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Author Archive
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Rock Stars Can Play, Baby!
On Sunday, Dec. 9, Godsmack’s lead singer, Sully Erna, entered a $500 buy-in satellite tournament at the Bellagio for the $5,000 buy-in event on Monday. Erna was looking for action, and the board (waiting list) for the no-limit side games was just too long, so he hopped into the satellite, and won it, which gained him entry into the big tournament the next day. If you’re not sure who Erna is, Godsmack’s cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Good Times Bad Times” is all over the radio, and may be No. 1 by the time you read this article. At the end of day one, with 15 remaining players, Erna had the chip lead. By the time I received a text from him on day two, he was the chip leader at the final table, and first place was more than $500,000.
I had worked with Erna for three days the week before — Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday — on my new reality program called the “Best Damn Poker Show,” as I drafted him for “Team Hellmuth.” Although Erna is a skilled poker player, he never had any formal training or lessons. Somehow, he never had read a book or watched a DVD on how to play no-limit hold ’em. During “Best Damn Poker Show,” I had the chance to watch Erna’s hole cards from the booth over the course of several hours.
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Layne Flack’s Close Call
On Nov. 27, at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino, Layne Flack entered the opening event — a $1,500 buy-in, no-limit, hold-’em tournament with 472 players — of the Bellagio’s Five Diamond Poker Tournament.
Throughout the day, Flack text-messaged me that he had the chip lead. By 9 p.m. (the tournament started at noon), he text-messaged: “I still have the chip lead. Wire to wire, baby.” At 10 p.m., with the average chip stack at $27,000, Flack still had the lead with $160,000 in chips. That’s when Flack finally surrendered the chip lead over the course of two big pots.
With the blinds at $500 to $1,000, and a $200 ante, Nick Binger made it $3,600 to go with A-J. Flack, sitting in the big blind with Qs-8s, called $2,600 more. The flop was Q-8-2, and both players checked. On the turn, the 10d came off, and Flack led out for $9,000. Binger studied for a long time, then moved all-in for around $30,000 total. Flack called him quickly, and Binger needed a nine or a king on the last card to complete a straight — and the river didn’t disappoint him as a king came off.
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Blind’ed at HSP
“High Stakes Poker” on Game Show Network is a one-hour television program that is basically a high-stakes, no-limit Hold ’em cash game, where the minimum buy-in is $100,000. We shot 12 episodes of “HSP” over three days. On Day 2, the players were: Daniel “Kid Poker” Negreanu, Jennifer Harman, Sammy Farha, Bob Safai, Eli Elezra, Brandon Adams, Jamie Gold, and, of course, yours truly.
With the blinds at $300-$600, we had two noteworthy pots come up. But before I begin telling the tale of these two hands, I should add that almost every pot had the “live $1,200” blind on it, which means that the player to the left of the blinds voluntarily put up $1,200 as a third blind, and that that player then retained the option of raising it up. A “live blind” — sometimes referred to as a “straddle” — doubles the size of the game. It is often employed by someone losing a lot of money who’s hoping to get lucky and win a big pot.
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Gold Wins (Most Of) Record-Breaking HSP Pot
Last Monday night, I was watching an episode of “High Stakes Poker” on the Game Show Network. This was a special session where the buy-in was $500,000, and they encouraged the players to bring pounds of cash to the table. Can you imagine the $50,000 “bricks of cash” (five $10,000 packets of $100 bills, all wrapped together) piled high in front of each player? It was quite a sight to behold. And can you imagine the size of some of the pots? After all, more than one player bought in for $1 million.
Let’s just say this: It was a good day to get lucky.
We shot “HSP” over three days, filming three eight-hour sessions. Each session was turned into four one-hour television shows, and three days of filming turned into 12 episodes of “High Stakes Poker.” Personally, I played the first two days — when the buy-in was $100,000 — but I skipped the $500,000 buy-in, even though I was up $300,000 after the first two days of play. Risking $500,000 in one hand seems a little bit crazy — even to a guy like me.
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I’m a Lucky ‘Bad Boy’
Recently, I played on NBC’s “Poker after Dark.” One of the episodes was called “The Bad Boys of Poker,” and featured Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, Gavin Smith, Bobby Bellande (the poker player on “Survivor”), Sean “The Sheik” Sheikhan, Sam Grizzle, and I. One thing was for sure about this lineup — it was loud!
When we hit three-handed, Bellande, Sheikhan and I were left battling. With the blinds at $2,000-$4,000, Sheikhan folded on the button, I looked at A-4 in the small blind and moved Bellande all-in for his last $18,000. Bellande called with A-8, and I was a 2-1/2-to-1 underdog to win the pot. Bellande spent a full minute chatting about how unlucky he was, and telling the world that I would win the pot. The flop was 8-6-4, and Sheikhan said, “See bro, you can’t lose this one now.” Bellande said, “With my luck, I could.” Amazingly, the turn card was a four! Now Bellande needed an eight to win the pot, and found himself a 22-to-1 underdog (22 cards for me and 2 for him). The river was a seven, and Sheikhan said, “See bro, you brought it on yourself. You have a bad attitude; you expect to lose, and then you lose.” Brutal, it is bad enough to lose like that — to a two-outer — but then Bellande had to listen to Sheikhan! Still we all knew that trash talking was going to be a big part of this show. I have no problem with the way this hand was played by either of us, when the blinds get big enough, then ace high becomes a strong hand.
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Protect Your Pocket Eights With A Raise
I recently played on NBC’s “Poker after Dark.” I won the $120,000 first-place prize (which I detailed in my last column) in my first appearance of the 2008 season (next season’s shows are being filmed now). Now I was making my second appearance. Even though the show is six days long, five days of play and then a “director’s cut” on Saturday night; we film it in one five- or six-hour long session. In any case, my second show was entitled “The Bad Boys of Poker,” and featured Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, Gavin Smith, Bobby Bellande (the poker player from “Survivor”), Sean “The Sheik” Sheikhan, Sam Grizzle and I. One thing was for sure about this lineup: It was loud!
Immediately, I lost a few pots and my chips dwindled down to around $15,000 from my $20,000 starting stack. I didn’t panic: The same thing had happened to me the day I won. I reasoned that I had plenty of time to come back as the blinds moved up super slowly for the first three hours (it was a great structure). I knew that patience would keep me alive and give me a good chance to thrive. About 45 minutes into the thing I caught my first break. The Sheik limped in for $200 (the blinds were $100-$200), Matusow made it $1,200 to go, and I made it $4,500 to go with K-K. Matusow then moved me all-in with his pocket nines, and I insta-called. Matusow took quite a bit of heat from the other players for his move; none of whom wanted me to have the chip lead. Sheik said, “Mike, you idiot, what were you doing doubling up Phil with pocket nines?” Bellande said, “Dude, we had Phil on the ropes, and now you made all of our lives more difficult!” The verbal barrage against Matusow continued for a while, but what do you expect from this bad boys’ show?
