Congrats to Ron Fahner

Ron Fahner came in 2nd place
(of 130+) at the Red Hot Poker Tour's
TOC event a couple weeks ago.
Ron won entry to a $1500 WSOP event.

Many of you will remember Ron
as a very solid player from the
Poker In Canada & Premier Poker
Tour events in London.

PokerStars WBCOOP

I just qualified for the Championship Final

of the WBCOOP at pokerstars this sunday.

At the first break, I was in 2nd or 3rd and

decided to more or less just sit on my

chips and wait for about 400 more players

to bust out.

I figured the tourny would just stop when

we got to 72 players (top 72 received

entry to the final). It kept going, and so

did I, despite having nothing really to play for.

Finished 6th out of 559 horses.

I might play a couple of the other events

just for practice.

New Poker After Dark Episodes

Some new PAD's coming up soon.
The 2009 schedule looks like this:

* December 29: (Close but no Cigar)
Andy Black, Lee Watkinson, Dewey Tomko,
David Williams, Allen Cunningham, Mike Matusow

* January 5: (Speak your mind)
Todd Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Gordon,
Gabe Kaplan, Cory Zeidman, David Grey

January 12: REPEAT (Mission Impossible)
Mike Matusow, Phil Laak, Phil Hellmuth,
David Williams, Clonie Gowen, Gavin Smith

January 19: REPEAT (Dream II)
Mike Matusow, Phil Hellmuth, Mike Sexton,
Jennifer Harman, Gavin Smith, Paul Featherstone

January 26: REPEAT (Mayfair Club)
Jay Heimowitz, Howard Lederer, Mickey Appleman,
Dan Harrington, Steve Zolotow, Mike Shichtman

February 2: REPEAT (Cash game II)
Patrik Antonius, Dee Tiller, Howard Lederer,
Doyle Brunson, Gabe Kaplan, Eli Elezra

* February 9: (Brilliant Minds)
Brandon Adams, Chris Ferguson, Andy Bloch,
Bill Chen, Jimmy Warren, David Sklansky

* February 16: (Nets vs. Vets Cash Game)
Taylor Caby, Cole South, Gabe Kaplan,
David Benefield, Doyle Brunson, Eli Elezra

February 23: REPEAT (WPT Multiple winners)
Erick Lindgren, Howard Lederer, Daniel Negreanu,
Michael Mizrachi, Gus Hansen, Tuan Le

March 2: REPEAT
Phil Laak, David Williams, Annie Duke,
Andy Bloch, John Juanda, Clonie Gowen

March 9; REPEAT (MEGA $50,000 Buy-In)
David Benyamine, Allen Cunningham, Phil Ivey
Jennifer Harman, Barry Greenstein, Eli Elezra

March 16: REPEAT (Close but no Cigar)
Andy Black, Lee Watkinson, Dewey Tomko,
David Williams, Allen Cunningham, Mike Matusow

* March 23: (Dream Table III)
Johnny Chan, Jennifer Tilly, Arnold Thimons,
Mike Matusow, Phil Laak, Daniel Negreanu

* March 30: (International III)
Brad Booth, Allen Cunningham, David Benyamine,
John Juanda, John Phan, Ivan Demidov

April 6: REPEAT (Speak your mind)
Todd Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Gordon,
Gabe Kaplan, Cory Zeidman, David Grey

April 13: REPEAT (Brilliant Minds)
Brandon Adams, Chris Ferguson, Andy Bloch,
Bill Chen, Jimmy Warren, David Sklansky

April 20: REPEAT
Alan Boston, Antonio Esfandiari, Mike Sexton,
Mike Matusow, Jamie Gold, Paul Wasicka

April 27: REPEAT (Show Open)
Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson,
Phil Hellmuth, Jennifer Harman, Gus Hansen

* May 4: (Hellmuth Bash Cash Game I)
Tom Dwan, Kenny Tran, Phil Laak,
Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Hellmuth, Bob Safai

* May 11: (Hellmuth Bash Cash Game II)
Tom Dwan, Antonio Esfandiari, Kenny Tran,
Phil Hellmuth, Bob Safai, Phil Laak

May 18: REPEAT (Dream Table)
Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Jennifer Harman,
Mike Matusow, Scotty Nguyen, Ken Light

May 25: REPEAT (World Champions)
Chris Ferguson, Johnny Chan, Berry Johnston,
Jamie Gold, Phil Hellmuth, Huck Seed

June 1: REPEAT (19th Hole)
Gavin Smith, David Oppenheim, Erick Lindgren,
Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu

June 8: REPEAT (International)
Patrick Antonius, Johnny Chan, Roland de Wolfe,
Daniel Negreanu, Gus Hansen, John Juanda

* June 15: (Sit-n-Talk)
Jennifer Harman, Mike Matusow, Antonio Esfandiari,
Jean-Robert Bellande, Vanessa Rousso, David Grey

* June 22: (Celebrities and Mentors)
Barry Greenstein, Jason Alexander, Phil Gordon,
Orel Hershiser, Don Cheadle, Gavin Smith

June 29: REPEAT (Dream Table III)
Johnny Chan, Jennifer Tilly, Arnold Thimons,
Mike Matusow, Phil Laak, Daniel Negreanu

July 6: REPEAT (International III)
Brad Booth, Allen Cunningham, David Benyamine,
John Juanda, John Phan, Ivan Demidov

Huge Pots at FTP High Stakes Tables

www.HighStakesDB.com reported this week
that a new record in chip stacks was set, with
Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond enjoying big success
in the 6-max games on www.FullTiltPoker.com .

At one point during a remarkable session over
the weekend, Galfond was sitting on a stack of
$1.5 Million at a $500/$1,000 NLHE 6-max table.
The $1.5 million stack is believed to be the largest
stack at a single table in online poker history.
Despite experiencing a couple of big hit reversals,
Galfond left with $1,266,264, also a new record.
During the action Galfond apparently won 3
seperate pots each valued at well over $400,000.

Over the past week the action around risk-taker
Tom "durr" Dwan had some exciting moments, too.
On December 5th playing Hold'em NL $500/1,000
he achieved a very impressive profit of $955,000
having totally dominated all opponents including
formidable names like Phil Ivey and Gus Hansen
over a 24 hour period. He left the tables with
$455,000 and $772,000 stacks for an overall
profit of +$955,000.

On December 6th, Dwan was at the tables again,
this time pushing his 24 hour winnings up over a
million dollars by winning his largest hand ever,
$657,000.

The other side of the coin was a staggering
$1.4 Million loss for player "Ziigmund" in a
NLHE game on December 7th, when the player's
successful run in recent days came to an abrupt
and expensive end.

He wasn't alone, player "Elmariachimacho"
took a $750,000 hit, too. The losers shipped it to
the still successful OMGClayAiken (+ $613,000)
durr (+ $501,000) and Urindanger (+ $409,000).

Tough Times in Vegas

Just another sign of how hard the
recession is hitting Las Vegas.
This Saturdays highly anticipated
Oscar DeLaHoya vs. Manny Pacquaio
fight at the MGM Grand hasn't sold out.

Not only that, tickets are now half-price ! !
Blue: $750 +$50 fee (were $1,500 each)
Pink: $500 +$50 fee (were $1,000 each)
Green: $375 +$35 fee (were $750 each)
Orange: $250 +$25 fee (were $500 each)

Only the $20,000 ringside seats haven't
been discounted. I guess that the super-rich
aren't as adversely affected by the economic
down turn as the plain well-off folks are.

I'm a PokerStar

Because I'm so awesome, I have been invited to play in the

PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker !

Only bloggers can play in this exclusive online poker tournament.

Registration code: 978237

$5 Charity Tourny on Full Tilt tonight

Help Erick Lindgren help the
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
in memory of Mindy Trinidad.

There's a $5+5 charity tourny on
FullTilt tonight at 7pm.

If you're not yet a FullTilt member, click one of the banners on the side of this blog to download the software.

Five dollars will go towards prize pool with the other $5 benefiting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society/Southern Nevada.

The winner of the event will receive the first place cash prize plus a "World" model Curtis & Co. watch valued at $2,200.

Located in the Private section Date: Dec 3 19:00 Format: $5+5 NL Holdem
Tournament # 70441231
Password: charity

Pro's attending include: Allan Cunningham,
Andy Bloch, Brad Booth, Erick Lindgren,
Cyndy Violette, FBT Mueller, Joe Beevers,
Lee Watkinson, Mike Matusow, Berry Johnson and more.

Speaking of Hellmuth...

I'm not sure if everyone will find
this as funny as I do, but I was killing
myself.... cracking up big time.

Phil, ever trying to gain more worldwide
exposure for himself, appears in his
Bollywood bigscreen debut.

http://www.pokerjunkie.com/bollywood-poker-video-phil-hellmuth

Hellmuth Clothing Line

Now you too can dress like
"a goofball who catches cards"
(Sam Grizzle describing Phil)

Phil Hellmuth has launched a
new line of apparel under the
brand name Poker Brat Clothing Co.

"We've worked with artists in
Las Vegas, Missouri, and West
Hollywood, and I told them to create
whatever their hearts desired and,
man, did they create some great
poker designs!", says the Phil.

Personally, I think the designs are
kind of ugly... but I guess its better
than a cliche design like a royal flush
or worse yet, Phil's face on them.





www.PokerBrat.com

2008 BC Poker Championships

On Sunday, Daniel Negreanu won
the 2008 BC Poker Championships
Main Event ($2,500 buy-in) at the
River Rock Casino in Richmond, BC.

Daniel took home $371,910 for
winning the four day long event.

He's been on a hot streak this year.
He cashed 5 times at the 2008 WSOP,
including a bracelet win for $204k in the
$2,000 Limit Hold'em event and a 7th place
finish in the $5,000 PLO r/b for $123k.
He also finished in 13th place in $50k HORSE.
Danny followed this up with three cashes at
the 2008 WSOP Europe, including making the
final table at the main event. He ended up 5th
and cashed for almost $400k. Since the
beginning of June, Daniel Negreanu has approx.
$1,000,000 in tournament winnings and says
he's playing some of the best poker of his career.

From PokerStars Blog:
"Negreanu, as usual, had some side action
going to keep things interesting. He and
Gabe Kaplan had a $2,500 last-longer bet.
If either of them made the money, the other
player would pay $10,000. If either player
made it to the final table it was another $25,000.
And so, late yesterday Kaplan was stuck $37,500.
As it turns out, though, there was an escape
clause in the bet. If either Kaplan or Negreanu
won the event, all bets were off and the winner
of the event paid the other $2,500. As we've
already noted, Negreanu won. Kaplan went
from being stuck $37,500 to winning $2,500
and Negreanu swung $40,000 in the other direction."

From Daniels Blog:
"690 players showed up for the tournament,
the biggest field I'd ever beaten. To do it in
Canada was legitimately special and I think
it's going to make for great TV when it airs.

I'm really hoping that this might help spark
an even bigger buy in event at the River Rock
next year. I genuinely believe they could hold
a 10k buy in and get 300 players easy, especially
if they have online qualifiers. I'm looking forward
to returning next year. They treated me very well
and I had a great time.

After it was over a bunch of all went to dinner.
I noticed that Adam, the second place finisher
was having dinner with five of his friends.
I invited them all to join us and picked up the tab.
After dinner we changed and a large group of us,
including Adam and his friends went to a club
called Republic. Brad Booth hooked us up with
a huge area to chill and we hung out there till
pretty late. With dinner, and paying the bar tab,
the night ended up being pretty expensive for me
but it was all worth it.

Now I plan on... sleeping. I just finished doing some
TV stuff and really need to catch up on some
R and R and am already looking forward to the
$15,000 Bellagio event. That event has been very
good to me in the past and I'm coming in on a roll
feeling very confident. With the Bellagio structure
being so deep on the first three days I always feel
great about my chances to do well there."

WSOBP (Beer Pong)

by Karl Popper

The fourth annual edition of the
“World Series of Beer Pong”,
a frat style drinking game recently
turned popular, is coming to Las Vegas
in 2009.

Hundreds of teams are expected to gather
at the Flamingo Hotel and Casino from
January 1st- 5th to battle for the
$50,000 grand prize.

The five-day event, presented by BPong.com,
will be the largest of its kind, the 2007
tournament attracted almost 600 contestants
from 39 states and three different countries.
In addition, twenty-one satellite competitions
will be held in several locations inside the U.S.,
with the final satellite taking place in New York
on December 16th, 2008.

“It's a pastime with a very loyal following.
We introduced beer pong to the Las Vegas Strip
a couple of years ago at O’Sheas Casino and it
continues to be immensely successful for us.”
said Flamingo’s VP of marketing, Suzanne Trout.

“Beer pong” involves two teams that face-off
from opposite ends of a long table. Each team
has 10 plastic cups arranged in a triangle
at their side of the table, then both teams
take turns attempting to throw ping pong
balls into the other team’s cups.
The first team to full all the cups with at least
one ping pong ball wins the match.

In most frat-style “Beer Pong” games,
all cups are filled with beer and a member
of the defending team has to drink a cup’s
contents when the opposing team lands
a ball in it, however, drinking is not
mandatory during the “WSoBP”.

During a BPong.com-regulated game,
twenty-four ounces of beer or water is split
between six of the 10 cups .The remaining
four cups are filled with water and no one
drinks the water from these cups during
a regulation game. According to the
tournament rules, all cups may be filled
with water instead of beer and competitors
can choose if they want to drink the
contents or not.

2008 world champion beer pongers,
Jeremy Hughes and Mike Orr, are
expected to make their best effort to
defend the title, regardless of what
the cups are filled with.
The tournament is open to anyone,
ages 21 or older. All teams are welcomed
to register online before December 5th,
the Tournament’s registration is set at
$1,000 per team, and includes four nights
at the Flamingo Las Vegas.

Eric Lui buys Range Rover with Stars fpp's

Not a big deal normally. These pros on
PokerStars who play big $, they rack up
the Frequent Player Points like crazy.

Thing is, Eric Lui is a Full Tilt Red Pro !
Maybe not for long ...lol
I'm sure FTP wants him to get his name
out there, but not by posing for pictures
and writing articles for their biggest competitor.

http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/2008/11/vip-club-liu-snags-car-with-fpp.html

Tropicana Closing its Poker Room

The poker room at the Tropicana Hotel
in Las Vegas will be closing down
permanently as of November 30th.

The rooms 19 employees were notified
today of the closing date and layoffs.

The poker room consisted of 6 tables
spreading $1/2NL and 2/4L holdem.

Sarnia SitnGo's

Point Edward Charity Casino is running
"Touchdown Sundays SNG Tournaments"
until January 04, 2009. Sundays Noon-8pm.
Watch football and play poker.

Buy-in is $25+$5, starting when 10 players
sign up. Play up to 3 SNG's per day.

Payouts: 1st - $125, 2nd - $75, 3rd - $50
Blinds go up every 15 minutes.
Levels: 5/10, 15/30, 25/50, 50/100.

Neil Millson, his wife Gloria and their
daughter Linda have had great success
at these with numerous cashes.


Had to post this picture of Neil winning a PPT
event with what is fast becoming one of my
favourite cash game hands, the Four-Deuce.

Medic, Benyamine, and Clonie

Canadian WSOP bracelet winner
Nenad Medic is still playing at FullTilt
despite (for undisclosed reasons) losing
his Red Pro status. Medic has seen playing
under his old username "Serb2127"
on $100/$200 Pot Limit Omaha tables.
Nenad has also been removed from the
FTP website showing all of the FTP pros.

Another notable pro missing his red status
is David Benyamine. David is rumoured to
be moving to another site although he
continues to play at FTP. Its hard to find
bigger action anywhere online, so I suspect
he'll continue to hang around as long as his
new site allows him.

Last but not least, Clonie Gowan is
no longer a Full Tilt pro. Further to that news,
Cycalona 'Clonie' Gowen has filed a lawsuit
in Nevada Court against Tiltware LLC,
Full Tilt Poker, and most of the big name
pros associated with FTP including Howard
Lederer, Andy Bloch, Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson,
John Juanda, Phil Gordon, Erick Lindgren,
Erik Seidel, Jennifer Harman-Traniello,
Mike Matusow, Allen Cunningham,
Gus Hansen and Patrik Antonius.
The basis of the lawsuit stems from oral
contracts which Clonie believes entitle her
to a percentage of the profits earned by
Full Tilt. She admits that no written
contract exists but is seeking $40,000,000
which is approximately 1% of the $4 Billion
that Full Tilt may be valued at.


Clonie needs the money for..... ? ? ?

Vegas Wednesday (END)

WEDNESDAY NOV 12

Checkout day. Up before 10am.
RIVIERA's Kiosk Checkout was easy.
Headed downtown to BINIONS to cash in
our comps in the gift shop.

The Real Deal playbill had a coupon for
"1 free book" from Cardoza publishing,
the guys who print Doyles and Daniels
books. The ad shows SuperSystem,
Caro's Book of Tells, Poker Tournament
Formula, etc. Being the gullable type guy
I am, I made the assumption that I could
choose from one of the books shown
in the ad. Wrong. The free books are
actually booklets on offbeat topics or
contain only rudimentry content.

AVERY CARDOZA, did you approve this ?
Do you realize how many people you are
going to piss off ?

Remember the potential prop bet with
Sonny involving the fruit plate from
Peppermills ? Gina and I thought it would
be funny to send Sonny a fruit basket.
We hit the Walmart Super Centre and bought
a basket, clear wrapping and fruit galore.
Along with a watermelon, cantaloupe, bananas,
bag of apples, there were a bag of lemons,
a coconut, and an onion...lol. Got a few strange
looks putting it all together on the trunk of
our car in the parking lot.


The Wynn employs 50 Full-Time pastry chefs !

Too long without food so we hit the
WYNN buffet. Gina earned 2 free buffets
earlier so we wanted to use them up.
Excellent food as before. Desserts are superb.
Tremendous selection. I love that they
have bathrooms located inside the dining area.
Most buffets, you have to leave and use facilities
on the gaming floor. Their bathrooms actually
have private rooms with real locking doors,
not just partial metal walls.

Headed back up to SLOTS'O'FUN to use our
$15 for $10 coupon. Crapped out and headed
next door to CIRCUS CIRCUS, to use the same
offer there. Half hour of play and left with an
overall +$7 in profit between Gina and I.
Woohoo !

3pm.
Went to the VENETIAN to cram some
poker in on our last day. Saw TEDDY
"The IceMan" ONROE. He holds the record
for most WSOP television coverage disproportionate
to his results. et up with high school chum ANDY
BRUINEWOUD and his wife GLORIA in the poker
room. They are vegas veterans and gave me
the scoop on what they saw of the WSOP
final table from inside the P&T Theatre.
Played at the V until 8pm (+ $76).


Headed to the MGM and left the fruit basket
for Sonny at the Bell Desk. Would have been
way funnier if we could have gotten into his room
and filled his room with fruit, but we didnt
have time. Dropped off the rental car and
headed for the plane.

Overall, great trip. Left + $1500 so I can't
complain. Bye Vegas, see you next time
(hopefully in a few months).

Vegas Tuesday

TUESDAY NOV 11

Had GOLD COAST lunch buffet using 241
LasVegas Advisor coupon. $9.03 total for two.
Very slow drink service. It was busy, Veterans Day.
6x points so there were seniors galore.
Used a $5 matchplay from ACG on Roulette.
Will + $10. Gina + $10. Free lunch !

Back to the VENETIAN poker room. Got two more
free REAL DEAL tix from Mr. Bill, the floor guy.
I love this room !. + $251 playing 2pm-6pm.

Headed over to the ORLEANS for Dinner buffet
and brought Tom with us. $7.53 each with ACG
coupons. Great buffet as usual. Didnt use the RD tix,
couldnt make it back from buffet in time.






Dropped Tom off at the MGM and headed
downtown to BINIONS to play poker.
Had plenty of good starting hands,
just couldnt hit the board to save my life.
Was down $ most of the evening but hit
Quad Deuces to get back to even.
8:30pm-1am. Left minus - $10.
Earned + $9 in comps so we'll call it even.
I played Zeus, HootLoot and Shopping Spree
slots (+ $8) while Gina was playing Pai Gow.
She was doing well so I popped across the
street to the NUG to check out the poker room.
Sat down at a $1/2 table with 3 russians.
$2400, $1600, and $800 stacks. Very suspicious.
They were the only ones who ever won a pot.
I sat for 2 orbits then left. Talked to a guy at a
limit table on my way out. He said I'm the first
person all night who left the table with money,
they knocked out every single player who
sat in the game. Not sure what was going on,
something didnt seem right. Walked back over
to Binions and convinced Gina to leave
with a + $50 profit at Pai Gow.

Vegas Monday eve

Funniest moment of the day.
Sonny is cracking up laughing and says

" You gotta see this ! " There was a guy

at the poker room cage asking his friend

to take his picture, posing as he cashes out

his racks of $1 chips, like it was a huge payday.

Being the smartass I am, I say to Sonny

" Dare me to get my picture taken with him?"
So I go over and ask the guy if I can get my

picture taken with him (and all his chips),

like he's a poker superstar. Love how he

fans out his money for everyone to see.

Classic !

12am?
Hungry. Went downtown to the GOLDEN

GATE Shrimp Bar & Deli for one of their

famous sandwiches. Had the Cable Car

(turkey, ham, roast beef, swiss cheese,
lettuce,mayo) $6.99. Great shrimp cocktails

for 99cents.

Wandered down to the GOLDEN NUGGET

to play a little poker. Got stacked by donkey

bombers. - $200. The Nugget has started

raking 50cents preflop, so if its raise and

take it with no action, the GN is still getting

there's. Boo !

Vegas Monday

MONDAY NOV 10

Up at 10am and out of the room by 11am.
Off to the SILVERTON for Lunch Buffet.
$9.63 for two. Their pecan pie tastes like
a giant butter tart. Played another session
at the VENETIAN. + $26







Recieved 5 comp tickets to the REAL DEAL,
a poker based game show that recently
opened up at the Venetian. Sonny, Ed, and
Tom were just finishing up tournament at
the WYNN so they joined Gina & me.

The premise of the show, two poker pro's
and 4 (somewhat) randomly selected audience
members play a game of holdem on stage.
The rest of the audience plays along on
computer touch screens.

The audience sees its hole cards and bets
or folds based on the flop, turn, river.
There are also mini contests throughout.
Pick 5 random cards from a deck of 52
and the top 3 people with the best hands
win a prize. The final hand, you randomly
select 5 cards and if you hit a royal flush
you receive $1,000,000 (over 25 yrs).


The two pros for this session were
TODD BRUNSON and JENNIFER HARMAN.
Jennifer was high energy and seemed
sincerely interested in being there.
Todd, no so much. VINNY FAVORITO
(I played poker with him on a previous trip)
was the MC and did a great job trying to
keep this contrived production seem natural
and moving along.
LACEY JONES co-hosted and did an
acceptable job. I was a little shocked
to see Lacey, who was voted "hottest
girl in poker", only 5 feet away. I guess
you can have skin as rough as T.J. Cloutier
and still be hot. I'm sure she's a nice girl,
she comes across as friendly... but I've
met hotter poker girls.

Back to the Real Deal...

One of the big flaws I found was in the
software. There was a serious time lag.
On a couple occasions, the live hand
was being dealt before action was complete
on the handhelds. I was able to fold on the
turn, saving myself a $16,000 wager
because I saw the dealer on stage deal
out the river which gave one of the players
a full house which beat my two pair.
If there were serious prizes at stake,
there'd be lawsuits flying. Prizes were decent
although not enough to make me drool.
Sony headphones, a portable dvd player,
autographed posters, books, a bunch of
$50 gift certs for V restaurants. I left with
a pretty good booty. Everyone left with a
RD hat & deck of cards because the crowd
won 5 or 6 hands. I made trips with one of
my random 5 card selections so I won a
poster autographed by the RD poker pros.
When I went to collect it after the show,
the girl says "oh you won the books ! ?"
I said, "sure ?!" She gave me autographed
copies of SuperSystem2 and Daniel Negreanu's
Power Holdem. Autographs include Harman,
Brunson, Laak, Esfandiari, etc.


Overall, I liked the show.
Would I pay $75 for it ? ... No.
If it was free, I would go again and again.
There were about 100 people in the audience
and some of them were people who actually
paid full price for the show, including 2 people
who paid $140 for VIP front row seats
(my freebee seats were in the 2nd row)
and they got to meet and take pictures
with the pros backstage.

Immediately after the show we headed
out to the GREEN VALLEY RANCH to take
a shot at the PL Omaha 8OB tournament
that we missed earlier in the week.
Had I known the structure and rake (30%),
I would have skipped it. We arrived
a little late but got on the list to be put in
as other players got eliminated. By the time
I got seated, it was late into the $100
blind level. Starting stack was $2000.
This basically gave me no play at all.
Example: 1st time I play my big blind
there are 4 players to the flop. Pot is $400.
Under the gun bets pot $400.
If I bet the pot ($1200) I have committed
65% of my chips to this hand and there
are still 2 people to act behind me
+ the original bettor. No wiggle room at all.
I finished 11th out of 36 by folding a lot.
Gina came in 9th and Sonny came in 6th.
On a positive note, I made + $ 80 playing
the cash game while I waited for everyone
to bust out.

Vegas Sunday

SUNDAY NOV 9

The big day is finally here, the WSOP
main event final table that has been
delayed for 4 months. Unfortunately, I
'll have to watch it on tv like common folk.
The line up to get into the Penn & Teller
theatre at the RIO is crazy long and the
set up isnt very good for spectators.

Went for lunch buffet at the ORLEANS
(241 ACG) and hit their poker room after.
Always seems to be a very busy room,
even during the week. 1/2 hour wait.
Their list procedures are a little sketchy.
Names occasionally appear above you
on the list with out explanation. They have
different colored symbols they can put
with peoples names. Green is phone-in,
blue is table change request, etc...
but people got bumped for no obvious
reason (locals friendly with poker room
manager ?). Watched a bit of the $4/8 and
$8/16 Omaha H/L cash games. Very juicy.
People had very little clue to what a
good starting hand is or even knowing
if they were winning.



A new must-move $1/2 table was started
and we got seated. I didnt even get to
play a hand before I was moved to the
main table. After about a half hour,
JERRY YANG - 2007 World Champion
sat next to me at our table. Super nice guy,
very friendly. He showed a big bluff the
first hand, then he played tight ABC poker
after that (He left +$300).

It was a real up & down session for me,
lots of tough decisions (which I usually avoid).
River beat me on several big hands/pots.
Sometimes I just got outflopped....
I had QQ against villains AK.
Flop is QTJ of spades. Luckily I only lost
about $60 on that hand because villain
had no spades.

I folded a flopped gutshot Q high
straight flush draw, face up to the shock
of the dealer and most of the table.
3 all-ins behind me. Had invested $50
on the flop but would have cost me my
stack, $220 more. What most people fail to
consider in this situation is what your
opponents likely holdings are. With 3
other people all in, it is highly likely
one of them is drawing to the Ace high
flush. One of my other opponents may
have already made the straight.
It is quite possible in this situation that
I am drawing to a one outer to hit the
straight flush. I might even be drawing
completely dead if one of my opponents
holds my str8flush card. Atleast I got a
"wow" out of Jerry Yang for my fold.
Left the Orleans + $25.

1am.
Decided to check out CAESARS PALACE.
The entire casino floor was nearly vacant,
very few people at all. The poker room
was the same, almost empty.
2 tables of $1/2. The high hand jackpots
were a joke. $100 for 4 of a kind,
$100 for a str8 flush, $500 for royal flush.
They scoop $1 from every pot and
all they want to pay back is $100 ?
That's weak.

Signed up with the brush and he told us
to have a seat and grab a cocktail,
wont be long. Sounds good.
After 2 failed attempts to get a drink
from a snobby Caesars waitress,
we bailed. No action, no service,
no thanks. Headed back to the RIV
and called it an early night .