Fun With Nigerians

If any of you have ever received one of those bogus offers via fax or e-mail from someone in Nigeria claiming to have millions of dollars in a secret account and they just need your help in getting it out of the country, you will appreciate this. Paul Phillips, pro poker playerand internet millionaire with a hell of alot of free time on his hands, actually had an extended communication with one of these scammers and the correspondence is pretty funny. Check it out here

Fun With Nigerians

Humpday Ramblings

Nothing to report on the poker front today. I'm not sure if I'm going to make it down to AC at all this week, but I really should go Sunday. Between the Trump Classic and the WSOP Circuit event at the Showboat the cash games should be awesome.
I have become addicted to Sudoku puzzles which the Inquirer recently added to their crossword section. They are the puzzles where you have to complete the grid so that every row, colum and 3 x 3 box contains every digit from 1 to 9 inclusively.
Ted's favorite comedian ALI G, is in trouble with the Kazakstan government for the behaviour of his alter ego, Borat, the Kazak reporter. Check out his webpage for the latest update: Borat

Green Sneakers?

Is it just me or does this girl have absolutely no fashion sense whatsoever? I mean green sneakers with blue shorts?? Come on!!

Chili Party & Weekend Update

Friday was the annual chili party at Kirkpatrick's nursery and if you read Ted's report then you know it was quite a feast. I have to agree with Ted and say that the beer-battered, deep-fried striper skewers were INCREDIBLE! I ate my fill of chili, venison stew and "lizard sticks", as they call the venison skewers, and washed it down with plenty of ice cold beer. Of course some others in attendence werecertainly more focused on that menu item! Ted's ribs were superb and may just be his finest effort yet! Some of the other highlights of the evening were the firing of the potato cannon, Bill & Matt's roaring fire pit with flames that may have topped the twelve foot mark, and of course to be graced with the presence of the one and only CNN!
Saturday night saw a little poker at Hirsty's house with a small game of 6 players and I ended up with a small win after we played for just an hour or two.
On the poker front, The Trump Classic at the Taj Mahal starts this week and runs through December 16, and also in Atlantic City,the Showboat is hosting a World Series of Poker Circuit Event that starts tomorrow and runs through the 9th. Of course the hot event is in Vegas at Bellagio where the Five Diamond Classic starts tomorrow and runs through the 9th, as well.
I will most likely be playing in a few of the Trump Classic events and will try to win a seat in the $5000 buy-in main event.

Wednesdays With The Donald

So I headed down to Atlantic City around 3 pm Wednesday and the timing was good because there was very little traffic once I got on the AC Expressway. I checked into a beautiful suite and immediately headed down to the poker room at the Taj. I was planning on playing cash games and I should have stuck to my plan, but there was a tourney starting at 6:15 pm and I decided to play it. It was a freezeout tournament which means if you lose your chips you're done, there are no rebuys. We started out with about 120 players total, ten to a table and we each had $5000 in chips with blinds of $25 and $50. The blinds would increase every 20 minutes so you don't have alot of time to sit around and wait for the right cards.
Things started out kind of slow for me and the dealer was particularly slow which really has a negative impact on the players since you need as many hands dealt each level as possible. I was getting cold cards for the first 20 or 30 minutes, but in the second level when blinds were $50 and $100 I started to pick up some pots and actually managed to get all in with the best of it twice. The first time I raised with pocket aces , had two callers and then a player moved all in. I of course called, the others dropped and it was my pocket rockets against my opponents measly Ace-King. The aces held up and I had about $8000. I won some more pots and a little while later had another great opportunity when I was dealt Ace-Queen suited in clubs. I made it $1200 to go with the blinds at $150 and $300 and a $25 ante. I had one caller and I got both a queen and two clubs on the flop for top pair, top kicker and the nut flush draw. My opponent bet into me and I reraised him all in. He called and turned over King-queen unsuited so he was about a 3.5 to 1 dog. Another queen came giving us both trips and a blank on the river meant my ace kicker played and he was knocked out of the tournament. At this point I had over $15,000 in chips and things were looking good. I won a few more nice pots with pocket jacks and twice with pocket sevens dealt within two hands of each other. Our table broke and I was assigned to another table. When I got to my seat I recognized two other players at the table that I had played with before. I also had about half of the chips in play on the table. The average chip stack was about $8200 and I had close to $30,000.
Unfortunately, the cards went cold on me and I lost alot of chips to the rising blinds and antes. With the blinds at $1000 and $2000 with a $300 ante I was getting low on chips and had to make a move soon if I wanted to have a chance. We were down to only three tables with 32 players and only 18 would be getting any money back. I made a move from early position with King Jack and got all my chips in, a bet of about $9000. Everyone folded around to the donkey who had gone all-in in each of the last three hands. He actually called my bet with 7-8! ANd it wasn't like he had tons of chips, the call was probably for maore than half of his chips. I catch a king on the flop and the donkey catches runner-runner cards to make a ten high straight! Unbelievable, but I was knocked out in 30th place and no prize money. That's the way it goes sometimes. That is poker. The way things were going I would have bet anything I was making the final table. Oh well, it's all good experience and I learned something I can use, as always.
It was almost midnite and I was feeling a little tired so I got some dinner, had a few beers and called it a night. I will be back down next week, but I am sticking to the cash games this time as I really need to start building my bankroll for next season when I plan to play alot of the big
tournaments.
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Now I'm off to the BBQ where I'll be seeing Tedman in action on his grill!

My First World Series of Poker (part II)

I awoke Friday with the pressure of knowing that if I didn't win my seat in the main event today then I would not be playing. I headed over to the Horseshoe for a late breakfast and as I was eating I noticed a line starting to form in the hallway outside the restaurant. I knew the only tournaments being held today were satellites and I coudn't believe that they were lining up this early for the 2 pm event. I finished breakfast and headed out to investigate. I was wrong. This was the line for the 2 pm event registration so I jumped in as people poured into the hallway and the line continued to grow, snaking its way down the hallway past the gift shop and towards the escalators.
The line inched forward as players paid their $225 entry fee and recieved a receipt with their seat assignment. It took me over an hour to get to the registration table and pay my entry so I was glad that I got in line when I did. After getting my seat assignment I headed back to my hotel room as I had about 2 hours until the tournament would start. As I strolled through the poker room at the Golden Nugget on the way to my room, I noticed a table tucked in the corner with two guards around it. As I got closer I saw why. Sitting at the table was probably the greatest collection of high stakes poker players in the world. Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Phil Ivey, Bobby Baldwin, Sammy Farha, Gus Hansen and a few others. On the felt in front of them were piles ofcolored chips that aren't often seen inside the casino by most visitors. Several players had at least a million dollars in chips in front of them putting the cash value of the table in the $10 million range. They were playing mixed poker games for limits of $4000 and $8000. That means in a hand of Hold 'em with no raises it would cost you about $24,000 to play a single hand to the river. I was informed by the floorman that the minimum buy-in to sit and play with them was $250,000. I watched them play for a few minutes and headed up to my room.
I walked back over to the Horshoe a little before 2 pm ready to play and feeling confident. I found my table and seat and the dealer was already there so that was a good sign it might start on time. After a few minutes an announcement was made that the tournament would be delayed in starting due to the fact that there were still several hundred playes in line waiting to buy-in. Since I didn't want to miss the first hand, I waited at the table as the minutes ticked away and the room became a sea of anxious players and dealers. Over an hour later, at about 3:15, another announcement was made asking us to please take our seats as the event was about to get under way. A record 580 players had registered and we were finally going to get started. With that many plyers I knew there would be at least 12 seats awarded and after rebuys it might be double that. That still meant I had to finish in the top 4% of the field. We started with $500 in chips and blinds of $25, which didn't give you a lot of room to work with and they'd be going up every 20 minutes! I'd have to play aggressive but cautiously at the same time. I noticed there were alot of pros playing in this event, and I can't blame them. Why not save the $10,000 and get into the main event at a discount? I could see alot of familiar faces at the table around me, and I knew I would be playing against some of them soon. I managed to survive the first hour without having to rebuy and made it to the first break with about $1700 in chips. Not bad, but not great either as the blinds were now $100-$200 and I had to be very careful about what hands I played while not waiting too long as the blinds were going up every twenty minutes and would simply eat away at your chips if you tried to wait for the best cards each hand. I don't remember many specific hands but I do remember getting both alot of great starting cards and hitting alot of flops so my chips started to accumulate to the point where I was the chip leader at the table and could put alot of pressure on the other players by raising almost every hand I played. As players are eliminated they break down tables and combine players at new tables with the ultimate goal being a final table of nine players and eventually one winnner. Of course in this event we would play until there were as many players as there were $10,000 prizes to award. I had to guestimate how many players were left and I figured that since there were 580 starting players with $500 in chips then I would need a stack of at least $24,000 in chips to be close to winning a seat. I made that my goal and as I look back on it now I still don't remember exactly how I did it, but I kept winning and my chips kept growing.
About 5 or 6 hours into the tournament we were down to about 150 players and I had about $40,000 in chips so I felt pretty good, but I knew it would only take a few mistakes to blow it all. The number of players kept dwindling and finally I found myself upstairs in the main tournament room (we started with tables spread out over two floors of the casino) with only 6 tables left and 54 players. They finally announced that there was over $270,000 in the prize pool which meant there would be 26 prizes of $10,000 each and the 27th player would get the remaining cash; not enough to buy-in to the main event, but not bad for a few hours work either. I knew I had enough chips to survive so I really concentrated on playing smart, not getting involved in marginal hands and waiting for others to screw up and get eliminated. If this had been a regular tournament with tiered prizes for first place, second place, etc., then I would have used my chips to play more aggressively and concentrate on making the final table, but since I had a good shot at winning a seat, my main goal was just to make it to the final 26 players. I remember folding alot of great hands that I would normally play, even Ace-King and a pair of queens before the flop, but there really was no point at risking it this late. I guess I would have played a pair of aces, but the pressure was intense. When we got down to about 30 players, I found that myself and Amarillo Slim, one of the greatest poker players and gamblers of all time, were the chip leaders. It was quite a rush and meant that we would be getting some extra cash for our efforts. As players were eliminated one by one, victory was so close I could feel it. Each table was playing "hand-for-hand" which means that the dealers at each table deal at the same time and then wait for each table to finish their current hand before dealing the next hand again simultaneously. The reason they do this is to prevent players from playing slowly and trying to hang on by stalling the action while play would continue at the other tables. It makes it more fair and it is done when you get close to awarding the prize money. The 29th player was eliminated and then every player knew that it might take only one more hand to end this. The 28th player was finally knocked out and the tournament ended shortly after 11 pm with 26 of us getting $10,000 prizes and the 28th player got the remaining cash in the pot, about $4000. The 26th player actually won his seat with a single $500 chip left in his hand, which is the exact amount of the ante needed to play the next hand.
We had been playing for about 8 hours and I had so much adrenaline pumping through me I couldn't even think about being tired. We were all excited and there was alot of high fives and congratulating to be done with the kid with one chip left getting alot of the attention for his incredible luck.
It took about an hour for the tournament director to pass out the paperwork for us to sign to collect our prizes; twenty beautiful blue $500 tournament entry chips and $200 in cash. We then took the chips to the tournament registration desk and turned them in for an entry ticket to the main event with our table and seat assignment. I would be starting the next day in the main tournament room just two tables away from the ESPN-televised feature table.
I was walking on air as I headed back to my room to try to sleep. The biggest tournament of my young poker career would be starting at high noon, just a few hours away! (to be cont....)

Thanksgiving & My 1st World Series of Poker (part I)

I was giving some thought to the things I am thankful for and of course I am thankful for my family and friends, my health (I believe I still have it) and other tangible things like a roof over head, car, money, etc., but as far as poker goes I am really thankful that I had the opportunity to play in the last World Series of Poker to be held at Binion's Horseshoe Casino in downtown Las Vegas. That's where it has been held since Benny Binion started it back in 1970, but the casino had fallen on some tough times due to mismanagement and in January 2004 the IRS raided the casino and shut it down, tossing all the hotel patrons out on the street and seizing all the cash in the cage. For a moment it looked as though Binion's and the World Series were history, but Harrah's stepped in and bought the casino and the rights to the tournament. They saved the tournament just in time, but never again (after 2004) would it be held downtown in its birthpace. The casino reopened in April, just a few weeks before the 6 week marathon that is the World Series of Poker would begin.
I flew into Vegas on a Wednesday night, just three days before the main event was scheduled to start. That meant I had two days to win the $10,000 buy-in or I would not be participating in the historic tournament. I checked into the Golden Nugget, just across the street from the Horseshoe, and after dropping off my luggage in the room I headed straight for the poker room.
Walking into Binion's that first night and for the first time in my life was a memorable experience. I could feel the excitement and the history of the place in the air. I noticed alot of the same faces I had seen on ESPN broadcasts of the World Series and the Travel Channel's World Poker Tour playing at various tables around the room.
It was too late to play in a tournament so I headed to a the cash tables and got involved in a $10-$20 hold-em game. There was something special about playing in that poker room surrounded by the Gallery of Champions on the wall; pictures of all the World Series of Poker winners for the past 35 years. I won some money that first night and headed back to my hotel to sleep and get an early start on the next day.
I can never really sleep when I'm in Vegas. It's just too disconcerting to know that everything is open 24 hours and your mind races if you start to think about all the possibilities just outside your room. I got up early and headed downstairs to start playing. I had some time to kill before the first satellite tournament at the Horseshoe so I played some craps at the Nugget. I won a few hundred dollars, had a late breakfast and headed across the street. They would be holding satellite tournaments throughout the day where you could try to win the $10,000.00 required to actually participate in the world championship main event. These events ranged from single tables where ten players vied in a winner-takes- all elimination match with buy-ins from $100 to $1000, and multi-table events with a $200 buy-in and hundreds of players with as many $10,000.00 prizes as the entry fees and re-buys allowed. In these event you started with $500 in chips and you could rebuy back in as many times as you wanted during the first hour, but after that if you lost your chips you were gone. This creates alot of wreckless gambling as players make a mad race for chips and the play can be fast and furious. You have to be very good (or lucky) or have alot of money for rebuys to survive that first hour. The first one I played in had a few hundred players so there might be enough money to award maybe 10 entries into the big one. I didn't fair well in that one and busted out. I headed over to a single table satellite that was just forming and jumped in for $125. With these you only get $300 in chips and the play is very fast with the whole match lasting maybe an hour. I won that one and pocketed $1250 which I then used to enter a $1000 buy-in multi table satellite being played that night with about 200 players. That meant about 19 seats would be awarded with the excess cash going to the 20th place finisher. I played better in this one, even escaping certain death at one early point in the tournament when I found myself all-in with pocket jacks against my opponent's pocket kings and I happened to make a miraculous flush on the last card to win the hand when I was a 4 to 1 underdog to start. I came within 20 players of winning a coveted seat, but once again it was not meant to be and I was eliminated with about 40 players left in the tournament.
By this time it was close to midnite and I was tired and hungry so I headed back to my hotel, ordered some room service and prepared myself for the next day, Friday. The last day of tournaments to win a seat into the main event. My last chance if I wanted to be part of the historic event that would start at high noon on Saturday! There would be three super-satellites held that Friday with the first starting at 11 am, a little early for me so I planned on getting some needed sleep and trying my luck at the 3 pm tourney. The final one would start at 7 pm. Little did I know that a record turnout at the 3 pm event would throw the Horseshoe into such a state of chaos that the event would be over an hour late getting starting and there would be no way to hold another tournament that day. (to be continued.....)

Weekend Update

I did not play any poker this weekend (much to my disappointment), but I hung out in Media and still had a great time all the same. I am planning on hitting the Taj in Atlantic City on Wednesday night and will be staying overnight in the Sultan's Suite compliments of The Donald. There should be some good action games the night before Thanksgiving and I can't wait to sit and play with all the fish at those tables. I'll let you know how it goes when I get back.
Thanksgiving dinner will be in south Jersey and then I'll be back in Media on Friday.

Honing My Skills

Played in a cash game last night with 6 players. I played tight most of the night and really didn't try any bluffs as two of the players were pretty loose and called almost everything. I made some great reads and made two huge laydowns that would have wiped me out if I had called the other player's "all-in" bets. Both times I had to lay down two pair when I sensed that the river card made the other player a straight. Both times I was right as he showed his hand and asked me with disappointment, "why didn't you bet?".
I was up pretty good early on but got involved in a big hand where I ended up getting beat by a straight on the river and lost about $1600, but later that night against the same player I flopped the nut straight when I limped into the pot with 6-8 suited in spades and the flop came 5-7-9. To my delight the other player bet out, I re-raised and he went all in with his two pair (5-7). I called immediately and turned over my straight. He was drawing to 4 outs to make a full house and beat me , but no help came for him on the turn or the river and I doubled up to about $4100. The game broke shorlty after that key hand and I went home with a small profit.
It seems that the one factor I have mastered in this game is patience. I can wait for the right cards and the right time to make a move and I also seem to be able to stay out of trouble with my great reads. The World Series of Poker Circuit Event is coming to Atlantic City the end of this month at the Showboat casino. I am looking forward to that one as I haven't played in a major event since September at the Borgata Poker Open. After finishing 12th last year in that event out of 345 players I was knocked out on the first day this year when my pocket aces lost to a lucky suck-out by my opponent who called a raise pre-flop with Q-2 of hearts and caught his flush on the river (I was at least a 4 to 1 favorite going into the hand).

J Lo Shows her True Colors

Now this event actually happened two years ago this month, but I felt like I had to tell people about it anyway. Back in November 2003, when J Lo and Ben Affleck were still being refered to as Benifer, it was the night before the Million Dollar Showdown at the Sands poker tournament and I happened to be at the Borgata where Ben Affleck was playing craps with J Lo at his side and he seemed to be having a hell of a lucky run at the table with racks of chips in front him. When he finished for the night he was coloring out his chips and with his substantial win felt a tip of $5000 was appropriate for the dealers of the game. He tossed the chip onto the felt, but before the dealers could rake in the generous gratuity bestowed upon them by the hulking actor, J LO reached out, grabbed the chip and replaced it with 3 black $100 chips in its place! The two walked away from the table as the dealers mumbled curses under their breath at the diva that had just dogged them. Maybe that was the beginning of the end for the duo as just a few months later their love affair was over.

Hello & Welcome

I've been thinking about doing this for some time and finally took the plunge after some prodding from several more experienced bloggers. I just wanted to be part of the group!
I've been keeping a handwritten journal of my poker experiences of the past few years and now plan to post those and continue digitally recording them for the foreseeable future.
I've been playing poker seriously for a little over two years now after making the final table in the firsttournament I ever played in a casino (The Borgata) back in November 2003. A week later I won $10k in a satellite tournament at the Sands and two days later was playing in my first "major" tourney ($10,000 buy-in), sitting with the big-name pros in the Million Dollar Showdown at the Sands which was televised on Thanksgiving Day 2003 courtesy of Fox Sports.
Since then I have played in a few more major events and dozens of smaller events ( and countless online tournies), making more than a dozen final tables (final nine players) and "cashing" (that's where you actually leave with more money than it cost you to enter) in another 30+. The highlight so far probably being the 2004 World Series of Poker at Binion's in downtown Las Vegas, where I won my $10,000 seat into the Main Event in the largest satellite tournament in Binion's Horseshoe history (competing with 580 players to be exact; Including one of the greatest poker players in history, Amarillo Slim!) the night before it started . But I'll get to that in more detail later. For now I am happy to be up and running and looking forward to sharing my experiences on and off the felt with you as I travel the tournament circuit and chase the cash games from Atlantic City, NJ to Foxwoods in Connecticut, to the famous cardrooms of southern California and of course the gambler's Mecca: Las Vegas, Nevada.
I hope you enjoy it and I hope it inspires you to improve your game and get out there and play. Remember, if you can't spot the sucker at the table in the first 30 minutes, then the sucker is YOU!