of stuff: No Limit, Limit, Bet, Raise, Bluffs, and of course Bad Beats, yes unfortunately Bad Beats too.
A couple of weeks ago, I was in a friend’s home game, you know a low rebuy tournament, we usually allow only 2 rebuys. Now, picture this: I have a little more than half of the initial stack but still about 12 times the Big blind, I find J-J in late position at the right of the cutoff, no one limped in and I don’t feel in the mood to see a flop (those Jacks always betray me) so I raised All-in; the cutoff folds, so does the button and the small blind but the big blind, a player with about 14 Big blinds calls.
He showed 4-2 offsuit. You can imagine the rest of the story… the flop comes K-4-2, turn 9, river 2. Unbelievable! Rebuy please! Anyway, that’s what I love of this game. At the end bad players don’t last too long and I busted him when I hit a set in the flop with 5-5 and trapped him calling my bets with top pair.
When I heard the expression “Poker is a game of champions”, I really made it part of me to when I am at the table, I am sure all you guys are champions and will make find the glory at the top of the UB 500!
Tags: Bad Beats, journey, Poker Poker Poker, Rake Race, VIP Rai$e Team, WSOP
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Monday, April 27, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
There are 30 days until the start of the 2009 World Series of Poker–this I learned from the Twitter feed of WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack. Yes, even the Commish is Twittering now, God help us all. A month until the Series starts, and then a 50-day marathon of bracelets and bad beats and Benjamins until the next November Nine is set. And for the third consecutive year I’ll be there providing gavel-to-gavel coverage for the ‘ol UltimateBet Blog.
Every year the WSOP seems to be better organized and better run–last year there were so few complaints that people were writing stories about how strange it was that no one was complaining. Lots of people expected the number of players to decrease, but instead there was a substantial upticks. There was an uproar when Harrah’s announced they would delay the final table for four months, but TV ratings for the November Nine were up around 50%.
And people are talking about the changes to this year’s World Series. No more rebuy events–the insane shove-fests that characterized the rebuy periods were deemed unfair to players who didn’t bring a bandolier of rebuys (and who perhaps found themselves at a table with half the chips as other tables). The opening event is a $40,000 Hold-Em tournament to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the World Series–how might that deplete players’ bankrolls just as the WSOP begins? And the rules about verbal abuse have been dramatically tightened–forget the “F-bomb” rule, just about any nastiness directed at another play could result in a penalty.
There’s also been a change in the TV scheduling. Only four events will be televised by ESPN–the Main Event; aforementioned $40K Hold-Em tournament; the Ante Up for Africa event, and a special invitational event for past Main Event champions. None of the other bracelet events will be televised and there is going to be even more Main Event coverage than before.
This year’s WSOP will be held in a world that’s in a serious state of flux. The current economic crisis is the worst the world has seen since the Great Depression, who knows how that might affect attendance. There’s also the potential for great change in the poker world as well, as Rep. Barney Frank is planning on introducing legislation that would legalize online poker (and perhaps online gaming in genera) in the United States. A repeal of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) could trigger a new poker boom, one that might first make itself known at this year’s Series.
But all that will happen outside the confines of the Amazon Room. Inside, the game will go on as it always has and always will. Even if there are fewer players this year the World Series of Poker is still an event of staggering size. In 2008 a total of 58,720 players competed for prize pools that totaled a jaw-dropping $180,774,427. Peter Eastgate won more money as the Main Event champion than Tiger Woods (U.S Open), Roger Federer (U.S. Open), Ryan Newman (Daytona 500) and Scott Dixon (Indy 500) won, combined, for capturing their sports’ premiere events.
If you play poker and you’ve never visited the World Series of Poker, you really should make a pilgrimage to see it for yourself. Because once you see it, you’ll want to find a way to play in it. It is a sight to behold, and even if you spend 50 consecutive days and nights in the belly of the beast it’s still an awesome spectacle. And it’s just 30 days away.
Tags: 2009 november nine, 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, amazon room, Ante Up For Africa, november nine, Poker Poker Poker, poker tournaments, world series of poker, world series of poker main event, WSOP, wsop main events
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Wednesday, April 8, 2009 - Vincent
During the last few days I have been visiting several Casinos from around here; I lost on one of them due to incredibly horrible bad beats, but I do not complain that is how poker is and afterwards I just stayed cool and then recovered on other ones, so I made a really nice amount of money among most of them. I then started thinking what to do with all this easy earned money, it crossed my mind the idea of getting a new Computer (maybe one of those Quad Core’s ones), or an X-Box 360 Elite, more games for my PS3; however, those things are only stuff that you enjoy at home, so I called a couple of friends and some of them have contacts with people from that work at hotels in Jaco, which is a really cool place to stay at, party and surf, so I decided to go on a trip there on my days off.
After I ended my shift on Tuesday at 10 p.m., I was like all jumpy and excited because it has been a long time since the last time I went to the beach, and of course, I needed a tan! (lol) Anyways, I finished doing some pending stuff at work and after I finished, I called a cap since I needed to get at home like really fast, call my buddies to do all the arrangements about accommodations and traveling arrangements, so when I got home I started packing my stuff really fast, I put on my bags, like shampoo, clothes, shows, and several other stuff that you will never use at the beach, I was like so excited to go there that I forgot to bring my swim trunks, my sandals, my sun blocker and all the important stuff that you must bring to the beach.. And yeah.. It’s been a really long time since the last time I went to beach.. Hehe.. That is why I forgot all that, but in the end I bought them at the beach.
When we arrived I was like, “GOD! How did all these people manage to live here?” the Sun was strong and the heat was intense, so I went to a place and changed my clothes, since I was wearing jeans and a hoodie due to that in San Jose the climate was cold in the morning when I took the bus to Jaco, so by the time I arrived at the beach wearing all that I was like suffocating really bad so the change of clothes sweet me well.
First off, we arrived at Playa Hermosa, took some waves at the Beach and then we traveled to “Esterillos” or something like that, I don’t remember the correct name right now, but it was an awesome beach, my friend and I met this really beautiful, Californian girls that were traveling with their family, they were like 18 and 19, so too young for me, nonetheless, since my friend was 19, he definitely made his move on one of them and I helped him as his wingman and disarmed his father by speaking with him a lot of politics and distracting him while my friend was making out with his “princess” behind a palm tree while he was cooking some really nice steaks on a gas BBQ.. We ate a lot that night!
Later on that night, when I was travelling on the microbus from the Hotel to another one, I remembered that Jaco is the location of a really cool and awesome Casino called “CasinoJazz” and there were some open poker tables in there, so I told the driver to turn around and that we wanted to go there, so after an hour of traveling, we finally arrived there and it was nice! When I entered I was like, slot machines, game tables, etc.. So I ran to the “Cashier” lady and asked them were the poker tables were located. Unfortunately, I lost $100 on those tables since I made quads on the turn and this guy paid with flush draw and on the river he hit a straight flush, so I was like: “OMG! Come on!” So I asked the dealer if they had like a Bad Beat Jackpot or something and he laughed.. Anyways, it was a fun night and some hours after, I recovered back those $100 from the same guy, plus another $75, so I “hit and then ran” (hehe).
When I got home, I realized that poker is something so big, that no matter where you are, you can always take advantage of it and have lots of fun with it, anytime and anywhere.
Have an awesome week everyone and remember always have fun while you play no matter what, good karma while playing attracts luck and success! And it is scientifically proven! :]]
Tags: beach, Casino, Playa Hermosa, Poker Poker Poker, Rai$e VIP Team, VIP
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