-
My Best Move of the Year
A few weeks back, I played no-limit Hold ’em on “High Stakes Poker” on the Game Show Network. The game featured Sammy Farha, Daniel Negreanu, Jennifer Harman, Eli Elezra, “Silent Mark,” Bob Safai, Jamie Gold, and I, with appearances by Brandon Adams, and Internet star “omgclayaiken.” The buy-in was $100,000, with $50,000 rebuys, although many players bought in for $300,000 or more. The antes were $100 a man, and the blinds were $300-$600, although the $1,200 “live blind” was posted almost every hand.
A “live blind” is when the player to the left of the big blind voluntarily puts up an amount exactly double the big blind, and then has the option of raising it up when the action gets back to him. Live blinds at least double the size of any game.
-
A 43-Bracelet Table
Last week, I played NBC’s “Poker after Dark” (PAD) with T.J. Cloutier, Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson, Layne “Back-to-back” Flack, Eric Seidel, and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson. What a lineup!
It featured 43 bracelets — (Doyle and I at 10 apiece, Seidel at seven, Cloutier at six, and Ferguson and Flack at five each) — some serious bling!
First Flack went out, then Ferguson; followed by Seidel; then I put a bad beat on Cloutier. But before we get to that hand, let’s talk about the hand (or two) that I misplayed. With the blinds at $800-$1,600, I opened for $4,500 with Ad-Qd on the button, Cloutier folded and then Doyle raised it up, making it $10,000 more to go. I sort of felt like he had A-J, or A-10 or something weaker; but I just wasn’t sure enough. And, I hate A-Q. I asked Brunson how much he had left, and he said “about $20,000.” I studied a long time, remembering that Brunson hadn’t come over the top of me in a long time. Finally, I decided to fold. As it turns out, Doyle had 8-2 off suit (nice play Dolly!), and if I had reraised him (all in), then I would have won the pot right then and there. Sigh. I didn’t have a strong read, so there’s no use in crying over split milk. However, if I had moved all-in, then Brunson would have been forced to fold, and I would have had a healthy chip lead. Not too mention that Brunson would have been left with only $20,000.
-
The Hellmuth Train Wreck
In the $25,000 buy-in Tour Championship event that I played in last week, I feel like near perfect play would carry a player for three days, regardless of the hands you pick up. The structure was that slow and good.
Of course, picking up A-A and getting most of your money in pre-flop against someone who then outdraws you would be a tough way to avoid going broke. But other than a really unlucky situation, I believe that I should last at least three days, at least when I’m on top of my game. After playing perfect poker for three days, I woke up on Day 4 feeling miserably tired. So what? I woke up super tired Day 2 as well and pushed through that all the way to the chip lead. I should have been able to push through this too, but for some reason I struggled.
-
Big Loss in Monte Carlo
A few weeks ago, I went to Monte Carlo to play in the European Poker Tour (EPT) Championship event. It was a $10,000 buy-in poker tournament, and we had almost 700 runners play, with a first prize of 1.8 million Euros (more than $2 million). I was excited to be there, and pumped up to play some great poker. But before we get to the tournament, let me admit that I had the biggest loss of my life over there.
While I was walking through the famous lobby of the Hotel de Paris, I ran into Patrick Antonius and Phil Ivey. I am always looking for good energy, and I thought that it might be a good omen that the Hotel de Paris had PH logo hats and PH logo bathrobes. Antonius and Ivey were playing Chinese poker, which is like flipping coins in that there isn’t much skill involved in the game. I sat down and joined them, but requested that we play for “only” $1,000 a point. When I was down 76 points, I asked to play for $2,000 a point. A few hours later, Antonius quit, and we went to Ivey’s suite to order room service (they wouldn’t serve us in the lobby) while we played. Things got ugly, and by 10 a.m. I was forced to quit, down a whopping $536,000.
-
Bay 101 – Use Your Powers
At the beginning of March, the World Poker Tour (WPT) held its annual event in my back yard — at the Bay 101 in San Jose — and I felt like I was ready to play some great poker. I had just won four heats out of seven (with six players each in them) in England, and I had a close call in Tunica at the last WPT event that I played in. I came in my customary 90 minutes late and began my day using extremely tight tactics. Why not play a super-patient strategy, especially up here in Nor Cal, where they’re known to play big pots with weak hands. Another reason to play patiently was that this was a bounty tournament, and I was a bounty; meaning that whomever knocked me out would win $10,000 in cash. Of course, this caused more players to play more pots against me in order to try and bust me.
As the day progressed, I steadily built my chips up in a risk-free manner. Whenever I say that I “steadily built my chips up in a risk-free manner,” I’m running my chips up, while playing small pots and keeping myself out of serious risk.
-
And Now, the Finale
When I was invited to London to compete in the Premiership of Poker, I jumped at the chance to play.
The Premiership, an internationally broadcast competition, works like this: 12 world-class players play six six-player “heats” for points. The players with the highest-four point totals would advance to the six-player finale. The players with the middle four point totals would then play head’s-up matches, with two of them advancing to the six-player finale. In the six-player finale, each player would take their point total times 10,000 to determine the size of their chip stack.
Surprisingly, four of the five pre-tournament favorites; England’s David “Devilfish” Ulliot and Roland de Wolfe, Australia’s Tony G, and Russia’s Kiril Gerasimov finished in the bottom four. Both women in the 12-player field won their head’s-up matches to claim the final two spots in the finale; Vicky Coren beat English citizen Andy Black, and American Liz Liu beat American Kenna James. I won four heats, with one third and one sixth place finish, for 35 points. Thus, I began the finale with $350,000 in chips — as the chip leader — along with Coren ($200,000), Liu ($230,000), Germany’s Eddy Scharf ($310,000), Norway’s Juha Helppi ($270,000), and Englishman Ian Fraser ($260,000).
™
