Sunday, September 27, 2009 - Billy Kopp
Well, the golf has been put on hold a few times due to some rainy days here in the bluegrass state. However, there are a lot of other things going on right now. It was a crazy and exciting weekend as it will be my last here in Kentucky for some time. First I would like to mention my good friend and fellow poker player Doug who was not able to take part in the festivities due to having heart surgery sometime this week. It’s never the same when one of the biggest partiers I know is stuck in a hospital, and we all have to worry about his health. We got word Friday night that things are looking up and can’t wait until he can get back on his feet.
This weekend was a big one in Lexington due to the football game. Kentucky played Louisville which is only about 80 miles from here. This is always a huge and exciting game because many of us at Kentucky have friends from high school who went or go to Louisville. Everyone we know from there came up for the game and was a blast. My friend James from Boston even came down to get a glimpse of what it’s all about here. This is always a huge rivalry in football and basketball. Kentucky was the favorite by almost 14 points and barely sneaked out a victory. We had way too many turnovers but somehow managed to win. This is crucial because the apartment that I rented before I decided to move is on the biggest party street near campus. It’s so wild that I usually watch the game on TV and party with lots of people around here. That may also be due to the fact that in the SEC you can’t purchase alcohol at collegiate sporting events, but that’s debatable! Also, the partying and bar scene is never the same after a loss, so I was glad we managed to get a win my last weekend here.
I am officially leaving on Thursday to live with my friend in Las Vegas until I close on my house there. I have been rushing to get lots of things finished up here in Kentucky before the big move. I’m actually going to the post office right now. I realized that I have lost my passport, great timing About 12 days from now I will be in glorious Aruba taking part in the best poker tournament of the year. I’m going to cut this a big short so I can get some other errands finished as well. I hope all of you are running satellites or steps so that you can win a seat to the Aruba Classic. I would love to meet all of you out there in October. Best of luck!
Billy Kopp
Tags: Aruba, aruba classic, basketball, Football, Golf, Kentucky, las vegas, Poker Poker Poker, poker tournaments, Satellites, STEPS
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Monday, August 17, 2009 - Bryan Devonshire
My name is Bryan Devonshire, aka “Devo”, simply for the reason that Coach could say, “Damnit Devo!” and, “Devonshire!” in the same number of syllables. He was a fan of fitting colorful metaphors into sentences, and a four syllable last name just wouldn’t cut it. Since then it’s stuck.
Many of y’all probably haven’t heard of me simply because my exposure to the main stream has been minimal. I’ve played on one TV table, the 2008 Reno WPT in which I finished 2nd, drawing out my heads up battle vs. Lee Markholt for two glorious hands in which I folded my button in the first and then got it in on the turn stone dead in the 2nd. At least I bet/shoved the turn eh? LOL.
I’ve been blogging for a long time. I started a personal blog in 2004 to connect with the students I was working with at Gateway Presbyterian Church in Colorado Springs, CO. That was the last “real” job that I ever had, working part time and supplementing my income by spending enough time on Party Poker that I was able to collect some of the free money being given away. I moved from Colorado Springs to Minnesota to get married, that lasted 8 months, and at the tail end of that I went to Las Vegas for the 2006 WSOP.
My start in poker came years before though sometime around the period in my life when girls became interesting. My dad ran a home game for as long as I can remember, standard kitchen table nickel-dime-quarter games with friends and family. Baseball, Dr. Pepper, Criss-Cross, and Eight and Twenty-Eight were family favorites. My grandfather retired in Carson City, NV, and my dad loved the gamble, so I was around casinos usually about four times a year. Circus Circus was my Disneyland.
Shortly after turning 18 I wandered into San Manuel Indian Casino and Bingo Hall, played 1-5 no ante Stud, won $65 and thought I was the best. Made a trip to Pechanga back when they were in the tent (this is 1999), played 1-5 Stud8, won with a strategy of playing any two of three good cards = good starting hand, and then played Caribbean Stud where I said, “It’s weird that they pay more for a flush than a straight, since a straight beats a flush.”
I then started college at the University of Southern California as an Architecture major. I also discovered Planet Poker, bonus whoring, and Fake Surf. I hit many online casinos for the deposit bonus, bet the pass and don’t pass, meet required bets, then withdrawal. I walked into the Commerce for the first time in 2000 as a 19 year old, and spend a lot of time climbing the latter to 15-30 limit hold’em where I usually lost it all. I started keeping records somewhere in 2001, and after turning 21 and finally getting carded, I won 2 tourneys and made one final table in the same weekend. I won the Hustler morning $30 rebuy, where I thought the rebuy period was a game seeing who could spend the least, loaded my surfboard onto my 1995 Honda Civic, and drove up the coast. I played in a tourney on Saturday at Chumash Casino in Santa Barbara, a $1k guarantee, and at that final table they gave the 10 of us $100 in red chips. One $5 blind I think. You could quit the tourney and cash in your chips any time you had the smallest stack. I think I cashed out for like $95. Then came home and won the Hustler tourney again on Sunday. T’was fun.
I dropped out of college December 2002, not for poker, but to pursue a career in the wilderness industry. In the summer of 1999, 2000, and 2002 I worked at a camp called Forest Home in So Cal and loved it. I also worked with Bel Air Presbyterian Church which had a whitewater rafting program that I was trained in, the company that trained me I ended up working for (Whitewater Voyages), and that led me to Peak 3 Outfitters, now out of business, that offered me a full time position as an “Adventure Guide” with the intention of me starting a whitewater program and them teaching me everything else. I was trained in Wilderness First Aid, how to guide Climbing, Mountain Biking, Caving, High and Low Ropes, all season Mountaineering, and Lumberjacking. Unfortunately that summer I spent more time cutting down trees, chopping wood, and getting addicted to Skoal than I did guiding and ended up leaving the company at the end of my first season.
Jobless I started playing online, and by the time I won my first $10 online donkament in November 2003 I had pretty much given up looking for a job. Then I went broke in January because it turns out that $1k wasn’t enough of a bankroll to 4 table 3-6 limit hold’em, got a job as an armed security guard in Colorado Springs which turned out to save my life, because my guiding buddies climbed a peak that March that I couldn’t go on because of said job. On the descent they triggered an avalanche which killed my friend Kyle who was in the lead, right where I would have been had I been there also. I rustled enough money to get a roll going by April 2004, started the job at Gateway in May (they paid $900/month), and made ends meet through poker along the way.
In the spring of 2005 I worked as a prop(ositional) player at Buffalo Bill’s in Cripple Creek, CO where I was paid $10/hr plus benefits to play 2-5 spread limit hold’em on my own money 40hrs a week. Over four months I beat the game for $17/hr in addition to wage, quit to guide the Kern river in Cali in 2005 before moving to Minnesota, and after that self-induced train wreck I found myself at the 2006 WSOP to play tourneys.
I had been playing 15-30 LHE regularly in Minnesota and built myself a decent little roll which skyrocketed in event #1, the $500 employees event. I used my valid Colorado gaming license to enter and two days later took 2nd in my 1st WSOP event ever for $66k. I then promptly lost $40k back over the course of the summer, flew back to MN to sign papers, pack, and leave, and wanted to live with my brother Jared. He wanted to get out of So Cal, I wanted to get back west, we wanted to be in warm near water, were thinking Laughlin, and ended up in Henderson as close to Lake Mead as we could get. I crushed limit hold’em games around town fall of 2006, took 2nd in best all around at the Canterbury Fall Classic, and then won a $300 tourney over Jon Turner by sucking out on his aces at Commerce in November. I was playing 100-200 LHE at this point and winning, but decided that I was going to play every event in the December Bellagio tourneys and lost most of my strong roll again.
Then in April 2007 while playing 15-30 LHE at the Wynn, I spied a juicy 100-200 mix game that I told my buddy about, he put me in the game within 15 mins of his arrival, and the biggest fish in the game eventually ended up giving me a shot at playing satellites into the WPT $25k. In the 1st, a $3k sit-n-go, I busted within ten minutes. I’m sure he was like, “WTF?!?” But, on the 2nd, I got heads up with Kevin Song with a 3-2 chip lead, then negotiated a deal where my backer gave Kevin some dollars and we took the seat. I eventually finished a gross 64th place for $46k after a sick orbit of poker. We stayed together through the WSOP, I took another 2nd in event 9, $1500 Omaha 8, losing to Alex Kravchenko in very disappointing fashion. I deserved that one. By the time the main rolled around he had lost all the money I had won for him by playing big PLO, and since a crazy chick threatened to kill me I skipped the 2007 main and took it on the lam.
I dilapidated the roll again by November 2007 by playing too many big online tourneys, signed with my current backers, had a 50k and a 20k online score in Feb 2008, the 2nd in Reno for 271k, then 12th in the $25k for 131k, and then took a motorcycle trip to Vancouver, BC for the launch of WPT Canada. I won the first event on my own wasted on Sleaman’s Honey Brown, a $500 tourney for 53k Canadian, which was good news because when I brought it back to the Bellagio then they gave me more American money than I gave them Canadian.
Since then I don’t have much to brag about poker wise, as if I really had much to brag about in the first place, but good news/bad news for me I’ve always kind of put poker 2nd to life. I have loved poker for the freedom that it’s given me to go and experience the world at the pace that I would prefer to, and it’s allowed me to make more money than any other menial job that I could have pulled off in the last dozen years. I really didn’t accept poker as a long term thing until last year, as the fluctuation and stress is significantly underrated to those who don’t do this full time. The ability to generate passive income through poker with the various things I have been involved in has been a blessing, and I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity to travel, the opportunity to play on the world’s stage, and the community of friends I’ve met along the way.
I’ll be firing a unique blog here every week, I hope you enjoy it. You can reach me at maverickusc@gmail.com or playing on Ultimate Bet as BRYAN_DEVO.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
Tags: Bryan Devonshire, omaha, Poker Poker Poker, poker tournaments, Presbyterian Church, ub, WPT
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Sunday, August 16, 2009 - Debo34
Those who have been to Aruba have undoubtedly seen the late night drunken cash games in the Radisson poker room. My second year in Aruba was the first year the event was held at the Radisson. The first night that year was a fun and crazy night in the poker room. This night basically set the tone for all first nights in Aruba that would follow.
The night started out like you would expect it to in Aruba, drinking Aruba Aribas as fast as they can bring them to you, and playing reckless 1/2 no limit holdem with a group of friends. So the table was a fun table, mostly filled with a group of players that had met in Aruba the previous year, with a few first timers. A few names you might recognize at the table were P0ker h0, Shawn Rice, YngmanN4quiki, and Fatcats. P0ker h0 had brought a friend this year named Bill who played with the UB name H0ldempr0.
So the hand that will be forever talked about ( at least by a few guys who were at the table) came down in a drunken stooper. I was in first position and put in a live straddle of $4. My buddy Mike (YngmanN4quiki) was first to act and raised to $20. A few people called including Bill on the button. I had last action as the straddler and looked down at 82 off suit. Of course in my drunkenness I decided to put in a raise to $100. Mike immediately goes Hollywood on me with ” Debo man I have a big hand here etc. Mike thinks for a good minute and makes it $240 to go. The action folds to Bill on the button and he goes for the Oscar right on night 1. He goes on and on about how there is no way he can fold his hand and if we weren’t all friends he would just move in for the $1200 in front of him, and then decides to call. For some reason ( might have been the Aruba Aribas) , I thought my best play sitting here with 82 off suit was to instantly just move all in for $1400. When mike didn’t immediately call I knew I was getting a fold from him… or was I? Mike had Bill and I covered, and again started yapping about how he can’t fold, his hand it too big, blah blah. Now by this time everyone at the table and the 20 or so people watching were side betting who they thought had the best hand. I figured with all my money in the middle, and knowing that if I can get them to fold I will make $500 and I should hedge my bet with the 82. I offer up bets to 2 people at the table for $100 each that I have the best hand pre flop, trying to act strong knowing I would surely lose the $200 but win the pot and more importantly not lose my $1400 that I shoved in the middle like a drunken side show clown. A good 5 minutes went by with the 3 of us yapping at each other trying to convince each other that we had the best hand. Mike and Bill both told me they were going to call me and suggested I make some sort of deal with them if they wanted them to fold. At this point I had no idea what to do, nor any idea of how strong each guys hand was. None of what happened next makes any sense still to this day. We all 3 agreed to the following drunken plan. I would take back my all in bet, and would get a half off discount on calling the $240 raise Mike made. So I would put $120 in the middle, the betting would be done and we would just flip up all 5 and see who won. Now this seemed reasonable to me, rather than risk $1400 I would just gamble for $120 and get out of this situation. Right before we were all about to agree to this deal, someone suggested that we all put $100 each into a side pot going to whomever had the best starting hand. Now of course I knew I couldn’t win this bet, but the both of them said I was getting called in 2 spots if I didn’t want to do the side bet. I said fine, and threw $100 in the middle I knew I would never see again. I just wanted to cut my losses and be done with this hand. So the fun part came when the hands were turned face up. Bill turned up 53 off suit and the place went nuts. Mike looked at me and said ” I have Bill crushed” and turns up 64 suited. I slammed my 82 on the table and yelled “I knew I had the best hand”!! WTF I won the side pot with 8 high and am free rolling for the pot. The dealer put the flop on the table, it was AK7 rainbow. Everyone was yelling for what they wanted to come up. The turn was a Jack and the river a 9, and my mighty 8 kicker played for a dominant AKJ98 winner. I had won both the pot and the side bet with 8 high.
Now this obviously isn’t something you see in your typical card room. If we hadn’t been all friends at the table and in Aruba this surely wouldn’t be allowed. I still to this day have no idea why we all just decided to go nuts on each other with bad hands. I guess we were just looking for some fun and to get 1 over on the others. At any rate it is one of my personal Aruba favorite memories, and one that we still talk about whenever we get together.
Good luck
Debo
Tags: Aruba, Fatcats, P0ker H0, Poker Poker Poker, poker tournaments, Radisson, ShawnRice
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Sunday, August 16, 2009 - P0ker H0
I don’t like to dwell on the negative, so I’m putting the last few months behind me and looking forward to the next couple of months. First there was a disappointing month at the WSOP and just before my Main Event day, my older brother, Alan (”BigAls”), passed away. That took a lot out of me. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think of him. It’s been hard getting back to a normal life and my daily grind, but I know my brother would be kicking me in the…. So now I want to focus on what’s coming up and the positive things.
These last few weeks I’ve been doing really well online. Winning the Wednesday Night 80K was a nice start to get the ball rolling! Plus going deep in the UB 200 last Sunday didn’t hurt either. Now this Saturday I’m getting excited, or nervous (not sure which) about going skydiving! Yes, I said skydiving! It’s something I’ve always wanted to do for a long time, and now that I have the opportunity, I can’t pass it up. Wish me luck and watch for upcoming pictures and blog about my experience.
The following weekend, I have a trip planned to Portland, Oregon. Well, not just me. I’m flying out there with some good buddies, the great Wiscomurray, Mr. Jon Green, and Jon Orr, who owns all the McDonald’s in South Central Wisconsin and the private jet we’re flying in! 
:):):):) The cherry on this Portland sundae is that it’s not a poker trip! It’s all golf, Baby! We’re meeting up with my good friends Gary “Debo34″ DeBernardi and 11-time bracelet winner and hometown boy, Phil Hellmuth, for a fun-packed weekend of golfing on three world-class golf courses. I really enjoy golfing with Phil. Betting with Phil on the golf course is a lot more profitable than betting with him on the poker tables. There’s always a lot of action, but little golf skills! Wish me luck and watch for upcoming pictures and blog about my experience.
Then after that, I’m off to Vegas, Baby! I’m teaching at the WSOP Academy again at Caesar’s Palace. I look forward to this because I get to teach alongside some amazing players and get so much out of it myself. If you get an opportunity to attend one of these academies, do yourself a favor. It is the best investment a poker player can make for his career. A few weeks after Vegas, it’s the cherry on my poker year sundae! ARUBA, Baby!!! This is a must attend! Anyone reading this has got to get yourself to Aruba. It’s not as hard as you think. UB has a ton of tournaments and promotions. There’s no excuse not to be there! For those of you who don’t come to Aruba….wish me luck and watch for upcoming pictures and blogs about my experience! :):):):)
Good luck at the tables. See you on the beach………H0
Tags: Aruba, Caesars Palace, Gary DeBernardi, Golf, Phil Hellmuth, Poker Poker Poker, poker tournaments, ub, Vegas, WSOP
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Saturday, August 15, 2009 - Phil Hellmuth
My favorite drinking establishment in Vienna is the famous Schweitzer Haus, which serves an incredible Budweiser Beer, but nothing like the Bud that we drink over here in the states. When you’re done at the Schweitzer Haus (they close at 11:00 PM), then head on over to Nacht Sicht, where they have three different dancing rooms to choose from. Of course the Poker EM is held in Baden, which is about twenty minutes south of Vienna, in the palatial Casinos Austria.
Now to business: with three qualifying events, where 24 people advance to the main event from each qualifying event, you will find things work a little bit differently in the Poker EM. Each qualifying event starts with a sold out 456 players. It costs $300 to enter, $300 to re-buy and $300 to add on each day.
You are handed your seat assignment ticket, one re-buy ticket and one add on ticket, but here’s the catch: you can only use your add on ticket if you still have chips left at the end of the re-buy period. So, if you go broke before the re-buy period ends, then you are out of the qualifying event right then!
Thus I believe that the best advice I can give anyone is to make the end of the re-buy period, even if you have to throw away ‘rolled up’ aces [(A,A), A], which is the best possible starting hand in Seven Card Stud! After all, to win a pot with A,A-A right before the re-buy period ends is helpful, but to go broke right before the re-buy period ends is absolutely unacceptable. Therefore muck the A, A-A if your short on chips before the add on period ends!
In 2000, I actually ‘anted off’ without even looking at my hole cards – because I was short on chips right before the re-buy period ended – when I ‘qualified’ for the Championship event. Again, make sure at all costs, that you make the end of the re-buy period, so that you can add-on!
The second interesting thing about the Poker EM is that they play down to six tables, and then you play down to the final four players at each of those final six tables, and that group (of 24 players) ‘qualifies’ for the Championship event. Last year, two people from my table ‘qualified’ with only a few chips! So when you make the final six tables with a lot of chips, avoid playing big pots, just make sure that you make the ‘final four’ players at your table to qualify for the Championship event.
When you make it down to the final six tables with a short or medium stack, make sure that you keep a close eye on the amount of chips that your opponents at your table have. You may need to throw away a strong hand because you can see that some of your opponents are extra short on chips. After all, it doesn’t matter how many chips that you end up with, it only matters that you make the final four at your table and move on (everyone starts with the same number of chips in the ‘Championship’).
Throughout the tournament, I like to start with strong hands only, like big pairs or three big flush cards. I have noticed that a lot of people at the Poker EM are recreational players that play a lot of really weak hands. This means that; on one hand you will take some really bad beats, but on the other hand you will win some really big pots.
The antes tend to be bigger then we are used to in the USA (or anywhere in the world for that matter!), so that winning an ante means something. If you have the opportunity to ‘steal’ an ante, then go for it. However, stealing too many antes is hazardous to your tournament health.
One last tip: I had good luck playing my drawing hands very aggressively. If I knew that I had to call a bet from my opponent, then I would just raise and put myself into the lead in case the other guy was drawing as well. I always recommend aggressive play in poker tournaments.
The Poker EM is a really beautiful poker tournament with all of its pageantry and flair. The 72 finalists are introduced to the whole casino one at a time, and the flags for their different countries are held aloft proudly during those introductions. The final table is surrounded by hundreds of people and broadcast live on the Internet in audio and video. The money is brought out on a silver platter in plastic packages. And the Champagne flows freely after the event ends!
The trophy is beautiful, and winning the Poker EM was the highlight of my year in 2000 (especially after finishing ninth in the Poker EM in 1999!).
Tags: Austria, Phil Hellmuth, Poker Poker Poker, Poker Tips, poker tournaments, Vienna
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Thursday, August 13, 2009 - Liv Boeree
This week has been a pleasantly quiet one after the rock’n'roll shennanigans of the previous one, which has been great as it’s meant I have been able to catch up on the good things like poker, reading and seeing old friends. The last one was especially important as all the travelling I’ve been doing had been making keeping up with everyone back home really hard! Otherwise, I’ve been pretty busy playing the new Seven Deuce tables here on UB and planning for my impending trip to Macau for the Asian Poker Tour event which is next week. I’m SO excited!! The other thing that’s been taking up an unhealthy amount of time is trying to decide on a new phone since my old trusty one got broken in Vegas. After a barrage of everyone telling me to get a damn iphone, I decided to go with the sexy new HTC. Damn you iphoners!!! A really cool thing I found out recently is that I’m getting an endorsement from Schecter guitars, and awesome US based guitar company that make absolutely beautiful guitars. I’m pretty blown away by this as despite the fact that I’ve played on and off since I was seventeen, I’m obviously not in a proper band and am certainly not a famous guitarist!! I’m hopefully getting the first one sent to me sometime over the next few weeks so there will be a new baby to the collection. I’ll get some pictures up soon
Tags: Asian Poker Tour, Liv Boeree, Poker Poker Poker, poker tournaments, Rock N Roll, Schecter Guitars, ub, Vegas
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Wednesday, August 12, 2009 - HollywoodDave
Well my peeps, another week, another FT, baybee! I went down to the Hard Rock here in Vegas (haven’t really left since the WSOP ended lol) the other day to play in the first event of their new Megastack series. Its the first time they’ve put on an official series of events (as opposed to running just dailies etc) so I figured it would be off the radar a bit and ripe with donkalicious rockers ready to be taken down by yours truly. And it did not disappoint!
The field had a couple scattered semi-pros but for the most part these guys loved to drink & wear their tells on their sleeve. There were only about 100 people total playing this inaugural event, and before i knew it i was super deep and approaching the money bubble. What was really awesome as well was the structure of this tourney was really well thought out — usually in the deepstack events at the Venetian or Caesars or whatever, despite how many chips you start with, two or 3 hours in the structure starts skipping crucial levels that make the majority of the field suddenly shortstacked, no matter how many chips in front of them. Not so here at the Hard Rock — even though it took more than 12 hours to go from 100 to the money, i never felt as if the structure skimped on any necessary levels, which made for a lot of great play.
I ran pretty good, picking up big hands often enough — and more importantly, getting paid off on them as well — til inevitably I got my JJ cracked by 77 about 5 people from the money. I still made it to the FT ok but never could recover… it was one of those pots that woulda made me the mega chip leader or crippled, and of course it all came down to the fucking 7 on the river. It was a shame, because I really felt like I was the best player in the field at that point, at even shortstacked at the final table had a lot of confidence that i could still win by picking the right spots and getting the money in good.
Alas it wasn’t to be, and 7th is all I could pull. I ran into too many bigger hands when I had decent ones, and was too short to capitalize on my monsters. All in all, it was good to be back in live action, since one of the last live events I played was one of the Bellagio Cup event last month where I also final tabled (6th in that one). A good vote of confidence if nothing else!
Other than that, just been playing a lot online at UB and looking forward to Aruba. I’ve got that sick suite hooked up at the Occidental next door to the Radisson, and am planning to stay for a full week AFTER the poker party leaves the island… can’t wait! Also my pilot is now officially done & we are shopping international networks til October, then pitching domestically all fall after that. So HD will be back on air soon, bitches!
Alright, rock on, I’m out –
-hd.
Tags: Aruba, Bellagio, Caesars, Hard Rock, Hollywood Dave, Poker Poker Poker, poker tournaments, ub, Vegas, Venetian, WSOP
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Wednesday, August 12, 2009 - P0ker H0
I really love to play online poker, but one of the things I really have a hard time with is how some players handle bad beats. When a lot of players lose with what they think is the best hand, their first reaction is to berate the other player…. call him a donkey, a fish, even an idiot from northern Europe. Here are a couple reasons why I have a problem with this. One is if a player is playing bad, why do you feel it is your responsibility to tell him that his play is bad? Wouldn’t you want that player to continue to play bad? You should know that he’ll eventually lose all his chips if he continues down that path. That’s more chips for your stack! Second, just because you think what he did was wrong, might not necessarily be wrong! Poker has a lot of gray areas. For instance, if you flop top set and the Donkey flops a flush draw, when you bet and he shoves and then gets there, you want to break your laptop! However, in a lot of situations his shove was not a bad play. You have to take into account chip stacks, type of tournament you’re playing,etc. I was talking about this last Sunday with Annie Duke on the “Ultimatebet Poker Show” on RoundersRadio. She made another really good point. Annie said that when you see a player playing “bad”, try to see what he is doing well, because he must be doing something really well to compensate for what you think is bad play. After all, he’s still in the game! If you focus on the positive in what that player is doing well and forget about what he is doing bad, it will help your game. There’s a ton of information to be had. It’s always important to remember that you can even learn things from a “bad” player. It’s never too late to learn! Be a sponge, and try and soak up all that you can. This will help you take your game to the next level. See you at the tables……H0
Tags: Annie Duke, Poker Poker Poker, poker tournaments, rounders radio, ub, Ultimatebet Poker Show
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Tuesday, August 11, 2009 - Matt Graham
Hey guys, this is actually my first blog ever so I am a bit of a noob, but I will try my best. My life has been pretty uneventful since the world series so I will mostly talk about plans I have in the next couple of months.
The one exciting thing that has been going on lately is my search for a new house in Las Vegas. I moved out here last year just before the world series started. I was in a hurry to get in a place before the events started so I rushed my decision and wasn’t picky enough. I made two big mistakes in my selection. The first was no island in the kitchen. The second and biggest mistake was not getting a home with a pool. It is just way too hot here not to have a pool. I think about how bad it sucks basically everyday and have begun to loathe the house I have now. Anyways I am looking to build a new home so that is pretty exciting.
My days of sitting around the house I have enjoyed the past month are about to come to an end. I am going to be out of town a ton in the next two months. I am heading home to new orleans to visit family on wednesday and will be staying until monday. I will get home, have to do some laundry and then pack right back up to head to Cabo in Mexico on Friday. My girlfriend will be there for an entire week. I cant wait to soak up some sun and get the tan back that I lost sitting in the Rio all summer. I realy wish the WSOP was in the winter. I know it is impractical and will never happen but I can dream! I get back on Friday around 4PM Vegas time and have to hop on a plane at 7 to go to Chicago for my first session as WSOP Academy instructor. I don’t have any teaching experience, but I think I will catch on quick and will definitely have a ton of poker knowledge to contribute to the camp.
Last but not least, I will be heading to Aruba after that. I cannot wait to get there. It has always been my favorite place to travel for poker. I imagine it will be even more of a blast as my first trip there as a sponsored UB pro. I trust Poker Ho and the guys to get me into plenty of trouble. Jump in those satellites everyone and come on the trip with us. You won’t be disappointed!
Tags: Aruba, las vegas, Matt Graham, Mexico, P0ker H0, Poker Poker Poker, poker tournaments, ub, WSOP
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Sunday, August 9, 2009 - Phil Hellmuth
The Hustler Club’s championship event back in 2002 proved to be quite a ride for me, Levi Rothman and Charlie Shoten. With a starting stack of $10,000 and a fantastic structure (the same one as the WSOP had, except the blinds went up on the hour), we had a ton of time to “move” our chips. This structure required a huge amount of skill, and I believe, barring a terrible beat, any great player who was on top of his game would make it to day two in this event.
Before the tournament began, Charlie paid me the following compliment, “Your articles have allowed me to improve my play in No Limit Hold’em (NLH) so much that I recently won a nice NLH tournament.” I’m used to taking a lot of BS from the other players,’ but one look at Charlie told me he was being sincere so I thanked him and the tournament began.
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Charlie Shoten, CLU (AKA Scotty Warbucks)
I didn’t know I could play NLH.
I just completed playing 20 hours of NLH at the Players Champion
$3,000 buy-in Hustler Casino.
I’ve played limit poker in California the past 12 years and never considered NLH, as I knew that one mistake or one bad judgment call would put you out. I am a very aggressive player, and if I make a bunch of misjudgments in limit ring games I can still have a winning session. In fact, brilliant play can make up for a multitude of questionable plays. Every time I entered a small NLH tournament I didn’t know how much to bet, what type of hands to look for, or hardly any of the main ingredients that add up to being a top pro.
I’ve always enjoyed reading Phil Hellmuth’s best Hand of the Week™ articles in Card Player Magazine as many are about NLH. Specifically, his recent article about laying down a royal flush draw on a flop, while being a 54% or so favorite with 2 cards still to flop hit a cord in my brain. Phil explained that he would have to risk all of his chips and even though he was a favorite he chose to wait for a better scenario, as he felt he could win the tournament and was not prepared to risk it all at this stage in the game.
O’K, a light went on. “Protect” your chips and look for the right situations. Risk
an amount that you can afford without risking elimination.
I have always played poker without intellectual thinking…going by gut and inspiration. There are only 52 cards and the combinations and possibilities are deeply known in my being after 60 years of poker starting as a five year old in family games. My analogy of this is blackjack. If we knew 50 years ago what we know now about blackjack we could beat the game all day long. So, going past the basic odds it comes down to picking your spots and protecting your chips; and doing it from your gut. Inspiration, not analysis; I believe that we are all in communication with each other on an energy basis, and, combination of ESP, body language and verbal language. We know exactly where we stand on each hand. That information is only available to us to the extent we can tune in to our intuition and reveal the best choice instantly for every play.
In conclusion I got hit by the deck and probably will never win another NLH tournament again. It’s even more important to be in the real world.
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When we reached the final three players that day, a deal was proposed that was very fair. Charlie and Levi asked me to make a deal, and I agreed under the condition that I get the best of it. They both said, “no problem.” With a deal on the table where I would lock into $72,000, Charlie into $76,000, Levi into $55,000, and $9,000 left over to play for first place, things looked pretty fair. Levi was giving up only a little bit, and was going to be able to lock up second place but he decided at the last minute, and I mean last minute, that we would continue to play on without the deal. This didn’t bother me too much, as I felt that I would be a big favorite when Levi and I tangoed. I didn’t think that Charlie and I would play a big pot for awhile, as we were staying away from each other. But if a big pot were to come up against Charlie, I felt like I would be in great shape.
At this point, I stupidly bluffed off $60,000 into Charlie–who I knew was excellent at reading people—and left myself with $250,000 when the following hand came up. Levi limped in for $8,000 (the blinds were $4,000-$8,000, and the three of us voted out the antes) on the button, and I looked down at my unluckiest hand ever—A-Q. Rather than mess around with a smaller raise, I went ahead and raised it $30,000 more into that little $24,000 pot to send a message that I was strong. Levi didn’t read the message very well, and as he began to study, I started to root for him to move all-in. I had him on A-10 or so, and I put an old acting move on that I save for the biggest moments in poker. I acted weak. I made my aura appear weak–I made myself look terrified of any action at all.
Levi announced, “I’m all-in,” and I said, “I call” as fast as is humanly possible. He then said, “Uh oh” and flipped up Ad-Jd. I thought, “Please let me win this pot.” I hadn’t played any other key pots all day long. This was the one pot that I was the most vulnerable too losing, as it would leave me with only $30,000 in chips. If I won it, I would bust the guy who didn’t make a good deal, as always seems to be the rule in poker tournaments. And, if I won it, I was going to get at least $90,000 in a heads up deal with Charlie. Instead, the cards came up 2d-3d-5c-6d–at which point they announced that I was drawing dead!
Shortly thereafter I walked away with $34,000, instead of the $93,000 I would have received had I won this pot or the $72,000 from a deal. I was shell-shocked!
Levi had been a bit of a wildcard all day long–at one point he took out Tab with 9d-10d. He plays pretty recklessly, but I like his style. He turned down a fair deal, even though he was stone cold broke! Levi has some potential, and he’ll do well if he can ever learn to slow down a bit. It must also be said that Levi seems like a great guy.
Meanwhile, Charlie played excellent poker throughout the final table, and I believe that he’ll be back again soon in NLH, as his “reading powers” are very strong. I just wish he hadn’t starting reading my articles!
I hope that everyone enjoyed this week’s HOW. Good luck playing your hands this week.
Tags: Phil Hellmuth, Poker Poker Poker, poker tournaments, WSOP
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