Thursday, July 30, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
It is the worst nightmare of the online poker player–the tournament is huge, the final table in sight, and at the moment when all your skill, luck and courage must coalesce into the perfect poker package…you gotta leave. You have to walk away from the computer because of some unbreakable commitment. Perhaps, say, it’s your wedding day, and if you don’t get to the chapel in fifteen minutes your future spouse’s family is gonna string you up from the nearest tree. Maybe you’ve agreed to donate a kidney and the transplant team is tapping their toes and glancing over and over at the clock on the OR wall. That IRS audit, the one you’ve blown off six times? The one where, if you don’t report THIS time, a SWAT team will be dispatched to drag you to Leavenworth? Maybe that’s the event circled in red ink on your calendar.
Last night was UltimateBet’s Delicious Freeroll, where players registered by creating a Delicious bookmark account and leaving a comment here on the blog. That’s all it took to register for a $1,000 freeroll, and 262 players took to the virtual felt last night to fight for the big prizes– two $215 entries in our $200,000 Sunday Guaranteed Tournament. As well as some bankroll-boosting cash for those who didn’t punch their ticket for UB’s biggest weekly tournament. Forty-five players would cash out of the 262, and those are some pretty good odds for turning nothing into something.
Alas for BEWITCHED13, 45th place would be just out of reach, as he/she finished 46th and burst the money bubble. With money in their collective pockets the field was quickly whittled down (though I read some complaints about players stalling, which is a freeroll is just AWFUL, really) and before long we were down to ten. And from reading the chat it seemed that the remaining players wanted to make the final table quite badly. There were two stacks much shorter than the others–LADYSUBLIME and XCAMILLA. And as the blinds and antes gobbled their chips it became apparent that XCAMILLA was missing in action. Her stack evaporated to the point where she was literally down to nothing when her big blind came along, and it looked like this would be it for her tournament.
But she picked up pocket nines, and these held up against CHITOWN21’s Ah-8h, and she had a new lease on life…even if she wasn’t actually at her computer. LADYSUBLIME moved in on the next hand and seemed to have ALEXD_22 utterly crusherized with A-3 to his puny 2-3. But a deuce came on the flop, another on the turn, and LADYSUBLIME did not pick up the four she needed on the river to make a wheel. A cruel way to see one’s tournament come to an end, but that’s poker, and with her elimination we were down to our final table:
The players exchanged congratulations with each other upon making the final table, with CHERNBURN asking, “Will this get us a blog mention?” Why yes, it will!! One of the players who joined in was the apparently-disappeared XCAMILLA. Several other players said that they’d thought she was away from her computer and it turned out she was–she had to leave to pick up her mother. She returned home to find that she was still in the tournament, and as we shall see the Poker Gods were to smile upon this on-the-surface-insane act of putting one’s Mother ahead of one’s Stack.
ALEXD_22 was the big chip leader when the final table began, and before LADYSUBLIME went out he engaged in some good-natured banter with the players at the other table. But poker, it can be a swingy game. The first elimination of the final table was a sign of things to come, as VEGASRNDER34 took out NMACK05 in one of those hands that makes you reach for the Pepto when it’s done. NMAC05 flopped two pair, then lost when VEGASRNDER34 made a four-flush on the river. NMAC05 collected $20 for finishing ninth, but still, blech:
XCAMILLA was still desperately short-stacked and when she moved in with A-6 she was in a spot of trouble against CHERNBURN’s pocket nines. That is, until she flopped an Ace. A few hands later she was all in again, and again with A-6, though this time she was dominated by NICCABEZAS’ A-Q. But on the flop, a six, and though paint hit on the river it was a King, not a Queen, and again XCAMILLA doubled through.
Losing that pot crippled NICCABEZAS and he was eliminated on the next hand, which proved to have serious repercussions for the rest of the tournament. Because ALEXD_22 and VEGASRNDER34 both played the pot to the river, with both players making two pair. But VEGASRNDER34’s Aces and tens bested ALEXD_22’s Jacks and tens and VEGASRNDER34 won a huge pot that propelled him into the chip lead and sent NICCABEZAS to count the $28 he won for finishing 8th.
From reading the chat I learned that at one point ALEXD_22 was down to 750 chips, and then he charged back to the top of the leaderboard. And almost as quickly he was out of the tournament–he and VEGASRNDER34 exchanged a series of preflop raises that ended with all the chips in the middle and ALEXD_22’s pocket sevens racing against VEGASRNDER34’s A-Q. The doorcard was an Ace, and as ALEXD_22 typed “gg” in the chatbox the board bricked out and he was out in 7th place (good for $36).
Another decisive hand came soon after, with CHERNBURN and CARNAGEEE all in with VEGASRNDER34. CHERNBURN went in with the worst hand but when he rivered a Queen for two pair he bested the Ace CARNAGEE flopped and VEGASRNDER34’s pocket sixes. That sent CARNAGEEE out in 6th place ($46), and shortly after he was joined by CHITOWN21, who was eliminated by the resurgant XCAMILLA when, holding Ac-8c. she turned an eight to beat CHITOWN21’s pocket fours. CHITOWN21 hadn’t been able to knock out XCAMILLA when she was down to the felt, and in the end it was she who put him to the sword, bouncing him in 5th place ($56.50).
A hand or so later it was BULLSHARKS who was betayed by the turn. Holding K-Q, BULLSHARKS flopped top two but that gave VEGASRNDER34 an open-ended straight draw with his J-10. The Ad spiked on the turn, giving him Broadway, and when BULLSHARKS couldn’t boat up on the river he was our 4th place finisher. Which was good for $69,50, but certainly merited what BULLSHARKS said just after the final card fell–”Damn”. Indeed.
“Camilla has been SO lucky!!” CHERNBURN said good-naturedly after she doubled twice early in the final table, and it was hard to argue that she’d been a bit fortunate. But she’d fought back from nothing to the final three, despite having to leave the tournament to pick up her mother. Would XCAMILLA have been so lucky had she blown her mother off, had she stayed at her computer while Mom shivered in the pouring rain waiting for the ride that would never, ever come? I think not! XCAMILLA acted as a dutiful daughter should and Lady Luck gave a big thumbs up. XCAMILLA ended up going out in third place, putting the last of her chips in after VEGASRNDER34 flopped a Queen to leave her 8-9 drawing extremely thin. Still, after leaving the game and having the last of her chips committed in her big blind, XCAMILLA returned to the fray and battled all the way to third place, good for a NINETY DOLLAR PAYDAY. And when you’re freerollin’, ninety bucks ain’t a bad return on your investment.
The top two players in the Delicious Freeroll both receive the same prize, a $215 entry in the $200K Sunday Guaranteed Tournament. “Why are we still playing?” CHERNBURN asked, and the players joked a bit that since they were both getting the same prize there really wasn’t much reason to continue. Whatever happened to pride??? The thrill of victory!!! Seeing your foe driven from the field in disarray!! The two players moved all-in before the flop four times…and on all four occasions, CHERNBURN held an Ace. He won all four hands, including one where he beat VEGASRNDER34’s pocket tens, and in about thirty seconds reversed a huge chip disadvantage to “win” the tournament. The final hand:
For VEGASRNDER34 this may have been a bit disappointing, because you want to win, but how often do the cards run so badly against you and it means NOTHING. Certainly nothing to your bottom line. Which, for both players, was improved to the tune of a entry in the Sunday Guarantted event. In the comments of the Delicious Freeroll post CHERNBURN said, “…I’ve never played in a tournament like that (the $200 Guarantee) before, I’m really excited for the opportunity.” And VEGASRNDER34 said, “That was alot of fun and some great people playing in that tourney!!!” We’ll be keeping an eye to see how CHERNBURN and VEGASRNDER34 do on Sunday, and you should keep an eye on the UltimateBet Blog for details on the freerolls we have planned for the future.
Tags: blog freeroll tournaments, delicious freeroll, freeroll tournaments, freerolls, ub, ub freerolls, ultimatebet, ultimatebet freerolls
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Saturday, May 16, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
The most obvious difference between live and online poker is that when you play online you ain’t physically sitting at a table with other people. And that can be a good thing–say, when someone you’re playing with is violently ill. Last year at the WSOP I was sitting at a low-limit table a few days before the Main Event when a gent who looked like he hadn’t slept in a week sat down. His salt-and-pepper hair was slick with sweat, his flannel shirt had various stains of indeterminate origin, and his watery eyes were bloodshot.
Now someone looking like that really isn’t THAT unusual for a Vegas cardroom, especially in July when a few minutes under the desert sun would leave Pierce Brosnan looking disheveled. What was unusual was the guy constantly coughing and hacking into a hankercheif he kept pulling out of his front pocket. Polite as it might’ve been to use that disgusting strip of cloth, I don’t think the Center for Disease Control considers a hanky an acceptable way to prevent the spread of germs.
Especially as the guy kept reaching for chips with fingers that had to be swimming with bacteria and virus particles. You never see a sick guy at the poker table playing tight, do you? No, they’re the ones raising every hand, tossing clusters of droplet-spattered chips into the pot to mix with everyone else’s checks. And that’s what this guy was doing, raising and re-raising almost as much as he was gobbing into his hankercheif. It took me about a minute to realize that I wasn’t sitting at a poker table so much as a felt-lined Petri dish. I racked up, bid my tablemates good night, and ran to the bathroom to wash my hands. Up to the elbows.
What does this have to do with anything? Well, last night was UltimateBet’s Follow Friday Freeroll–if you aren’t on Twitter, and don’t know what Follow Friday is, then it’s time to emerge from the cave and get with the times! Twitter has been the big thing in social media for the last month or so and last night was the first freeroll tournament for the folks following UltimateBet on Twitter. And a stunning 564 players took the virtual felt last night, myself included. Even though I’ve been battling the flu for the last two days. To say that I couldn’t have played last night had it been a live tournament is a gross understatement–I’ve been so sick that getting off the couch to get a glass of water seemed a more difficult task that rowing across the Atlantic.
But I was able to roll over on my side and log on last night to play. It’s hard to play inspired, aggressive poker when you want to die, but I did manage to execute one brilliant bluff (making a pot-sized bet on the river with four clubs on the board and nary a club in my hand) before I was sent to the rail in 76th place. I had pocket 7s, DOCGB2000 held A-Q, and the flop came K-J-10. It’s never a good thing when your tournament life hangs in the balance and the other guy flops the nuts, and that was especially so for me last night.
After getting bounced I checked the leaderboard and saw that WHOJEDI was at the top. I knew that nickname, as it belongs to poker journalist Jay Newnum who, as it turns out, wrote an article a month or so ago about how Twitter is changing how poker is covered. He also maintains a list of poker players/personalities/writers on Twitter that would no doubt be of interest to poker fans. I confirmed that this was indeed Jay (through Twitter, natch) and followed along to see if he might be a most-appropriate champion for our initial Follow Friday Freeroll.
Alas, it was not to be, and it was a cruel hand that derailed his chances. After winning a huge pot with pocket Kings against ACTION_JON’s pocket Queens, Jay was all-in with Ah-Kh to DRAWZ1977′S Ad-Kc. A split pot, right? Divvy it up and let’s get back to it. Well, no…
Ugh, the ‘ol runner-runner club flush. That left WHOJEDI will just a few thousand chips and he eventually went out in 15th place–but in the money. Attrition tooks it’s toll and before too long we’d set our final table:
As you can see several of the players were talking about Twittering the fact that they’d made the final table–which is exactly as it should be. The field was thinned down to three players and it looked like KIBLOUCHA would go out in third after he flopped a set of sevens…when DEFEDOG1 flopped a set of Kings. That left KIBLOUCHA with just 50,000 or so but he battled back from the brink and after DEFEDOG1 took out DJFOG86 when the latter’s straight and flush draws didn’t connect after the money went in, we were heads up. And it didn’t take the final two long to discuss making a deal, which seemed an agreeable way to end the evening’s festivities.
So now our beloved readers can follow us on the UB Blog and on Twitter and keep up to date on news and promotions and freerolls. And we’ll be posting even more fantabulous content once the World Series of Poker kicks off in a bit more than a week.
Tags: poker freerolls, poker twitter, Twitter, ub, ub freerolls, ub twitter, ultimatebet, ultimatebet freerolls, ultimatebet twitter
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Thursday, April 30, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
One of the most important inventions in mathematics–indeed, one of the most important inventions in human history–was the zero. Yes, the zero actually had to be invented, people all around the world were doing math for centuries without having a precise symbol or even a definition of what zero was. They’d just leave a blank spot on their clay tablets or a couple of crossed bars on their papyrus scroll to indicate that there was nothing there. You think your high school algebra class was hard? Try doing the math without having a zero to work with. Let’s see you solve for x then, tough guy.
Anyway, last night 774 players took the tables for April’s UltimateBet Blog Tournament, and each of our dear readers ponied up the same amount of cash for their seat–zero. Our blog tournaments are freerolls, of course, and those fortunate and skilled enough to make it deep can translate their investment of zilch into some serious coin. How serious? Well, last month BRAINCHILD1 played in the Blog Tournament, took it down, and won a free entry into our $40K Sniper tournament (usually the winner gets a seat in our $200K Sunday Guaranteed Tournament but, hey, we’re flexible). BRAINCHILD1 then continued his tear and cashed in the Sniper tournament, to the tune of $1,020. That’s over a grand, people. And to illustrate this for the more mathematically-minded among you:
$1,020 > $0
So perhaps it’s no surprise that 774 players stepped up last night to see if they could multiply their buy-in by a factor of a thousand. Wait…any number multiplied by zero equals zero, right? So that’s doesn’t make sense. Never mind, I was an English major, all these numbers give me such a headache..
No doubt KILLMEAJOKER had a headache when he went out on the bubble in 19th place, being the last of the field to start with nothing and end with nothing. We paid 18 spots last night but when you play in a tournament it’s the final table you usually have your eyes on, and these are the nine players I had my eye on when that final table was established:
You’ll notice that in this hand INDY29 is rivering 6PACKMOM111 to send her (?) out of the tournament. I didn’t get a chance to take a screenshot with all the players briefly relaxing at the end because the action was fast, furious, and final. It only took 41 hands to go from final table to last man standing, and this time around it was EMAUSS who conquored all who dared stand before him. Heads up against EBSHELLY72 he flopped a gutshot to EBSHELLY72’s top pair, and when the turn brought the six he needed to make his straight that was that. EBSHELLY72 didn’t have enough chips left to get away and had to hope for a chop to stay alive. No chop was forthcoming and EMAUSS took down the Blog Freeroll and won himself an entry into the $200 Sunday Guaranteed Tournament.
Will EMAUSS duplicate BRAINCHILD1’s feat and turn his freeroll finish into a four-figure cash? We’ll keep an eye out on Sunday to see if our readers continue their (very profitable) hot streaks.
Tags: BRAINCHILD1, emauss, ub, ub blog freeroll, ub blog freerolls, ub blog tournament, ub freerolls, ultimatebet, ultimatebet blog freeroll, ultimatebet freerolls
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Thursday, February 26, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ve probably heard there’s this global financial crisis going on. Come to think of it, with all the turmoil in the housing sector chances are good you ARE living under a rock, though hopefully a rock near a WiFi hotspot so you can keep reading the UB Blog. Even in these tough times one must keep one’s priorities straight.
With belts a-tightening it’s very important for poker players to practice responsible bankroll management. I know, the words “responsible” and “bankroll management” are rarely found in such close quarters but these are strange days indeed. Sure, playing ultra-nosebleed stakes will get you all sorts of attention (and a reminder–High Stakes Poker returns on March 1st) but quite a few big-name players have shown that playing at the other end of the financial spectrum can be a huge challenge as well.
Chris Ferguson famously tried to build a $10,000 bankroll starting with nothing (it took him 18 months of freerolling and microstaking to get there). Daniel Negreanu has been playing $.01/.02 no-limit in an attempt to replicate Ferguson’s feat (though he started with an initial $10 deposit). And yesterday Hollywood Dave wrote that he and Annie Duke have a prop bet to see who can win an WSOP seat for just ten cents through UltimateBet’s Step Tourneys. Hey, anybody can throw bricks of cash and cranberry chips into the pot when a reload is sitting in your hip pocket. But when you’re down to your last dime, that’s when the hands start shaking and the sweat beads on the brow.
But you can’t get down to you last dime until you earn your first one, and a good way to do that is by playing in freerolls. That’s how Annette Obrestrad got her start–the 2007 WSOP-Europe champion and online Destroyer of Worlds won her initial stake through freerolls and has never, ever deposited her own money. It would perhaps be premature to say that the nine players who final-tabled last night’s UltimateBet Blog Freeroll Tournament will replicate the bankroll-building exploits detailed above, but who knows? A grand total of 746 players started last night’s event with nothing but when the final table was seated these were the nine players who knew they’d be leaving with something:
After KAWDSHAWK69 bubbled (if one can be said to bubble a freeroll tournament, and I think one can) the survivors battled it out until COOTER BROWN1 and DENERODAY were heads-up. First prize? A $215 seat in Sunday’s $200,000 Guaranteed Tournament. Second prize? A set of steak knives. No, wait, sorry, that was second prize in Glengarry Glen Ross. No, last night second prize was $30. That’s three times more money than Daniel Negreanu started out with. Three hundred times more than Hollywood Dave and Annie Duke plan to invest on a WSOP Main Event seat. Thirty dollars, cash on the barrelhead.
And in the end it was COOTER BROWN1 who ended up with the consolation prize, as he moved in after flopping top pair with Kh-5d and got a call from DENERODAY, who flopped the nut flush draw with Ah-5h. The two had nearly equivalent stacks and so this figured to be the decisive hand either way, and when the turn brought the 2h it proved to be DENERODAY’s way, as he held the nut flush to lock up the hand and the Sunday Guaranteed seat. COOTER BROWN1 seeded his bankroll to the tune of thirty dollars, while DENERODAY must return to the fray Sunday afternoon, to see if he can translate his freeroll finish into a five-figure payday.
Tags: annette obrestrad, annette_15, blogger freerolls, chris ferguson bankroll, daniel negreanu microstakes, daniel negreau bankroll, freerolls, glengarry glen ross, poker freerolls, set of steak knives, ub, ub blog freeroll, ub blogger freerolls, ub freerolls, ub step tourneys, ultimatebet, ultimatebet freerolls
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